How a Healthcare IT Leader Finds Innovation Before It Hits the Radar

Oliver Rebollido is the Head of IT Infrastructure and Security at a regulated healthcare organization serving members across the San Francisco Bay Area. He’s also a member of the Sage community. We sat down with Oliver to talk about his approach to balancing modernization with security, why identity governance deserves more attention than it gets, and how his vendor discovery process has evolved since joining the platform.

Tell us about your work and what your day-to-day looks like.

As Head of IT Infrastructure and Security, I lead our IT infrastructure, cybersecurity, and help desk functions. 

My role focuses on ensuring the reliability, scalability, and security of our technology environment while enabling our teams to deliver high-quality service to our members and partners. I work closely with cross-functional leadership to align technology initiatives with business goals, strengthen our security posture, and drive operational excellence across end-user support and core systems.

How does leading both infrastructure and security under one roof play out in practice?

Leading both infrastructure and cybersecurity allows me to naturally balance priorities in a way that's more cohesive and effective. Instead of competing objectives, we treat security and infrastructure as deeply interconnected. Each depends on the other to succeed. A resilient infrastructure provides the foundation for strong security, while a well-designed security strategy ensures our systems remain reliable and trustworthy. 

By aligning both functions under a unified approach, we are able to deliver a technology environment that is both secure and highly dependable for our users and stakeholders.

What's driving your focus this year?

My top priority for 2026 is to continue modernizing our technology stack while also driving meaningful cost efficiency. I'm focused on reducing technical debt, consolidating and optimizing legacy systems, and adopting more scalable and cloud-forward solutions where it makes sense. At the same time, I want to ensure we are making smart financial decisions that don't compromise security, reliability, or performance. 

The goal is to strike the right balance between innovation and operational efficiency so the organization can move faster and operate more sustainably.

The threat and technology landscape is moving fast. How do you keep up?

I stay ahead of the curve by combining continuous learning with active engagement in the broader technology and security community. 

I make it a point to connect with vendors through platforms like Sagetap to understand emerging solutions and how they're evolving in real-world environments. I also attend industry conferences to get direct exposure to new technologies, threat trends, and peer experiences. In addition, I stay engaged on LinkedIn by following thought leaders and participating in discussions around infrastructure, cybersecurity, and IT operations. 

Taken together, these channels help me stay informed, validate ideas, and bring practical, forward-looking insights back into my organization.

What's a challenge you think the industry isn't taking seriously enough?

One area that I think deserves more attention is the growing complexity of identity and access management in increasingly hybrid and distributed environments. 

As organizations adopt more cloud services and SaaS tools, the number of identities, permissions, and access paths expands very quickly, and that creates both security and operational risk.

What often gets overlooked is how difficult it becomes to maintain consistent visibility and governance across all of these systems. Strong identity hygiene is foundational to both security and infrastructure reliability, yet it is easy for it to become fragmented over time.

I think organizations that invest early in simplifying identity governance, enforcing least privilege, and improving visibility across environments will be in a much stronger position to reduce risk while also improving operational efficiency.

Does working in a heavily regulated environment create more friction or more discipline when it comes to evaluating new solutions?

Yes, working in a regulated environment with strict compliance requirements absolutely creates unique challenges when evaluating and implementing new solutions. There is an added layer of scrutiny around security, privacy, and operational controls, which can naturally slow down decision-making and adoption.

At the same time, I see that as an opportunity rather than just a constraint. It pushes us to be more intentional and creative in how we design and implement solutions. We often have to think beyond out-of-the-box vendor capabilities and figure out how to meet both compliance requirements and operational needs in a way that is still efficient and scalable.

In many cases, those constraints actually lead to stronger architectures and more resilient processes because we are forced to be very clear about risk, controls, and long-term maintainability from the start.

Before Sagetap, how did you find and evaluate vendors?

My vendor research and discovery process was fairly traditional and relationship-driven. 

A lot of it started through existing partners or trusted referrals, where they would introduce or schedule initial conversations with vendors they believed were a good fit. In addition to that, conferences played a big role. Meeting vendors in person at industry events helped me quickly understand their value proposition and ask more direct, practical questions based on real use cases. I also leaned on my professional network, especially peers on LinkedIn, to get informal feedback and perspectives on different tools and vendors. 

Overall, it was a combination of referrals, in-person discovery, and peer insights, but it could sometimes be difficult to piece together a full picture.

What was the biggest pain point with that old approach?

Looking back, the biggest friction point in the traditional approach was the lack of a centralized way to efficiently discover and evaluate vendors. Without a platform like Sagetap, we relied heavily on referrals, partner introductions, and conference interactions, which meant the process was fragmented and often time-consuming.

There wasn't a single place where I could easily search across a broad set of vendors, filter by specific technologies or capabilities, and then quickly narrow down who to engage with. As a result, the discovery process could take a lot of effort, and there was always a risk that strong or relevant vendors might be missed simply because they weren't in our immediate network or visibility at the time.

What made you decide to try Sagetap?

What originally drew me to Sagetap was the same challenge I had experienced firsthand in the traditional vendor discovery process. I was spending a lot of time relying on fragmented sources like referrals, partner introductions, conferences, and peer recommendations, and it often felt inefficient and incomplete.

Sagetap stood out because it brings structure and scale to that process by creating a centralized place to discover and evaluate a broad range of vendors, with the ability to filter by specific technology needs. That combination of breadth and relevance immediately resonated with me.

It felt like a more modern and efficient way to approach vendor discovery, while also reducing the risk of overlooking strong solutions that might not otherwise surface through traditional channels.

Has the way you use the platform changed since you first joined?

Over the past year, my use of Sagetap has evolved from primarily using it for vendor discovery and evaluation to also leveraging it as a broader insight tool. 

Initially, I focused on connecting with vendors and exploring solutions that aligned with our immediate needs. 

More recently, I have found value in reviewing the initiatives feed and seeing what other Sages are working on. That has become a helpful way to understand broader trends and priorities across the community. It also gives me a useful benchmark to reflect on whether those same initiatives are relevant for my own organization and if they should be considered or prioritized.

Sagetap has shifted from being just a discovery platform to also being a source of strategic insight and peer-driven perspective.

What's the most tangible impact Sagetap has had on your day-to-day?

With Sagetap, the biggest impact on my workflow has been the amount of control and efficiency it brings to both vendor selection and scheduling. I no longer have to go through the back-and-forth process of comparing calendars, finding mutual availability, and coordinating meeting times across multiple vendors.

Instead, I simply publish my availability on the platform, and vendors can select a time that works for them and send a calendar invite directly. That alone removes a significant amount of administrative overhead.

In the traditional model, coordinating with several vendors could easily involve multiple rounds of emails just to align on schedules, which adds up quickly when you are engaging with many providers at once. With Sagetap, what used to take hours across different conversations is now reduced to just a few minutes of setup, allowing me to focus more on the actual evaluation and less on logistics.

Tell us about a vendor win that came through Sagetap.

We've made multiple purchases through Sagetap, and it's become a consistent part of how we evaluate and adopt new solutions. One that stands out as a particularly strong win:

Last year, we selected a solution on Sagetap that ended up being a strong consolidation and modernization win for us. Prior to that, we were relying on two separate tools that were both expensive to maintain and, frankly, starting to feel outdated in terms of functionality and user experience.

The solution we ultimately chose stood out because it was able to replace both tools with a single platform that covered the same core functionality, while also being more cost-effective. On top of that, it introduced meaningful AI and automation capabilities that helped reduce manual effort, free up staff capacity, and significantly improve the overall user experience for our teams.

From a vendor perspective, what also stood out was how responsive and collaborative they were throughout the process. They were very accommodating of our questions during evaluation and implementation, and whenever we ran into issues or needed clarification, their support team was quick to step in and assist. That level of engagement made a noticeable difference in the overall experience and successful adoption of the solution.

What would you tell a tech or security leader who's on the fence about joining Sagetap?

Sagetap is a great way to expand your view beyond the usual set of established vendors and into newer, more innovative companies that you might not otherwise come across.

Early in my career, I was mentored by an award-winning CIO who encouraged me to consistently look at smaller, emerging companies. His perspective was that many of these founders start companies because they are trying to solve real gaps they personally experienced in the market, gaps that larger, more established vendors are often too slow or too rigid to address.

Over time, I have seen that play out repeatedly. Some of those newer, smaller companies have gone on to become major tech giants, while others were acquired by established leaders after proving the value of their approach.

Sagetap makes it much easier to access that kind of innovation early, in a structured and efficient way, which can be a real advantage for leaders who want to stay ahead of the curve.

We'd like to thank Oliver for sharing his perspective on infrastructure, security, and the evolving vendor landscape. To connect with peers like Oliver and discover vetted, next-gen vendors on your own terms, join the Sage community.