NetworkWorld – ‘Server huggers’ present obstacle to cloud adoption

Chipita America CIO defend food makers use of cloud-based apps, and criticizes many IT managers’ reasons for eschewing it.

Chipita America may be as close to a server-less company as one can find. Its ERP systems, EDI, BI, Office, Exchange and file servers are all hosted in a service provider’s cloud.

About six years ago, when many IT managers were debating Nicholas Carr’s book ” Does IT Matter ,” Chipita CIO Scott Martin was moving the Tulsa, Okla.-based snack food maker’s email to a third party’s cloud hosted platform. Since then Chipita has moved the rest its core systems to the cloud.

Martin said he didn’t see a competitive advantage in managing internal systems, believing that his time could be best spent focusing on business needs.

“The real difference that IT leaders [can make] is being able to leverage information to create competitive advantage in the marketplace,” said Martin.

Six years later, Martin is still a pioneer in cloud adoption, and at times is called on to defend and explain the approach to his peers.

More of the NetworkWorld article from Patrick Thibodeau

Alex Carroll

Managing Member at Lifeline Data Centers

Alex, co-owner, is responsible for all real estate, construction and mission critical facilities: hardened buildings, power systems, cooling systems, fire suppression, and environmentals. Alex also manages relationships with the telecommunications providers and has an extensive background in IT infrastructure support, database administration and software design and development. Alex architected Lifeline’s proprietary GRCA system and is hands-on every day in the data center.