For a mid-level IT pro, it can be easy to get stuck in the server room.

Former solutions architect Justin Goff recently shared with IT Brew how the intricacies of an IT environment can lead to a heads-down workflow—one that keeps mid-level tech practitioners away from business problem-solving and, potentially, career advancement.

We spoke with CIOs and CEOs about their earlier IT roles, and the skills they needed to cultivate to prepare themselves for senior management.

Know-it-all. The “E” in CEO could stand for “everything,” according to Suresh Srinivas, CEO and co-founder of semantic intelligence platform Collate.

The skills you need for senior management.—BH

Even as the biggest names in tech build data centers as fast as possible, some IT professionals are looking to repatriate their data from these massive facilities. What’s driving this trend?

Repatriating data, or the act of bringing data back on-premises, is becoming popular among IT professionals, according to Cloudian’s 2026 research report. Out of a pool of 212 senior IT decision-makers, 75% told Cloudian that they had moved workloads from the cloud (and accompanying data center) to on-prem in the past 24 months.

Michael Gale, chief marketing officer at AI and data company EDB, told IT Brew that professionals may repatriate data out of a desire to control it as much as possible, especially in the context of training AI and deploying agents.

How do I return this?—CN

Sometimes you end up taking the scenic route to get to the right destination.

That’s what Melissa Bischoping found in her journey from single mother to head of threat research and intelligence at AI platformer Tanium. The key, as she sees it, is ensuring that you don’t miss the chance once it comes.

“If you are ready and if you’re willing, and if you say yes to those opportunities when they come across, you’re going to be able to make something of them,” Bischoping told IT Brew.

All the way back to high school, Bischoping had a knack for computers, but didn’t consider it a profession until later in life. Instead, she concentrated on what she saw as a more stable option when she went to college in the early 2000s.

Stroll with me.—EH

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