IN FOCUS Seminar
Cloud Computing CPI’s two day cloud event saw combination of end user and vendor presentations on the merits of progress into this new paradigm
Tibor Loncsar, director of strategy and operations for IT at DWTC
Ali Radhi, head of IT at MBC Group
Cloud computing in the region still immature, and there are several challenges that exist in the region. Nevertheless, there is constant innovation and improvement that is taking place, and we are likely to see dramatic improvements in the near future. This was the conclusion of the speakers of Cloud Congress 2011. At the opening keynote, Tibor Loncsar, director of strategy and operations for IT at DWTC explained the hybrid model used by his organisation and how they have profited from it. “DWTC uses a hybrid cloud for its corporate email and we have been pleasantly surprised by the results. The primary concern was the inter operability and the ability to
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Reseller Middle East
october 2011
Dr Hazem Turki El-Khatib, IT director at the Department of Finance in Abu Dhabi
have it function with internal infrastructure. With everything in place now the hybrid cloud provides continuity, quick recovery, security filtering and archiving,” said Loncsar. Ali Radhi, head of IT at MBC Group started the tracks with his session on cloud optimisation focusing on interoperability and standardisation. He drew from his own experiences at MBC to illustrate the points he made during his presentation. “MBC has been deploying cloud solutions for the last three years. We have moved from private to hybrid to private over the years, and interoperability has been a major issue,” said Radhi. Mohamed Roushdy, CIO of Siraj Finance discussed the various ROI models that could be used to evaluate cloud providers and solutions, and expanded on the methods in which endusers could profit from their cloud investments in the shortest possible time. “Bringing about a cultural change within the organisation is the most difficult element in any cloud computing project. Convincing the CEO, CFO and other business heads that this could potentially help the business, and some of the issues can be handled for the betterment of the company is a huge change management project. Half the success of any cloud computing project simply depends on getting
this sign-off from the higher management,” he stressed during his session. Organisations should not be deterred by challenges. They should understand business needs and invest in a model that suits you, he added. Mike Tsalidis, server and tools business group lead for Microsoft MEA discussed cloud for the greater good, and improving productivity with cloud investments during his session. While detailing the main differences between private and public clouds, Tsalidis also gave shape to the company’s cloud strategy and solutions.
Mohamed Roushdy, CIO of Siraj Finance
Talking about linking cloud strategy to IT strategy, Javed Abbasi, director of IT and operations at Gisba Group from Saudi Arabia said, “Aligning IT strategy to business is very different from integrating IT strategies with business. Without strategy, IT is untamed.” He added, “With relation to the cloud people often forget that the service depends on a physical data centre. Organisations must understand and verity the infrastructure operations and management processes that the provider has in place.” “There is a lot of difference between a local cloud partners and a strategic cloud partner. The maturity of enterprises and partners are not mature enough to move there yet. But