In this Nomad Futurist podcast, Luke Norris outlines his exciting journey as a tech wunderkind who jumped into the world of IT and networking while in high school to becoming the founder of Faction, a leading multi-cloud services provider.
Norris worked at several companies while still in his teens and ended up at Silicon Graphics during the height of the dotcom boom. After securing CSSP certification at age nineteen, he became the top security resource for Marsh & McLennan. After this, Norris continued to expand his scope, moving into leadership roles and running critical infrastructure at a global scale.
Norris discusses the history of Faction which was founded in 2006 based on the emerging multi-tenant data center model and the exploration of the Meet-Me Room as a business opportunity.
Norris’ problem-solving philosophy: “How to eat an elephant? One bite at a time!”
He shares his insights about digital transformation:
“The technology and the impact that we are having on the business community and the world at large, between cancer research, autonomous driving…the impact has never been more real.”
Norris believes that with cloud innovation and new software and hardware development processes, one can redefine a business cycle overnight.
“Software and hardware are finally melding and you have that ability to not just be an infrastructure person but to be an innovation person.”
Norris sees COVID as an incredible accelerator of progress:
“You can look at almost any traditional business and completely upend it. If anything, COVID is just making that exponential. There’s so much innovation…you feel like you are moving society forward.”
Luke Norris founded Faction in 2006 and has been the driving force behind the company’s expansion from a hosted private cloud provider to a leader in multi-cloud services. In May 2019, Luke’s role transitioned from CEO to Executive Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer. His focus is continuously driving Faction’s vision and innovation, emphasizing Faction’s key partnerships and technology portfolio. Luke is a three-time nominee for the Denver Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” award and has been named one of ColoradoBiz’ “25 Most Influential Young Professionals.” He has been a distinguished presenter at VMworld.
