May 2026 Tech Upload
NEW Digital News
NEW Digital Leaders Conference – May 15
The NEW Digital Alliance, in partnership with Women in Technology Wisconsin, is excited to host the 3rd Annual NEW Digital Leaders Conference on Friday, May 15.
This half-day event brings together IT professionals, leaders, and emerging talent from across Northeast Wisconsin for a morning of learning, connection, and practical insight. Attendees will experience engaging breakout sessions focused on today’s most relevant technology and leadership topics, along with opportunities to connect with peers across the region.
The conference will also feature a keynote from Aslinn Merriman of EDCi:
“Talent Is Everywhere; Opportunity Is Not: The Power of Allyship in Technology Leadership.”
📍 Hosted at Kimberly-Clark in Neenah, WI
🕣 8:30 AM – 12:30 PM
This event is free to attend.
We also extend our thanks to our event sponsors for their support:
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Thank you to our investors.
The NEW Digital Alliance would like to thank the following for their support as Strategic Level investors!
Beyond VMware: Practical Paths Forward for Modern Infrastructure
(Photo cred: EDCi)
EDCi’s upcoming webinar series, Beyond VMware, is designed to help organizations make sense of today’s changing virtualization landscape and find a practical path forward for their infrastructure.
Recent VMware licensing changes are forcing organizations to rethink their approach. In this 4-part series, we’ll explore practical alternatives like Azure Local, Proxmox, Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization, and Azure Cloud – so you can evaluate tradeoffs, reduce risk, and plan your next move with confidence.
Upcoming northeast Wisconsin IT events
Sip & Sync Green Bay
Thursday, May 7
8:00 – 9:00 a.m.
Karvana Coffee House (Green Bay)
Organizer: Women in Technology
2026 NEW Digital Leaders Conference
Friday, May 15
8:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Kimberly-Clark (Neenah)
Organizer: NEW Digital Alliance & Women in Technology
NEW AITP Event
Wednesday, May 20
5:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Holidays Pub & Grill (Appleton)
Organizer: Women in Technology
Sip & Sync Appleton
Wednesday, May 20
8:30 – 9:30 a.m.
Copper Rock Coffee Company (College Ave location)
Organizer: AITP NE Wisconsin Chapter
IT Roundtable:
Project Management Identity Crisis – Agile, Waterfall or “Wagile”
Thursday, May 21
11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Virtual
Organizer: NEW Digital Alliance
Labor Market Insights: February 2026
The latest report from Carex Consulting Group highlights a labor market that remains stable on the surface—but is showing meaningful shifts underneath.
The headline vs. reality:
While the U.S. added approximately 178,000 jobs, the report emphasizes that job creation alone doesn’t tell the full story. A key underlying metric, the hiring rate, remains low at just 3.1%, signaling slower movement, longer hiring cycles, and fewer new opportunities being created.
A “rotation,” not a downturn:
Rather than a weakening market, this is better described as a structural shift. Some sectors are cooling while others, particularly technology, healthcare, and infrastructure continue to grow.
Hiring is more selective:
Organizations are still hiring, but with greater precision. Employers are prioritizing critical roles and high-impact talent over broad, high-volume recruiting.
Low unemployment, but tighter mobility:
Unemployment remains relatively low, indicating demand for talent hasn’t disappeared. However, worker movement is more cautious, reflecting a more competitive and deliberate job market.
Skills matter more than ever:
There is a continued shift toward skills-based hiring, where capabilities and experience outweigh traditional credentials—an important trend for IT professionals and employers alike.
Wage growth continues (selectively):
Compensation is still rising in key areas, especially for in-demand and specialized skill sets, though not at the rapid pace seen in prior years.
Bottom Line for IT Leaders
This isn’t a declining labor market, it’s a more strategic and selective one. Success in this environment will depend on:
- Targeted hiring strategies
- Clear alignment between roles and business needs
- Continued investment in skills development and upskilling
How to introduce agents into your workforce: 5 actions leaders can take
(Photo cred: Microsoft)
By Jeff James
Microsoft
A recent blog from Microsoft highlights how organizations can move beyond AI experimentation and begin integrating AI agents as active participants in the workforce, helping automate tasks, streamline workflows, and enhance productivity.
From tools to teammates:
The evolution of AI is shifting from simple assistance to agents that can take action and collaborate alongside employees. This marks a meaningful change in how work gets done, especially across IT and operations teams.
Start with real business challenges:
Rather than deploying AI broadly, organizations should focus on specific workflow pain points, particularly areas with inefficiencies, repetitive tasks, or bottlenecks where agents can drive immediate value.
Leadership and alignment are critical:
Successful adoption requires clear vision and strong leadership. Leaders play a key role in setting direction, aligning teams, and ensuring employees understand how AI agents will support and complement their work.
Measure impact and refine:
Early use cases should be tracked closely. By measuring outcomes and iterating, organizations can identify what works, build confidence, and expand adoption strategically.
Continuous improvement is essential:
AI agents require ongoing training, monitoring, and optimization. Treating them as evolving systems, rather than one-time implementations, helps ensure long-term effectiveness.
Scaling unlocks greater value:
As organizations gain confidence, they can scale agent usage across functions, enabling employees to focus on higher-value work while agents handle routine processes.
Bottom Line for IT Leaders
AI agents represent a shift toward a more hybrid workforce, where humans and AI work together. Organizations that succeed will focus on targeted use cases, strong leadership, and continuous improvement to drive meaningful business impact.
Other IT News
What is Industry 4.0? A Simple Guide for Business Owners
(Photo cred: IoT for All)
By IoT Systems
A recent article from IoT For All breaks down Industry 4.0, often referred to as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and what it means for modern businesses navigating digital transformation.
From automation to intelligent systems:
Industry 4.0 represents a shift from traditional automation to fully connected, data-driven ecosystems, where machines, people, and processes communicate in real time. The result is smarter operations capable of self-optimization and faster decision-making.
Powered by a connected technology stack:
This transformation is driven by technologies working together, including IoT, AI, big data, cloud computing, and digital twins. These tools enable real-time visibility, predictive insights, and more agile operations across the business.
Breaking down data silos:
A key differentiator is hyperconnectivity, where data flows seamlessly across departments and systems. This creates greater transparency and enables collaboration across the entire value chain, from production to customer experience.
Redefining the workforce:
As systems become more intelligent, the role of employees is evolving. Workers are shifting from manual tasks to data-driven decision-making, problem-solving, and system oversight, working alongside advanced technologies.
Real business impact and ROI:
Organizations adopting Industry 4.0 are seeing measurable benefits, including increased productivity, reduced downtime, lower maintenance costs, and improved efficiency. These gains make digital transformation a competitive necessity rather than an option.
Challenges to adoption remain:
Common barriers include legacy systems, upfront costs, skill gaps, and cybersecurity risks. However, many of these can be mitigated through phased implementation, cloud-based solutions, and workforce upskilling.
Bottom Line for IT Leaders
Industry 4.0 is less about adopting individual technologies and more about building a connected, intelligent ecosystem. Organizations that start small, focus on business outcomes, and invest in both technology and talent will be best positioned to compete in this next phase of digital transformation.
Monetizing the quantum shift: 11 PQC channel opportunities
A recent article from ITPro explores how the rise of post-quantum cryptography (PQC) is creating a major new revenue opportunity for IT service providers and channel partners as organizations prepare for the next era of cybersecurity.
Quantum is moving from theory to urgency:
As quantum computing advances, it is expected to eventually break today’s widely used encryption methods. This is driving organizations to begin planning for a “Q-Day” scenario, where current cryptographic systems are no longer secure, and accelerating investment in PQC readiness and migration strategies.
A massive but complex transformation:
Most enterprise environments rely on layered, inconsistent cryptographic systems that were never designed for easy transition. This creates significant risk but also opens the door for trusted advisors to guide organizations through discovery, planning, and remediation efforts.
11 key PQC revenue opportunities:
The article outlines several high-value areas where partners can build services and solutions, including:
- Cryptographic inventory assessments and readiness consulting
- Crypto-agility frameworks and policy centralization
- Hardware security module (HSM) upgrades and hybrid deployments
- Managed cryptographic and key management services
- Compliance-driven PQC packages for regulated industries
- Enterprise-wide discovery and migration planning
- PKI modernization and certificate infrastructure updates
- Identity and access management (IAM) and SSO transitions
- Network and edge security updates, including TLS and VPNs
- Data-at-rest encryption upgrades for long-term protection
- Application modernization for crypto-agile architectures
Regulation is accelerating demand:
Standards bodies like NIST are targeting the 2030 to 2035 timeframe for deprecating current encryption algorithms, which is pushing organizations to act now rather than later. This creates urgency at the executive level, particularly in regulated industries.
Risk is already here:
The article also highlights the growing concern of “harvest now, decrypt later” attacks, where adversaries collect encrypted data today with the intent of decrypting it once quantum computing becomes viable.
Bottom Line for IT Leaders
Post-quantum cryptography is not just a security upgrade—it represents a multi-year transformation of the global encryption landscape. For IT service providers and channel partners, the opportunity lies in becoming a trusted advisor who can guide clients through inventory, risk assessment, migration, and long-term crypto-agility planning.
Why AI Adoption Is Stalling and How Leaders Can Secure the Chaos
(Photo cred: AIwire)
By
A recent article from HPCwire (AIwire) examines why, despite massive investment and rapid advancement, enterprise AI adoption is still not scaling as expected across most organizations.
Adoption is happening, but impact is lagging:
Most organizations are actively experimenting with AI, but the majority remain stuck in pilot programs and limited deployments rather than scaling AI into core business processes. The result is widespread usage without proportional business transformation.
The real challenge is not the technology:
The article emphasizes that AI tools themselves are not the primary barrier. Instead, organizations struggle with operational readiness, unclear use cases, and difficulty integrating AI into existing workflows in a meaningful way.
From experimentation to execution gap:
Many companies are able to demonstrate AI value in isolated pilots, but fail to extend those gains enterprise-wide. This creates a persistent gap between innovation in small pockets and measurable impact at scale.
Organizational and structural barriers dominate:
Key challenges include fragmented data environments, lack of clear ownership over AI initiatives, limited governance frameworks, and insufficient alignment between business strategy and AI deployment.
ROI concerns are growing:
While investment continues to increase, many leaders are still struggling to connect AI adoption directly to clear, repeatable business outcomes, leading to hesitation in scaling beyond early use cases.
Trust, governance, and complexity slow progress:
As AI systems become more capable, concerns around reliability, oversight, and complexity increase. Without strong governance and operational controls, organizations often hesitate to move from testing into production at scale.
Bottom Line for IT Leaders
AI adoption is no longer about awareness or access, it is about execution and organizational readiness. Companies that succeed will be those that focus on clear use cases, strong governance, and integrating AI directly into business workflows, rather than treating it as a standalone initiative.
What is Sovereign AI?
(Photo cred: NAVER Cloud)
By Ali Ustun, Luca Bennici & Melanie Krawina
McKinsey & Company
A recent explainer from McKinsey & Company breaks down the concept of sovereign AI, a growing priority for governments and enterprises as AI becomes a strategic and geopolitical capability rather than just a technology tool.
Control over the full AI stack:
Sovereign AI refers to the ability for a country or organization to independently build, deploy, and govern AI systems using its own data, infrastructure, models, and talent. The emphasis is not on owning every component, but on maintaining meaningful control over the AI lifecycle.
Why it is emerging now:
The article highlights that AI adoption is slowing in some regions not due to technical limitations, but because of concerns around data privacy, intellectual property, regulatory compliance, and geopolitical dependency on external providers.
More than just data sovereignty:
Sovereign AI goes beyond where data is stored. It includes who controls the models, infrastructure, operations, and legal frameworks that govern AI systems. This distinction is increasingly important as AI becomes embedded in critical industries.
A spectrum, not a binary choice:
Organizations do not need full independence to pursue sovereign AI. Instead, it exists on a continuum of control, where different workloads may require different levels of sovereignty depending on sensitivity, risk, and business value.
Key benefits and motivations:
Adopting sovereign AI can help organizations and countries reduce vendor lock-in, improve regulatory alignment, strengthen data security, and capture more economic value from AI systems developed and deployed locally.
Challenges and trade-offs:
The article also notes potential downsides, including higher costs, added complexity, potential delays in innovation, and increased infrastructure requirements. Leaders must balance control with agility and global innovation access.
How organizations are approaching it:
A practical approach is emerging: companies are segmenting workloads, using global models for general tasks while reserving sovereign environments for high-value, sensitive, or regulated use cases. Many are starting with pilot projects before scaling.
Bottom Line for IT Leaders
Sovereign AI is becoming a strategic design choice for how organizations adopt and govern artificial intelligence. The most effective strategies will balance control, compliance, and innovation, rather than pursuing full independence or full reliance on external platforms.