Atlassian and Xero join iTnews at vForum

Oct 17, 2011 6:42 AM
Filed under Software

Distinguished panel on hand for launch of iTnews' latest research paper.

iTnews editor Brett Winterford kicks off proceedings.	Software developer and researcher Sam Gentle gives attendees an overview of the report.	The launch was held during Day One of vForum at Sydney Convention Centre.
See all pictures here »

Senior executives from Sydney-based SaaS success story Atlassian and cloud accounting software startup Xero will join iTnews on stage at vForum this Wednesday for the launch of ‘Which Clouds Play Nice’.

Joining us on stage to discuss SaaS integration will be VMware’s global co-president Tod Nielsen, Atlassian’s vice president of engineering Jean-Michel Lemieux and Xero Australia managing director Chris Ridd.

The panel will discuss vendor and cross-industry initiatives to address vendor lock-in in the SaaS world.

To ensure you are first to read this research, register for free with iTnews to attend the event or download the report.

The panel

	Tod Nielsen runs VMware’s application platform business and was formerly CEO at Borland Software. He has also been employed as a senior VP for marketing and sales at Oracle, executive VP of engineering at BEA Systems, VP of Microsoft’s platform group, database group and developer tools, and did his time with his own startup, Crossgrain. He is the keynote speaker at this year’s vForum, the annual Asia Pacific event for users of VMware’s virtualisation software tools.
	Jean-Michel Lemieux joined Atlassian as VP of engineering. He was formerly engineering lead for IBM Rational. He was also co-founder of Jazz.net and Team Concert and was in the founding team that developed Eclipse. Sydney-based Atlassian started in 2002 as a software project by two university students, Scott Farquhar and Mike Cannon-Brookes, and has quickly grown into a company with in excess of 20,000 customers and 300 staff, selling US$60 million of software last year. The company counts Microsoft, Oracle, Nokia, Amazon, Electronic Arts, Facebook and AT&T among its customers.
	Chris Ridd heads the Australian division of SaaS accounting software provider Xero, which recently hit a milestone of 50,000 business customers. Formerly with Microsoft, Chris has spent more than 20 years in the Australian IT industry. At Xero Chris has overall responsibility for business strategy, people management, revenue growth and key alliances, and is leading the rapid expansion of the company in Australia. Locally the software is resold and recommended by Telstra T-Suite and ANZ Bank.