As managing director of digital technologies at the United States Golf Association (USGA), Jessica Carroll runs the infrastructure for the US Open, and supports a large member organization. She has helped USGA move to the cloud, adopting both (PaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS). At our Enterprise USA event in New York, she will share what she learnt in the process.

How does someone with a BA in English from Syracuse end up managing director of IT for the USGA?

I know it’s a non-traditional path for a technologist. I feel that, in today’s environment, having communications skills and a liberal arts background actually gives me an enormous edge in leading a strong customer-focused team, which is what our IT team is transforming into. I feel that my education gives me those interaction skills that actually work really well with the business. It puts me in a position where I have the ability to speak a ‘human language’ to the business rather than technology speak, and I think that resonates with the organization and those I come into contact with both inside and outside the USGA.

I would add to that – you have to have technology skills as well. But I think the two together make up an interesting, solid mix. One that apparently seems to work well [at the USGA].”

When you mention your IT organization has a customer focus, who are you speaking of precisely? Your in-house IT users, USGA members, or the general public using your online products?

Yes, our audience is our internal staff. But as an organization, we are trying to transform from an IT services focus to a customer focus. We have a plethora of groups you might think of as customers in addition to staff: our membership, our golfing public, those who play in our championships, those who use us for rules education. Our IT organization is transitioning our thought process to provide the best way to interact with those customers, and technology has to have a big hand in supporting this.

You oversee IT for a major sports governing body: what about this position makes it unique in the world of IT management?

Working in an organization that is passionate about sports, and golf in particular, means there is a pretty interesting group of people working here, because they really love the mission of this organization. Blended with this is the fact that we are a non-profit organization. Our focus is on the game of golf, but also supporting the growing universe of people who want to play the game and learn about it. This is part of our intricate mission, so it’s surrounded by people who have that love and passion.

One of the things that’s exciting about technology in general across any industry – but certainly at the USGA – is how do we take technology and evolve it to provide the ideal environment to nurture our customers and make sure it is in line with our organization’s mission?

Golf, of course, is a game, and the USGA governs the game within the US. Is there anything about your position that makes it more fun than IT management for a traditional business-oriented organization?

The fun factor comes around the US Open, for example. We may seem like we are behind the scenes, but the infrastructure and the digital aspects of what the technology team needs to provide to run the US Open really presents a ‘cool factor.’ Getting to participate in all of the elements that are required to bring such an incredible sports event to life – there’s nothing cooler than that.

As part of your role, you oversee IT infrastructure at the US Open. How much work goes into this four-day event every year?

For us, it’s more than a four-day event; it’s an all-year planning engagement. We do use a vendor partner in IBM, which has been a tremendous partner in ensuring that our customers can participate online. It’s a huge undertaking and our team does participate in infrastructure planning for the US Open.

The technology team is on-site: think of it like setting up a city for a week, and the infrastructure required to provide everyone with all of the internet and telecommunications anyone might need is what we have a part in, with a big help from our vendor partner.

What is the biggest challenge you face in your current role?

I don’t know if I would call it a challenge, rather than an enormous opportunity. The technology environment is changing at an unprecedented rate. As we transition our IT team from more a services focus, we need to look at how we can provide a technology offering that adds business value and really puts attention on the customer-focus direction the organization is going in. We are no different than most industries that are looking at ways to touch and interact with customers in the best possible way.

For us, internally, we must look at whatever commodity tasks we can let go of, and turn our attention toward more innovative, business-driven initiatives. We want to make sure we are driving product delivery that is around customer experiences, and not worry so much about patching our servers.

What is your process for determining which IT functions can be outsourced to the cloud?

We really look at the initiative case by case. You have to look at what you are trying to accomplish, the resources, time investment, and risk involved. Then compare then against hosting this internally, and see how it stacks up. It’s a way to measure and place some realism about what is appropriate for the cloud.

It’s very dependent on the organization involved. Everyone is going to have a different measuring stick. But you can measure these things, and make start making decisions based on this.

IT professionals and decision makers often cite security as an obstacle slowing cloud adoption. How do you manage security concerns when both choosing and working with a cloud provider?

You have to think about security in everything you do – in house or out. Even large enterprises making investments in security continue to have issues. So, regardless of what you are trying to accomplish, security has to be top of mind. You have to balance the risk versus the advantage – and each business will look at this differently. There are things that make sense to put in the cloud: if you are interacting with customers you want them to likely do so in a cloud environment. But if you are taking something like card data, then you want to make sure you are protecting this data. You need to be sure you have controls on how it’s collected and used. I look at what vendors we are working with in the cloud, and anything where there is a large risk potential. You want to be sure that you have a strong relationship and trust with your vendor, and a strong contract.

It’s ok to take a leap, but you take a smart leap and protect yourself the best possible way by ensuring your vendor relationship is as locked up and comfortable as you possibly can.

What are you speaking about at DCD Enterprise USA in New York next week?

I will talk about the cloud environments we have at the USGA. I will take a journey back in history to what we learned. I will talk about how we have moved from an IT service-focused organization into a consumer- and business-focused direction. And I will also talk about the infrastructure and development teams at the USGA and how we have adopted through the transitions. We will also spend time talking about PaaS (platform-as-a-service) and IaaS (infrastructure-as-a-service), where we are going in these areas, and how our team feels about it.

Why should someone attend your session? What can they expect to learn that they did not know before entering the room?

It will be an honest, real-world case study on an IT team that handled everything internally, and what happens when it realizes that it needs to evolve and use outside support – whether that is third-party vendor support or cloud services. Anyone who attends should walk away with an understanding about how we have been able to take the development and infrastructure teams along for the ride as we transition toward a cloud-focused organization.

Is there anything you will be looking to personally take away from your DCD Enterprise USA experience? Is there anything on the agenda at the event that you want to explore?

I really want to be a part of the experience. Any time I participate in an event like this, I meet a lot of smart people. I feel like we can learn from each other, so I am looking forward to participating in some of this networking.

DCD Enterprise USA will take place March 17–18, 2015, at the New York Marriot Marquis, Times Square. There is still time to register and take part in this industry-leading event.