Cloud computing is now being embraced by a majority of enterprises of all sizes. Yesterday's debate about public vs. private has transformed into the reality of hybrid cloud: a recent survey from Gartner shows that 74% of enterprises have a hybrid cloud strategy. Meanwhile, 94% of enterprises are using some form of XaaS – software, platform, and infrastructure as a service.

Yet enterprises in the U.S. and throughout the world are still lagging in their use of Information Technology (IT), according to research my team and I continuously conduct at the Tau Institute for Global ICT Research.

We are in a long-term process of documenting that countries that are the most aggressive in adopting IT will show the strongest long-term socioeconomic growth – not just a rise in total national income, but a rise in overall living conditions for all of their people.

Leaders Love Technology
We look at more than 100 nations on a relative basis, to illustrate how well they are doing given the current economic resources they have. We show that the world leaders at every income level tend to be the most relatively prosperous overall. Witness leaders throughout the economic spectrum as Denmark and the Netherlands, Estonia and South Korea, Latvia and Costa Rica, Georgia and Morocco, Vietnam and Senegal. All are leaders in our rankings, and all offer a relatively overall quality of life to their citizens than their physical and economic neighbors.

In contrast, we read about a new economic recession in Nigeria. We witnessed a troubled Brazil during the recent Olympics. We see social strife in the Philippines and fairly serious unrest in the United States. None of these countries is a leader in our rankings, and we believe all of them need to step up their IT game.

Inclusion of the United States may seem ironic, even wrongheaded, given the continued pace of technology development in Silicon Valley and other technology regions in the US. Assuredly, much activity in all of the main themes of Cloud Expo – cloud computing, Big Data and the IoT, Containers and Microservices, WebRTC, blockchain, and DevOps – is happening in the US.

But a gnawing, long-term trend toward income inequality has fostered a toxic political environment in the country. Absurd real-estate valuations in Silicon Valley, where much of the technology is focused, stands in stark relief to struggling real-estate markets in so much of the rest of the country, where the technology is simply not being deployed aggressively enough.

An intuitive instinct toward being a Luddite rises its head occasionally, and has done so again. So much talk in the US is about "who stole our (old) jobs," and not about "how can we educate ourselves to land one of those new (better) jobs."

Learn Here
Cloud Expo is not the panacea to the ills of the U.S. and the world. But it does offer a unique opportunity to learn about what is going on with technology and how it is being used. It is an educational forum that can strengthen the careers of those who attend and all with whom they communicate afterward.

With cloud computing driving a higher percentage of enterprise IT budgets every year, it becomes increasingly important to learn about the latest technology developments and solutions. Cloud Expo offers a vast selection technical and strategic Industry Keynotes, General Sessions, Breakout Sessions, and signature Power Panels. The exhibition floor features 100+ exhibitors offering specific solutions and comprehensive strategies. The floor also features a Demo Theater that give delegates the opportunity to get even closer to the technology they want to see and the people who offer it.

I will continue to advocate for an aggressive use of technology, through my roles as Conference Chair of Cloud Expo, Executive Director of the Tau Institute, and Director of Research for Altoros. I hope to see as many of you as possible in our next iteration of the conference, coming up November 1-3 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.

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