At Virgin Media O2, we believe that strong processes and culture matter more than any individual tool. In this talk, we’ll share how we’ve applied DevOps and software engineering principles to transform our data capabilities and enable true data modernization at scale. We’ll take you behind the scenes of how these practices shaped the design and delivery of our enterprise Data Mesh, with dbt at its core, empowering our teams to move faster, build trust in data, and fully embrace a modern, decentralized approach.

Merging two large organizations with different tools, teams, and data practices is never simple. At Virgin Media O2, we used dbt to help bring consistency to that complexity, building a hybrid data mesh that supported self-serve analytics across domains. In this session, we’ll share how we gave teams clearer ownership, put governance in place using dbt, and set up secure data sharing through GCP’s Analytics Hub. If you’re working in a federated or fast-changing environment, this session offers practical lessons for making self-serve work at scale.

When Virgin Media and O2 merged, they faced the challenge of unifying thousands of pipelines and platforms while keeping 25 million customers connected. Victor Rivero, Head of Data Governance & Quality, shares how his team is transforming his data estate into a trusted source of truth by embedding Monte Carlo’s Data + AI Observability across BigQuery, Atlan, dbt, and Tableau. Learn how they've begun their journey to cut data downtime, enforced reliability dimensions, and measured success while creating a scalable blueprint for enterprise observability.

AI is rewriting the recruitment rulebook with the potential to make it smarter, fairer and more efficient, but it is not without its challenges. In this 30-minute session, leading Women in Data® experts from AXA, Munich Re, Royal London, Thatcham Research and Virgin Media O2 unpack the real-world impact of AI on hiring practices.  

Our panel will share how they are responding to the rise of AI-generated profiles, the growing cost of candidate screening and the responsibility to maintain transparency and trust at all stages. Expect practical insights and honest reflections on what it takes to proactively utilise AI responsibly, and effectively, in recruitment today.

Powered by: Women in Data®

With over 45 million connections across broadband, mobile, TV, and home phone, VMO2 is on a mission to upgrade the UK. Hard at work making their data trustworthy and accessible, their data team is now ensuring nearly 16,000 colleagues can make the most of it.
Join Mauro Flores, EVP, Data Democratisation at VMO2, and Prukalpa Sankar, Co-founder of Atlan, for a behind-the-scenes look at how they’ve transformed Data Governance into a business enabler, taking an AI- and domain-based approach to build a single definition of trustworthy data, and unleashing it for end-users through data products.

Visionaries from Virgin Media O2, TCS and Google Cloud share insights on their data modernization journey. Explore how a cloud-first data strategy enabled Virgin Media O2 to reimagine their business by enhancing agility, speed and scalability, automating operations, optimizing costs, and driving AI-readiness.

This Session is hosted by a Google Cloud Next Sponsor.
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Join Virgin Media O2 and Google for a technical discussion about lessons learned and best practices for building and scaling a data fabric on BigQuery. Find out how Virgin Media O2 eliminated silos and enabled secure and governed data sharing at scale to drive better decisions and get more value from their data.

Level up your cloud security with Google Cloud’s next-generation identity and access management (IAM). This session explores how modern cloud IAM capabilities – including next-gen unified access policies, fine-grained access control, privileged access management, and policy intelligence – can improve your cloud security posture. Join us to learn how to streamline access, enforce consistent policies, and proactively mitigate risks in today’s dynamic cloud landscape.

Discover the transformative power of Gemini in BigQuery, which is revolutionizing data analytics with AI-driven innovations. This session showcases capabilities designed to enhance workflows – streamlining data preparation and migrations, enabling advanced code generation, facilitating conversational data exploration, and optimizing workloads intelligently. Learn how these advancements simplify complex tasks, elevate productivity, and empower teams to unlock the full potential of their data.

Join this Solutions Talk to see Virgin Media O2's self-service data mesh on Google Cloud, built on data tooling and data platform engineering. We'll show their real-world architecture for discoverable, trusted data products, emphasizing data quality, contracts, and management. Hear VMO2's data mesh vision, why contracts and quality matter, and how Google Cloud enables automation, leaving you with actionable insights to unlock your data's potential.