On November 9, 2012, Saugatuck held its 2^nd annual Cloud Business Summit at the Westin Times Square in New York City. As with our inaugural event, this year’s conference brought together large-enterprise CIOs, CTOs and senior business leaders to explore what is possible, what is real, and what is not in the Cloud today.

In this Featured panel, entitled “Cloud Business Applications and Platforms: A New Paradigm”, Saugatuck founder and CEO Bill McNee leads a discussion focused on where SaaS application demand is headed, the changing role of ISVs and enterprise architecture, and what the platform of the future will look like. The panel also explores the blurring of the lines between the business and IT, and how SaaS is helping to accelerate time to market for many user organizations. Joining McNee on the panel are Colleen Smith, VP at Progress Software, Scott Skellenger, Sr. Director at Illumina, Joe McKendrick, Blogger at Forbes and ZDNet, Ali Shadman, SVP at Infor.

Bring your own technology (BYOT) – the practice of allowing employees to bring their own devices, applications, clouds, and services is expanding within the enterprise. Though at many companies the focus is still on devices, we see the associated host of other technologies as a close follower, complicating the tasks of enterprise IT to both plan for, and manage their own data security while still enabling work on these devices.

Going through the benefits and concerns that BYOT policies present, often looks like an argument that suggests an immediate ban on BYOT is the only viable solution. Though the reduction in capital expenses on the devices themselves might be compelling for some users, the added complexity of managing more types of devices and more data makes this seem like an uneven trade. Additionally, because the devices are not company owned, but still personal, the management of the device must be more subtle – meaning that the simple approach of complete device lockdown in not viable.

What is Happening?  This year’s IBM Connect event – formerly Lotusphere – clearly affirms and confirms IBM’s company-wide and –deep commitment to the inextricably intertwined IT and business realities of Cloud, Mobile, Social, Analytics, and Integration.

The event’s over-arching theme of “Social Business” established two years ago has taken hold and permeates IBM’s product and service positioning and messaging. We see IBM’s key positioning tenets of “Social Business,” “Innovation,” and “Transformation” continually carrying the message to the attendees.

On November 9, 2012, Saugatuck held its 2^nd annual Cloud Business Summit at the Westin Times Square in New York City. As with our inaugural event, this year’s conference brought together large-enterprise CIOs, CTOs and senior business leaders to explore what is possible, what is real, and what is not in the Cloud today.

In Part II of this Featured panel entitled “The Reality of Cloud Analytics and Business”, Saugatuck’s Bruce Guptill (SVP and Head of Research) leads a panel of distinguished F100 business and IT leaders focusing on how important it is for IT to partner with (rather than just be a provider to) the business to achieve lasting success. However, both parties need to look at development as an agile process, to ensure that the deployment of advanced analytic technologies continues to deliver quick-hit and actionable guidance that might have a tangible impact to the business. Smaller, more agile projects usually deliver more results. Joining Guptill on the panel are Michael Lemberger, VP Business Insights Group at American Express, Nithin Johnson, VP at Citi, Will Klancko, Global Data Management Leader at GE Energy Management.

On November 9, 2012, Saugatuck held its 2^nd annual Cloud Business Summit at the Westin Times Square in New York City. As with our inaugural event, this year’s conference brought together large-enterprise CIOs, CTOs and senior business leaders to explore what is possible, what is real, and what is not in the Cloud today.

In Part I of this Featured panel entitled “The Reality of Cloud Analytics and Business”, Saugatuck’s Bruce Guptill (SVP and Head of Research) leads a panel of distinguished F100 business and IT leaders focusing on how data analytics is becoming integrative in all aspects of business management. The panelists emphasize the explosion of data that is now available, and how the Cloud is becoming a cost effective platform to gain access to it – at the same time that it is also helping to turn that data into actionable insight (with myriad new tools and techniques becoming available). However, the panelists emphasize the critical need to thoroughly understand the business goals of new big data projects to make sure that they stay on track. The panel closes with a discussion of how analytics is emerging as a hybrid business / IT process, requiring new forms of collaboration to foster success. Joining Guptill on the panel are Michael Lemberger, VP Business Insights Group at American Express, Nithin Johnson, VP at Citi, Will Klancko, Global Data Management Leader at GE Energy Management.