Workday CTO Dan Wesley on Public Sector Cloud Privacy, Sustainability, and Co-Creation

June’s live Cloud Wars Expo event featured dozens of industry leaders allowing the Acceleration Economy team access to the inner workings of the greatest growth market the world has ever known.

In this News Desk interview, Acceleration Economy VP and Principal Analyst Aaron Back welcomes Workday Chief Technology Officer North America Dan Wesley for a discussion on public sector cloud solutions.

Highlights

00:01 — Aaron introduces Dan Wesley, Workday’s North American Chief Technology Officer. Wesley details specific areas he supports as the CTO.

01:45 — Purpose-built solutions and functionalities still face challenges when it comes to widespread adoption.

02:41 — Most state and government agencies are running on infrastructure pieced together over a long period of time without planning to adapt to how new technology might evolve over 20-30 years.

03:56 — Customer expectations shifted pre- and mid-pandemic to a mobile-first world.

05:04 — Market, data, and analytic requirements have advanced rapidly. Monolithic systems have “difficulty bringing it all together” over time.

06:10 — New technological expectations include sustainability goals. Sustainability revolves around data: how data is measured, where it is stored, and how easily it can be accessed and distributed.

08:14 — Workday’s architecture is built for efficient data management, and to illustrate the big picture “as quickly as possible” to drive sustainable decision-making.

09:36 — Government entities have a firm grasp on data privacy regulations and cloud security needs.

10:30 — “It’s all about trust.” Wesley emphasizes the importance of architecture and data sovereignty. Where does private user data live? Aaron raises the issue of GDPR regulations.

13:22 — Wesley addresses why security now includes “data auditability,” the ability to prove data infrastructure is secure from outside access or has been truly “forgotten” by systems where appropriate.

15:23 — The co-creation efforts between Workday and its customers are “part of its DNA.”

17:03 — Wesley references Workday’s implementation of Covid-19 vaccine regulatory management systems in a single weekend.

18:56 — Effectively implementing solutions includes being able to quickly iterate these solutions according to customer feedback and changing needs.

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