Technology mastery has become table stakes in the pursuit of innovation—everyone has access to the same tools and platforms. So how can companies gain a competitive advantage when obstacles like security and compliance can make any IT exec hesitate?

Technologists get worked up over tools, platforms, and products. But having the latest doodad is no longer the way for a business to distinguish itself. Everyone has access to the same basic technologies these days.

Instead, even conversations that ostensibly are about technology are not about the technology, says Flynn Maloy, vice president of Pointnext marketing in the Enterprise Group at Hewlett Packard Enterprise. IT executives are interested in learning how to get people to realign with new processes—even if they don’t realize that’s the issue underlying their questions.

As hybrid cloud is accepted across enterprise organizations, people's jobs and responsibilities change—and IT has to lead that transformation, Maloy says.

Those are not empty words or business platitudes. Nobody is better suited to tearing down silos than are the IT executives who are working to balance the business’s needs, help employees move forward in a time of personal job uncertainty, and ensure new technologies are adopted sensibly.

That’s only one of several issues discussed in The Element Podcast, "The Future of Cloud," hosted by Martina Trucco, HPE Innovation Marketing director, in which she also interviews Robert Christensen, vice president of global cloud delivery at Cloud Technology Partners, an HPE company, and Gary Thome, vice president and chief engineer in HPE’s Converged Datacenter Infrastructure business.

Don’t hold back

There are plenty of reasons for any IT organization to be hesitant about adopting a new technology or moving to a hybrid cloud model, not the least of which are compliance and security. And naturally, when IT leadership is uncertain how to move forward resiliently, with controls on new processes, it makes them hesitant to make big changes. After all, when you don’t fully understand a situation, you can get in trouble.

Yet, that lets competitors get ahead of you. And as Christensen points out, “Nowadays, every company has to think about its tech strategy to stay competitive.”

Evolve your people

New technology is always disruptive, and it’s always been that way. You have to think about a transformation framework, according to the podcast panelists. People think of technology when they contemplate change—and they get distracted by it. The result is that they forget about the operating models, or security, or financial implications of the big changeover.

Tech folks create a fantastic thing, but the people who have to work in that world every day don’t know what to do. No matter what the technology might be—and cloud is just the latest example—IT leaders need to consider, “How do I transform individuals and organizations to best take advantage of this new thing?”

“People are scared,” says Christensen. “They see their jobs changing so dramatically that they don’t know where to go, or what to do, or how to do it.” Worse, he adds, they have no guide to lead them.

You have to have a holistic framework that brings everyone forward together. That takes time. And it takes new thinking, Christensen adds. So, in the conversation, the panelists contemplate ways an IT department can assess its needs and implement new processes in the right way.

They also discuss the difference between IT and cloud operations, the changing development model, the manner in which the consumption model has changed in the past five years, and how a fast race car might help you envision the adoption of hybrid cloud.

That’s just a taste of the discussion. There’s a lot more, and it’s well worth your time. Have a listen to the "The Future of Cloud" episode or watch online.