Roger Murphy is a Senior Executive with Avenu Insights & Analytics and brings over 30 years of experience in the technical delivery of secure, reliable, and integrated technology solutions to drive maximum business value to customers.
For the last 15 years, Roger has focused providing IT Managed Solutions and IT Outsourcing projects for local governments. In this arena, his experience includes managing the largest IT outsourcing contract to local government in the United States and managing the Global PMO for a large service provider. Additionally, he led the recovery of IT services for a US City after a sophisticated Ransomware attack. This experience had a profound effect on Roger who has a deep understanding of how an organization can best defend itself and prepare itself from any Ransomware attack.
In a recent interview with Roger, we learn a little about his background along with race cars, mountain climbing, beekeeping, and his insights about the future of IT.
How did you get into the IT arena?
It started with a love for engines. Growing up in Indianapolis, I would go to the Indy 500 to watch the races and would be enamored by the power and speed. I was always fascinated with aircraft engines and got a Bachelor of Science in Aviation Administration at Indiana State University. One of my first jobs out of college was with EDS to work on the Osprey engine that was being designed for the military. EDS was the first company to create IT outsourcing as we know it today.
In 2006, my career led me to Northrop Grumman where I was the Deputy Program Manager for the County of San Diego, moved to California, and learned the particulars of outsourcing IT to local governments. I have stayed in the SLED space from that point forward.
The IT field can be grueling at times. How do you recharge?
I took part in the Mario Andretti Driving Experience and drove a race car 150 mph at the Fontana Motor Speedway, but generally I like anything outdoors. I enjoy mountain climbing, hiking, camping. My favorite mountain climb was going to the top of Mount Shasta which is a steep volcano in California. It’s a trickier climb because it has glaciers and snow caps. It took my brother, son and I six months to train for it. Recently I’ve also taken up beekeeping and find the similarities between beehives and businesses intriguing.
This is my first time interviewing a beekeeper. What are the similarities between beehives and businesses?
Both bee colonies and businesses work towards a shared common goal of having their colony/business thrive. Each require leadership from either the Queen Bee or leader to set the tone and effectively communicate. Every bee and every employee have a specific role to fill that fits their skill set. Bee colonies and organizations have to assess threats and make changes to get where they want to go and for the health of the unit. Colonies and businesses that thrive have great working environments, and get things done. Most importantly they work well together.
Having been in the IT field for 30 plus years, are there advancements in technology that have been exciting?
Two stand out to me with the first being the dot-com era when across the country everyone was racing to create a digital presence. The rapid growth at that time was extraordinary.
The other time is right now with 5G.
What changes do you think we’ll see with 5G?
Think about how 4G brought speed and responsiveness to consumers with the ushering of new businesses like Lyft, Uber, Airbnb, and Amazon. We live in a time when you can order most anything and have it delivered to your doorstep in a day or two. Videos can be streamed in real-time.
5G will transform lives by providing even faster downloads and more capacity and connectivity to billions of devices. We are going to see more coming from virtual reality platforms and artificial intelligence.
And like a bee colony that finds a new source of nectar, businesses are going to find new uses for 5G that we haven’t even imagined yet. It is an exciting time to help our clients prepare their organizations for what will be here soon.