The Catalyst by Softchoice

The demands to move to the cloud faster are increasing as IT leaders face growing pressure to address mounting operational and business challenges. Now, they’re looking across the entirety of their infrastructure with a new lens and a push to challenge the status quo. 

However, skills developed in the traditional data center or private cloud environment don’t translate easily to public cloud infrastructure - so what do IT leaders do now? 

In this episode, Erika is joined by Claude Reeves, Vice President & Country Manager at VMware Canada and Christopher Woodin, Vice President, Cloud Business Unit at Softchoice, to explore the landscape of IT teams tackling public cloud, and to look at real-world examples of organizations facing various challenges and have ultimately benefited in their move to public cloud.  

Featuring:     

Claude Reeves, Vice President & Country Manager at VMware Canada 
Christopher Woodin, Vice President, Cloud Business Unit at Softchoice 
Special thanks to Jeff Reis, Lester Moniz and Doug Fisher for lending their honest thoughts! 

The Catalyst by Softchoice is the podcast shining a light on the human side of IT leaders and reframing our relationship with technology.      

Are you a leader in the IT space? Read more on Softchoice’s Innovation Executive Forum, an exclusive, members-only community of over 400 senior IT leaders across North America. 

The Catalyst by Softchoice is the podcast dedicated to exploring the intersection of humans and technology. 

Only 24% of households in Indigenous communities across Canada have access to modern, highspeed Internet, which means students in these places aren’t getting the same new digital learning experiences as kids throughout the most of the country. Now, a program called Connected North is aiming to change all of that.  

In this episode, Michael Furdyk joins Erika Van Noort to discuss how Connected North is using two-way telepresence video technology to enhance the classroom experience in Indigenous Communities - through physical technology and interactive software specifically designed for remote access. Best of all, it’s leading to lower dropout rates and more empowerment for First Nations students in school and life. 

Featuring:     

Michael Furdyk, Director of Innovation at TakingITGlobal
Special thanks to Rebecca Martinez, Karen Buttigieg and Cheryl Stookes for lending their honest thoughts! 
   

The Catalyst by Softchoice is the podcast shining a light on the human side of IT leaders and reframing our relationship with technology.      

Are you a leader in the IT space? Read more on Softchoice’s Innovation Executive Forum, an exclusive, members-only community of over 400 senior IT leaders across North America. 

The Catalyst by Softchoice is the podcast dedicated to exploring the intersection of humans and technology. 

The nature of ransomware attacks is evolving to a level of viciousness that impacts humanity as we know it. While the end game is typically money, today ransomware attacks threaten  people’s lives and our world. Ransomware has become a service and an industry. So, what can we do about it? 

In this episode, Andrea Knoblauch joins Erika Van Noort to share the big picture on the ransomware landscape and inspire you to swap a reactive approach to ransomware and move toward a new, cloud-forward, industry-wide protection initiative. 

Featuring:     

Andrea Knoblauch, Technical Security Architect at Softchoice
Special thanks to Tara Brydges, Chris Vassallo and Greg Rainbird for lending their honest thoughts to the podcast! 
   

The Catalyst by Softchoice is the podcast shining a light on the human side of IT leaders and reframing our relationship with technology.      

Are you a leader in the IT space? Read more on Softchoice’s Innovation Executive Forum, an exclusive, members-only community of over 400 senior IT leaders across North America. 

The Catalyst by Softchoice is the podcast dedicated to exploring the intersection of humans and technology. 

Legacy education systems in the US have not changed in 100 years, and now we’re seeing a fresh perspective on education from one school district in Mesquite, Texas. 

In this episode, Erika Van Noort is joined by Dr. David Vroonland and Softchoice’s Ron Espinosa, who are at the center of it all. They’re working with Google and SoftServe to create “AYO”: a program where a student’s aptitude and passion is mapped using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to create a “tailored learning” experience for each student. 

Now, Mesquite Independent School District envisions this program being applied in other schools and districts across the US and even North America - and completely changing how our future leaders and change makers are being shaped. 

Featuring:     

Dr. David Vroonland, Superintendent at Mesquite Independent School District 

Ron Espinosa, Specialty Sales Executive, Google Cloud, Softchoice 

 
Special appearances by:     

Jessica Schmidt, Associate Podcast Producer 

Nicole Francis, Senior Manager, Content Operations 

Kattie Laur, Podcast Producer 
   

The Catalyst by Softchoice is the podcast shining a light on the human side of IT leaders and reframing our relationship with technology.      

Are you a leader in the IT space? Read more on Softchoice’s Innovation Executive Forum, an exclusive, members-only community of over 400 senior IT leaders across North America. 

The new normal is here, and that means the gap between humanity and technology is quickly disappearing. 

While the pandemic was a catalyst for tech innovations making record speed, it doesn’t seem like things are slowing down any time soon. Tech leaders of the 2020’s across all industries and sectors are still busy, shaping our future and our world as we know it. 

This season, we’re exploring digital transformation and talking to tech leaders who are inspired by people. We’re looking ahead at what the strengthening relationship between people and technology means for cloud innovation, cybersecurity risks, the workplace of the future, and diversity & disruption - key themes that we see shaping our future. 

Join host Erika Van Noort for the Season 3 premiere on September 22nd, 2021. New episodes every two weeks after that! 

The Catalyst is an original podcast from Softchoice and Pilgrim Content.
For more on Softchoice, go to http://www.softchoice.com/  
 

The Catalyst by Softchoice is the podcast dedicated to exploring the intersection of humans and technology. 

The pandemic caused a major change to retail tech and the customer experience, from eCommerce, to in-store, to mobile apps. In this episode Erika is joined by retail veteran, Michael LeBlanc, to unpack how these changes worked out. What is the future of retail going to look like, post-pandemic? 

Featuring:    

Michael LeBlanc, Founder, Strategic Advisor, Keynote Speaker and Host at the Remarkable Retail Podcast 

Special appearances by:    
 
Noureddine Talmoudi, Solution Marketing Manager for Workplace at Softchoice 

Alison Clarey, Senior Manager Integrated Go to Market at Softchoice 

Brandon Ram, Director of Talent Acquistion and Candidate Experience at Softchoice 

Braeden Banks, Content Production Lead at Softchoice 
  

The Catalyst by Softchoice is the podcast shining a light on the human side of IT leaders and reframing our relationship with technology.     

Are you a leader in the IT space? Read more on Softchoice’s Innovation Executive Forum, an exclusive, members-only community of over 400 senior IT leaders across North America. 

The Catalyst by Softchoice is the podcast dedicated to exploring the intersection of humans and technology. 

Recently we've been hearing the same story from Softchoice customers: they’re concerned about how to prepare their people for the journey back to the office. Today, “the office” is a tool among other workplace tools –  and we need to reimagine how that space is best used .   

In this episode, Softchoice colleagues, Jeff Gwinnett and David Erlich, join Erika Van Noort to get the insider scoop on the types of barriers that organizations are facing as they prepare for the return to the office and what the future looks like for how we use office space in the digital age. How do we go digital while maintaining an inclusive work culture?  

Featuring: 

Jeff Gwinnett, Director of Workplace at Softchoice 

David Erlich, District Sales Leader at Softchoice 

Special thanks to: Michelle, Katey, Stephanie and Chris for sharing your thoughts. 
  

The Catalyst by Softchoice is the podcast shining a light on the human side of IT leaders and reframing our relationship with technology.     

Are you a leader in the IT space? Read more on Softchoice’s Innovation Executive Forum, an exclusive, members-only community of over 400 senior IT leaders across North America. 

The Catalyst by Softchoice is the podcast dedicated to exploring the intersection of humans and technology. 

The shift to digital collaboration in the workplace hasn’t just impacted regular office-goers – it changed the game for frontline healthcare workers, too. Katie Poolton, Product Marketing Manager at Microsoft is one of the people guiding the healthcare industry through this massive change, and joins Erika Van Noort to discuss how the pandemic helped radically evolve digital healthcare collaboration and the patient experience. 

Featuring:    

Katie Poolton, Product Marketing Manager at Microsoft 

Special appearances by:    
 
Noureddine Talmoudi, Solution Marketing Manager for Workplace at Softchoice 

Alison Clarey, Senior Manager Integrated Go to Market at Softchoice 

Brandon Ram, Director of Talent Acquistion and Candidate Experience at Softchoice 

Braeden Banks, Content Production Lead at Softchoice 
  

The Catalyst by Softchoice is the podcast shining a light on the human side of IT leaders and reframing our relationship with technology.     

Are you a leader in the IT space? Read more on Softchoice’s Innovation Executive Forum, an exclusive, members-only community of over 400 senior IT leaders across North America. 

The Catalyst by Softchoice is the podcast dedicated to exploring the intersection of humans and technology. 

In order to power the major shift to the remote workplace, enterprises drastically changed the tools and applications we use to get work done - and faster than they ever anticipated! As a result, organizations are now dealing with employee burnout and overheating laptops filled with apps wondering where they went wrong.  

Luisa Colmenares, Director of Workplace Innovation at Softchoice joins Erika Van Noort to examine the gaps, learning curves and challenges created by the rush to evolve, and share some advice about how to get the most out of the new remote everything world. 

Featuring:    

Luisa Colmenares, Director, Workplace Innovation at Softchoice 

Special appearances by:    
 
Braeden Banks, Content Production Lead at Softchoice 

Noureddine Talmoudi, Solution Marketing Manager for Workplace at Softchoice 
  

The Catalyst by Softchoice is the podcast shining a light on the human side of IT leaders and reframing our relationship with technology.     

Are you a leader in the IT space? Read more on Softchoice’s Innovation Executive Forum, an exclusive, members-only community of over 400 senior IT leaders across North America. 

The Catalyst by Softchoice is the podcast dedicated to exploring the intersection of humans and technology. 

The pandemic might have accelerated the journey to Cloud – but it hasn’t made the road there any less bumpy. We speak to Craig McQueen about the pitfalls – new and old – of cloud migration, and the amazing value and innovation you can unlock with a well-executed cloud strategy. 

Featuring:   

Craig McQueen, Vice President of Innovation at Softchoice 
 

The Catalyst by Softchoice is the podcast shining a light on the human side of IT leaders and reframing our relationship with technology.    

Are you a leader in the IT space? Read more on Softchoice’s Innovation Executive Forum, an exclusive, members-only community of over 400 senior IT leaders across North America. 

The Catalyst by Softchoice is the podcast dedicated to exploring the intersection of humans and technology.