Roundtable: Crunch Time for CIOs (Toronto)
On June 4, 2015, The IT Media Group brought together 16 IT executives from a variety of private and public-sector organizations in the Toronto area for a roundtable called “Crunch Time for CIOs”, which focussed on a variety of issues around cloud computing. Sponsor for this CIO Master Series Roundtable was Salesforce, represented at the table by Chris Makkreel, Head of Solution Engineering.
Cloud computing is impacting the IT organization in a variety of ways, and IT executives now find themselves in the position of no longer being the company’s sole source of applications and services. While some technology leaders see this as a threat to their traditional domain, others see it as an opportunity collaborate more fully with line-of-business leaders and recast themselves as business enablers, rather than impediments.
This highly engaging session brought to light a wide variety of insights, opinions and best practices around changing IT and business culture, new forms of governance, making a business case for cloud, relationships with cloud vendors and many other issues of high importance to the CIO community. Topics discussed included: management support for IT; shadow IT & governance; showing the value of cloud; cloud pitfalls; cloud and the large enterprise; security and the cloud.
The IT executive attendees represented a broad range of cloud maturity but all expressed great interest in cloud and indicated that their organizations were moving strongly in that direction. Chris Makkreel provided a wealth of information about SaaS in general, customer use and experience with SaaS, and Salesforce’s value proposition as a leading integrated cloud platform provider.
Session Highlights Videos
Business alignment & support
With more IT activity occuring within the business units, effective alignment requires closer integration of IT resources within and outside of the IT department.
Coping with shadow IT
Shadow IT can be a challenge or an opportunity. Success depends on trusted relationship with IT and basic governance.
Making the business case for Cloud
You have to build a business case not so much around the savings side first but around what IT needs to look like in order to grow with the business.
Post session interviews
Chris Makkreel - Cloud and the Pace of Technology Change
Chris Makkreel - Security and Integration of Cloud Services
George Postalian - Maturity of Cloud Services
George Postalian - Breaking the IT Paradigm
Alfred Dorkalam - The Changing IT-Business Relationship
About CIO Master Series roundtables
Roundtables produced by The IT Media Group provide the ideal format for frank and open discussion among IT executive peers, allowing them to explore issues in depth, with a judicious amount of expert facilitation. These sessions are designed specifically for small groups of IT leaders, enabling them to take away practicable new approaches, validate their own thoughts, brainstorm ideas, and share their successes and their pain.
IT executives interested receiving notification of upcoming CIO Master Series roundtables, please complete the VIP membership form, including business email address.
Organizations expect their CIOs to protect enterprise data and technology assets from the growing volume of cyber threats. Unfortunately, the speed at which cyber-attacks emerge poses tough challenges for resource-constrained IT departments.
