writing As Chairperson of the Irish Internet Association's Working Group on Cloud Computing , I am penning a blog to journal our efforts to encourage Cloud Computing Adoption in Ireland. There are 19 of us on the Working Group which consists of representatives from 9 vendors (Google, VMWare, Microsoft, IBM, Salesforce, etc.) and 10 enterprises (Merrill Lynch, elan, Friend's First, Kepak, etc.) The blog can be read at Sysco Software's Blog. We published our first whitepaper, Cloud Business on Thursday the 25th March, 2010. The whitepaper is free for IIA members or can be purchased for €295 on the IIA website.

speaking dot conf - 22nd July 2010 - The National College of Ireland is running a free one day web technology conference where I will be talking about Keeping ahead of the cloud. The Cloud Summit - 9th September 2010 - At this year's event, I will chair a similar presentation to the IIA event below with Google, Microsoft and Oracle, among others, presenting IaaS, PaaS and SaaS case studies for Irish companies. SaaS4Channel 2010 - 24th November 2010, Lelystad, The Netherlands - At this year's event, I plan to present a similar talk to the Enterprise Ireland event below on the transition to SaaS for a traditional Value Added Reseller.

Past engagements Enterprise Ireland Event - 16th June 2010 - Managed Services & Solutions - partnerships in the Cloud is being run by Enterprise Ireland. I'm talking about the challenge and opportunity which the cloud has presented to Sysco, a traditional value added reseller and how we have grasped this opportunity by creating ReadyDynamics.com. IIA Conference - 20th May 2010 - The working group hosted a breakout session at the IIA Annual Conference which discussed Who's Cloud Computing and Why? with Microsoft and Oracle giving examples of Irish companies using IaaS (Advanced Innovations, Inc.), PaaS (Aer Lingus, eirgrid) and SaaS (Aiken Promotions, Acacia, Talentevo). Friend's First also described some of the challenges facing their organisation when considering the cloud. A copy of my presentation can be downloaded by clicking here. Dynamics User Day - 29th April 2010 - Sysco hosted a Dynamics User Day at the Microsoft Ireland campus which discussed the Statement of Direction for Microsoft Dynamics ERP and CRM with examples of enhancements to deliver more functionality and extend the applictions into mobile and web commerce. I spoke about some ROI metrics these enhancements have been proven to deliver in some Sysco customers. A copy of the presentation can be downloaded by clicking here. Cloud Computing & Virtualisation - 24th November 2009, The Burlington - VMware and Computerscope ran a short, focused management briefing that outlined the case for a merged virtualization and cloud computing approach that combines short term ROI with medium and long term transformation plans. I presented some of the conclusions from our whitepaper. A copy of the presentation can be downloaded by clicking here. The Cloud Summit - 23rd September 2009, Croke Park - The Irish Software Association along with the Sunday Business Post ran Ireland's first Cloud Event on Driving IT Efficiency & Cost-savings in today's Enterprise. I spoke on a topic of particular interest to me Why Ireland's not cloud computing? proposing 2 immediate actions: 1) that the Irish Software Association adopt the NIST definition (which I am glad to say they have) and 2) that attendees lobby Minister Ryan on broadband reliability. A copy of the presentation can be downloaded by clicking here. Logistics Ireland - 24th September 2008, Crowne Plaza - The National Institute for Transport & Logistics ran the Logistics Ireland 2008 conference to introduce delegates to the need for resilience in business and in supply chains. In this context resilience refered to the ability of companies to succeed in the face of uncertainty and turbulence in global markets. I spoke about "Technology Trends for Supply Chains" focussing on 5 major trends - Dynamics Applications, Software as a Service, Pervasive Computing, Unified Communications and the Demise of Bespoke. A copy of the presentation can be downloaded by clicking here.