CIO magazine for the North America region . This month ’ s cover features Mike Early , SVP and Chief Information Officer at Build-A- Bear Workshop .

We take a look at how the Missouri-based global retailer has teamed up with Nutanix , Buzz 3D and TierPoint to develop the technology delivering an engaging online shopping experience in a private cloud environment that maximizes performance .

“ Our guests ’ in-store experience is highly interactive and emotional as they get to create a custom furry friend and bring it to life ,” said Early .

“ Our goal with this project is to translate this connectivity and emotion to the digital world .

“ Really working with us to come up with solutions and help configure the Mimecast system to support our business needs has been a massive benefit ,” he says .

“ I see this as a huge differentiating factor in comparison to some of the other players in the space where their customer service can be quite lacking .” There ’ s much more to discover about this story on p61 .

In this month ’ s CIO Opinion , Utah-based Jason Sabin , Chief Technology Officer at DigiCert , tells us how organizations have adopted innovative solutions to manage remote working and outlines some of the best security practices . “ The transition has been a difficult obstacle to navigate . It ’ s challenging enough to maintain operations and productivity while working from home , and even more to ensure complete remote cybersecurity ,” he says .

“ Just like Build-A-Bear reinvented the in-store shopping experience , I expect others to look at what the company is creating as a model of how to truly engage consumers anywhere and how to leverage technology like Nutanix to enable that .” You can find out more details about the project by turning to p56 .

Elsewhere , Erik Hart , Chief Information Security Officer at Chicago-based Cushman & Wakefield , explains how the company relies on Mimecast ’ s solution to protect its email systems and for information security innovation .

“ As companies embrace hybrid working arrangements and even see it as a permanent solution in the new normal , it is crucial to maintain efforts in ensuring the highest level of remote cybersecurity .” To read more of his opinions turn to p44 .

Don ’ t forget you can read daily news updates at https :// www . intelligentcio . com / north-america /. I ’ d like to wish you a good month ahead and please enjoy the read !

Mark Bowen Editor

www . intelligentcio . com INTELLIGENTCIO NORTH AMERICA 7