Dear ONUG Community,

First things first as we close out on 2019 …

Thank You For Your Support of the ONUG Community – the Architects of Our Digital Future

At ONUG Europe, many members asked that I put together a field trip report that could be shared with their colleagues, and I am pleased to share this with the larger ONUG Community.

Last week in London at ONUG Europe, supported by Bank of America, senior level IT executives from over 200 large enterprises attended to share and hear the latest on building – running and securing the digital enterprise. ONUG Europe 2019 was twice as big as last year, hosted by Barclays Bank (290 registered vs 145). Most importantly, different from last year, was the significantly expanded participation by so many new corporations, such as HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, UBS, JPMC, Kedron, Cadent, SSE Telecoms, BNP Paribas, Airspan Networks, NTT, Innovation Defense Government, Chaos IQ, BofA, Credit Suisse, Global Connect, BT, Telia Carrier, PwC, and on and on.

Here are a few event highlights from ONUG Europe in London:

• Bank of America presented the largest legacy intent-based network automation project to date with a price tag of some $1B and $400M/year savings; 2.5-year ROI. BofA also shared that it estimated a $2B savings by NOT deploying public cloud services.
• James Walker of BofA was presented with the ONUG Thought Leader award – peer recognition of his community thought leadership.
• Large enterprise cloud adoption in Europe is slower than in the US. This is, in part, due to European banks afforded government protections mitigating risk taking.
• The single cloud provider strategy is a myth; the ONUG Community in Europe is multi-cloud.
• With the lack of open and interoperable public cloud provider solutions, a market is opening up for those vendors that can provide migration services between cloud providers; see Aviatrix and Cloudify as examples.
• European firms are showing that digital transformation projects do not require cloud service consumption.
• Large corporations around the world are working through organizational transformation that aligns human capital to digital transformation initiatives in an effort to deliver excellent digital experiences to their customers, partners and suppliers.
• DevOps culture, practices, skills and tools are vibrant in the UK and broader European theater. Many IT organizations are working through the integration of DevOps to deliver digital experiences. The UK may be ahead of the US in this regard.
• Twenty leading vendor sponsors of ONUG provided the ONUG Community solutions to guide the building of software driven digital enterprises. Google, Microsoft, Verizon, Riverbed, ThousandEyes, Forward Networks, PacketFabric, Versa Networks, Aviatrix, 128 Technology, Fortinet, Huawei, Infovista, Juniper/Mist, NetBrain, NS1, Itential, Silver Peak and others showcased their building blocks. 
• Thanks to Chris Swan and Carlos Matos, the new Cloud Native DevOps track was a huge success at ONUG as it charts a course for how traditional IT and DevOps cultures and operational models are being combined uniquely in the large enterprise.
• Six keynotes from customers of leading technology vendors were showcased, including Microsoft, Verizon, Google, Cujo AI and Aviatrix, Global Connect and Versa Networks, Forward Networks. All of these were outstanding.
• Fifteen digital transformation proof of concept solutions theater presentations from sponsors/vendors as they respond to the aggregated use case requirements from the ONUG Working Groups.

These and many other highlights from last week’s ONUG Europe continue to advance ONUG as the voice of the Digital Enterprise and the only place where IT executives can learn from their peers about digital best practices and challenges.

As a community, we accomplished a great deal in 2019, but it’s only scratching the surface of what we will do together in 2020. In 2020, we will put the significant resources ONUG has accumulated in community size, reputation and industry influence for the greater good of the community. We are a user group and will position ONUG to drive fundamental change that benefits all. I look forward to working with all of you to make 2020 our most impactful year.

All the best to you and yours during this holiday season!

Nick Lippis