Harness the Cloud: Accelerate Growth with Cutting-Edge Data Technology
In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, leveraging cloud-based data technology is no longer a luxury—it’s a necessity. In this Martechify session, our experts explored how cloud-powered solutions are transforming customer engagement, optimizing marketing operations, and driving business growth.
Virtual panel discussion
Harness the Cloud: Accelerate Growth with Cutting-Edge Data Technology
In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, leveraging cloud-based data technology is no longer a luxury—it’s a necessity. In this Martechify session, our experts explored how cloud-powered solutions are transforming customer engagement, optimizing marketing operations, and driving business growth.
Featured experts
Overview
April 2, 2025—As marketing becomes increasingly driven by data and AI, success depends on more than just trendy tools. In Martechify’s webinar, “Harness the Cloud: Accelerate Growth with Cutting-Edge Data Technology,” industry leaders Jeff Siegel of Cisco and Priya Gumpalli, formerly of Walmart Connect and Warner Bros. Discovery, shared how to build a strong foundation for growth through cloud platforms and AI integration.
Moderated by Rich Herbst, Founder of Ascend Marketing, the session featured expert panelists Jeff Siegel, Director of Marketing Strategy at Cisco, and Priya Gumpalli, a seasoned executive with experience at Walmart Connect and Warner Bros. Discovery. Their conversation revealed how forward-thinking organizations are not just adopting advanced technologies, but redefining their structures, practices, and strategies to make the most of them.
The foundation: Clean, centralized, and actionable data
Both panelists emphasized the importance of getting the basics right. That includes data hygiene, consistency, accuracy, and integration across systems. Without clean and unified data, even the most advanced AI models or cloud platforms will fall short.
Jeff noted that Cisco’s marketing organization runs over 150 data pipelines daily, feeding into a Snowflake-powered data lake that supports their AI strategy. This centralized approach ensures marketing data is accessible, usable, and secure—enabling Cisco to power everything from campaign targeting to AI-driven personalization.
Jeff also mentioned that Cisco is leveraging a hybrid cloud approach, anchored by their award-winning, flexible developer platform, Phoenix. By combining public cloud resources like Google Cloud and Azure—with their powerful Large Language Models (LLMs) and data infrastructure—with core systems like Snowflake, his team is harnessing the best of both worlds to maximize innovation and efficiency.
Jeff noted that Cisco’s marketing organization runs over 150 data pipelines daily, feeding into a Snowflake-powered data lake that supports their AI strategy. This centralized approach ensures marketing data is accessible, usable, and secure—enabling Cisco to power everything from campaign targeting to AI-driven personalization.
Jeff also mentioned that Cisco is leveraging a hybrid cloud approach, anchored by their award-winning, flexible developer platform, Phoenix. By combining public cloud resources like Google Cloud and Azure—with their powerful Large Language Models (LLMs) and data infrastructure—with core systems like Snowflake, his team is harnessing the best of both worlds to maximize innovation and efficiency.
AI as a strategic driver
Jeff also explored how AI is transforming marketing’s role within go-to-market functions. Far from being just another plug-and-play tool, AI is embedded into Cisco’s long-term strategy through a dedicated Marketing AI Office. This team acts as a strategic incubator, governance body, and internal product team to develop custom AI solutions tailored to Cisco’s unique data and business needs.
One of the most impactful use cases shared was how Cisco built an AI agent that improves domain-level accuracy in their account data by supplementing vendor data with AI-powered web search validation. This enhanced data fidelity has a ripple effect across media targeting and campaign performance.
One of the most impactful use cases shared was how Cisco built an AI agent that improves domain-level accuracy in their account data by supplementing vendor data with AI-powered web search validation. This enhanced data fidelity has a ripple effect across media targeting and campaign performance.
The rise of data clean rooms
Priya’s contributions spotlighted another critical advancement: data clean rooms. As privacy regulations evolve and organizations seek more secure ways to collaborate on data, clean rooms offer a secure environment where partners can perform analytics without exposing personally identifiable information (PII).
Priya led clean room initiatives using Snowflake and orchestration layers like Hadoop. These environments allowed marketers to collaborate on identity matching, custom audience planning, and attribution while maintaining full control over sensitive data.
She emphasized the importance of ensuring product-market fit and technical readiness for clean rooms to be successful. From data alignment and tech stack compatibility to understanding “compute costs,” her insights provided a practical roadmap for implementation.
Priya led clean room initiatives using Snowflake and orchestration layers like Hadoop. These environments allowed marketers to collaborate on identity matching, custom audience planning, and attribution while maintaining full control over sensitive data.
She emphasized the importance of ensuring product-market fit and technical readiness for clean rooms to be successful. From data alignment and tech stack compatibility to understanding “compute costs,” her insights provided a practical roadmap for implementation.
From data strategy to customer experience
Ultimately, both speakers tied their technical and strategic efforts back to the customer. As Priya put it, the goal is to create relevant, respectful, and personalized customer experiences—ads that are timely and helpful, not disruptive.
AI and cloud technologies allow brands to scale those personalized experiences and optimize customer journeys. But as Jeff pointed out, these gains are only possible when data is unified, documented, and accessible—which could help turn data into “usable jet fuel” not just for marketing, but for the entire go-to-market strategy.
AI and cloud technologies allow brands to scale those personalized experiences and optimize customer journeys. But as Jeff pointed out, these gains are only possible when data is unified, documented, and accessible—which could help turn data into “usable jet fuel” not just for marketing, but for the entire go-to-market strategy.
What’s next
The future of marketing lies in agile, AI-enabled, and data-savvy organizations. It demands cross-functional alignment, upskilling talent, and embedding ethical, transparent practices around data usage. Martech leaders are no longer just system operators—they are strategists, engineers, and change agents. Harnessing the cloud and cutting-edge data technologies is less about chasing the next big thing and more about building a solid foundation, aligning teams, and leading with customer value. As this session made clear, the future belongs to marketers who think like technologists—and who never forget that good data drives great experiences.
Register for the session
Virtual panel discussion
Harness the Cloud:
Accelerate Growth with Cutting-Edge Data Technology
Wednesday, April 2, 2025 | 11 AM to 12 PM CT
Meet the experts
Jeffrey Siegel
Director of Marketing Strategy
Jeffrey Siegel is an accomplished marketing strategy leader with extensive experience driving go-to-market (GTM) transformations and strategic growth initiatives for top-tier technology companies.
Currently serving as the Director of Marketing Strategy at Cisco, Jeffrey is responsible for developing far-horizon strategies, enhancing cross-GTM alignment, and spearheading capabilities innovation for Cisco’s Marketing organization. One key area of focus for Jeffrey is driving Cisco Marketing’s AI adoption strategy, where he is focused on steering his organization’s use of AI through both vendor acquisition and in-house development of tailored AI solutions.
Previously, as the Director of Strategy at 6sense, Jeffrey led a strategic services organization and built their strategic model for B2B go-to-market transformation. While at 6sense, Jeffrey worked with dozens of revenue teams to deliver strategic frameworks that empowered organizations to achieve new levels of growth and alignment. Before joining Cisco and 6sense, Jeffrey held strategic roles at Box, and Dell Technologies where he consistently demonstrated expertise in marketing operations, business planning, and strategic innovation.
Currently serving as the Director of Marketing Strategy at Cisco, Jeffrey is responsible for developing far-horizon strategies, enhancing cross-GTM alignment, and spearheading capabilities innovation for Cisco’s Marketing organization. One key area of focus for Jeffrey is driving Cisco Marketing’s AI adoption strategy, where he is focused on steering his organization’s use of AI through both vendor acquisition and in-house development of tailored AI solutions.
Previously, as the Director of Strategy at 6sense, Jeffrey led a strategic services organization and built their strategic model for B2B go-to-market transformation. While at 6sense, Jeffrey worked with dozens of revenue teams to deliver strategic frameworks that empowered organizations to achieve new levels of growth and alignment. Before joining Cisco and 6sense, Jeffrey held strategic roles at Box, and Dell Technologies where he consistently demonstrated expertise in marketing operations, business planning, and strategic innovation.
Priya Gumpalli
AdTech Executive (former Walmart Connect, Warner Bros Discovery)
Priya is an accomplished marketing executive with a strong track record of driving data-driven innovation and product strategy in the advertising technology, fintech, and healthcare industries. Leading a team at Walmart Connect, she was responsible for the vision, strategy, and development of a large-scale data collaboration platform, overseeing technical implementation, productization, and cross-functional collaboration across data science, engineering, sales, governance, and legal teams. With deep expertise in martech, data partnerships, and data-driven personalization, Priya plays a pivotal role in partner integration strategy. Her ability to navigate complex ecosystems—working with media publishers, advertisers, agencies, and cloud partners positions her as a leader in data-driven digital transformation.
Before joining Walmart Connect, Priya held leadership roles at Warner Bros. Discovery, Xandr, and Elevate, where she spearheaded advanced advertising solutions, audience targeting strategies, and identity graph initiatives. She has extensive experience launching high-impact data products, optimizing marketing automation, and leading cross-functional teams to business growth. A recognized thought leader in the industry, Priya has spoken at major conferences such as the Snowflake Summit and actively contributes to Empowering Women as Leaders (EWL) as a Board Member and Marketing Chair. Her passion for strategic innovation, business transformation, and team leadership continues to shape the future of adtech, martech, and data-driven engagement.
Before joining Walmart Connect, Priya held leadership roles at Warner Bros. Discovery, Xandr, and Elevate, where she spearheaded advanced advertising solutions, audience targeting strategies, and identity graph initiatives. She has extensive experience launching high-impact data products, optimizing marketing automation, and leading cross-functional teams to business growth. A recognized thought leader in the industry, Priya has spoken at major conferences such as the Snowflake Summit and actively contributes to Empowering Women as Leaders (EWL) as a Board Member and Marketing Chair. Her passion for strategic innovation, business transformation, and team leadership continues to shape the future of adtech, martech, and data-driven engagement.
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