Adam Japhet, Scholastic Corp | Nutanix .NEXT 2017
Channel: SiliconANGLE theCUBE
Date: 28/06/2017

Adam Japhet, Scholastic Corp, sits down with Dave Vellante & Stu Miniman at Nutanix .NEXT 2017 in Washington, D.C.

#NEXTConf #theCUBE

https://siliconangle.com/2017/06/29/scholastic-shifts-tech-strategy-boost-infrastructure-agility-nextconf/

Scholastic shifts tech strategy to boost infrastructure agility

Not every business is a tech company; most simply use technology to keep up in a changing market. Still, the digital revolution leaves no one behind, not even the staid educational sector. One example is Scholastic Corp., a company that has seen the need for digital transformation.

“Scholastic is the world’s largest children’s book publisher and distributor. It’s also a major education technology firm, so we do a lot of work within the education space with administrators, librarians and other educators in your school system,” said Adam Japhet (pictured), head of infrastructure at Scholastic Corp.

Japhet spoke with Dave Vellante (@dvellante) and Stu Miniman (@stu), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE’s mobile livestreaming studio, during this week’s Nutanix .NEXT conference in Washington, D.C. They discussed how Scholastic is getting in front of the digital transformation, as well as how the organization’s internal infrastructure is shifting to handle it. (* Disclosure below.)

Keeping up with digital trends
Scholastic does a lot of work with administrators, librarians and educators across the school system, but it is also recognized for book clubs and book fairs. And while Scholastic has pivoted to take advantage of the digital transformation, it has also discovered that some markets, like children’s books, resist digitization.

“We want to make sure that when our consumers are ready to go digital, we’ve got a viable product that’s responsive to as many devices as our consumers are going to use,” Japhet said. This is important, because digital trends can move very quickly in the educational market. To match, Scholastic is working with educators and other channels to refine their business models, he added.

One issue is that Scholastic deals in physical products. Because of this, latency and data locality matter a great deal. To solve this, it has been investing in Nutanix Inc.’s technology for infrastructure agility. Also, it has been looking to get away from mixing and matching products from different vendors in their foundational platform. Nutanix gives the organization what it needs from one vendor with a suite of products, Japhet explained.

As for the cloud, Scholastic has turned to a multi-cloud solution. It makes use of various cloud-based services that are each fit for specific purposes. Scholastic’s goal as a technology firm is to bring those services together into a service delivery for its customers, Japhet stated. In the future, the company also seeks to develop flexibility when it comes to latency and the nature of its applications.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Nutanix .NEXT US 2017 event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Nutanix .NEXT US. Neither Nutanix Inc. nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)