Agenda

Tuesday, 22 July 2025

“Taming Hybrid, Mastering FinOps & Building Future-Ready Infrastructure for AI at Scale”

Please note that 1:1 meetings will be running throughout the day.

07:45 - 08:30

Registration & Check-In

Jim Berry

CEO & Founder

About

Jim founded ADAPT with a vision to help Australia thrive commercially, now and for the future.  To enable that, Jim leads ADAPT’s mission to connect, inform and equip our local business and tech leaders.

Leading the development of ADAPTs agenda’s and content strategy whilst also advising executive leadership teams from global technology service providers, Jim is uniquely experienced to be the voice of the end-user, the customer and the vendor.

Bringing his deep knowledge of the local market, Jim regularly presents “Know your Customer” webinars and guides the world’s largest vendors with their G-T-M and content strategies.

Through entrepreneurial product development and a servant leader mentality with his team and clients, ADAPT grows annually with clearly differentiated value for all stakeholders.

08:30 - 08:50

Welcome to the 13th annual Cloud & Infrastructure Edge

Jim Berry - CEO & Founder Read More

Australia’s leading CTOs, infrastructure, and data centre professionals face immense pressure to cut costs while accelerating digital initiatives.

Facing the challenges of hybrid and multi-cloud environments, soaring compute demands, and the need for sustainable AI and data pipelines – debate will focus on workload optimisation, FinOps best practices, and next-generation data centre and edge computing strategies.

To tackle this, we gather the nation’s leaders and proudly bring you Australia’s top Cloud & Infrastructure Strategy event – with a focus on outcome based ideas you will remember and be able to action after the day. Learn how to build a secure, resilient foundation for the high-performance computing, analytics, and AI that will power Australia’s economic future.

Matt Boon

Senior Research Director at ADAPT

About

As Director of Strategic Research at ADAPT Matt Boon, is responsible for directing and developing ADAPTs research content and positions. In his role at ADAPT Boon advises C-Suite executives across the end-user and technology provider landscape. Boon is also responsible for bringing together groups of C-Suite leaders to discuss and prepare for the myriad of challenges and opportunities they face.

ADAPT host’s numerous industry leading IT focused events annually and Boon is responsible for hosting, chairing and delivering ADAPT independent content and positions to help attendees make informed IT decisions.

08:50 - 09:10

ADAPT Insights: The State of Digital Infrastructure & Resilience in A/NZ Enterprise

Matt Boon - Senior Research Director at ADAPT Read More

ADAPT’s Research and Advisory team reveal the latest data-driven insights from over 1000 local surveys from regional Heads of IT, digital, security and finance enabling companies responsible for over 60% of Australia’s GDP.
Assessing digital infrastructure and finops maturity, performance, capital allocation, and the unique challenges facing Australian Heads of Cloud and Infrastructure. Also revealing ADAPT’s 2025 Cloud Migration study – running since 2018.

Helping you to benchmark and validate your priorities and thinking, ADAPT reveal the core findings distilled from your aggregated pre-event surveys and examine which tactics have the biggest impact – and how best to scale that success.

Tenar Larsen

Head of People & Performance, Executive Programs

About

Tenar has spent the last 18 years working in sales, running her own company consulting to corporate Australia around Workplace Wellness / Employee Experience and now she finds herself back over on the dark side as an employee, part of a well oiled machine – and loving it! As a Senior Manager of the ADAPT Advisory team, Tenar runs the team that fulfils over 60 private advisory events each year across Asia Pacific. Tenar build genuine relationships quickly and easily, loves connecting people, finding out how to solve a problem and then delivering.

09:10 - 09:15

Get an Edge: Making the Most of Your Day

Tenar Larsen - Head of People & Performance, Executive Programs Read More

Bevan Slattery

Founder of Cloudscene, Superloop, Megaport, NEXTDC and Co-Founder PIPE Networks

About

Bevan Slattery is one of Australia’s leading digital infrastructure entrepreneurs having founded a record 5 ASX companies spanning everything from metro fibre, subsea cables, data centres and elastic connectivity. PIPE Networks, NEXTDC, Megaport, Superloop, SubPartners, SUBCO and SODA are some of the companies that have were founded by Mr Slattery over the past 25 years.  Mr Slattery has deep knowledge on all aspects of building, financing and operating submarine cables systems as having conceived, built, owned and operated PPC-1 (Sydney to Guam), Indigo Central and West (Sydney to Perth and Perth to Singapore via consortium), the Oman Australia Cable and now SMAP (Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth) system currently in build.  Additionally, Mr Slattery is a major investor in sensing platform FiberSense and is the Founder and Patron of Biopixel Oceans Foundation which aims to build 1 million square metres of tolerant reefs.

09:15 - 09:55

The State of the Australian Digital Infrastructure

Bevan Slattery - Founder of Cloudscene, Superloop, Megaport, NEXTDC and Co-Founder PIPE Networks Read More

Bevan Slattery is one of Australia’s leading digital infrastructure entrepreneurs having founded a record 5 ASX companies spanning everything from metro fibre, subsea cables, data centres and elastic connectivity including PIPE Networks, NEXTDC, Megaport, Superloop, SubPartners, SUBCO and SODA. As well as founding CloudScene, Bevan has deep knowledge on all aspects of Australian Digital Infrastructure and joins us for a frank discussion on the market, the roadblocks, the state of the industry and ideas for executives to leverage.

Matt Preswick

Principal Solutions Engineer at Wiz

About

Matt Preswick is the Principal Solutions Engineer for Wiz in APJ, with experience in network, email and cloud security at leading security vendors in EMEA and APAC. Before joining Wiz, he lead operations at a Sydney based network analytics startup before returning to Cloud security with Wiz. 

Matt is passionate about developing scalable and actionable security practices within APJs largest organisations. 

Edwin Kwan

Head of Product Security at Domain Group

About

An accomplished cybersecurity executive, Edwin brings a unique blend of visionary leadership, strategic acumen, and a people-centric approach. With a proven track record in steering organisations through complex cybersecurity landscapes, he excels in inspiring, motivating, and effectively communicating to foster a culture of innovation and resilience. Edwin has successfully led organisations through significant security uplifts to meet regulatory requirements. Notably, he played a pivotal role in enhancing the security posture of an organisation to successfully obtain a banking licence. Edwin has also presented at several events, including RSA, AISA, All Day DevOps, AppSec Day, DevSecOps Leadership Forums, OWASP, CISO Sydney and other executive conferences.

09:55 - 10:25

Building Cloud Security Programs That Can Shift Left

Matt Preswick - Principal Solutions Engineer at Wiz Edwin Kwan - Head of Product Security at Domain Group Read More

For organisations born in the cloud or seeking to adopt modern technologies like containers, Kubernetes, and Serverless architectures, shifting security left is foundational. It empowers engineering teams to collaborate effectively with security teams, and effectively prevent common risks associated with the cloud. But how can this be achieved when security and engineering teams often have transactional relationships?

Join this session for real-world examples of how Australian organisations are bringing DevSecOps together with practical guidance from Australian Security leader, Edwin Kwan, Head of Product Security at Domain Group.

10:25 - 10:45

Morning Break

Refreshments, Snacks & Connections

Matt Boon

Senior Research Director at ADAPT

About

As Director of Strategic Research at ADAPT Matt Boon, is responsible for directing and developing ADAPTs research content and positions. In his role at ADAPT Boon advises C-Suite executives across the end-user and technology provider landscape. Boon is also responsible for bringing together groups of C-Suite leaders to discuss and prepare for the myriad of challenges and opportunities they face.

ADAPT host’s numerous industry leading IT focused events annually and Boon is responsible for hosting, chairing and delivering ADAPT independent content and positions to help attendees make informed IT decisions.

Brendan Humphreys

CTO at Canva

About

Brendan joined Canva more than 11 years ago as a founding engineer, and has played a pivotal role in shaping the architectural foundations of Canva’s product and rapidly scaling its engineering organisation. Prior to Canva, Brendan has built software for companies large and small, across a wide range of industries including telecommunications, banking, and eCommerce. In 2003 he co-founded his own company which he later sold to Atlassian. At Canva, he leads a team of more than 2,300 engineers. Brendan’s passion is in setting up Engineering teams to be productive, happy and ambitious. He’s a firm believer in striving for pragmatic excellence, building from first principles, and practicing empathy in Engineering.

Nam Je Cho

Director of Solutions Architecture at AWS

About

Nam Je Cho is an accomplished technology executive and thought leader with over 20 years of experience driving digital transformation and leveraging latest technologies deliver customer value.

He currently serves as the Director of Solutions Architecture at AWS where he has spent over a decade helping customers transform their business in the cloud. Throughout his career, Nam Je has honed his skills in presales, consulting, and systems integration underpinned by latest and emerging technologies.

He brings deep expertise in cloud computing, data analytics, artificial intelligence, enterprise applications, resilience, cybersecurity, and aligning digital solutions to business strategies that drive value. Outside of work, Nam Je is passionate about promoting STEM education to youths and career in technology.

Nam Je holds a Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Technology, Sydney.

10:45 - 11:15

Cloud & AI Panel: From Hybrid Chaos to AI-Driven Innovation: The New Cloud Operating Model

Matt Boon - Senior Research Director at ADAPT Brendan Humphreys - CTO at Canva Nam Je Cho - Director of Solutions Architecture at AWS Read More

Organisations are grappling with the complexities of hybrid and multi-cloud environments, rising compute and storage costs for AI workloads, and the need to streamline data pipelines.

Based on feedback from Advisors and ADAPT community, this panel of Australian experts will explore strategies for orchestrating hybrid cloud infrastructures effectively, managing multi-cloud data compliance, optimising workload placement, enabling rapid AI experimentation, and leveraging serverless architectures.

Also asking the role of Infrastructure leaders in code transformation enabled by Agentic AI – using AI as tooling to mitigate the legacy code case, code generate to modernise into the Cloud.

Gain a holistic view of how to align cloud operations with business imperatives while controlling costs, ensuring security, and scaling AI capabilities.

  • Orchestration & Hybrid Cloud Value
  • Multi-Cloud Governance & Security
  • Workload Optimisation & Agentic AI role in code generation
  • Rapid AI Enablement & Experimentation
  • Data at Scale & Serverless Architectures

Raj Singh

Targeted Segments Enterprise Sales Leader at Schneider Electric

About

Excellent record in national level roles in Pacific, with expertise in the field of Enterprise Software Sales, SaaS, edge IoT devices, Account management, Partner Management, Marketing, Presales, Strategic Pursuit of identified opportunities across Tier1/2 clients. Well versed in communication at all levels, CEO, Executives, Business unit manager and Technical Leaders. Customer driven with consistent sales growth and high customer satisfaction results attained through building, leading and managing high-performance teams including –Sales Presales, Projects, Engineering, Technical Support, and Customer Service groups with full P&L responsibility.

11:15 - 11:35

Embracing AI and GenAI for Sustainable Hybrid IT Infrastructure

Raj Singh - Targeted Segments Enterprise Sales Leader at Schneider Electric Read More

Discover how AI and GenAI are transforming hybrid IT infrastructure by improving efficiency, boosting competitiveness, maximising value, ensuring resilience, and meeting sustainability goals. Learn from Schneider Electric’s expertise in sustainable AI solutions for hybrid IT enterprises. This session will focus on three main areas: confidently embracing AI, building secure and modular AI-ready IT infrastructure, and using AI to enhance business sustainability.

John Hopping

CTO APAC at Ericsson Enterprise Wireless

About

John Hopping is an accomplished technology leader with nearly 30 years of experience in the IT and telecommunications industry. As Director of Sales Engineering for Enterprise Wireless Solutions at Ericsson, he oversees technical strategy and solution design across the Asia Pacific region, helping enterprise clients unlock the power of advanced wireless networks.

John’s extensive career spans leadership and architectural roles across major global organisations. Serving as served as Principal Architect and CTO for APAC at Ericsson, he has led enterprise network transformation initiatives for nearly eight years. He has also held key technical positions at Optus, BT, Procter & Gamble, and Bristol-Myers Squibb, with a strong background in network design, architecture, and enterprise IT infrastructure across both ANZ and EMEA markets.

11:35 - 11:55

The Wireless Infrastructure of Resilience: How Private 5G, Wireless WAN and Edge AI is Future-Proofing Australia’s Organisations

John Hopping - CTO APAC at Ericsson Enterprise Wireless Read More

In an era defined by climate extremes, cyber threats, and accelerating digital disruption, Australian organisations must fundamentally rethink how they build operational resilience. In this discussion with John Hopping, CTO APAC for Enterprise Wireless Solutions at Ericsson, we will explore how Private 5G , wireless WNA and Edge AI are transforming traditional infrastructure into intelligent, adaptive systems capable of real-time decision-making and ultimate resiliency.

During the discussion we will share how industries such as mining, logistics, retail, utilities, and emergency services sectors are already leveraging next-generation wireless to reduce downtime, improve safety, and meet evolving regulatory and sustainability demands. John will share global use cases and local insights that illustrate how wireless is no longer just a connectivity tool—but a foundational pillar for mission-critical operations.

12:00 - 13:00

ADAPT Executive Insight Roundtables

Attend your pre-selected roundtable to participate in a peer discussion with confidence under Chatham House Rules moderated by an ADAPT analyst with subject matter experts.

Felix Fitzpatrick

Head of Observability ANZ at Splunk

About

Felix is the Head of Observability for Australia and New Zealand at Splunk.  He helps organisations improve their operational resilience and engineering effectiveness through data-driven practices. 

With over 5 years at Splunk focused on DevOps and Observability and previous experience at Puppet supporting teams with automation at scale, Felix has worked closely with some of the region’s largest enterprises to shape and drive modernisation initiatives. 

Roundtable 1

Resilience in the AI Era: Rethinking Data Strategy

Felix Fitzpatrick - Head of Observability ANZ at Splunk Read More

Data is growing faster than most organisations can manage—driving up costs, creating blind spots, and threatening decision-making and compliance. As AI accelerates change, leaders must align data strategy with business goals to stay competitive and resilient.

This roundtable will explore how to maximise the value of data across complex digital environments. We’ll uncover the new rules of data management that optimise visibility, reduce risk, and enable faster, smarter decisions.

Further discussion points:

  • Using AI to unlock innovation without losing control
  • Preventing data overload that hides threats and delays insight
  • Managing the cost and complexity of data mobility and access
  • Streamlining compliance while protecting against risk

Joana Valente

Partner, Consulting at Deloitte

About

Joana is an executive level advisor with a background in technology strategy and implementation. For more than two decades, she worked with the public sector helping to improve the effectiveness of fed and state government policy across a wide range of areas from border protection, taxation, health to social services. Joana specialises in technology-enabled transformation and has held senior roles as Consulting Leader for Digital Government and Consulting Leader for the Commonwealth of Australia Sector. 

In both public and private sectors, she has led engagements in technology strategy, sourcing, technology-enabled transformation, data driven policy, service delivery transformation, technology optimisation, infrastructure transformation, systems integration and application and IT management. 

Prior to holding Partner roles in Consulting Firms, Joana was a partner with IBM’s systems integration and consulting arm and a member of IBM’s senior executive leadership team, and Public Sector General Manager at CSC. 

Logan Fraser

Principal Solutions Consultant at Apptio

About

Logan Fraser is a Principal Solutions Consultant in Asia Pacific for Apptio. 

He has a 7 year tenure with Apptio, helping his customers merge the worlds of Finance and IT operations through the Technology Business Management (TBM) and Cloud FinOps methodologies. 

 

He has been a speaker at various events around Australia and New Zealand, including hosting events on behalf of the TBM Council. 

Logan is a global subject matter expert in IBM’s Cloudability platform, and is passionate about ensuring his customers can make the most out of their technology investments. 

Roundtable 2

Is Your FinOps Strategy Ready for 2026 and Beyond?

Joana Valente - Partner, Consulting at Deloitte Logan Fraser - Principal Solutions Consultant at Apptio Read More

Cloud complexity is skyrocketing. AI-driven workloads are pushing budgets to new limits. Cloud Practitioners and FinOps teams are under pressure to go beyond tracking costs and start driving real business value.

The question is: Is your FinOps strategy evolving fast enough? Join this roundtable to explore the five critical shifts shaping FinOps in 2026 and beyond:

1. Understanding Unit Economics – Why tracking cloud costs isn’t enough – you need to prove value.
2. FinOps Meets GreenOps – How do you balance the increased use of energy and cloud-intensive innovations while managing carbon emissions?
3. Going Beyond CSPs – Are Third-Party SaaS apps like Snowflake, Datadog, and Databricks accounted for in your cloud cost strategy?
4. Shift-Left: From Reactive to Proactive – Embedding FinOps earlier in the product development stage to prevent cost overruns.
5. The AI Budget Black Hole – Can FinOps finally control and manage growing AI costs?

Alister Freese

Account Executive at Rubrik

About

A sales leader who can lead high performing sales teams through applying strong commercial, customer and people management skills. Have built a reputation as a highly motivated, results oriented, approachable and engaging leader, able to influence outcomes across multiple stakeholder groups and value chains. Known for the ability to tackle business problems by applying an innovative and inclusive approach that delivers results both internally and for clients.

Roundtable 3

Building A Minimal Viable Business: Redefining Cyber Resilient Infrastructure & Cloud Strategies

Alister Freese - Account Executive at Rubrik Read More

Join Rubrik to explore how businesses can achieve a Minimal Viable Business (MVB) by integrating strong cyber resilience strategies while reducing Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). This session will focus on optimising cloud and infrastructure investments to ensure business continuity, enhance security and cyber resilience while driving cost savings. Learn and discuss how to implement MVB frameworks, prioritise critical services, secure data across enterprise, cloud, and SaaS, reduce complexity, and leverage automation and data protection to build secure, cost-efficient, and resilient environments.

13:00 - 13:55

Peer Networking Seated Lunch

Nam Je Cho

Director of Solutions Architecture at AWS

About

Nam Je Cho is an accomplished technology executive and thought leader with over 20 years of experience driving digital transformation and leveraging latest technologies deliver customer value.

He currently serves as the Director of Solutions Architecture at AWS where he has spent over a decade helping customers transform their business in the cloud. Throughout his career, Nam Je has honed his skills in presales, consulting, and systems integration underpinned by latest and emerging technologies.

He brings deep expertise in cloud computing, data analytics, artificial intelligence, enterprise applications, resilience, cybersecurity, and aligning digital solutions to business strategies that drive value. Outside of work, Nam Je is passionate about promoting STEM education to youths and career in technology.

Nam Je holds a Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Technology, Sydney.

Danielle Malone

Data and AI Technology Lead at Accenture ANZ

About

Danielle is Managing Director and practice lead for Data and AI Technology at Accenture, across Australia and New Zealand, home to a team full of lovely, energetic, and bright people solving key business opportunities, drawing from Data and AI services. She also leads the Financial Services sector for Data and AI, servicing ANZ clients to drive better outcomes for stakeholders. Danielle specialises in end-to-end Data and AI Transformation (planning, organising, executing, and managing the Data and AI environments to solve key business problems).

Sudesh Shah

Lead - AWS Business Group & Cloud Advisory at Accenture ANZ

About

Driving change by disrupting the traditional norms that have evolved over decades. My passion is focused on helping people lead a better quality of life integrated with digital services. Services that create enhanced experiences and competitive business models.
Innovation and creativity provides limitless opportunities for new business.
Empowering teams, I drive change to the traditional Business Process, Culture and Technology that spearheads organisations into the 21st century

Sudesh has developed his professional career with IBM, Hewlett Packard DXC and Commonwealth Bank of Australia. He is an astute results-oriented leader with a reputation for developing innovative business strategies and client focused services. Recognized for transforming business for sustainable growth by enabling new strategies delivering winning outcomes in the areas of “Sales, Delivery and Operations”. Experience with re-establishing client trust on billion dollar troubled accounts.

Broad experience developing profitable startup business lines, or turning around non-performing business. Mobilizes top-tier talent to create high performing cultures that consistently achieve results in volatile markets. Sudesh’ s strengths lie in leadership where he believes in mentorship with a strong focus on people development, creating high performance teams contributing to both personal & team success around him.

13:00 - 15:00

AWS + Accenture Executive Lunch Roundtable Session: Accelerating Enterprise Modernisation: the AI-Enabled Cloud Operating Model

Nam Je Cho - Director of Solutions Architecture at AWS Danielle Malone - Data and AI Technology Lead at Accenture ANZ Sudesh Shah - Lead - AWS Business Group & Cloud Advisory at Accenture ANZ Read More

Legacy systems hold businesses back – limiting agility, increasing costs, and creating unnecessary operational and security complexities. We can no longer do it ‘cheaper, better, faster’ on premises and should look ahead to capture the value from a higher order of data and AI services.

AI-driven intelligent automation and modern cloud capabilities are finally enabling Australian businesses accelerate modernisation of their legacy applications and infrastructure. This then drives efficiencies in project timelines, costs, technical debts, and security posture, whilst freeing up valuable strategic resources. The promise of Generative and Agentic AI tooling means modernisation isn’t just an upgrade; it can deliver real transformation and competitive advantage.

The cohort will explore the state of cloud operations and AI-enabled infrastructure to debate practical strategies that are achieving transformative outcomes.

Join special experts sharing use cases under the Chatham House Rule:

  • Nam Je Cho – Director of Solutions Architecture at AWS
  • Danielle Malone – Managing Director, Data and AI Technology at Accenture ANZ
  • Sudesh Shah – Managing Director, AWS Business Group & Cloud Advisory at Accenture ANZ
13:55 - 14:55

ADAPT Executive Insight Roundtables

Attend your pre-selected roundtable to participate in a peer discussion with confidence under Chatham House Rules moderated by an ADAPT analyst with subject matter experts.

Roundtable 4

Ship Fast, Stay Secure – Rethinking Continuous Delivery at Enterprise Scale

with Octopus Read More

As cloud-native architectures mature and digital expectations accelerate, large enterprises and government organisations face increasing pressure to deploy faster, more reliably, and at scale — all while maintaining stringent compliance and minimising risk. This session is designed for technology executives seeking to modernise software delivery while striking the right balance between agility, governance, and developer empowerment.

How do you deliver faster — without losing control?
This roundtable will explore how enterprise and government orgs are modernising Continuous Delivery to:

  • Move faster without compromising uptime or compliance
  • Cut developer friction in complex multi-environment pipelines
  • Bake security and auditability into every deployment

Greg Yelas

Regional Sales Director, Enterprise & Government at Juniper Networks

About

Greg Yelas is a seasoned leader in Enterprise Sales within the IT industry, dedicated to driving transformation that benefits both customers and their clients. As the Regional Sales Director for Australia, he spearheads the sales go-to-market strategy, fostering an energized and passionate sales team.

With over a decade of experience at Cisco, Greg has held various roles, including Enterprise Account Manager and Territory Account Manager for Professional Services, where he consistently demonstrated his ability to build strong client relationships and deliver impactful solutions. His journey in sales began as a Sales BDM, and he has steadily progressed through roles that highlight his expertise in the technology sector.

Based in Sydney, New South Wales, Greg is committed to empowering teams and enhancing customer experiences through innovative technology.

Ivan Evans

Head of Data Centre Networks at Juniper Networks ANZ

About

Ivan is the Head of Juniper’s Apstra driven DC business in ANZ, which includes Apstra’s Intent Based Networking and Intent Based Analytics solution portfolios. 

A seasoned industry veteran that worked his way up from a field engineer to principal TAC engineer at Bay Networks, then onto senior SE roles at Nortel and Cisco before moving to sales, sales management and GM roles. Ivan currently leads the DC sales division for Juniper in ANZ that has grown for seven straight quarters. 

Outside of work, Ivan is the proud father of two adult daughters that have also followed him into the ICT industry! 

Roundtable 5

AI-Native Networking: making every user experience exceptional.

Greg Yelas - Regional Sales Director, Enterprise & Government at Juniper Networks Ivan Evans - Head of Data Centre Networks at Juniper Networks ANZ Read More

This session will look at how the industry’s first AI-Native Networking Platform is already using visibility and orchestration to deliver better operator and end-user experiences with the most comprehensive AIOps across the entire network stack – from Client to Cloud.

– How can your network deliver simplicity, productivity, reliability, reduced risk, performance, and exceptional experiences?
– How to build and operate hybrid cloud infrastructure so that it’s ultra reliable, high performance, secure and easy to manage, no matter if the workload is on-prem, in a co-lo, or hosted cloud?

The discussion will cover how to tackle some of the most critical networking challenges, including how to use AIOps to:
• Reduce Network Complexity
• Private Data Centre Environments
• Unlock Resources
• Deliver predictability
• Unthrottle Network Responsiveness

From transforming and modernising the Data Centre and Campus & Branch networks, to scaling & automating the WAN, join your peers and experts from Juniper to discuss new ways to reach these network goals

Wayne Phillips

Chief Technology Officer at SentinelOne

About
Roundtable 6

Adopting Cloud, Adapting Security

Wayne Phillips - Chief Technology Officer at SentinelOne Read More

As organisations increasingly build in the cloud, and adopt AI services, their attack surface correspondingly alters.

What changes do our security teams need to make with increasingly containerised, cloud focused and AI-first technologies coming to the fore?

14:55 - 15:05

Afternoon Break

Refreshments, Snacks & Connections

Peter Alexander

CTO, Defence Digital Group at the Department of Defence

About

Matt Gurr

Senior Director of Design Management APAC at NTT Global Data Centres (formerly AECOM, AWS, Aurecon)

About

A collaborative leader with over 25 years working in the built environment and mission critical fields. From initial roles with the Ministry of Defence in the UK, now based in Sydney, where he specialises in the design and development of Data Centre facilities. Career highlights include working with major international organisations including NEXTDC, Global Switch, Equinix, IBM, Telstra, Metronode, Woolworths, ANZ and Amazon.

Adam Gardner

Head of Products at NEXTDC

About

As the Head of Products at NEXTDC (ASX:NXT); Australia’s most innovative Data Centre as a Service Provider, I help build fantastic new products and innovate for our customers.

With over 18 years experience in Data Centres, my wife is surprised that I still get excited reading about them, driving past them and telling the kids “Do you know what that great looking building does?” for the thousandth time.

Directly helping customers meet their objectives with initiatives such as Australia’s only carbon neutral colocation solution keeps me striving for more each day.

Outside of NEXTDC, I’m a a Lego fanatic co-authoring a LEGO blog with my son Oscar (www.casadebricks.com), obstacle course racing, Formula 1 and honing my occasionally great dad jokes.

During my time at Vocus, I demonstrated a history of strong performance in the Data Centre industry successfully integrating 26 facilities onto a national unified platform. Leading a geographically diverse team, we delivered a Net Promoter Score of 50+ whilst successfully completing many M&A opportunities alongside the day to day BAU operations of the Data Centre business unit.

15:05 - 15:45

Panel: Scaling Data Centres for AI and High-Performance Computing: Building Smarter, Resilient Infrastructure

Peter Alexander - CTO, Defence Digital Group at the Department of Defence Matt Gurr - Senior Director of Design Management APAC at NTT Global Data Centres (formerly AECOM, AWS, Aurecon) Adam Gardner - Head of Products at NEXTDC Read More

Modern data centres face unprecedented pressures – from the explosive rise of AI and HPC workloads to the growing importance of sustainability and edge architectures.

This expert panel explores how to build next-generation data centre environments that unite high-performance computing, cloud-native concepts, and robust operational management. Debating how to collaborate on a more robust, future-ready foundation for AI and high-performance computing while ensuring resilience, cost-efficiency, and sustainability – all while meeting ever-increasing business demands.

  • AI & HPC Readiness: Balancing performance, scalability, and cooling requirements for advanced workloads.
  • Edge & Distributed Architecture: Applying cloud-native principles across on-premises and edge environments for seamless, low-latency operations.
  • Sustainability & Power Efficiency: Integrating renewable energy and innovative cooling solutions to meet ESG goals and optimise costs.
  • Infrastructure Modernisation: Automating and standardising hybrid data centre platforms to enable agility and consistent governance.
  • Facility Management & Collaboration: Roles, responsibilities, and skill sets to run modern data centres effectively with IT, facilities, and engineering.

Wayne Vest

Senior Expert at McKinsey & Company

About

Wayne brings over 25 years of experience in serving banking, telecommunications, and government clients on a broad range of digital issues, including cloud services and security, analytics, data governance, core IT platform architecture, networking, and IT operating model/organisation design, including agile-at-scale.

15:45 - 16:15

Six ways to control the growing cloud

Wayne Vest - Senior Expert at McKinsey & Company Read More
As cloud costs continue to grow, teams are finding it more challenging to deliver effective FinOps.
Leaders are drawing on six pillars to not only manage costs but set up for long term success and value creation.
McKinsey’s Wayne Vest will share how these pillars lead to better decision making for the business and product owners, and allow them to focus on innovations like AI to make it even better – further extending their lead.
16:15 - 16:25

Cloud & Infrastructure Edge 2025: Insights summary

with ADAPT's Research & Advisory Team Read More

Summarising the day’s core findings into actionable insights to take back to your job.

16:30 - 18:30

ADAPT proudly host the "2025 Infrastructure Masons Australian Chapter Networking Event"

Read More

Hilton Zeta Bar – private hire to meet and network with your industry peers over drinks and canapes.

ADAPT helped the local launch of the global Infrastructure Masons in March 2020, and proudly partner their 5th annual local chapter meeting. All attendees are invited to attend – and each can apply for a free iMasons annual membership.

Established in 2016 in the US, Infrastructure Masons is where technical professionals connect, grow and give back.

End User Members are IT and facilities professionals who are directly responsible to design, build and/or operate the physical and logical structures for a company that provides infrastructure services primarily to their internal customers.

The iM Australia Chapter provides a forum for members to connect and engage in meaningful discussion with their industry peers. As a Member, you are invited to ‘leave your company at the door’ and take advantage of the opportunity to build new connections, gain new knowledge, and generate contributions to the iMasons scholarship fund.

Register your interest

Cloud & Infrastructure Edge