CDW Executive SummIT Wrap-Up: 5 Interesting Takeaways

From the Olympics to quantum readiness, here’s what caught our eye at CDW’s event.

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Matt is an associate editorial director and award-winning content creation leader. He is a regular contributor to the CDW Tech Magazines and frequently writes about data analytics, software, storage and cloud topics.

When CDW held its Executive SummIT last week in Las Vegas, IT leaders from across the country gathered to hear from experts about a variety of technology topics. Here are five takeaways that BizTech found particularly interesting.

1. Looking at the Technology That Will Support the 2028 Olympics

Officials from CDW provided details on the company’s status as the official IT equipment solutions and services provider of the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. In this capacity, CDW will deliver a Device as a Service (DaaS) solution that includes hardware (such as servers, laptops, desktops, tablets and mobile devices) and software and security controls for staff of the Games. CDW will also provide onsite support for the technology, making sure it works as it’s intended in a demanding environment.

“The technology has to work right every time, and it has to work right in some pretty rough conditions,” said Randy Harris, vice president of federal program management, capture and services for CDW Government.

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The Olympics DaaS deployment follows CDW’s work with the 2020 census. CDW provided more than 700,000 devices for the census and was responsible for managing, recovering and sanitizing the devices across the full lifecycle.

The technology challenge of the 2028 Games goes well beyond the massive DaaS deployment. As the premier technology partner, CDW will also provide 5G connectivity and other essential technology services for the Games, which Harris likened to holding seven Super Bowls a day, every day, for 28 days.

“This is going to be the most technologically advanced Games ever held,” Harris said.

2. With AI, Don’t Just Replicate — Reimagine

CDW has implemented artificial intelligence across its enterprise, including the deployment of 10,000 Microsoft Copilot licenses and numerous AI agents. Officials from the company, including Vice President of Digital Product Ben Weiss, offered guidance to SummIT attendees based on CDW’s experience with AI.

Weiss advised IT leaders attending the SummIT to go beyond simply using AI to replicate human efforts. Instead, he said, organizations should rethink processes to take advantage of AI’s specific strengths and how it operates.

“Many organizations try to use AI to replace humans in workflows,” he said. “But there are intrinsic qualities to AI models — the ability to think — that just makes this technology fundamentally different from anything you’ve seen before.”

Organizations that figure out how to best take advantage of these capabilities will give themselves an edge.

DISCOVER: How to ride the waves of data.

3. Quantum Readiness Starts Now

Organizations should be preparing now for the arrival of widely used quantum computing, said Erik Van Woerden, a senior manager within Palo Alto Networks' Network Security Go-To-Market team. Quantum computing isn’t expected to become widely available in the next few years, but observers predict that it will become much more widely used in roughly five to 10 years.

This represents a heightened risk for many organizations because quantum computers have the power to unlock many common modern encryption schemes. Encrypted data is essentially useless when it is stolen, but quantum decryption has the power to solve that problem for the thieves.

“Many nation-states and threat actor groups are harvesting data now, and they’re going to use quantum computers to decrypt that data so they can use it against companies,” Van Woerden said.

Data that is stolen now may sit for several years before the thieves are able to decrypt it, but once it has been compromised, there’s nothing an organization can do to prevent its decryption. Van Woerden advises IT teams to start preparing now for the arrival of quantum computing and its decryption capabilities in the coming decade. Firewalls that use quantum-resistant cryptography are one type of solution that can help organizations get ahead of this issue.

I’m fearful of AI, but I’m also very interested in AI. I’m interested to see how cybersecurity evolves around it.”

Jakob Grimm Director of Solution Engineering, Okta

4. As AI Evolves, Its Impact on Cybersecurity Will Become Clearer

Context is essential to data security. Not only do security teams need to assess the context of how a human user is accessing specific data to understand the threat level, but they also need to apply the same principle to AI interactions with data, said Erin Leonard, worldwide senior director of sales engineering and security architecture for Proofpoint’s Data Security suite.

An interaction’s input and output can help security personnel assess whether it represents a potential breach. Behavioral analytics solutions — which, for example, can alert security professionals if a human accesses data that they usually don’t access, or if they access data at an unusual time, thousands of miles from their regular location — can also be applied to limit the cybersecurity threats of AI agents.

“I know AI agents are making our jobs better and faster, but they can get out of control,” Leonard said.

Ultimately, she advised, organizations should apply the same cybersecurity principals to AI agents that they apply to human workers.

5. AI Is a Critical Factor in Both Offensive and Defensive Cybersecurity

AI is changing the game for IT professionals in countless ways. Perhaps the most significant, now, is cybersecurity. Cybercriminals are deploying AI to solve problems and carry out automated attacks at unprecedented scale, but security professionals are taking advantage of AI as well to streamline repetitive processes and eliminate human error from tasks such as hardware and software configuration.

“I’m fearful of AI, but I’m also very interested in AI,” said Jakob Grimm, director of solution engineering at Okta. “I’m interested to see how cybersecurity evolves around it.”

For example, about a year ago, prompt injection cyberattacks were not a threat IT professionals were widely aware of, Van Woerden said. Now, there are at least eight different kinds of prompt injection attacks that organizations need to prepare their defenses against.

“If you’re not using technology that’s keeping up with the speed of innovation that the hackers are using — if you’re not using AI to fight AI — you’re going to be on your back foot,” Van Woerden said. “It’s only a matter of time before you get into some trouble.”

Find BizTech’s full coverage of the event here and follow our coverage of the CDW Executive SummIT on the social platform X @BizTechMagazine and join the conversation using the hashtag #CDWExecutiveSummIT.