After 5 years of cloud hype we have reached a point where real examples of the business benefits of the use of cloud, rather than using cloud services and technologies to replace ageing or costly on-premises infrastructure. In 2012, cloud services adoption is now being driven as much by business managers as it is by the CIO – with impacts and ramifications which can be understood and capitalised on by the agile CIO. To do this, an involvement with the entire cloud ecosystem becomes necessary. As well as the core skills of technology management, enterprise cloud sourcing needs extended sourcing management, scarce service management skills and provider management skills not often found in the average IT organisation.

By reference to IDC surveys and CIO feedback, this keynote presentation, and the conference agenda, examines the different components of the cloud service delivery model – from selecting and sourcing the service to maximising the value of the data collected from customer usage patterns.

The age old challenge - the ‘business’ thinks IT is slow and unresponsive; IT believes the business is immature and struggles to leverage new technology. Many Australian organisations are finding the cloud can be the bridge that unites the two. This session will examine, through real case studies, how Cloud is enabling Australian businesses to be first to adopt new technologies and then capitalise on the critical, early phase where they exploit the advances in Cloud for business benefit. We will look at the impacts of moving to cloud based models on people, process and architecture and in doing so, will find the common ground between the business and IT.

Organisations are driving more value from their data. How it is stored, managed and secured is critically important. The challenges for those responsible for this are relentless – how to maximise the investment in technology and differentiate is what keeps you awake at night if you’re a CIO.

With the proliferation of cloud computing, there is a way to have greater flexibility and improved efficiencies, unlocking an organisation’s potential with outsourced data centres. Because bandwidth now enables huge amounts of data can pass around long distances in next to no time, the industry is at a crossroads that will herald in a new age of procuring IT.

NEXTDC CEO Craig Scroggie will address the emancipation of CIOs, so they can focus on core business issues at the board level, no longer constrained by managing their own infrastructure. Scroggie will share his views on Cloud Economics and how economies of scale, freeing up of working capital and higher levels of automation, transparency and environmental diligence are at the fingers of today’s CIOs.

The future of data centres is here and it means organisations can truly focus on their core competencies and drive greater value from their hidden assets – their data.

Organisations across Australia are adopting cloud computing, whether that is private, public or a combination of the two with a hybrid cloud. As these organisations move into this new computing approach, open standards are becoming vital to avoid proprietary lock-in and provide a foundation for a reliable, scalable and manageable cloud.

In this presentation we will touch on the interconnected relationship between applications, services and cloud infrastructure and share our thoughts on managing the lifecycle of the latest technologies.

The presentation will also investigate building and moving your systems; whether they be on premises, off premises or a combination of the two. Open standards, open architecture and open source have created an innovation cycle that is enterprise ready and has demonstratable ROI.

Whilst many organisations have adapted to the arrival of Cloud, others are lagging behind caught up in corporate governance or policy confusion. Understanding a new approach to governance and service management is key to delivering through Cloud IT architectures. The Cloud strategy revolves around four key areas – employees, customers, suppliers and financial considerations.

Roles and responsibilities are shifting, IT purchases are being bypassed through the usual channels in order to be quickly implemented. What will this mean for the future of the CIO and the IT function as we know it today? How will you need to respond to manage the services across cloud to cloud boundaries? What are the skill gaps that are emerging? This presentation will be thought provoking and you will walk away with a new perspective on the future with Cloud.

This session will provide an overview of the legal issues and regulatory framework relevant to the cloud. This will include discussion of the legal environment which informs cloud solutions including in relation to information security risks, industry specific regulation and privacy obligations. The session will identify methods and considerations for managing these risks when conducting due diligence and when entering into cloud agreements including data protection and ownership, business continuity, jurisdictional, performance, and transition out issues.

A Q&A Session with,

David Hanrahan
General Manager - Cloud Services, Dimension Data

Greg Willis
Chief Technology Officer, Cudo

Johanna O´Rourke
Senior Associate, Corrs Chambers Westgarth Lawyers

Facilitated by
Chris Morris
Associate Vice President, Cloud Technologies and Services, IDC Asia Pacific