Analyst Profile

Roles and Responsibilities

Joe Skorupa is a Distinguished VP Analyst on the Gartner for General Managers team where he advises senior leaders at technology and service providers. Mr. Skorupa covers strategic matters such as product plans, go-to-market/positioning, partnerships and M&A. Mr. Skorupa also advises end users on network architectures, technology acquisition and vendor negotiation. His area of focus is disruptive market forces, whether technology, business model or broader geopolitical, economic or social factors. From a market/technology perspective, his current research focuses on the convergence of wide area networking and network security into the new market, Secure Access Service Edge (SASE). Mr. Skorupa also covers the impact of digital business transformation and edge computing on WAN Edge/branch office and data center networks. Mr. Skorupa leads Gartner's research on SASE, SD-WAN, and disaggregated NOS/Brite Box. He also covers network virtualization as well as data center network fabrics, networking for HCIS and WAN optimization. Mr. Skorupa lead the creation of Gartner's initial edge computing infrastructure forecast and Gartner's initial SASE forecast. These forecasts broke new ground in terms of emerging markets and content/presentation, using 3D graphics and composite forecasting techniques. In 2011, he led breakthrough research on the disruptive factors shaping the data center market, earning his second Thought Leadership Award. His follow-on research developed the Protector and Evolutionary/Revolutionary Disruptor model of company behaviors, earning a third Thought Leadership Award.

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