The economic downturn effects certain changes within organizations. People begin to think differently, and business leaders make unusual decisions. Certain best practices are indigenously devised, priorities are reset, spending patterns change, and executives improve relations.

Business leadership seeks answers to question like these:

• What kind of decisions do we make with regard to people, processes, investments, and business development?
  
• What survival plans are being discussed by top management behind closed doors?
  
• How is IT spending being curbed?
  
• Is it advisable to invest in new projects? What should we spend on?
  
• What are the best models, standards, and technologies that can see us through the recession?

Clouds of hope
Business leaders believe that technology can come to the rescue of businesses that are mired in the slump. The life saver is lean IT infrastructure that does more at less cost, and with fewer resources. Cloud computing and Green IT are the two enabling technologies that can achieve this.

While putting the entire data center on the cloud may not be realistic at this point in time, businesses are cautiously putting some parts of its infrastructure on the cloud or just deploying private clouds within the organization. In doing so, one of the main concerns is security.

These issues will be discussed by CIOs and addressed by distinguished speakers at a roundtable. Mahindra Negi, CFO and COO, Trend Micro, will provide valuable insights and share his experiences. Negi is responsible for global technical support, IT, finance, and legal functions at Trend Micro.

This by-invitation-only event will be held in Mumbai (September 15), Bangalore (September 16) and Delhi (September 18).