Elisabeth Stahl Interview

Elisabeth Stahl is Distinguished Engineer in the IBM Systems Worldwide Client Centers and has been working in IT Infrastructure for over 30 years. Her current focus is on Blockchain, Hybrid Cloud and Cognitive technologies.

Last week we took a few minutes to get to know a little more about Elisabeth and what she is working on at IBM.

Q.1 Can you tell us a little about your career? What was your first job in tech and what were you working on? 

My very first job out of college was as a Capacity Planner/Performance Analyst at IBM, ensuring that the mainframe systems had enough capacity to run the IBM Poughkeepsie site and to keep them performing well. So you can see why CMG is near and dear to me!

Q.2  What has motivated you in your career?

As a consultant, helping organizations succeed with their digital transformations. And as a leader, helping other professionals succeed in their careers.

Q.3 Currently you work on blockchain projects. What is the most innovative application you have seen to date? Where are you most excited to see blockchain applied?

I am so excited to see blockchain adopted in industries in addition to the financial industry, such as supply chain. One of the most impactful areas is using blockchain for the IBM Food Trust, tracking everything from pork in China to leafy salad greens. https://newsroom.ibm.com/2018-10-08-IBM-Food-Trust-Expands-Blockchain-Network-to-Foster-a-Safer-More-Transparent-and-Efficient-Global-Food-System-1

Q.4 What will be more disruptive to businesses this year: IoT, Blockchain, AI – or something else?

The answer is YES! Data at the edge is growing at enormous rates and businesses will need to be able to work with it. IoT and sensor data is everywhere, blockchain tracks the assets, and AI applies the learning to the data.

Q.5 What big trends are you seeing in regard to IT infrastructure?

Hybrid cloud linking on-premise private with off-premise public data; Multi-cloud environments; Edge computing, moving the computing closer to the source.

Q.6 How do you think most companies are faring in regard to digital transformation?

Many organizations are motivated to learn about these new technologies, but it takes that extra something to create a strategy and an agile project plan to get started with your transformation and actually begin implementing it.

Q.7 What is the single biggest mistake that an enterprise makes during a digital transformation?

Not looking at the business case first (before all the technology and architecture) to ensure that the transformation will actually have the ROI to make it worth it

Q.8 Can you share a little bit of where IBM is investing in future tech, internally and externally?

The future is quantum! https://www.research.ibm.com/ibm-q