Launching the Fishermans Bend CTO & CIO Forum

Last week we hosted the first Fishermans Bend CTO & CIO Forum, in partnership with Equinix Australia. The group included a diverse representation of businesses across different sectors in Fishermans Bend including: Defence Science and Technology Group, Polynovo, Siemens Mobility, Advanced Composite Structures Australia (ACS-A), 4D Medical and Wellcom Worldwide.

Representatives from various Fishermans Bend organisations gather at Equinix Australia for the first Fishermans Bend CTO & CIO Forum, June 204

Arun Ramprasad, Equinix’s segment strategy lead for Australia, kicked things off with a lively discussion around the growth in Artificial Intelligence and the patterns and shifts they are seeing in the market, such as a growing demand for cloud based solutions like GPU as a service and an increase in the use of data centre infrastructure for experimentation to develop proof of concept technologies.

As a group we also talked about the different ways AI, in it’s many forms, presents opportunities, threats and challenges for businesses in Fishermans Bend. Across all sectors, whether it’s utilising AI for knowledge management, integrated AI into the design process or to extend R&D and manufacturing capabilities, it is clear AI is here to stay. But as we know, it comes with many challenges around security and permissions and as one participant pointed out - how do we put humans back in the loop to ensure both quality outcomes and to maintain unique competitive advantages?

Julie Martin, who was recently appointed as the Senior Manager of Investment for Fishermans Bend Department of Transport and Planning (Precincts and Investment Attraction unit), also joined us and added her insights around the Federal Government investment schemes which could be channelled into Fishermans Bend around critical technologies, such as quantum.

Then Lucas Lambous and Alice Zhao took us on a tour of the data centre - with many fascinating insights, and suprisingly warm temperatures, which was a perk given it was apparently the coldest Melbourne day in 5 years that day!

Thank you to everyone who joined us, and especially to the team at Equinix Australia for hosting us. We look forward to the next one!

If you are a CTO / CIO or senior technology professional in Fishermans Bend based business and you would like to join this Forum in the future - please reach out to us via the Contact page.