Interview with Edge Women of the Year Finalist. Tilly Gilbert – Principal Consultant & Edge Practice Lead, STL Partners
In the lead-up to Edge Computing World, we’re taking some time to speak to this year’s finalists for The Edge Women of the Year Award.
Today we’re talking to Tilly Gilbert – Principal Consultant & Edge Practice Lead at STL Partners
- How do you see the edge market developing over the next few years?
We’ve been talking about how we’re now (finally!) reaching a tipping point where the industry is moving on from discussing the theoretical potential of edge to discussing the practicalities of deployment. I would expect over the next few years to see a real acceleration in the number of on-premise edge deployments that are coupled with a private 5G network. I would also expect to see an increase in the number of multi-cloud deployments for edge computing – where enterprises, telcos and others are looking to work not just with one cloud provider but with multiple.
- How does diversity benefit the edge environment?
Diversity of background and experience is important to create thriving ecosystems in almost any topic but particularly in a nascent technology area like edge computing. There’s so much still to define in terms of priorities, partnerships and standards and its important to get diverse opinions on this before they are set in stone.
- Tell us one lesson you’ve learned that’s unique to being a female leader in the Edge space.
The main thing I’ve learnt is that there is real value in asking “the stupid questions”. If you aren’t sure whether you’ve understood a concept or proposition then you definitely won’t be able to summarise or explain it well to others. People, especially (young) women, can often be averse to doing this for fear that they will expose themselves as not being as expert – but actually its often not your fault that you haven’t understood it and they need to explain themselves more clearly.
- What advice would you give to other women entering the edge space?
Don’t be intimidated if you don’t come from a deeply techy background. I did my undergrad and masters degrees in English Literature and have picked up everything I know about edge computing from conversations on the job. There are lots of technical experts out there but being able to articulate the strategic and commercial implications of edge computing is also really important.
- What are some ways in which you have helped to support and lift other women in the space up?
We have a range of new analysts and consultants are STL looking at the edge computing opportunity. One consultant for instance has been working very closely with me on launching our podcast focused on edge computing. To support her I’ve tried to step back and give her space to take ownership of tasks while being ready to provide support when she needs it.
