Executive Insights: An Interview with Scott Skellenger, Sr. Director of Global IS at Illumina

While in San Francisco for a significant industry conference in mid-September, Alex Bakker and I had a chance to sit down with Scott Skellenger, Senior Director, Global Information Services at Illumina – an innovative genomics / life sciences company.

In a brief “Executive Insights” video interview posted on YouTube, Skellenger shares his insights and experience concerning the coming inflection point for Cloud adoption and the change in the customer-facing nature of business applications within enterprise IT.

Additionally, he provides some strategic guidance, based on his experiences at Illumina with BYOD and loosely-coupled IT architectures. Skellenger also shares his recommendation to reduce customization where possible, a tactic that helps preserve flexibility and reduces the lag in adopting new technologies. The interview closes with best practice guidance for other senior IT leaders starting on the journey to the Cloud.

We offer this Executive Insights video as a prelude to the exciting program we are assembling for this year's Cloud Business Summit, to be held on November 14, 2012, at the Westin Times Square in New York City. This is the fourth in a series of video interviews that we are producing, and posting to YouTube, as we introduce our readers to some of the speakers and panelists who will be sharing their insights and experience at the conference.

Skellenger will be participating in the afternoon Cloud Apps/Platforms panel at the Cloud Business Summit (in a session entitled "Cloud Business Applications and Platforms: A New Paradigm").This one-day executive forum brings together CIOs, CTOs and senior business leaders from mid-and-large size enterprises -- across a wide range of industries -- to explore how they can and are realizing value from the Business Cloud.

To learn more about the conference, including information about how to register for the event, go to www.cloudbusinesssummit.com, or email Chris MacGregor.

Mr. McNee is the President and CEO of Saugatuck Technology, a subscription research and advisory firm focused on emerging industry trends and disruptive technologies driving change in enterprise IT. Over the past few years, Mr. McNee has helped spearhead the firm's research into evolving business models as a result of the shift to software-as-a-service (SaaS) and Cloud Computing. More recently, he has been actively involved in launching the firm’s CIO-targeted Cloud migration / leadership practice.

Prior to founding the firm in 1999, Mr. McNee spent eleven years with Gartner, Inc., most recently as Group Vice President and Research Fellow, responsible for guiding the firm's overall research strategy. A recognized expert in enterprise software and related business / IT services, Mr. McNee spent five years leading Gartner's Business / IT Management practice as its Director of Research, focusing on CIO governance, IT sourcing models and e-commerce management strategies. Prior to this role, he was a lead analyst focusing on enterprise business applications, and asset management strategies. Prior to Gartner, Mr. McNee held strategic planning, financial management and marketing positions at CBS, HBO, Comshare and the Institute for Social Research.

A frequent speaker at industry conferences, Mr. McNee has published hundreds of articles and consulted with thousands of business and IT executives, and vendor clients around the globe.

Mr. McNee is a University of Michigan alumnus, and has completed graduate work in economics at New York University. Since 2001, he has been a Board or Advisory Board member for the Westport Public Library.

Follow Mr. McNee on Twitter at @billmcnee.

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