Tristan Goode: Aptira Founder, CEO and Board Director
Aptira’s Founder, CEO and Board Director, Tristan Goode shares insights into the future of OpenStack in Australia, as well as the upcoming Summit in Sydney with CEO of Business Events Sydney, Lyn Lewis-Smith.
The people who will lead the innovation and disruption that fuels the revolution toward Australia becoming a leading information economy are, as I write, sitting in a classroom.
The $65 million allocated in the Australian Government’s National Innovation and Science Agenda to increasing participation of young Australians in STEM subjects and improving their digital literacy is an excellent start. In our line of work, it’s going to be those students who seek their own opportunities to be part of creating new technologies that will at least in the next five years, have the greatest impact.
The reality is though that while these initiatives are very welcome, it’s also the responsibility of those of us in industry and government to do everything we can to help these future leaders help themselves.
Our business is part of the global community of developers of OpenStack, the open source cloud software that didn’t exist a little over five years ago, but today has become the cloud computing platform of choice for more than half of the Fortune 100. It’s the next big thing most people have never heard of, and it’s becoming the first common software platform in the history of computing for organisations of any scale to manage their data.
Right now, the OpenStack community globally has zero unemployment, and its rate of growth means it’s likely to offer far more jobs than we can fill for a long time to come. OpenStack is one example of an emerging, disruptive innovation that will very soon become a global standard, and is crying out for talent. These are the jobs of the future.
Outside of government funding, there is much afoot to make sure this happens. For example, we pitched in on the now successful bid led by Business Events Sydney to secure hosting rights for OpenStack Summit 2017. The NSW Government also helped to woo decision makers, so our community can reap the benefits of thousands of coders and clients descending on Sydney next November.
These people, whether they’re part of the international community that’s creating the open source software or are among the corporates and governments adopting OpenStack, are the vanguard for game-changing disruption of the global IT sector – which Gartner says will be worth US$3.49 trillion dollars in 2016. What they talk about while they’re in Sydney will have a fundamental impact on not only how every industry on the face of the planet does business, but what that business will look like in as little as five years’ time.
Business Event Sydney CEO Lyn Lewis-Smith put it best when talking about why this is important. “OpenStack’s decision to come to Sydney means much more than just the immediate economic impact from hosting the event. This will be an unprecedented − and for many, a true once-in-a-lifetime − chance for anyone who wants to be part of truly disruptive innovation, to connect and collaborate with the people who are already there, and are already doing it. They can start to become part of that international community and put themselves in a position to earn one of those jobs of the future everyone talks about, by simply getting on the bus and coming down to the Summit.”
It’s opportunities like the hosting of the 2017 OpenStack Summit that not only adds significant fuel to the rhetorical fire around supporting innovation in this country, but grants much readier access to opportunities for anyone who’s keen to take them. It’ll allow our businesses to learn from some of the world’s most advanced and take the steps to joining their ranks, and contribute to our business hubs being taken more seriously on the international stage.
And for teenagers sitting in a classroom considering what electives to take for their senior years and where those are likely to lead them, it shows a future their parents and teachers may not even be able to fathom. When you consider that anyone in high school or university today who gains experience working in the OpenStack community will be setting themselves up for great jobs with innovative companies around the world, that bus fare starts looking like a pretty small investment to make.
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