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Redefining Enterprise Data Center Operations: Automation, Resilience, and Edge Readiness

Modern IT operations demand more than scale—they require resilience, automation, and edge readiness. Join senior IT leaders for a candid discussion on navigating complexity, reducing risk, and preparing infrastructure for what’s next.
Event Location
Virtual
Event Date
March 11, 2026
Event Time
1:00 pm - 2:30 pm
About this event

Enterprise IT leaders face growing pressure to modernize infrastructure strategies as cloud adoption accelerates and business demands intensify. Traditional approaches are being tested by rising costs, rigid licensing structures, and the persistent risk of vendor lock-in. At the same time, workloads are increasingly distributed across private, hybrid, and edge environments, creating new opportunities for performance gains while adding layers of operational complexity.

As organizations navigate these challenges, aligning infrastructure decisions with business goals has become critical. Increasingly, leaders are turning to automation and AI-enabled operational intelligence to improve reliability, optimize performance, and manage complexity at scale. Private cloud continues to provide predictability and control, while open and edge-enabled approaches—augmented by intelligent orchestration—offer greater flexibility and resilience. Striking the right balance across these environments is no longer optional; it is essential to sustaining competitiveness and meeting customer expectations.

In partnership with Wind River, this Blend virtual roundtable will bring together senior IT leaders to share how they are modernizing infrastructure strategies across private, hybrid, and edge environments. The discussion will highlight real-world approaches to improving reliability, reducing cost, and preparing for future workloads, all while keeping performance and agility at the core.

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Our speakers
Colin Cosell
Head of Community - New York & Boston

Colin Cosell is a professional emcee, announcer, and executive communications expert with more than 25 years of experience across television, radio, film, stage, and corporate events. When he’s not at the lectern or moderating executive panels, Colin serves as the Public Address Announcer for the New York Mets, Army Football, the Premier Lacrosse League, and numerous other professional and collegiate teams. Over the course of his career, Colin has earned three Emmy Awards and has announced to more than 30 million attendees worldwide. His greatest source of pride, however, are his wife, Julia, and their little girl, Eloise.

Warren Bayek
Vice President of Intelligent Edge at Wind River

Warren Bayek is Vice President of Intelligent Edge at Wind River, where he leads strategy for the Wind River Studio Cloud Platform — powering the world’s most advanced 5G, Open RAN, and intelligent edge deployments. A technology leader with over 30 years of experience in real-time, high-availability software, Warren has held leadership roles at Wind River, Ribbon, Oracle, and more. He is a recognized voice in intelligent edge computing, working with telecom and enterprise partners to deliver cloud-native, AI-enabled networks at scale. Warren frequently speaks at global industry forums on cloud-native transformation, Open RAN adoption, and the future of edge infrastructure.

Key themes & discussion topics

Balancing Private, Hybrid, and Edge Environments

Automation as a Foundation for Resilience

Avoiding Vendor Lock-In While Scaling Operations

Preparing IT Operations for Future Workloads

Event agenda
01
Introductions & fireside chat

1:00 – 1:30 PM

02
Guided discussions

1:30 – 2:15 PM

03
Wrap-up & closing remarks

2:15 – 2:30 PM

Why should you attend?

Know how enterprises are determining the right mix of predictability, control, flexibility, and innovation across infrastructure environments.

Discover what role automation plays in reducing operational complexity while improving reliability and performance at scale.

Explore how organizations modernize infrastructure without sacrificing long-term flexibility or control.

Prepare for the capabilities that must be in place today to support tomorrow’s distributed, performance-critical workloads, and how much AI factors into these capabilities.

Who should attend
This event is tailored for enterprise IT and infrastructure leaders responsible for modernization strategy, reliability, governance, and large-scale distributed infrastructure initiatives across cloud and edge environments.
A group of seated C-suite professionals enjoy a Blend community networking event. They are sat at a long dining table.
Venue
Event Location Light
Virtual
N/A
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