Interview: Gavin Jones, Confluent

What is the major potential tech pain point that will face all organisations large and small in 2023?

The relationship between recession and fraud is fairly well known but less discussed. However, our customers are currently talking to us about protecting against fraud, identity theft and other scams. Cybersecurity will be increasingly critical in 2023 as the macroeconomic climate continues to be on a downturn and hackers target western democracies and their citizens. As we cultivate more progressive advances in security technology, cybercrimes also become more complex. The traditional forensic style of data analysis after collection, indexing and storage alone is insufficient. It means that we are discovering attacks or breaches minutes, hours or days too late. Providing real-time analysis, identifying data theft patterns and being able to shut access down in fractions of a second will prove invaluable.

What’s on your tech wish list from governments, innovators and the wider industry in 2023?

It is unsurprising that people are doubting who they can trust with their data. We need to strike a balance between convenience (sharing data) and privacy (trust) while realising our vision of a digital-first country. Governments should be able to cut through data silos for a better citizen 360 experience. Correspondingly, access to personal data should only be shared when approved and necessary.

My wish is that citizens will have easy access and visibility to all relevant information that they wish to see and provide personal information to allow a tailored experience. For example, if a citizen takes a certain road to work, they may want to know whether there’s a better route when they leave for work, which is highly possible in a city that uses its data wisely. Equally, citizens should only have access to what they need. Using a streaming data pipeline infrastructure will allow each citizen a unique and personalised experience. Any agencies who need to see a fuller, different view can access this too — each user is unique and treated as such.

Which new technologies will reach critical mass and become dominant in 2023?

Just as lives are led in the now, so should the technology infrastructure supporting it. With more data being produced in real time with more systems than ever before, the value half-life of data is reducing exponentially. Organisations need to be able to harness data in the moment as old data becomes less valuable.

Data streaming — data residing in event-based architectures to respond to a combination of events proactively, reactively and in real time — will become a dominant technology. Data processing systems will move from batch processing, which looks at accumulated data at rest, to stream processing, which allows data to be processed as it arrives, leading to real-time recommendations that improve user experiences while the customer is still engaged.

This is only the beginning, as organisations start their data in motion journey by prioritising a single use case that harnesses streams of data for a particular goal they want to achieve. Over time, this platform will become the key integration layer that ties together the vast majority of data into a coherent whole, much like the role of a real central nervous system. It will enable the organisation to react, respond and process these real-time streams, coordinating diverse applications and software services to respond continuously and intelligently as the business evolves.

How is the current talent shortage impacting your industry and how will this be overcome in 2023?

With remote working becoming a norm due to the pandemic, it has provided a great advantage for hiring talent. The Kafka community has grown rapidly with close to 90% adoption in the top FSI and telcos in ANZ. Skills development for OSS Kafka is equally in demand as the prevalence of Kafka grows and we are committed to training and certifying people on the technology. Should companies decide to focus their resources on other, more important business tasks, we also provide fully managed services that they can rely on.

Gavin Jones is the VP of Sales for Confluent ANZ. Gavin has 25 years of experience in leadership and sales roles at fast-growth, global technology companies. He now spearheads Confluent’s growth in the region, with a focus on engaging customers and empowering his regional team to inspire businesses on the potential of data in motion.