Sunnie Southern: A Passionate Leader Striving to Help Health and Life Sciences Organizations Leverage the Cloud to Solve Pressing Healthcare Challenges

It is an understatement to say that this year has been filled with massive changes in healthcare.  The pandemic shone a spotlight on the essential need for health and life sciences organizations to enable their employees to work remotely, clinicians to care for patients virtually, and researchers to collaborate openly.  We have seen companies that embraced technology and a patient-first philosophy thrive, and those that didn't, struggle.   

To recognize the forward-thinking women technologists who are making significant contributions to the world of technology and inspiring other women in the process, Analytics Insights introduced "The Women in Technology Series". These female technology leaders offer passion and creativity to the field, helping their organizations deliver innovative products and services that are disrupting numerous industries globally.  Most would agree that healthcare is an industry in need of innovative solutions and leaders that can successfully deliver them. This month, Analytics Insights selected Sunnie Southern, MS, RDN, LD as one of the 10 Most Influential Women in Technology 2020 for Cutting Edge Solutions.  

Sunnie has been working at the intersection of healthcare and technology for many years. As a dietitian with a master's degree in human nutrition and foods, she recognized very early in her career the need to leverage technology to enable individuals and their caregivers to make informed decisions about health.  In fields that require the analysis and assimilation of 100s of variables —  such as human nutrition —  the use of technology and advanced analytics are essential to simplify and accelerate the decision-making process.  

After several years of founding and leading Viable Synergy, a health innovation consultancy, Sunnie was ready to partner with an organization to expand her firm's impact by increasing its technology innovation consulting capacity and scaling its intelligent content integration platform, Innovation Station.  

In 2017, while serving as a mentor and a judge for a regional health innovation competition, Sunnie met Tim Needles, the President, and CEO of Onix Networking. Shortly after, Tim invited Sunnie to join Onix to create and lead Onix's first vertically focused division designed to support the unique needs of health and life sciences organizations.   

Onix was founded in 1992 and focused mostly on distributing TCP/IP, a suite of communication protocols used to govern the connection of online computer systems. Tim's commitment to Onix's customers' success,  strong work ethic, and strategic selection of technology partners resulted in Onix's customer base expanding quickly to include many leading government agencies, commercial enterprises, and health and life sciences organizations.  

Tim's unwavering commitment to customer success attracted the attention of a fast-growing startup, Google.  Google was looking for a partner with a Government Services Agreement to support the distribution of its Google Search Appliance.  In 2002, Onix was selected as Google's first enterprise partner and has continued to serve as one of Google's top partners over the last 18 years.  Since then, Onix has supported the launch of nearly every one of Google's enterprise solutions including Google Cloud Platform, G Suite, Google Maps, and Google Chrome Browser and Chrome devices.  Like most of the tech world, Google's products have moved "to the cloud," the Google Cloud Platform to be exact, and so has Onix. Onix's success in supporting customers on their cloud journeys with cloud solutions and specialized professional services once again attracted the attention of a major technology player, Amazon Web services (AWS). AWS approached Onix in 2018 to join their partner program. Onix accepted the invitation to expand its ability to support its customers' cloud journeys.  

Onix's cloud computing and solutions partnerships, customer-focused professional services, successful history of supporting health and life sciences customers, and an unmet market need to provide unique solutions and services to a specialized industry have catalyzed the growth and success of Onix's now two-year-old dedicated health and life sciences division.  

Under Sunnie's leadership, Onix has created and launched four vertically focused solutions to solve pressing healthcare challenges in interoperability, population health, genomics, virtual care, and remote healthcare work.  

In 2021, Onix plans to introduce several new vertically-focused solutions to more fully support customers and patients' health journeys including solutions in patient acquisition, engagement, experience, and retention.  It also plans to expand its behavioral health solutions to enable customers to dramatically increase access to expert support in areas like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and opioid addiction.  

Onix's commitment and Sunnie's dedication to helping customers leverage best-in-class technologies to accelerate research discoveries and provide more accessible and scalable healthcare is a beacon of light in these challenging times.   Learn more about Onix's Health & Life Sciences Division at Onixnet.com.