Cloud buzzword of the day: PaaS - platform as a service. With so many so-called best-of-breed software solutions floating around, it feels like we are back in the siloed ‘90s. Industry futurists say that PaaS can tie them all together. So, are you ready to boost your company’s status from mere-mortal best-in-class to first-mover advantage and beyond? Our experts speak: Chris Horak: “Technology is king. Content is King Kong.” Frank Scavo: “You don't get a pass just because you're SaaS. Jon Reed: “It's not about product suites, it's about the platform! Join us for their in-depth insights on Cloud 3.0: Is It All in the PaaS?

The cloud. Shopping for cloud solutions based solely on price? Look deeper, say the experts. Jeff Anders: “Nearly everyone is under the gun to save money and looking for that ‘silver bullet’ to solve their problem, but even the most skilled hunter can shoot himself in the foot sometimes. Cost is only one factor when trying to decide between public, private and hybrid cloud solutions.” Allan Krans: “It may be time to rethink everything you know about private cloud. Current stereotypes of private cloud as the secure and more costly alternative to public cloud are rapidly eroding as adoption grows…many early adopters are already achieving costs on par or lower compared with public cloud benchmarks...” Xavier De Romagna: If hybrid cloud is here to stay...what are the implications?” Madhuri Chawla: “Cloud computing – is it an evolution or a revolution?” Join us for more insights on Best Bang for your Buck: Private, Public, or Hybrid Cloud?

Business Intelligence (BI). In 1989, Howard Dresser proposed BI to describe “concepts and methods to improve business decision making by using fact-based support systems.” Yes, your company needs BI to survive, but now you have to choose between on-premise BI – inflexible, complex – and cloud or SaaS BI – more agile, affordable, accessible. And if you opt for cloud, is it mature or trustworthy enough yet? The experts debate. Cindi Howson: “Cloud BI promises to make on-premise installations obsolete, much to the fear of traditional IT departments. CIOs love cloud BI; it’s the worker bees that fear it.” Mico Yuk: “When referring to SaaS BI, Gartner says, ‘Cloud offerings will make up just 3 percent of business intelligence (BI) revenue by 2013, as user adoption will lag far behind the expectations of vendors.’” Ilan Frank: “Want to dip your toes into cloud BI? Try prototyping your on-premise BI using a cloud BI solution.”

Mobile Moments. According to Mary Meeker’s 2012 annual Internet trends report, 2.3 billion people are globally connected by the Internet, almost 3 % of all US adults own a tablet, and mobile is the source of 8% of all e-commerce. These trends can mean opportunity or catastrophe for your business. Which will it be? Our experts weigh in:

Women in IT. True or false: Gender diversity in the information technology workforce enables better decision making, increased creativity, and innovative performance? We’ll ask the experts. Emily Jasper: “When you talk about women in IT, two different conversations are going on: women in computing roles versus women in leadership. Solutions that address one area may actually hinder the other.” Marilyn Kibler-Colón: “Women are excellent leaders because they understand the business issues and they know how to build relationships and collaborate throughout all levels of the organization to drive and implement the technical solutions.” Sherryanne Meyer: “’There’s no crying in baseball!’ Tom Hanks as Jimmy Dugan flipping out on right-fielder Evelyn Gardner for costing the team the league.” Tracey Arnish: “As women we must be the masters of our own destiny and we must take ownership for the strengths we bring as transformational leaders.” Join us for Women In IT: Gender diversity at work.

Shadow IT. Rogue IT. Call it what you will, it’s still a force lurking outside traditional IT. Our June 14 panel had so much to say that we’re continuing the discussion around these experts’ insights: Steve Romero: “If the business fulfilled its obligation to govern IT, there would be no Shadow IT.” Judson Wickham: “If Shadow IT can provide dashboards and charts that executives can twirl around on their iPad, they don’t care about the source of the information.” Jeff Kaplan: “CIOs are no longer in control of software and technology procurement decisions in their organizations, whether they like it or not.” Greg Chase: “We’ve all heard the complaints from the business: IT is too slow, not aligned with business strategy, at the same time too controlling and inflexible. Really what we need is a redefinition of the relationship between business and IT.” Join us for more on Me and My Shadow: IT Gone Rogue – Part 2. p.s. Take your Coffee Break with Game-Changers every Wed. 8 AM Pacific on the Business Channel.

HR globalization. An inevitable challenge as your marketplace changes and new opportunities arise, perhaps in maturing countries. But are you and your employees ready to venture out of your home base comfort zone, to do business among other cultures around the globe? The experts have a lot to say. Emily Jasper: “Globalization is centralizing how we do business, bringing us to a new universal model. Comparative advantage will go to those with emphasis on great talent and innovation, not on geographic boundaries.” China Gorman: “Globalization is first about mindset and second about customers. Absent both of these, organizations won’t be global–they’ll be local with global aspirations. And they won’t be competitive.” Dr. Steven Hunt: “Culture can be used as a convenient excuse for the failure of poorly designed and deployed processes.” Join us for HR Globalization: Ready or Not?

Start-ups. A bad time to launch one? Not! Technology is helping start-ups disrupt the status quo and become real economic game-changers. Louis Leporace, Next Principles: “Companies that fail to successfully incorporate social media, analytics, and big data into their business today will be the dinosaurs of their industry in three to five years.” Joe Hyland, Taulia: “We can make real time funding decisions, all within the cloud, by analyzing millions of buyer-supplier relationships in a split second to find the right financing rate and options for the requesting supplier.” Pan Kamal, AlertEnterprise: “With predictive risk analytics...organizations can now analyze risk almost instantaneously and take proactive steps to prevent malicious threats before they manifest.” Daniel Quirk, Dell: “In-memory computing allows access to data in ways not previously possible and will change how we look at data and analyze business.” Join us for Start-ups and Technology: Real Game-Changers

Cloud. More than just another delivery mechanism for same-old enterprise software, the cloud facilitates peer2peer collaboration at new altitudes, with surprising benefits. The experts discuss this important game-changer. Michael Krigsman: “Cloud embodies new relationships and the promise of business and IT finally getting their act together for working in alignment and toward common goals. The cloud brings a technology shift, but also a change in mindset and culture.” Kare Anderson: “To connect and collaborate, speak sooner to the strongest sweet spot of mutual benefit.” Sherryanne Meyer: “I can tell you with confidence that your peers are always going to tell you what’s real. Like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, we all need friends to accompany us on the journey – to solve the problems, to prevent the mishaps, to figure out how to get out of Oz.” Are you on board yet? Tune in for more insights on It's YOUR Cloud: Peer2Peer Networking Communities

Cloud. A handful of applications may give you fast growth, cost-effective innovation, new agility - but siloed, disconnected clouds and on-premise databases won’t talk to each other or to you. What to do? Lauren Nelson / Forrester: “For most enterprises today, cloud environments remain isolated from other cloud and non-cloud environments due primarily to a lack of standards. Looking forward, it will be a combination of vendors, open source initiatives, and standards bodies that will enable this connection.” Nayaki Nayyar / SAP: “As companies evolve from on-premise to cloud applications, integration between OP-OD (on-premise–on-demand) and OD-OD applications will be key for successful cloud deployments. Companies with a solid integration strategy and architecture will evolve to the cloud faster.” Sven Denecken / SAP: “By 2016, 75 percent or more of new enterprise IT spend will be cloud-based or hybrid.” Tune in for more insights on Integrating the Clouds: The perfect storm.

True or False: Your company is too large - or too small - for cloud computing. Answer: False! Learn why from our panelists: Sina Moatamed: “Enterprises that are willing transform into lean, agile, and highly competitive organizations will understand and embrace the cloud regardless of their size or industry. Cloud will finally weave IT into the fabric of business.” David Sweetman: “The scalability, affordability, consistency and accessibility of cloud solutions is good for large and small companies.” Steve Romero: “Large enterprises could be making a huge mistake by ’playing it safe’ and steering clear of ‘risky’ cloud computing while their SMB (small and medium-size business) counterparts go ‘all-in on the cloud’ – taking advantage of low barriers-to-entry, cost-savings, agility, flexibility and the ability to drive rapid business innovation.” Tune in for more of their expert insights on The Cloud: Right-Sized Game-Changer for Your Company

Is your company culture ‘social’ yet? It’s the new game-changer in business and we hope you’re not missing out. Dr. Natalie Petouhoff: “What if your CEO said, ‘I don’t want employees talking to each other. I want people to work by themselves and not collaborate. I don’t care about what customers say. We should be insular and not take any feedback from employees or customers! That’s how we will beat the competition!’?...Unfortunately, many businesses – while not saying this – are explicitly running this way.” Brent Leary: “Successful companies are leveraging social tools and processes throughout the entire organization – not just in marketing and promotion.” Heather Davis: “Having a defined strategy and clear metrics in place is vital to realizing the business benefits of deploying social collaboration tools in the workplace.” Sameer Patel: “Social Business forgot about the ‘Business’ part. Hear more insights on Social Enterprise: New Collaborative Business Culture in the Cloud.

As if cloud computing weren’t disruptive enough, there’s a force lurking outside traditional IT: ‘Shadow IT’ or, worse, “Rogue IT”. The experts have a lot to say: THINKstrategies’ Jeff Kaplan: “Most CXOs don’t know how many SaaS/Cloud apps are being used in their organizations.” SAP’s Greg Chase: “What is new is consumerization of IT, or really, IT-ization of the consumer – basically we’re all digital natives now. Individuals are making their own IT choices to get their work done.” SuccessFactors’ Paul Stuker: “The cost of Rogue IT is tiny compared to the hidden cost of non-secure, non-available mission-critical applications.” Consultant Steve Romero: “Business users have been ‘going around’ corporate IT for years. IT needs to accept and embrace shadow IT and leverage it to foster a collaborative relationship with the business.” Join us for more insights on Me and My Shadow: IT Gone Rogue. p.s. Take your Coffee Break with Game-Changers every Wed. 8 AM Pacific on the Business Channel.

Where were you at 10:26 am GMT on Jan. 22, 2011? That’s when the 10 billionth app was downloaded from the Apple App Store. Apple’s iconic success paved the way for how your business and, more importantly, your employees now access software. Alan Lepofsky notes, Via the App Store and the ‘There's an app for that’ marketing campaign, Apple rapidly changed the way people add features and functions to their mobile devices...Now that same approach is making inroads in the business world.” Adrian Drury adds, The growing adoption of the ‘App Store’ application distribution, retail and merchandising UI model speaks to...the opportunity these devices present to the application service providers to allow any employee to self-select their own stack of productivity-focused applications to use in the workplace. For Dan Maloney, Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen’s WSJ.com blog title says it all: “Why software is eating the world.” Join us for Shop The Cloud: The Rise of Enterprise Apps Stores.

Jacques Cousteau and Emile Gagnan. William Proctor and James Gamble. Bill Gates and Paul Allen. Their collaborative innovative solutions delighted their respective markets. How can your business co-innovate with the people who best understand what your audiences want? Look to the cloud. Sherryanne Meyer quotes Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz: “Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore.” She adds, “The old way of working will no longer work. The cloud is an enabler... sort of a new industrial revolution or renaissance in business.” Michael Krigsman agrees. “In today's world, success requires deep engagement with customers...the starting point for investment is a practical and deep understanding of cooperation with users.” Sven Denecken adds, “Co-innovation is a state of mind...next-generation cloud will support greater business flexibility and agility via rapid innovation cycles with significant customer co-innovation.”

As if cloud computing weren’t disruptive enough, there’s a force lurking outside traditional IT: ‘Shadow IT’ or, worse, “Rogue IT”. The experts have a lot to say: THINKstrategies’ Jeff Kaplan: “Most CXOs don’t know how many SaaS/Cloud apps are being used in their organizations.” SAP’s Greg Chase: “What is new is consumerization of IT, or really, IT-ization of the consumer – basically we’re all digital natives now. Individuals are making their own IT choices to get their work done.” SuccessFactors’ Paul Stuker: “The cost of Rogue IT is tiny compared to the hidden cost of non-secure, non-available mission-critical applications.” Consultant Steve Romero: “Business users have been ‘going around’ corporate IT for years. IT needs to accept and embrace shadow IT – and leverage it to foster a collaborative relationship with the business.” Join us for more insights on Me and My Shadow: IT Gone Rogue. p.s. Take your Coffee Break with Game-Changers every Wed. 8 AM Pacific on the Business Channel.

Cloud computing: a positively disruptive innovation offering opportunities for every business – including yours. Today our experts discuss virtualization and the private cloud. SAP’s Jeff Anders: “There are a lot of misperceptions about virtualization and cloud computing, based on outdated information.” Deloitte’s Scott Wall: “Virtualization is a key step in creating a private cloud or internal cloud-like capabilities that can enhance the business.” Dell’s Kamesh Pemmaraju: “Corporate data centers are not going away. Cloud computing is not the end of IT.” Ovum’s Roy Illsley: “Cloud maturity is like a troublesome teenager. It could do a lot for you but it has difficulty when faced with choices: tidy the room or another match on FIFA2012?” Join us for Decisions, Decisions: Virtualization or Private Cloud? p.s. Take your Coffee Break with Game-Changers every Wed. 8 AM Pacific on the Business Channel.

“Good help is hard to find.” Is this how you explain your company’s talent shortage? News flash! Our experts say YOU may be the problem. Dr. Steven T. Hunt at SuccessFactors: “High performing, highly skilled professionals want to work for companies that value and invest in them – and they will even forego some level of financial reward to work on what might be called ‘cool stuff’. Kevin Wheeler at Future of Talent Institute: “There is only a temporary talent shortage, primarily caused by a lack of imagination and an over-reliance on yesterday’s thinking and technology… jobs need to be redesigned to meet emerging needs, attitudes and lifestyles.” Derek Singleton at Software Advice: “We are only beginning to see the impact that automation and robotics will have on completely altering our concepts of what people can and should do.” Join us for Bridging the Skills Gap: Work Redefined. p.s. Take your Coffee Break with Game-Changers every Wed. 8 AM Pacific on the Business Channel.

The economic forecast is rosy for professional services aka ProServe firms. Why? The cloud, says THINKstrategies’ Jeff Kaplan. “While often easier to use than traditional on-premise apps, cloud solutions still require specialized skills that most internal IT and SW development organizations don’t have. This has opened up a great opportunity for professional services firms.” But double-digit growth has a price, notes Service Performance Insight’s Dave Hofferberth. “In 2012 ProServe revenues will top 10%, headcount growth will top 10%, hourly bill rates will increase by over 10%, and employee attrition will be over 10%. The strains on these organizations will be enormous.” How to survive? “Managing a ProServe firm’s knowledgebase is more critical than ever,” says SAP’s David Sweetman. Join us are we explore Double-Digit ProServe Growth: Managing Success. p.s. For more food for thought from the experts, catch “Coffee Break with Game-Changers”, Wed. 8 AM Pacific on The Business Channel.

Where do you stand on the great cloud computing debate: the cloud creates jobs or the opposite? Eager for a definitive answer, Jacqueline Vanacek at SAP and MR Rangaswami at Sand Hill Group launched a “Job Growth in the Forecast” study to determine how cloud computing impacts US job creation. The findings are optimistic. “As cloud computing transforms the entire IT landscape, it will also be a powerful catalyst for generating hundreds of thousands of net new jobs in the United States and worldwide.” Ms. Vanacek was sufficiently convinced to title a recent Forbes.com blog , “Yes Virginia -- Cloud Computing Will Create More Jobs than the Internet!” What does this mean for start-ups seeking investors? Jeff Clavier of SoftTech VC, one of BusinessWeek’s Top 25 Angels in Tech in 2010, joins the discussion on Job Forecast: Bright Skies in the Cloud p.s. For more food for thought from top influencers, catch “Coffee Break with Game-Changers”, Wed. 8 AM Pacific on the Business Channel.