How did Copa Energia transform infrastructure into strategic capability?
Treating this issue in isolation is one of the mistakes that most jeopardizes critical operations. See how Copa Energia thinks differently.
Treating infrastructure, security, and resilience as isolated issues is one of the mistakes that most jeopardizes critical operations. See how Copa Energia thinks differently.
Companies that keep infrastructure, security, and resilience in separate areas tend to discover the gaps in that structure only when something fails.
The problem, in most cases, is not the absence of technology, but the absence of an integrated vision between these three pillars.
In this episode of InsightCast, Mauricio Canteiro, Infrastructure & Cloud Coordinator at Copa Energia, with 22 years of experience in environments such as BTG Pactual and Colgate Palmolive, directly discussed what changes when these topics cease to be treated in a fragmented way and become part of a single strategic IT management agenda.
What happens when infrastructure and security still operate on separate planes?
The fragmentation between infrastructure and security areas is not just a technical problem; it generates rework, overlapping tools, and friction that directly harms the business. Mauricio experienced this firsthand at different points in his career and was categorical on the subject:
"When you have a scenario where there is a level of maturity in which these areas are complementary, where they actually go hand in hand, I think it's the best of all worlds in terms of economy, in terms of efficiency, and in terms of security, effectively."
At Copa Energia, the information security area operates independently from the infrastructure, but with deliberate integration. The two areas share meeting protocols, discuss ongoing projects, and, most importantly, incorporate security from the very beginning of any implementation, not just at the end, when changes can cause friction and delays.
To better understand how this transition happens in practice and what differentiates a reactive IT area from one that influences strategic decisions, we explored this in our blog. How have AI and data transformed pricing at the Gmill Group?
At what point does infrastructure cease to be a support tool and become a strategic business capability?
Historically, infrastructure is the area that is only remembered when something stops working. Mauricio recognizes this scenario clearly:
“Infrastructure is an area that doesn't have much glamour, and people only remember us when there's a problem. But the less I'm involved in day-to-day problems and the more connected I am to the business area, the more value I'll bring to the company.”
This transition demands a different approach from IT professionals: leaving the technical environment, going to the factory floor, and understanding operations firsthand. This is exactly what happened at Copa Energia during a network modernization project that involved all of the company's locations.
In critical environments, what should be the priority?
What this episode offers is a direct perspective on where companies most often go wrong in this balance: in how they handle backup and restore strategy.
“Backup has always been the ugly duckling. It was there, someone operated it, but nobody really looked at it. Today you have to look at it differently. Backup is the last line of defense. If all your controls fail, the only guarantee you have of restoring your operation is with backup.”
As Mauricio points out, technology can go into contingency mode, but the business, most of the time, is not. The question that needs to reach the decision-makers' table is straightforward: if the entire environment needs to be restored overnight, does the company have the infrastructure and agility to do so?
What type of leadership does a modern operation require today?
Managing this transition requires a specific type of leadership: one that moves fluently between the technical and the executive levels.
Mauricio actively worked to question repetitive processes within his team, replace operational tasks with automation, and free up professionals to focus on what generates value.
The logic is straightforward: the less the team is burdened with day-to-day operations, the more time and energy they have to understand the business, anticipate problems, and propose improvements with strategic impact.
From operational support to strategic capability.
The episode with Mauricio Canteiro is a benchmark for IT leaders facing the challenge of modernizing without compromising stability, integrating security without stalling projects, and developing teams capable of speaking both the language of infrastructure and the language of business.
The discussion is not limited to the choice of technologies; it's about how to build an operation mature enough to sustain growth and respond consistently when the unexpected happens.
