60 Seconds With Peter Jones, Founder & CTO at Avanite

Tell us briefly about your background in IT?

When I finished university I got an interesting job where I remember writing databases in the morning and delivering parcels in the afternoon.  I then went onto a graduate role with Co-Op Insurance and quickly realised I didn’t like the pensions industry and much preferred IT.  I undertook and passed some Microsoft exams in my spare time and made the move to an IT role with another insurance company soon after.  In this role I came across Citrix for the first time and I was hooked on the world of virtualization.  I spent a number of years undertaking Citrix projects and eventually joined AppSense in 2008 where I stayed until founding Avanite in 2015.

How do you keep up to date with trends in the industry?

I tend to subscribe to newsletter, spend time on twitter following people across all different sectors and read articles on Linked In.

What does the future look like at Avanite?

We’re excited about the future at Avanite as we move into a reporting/analytics space and we are starting to add real-time capabilities into our products.  2020 is a big year for us which will set us up for the years to come.

What IT process is most important in creating the best User Experience?

It may not be a process but most companies I work with don’t seem to have anyone who is dedicated to, or responsible for the User Experience, it just tends to evolve with unknowing input from architects, engineers, users and management alike.  Other companies have an individual or a team responsible for User Experience and are working on improving all the time.

Where do you see the enterprise IT department in the future? 

Down the pub!  With the transition from Capex to Opex and XaaS, the Enterprise IT department looks like it could be more of a service management department ensuring all the different vendors are delivering in the future.  That one version, there are plenty of others.

What advice would you give to your 21 year old self over a coffee?

I would tell myself to write everything down and not in a notepad that lives on my desk!

What professional accomplishment are you most proud of?

I remember being proudest when I passed my Citrix CCEA exam back in 2004.  That and managing to get Avanite this far, its been quite a journey!