The change imperative

Some 400 of your peers gathered at Network World's IT Roadmap show in Chicago last week to discuss everything from cloud plans to iPad support, flat network options and Windows 7 migration.

Consider cloud. In a panel discussion with Chad Eckes, CIO of Cancer Treatment Centers of America; Karthikeyan Chakkarapani, IT director of innovation solutions and operations at American Hospital Association; Rob Zelinka, former director of infrastructure at TTX, and Tomasz Chowanski, IT leader of shared-services security architecture at GE Capital, I asked if anyone had solid cloud plans. As it turns out, all of them are already doing some cloud computing.

Speaking of network endpoints, the session on migrating to Windows 7 and Office 2010 drew a standing room-only crowd. With XP set to sunset in 2014, W7 migration will in effect heat up this year because implementation can take 14 to 18 months in a big shop, said speaker Sevan Muradian, senior product marketing manager at Dell KACE.