Rob Sims

Chief Technologist - Hybrid Platforms

A career spanning more than two decades has seen Rob craft his technical ability with a focus on delivering tangible outcomes. He enjoys helping customers see the possibilities available to their business and unlocking their potential.

About Rob

With an impressive track record spanning over two decades in the tech sector, Rob has held many diverse roles, ranging from internal IT positions to professional services, architecture, CTO, and finally, his current position as Chief Technologist for CDW. As a seasoned leader, coach, mentor, and inspirational speaker, he brings a wealth of experience and a broad perspective that extends across countries, sectors, and industries. His engagement with C-Suite executives ensures that he effectively communicates the business value inherent in technology products and services.

Rob started out fixing PCs and supporting local businesses in his early life in IT, before moving into an enterprise IT team. There he was able to test his technical capabilities by deploying solutions covering enterprise networking, shared storage, early virtualisation with VMware, and server and application migrations in the windows space, and into the end user space with Citrix and other thin client technologies.

Crossing over to the reseller space allowed Rob to leverage his enterprise IT experience to help organisations of all shapes and sizes. He did this firstly as an implementation engineer and then as a Solutions Architect, helping organisations from all sectors and of all sizes adopt the latest infrastructure, cloud, and workspace technologies.

It was during this time the realisation hit that he had the ability to communicate at both a technical and business-outcome level, and a unique talent for simplifying complex challenges into clear and actionable business outcomes. This allowed organisations to easily understand the value of technology as a route to strategic outcomes.

The final part of Rob’s journey, before CDW, involved roles as CTO and Chief Technologist, setting the strategy and direction for the organisations he was in, as well as working with customers and C-level executives to guide and align technology to outcomes. Taking one organisation through an acquisition provided a whole new set of skills and experiences.

All this experience has been focused on a core belief that technology should be a force for transformation in all organisations, and that IT teams should be enabled to focus on innovation. How we unlock that potential is his what drives Rob.

Joining CDW as Chief Technologist has allowed Rob to focus on his core strengths and beliefs. By building strong connections between market trends, technologies, and outcomes he helps coworkers, partners, and customers unlock maximum value from technology. By challenging the norms and bringing a fresh perspective, Rob ensures organisations are adopting technology in a way that will make a measurable impact, one that drives their organisation forward.

  • 20+ Years Within The IT Industry

  • 2nd DAN Taekwondo Instructor

  • 25% YoY Growth Until Sale of Previous Business

"The IT functions within your organisation should be a source of innovation." 

Rob Sims

FAQ's

What are Hybrid Platforms and why does it matter?

Hybrid Platforms covers the technologies that store the data and run the applications that underpin your organisation’s operations.

We connect and secure those systems, whilst ensuring you can leverage the true value of data so it can be used to drive differentiation and customer satisfaction. Put simply, we take complex ‘stuff’ and make it simple, so you can deliver great outcomes.

How can we use Hybrid Platform solutions and services at our organisation?

Every organisation is on a journey – we believe the future is consumption-based or as a service. The challenge is how to navigate the complex landscape of technical debt that most organisations have accumulated over the past several decades.

Our role is to help you manage this journey and ensure that we are enabling your data to be leveraged as a foundation for decision-making, driving change, and delivering exceptional customer experiences.

What is the biggest trend in Hybrid Platforms in 2024?

In 2024 two major trends are impacting the Hybrid Platforms Market. The first is the acquisition of VMware by Broadcom, disrupting 22 years of stability in the Hybrid Cloud space.

The second is Generative AI and the need for many organisations to work out how to extract the value without causing more future technical debt.

How do you keep up to date with the industry?

For me, it’s lots of research, partner meetings, and as much time speaking with customers (the best source of what is really happening) as possible, all sprinkled with a pinch of insights from those you know in the industry and a drop of my own thoughts.

How can my organisation get started on a Hybrid Platform strategy?

Everything starts with your applications and data; these are what your organisation runs on. Having an accurate view of all your data (locations, type, permissions, age, sensitivity, etc), coupled with an accurate application library (type, refresh cycle, access method, infra requirements, costs) will help you make informed decisions. Most organisations I speak to don’t have the level of detail or accuracy in these two key areas to accelerate outcomes.

With this data, we can make decisions about workload placement and ensure we end up with the right workloads on the right platforms to drive the most cost-effective outcomes.

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Hybrid Platforms

CDW's Hybrid Platforms solutions transform your workloads, bringing together networking, date centre modernisation, and cloud technologies to create a flexible and adaptable technology infrastructure suitable for your business.

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Contributions

  • Hybrid Platforms
Nov 04, 2025

HP Trends Series - Hybrid Cloud Done Right! Part 2

Rob Sims explores Hybrid Cloud Building Blocks, covering Next-Gen Data Centre, Cloud Platforms and Intelligent Edge to optimise performance and innovation.

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  • Hybrid Platforms
Sept 10, 2025

HP Trends Series - Hybrid Cloud Done Right! Part 1

Rob Sims introduces part one of our Hybrid Cloud series, unpacking the foundation and exploring key challenges in building a platform that supports all application and data needs.

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  • Hybrid Platforms
Aug 26, 2025

CDW ServiceWorks Cloud, Realising the Cloud Promise for all workloads

Rob Sims explains how hybrid cloud architecture enhances experiences and outpaces competitors.

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  • Hybrid Platforms
May 30, 2025

Four Ways AI Is Changing The Way We Live And Work

Rob Sims shares four AI success stories across key sectors and reveals the platforms like HPE Private Cloud AI that turn ambition into impactful business outcomes.

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  • Hybrid Platforms
May 23, 2025

The Platform Of The Future – Right Workload | Right Platform

Rob Sims explores Hybrid Platforms' next phase, delivering on mission with Right Workload | Right Platform, conceptual architecture, and building your adaptive cloud future.

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  • Hybrid Platforms
May 13, 2025

Hybrid Platforms Trends Series - The Platform Of The Future - Vision, Mission, Belief

Rob Sims shares CDW’s vision for the Platform of the Future—hybrid platforms, cyber resilience, and data-driven transformation.

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  • Hybrid Platforms
May 10, 2025

How A Private Cloud For AI Can Accelerate Your Success

Rob Sims reveals why many businesses self-host AI and how HPE Private Cloud AI helps accelerate innovation, simplify governance and support long-term productivity and growth.

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  • Hybrid Platforms
May 06, 2025

NetApp AIPod Mini, with Intel

Discover how the NetApp AIPod Mini with Intel enables cost-effective, scalable AI inferencing using modern CPUs—empowering departments to deploy AI quickly without expensive infrastructure or complex integration.

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  • Hybrid Platforms
May 01, 2025

How To Ensure Your Next AI Project Is A Success – Not A Statistic

Rob Sims explains why many AI projects fail to reach production and shares strategies to help your next initiative succeed and deliver lasting business value.

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  • Hybrid Platforms
Apr 02, 2025

Hybrid Platforms Partner Series - Its All about the Token at Nvidia GTC

Rob Sims explores NVIDIA GTC, an annual event where NVIDIA showcases breakthroughs in AI, high-performance computing, and graphics.

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  • Hybrid Platforms
Feb 20, 2025

Cisco Live - Amsterdam 2025! 

Rob Sims reports from Cisco Live Amsterdam, where Cisco's evolving platform vision highlights solutions for hybrid cloud infrastructure, tackling digital complexity with its expansive 2025 portfolio.

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  • Hybrid Platforms
Jan 17, 2025

Shaping the Future: 2025 Trends in Hybrid Platforms

Rob Sims highlights 2025's top 10 hybrid platform trends and long-term tech shifts for impactful decision-making and strategic planning.

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Past event
  • Hybrid Platforms
Nov 13, 2025

How AI Can Help Manage Your Edge to Core

Join CDW, in partnership with leaders from HPE, NVIDIA and Faculty AI, for an exclusive closed door session at the In & Out Club for a tactical recap of DSEI & the Strategic Defence Review .

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Past event
  • Hybrid Platforms
Oct 29, 2025

Right Workload, Right Platform, Your journey to the Platform of the Future (London)

Join us at your local CDW office, where we can discuss how we are helping customers to navigate the process of ensuring the key applications & workloads are optimised for cost & performance. 

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Past event
  • Hybrid Platforms
Oct 01, 2025

Right Workload, Right Platform, Your journey to the Platform of the Future (Manchester)

Join us at your local CDW office, where we can discuss how we are helping customers to navigate the process of ensuring the key applications & workloads are optimised for cost & performance. 

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Past event
  • Hybrid Platforms
Jul 02, 2025

The Hybrid Cloud Stakes

With $45 billion projected to be wasted on IT infrastructure spend in 2025 and a 154% rise in cloud security incidents, can you afford not to explore the latest approaches to Hybrid Cloud?

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Past event
  • VMware
Nov 29, 2024

Post VMware Explore Webinar: Insights and Innovations

Join CDW's Kyle Davies, Head of the Office of the CTO, and Chief Technologist Rob Sims as they explore the latest VMware strategy and announcements from VMware Explore 2024.

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Past event
  • Microsoft
Jul 26, 2024

Demystifying AI: Empowering Nonprofits to Drive Change

CDW and Microsoft experts spoke about the benefits of AI and Copilot for nonprofit organisations, in partnership with Microsoft Tech for Social Impact, at our webinar event.

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