EVENTThe Internet of Things Summit by IBM | Nov 12, 2018 | Westin Kierland Resort & Spa - Scottsdale, AZ, USA
agenda
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Keynote Presentation
Visionary speaker presents to entire audience on key issues, challenges and business opportunities
Keynote Presentations give attending delegates the opportunity to hear from leading voices in the industry. These presentations feature relevant topics and issues aligned with the speaker's experience and expertise, selected by the speaker in concert with the summit's Content Committee." title="Keynote Presentations give attending delegates the opportunity to hear from leading voices in the industry. These presentations feature relevant topics and issues aligned with the speaker's experience and expertise, selected by the speaker in concert with the summit's Content Committee.
Executive Visions
Panel moderated by Master of Ceremonies and headed by four executives discussing critical business topics
Executive Visions sessions are panel discussions that enable in-depth exchanges on critical business topics. Led by a moderator, these sessions encourage attending executives to address industry challenges and gain insight through interaction with expert panel members." title="Executive Visions sessions are panel discussions that enable in-depth exchanges on critical business topics. Led by a moderator, these sessions encourage attending executives to address industry challenges and gain insight through interaction with expert panel members.
Thought Leadership
Solution provider-led session giving high-level overview of opportunities
Led by an executive from the vendor community, Thought Leadership sessions provide comprehensive overviews of current business concerns, offering strategies and solutions for success. This is a unique opportunity to access the perspective of a leading member of the vendor community." title="Led by an executive from the vendor community, Thought Leadership sessions provide comprehensive overviews of current business concerns, offering strategies and solutions for success. This is a unique opportunity to access the perspective of a leading member of the vendor community.
Think Tank
End user-led session in boardroom style, focusing on best practices
Think Tanks are interactive sessions that place delegates in lively discussion and debate. Sessions admit only 15-20 participants at a time to ensure an intimate environment in which delegates can engage each other and have their voices heard." title="Think Tanks are interactive sessions that place delegates in lively discussion and debate. Sessions admit only 15-20 participants at a time to ensure an intimate environment in which delegates can engage each other and have their voices heard.
Roundtable
Interactive session led by a moderator, focused on industry issue
Led by an industry analyst, expert or a member of the vendor community, Roundtables are open-forum sessions with strategic guidance. Attending delegates gather to collaborate on common issues and challenges within a format that allows them to get things done." title="Led by an industry analyst, expert or a member of the vendor community, Roundtables are open-forum sessions with strategic guidance. Attending delegates gather to collaborate on common issues and challenges within a format that allows them to get things done.
Case Study
Overview of recent project successes and failures
Case Studies allow attending executives to hear compelling stories about implementations and projects, emphasizing best practices and lessons learned. Presentations are immediately followed by Q&A sessions." title="Case Studies allow attending executives to hear compelling stories about implementations and projects, emphasizing best practices and lessons learned. Presentations are immediately followed by Q&A sessions.
Focus Group
Discussion of business drivers within a particular industry area
Focus Groups allow executives to discuss business drivers within particular industry areas. These sessions allow attendees to isolate specific issues and work through them. Presentations last 15-20 minutes and are followed by Q&A sessions." title="Focus Groups allow executives to discuss business drivers within particular industry areas. These sessions allow attendees to isolate specific issues and work through them. Presentations last 15-20 minutes and are followed by Q&A sessions.
Analyst Q&A Session 
Moderator-led coverage of the latest industry research
Q&A sessions cover the latest industry research, allowing attendees to gain insight on topics of interest through questions directed to a leading industry analyst." title="Q&A sessions cover the latest industry research, allowing attendees to gain insight on topics of interest through questions directed to a leading industry analyst.
Vendor Showcase
Several brief, pointed overviews of the newest solutions and services
Taking the form of three 10-minute elevator pitches by attending vendors, these sessions provide a concise and pointed overview of the latest solutions and services aligned with attendee needs and preferences." title="Taking the form of three 10-minute elevator pitches by attending vendors, these sessions provide a concise and pointed overview of the latest solutions and services aligned with attendee needs and preferences.
Executive Exchange
Pre-determined, one-on-one interaction revolving around solutions of interest
Executive Exchanges offer one-on-one interaction between executives and vendors. This is an opportunity for both parties to make key business contacts, ask direct questions and get the answers they need. Session content is prearranged and based on mutual interest." title="Executive Exchanges offer one-on-one interaction between executives and vendors. This is an opportunity for both parties to make key business contacts, ask direct questions and get the answers they need. Session content is prearranged and based on mutual interest.
Open Forum Luncheon
Informal discussions on pre-determined topics
Led by a moderator, Open Forum Luncheons offer attendees informal, yet focused discussions on current industry topics and trends over lunch." title="Led by a moderator, Open Forum Luncheons offer attendees informal, yet focused discussions on current industry topics and trends over lunch.
Networking Session
Unique activities at once relaxing, enjoyable and productive
Networking opportunities take various unique forms, merging enjoyable and relaxing activities with an environment conducive to in-depth conversation. These gatherings allow attendees to wind down between sessions and one-on-one meetings, while still furthering discussions and being productive." title="Networking opportunities take various unique forms, merging enjoyable and relaxing activities with an environment conducive to in-depth conversation. These gatherings allow attendees to wind down between sessions and one-on-one meetings, while still furthering discussions and being productive.
Monday, November 12, 2018 - The Internet of Things Summit by IBM
7:00 am - 7:55 am
Registration and Networking Breakfast
8:00 am - 8:10 am
Welcome Address and Opening Remarks 
8:10 am - 8:40 am
Keynote Presentation
The Future of the CIO in the Coming Digital Economy
As more businesses undergo a digital transformation, and as those digital transformations become more ingrained into organizational culture, "Digital" becomes not something unique and different from the business, but a core component of every aspect of the business. As this shift occurs, IT itself faces the very real possibility of no longer being something unique from the business, but instead a component of every aspect of the business. In this world, what role then exists for the CIO? Two clear paths are presenting themselves - one leads to a focus on infrastructure and integration, to keeping the lights on for the digital innovators, while the other leads to information and innovation itself. Knowing which path to choose, how to choose it, and how to see it through will be one of the greatest challenges CIOs of this era will face.
Takeaways:
- Change is, if not already here, certainly coming and CIOs who don't prepare for the change may not like the results when it arrives
- Digital transformation is all about connecting enterprise systems to information technology to drive productivity and performance improvements
- Be prepared to tackle the tasks that no-one wants to do, but everyone needs done; establish relevance to cultivate importance
8:45 am - 9:15 am
Keynote Presentation
IT Integration in a Distributed IT World
It's no secret " the integration of disparate systems, disparate applications, and disparate data stores has long been one of the biggest challenges faced by the IT department. Simply put, getting everything to talk to everything is no easy task. The rapid adoption of cloud delivered services has compounded this problem almost exponentially " if it was hard to integrate when you controlled the whole stack it has become nearly impossible when you control very little of it. To be efficient and effective IT departments need to adopt a new model of system, application, and data integration. Endless webs of one-off point-to-point integrations simply won't cut it anymore and a purposeful, structured approach is required.
Takeaways:
- Learn how to build a holistic strategy to integrate systems, applications, and data
- Understand how to leverage SOA and ESB to streamline app to app communications
- Discover the power and impact of holistic Master Data Management and other data integration processes
9:20 am - 9:45 am
Executive Exchange
Thought Leadership
Implementing Business Simplification for Success and Growth
Organizational complexity is the single most significant impediment that enterprises are dealing with today; it underlies every business problem enterprises faces and undermines every effort to address them. Organizational complexity is grounded in cumbersome processes, but those poor processes exist only because enterprise applications themselves, including those that are customer facing, as well as those that are not, are complex and unwieldy. To address cultural complexity then, enterprises must eliminate the complexity in their application suite by either building new, buying new, or more efficiently simplifying what they already have. Only by simplification can enterprises eliminate complexity in an efficient and effective way and position themselves for success.
Takeaways:
- Enterprises live and breath by the speed with which regular transactions occur " turning these into one minute transactions is the key to success
- Complexity must be eliminated in all applications customer-facing, core internal, and internal supporting alike
- Building or buying new, less complex applications offers limited gains because eventually all introduce complexities of their own; only simplified applications offer long term, sustained elimination of complexity
9:50 am - 10:15 am
Executive Exchange
Executive Boardroom 
Capacity Planning as Competitive Differentiator
Capacity planning has in many ways become a lost art; common during the era of the mainframe when resources were expensive and time-consuming to procure, the advent of the inexpensive pizza box Windows Server has relegated planning, replacing it with a just buy more mentality. But just buy more creates more problems than it solves as server sprawl, server management, and rampant overprovisioning issues quickly erode any aspect of the value that IT tries to deliver. The lost art need to be rediscovered, to allow IT to get back to offering truly efficient and effective service and service levels. This new era of capacity planning requires new tools that go beyond simplistic benchmarking and trending analysis and instead provides dynamic, flexible, and predictive modeling that allows IT department to truly deploy optimized IT services.
Takeaways:
- Capacity management may have fallen out of favor but its abandonment has created a wealth of problems for IT and business users the world over
- In an era of intense innovation pressure, enterprises can no longer afford the inefficiencies of a just buy more approach to capacity provisioning
- Traditional capacity planning techniques certainly have value but dynamic modeling based on predictive analytics takes things to a whole new level
Executive Boardroom
Proving the ROI of IoT
We all know that ROI calculations, on the surface, are simple mathematical formulas: compare the cost of investment against the value of the return over a given and agreed upon period. But determining exactly what each side of the equation entails and totals is the challenging part, and nowhere moreso than in burgeoning areas such as IoT adoption where use cases are still not clearly understood, and technology costs are highly variable, and all the components related to cost may not yet be quantifiable. The benefits are there, as a number of enterprises are discovering with early pilot programs, but CIOs must enter this area with their eyes wide open to ensure that early IoT implementations have the ROI necessary to keep more complex projects moving forward.
Takeaways:
- Costs must be carefully quantified for any IoT project " it's not just the sensors, but networking, data, security, etc. spend must be taken into account
- Similarly, value must be clearly established both in isolation and in comparison to any more traditional methods that could be used
- Successful IoT projects will be those that can initially leverage existing spend to mitigate costs with successive project piggybacking on earlier investments
10:20 am - 10:30 am
Morning Networking Coffee Break
10:35 am - 11:00 am
Executive Exchange
Think Tank
Bridging the Talent Gap: Building the Team of Tomorrow
There is no escaping the fact that the demands on the IT department are changing. Those changes are necessitating changes in the IT department itself and nowhere is this being felt more than in the roles and responsibilities of the IT staff themselves. Complicating this transition is the fact that every IT department is undergoing to change at roughly the same time making the personnel with the requisite skillsets extremely hard to find, and perhaps even harder to retain. Savvy CIOs need to quickly identify which are the hot skills they most urgently require and then build a strategy that allows them to build (train), borrow (outsource), or buy (hire) the right people with the right capability at the right time.
Takeaways:
- Commit to a talent-first organization which recognizes and rewards the most important asset you have " your people
- Identify the skills most urgently in need and prioritize their acquisition
- Determine which acquisition methods needs to be used for which skill to maximize impact and return on investment
Think Tank
Avoiding ERM for the Sake of ERM
In many ways ERM, or Enterprise Risk Management, has become just another buzz word that is bandied around without any clear understanding of it's meaning, any clear understanding of it's value, or any clear understanding of how it can be achieved. ERM is not a project or a task on a list to be checked off. Instead it is a fundamental change in how an enterprise approaches the way it conducts it's business to ensure that all possible impacts to it's capital and earnings are identified, quantified, and mitigated. Such a sweeping paradigmatic shift isn't something that can be taken on lightly and enterprises seeking to just place a check mark next to a to do list line item will be sorely disappointed in their results.
Takeaways:
- ERM is a way of life, not a one-time effort and the only way to value is to come to that realization early
- To be successful, an ERM deployment must be sponsored from the top and have the involvement of every level and every department
- Even though ERM initiatives are all-encompassing it's best to start small; trying to boil the ocean is the surest way to failure and loss of good will and buy-in
11:05 am - 11:30 am
Executive Exchange
Case Study
Using Data & Analytics to Drive Business Transformation
Big Data initiatives have become a reality among almost every company today, however, what we have seen is lots of initiatives have become just science projects and did not deliver on early expectations. This situation needs to reversed quickly because those organizations that are being successful with Big Data and analytics programs are rapidly leaving those that are unsuccessful in their wake. Big Data and analytics has the potential to be transformational for the enterprise, but IT leaders need to be making the right investments, in the right areas, to ensure optimal success. This panel discussion will focus on how to use data and analytics to drive true business success and show some real examples of companies and individuals who made a difference.
Takeaways:
- Analytics is not a new capability and has always been aligned with the most successful companies
- The roles of IT and the lines of business are changing when it comes to data and analytics programs
- The business benefits of analytics programs can be huge but efforts need to be constrained so that they don't turn into flights of fancy, yet set free enough that they find the unknown unknowns that truly drive transformation
11:35 am - 12:00 pm
Executive Exchange
Executive Boardroom
Disaster Recovery and Preparing for the Inevitable
Like death and taxes, IT outages are an inevitability whether as the result of power loss, telecommunications outage, or any one of a myriad other potential technical and non-technical issues. In this environment, the savvy CIO knows that what matters most is preparation " being ready for that next outage with an IT infrastructure that is both resilient and flexible and Disaster Recovery procedures that allow for efficient and effective recovery, balancing Recovery Time and Recovery Point objectives with appropriate cost. Disasters happen but with proper planning they don't have to be disastrous to your business.
Takeaways:
- In the event of a severe outage, businesses without a Disaster Recovery plan are at a significant disadvantage when it comes to recoverability and viability
- DR planning cannot be an at all costs proposition and appropriate planning must take into account reasonable Recovery Time and Recovery Point objectives
- Catastrophic outages get the press but are the thin end of the wedge " minor service interruptions are far more common and must be planned for as well
Executive Boardroom
Big Data is all about the Cloud
Of the four disruptive technologies, Cloud and Big Data are the two most top of mind for CIOs, the former because it has the potential to enhance agility and productivity while enabling efficiencies and reducing costs and the latter because it derives insights that drive competitive advantage and increases revenues. As the two continue to grow in relevance and importance to enterprise IT, and indeed to the enterprise as whole, it is only natural that they begin to intersect with the cloud becoming the optimal platform for the delivery of Big Data capabilities, either in-house through the use of IaaS/PaaS or out-of-house through SaaS or Analytics as a Service. IT departments and the CIOs that lead them then need to look to their Big Data and Cloud strategies and determine how best to align them to leverage the advantages where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
Takeaways:
- Cloud computing is a fundamental enabler of big data and advanced analytics capabilities
- IT can, and must, become a leader in enterprise analytical capabilities by becoming a broker of cloud services
- Cloud can benefit big data and analytics in a variety of ways with a variety of different delivery models each scaled to individual needs
12:05 pm - 12:30 pm
Executive Exchange
Think Tank
NFV and SDN - Building the Network of the Future
Cloud has changed the way we build back-end systems, mobility has changed the way we build the front end too, and now the combination of Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and Software Defined Networking (SDN) is going to change the way we build networks. By allowing for the separation of control plane and data plane while simultaneously migrating both of those pieces to inexpensive commodity hardware we allow for the creation of more redundant, more dynamic, more efficient, and far less costly networks, eliminating a major bottle-neck to IT and service innovation. CIOs must begin investigating and implementing these technologies now to ensure they are on the leading edge of service delivery.
Takeaways:
- The traditional way of building networks is archaic and its lifespan limited " NFV and SDN promise far greater flexibility of cost effectiveness
- These technologies are admittedly early phase, but so were cloud and mobility when they began radically changing the technology landscape
- Now is the time to begin to invest in pilot projects, to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to leverage the technologies as they mature
Think Tank
Environmental Impacts of Circuits Everywhere
As the sensors that facilitate IoT technologies become smaller and cheaper, we rapidly approach the point where they can be freely dispersed " sown into the ground with crops, scattered into rivers with water flow, and embedded into the environment ubiquitously. However, these devices are still computers and so in many cases toxic to the environment due to their methods of construction. Enterprises will have to carefully weigh the pros of such embeddable technologies against the potential cons of environmental or public perception before considering large-scale adoption, or work with partners that are able to definitively address the potential environmental impacts with non-heavy metal and other toxic materials based technologies.
Takeaways:
- The promise of IoT for ubiquitous monitoring and sensing is very real and very appealing, but a significant potential downside exists
- Just because we can doesn't mean we should and enterprises must carefully weigh not just direct costs, but indirect costs of IoT deployments
- Wise businesses will find technology partners that can mitigate nascent concerns before they become hot button topics
12:35 pm - 1:20 pm
Networking Luncheon
1:25 pm - 1:50 pm
Executive Exchange
Think Tank
Moving from Operations to Transformations
The accepted number for the amount of the IT budget that is tied up in operational spend, in paying to maintain technology that has already been purchased, is 80% leaving only 20% for the IT department to use to drive new projects. Because this level of funding is so low, as much as 70% of IT sponsored projects fail. Yet IT departments are being constantly pushed to be innovative, to find a way to embrace new technologies and leverage them to drive business change. How can you do that when your time, money, and effort goes to just keeping the lights on? Join us as we collectively explore this issue and examine some of the successful strategies that are being leveraged by top IT leaders.
Takeaways:
- The pressure on CIO's to drive change has never been higher, but fortunately neither has the opportunity to do so
- Disruptive technologies don't just have the power to disrupt IT for the worse, they have the power to disrupt the business for the better
- Fortune favors the bold; now is the time to take a leap into new modes of business to break the operational spend stranglehold
Think Tank
Big Data, Small Data, and all the Data in Between
Increasingly over the last several years the term Big Data has become prevalent, to the point that it is invariably all anyone thinks of when data is mentioned at all. Often what we think of when we use the term Big Data is actually unstructured data " all the new data forms that enterprises have never collected before and are being overwhelmed by the possibilities of. But big/unstructured data is by no means the only data enterprises have and core structured or small data is often still the most relevant and valuable data an enterprise owns. As we collectively push forward into a more analytics-centric and therefore data-centric world what we need is a considered all-data strategy, one that incorporates big data, small data, master data, and meta data.
Takeaways:
- While Big Data is valuable, so is the rest of the data that an enterprise owns and consistent focus must be applied to all data forms and types
- A holistic data strategy that considers and the balances the needs of all data structures, types, needs, uses, and owners is essential for efficient and effective data operations
- For business that have not yet invested in Master Data Management, such a program is the ideal foundation for building a comprehensive data program
1:55 pm - 2:20 pm
Executive Exchange
Fireside Chat
Planning for a MultiCloud Future
The promise of the cloud is almost beyond compare; infinite computing resources, unmatched reliability and uptime, instantaneous service availability, simplistic self-service and provisioning, and the low-low prices of a buy by the drink model. These are the reasons behind the rush to the cloud that we are currently experiencing, but the wholesale adoption does bring a downside " as more and more capability is moved to the cloud, more and more cloud providers are utilized since, for the most part, each provider offers only a limited suite of services. The MultiCloud environment that creates a new set of challenges that IT leaders need to overcome, notably resiliency, interoperability/integration, and security and compliance through careful planning and the lessons learned from building complex on premise distributed systems.
Takeaways:
- As enterprises move to the cloud, MultiCloud environments will increasingly become the norm, not the exception
- Consistent planning and thoughtful architecture will be essential to efficient and effective cloud deployments
- IT leaders do not need to be alarmed, they've been down the complex environment path before, but they do need to be careful
2:25 pm - 2:50 pm
Executive Exchange
Executive Boardroom
Sourcing Enabled Business Transformation
Innovation is more than just a buzzword; it's fast becoming the mantra by which successful companies live. As enterprises strive to become ever more agile, offloading mundane responsibilities to sourcing partners can free the resources to become innovative. While beneficial, this really only scratches the surface as it still requires and relies on your resources to undertake that innovation journey. Partners that can bring innovation wherewithal to the table however, that can bake it directly into the service offering provide a greater opportunity to innovate. Understanding how such services can be integrated into your day to day operations, how they can spring board your innovation efforts, and how they can allow you to become truly transformational is essential to innovation success.
Takeaways:
- Transformational innovation often requires knowledge, insight, and data that you simply don't have the access to yourself
- A strong partner not only provides the opportunity to innovate, it also provides the resources to help make it happen
- By leveraging a single for both operational and transformational initiatives, significant economies of scale can be leveraged making innovation easier
Executive Boardroom
Defining Data Governance
Data volume, data variety, and data velocity have all grown exponentially over the last few years, the so-called Big Data explosion. And while this increased organizational focus on data, the information it contains, and the insights that can be gleaned from it promises tremendous opportunity, that opportunity isn't achieved without overcoming significant challenges. Whether it be the increased need for better data quality (an issue unresolved from the small data days), more efficient and effective data management, answering questions around data ownership vs. stewardship, or even increased regulatory pressure as a result of data security and data privacy, this increased focus on data has created an increased need for Data Governance. Join our panelists as we discuss the thorny issue of Data Governance: what it is, how it works, why you need it, and who should be responsible for it.
Takeaways:
- Data management issues have existed as long as data has existed but the Big Data boom has increased these challenges exponentially
- Resolving data management issues requires a strong data governance program to make rules, resolve issues, and enforce compliance
- Determining what to about data governance is the easy part, determining how and by whom it should be done will be the real challenge facing IT
2:55 pm - 3:20 pm
Executive Exchange
Think Tank
Leadership Considerations in a Multi-Generational World
Executives are currently facing a difficult challenge in terms of personnel management because they are dealing with three very different generational groups of workers " Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, and Millennials. These three groups all have very different outlooks on the world and on work, and all have very different work styles and capabilities. These differences lead to lack of understanding and conflict in a lot of cases, conflict that leaders must learn how to overcome. Smart leaders know that they need to leverage the differences between generations rather than expecting, and trying to force, everyone to be the same, and that building an integrated workforce, with complimentary skills and abilities, is the key to long-term workforce stability.
Takeaways:
- Boomers (1946 to 1964), Gen Xers (1965 to 1980), and Millennials (1981-2000) have had different life experiences which has given them different outlooks
- Each group has specific and unique strengths that can and should be brought to bear to improve the enterprise
- Building an integrated team that recognizes and rewards differences yields greater success than trying to homogenize everyone to the same standard
Think Tank
The Evolution of the Private Cloud
Once upon a time applications ran directly on physical hardware. Then the boxes got bigger and more capable and multiple applications were run on the same hardware. There were some resource constraints, but things in general became more efficient. Time passed, things evolved and virtualization was introduced, allowing enterprises to run even more applications even more efficiently on the same hardware. And then the cloud came on the scene, extending the virtualization model to the point that it looked like something completely different, to the point that it became true utility computing. Cloud computing is not just virtualization on a bigger scale and as CIOs prepare their organizations to dive into private clouds at an increasing rate, it is very important to understand what they are and are not, and how they differ from their forbear computer models with which we are all familiar.
Takeaways:
- Private clouds are big and becoming bigger, but calling something a private cloud and having it actually be one are different things
- While virtualization may be a core enabling technology of a private cloud, virtualizing an environment doesn't make it a cloud
- True private clouds have both pros and cons in relation to other compute models; they are not the be-all and end-all and careful consideration needs to be given before pushing ahead with private cloud deployment
3:25 pm - 3:35 pm
Afternoon Networking Coffee Break
3:40 pm - 4:05 pm
Executive Exchange
Innovation Showcase
An exclusive opportunity to be exposed to the hottest new solutions providers in a quick-hit format designed to whet the appetite and spark immediate interest.
4:10 pm - 4:35 pm
Executive Exchange
Think Tank
Disrupting Markets with Disruptive Technologies
While the combination of Social, Mobile, Analytics, and Cloud have been present and disrupting IT departments and enterprises as a whole for over two years now, in many ways organizations have still not fully embraced them, have still not fully leveraged them. These new platforms allow organizations radically new ways to go to market, allowing for broad scale deployment of systems of engagement that create dynamic relationships with clients and prospects. Finding the resources, wherewithal, and ability to fully commit to these technologies and the capabilities they create has proven to be a struggle for many, but a struggle that can be overcome by leveraging the right partners that bring the right skills and experiences to bear.
Takeaways:
- Social, Mobile, Analytics, and Cloud are all here to stay; each one adds value to enterprises but collectively that value increases exponentially
- The manner in which these technologies are implemented, operated, and utilized is different than the foregoing systems of record we are used to
- Unique skills and capabilities are required to leverage the power and value of these platforms, skills and capabilities that can be in short supply
Think Tank
Cloud Adoption Challenges on a Macro Level
The hype around the cloud is pervasive and can be potentially overwhelming but numerous studies have shown that tangible benefits can be had, whether in cost savings, efficiency improvements, or flexibility enhancements. That said numerous impediments exist to not just realizing that value, but even considering adoption; regulatory issues, integration challenges, business process revamp, and a dozen other challenges can halt cloud projects in their tracks before they get off the ground. In this group discussion we'll explore those inhibitors, understanding which challenges prevent adoption and what can be done to overcome them.
Takeaways:
- The cloud presents a significant opportunity to organizations and while most have adopted in some form or other, wholesale adoption still lags
- To realize benefits enterprises must deal with a variety of challenges each one requiring different solutions
- Industry by industry adoption is constrained for different reasons but do common solutions exist that can resolve issues across the board?
4:40 pm - 5:20 pm
Executive Visions
Facilitating Technology-Enabled Business Transformation
The role of the modern IT Executive is more complex than it has ever been before, not just because the technology landscape has become more complex, but also because increasingly IT execs have had to become a business-focused executive, not just a technologist. Long have we talked about the CIO and CISO getting a seat at the table but modern businesses are now demanding that their technology impresario join them and leverage his deep and rich technical acumen to allow the organization as a whole to better position itself for market-place success. To be successful, CxOs need to invest in themselves, in their personnel, and in the right technologies to allow them to position the IT department to proactively address business needs as an innovator and driver, rather than order-taker and enabler.
Takeaways:
- IT leadership can no longer be simply technology focused, but must instead take their visibility into business process and become business focused
- A broader business-focus does not preclude maintaining technology excellence however and indeed may demand more of it than ever before
- Success for CxOs will be measured not in how they can enable enterprise decisions, but in how they can drive growth
5:20 pm - 5:30 pm
Thank You Address and Closing Remarks
5:30 pm - 7:00 pm