In the first of a new “IT Visionaries” series, we sat down with salesforce.com CTO of IT and VP of IT Architecture, Brett Colbert. After time at NetApp, McAfee Inc., and Cisco Systems, Colbert finds himself focused on how to ensure that a fast moving, high-growth company like salesforce.com has the systems in place to support that growth. To hear even more from Colbert, join us for the free webinar, "An Inside Look at How Salesforce Runs IT with CTO of IT Brett Colbert,” Tuesday, June 17th.

1. Tell us about your “free the data” mantra?

It’s a direction a lot of the more innovative companies are focused on, based on a self-service concept. In the old school world, you would go to IT and ask them for a report. Over the last five years, the ability for the business to be able to do their own analytics has exploded. IT’s model needs to change so the business folks are empowered to do what they need to do. IT should not be the bottleneck.

2. You’ve had an “epiphany” as far as where mobile is headed. Can you share?

In the next couple of years, I think there is going to be a massive realization that most business can be run on mobile. I think we’re going to surprise ourselves with what can be done on a mobile device. That is my prediction. As a result, you have to bank on a platform that is intelligent enough to abstract that and be intelligent enough to render your apps on any device. It’s absurd to build an app for only one device right now.

3. What is your major IT initiative this year?

The mature companies are starting to ask: If I build it myself, will it be differentiated or will it just be different? The only thing you should customize are the things that will set your company apart. With this in mind, we are working on a roadmap for a series of apps built on the Salesforce1 Platform specific for meeting the needs of our own community. We're building a number of new custom apps to run inside the Salesforce1 Mobile App. Some recent examples include: a Sales Orders app, Conference Rooms app, and a slick new interactive Org Chart app. We're also working on an Approvals Central mobile app that integrates approvals from a number of different apps, like Salesforce, Workday, and Concur, into one app for our employees to use on their phones.

4. How about the biggest challenges you’re facing?

As a CTO, we’re constantly required to relearn and readjust. The hardest part is not the technology. The hardest part is the mindset shift. The technology is becoming easier and easier, but it’s harder and harder to get the IT side to realize they won’t be building as much stuff, and will instead be looked at as advisors to the cloud. IT gets so stuck on the reference architecture and the blueprints and the way problems were solved for the last 15 years. Our biggest challenge is to say: maybe there is a better way.

5. Has this “easier” technology changed IT’s relationship with the business side?

It used to be the business side would want something built, such as a simple intranet site. IT would then say: “It’s about a million dollars and it will take six to nine months, and by the way, because it’s so much work and so much money, you’ll never it get it done because it will never be a priority.” When you switch over to a cloud platform, off-load the capital component around infrastructure, and focus on building the application layer, you can rip those out in a fraction of the time and for a fraction of the cost. There are numerous examples of how much ridiculously faster you can move now. It allows corporate IT to move at the speed of business, not at the speed of IT.

6. How do you see the traditional role of IT developers changing over time?

You’re going to get all of the following: corporate programmers, citizen developers, and crowdsourcing app development. I love this idea of crowdsourcing. That’s where you’re really going to see some real cost and agility and really some creativity. Nobody has the monopoly on the best way to do things. The concept of dropping it into the cloud and having the crowd offer options just increases the level of innovation you’re going to get.

7. Any words of advice for companies looking to build apps on a cloud platform? 

If you can eliminate the need to worry about the infrastructure, you will accelerate the business in a huge way. If you don’t have to buy servers, storage, and network gear. Now I would caution: If you don’t think about the medium to long-term of the platform you select to build on top of, you can run into security, availability, disaster recovery, compliance, and cost that aren’t at the level that you want. Before you jump into something cheap, I would ask a just few questions: What level of compliance will you need eventually? Will you need to connect what you’re building into what you already have?

To register for the free webinar, "An Inside Look at How Salesforce Runs IT with CTO of IT Brett Colbert,” click the button below.