International Girls in ICT Day 2024 at Xalient
As technology advances at gathering pace, keeping technologist’s skills up to date is a struggle. While AI is plugging some of the shortfall, the technology industry is widening its search for diverse talent.
Since 2011, International Girls in ICT Day has been celebrated in 175 countries, with over 377,000 girls and young women taking part in more than 11,400.
On International Women’s Day 2024, we heard from experts at GoTo, Intellias and Lynx about how businesses can support women across the technology industry.
Now on International Girls in ICT Day 2024, we hear from Anne Fox, on how Xalient is encouraging more girls to choose data as a potential career.
Xalient’s data scientists integrate diverse data sources
Xalient, a global leader in security and network solutions, recently announced the launch of MARTINA Predict 2.0, the latest of its advanced AI Ops suite. MARTINA (Managing through Artificial Intelligence and Analytics) enables Xalient to link disparate sources of data from across the identity, network and security domains, with user and application experience data, to pre-emptively identify and predict potential faults and issues.
“MARTINA Predict 2.0 represents a paradigm shift in AIOps,” said Sherry Vaswani, Xalient CEO. “Our data scientists have achieved unique integration of diverse data sources and developed advanced correlation algorithms, which means we’re empowering organisations to stay ahead of IT disruptions and deliver superior user experiences.”
Diverse thinking builds a strong data team
Anne Fox, Strategic Accounts Director at Xalient, is dedicated to closing the gender gap in the technology sector and supporting women and girls in ICT.
“As the technology landscape evolves, there is a growing need for more people to pursue a career in the technology sector. According to the United Nations International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the information and communications technology (ICT) sector is likely to experience a skills shortfall of over two million jobs within the next five years,” she says.
“This gap must be addressed by attracting more girls and women into the technology industry. While some girls will learn coding, app development and computer science and become well-positioned to embrace a career in technology, others who are less technology-minded should also explore career opportunities in the sector.”
Anne believes that the sector needs diverse thinking from different genders and age groups to drive the delivery of new technologies and their successful implementation.
“Women bring a set of skills that are often overlooked by business generally, but that are highly beneficial in successful and thriving workplaces. These softer skills, such as empathy and listening skills, are valuable to employees, for customer relationships and for gaining an understanding of what customers want.”
However, Anne highlights that many girls and women are limited by their views of the industry and believe that if they do not have an interest or background in mathematics or science, they will not be cut out for a career in technology. But a career in the technology industry requires more than the ability to code.
“Women should not limit themselves either as many successful women sit on boards at leading technology companies around the world, and in some instances, such as Xalient, were founded by women who have a passion for technology and the benefits it offers to its users. Women need to realise that they have a role to play in the future of technology.”
Don’t forget to check out our ‘Top 10 Pieces of Advice from Women in Data Centre’.
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