Ep 57 – Catch the public cloud train with TELUS

This week’s guest

Hesham Fahmy

Chief Information Officer TELUS

Telcos around the world are signing strategic deals with hyperscalers, setting big goals for public cloud transformation, and finding ways to cross the finish line.

A great example is TELUS, which signed a 10-year strategic agreement with Google Cloud and is on a path to become a cloud-native organization. 

For this episode, I talk with Hesham Fahmy, chief information officer at TELUS, about how the telecom built momentum for its cloud journey, what happened along the way, and what it learned that other telcos should know. Hit play to hear our conversation about:

• TELUS’ plan to move 80% of workloads to the cloud by 2025 [03:56];
• Where and how it decided to start its move [06:16]; 
• How TELUS brought its team along on its public cloud journey [08:42].
• Refactoring applications for the public cloud [12:18].

Links and Resources

• You can find the transcript for this episode here.
• Read the announcement of TELUS’ 10-year strategic alliance with Google Cloud.  
• Hear about another digital transformation in episode 52, featuring Nathan Bell, former chief digital officer of M1 Singapore, and now digital practice partner at Kearney. 
• Listen to my Telco in 20 conversation with change-management guru Jim Abolt about driving workplace transformation.
• Read my blog about the importance of setting Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs). Don’t forget to publicize and celebrate the wins to align your team and build momentum toward the cloud.
• Check out Hesham’s helmet-cam footage, captured while he was racing his motorcycle, and then find out what makes Turn 1 at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas so special.
• Once you get moving to the cloud, you’ll want to keep your trains running smoothly. Learn how Tokyo runs one of the world’s best subway systems to get ideas on how to keep your organization on track.

Author’s bio

As Chief Information Officer at TELUS, Hesham Fahmy leads the team responsible for spearheading TELUS’ transformation to a fully-digital, software-centric and cloud-enabled organization. With a bachelor of computer engineering from McMaster University and a master of software engineering from the University of Toronto, Hesham has innovated software products and solutions for 25 years, including 19 in senior leadership roles. He has a track record of launching disruptive products and platforms in retail, IoT, fintech and development tooling.

Follow DR

• Have an idea for a Telco in 20 podcast guest or topic? Send it in!
• Want to sponsor a podcast? Let us know
• Follow Telco in 20 on Twitter @TelcoIn20
• Follow DR on Twitter @TelcoDR

The Telco in 20 podcast won a 2022 Gold Hermes Award and was recognized on Forrester’s 2021 list of the Top 100 Channel Podcasts and Feedspot’s Top 10 Telecom Podcasts list.

If you enjoy the podcast, would you leave us a short review? It takes you seconds to do in your app and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. And I love reading your feedback and reviews!

Podcast Credits

• Executive Producer and Host: Danielle Rios Royston, TelcoDR
• Senior Producer: Lindsay Grubb, TillCo Media
• Editor/Producer: Alisa Jenkins Wilson, Springboard Marketing
• Audio Editing: Andrew Condell
• Associate Producer: Kriselda Dionisio
• Music: Dyami Wilson

Most popular podcasts

Subscribe now

Get my FREE newsletter, delivered every two weeks, with curated content to help telco execs across the globe move to the public cloud.

"*" indicates required fields

Business email*

Name

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.