Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Interview with Vishnu Bhat, VP and Head of Cloud Services at Infosys (Part 1)

Vishnu Bhat is the vice president and head of cloud services at Infosys. Prior to coming to Infosys, Vishnu started his career in the instrumentation technology industry as an engineer. He taught instrumentation and computer science at the R V College of Engineering in Bangalore. In this interview, he talks about Infosys’ value proposition for enterprise clients in the field of hybrid cloud implementation and gives us insights into trends in the industry and the direction in which it is heading.

Sramana Mitra: Vishnu, let’s start with some background about yourself as well as your practice at Infosys. >>>

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Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Interview with Skip Smith, COO of Confluence (Part 1)

Skip Smith is the chief operating officer of Confluence. Skip has more than 25 years of experience as a technology & operations executive, having studied at the University of Maryland, and he has worked for companies such as Fiserv, JPMorgan Chase and PricewaterhouseCoopers. In this interview he talks about Confluence’s value proposition in the financial services space and introduces entrepreneurs to the problems and their possible solutions in the market.

Sramana Mitra: Skip, let´s start with an introduction of Confluence and of you. >>>

Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Interview with Tom Dibble, CEO of Aria Systems (Part 1)

Tom Dibble is the CEO of Aria Systems, a company that offers the unique cloud-based “Aria Subscription Billing Platform,” which enables enterprises to manage subscriptions and billing. Tom holds a degree in economics with honors from the Syracuse University and has more than 20 years of enterprise experience, having worked for Goldman Sachs and Company, BEA Systems, and Oracle. In this interview he shares with us the features of the Aria cloud-based platform and discusses examples of use cases for which the platform, including telecom, industry, and open source.

Sramana Mitra: Tom, tell us a bit about what Aria Systems does and what your background is. >>>

Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Interview with Rick Tinsley, Former CEO of Silver Peak (Part 1)

Rick Tinsley is the former chief executive officer of Silver Peak, a company that focuses on wide area network (WAN) optimization through the virtualization of networks. In this interview Rick talks about Silver Peak’s focus on accelerating data flow of enterprises over large distances. He also gives us insights into the future of the industry and his opinion on what startups should focus on when entering this space, and he discusses opportunities for investors in this space. >>>

Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Interview with Jason Blessing, CEO of Plex Systems (Part 1)

Jason Blessing is the chief executive officer of Plex Systems, a company offering America’s first and so far only ERP cloud service solution exclusively for manufacturers. Jason graduated from the University of Michigan and he has more than 20 years of experience in the IT industry. In this interview he talks about the unique offering of Plex Systems, and for what purpose mostly small and medium sized companies use it. He also shares insights into the future of the sector and how big data plays a big role in the manufacturing process. >>>

Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Interview with John Michelsen, CTO of CA Technologies (Part 1)

John Michelsen is the chief technology officer of CA Technologies. John studied at Trinity University and is considered one of the great innovators in business IT, with over 12 patents awarded to him. In this interview John talks about trends in the business IT world and how it has developed over the years. Furthermore, he discusses possibilities and opportunities for entrepreneurs and gives us his views on innovators in this space.

Sramana Mitra: John, let’s give our readers a bit of context about what is happening at CA these days. We had your predecessor, Don Ferguson, on one of our series a couple of years ago. When we started doing these series, there was still ambiguity on where the cloud movement was going and how much adoption there was in enterprises. Today there is no such ambiguity. >>>

Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Joel Young, Senior VP of Research & Development/Chief Technical Officer of Digi (Part 1)

Joel Young is the senior vice president of research & development and chief technical officer of Digi International, a machine-to-machine (M2M) solutions expert for improving business efficiencies. In this interview Joel talks about the integration of the company’s systems in businesses like Salesforce.com and future trends of “the Internet of Things.” According to Wikipedia, the Internet of Things refers to uniquely identifiable objects (things) and their virtual representations in an Internet-like structure.

Sramana Mitra: Joel, let’s start with context about Digi and also context about your background.

Joel Young: First of all, you probably haven’t thought of Digi as in cloud computing. We have been in business since 1985, and we were always in the device connectivity business. We make things that connect devices – originally, to servers or computers. As the world has evolved, we have evolved with it, so we started putting devices on networks. Our goal, since we were founded, has been to connect devices into an application. The world has evolved from serial ports to networks like Ethernet and local area networks (LANs). >>>

Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: A Second Conversation with Mark Settle, CIO of BMC (Part 1)

Mark Settle is the chief information officer of BMC, a Houston-based company that provides software solutions to any size business. Mark has been in this position for four years. Before BMC, he worked as CIO of Corporate Express and Arrow Electronics, and he was executive vice president of the Systems & Processing division of Visa. In this interview he explains new trends in cloud computing, big data management, and how these affect medium-sized and large businesses.

Sramana Mitra: Welcome back to the Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing series, Mark.  We have talked before, so our audience knows you. I think the last time we spoke was some time ago, and we were still trying to figure out how America or the world was looking at cloud computing as a trend. At this point, the trend is sweeping over the IT-infrastructures around the world.  There is no ambiguity – the trend is here to stay and cloud adaption is quite significant. In today’s conversation, I would like to address some specific issues which you have a lot of insight to. >>>

Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Joseph Beal, Chief Information Security Officer of CCSI (Part 1)

CCSi is a 20-year-old company that serves only the needs of the U.S. government. That’s quite a hefty client for anyone to handle. The U.S. government requires all the same types of support as any other organization. Since the information it handles is much more sensitive that what the average company does, CCSI has its work cut out for it.

Sramana Mitra: Hi, Joseph. Let’s start with your background as well as some context about CCSI. >>>

Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Chris Gatch, CTO of Cbeyond (Part 1)

It’s nice to have an IT team on staff, but that’s not affordable for all businesses, especially small and medium businesses. That’s where managed services providers like Cbeyond come in. They offer small and medium businesses the same level of services that they would receive with on-staff IT teams at a fraction of the overall cost.

Sramana Mitra: Hi, Chris. Let’s start with some context. What do you do? Where are you going directionally? What is your personal background? >>>

Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Steve Pavlovsky, Product General Manager, Control and Communications Systems Business, GE Intelligent Platforms (Part 1)

There’s more to General Electric (GE) than people might think. Founded in 1890 by Thomas Edison, the company has moved beyond providing electricity and light bulbs. As my conversation with Steve Pavlovsky will reveal, GE continues to move forward and adapt with changing times in ways that Edison would likely approve of.

Sramana Mitra: Hi, Steve. Let’s start with your personal background and the organization within GE, GE Intelligent Platforms, that you’re part of. >>>

Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Elizabeth Cholawsky, General Manager of IT Support Product Line, Citrix (Part 1)

We’ve featured Citrix on the blog before. This time, we’re going to discuss the wonderful things that Citrix is doing in the cloud.

Sramana Mitra: Hi, Elizabeth. Let’s start with a bit of your personal background as well as what Citrix is doing in the area of cloud-based support.

Elizabeth Cholawsky: Right now I am the general manager for the IT support line of business at Citrix, which includes all of the GoToAssist branded products. I took this position a couple of years ago, but when I first joined Citrix, I was the VP of product management and client services. Client services runs through my career for the past 20 plus years. When we decided to focus on IT support, it was a natural segue from running our contact center operations and support operations to managing the business for these products. >>>

Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Mike Toplisek, EVP, Product and Marketing, EarthLink (Part 1)

Although you don’t have to forget what you already know about EarthLink, you will have to adjust your thinking a bit. Today, EarthLink is an IT services, network, and communications provider that serves more than a million consumers, with more than 150,000 business customers spread throughout the United States. Cloud computing is the wave of the future, and the executives at EarthLink know that and they want to get their own share of that innovative, ever-changing pie.

Sramana Mitra: Hi, Mike. Let’s start with a bit of context about EarthLink and your activities in the cloud. >>>

Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Jesse Lipson, Founder and CEO, ShareFile by Citrix (Part 1)

File sharing in the business world has become as common as sending email with attachments. In 2005, when Jesse Lipson launched ShareFile, that was not the case. Lipson founded ShareFile in the days before cloud computing was all the rage. By the time Citrix acquired ShareFile in October 2011, the 100% bootstrapped company had grown from one employee to 165.

Sramana Mitra: Hi, Jesse. Let’s start with some context about you, ShareFile, and your acquisition by Citrix. >>>

Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Alex Osipov, CTO of OS33 (Part 1)

No longer the wave of the future, cloud computing has become an integral part of the way we live and work. Companies like OS33 have capitalized on the growing importance of cloud computing by positioning themselves to help those who help the end users, specifically, managed services providers (MSP). A completely cloud-based IT delivery automation platform, OS33 allows MSPs to more easily deliver and manage the IT solutions they provide for their clients. With the aid of OS33, end users receive a customizable Webtop graphical user interface (GUI) that provides a single unified interface that can access all company applications, data and services via a connected computer regardless of location.

Sramana Mitra: Hi, Alex. Let’s start with some context about OS33 and about you. >>>