Scale of tech market is both challenge and opportunity, says BT's Alexandra Foster

The scale of the tech market can be a major challenge, but BT is turning it into an opportunity.

The scale of the technology market can be daunting, but putting in time to find the right solutions and ensuring they play well together can pay dividends, says Alexandra Foster, director of financial services, manufacturing and digital industries at BT.

The "vastness" of the tech space was a real challenge for BT in recent years, but the company has made it work:

"In terms of the market there are an awful lot of providers out there, and all of the different providers - particularly around hardware - have a different solution, and all of those are needed in the market. But actually, it's about how you bring all of those together. That challenge then also becomes an opportunity."

With so much hardware out there, endpoint protection and management has been difficult. That's why BT created a new platform called Eagle-i, which is there "to determine, to deter, to remediate and renew."

All of the information Eagle-i gathers is fed through machine learning and artificial intelligence systems, then shared "for the benefit of everybody."

Foster says, "When you start to think about that, my financial services world is all about nanoseconds. When you start to think about endpoints, that has to be looked at in seconds, if not those nanoseconds from financial services. We have to be able to remediate, we have to be able to isolate, and we then have to be able to update and improve in seconds. That's where technology is absolutely playing a part, and I think we've definitely seen an acceleration around that speed of remediation over the last two years."

This is the first in a series of videos with Alexandra around endpoint management. Watch Computing for the rest, coming soon.