By Isabella Lamberson, Marketing Intern
In the previous post, we discussed the first of two key elements to marketing in the defense industry: collaboration. Successful marketing in the defense industry may very well be defined by how well a company collaborates in a B2B setting and internally, ensuring alignment on how it portrays itself. When a marketing team understands its brand’s positioning, it can better adjust to the ever-changing defense technology market, which leads us to the second key element: adaptability.
Before starting college in 2022, I had considered artificial intelligence (AI) a thing of the future, something I wouldn’t see until I was later in my years. With the birth of large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and the rise of machine learning systems, my world flipped on its head. Since joining the tech industry, I see I am not alone with this experience. From one year to the next, there is no telling what kind of technological developments we will bear witness to. When it comes to the defense and security of our nation, capitalizing on these advancements is paramount, lest we fall behind our adversaries. As a result, within the defense industry, marketers are required to become adaptable to the shifting needs of their company’s customers.
For instance, companies like Box, a cloud content management software developer, took notice of vast data silos—barriers that occur when information is stored in separate systems or departments inaccessible to others in the company—across industries such as finance, small business, education, retail, etc. With an increasing number of companies shifting to remote work since the pandemic, many found their systems had limited remote access and created organization inefficiencies within the workplace. What is worse, as an outbound business representative from Box explained to me during West 2026 in San Diego, whenever information is ingested in a traditional platform, it is not very secure or easily accessible. This problem, along with the vast data silos within the federal government, introduces a great deal of security risk. To adapt, Box developed cloud content management solutions across industries to increase security, productivity, efficiency, and reduce costs. These solutions integrate with traditional platforms and implement AI to simplify employee workloads, clearly demonstrating the benefits of adapting to customers’ pain points in real time.
As it happens, Iron Bow also considered adaptability as one of their key differentiators. The Iron Bow Field Marketing Manager (FMM) described Iron Bow’s “willingness to pivot” as something that set her company apart from competitors. Noting the theme among the interviews at West, I recognized that what sets a company up for success in this industry is taking what you know, what you do best, and applying it to new situations as they arise. A marketer’s ability to look at challenges from multiple angles and find the people, resources, or skillsets necessary to tackle the problem makes all the difference between strong and weak messaging.
Remaining rigid in the past will leave you there; adapting to the twists and turns of the market will enable your growth as a marketer.
“Marketing is really about being open to change, open to doing anything and everything you can, because everything is a learning experience.”
That was my favorite piece of advice from the FMM at Iron Bow. It’s a testament to what the modern marketer must be willing to do—anything and everything.
After the interview, pausing for a moment, I grappled with what that meant—stepping out of my comfort zone. Being a natural introvert, I gravitate toward working behind the scenes rather than putting myself out in front of others. To succeed in marketing, however, I need to be able to take risks and learn from their outcomes.
This lesson hit home fast at West this year as I approached complete strangers at their booths to interview them, but when I heard those words—step out of your comfort zone—the lesson solidified. Part of my role at One Stop Systems (OSS) involves spearheading marketing projects, where I take the lead in meetings and coordination, working with teams both inside and outside the company. The first lesson—collaboration and communication—is especially important. Where I once felt nervous at the idea of leading these projects, I now recognize the importance of setting aside time to meet with team members, ensuring cohesiveness in the strategy we develop, and look forward to learning from them how we can execute the company’s vision. Just as the Iron Bow FMM relayed how she communicated with her team to discover customers’ pain points, I seek to take the same mentality to discern which strategy will best support the goal of the project and incorporate diverse perspectives from my team.
Regarding market adaptability, I have taken a piece of advice from the Box outbound business representative who told me to bring my own experience to the table of every discussion. When the market shifts in favor of new technology, or what once worked as a marketing strategy becomes a thing of the past, that won’t mean I’m out of my depth. Instead, I take what I know and see how I can either apply it or adjust it.
Prior to accepting my position at One Stop Systems, I worked as a Peer Educator at UC Riverside and as the Content & Brand Communications Lead for a coffee and tea start-up called Himalayan Blends; prior to those roles, I wrote and edited adoption blogs for Marketing Choices. Entering the tech industry with OSS, I worried my novice understanding of computers would hinder my ability to excel in this position. What it has granted me, however, is perspective. Though our customers are from different markets entirely, they still want a product that solves their problems. After all, that is the reason why those conversations, booth messages, and marketing materials had a similar note across the floor at West: “What do my customers want, and how can my product(s) solve their problem?”
My efforts should be geared toward answering this question for OSS customers to develop lasting connections within an ever-changing market. Marketing is, at the end of the day, about problem-solving. Marketing builds a bridge between the company and the customer, but crossing that bridge requires collaboration and adaptability—a willingness to meet the customer where they are.
My time at the booth was spent listening to my colleagues interacting with partners and potential customers. Watching these exchanges, I recognized what was at the heart of West—the real reason why hundreds of people had shown up during the work week to surround themselves with others in the defense industry. The obvious explanations come to mind: to meet customers, establish connections, solidify a brand’s image, and feel out competitors. But when I took a step back to study the messaging on the booths and walk the floor, I saw what I had studied for years as a marketing student come to life. Every conversation and display was geared toward answering one two-part question:
“What do my customers want, and how can my product(s) solve their problem?”
As data-intensive workloads continue to grow across industries like AI, defense, autonomous systems, and high-performance computing (HPC), the need for scalable, high-speed infrastructure has never been greater. Organizations are increasingly hitting the physical and performance limits of traditional server architectures—especially when it comes to GPU density, storage bandwidth, and I/O flexibility.
This is where PCIe Expansion Systems come into play. By extending the capabilities of existing servers, PCIe Expansion enables businesses to scale performance efficiently without complete infrastructure overhauls. In this blog, we’ll explore the key benefits of PCIe Expansion, including how expansion backplanes, GPU expansion, and emerging technologies like CXL and PCIe 6.0 are shaping the future of computing.
Modern defense operations increasingly assume one thing: the network may not be there when it matters most. In a cloud denied environment, forces must still collect data, process sensor feeds, support operators, and make decisions without relying on persistent access to centralized infrastructure. In these conditions, communications may be denied, disrupted, intermittent, or severely bandwidth-constrained. The mission continues anyway.
That reality is changing how military and aerospace systems are designed. Architectures that depend on constant reach-back to the cloud or to remote enterprise systems create operational risk when adversaries disrupt communications through jamming, cyberattack, or anti-access and area-denial strategies. In a contested environment, success depends on the ability to move compute, storage, and analytics directly to the edge.
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