Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Dr. Reed Sheard, CIO Of Westmont College (Part 2)

By Sramana Mitra and guest author Shaloo Shalini

SM: What e-mail system did Westmont College use before IT started exploring cloud-based solutions?

RS: We were using Postfix. It is an open source–based product, but our e-mail scale had grown so dramatically over the years and the storage behind it was getting problematic. >>>

Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Dr. Reed Sheard, CIO Of Westmont College (Part 1)

By Sramana Mitra and guest author Shaloo Shalini

In the multibillion-dollar market of higher education in the United States, we see an interesting trend whereby a combination of IT people and college communities are playing the role of an active “lead user” and using the cloud computing paradigm to make campus life simpler and information accessible for students through handheld devices. In this interview, we have some insights for you on evolutionary application integrations happening at Westmont and in higher education, from dispensing efficient IT infrastructure for effective collaboration to simplifying campus processes and other real-world tasks. During the interview, Sramana and Dr. Reed Sheard, VP and CIO of Westmont University College, discuss how Sheard has deployed cloud computing technologies and solutions to help the Westmont IT user community move to a higher level of service and helped the college IT team evolve to the next level in terms of business alignment. It is interesting to note that there has been explosive growth in the number of Apple devices in the higher education world, with applications taking a lead in terms of the user base compared to pure browser-based or Internet applications and the absence of Amazon’s Kindle, which is positioned as the textbook of the future in higher education but still needs a volume of textbooks to be made available on it and still lacks the ease with which iPad users can make notes and collaborate. >>>

Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Scott Martin, CIO Of Nonni’s Food Company (Part 7)

By Sramana Mitra and guest author Shaloo Shalini

Sramana: What do you see in terms of the broader evolution of the cloud computing adoption in your mid-market, say the $200 million–$500 million band? It seems to be an industry segment where cloud computing is a blessing, where you don’t have to spend as much money as the large billion dollar–plus enterprises do in acquiring IT solutions. With cloud computing, do you think that now you can access a lot more technology in a more affordable mode? >>>

Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Scott Martin, CIO Of Nonni’s Food Company (Part 6)

By Sramana Mitra and guest author Shaloo Shalini

Sramana: In the remaining time, I would like to brainstorm with you about what you see as potential entrepreneurial opportunities in the cloud computing domain. I run an initiative called 1 Million by 1 Million. It is an initiative to help a million entrepreneurs reach $1 million in revenue. We have a lot cloud computing entrepreneurs who are looking for insights from thought leaders in the industry on where are the opportunities in various domains. If you think both from a horizontal point of view and a technology domain point of view, for the CIO’s office in a mid-sized company and also from a CPG point of view, where do you see solutions that you would like to have but are not finding? >>>

Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Scott Martin, CIO Of Nonni’s Food Company (Part 5)

By Sramana Mitra and guest author Shaloo Shalini

Sramana: These third-party companies are the ones with which you already work. You are not bringing in third-party companies that are specific to different vendors and their technologies?

Scott: That is correct.

Sramana: I see. Is that because you trust these integration vendors?

Scott: We already have a business relationship; they are already passing data back and forth via these channels, so having another data pass is pretty simple for them, and cost effective.

Sramana: What about your consumer packaged goods (CPG) data-specific integration? Are there vendors, integration vendors out there that you work with that have CPG-specific domain knowledge? Is there such an advantage to be gained? >>>

Keeping It Legal: Preserving Documents In The Cloud

By guest author Mark Yacano

[We first covered the legal industry’s use of the cloud in an interview with Michael Aginsky of Gibbons P.C. Today, guest author Mark Yacano of Hudson Legal offers some practical advice on what CIOs, CTOs, and other technical staff at law firms and companies in the legal field can do to help protect their data and what they should consider when evaluating cloud vendors.]

While companies moving to the cloud often focus on cost and convenience, many have overlooked an area that may leave them exposed to major legal risks: Ensuring their ability to preserve and retrieve documents when a litigation hold has been issued and the duty to preserve potential relevant documents has been triggered. Whether company data is used or stored on internal systems or those owned by cloud providers, businesses can expect courts and regulators to hold them responsible for preserving and producing documents to meet their discovery and compliance obligations. >>>

Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Scott Martin, CIO Of Nonni’s Food Company (Part 4)

By Sramana Mitra and guest author Shaloo Shalini

Sramana: Let’s say a vendor came along and said that they would provide you exactly what your consumer packaged goods (CPG) specific analytics vendors are offering, that the same functionality, all that vertical domain knowledge, but with respect to CPG on top of SAP data or Oracle data, whatever you are using. If they offer you a private cloud offering customized for your needs but based on SAP and Oracle, what would be your response to that? >>>

Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Scott Martin, CIO Of Nonni’s Food Company (Part 3)

By Sramana Mitra and guest author Shaloo Shalini

Sramana: What is your strategy in terms of managing this manual piece? Is it something you are outsourcing or something you are off-shoring?

Scott: Right now, we are making it work manually with internal labor. As I said earlier, it is offsetting a lot of manual labor anyway. Some of the same people who are involved with that process internally are also involved in this process. >>>