Thunderstorm in the Cloud: The Great Integration Challenge of Cloud Computing : August 31 2010

This evening event is part of IBF Media’s Technology Series and brings timely information on the latest trends to senior technology and IT professionals as well as venture investors looking for investment opportunities. The current event will focus on the integration challenges that small and large enterprises face in implementing the cloud in their organizations.

Integration is one of the ugly sides of cloud computing and one of the technology’s biggest challenges. However, integration issues can be addressed with proper tools, planning and good technology. You have to consider the fundamentals of integration first, including the ability to connect with both source and target systems, such as Salesforce.com and SAP, or Amazon EC2 and Oracle, and then how to extract data from the source system, mediate the semantics and technical differences, and publish the data to the target.

Of course, although cloud-to-enterprise integration is the typical pattern, we're now seeing cloud-to-cloud integration as well, plus very complex integration paths that can span dozens of on-premise and/or cloud computing-based systems. These patterns of integration are going to become more complex as cloud computing becomes more pervasive. There are a few ways to address this integration need, including software-based on-premise integration tools, on-premise appliance-based integration tools, and the cloud-delivered integration tools.

This event presents and discusses one of the key challenges of cloud computing, which is integration. One of the fundamental issues facing CIO and technology professionals today is meshing the public and private cloud infrastructures, including the application layer. The panel will be composed of luminaries from the technology industry, successful venture investors from the Indian venture capital world as well as IT professionals from companies in India that are facing the integration challenges head on and competing in this space to win customers.

Speakers

Sharad Sharma ,Entrepreneur in Residence, Canaan Partners

Sharad Sharma joined Canaan Partners as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence in 2009, bringing over two decades of experience as a successful entrepreneur, technology industry executive, and a software engineer to his role as Canaan's ìfire starter . Sharad works closely with Canaan Partners investment professionals to identify and advance promising infrastructure technologies on a global basis. Sharad has a keen sense of which software innovations have the clear potential to become widely used, business-critical applications.

Before joining Canaan, Sharad served as CEO of Yahoo! India R&D, where he was responsibile for product engineering for emerging markets and led the development of several global products and platforms (including image search, search monetization, HotJobs, participation platforms and feed platforms). Earlier in his career, Sharad was co-founder and CEO of Teltier Technologies, a New Jersey-based wireless infrastructure startup that became the leader in the presence and availability management industry and is now part of Cisco. Prior to co-founding Teltier, Sharad managed product development teams at Lucent Technologies, both in US and India. He also set up AT&T (and later Lucent Technologies’ R&D organizations in India in the mid-90s, at a time when offshore product development was just getting underway.

Sharad started his career with DCM Data Products in the company’s software R&D group in New Delhi, where he worked on developing UNIX server platforms based on the i86 architecture. Later, he had a stint as an early-stage employee with an Apple-supported startup, where he learned the hard way how the absence of marketing skills can derail even the best product business.

Sharad holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering. He is currently Chairman of video software startup Movico Technologies. He previously served as a Board Director at Australian media venture Yahoo! and at BharatMatrimony, the world's number-one online matrimony site. Passionate about cloud computing, Sharad chairs the NASSCOM Product Forum, actively mentors emerging enterprise startups, and speaks frequently on software industry issues.

Krishnakumar Natarajan CEO and Managing Director, Mindtree Ltd.

Krishnakumar Natarajan (KK) is the CEO and Managing Director of MindTree. In this capacity, he has the overall responsibility of both the IT Services and the R&D services businesses of the organization.

Until recently, KK served as President & CEO – IT Services for MindTree. One of co- founders, KK is responsible for taking the company’s IT Services to a global leadership position.

In the early years of MindTree, KK moved to the U.S. to launch its operations in the region and was instrumental in acquiring some of the early customers for the organization. He then drove MindTree’s expansion into Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Australia. As a result of his leadership, MindTree has added several Fortune 500 companies to its client list and has now grown to make a guidance of $186 million business for 2007-08.

Prior to co-founding MindTree, KK was Chief Executive of the Electronic Commerce & Financial Solutions Division at Wipro, and held several other key positions in the same organization from 1982 until 1999. During the growth phase of Wipro’s software business, KK started and grew the e-commerce division of Wipro, developing a team of 300 people and generating $30 million in revenues annually. Earlier , while serving as Group Vice President of human resources, KK increased the number of employees in Wipro’s software services business from 800 to over 4,000 people.

KK has been elected to the Executive Council of NASSCOM for three consecutive terms and works towards strengthening India’s position in IT through key strategic global initiatives. At NASSCOM, he also chairs the ‘Emerging Companies’ Forum , helping the Indian IT Industry build a globally competitive ecosystem comprising of both large and emerging companies.

KK is also an active member of professional industry organizations such as the Manufacturer’s Association for Information Technology and the Confederation of Indian Industry. He is a regular speaker/faculty at reputed conferences and management schools worldwide.

KK earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the College of Engineering, Madras, India, and a Master’s in Business Administration majoring in marketing and systems from the Xavier Institute, Jamshedpur, India. Golf and travel rank high among his interests.

Mr. T C Meenakshisundaram Founder & Managing Director, IDG Ventures India

Meenakshisundaram (TCM) is Founder, Managing Director of IDG Ventures India. He currently serves on the Boards of Apalya Technologies, Aujas Networks, ConnectM Technology Solutions and iCreate Software. TCM has over 19 years of operation and Venture investing experience. Previously, TCM was with Walden International’s India investment team working on investments in companies such as Mindtree Consulting, Venture Infotek, Jobstreet and Webvisions, across a range of technology sectors.

Prior to joining IDG Ventures India, TCM served as Chief Financial Officer and President - Corporate Services at Venture Infotek, a leading payments processing company in India. TCM is a Charter Member of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE). He is a Chartered Accountant by qualification

Ram Subramanian Country Manager, SuccessFactors Business Solutions India Pvt. Ltd.

Mr. Krishna Ramaswami Head Strategic Services, ZenSar Technologies

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