Zero Outage Executive Summit, Brasil 2024
Zero Outage Executive Summit 2024 in São Paulo brought together more than 400 participants from 125 companies worldwide. Itaú Unibanco, celebrating its 100th anniversary, hosted this year’s event and shared how its Zero Outage membership since 2018 has halved its incidents. Attendees gathered to exchange knowledge on operational excellence and reliability, emphasising collaboration and continuous improvement.
The summit opened with a welcome message setting a practical tone for discussions and networking. Stephan Kasulke, founder of the Zero Outage Industry Standard Association (ZOIS), introduced the four pillars of People, Platforms, Processes and Security. He stressed that most failures stem from multiple issues and that training is vital since human error causes 80% of incidents. Augusto Nellessen from Itaú Unibanco described the bank’s modernisation journey, showcasing data-driven decision-making and the importance of quality and security for a major financial institution.
During the day, several speeches, presentations and breakout sessions were held; Bala Rajaraman of IBM spoke about the use of AI to enhance customer support emphasising how a cohesive data strategy and flexible AI models can improve efficiency and create personalised experiences. Similarly, a panel session with representatives of Hitachi, Vivo, Zup, GFT, Cisco and AWS, discussed the importance of building a quality culture in digital products. Industry leaders highlighted the need for clear communication, consistent training and focusing on customer needs to maintain high-quality digital services.
One of the highlights of the event was Paul Gerrard delivering a thought-provoking speech titled “What Testers Need from AI – A Message to Tool Vendors”. He emphasised the importance of testers setting the agenda for tool vendors. He argued that AI, to be a truly intelligent and productive assistant, must align with testers’ thought processes and needs, moving away from a one-size-fits-all approach to testing solutions.
Iosif Itkin from Exactpro focused on the ZOIS standard and discussed how catastrophic failures often involve multiple factors. He emphasised the importance of non-functional testing to understand system resilience. Klaus Reile from NetApp talked about AI’s role in decision-making, stressing that AI should complement, not replace, human expertise. In another session, Thomas Hecht and Erik Melchor from T-Systems showcased how their organisation uses ZOIS security and ESARIS to navigate compliance challenges, ensuring transparency and the ability to meet diverse customer requirements. Finally, Mark Smalley delivered a talk encouraging participants to move beyond “Zero Outages” and toward “Zero Outrage,” stressing the importance of improving the user experience, as well-designed services play a key role in lessening frustration and reducing IT-related stress.
The Summit also featured a processes session titled “Highway to Modernisation: Increasing Velocity with Intelligence and Data-Driven Risk Assessment,” presented by Vanderlei Guimaraes and Danilo Freitas from Itaú Unibanco, which highlighted how intelligent, data-driven risk assessments can accelerate modernisation initiatives. In the platforms track, Leonardo Sepulcri from GFT Technologies showcased the transformative potential of AI with the application of AWS Bedrock, illustrating how emerging technologies can drive operational impact. On the security front, Flavio Gussi and Erico Mendonça from SUSE demonstrated how tools like Rancher and NeuVector can elevate IT governance in Kubernetes environments, enhancing overall security posture.
The clossing session was held by Edgar R. Sandi, Software Engineering Manager at iFood, who led a talk on stability, scalability and recovery strategies when managing incidents. His recounting of disaster recovery exercises helped attendees understand the critical need to be prepared for worst-case scenarios.
An important milestone at the event was the launch of the ZOIS Experience Level Certification. Participants were able to take the certification exam during the conference, giving them the chance to advance their careers and contribute to IT resilience standards.
The Zero Outage Executive Summit 2024 reinforced the value of collaboration, training and a user-centric mindset. Participants left with new strategies for building resilience and delivering better digital services. The Zero Outage community will continue sharing knowledge and evolving these practices to meet the challenges of modern IT systems.
Next Zero Outage Executive Summit is planned to take place in Europe in October 2025. We look forward to seeing you all there again!
