As David Linthicum recently wrote for InfoWorld, the one-size-fits-all, do-it-yourself approach to cloud computing can come at the expense of customer service and human expertise. Security is often cited as a major inhibitor to cloud adoption, but perhaps a lack of customer service is another major hesitation factor for cautious organizations.
Can companies have it both ways: a fully managed, custom cloud solution? Does customer service run counter to the very notion of an automated and self-provisioning cloud? Join this month’s #cloudchat on Thursday, February 14th from 4 to 5 p.m. ET to discuss: Is customer service the Achilles heel of cloud computing?
Our experts who will be driving the conversation are:
Dana Blankenhorn, Business Journalist Follow @DanaBlankenhorn
Dana has been a business journalist since 1978, and a futurist all his life. He warned about the coming Houston oil collapse in 1979. He began making a living on the Internet in 1985. He launched the first e-commerce daily for CMP in 1994, warned of the coming dot-bomb at a-clue.com in 1997 and began covering the Internet of Things in 2003. Along the way he’s written for a host of newspapers, magazines, news services and Web sites. Most recently he was at ZDNet, covering open source and health IT. He lives in Atlanta.
Stephen O’Grady, Co-Founder, Redmonk Follow @sogrady
Stephen is an industry analyst and a co-founder of Redmonk along with James Governor. He previously worked at Illuminata, Blue Hammock, DiaLogos and Keane, Inc. He lives in Maine and is an avid Red Sox fan.
Jay Henderson, Strategy Director, Enterprise Marketing Management at IBM Follow @jay_henderson
Jay leads product strategy for IBM’s Enterprise Marketing Management group. His team is responsible for corporate development, market analysis, customer insight, and product innovation functions. He has over 15 years’ experience in cross-channel marketing and customer analytics with companies such as IBM, Unica, SPSS, NetGenesis, and ClearForest. Henderson also holds degrees from MIT’s Sloan School of Management and the Sorbonne. He is a regular contributor to the Smarter Commerce blog.
Add to your calendar via Eventbrite
As always, here’s the full rundown of how the #cloudchat works:
- What: A Twitter chat is an online conversation held at a pre-arranged time following a specific hashtag, in this case #cloudchat. You will need a Twitter ID to take part.
- When: Thursday, February 14, at 4 p.m. ET, repeating the 2nd Thursday of every month at 4 p.m. ET.
- Where: The chat can be followed on Twitter using the hashtag #cloudchat. Alternatively, log on and access the chat on twebevent. A recap will be posted on this blog the following Friday.
- Why: To facilitate additional industry dialogue and provide a forum for questions, idea sharing, and problem solving. We want your input on what you’d like to discuss during future chats, so please leave a comment on this post or tweet @ibmcloud with topic ideas.
- Who: Anyone and everyone is welcome to join!
