Thomas Trappler has extensive experience leading enterprise-wide IT procurement and vendor management initiatives and negotiations. He is a nationally recognized expert in cloud computing risk mitigation via contract negotiation and vendor management, and was recently named a “Cloud Luminary” by CA Technologies alongside such distinguished thought leaders as Vivek Kundra, Nicholas Carr and Timothy Chou. Dubbed the “Cloud Contract Advisor” by Computerworld, Mr. Trappler has presented at numerous events, including Cloud Expo, CA World, Security Threats Conference, Educause Annual Conference, The Business of Cloud Computing Conference, and the Security Professionals Conference. He writes a monthly column for Computerworld regarding cloud computing contracts, co-authored the book “Contracting for Cloud Services”, and has published articles on cloud contracting and open source software for Educause Quarterly. Mr. Trappler has been a guest lecturer at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University, and co-developed and teaches “Contracting for Cloud Computing Services”, the original seminar focused on cloud computing contract issues. Less   View all posts

Thomas Struan is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Army Aviation Center Federal Credit Union where he is responsible for Enterprise Risk Management, Information Services & Security, Risk and Security Strategy, and ATM/Payment Card Services. Prior to joining AACFCU, Thomas was the CIO for an international bank holding company. He has nearly 20 years of experience in information services and is a former Chartered Accountant (ICAS) and KPMG Alumnus. Thomas has worked with Fortune 100 companies and has extensively acted as an advisor to start-up companies in the technology industry. Thomas is a member of the Credit Union Executive Society (CUES), the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) Technology Council, and holds a Masters of Accountancy with a concentration in Financial Information Systems from The University of Texas, El Paso. Less   View all posts

John Engates is CTO of Rackspace. He joined the company in August 2000, just a year after it was founded, as VP of Operations, managing the datacenter operations and customer service teams. Two years later, when Rackspace decided to add new services for larger enterprise customers, he created and helped develop the Intensive Hosting business unit. Most recently, Engates has played an active role in the evolution and evangelism of Rackspace's cloud-computing strategy and cloud products. He meets frequently with customers to hear about their needs and concerns, and to discuss Rackspace's vision for the future of cloud computing. He is also an internationally recognized cloud computing expert and a sought-after speaker at technology conferences, including CA World, the Goldman Sachs Techtonics Conference in addition to Cloud Expo. He speaks on the future of cloud computing, enterprise cloud adoption, data center efficiency, green data center best practices, and more. Prior to joining Rackspace, Engates was a founder and General Manager at Internet Direct, one of the original Internet service providers in Texas. Less   View all posts