MTMG's IT Roundtable with Mark Montalto: Why Institutions Are Stronger Buying Together

Mark Montalto spent 14 years selling for Cisco before moving to OSHEAN, Rhode Island's nonprofit network consortium, where schools, hospitals, libraries, and towns get carrier-class network, cloud, and security services they could never buy on their own. He explains how a 25-person nonprofit competes with deep-pocketed commercial carriers: a network that isn't oversubscribed, the same rates for every member, firewalls and web filtering built in for K-12, and a NOC that knows each member's network. Mark also walks through what the federal BEAD broadband program got right, why its 25% match and insurance requirements shut out small bidders, and how a shared Wi-Fi model is saving low-income and senior residents hundreds of dollars a month. He closes with why the consortium model matters more, not less, as AI, cloud, and cyber threats widen the gap between the haves and have-nots. **Key Events** 00:00 Welcome & Guest Intro 01:00 Lessons From 14 Years at Cisco 04:00 From OEM Sales to Nonprofit Mission 07:00 Competing With Commercial Carriers 12:00 Proving Value to a Skeptical CIO 13:00 Building a Cybersecurity Office 14:00 BEAD Money and Digital Equity 16:00 Wi-Fi for Low-Income and Senior Housing 18:00 A Secure Statewide Municipal Network 21:00 Consortiums in the Age of AI 26:00 OMC26: Complexity Is a Team Sport • **Tip worth stealing**: Shared infrastructure can close the digital divide at the building level. Using a Wi-Fi template built on OSHEAN's fiber, Newport Housing now supports more than 1,000 low-income and senior dwellings, with 700 to 1,000+ devices online at any moment and residents saving $200 to $400 a month. • **Worth a look:** OMC26, the OSHEAN Member Conference, November 12-13 at Bally's and Rhode Island College. https://oshean.org/events/omc26/ **Connect with Us:** • Check out our website: https://www.mtmg.eu • Learn more about the amazing software we use to create these podcasts (Descript): https://get.descript.com/mtu0tl2zr3g7 • Want the same microphones we use? Get a discount (use coupon code "MTMG" for 10% off): https://www.maono.com/?ref=ulcbmcjk • Suggestions or want to appear on a future episode? Email: podcast@mtmg.eu • Need expert help to maximize your IT investments? Reach out: info@mtmg.eu • Don't forget to subscribe to the Podcast and follow us on LinkedIn! https://www.linkedin.com/company/mtmg-eu