“We’re not here to provide connectivity. We’re here to enable your new economy.” — Jean-Philippe Avelange, CIO, Expereo

Following a global wave of high-profile IT outages, Expereo is sounding the alarm: more than a quarter of global enterprises are losing over $5 million annually due to network failures, while over half of U.S. businesses are being forced to reevaluate their IT infrastructures. In this insightful conversation, Expereo CIO Jean-Philippe Avelange (JP) joins Doug Green of Technology Reseller News to unpack the company’s latest global survey and what it reveals about the urgent connectivity challenges shaping enterprise transformation.

Expereo, a global provider of intelligent internet connectivity, supports multinational enterprises by delivering resilient, scalable underlay and overlay solutions across more than 4,000 global carriers. But Avelange argues that it’s no longer about connectivity alone. Instead, organizations must adopt a new mindset—one rooted in what he calls the new economy.

According to Avelange, legacy digital transformation efforts often focused on converting analog processes to digital form. But today’s environment demands companies become digital-first, designing operations natively for SaaS, cloud services, and AI. Connectivity, once a utility, now plays a foundational role in enabling innovation and ensuring business continuity. Without it, he warns, “all this will be a roadblock as you try to iterate and move fast.”

One striking finding from Expereo’s survey: only 7% of global technology leaders say they are prepared for AI. Avelange links this gap to underinvestment in the network infrastructure required to support next-gen workloads. AI and automation, he says, demand real-time responsiveness, secure and scalable overlays, and future-proof design—capabilities that must be embedded from the ground up.

Security is also evolving. “It’s never one or the other,” says Avelange, but the report found that concerns about reliable, future-proof connectivity are now often prioritized before cybersecurity—underscoring the growing perception that security must be integrated into foundational network design, particularly in SD-WAN and SASE architectures.

Avelange advises CIOs—especially those in non-tech sectors like mining, government, or non-profits—not to wait. “Companies that are sticking with legacy systems are going to be outmaneuvered,” he warns. Instead, they should ask: “If I were building this company now, how would I build it from the ground floor up with AI?”

Expereo’s platform, Expereo One, offers a single pane of glass for visibility across underlay and overlay, enabling IT leaders to manage complexity at global scale. Avelange emphasizes the need for CIOs to find the right partners for this journey, and invites companies of all sizes to explore how Expereo can support them.

Learn more about Expereo’s intelligent internet solutions and download the full global survey at https://www.expereo.com.