An increasingly mobile workforce, a growing influx of consumer devices at work and the rapid transition of cloud computing from buzzword to reality are all having a huge impact on business value delivery in today's enterprise. These trends bring with them tensions in the CIO role around enablement vs. security, agility vs. integration, and business vs. IT in technology resource control. In this engaging panel discussion with prominent local CIOs from a variety of industries, you’ll hear how their companies are managing these tensions as they update their technology roadmaps, compete for new customer bases and respond more quickly to the demands of business in a hyper-connected online world.

Discussion Table:
Sharing Perspectives on Two Transforming Trends: Mobile Internet and Cloud Services
Hosted by Juniper Networks

Today's data centers stand at the epicenter of powerful technological and economic trends. Just as other core areas of the IT organization are evolving to meet the demands of an Internet-enabled world, networks must prepare to make a significant leap forward into cloud computing. By rethinking traditional legacy approaches, it’s possible for businesses to refresh their data center networks to offer greater economies of scale, improved application service levels, simpler management and even lower costs. In this Q&A interview with CIO's Editor in Chief, you'll hear from Mike Rose, former CIO of Royal Dutch Shell, with some in-the-trenches advice on the most critical steps IT organizations need to take now to meet the coming wave of data center challenges.

All organizations are under pressure to maintain or reduce IT budgets while also pursuing new business initiatives. To meet this challenge, CIOs must find ways to wring additional efficiencies from already stressed IT organizations and assets. One key area to consider is your software estate. Software has become a strategic asset for most organizations and typically represents 20 to 35% of the IT Budget. Enterprise License Optimization is a strategic, next generation software asset management solution that drives IT cost reduction on software licenses and maintenance. These software savings can be used to fund new business initiatives at a time when other budgetary options may not exist. 

Cloud technologies are creating an inflection point where many enterprises must at least consider hosting alternatives for even the most mission-critical websites and applications. And while cloud may be available for everyone, it is not the best choice for everything. In this breakout session, Rackspace Hosting will demystify the cloud by sharing how enterprise customers are adopting cloud computing for various types of applications. Learn how a hosted solution can enable your organization’s innovation by cost-effectively overcoming the challenges of scaling, availability and performance. Rackspace will also share information about OpenStack™, a game-changing open-source cloud platform designed to foster the emergence of technology standards and cloud interoperability. 

In this problem-solving workshop run by our CIO Executive Council, CIO Christian Anschuetz of Underwriters Laboratories will share some of his challenges in managing the culture changes needed to move this 117-year-old company from a service model to that of information broker. To provide clients with knowledge based on the data the company holds from its product testing, all employees—not only those in IT—must become comfortable with handling, analyzing and acting upon digital information. In small discussion groups, attendees will have the chance to evaluate UL's situation and weigh in with their own experiences, lessons and recommendations. The workshop concludes with each table reporting out its best advice.

In this entertaining and eye-opening exchange, you'll have the chance to meet some remarkable young people who have recently entered the IT profession via i.c.stars, a Chicago-based workforce development organization. This panel of entry-level IT talent will weigh in with their perspectives on what attracted them to this industry, what challenges they face, and what they hope to accomplish. Panel moderator Dave Patzwald, now an entrepreneur and formerly VP of IT at Schneider Electric, will keep the conversation flowing in both directions on everything from the impact of globalization and outsourcing on young people's career paths to their social media habits and workplace expectations.