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summits
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3-5 October 2010
The Ritz-Carlton, Dallas, Dallas, TX, USA |
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Michael Israel
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Old Way, Best Way?
Chief Information Officers (CIOs) should not be afraid to revisit technologies, processes and systems and ask themselves whether current best practices are still the most efficient way to manage their environments, recommends Michael Israel, Senior Vice President - Information Services at Six Flags Entertainment Corporation. A speaker at the marcus evans Mid-Market CIO Summit 2010 taking place in Dallas, Texas, October 2-5, Israel shares his strategies for re-examining current Information Technology (IT) initiatives for increasing IT efficiency in the future, and ensuring system security. What are the most prominent challenges facing mid-market CIOs in the US at the moment? Michael Israel: Our biggest challenges involve system security and tightening budgets. No matter how secure our systems may be, there is always someone trying to make them unsecure. Security is always at the forefront of my mindset. All businesses are trying to be more efficient and prudent on how we spend our shrinking budgets, therefore as CIOs, we need to be able to prioritize projects to get maximum value. Knowing how to do more with less and managing our money efficiently is very important. How can CIOs improve efficiency? Michael Israel: I always question whether the tried and true way is still the right way now. I would advise IT executives to step out of their comfort zones and revisit old technologies, systems or processes and determine if updates are needed. What worked for a company just two years ago may no longer be a viable solution – technology is constantly evolving and CIOs must be able to have an open dialogue with their peers in the organization to find ways of being more efficient. What are the opportunities offered by cloud computing and virtualization initiatives? Michael Israel: We recently took the initiative of moving to server virtualization, giving us the ability to expand in terms of additional servers and resources. On the cloud computing perspective, there are certain applications that we have started to migrate, however we have decided not to place our critical business data on the cloud. I am personally concerned about having our most critical corporate data under someone else’s arena. What developments do you expect in the next five to ten years? Michael Israel: We will continue down the road of a more virtualized office space. The desktop is going to become less and less important. To plan for virtualization, CIOs must take a closer look at their infrastructure and make sure they have sufficient bandwidth. Virtualization will be cheaper from an internal desktop systems perspective, but they might need to spend money on their bandwidth. The more they push out to a cloud, the more reliant they will be on external communications. So CIOs have to be very careful; they might be saving money on the one side, but adding costs on the other. What long term strategies would you recommend to CIOs? Michael Israel: Being in line with the business, and making sure they are in touch with the business needs is crucial. For example, at Six Flags, we have to be cognitive of the fact that if we lose one network, the parks must still be able to operate. We cannot be reliant on any one system that could prevent customers from coming into the gates. We cannot jeopardize our ability to bring in revenue and to service our clients. We need to be completely cognitive of that and consider that we could save money by going to a cloud environment, but if that means there is the possibility of losing connectivity and not being able to do business, we need to weigh the different options available to us before we make that decision.
This unique forum will take place at The Ritz-Carlton, Dallas, Texas, October 3-5, 2010. Offering much more than any conference, exhibition or trade show, this exclusive meeting will bring together esteemed industry thought leaders and solution providers to a highly focused and interactive networking event. The summit includes presentations on cloud computing, virtualization, IT alignment and utilizing existing IT talent to maximize departmental outcome. For more information please send an email to info@marcusevanscy.com or visit the event website Please note that the summit is a closed business event and the number of participants strictly limited.
About marcus evans Summits marcus evans Summits are high level business forums for the world’s leading decision-makers to meet, learn and discuss strategies and solutions. Held at exclusive locations around the world, these events provide attendees with a unique opportunity to individually tailor their schedules of keynote presentations, think tanks, seminars and one-on-one business meetings. For more information, please visit www.marcusevans.com All rights reserved. The above content may be republished or reproduced – kindly inform us by sending an email to press@marcusevanscy.com
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