2011 Speaker List

iPad. Galaxy. Cius. New mobile devices and tablets drive new user behaviors. IT is increasingly challenged with providing acceptable device use policies and designing WLAN’s for an optimal user experience. This session will cover best practices that can be implemented to prepare your network and embrace the mobility trend, securely, seamlessly and reliably.

With much of IT now dependent upon Web and cloud services, it’s important to consider how this key strategy will extend to mobile users and devices. With the advent of much improved WLANs and WWANs, it’s now practical to consider both public and private clouds as key elements in a mobile IT solution. This session will explore the requirements to make such a strategy operational, including the tools and procedures required, and will also consider the requirements of collaboration and the role of both virtualization and the mobile device capabilities in a cloud-computing environment.

With dozens of cloud computing firms to choose from, the battle lines are drawn. In this interactive, moderated discussion, we'll try to determine which cloud providers are best for different IT goals. You'll learn which companies are high-touch, and which are no-touch; which are cheap, and which are premium-priced; which are complex and which are turnkey. Come armed with your own scenarios, awkward questions, and shortlist criteria and put these providers on the spot.

Hear industry visionaries discuss the growth and future of IT.

With so many cloud providers entering the market—and clear economy-of-scale advantages to market leaders—the consolidation of public clouds is inevitable. To stay independent, providers will have to differentiate themselves by focusing on specific customers, geographies, certifications, or service model. This panel will look at the differentiation of cloud offerings, and what that means to enterprise customers seeking tailored solutions but fearing lock-in.

On Day One of Enterprise Cloud Summit, we'll turn our eye outward to look at the many public cloud offerings that are levelling the IT playing field. Public cloud providers offer pay-as-you-go economics and tremendous flexibility; but they also create new security, portability, and performance concerns. Once the exclusive domain of web startups, today enterprises big and small are finding ways to incorporate public cloud platforms into their IT strategy. Whether you're deciding how to embrace them or want to learn from what others are doing, Enterprise Cloud Summit is the place to do it.

For a detailed agenda click here.

A video-capable architecture provides a scalable and flexible way for organizations to deploy multiple video and collaboration applications across a range of use cases, including conferencing. Discover the value of this approach from Cisco SVP Praveen Akkiraju and Cisco’s own Borderless Network IT Architect, Plamen Nedeltchev.

With wireless LANs now the edge of the corporate network, many firms have big expansion plans for this key capability. But a major debate has been brewing here for some time, and one with far-reaching implications: which WLAN architecture is going to best serve the diverse missions of today’s (and tomorrow’s) enterprise LAN? Is a controller still required, or will more-distributed architectural approaches dominate? This vital question is certain to kick up a good deal of dust, but the answer is certain to be a key factor in your next WLAN purchasing decision.

In cloud computing, security is the monster in the closet. Studies have shown that enterprises see security as the biggest reason not to adopt utility computing—and the biggest reason to use it. Proponents of clouds suggest that they have access to better talent and tools than their users do, and after all, most breaches come from within. Detractors warn that with clouds, someone else controls your destiny, and the shared model exposes you to the mistakes of your neighbours. Who's right? In this Oxford-style debate, we'll put both arguments to the test, and see who's got the most convincing story.

Data storage is the foundation of how IT gets work done. Perhaps more important than server, OS choice, or networking, choosing the right types of storage is critical to ensure that your organization can save and retrieve data. The storage world is rapidly changing. The amount of data that is being stored is increasing. The amount of storage that is being requested is increasing. The way storage is being used and access is changing. In this session, we will go over new technologies including thin provisioning, automated tiering, SSD’s, deduplication, and more. We’ll also cast a look forward to what is coming in the near future.

Today, thanks to virtualization and cloud, the role and function of storage is changing. The evolution of storage has gone in different directions and enterprises have many options. In addition to this, the nirvana of leveraging resources from both a public and private cloud environment is becoming more a reality every day. The need for a more comprehensive strategy becomes necessary. Today, enterprises have begun to leverage unified storage in an attempt to simplify their challenges. As enterprises datasets continue to massively grow, storage becomes an even bigger issue. Many have started looking beyond, as they start to migrate towards a hybrid cloud environment. The need for Object based storage becomes increasingly important as organizations look to further simplify their storage environment, while still efficiently handling large amounts of data. Where to start? In this session we will cover storage challenges still facing enterprises today, a high-level overview of different types of storage solutions (SAN, NAS, unified storage, object based storage) and how and when to leverage each type of storage solution.

The cloud breaks things up into chunks, making them easier to move around, recover, and work with in parallel. A result of this is that disaster recovery isn't so much a feature as a pleasant side-effect. Enterprises that use the cloud as a DR site pay a fraction of what they would if they built a second site themselves, but putting data in the cloud tends to lead to putting the applications there too. On-demand, utility-based storage allows for pay-as-you-go economics that CFOs will find irresistable, and could pave the way to the cloud for many enterprises. In this panel, we'll look at how cloud storage is disrupting traditional backup and disaster recovery solutions for businesses of all sizes and shapes.

With IT spread across on-premise and on-demand components, and virtual machine sprawl creating a deluge of new systems to manage, CIOs face a huge challenge: measuring and managing their virtual infrastructure to ensure adequate performance, good management of risk, and a controlled approach to billing. In this panel, we'll look at how companies are tackling management and monitoring in utility computing deployments.

Tablets have been a topic of discussion for more than 25 years, but the recent confluence of technology and price is leading to an explosion of products in the marketplace. Still, it’s fair to ask what role the tablet will really play in the enterprise – is it an adjunct to more traditional subscriber units, or will it replace the venerable notebook PC to become everyone’s second screen? This session will explore the key requirements for the success of tablets in enterprise settings, and evaluate scenarios for the success (or not) of tablets going forward.

Security is an important concern of cloud implementations- and with good reason. Hackers and other online criminals invented cloud computing years ago by harvesting our machines, creating huge networks to steal private information. The speaker will explain how to stay a step ahead of the bad guys by learning best practices in cloud security. Solutions to the security problem include deploying a line of defense at the virtual machine itself, using bi-directional firewalls on individual virtual machines, and leveraging virtualization-aware malware protection.

As the world of information technology changes, the skill set required to lead your IT organization continually evolves. Attend Day Two of this intensive two-day CIO Boot Camp to learn firsthand from successful CIOs. Hear about common mistakes, how to avoid making them and how to apply their lessons to your world.

Topics include:

• Vendor Management
• Managing the Next Technology Portfolio
• Green IT/Sustainability
• Managing Social Media
• IT Leadership

For more information click here.

The role of network management has fundamentally changed. It is no longer just about the availability of networks. It now includes managing the performance of networks, applications and services. In addition, the continued deployment of new functionality, such as mobility and the virtualization of just about every component of IT, is making the task of network management significantly more challenging. Thankfully, there has been a lot of investment in network management, and the panelists in this fast-paced session will discuss some of the most promising of the emerging network management technologies.

As the world of information technology changes, the skill set required to lead your IT organization continually evolves. Attend Day Two of this intensive two-day CIO Boot Camp to learn firsthand from successful CIOs. Hear about common mistakes, how to avoid making them and how to apply their lessons to your world.

Topics include:

• Vendor Management
• Managing the Next Technology Portfolio
• Green IT/Sustainability
• Managing Social Media
• IT Leadership

For more information click here.

Hear industry visionaries discuss the growth and future of IT.

Service providers see cloud computing as a new opportunity for adding value to their IP transport offerings. For this new opportunity to generate profits, however, service providers must be able to differentiate their services, package them with user-friendly SLAs, and deliver robust services without major customization requirements. Many will also want to develop a portfolio of XaaS offerings including security, storage, software, and applications, all of which can be packaged with IP transport services or with other managed services. This panel will explore how cloud-based services will evolve to be profit engines of the future, including the possibility of industry-specific vertical offerings, as well as ways to make better service translate into market success.

A panel of industry analysts in the cloud computing and managed services space will debate and discuss potential roadblocks to cloud computing success, the breadth of the market opportunity and the chances telecom service providers can succeed in competing with Web-based companies, large system integrators and other competitors in providing outsourced corporate IT services.

Huge revenue, customer acquisition and retention, and brand credibility implications are riding on the ability of Service Providers to leverage their data center and IP infrastructure to deliver profitable network-based IT services. The Carrier Cloud Forum will provide high-quality education and peer-to-peer interaction on building a cloud infrastructure that is manageable and billable, ensuring high-performance security and service quality to meet SLA demands, recognizing best practices for packaging and monetizing XaaS services and applications, and learning what works and what does not for vertical industry customization.

For more information click here.

Ari will offer a market update, detailing where telecom service providers are in their efforts to provide cloud-based services, and outlining some of the immediate challenges they face in addressing this new market. He will also share original Heavy Reading research on industry perspectives of the future of Cloud Computing services.

Service providers have capitalized on their existing data centers and global IP networks to roll out cloud services, in some cases partnering with other infrastructure and networking providers. Going forward, as cloud computing becomes more widely deployed, service providers need to achieve greater integration and efficiency for their cloud offerings. This panel will look at what telecom network operators need to do to prepare and manage their networks, including breaking down internal barriers between the network transport and IT functions of the carrier operation, as well as opening up to third-party application providers, designing billing systems for pay-as-you-go charging models, and preparing back-office operations to deliver on SLAs for cloud customers.

As the world of information technology changes, the skill set required to lead your IT organization continually evolves. Attend Day One of this intensive two-day CIO Boot Camp to learn firsthand from successful CIOs. Hear about common mistakes, how to avoid making them and how to apply their lessons to your world.

Topics include:

• Tales from Top-of-Tech
• The CIO Role Today
• The IT Organization of the Future
• IT in the SMB World – Issues, Realities & Best Practices
• Health Care IT
• Business Analytics
• CIO Unplugged

For more information click here.

As the world of information technology changes, the skill set required to lead your IT organization continually evolves. Attend Day Two of this intensive two-day CIO Boot Camp to learn firsthand from successful CIOs. Hear about common mistakes, how to avoid making them and how to apply their lessons to your world.

Topics include:

• Vendor Management
• Managing the Next Technology Portfolio
• Green IT/Sustainability
• Managing Social Media
• IT Leadership

For more information click here.

As the world of information technology changes, the skill set required to lead your IT organization continually evolves. Attend Day One of this intensive two-day CIO Boot Camp to learn firsthand from successful CIOs. Hear about common mistakes, how to avoid making them and how to apply their lessons to your world.

Topics include:

• Tales from Top-of-Tech
• The CIO Role Today
• The IT Organization of the Future
• IT in the SMB World – Issues, Realities & Best Practices
• Health Care IT
• Business Analytics
• CIO Unplugged

For more information click here.

As the world of information technology changes, the skill set required to lead your IT organization continually evolves. Attend Day Two of this intensive two-day CIO Boot Camp to learn firsthand from successful CIOs. Hear about common mistakes, how to avoid making them and how to apply their lessons to your world.

Topics include:

• Vendor Management
• Managing the Next Technology Portfolio
• Green IT/Sustainability
• Managing Social Media
• IT Leadership

For more information click here.

With so many cloud providers entering the market—and clear economy-of-scale advantages to market leaders—the consolidation of public clouds is inevitable. To stay independent, providers will have to differentiate themselves by focusing on specific customers, geographies, certifications, or service model. This panel will look at the differentiation of cloud offerings, and what that means to enterprise customers seeking tailored solutions but fearing lock-in.

On Day One of Enterprise Cloud Summit, we'll turn our eye outward to look at the many public cloud offerings that are levelling the IT playing field. Public cloud providers offer pay-as-you-go economics and tremendous flexibility; but they also create new security, portability, and performance concerns. Once the exclusive domain of web startups, today enterprises big and small are finding ways to incorporate public cloud platforms into their IT strategy. Whether you're deciding how to embrace them or want to learn from what others are doing, Enterprise Cloud Summit is the place to do it.

For a detailed agenda click here.

With so many cloud providers entering the market—and clear economy-of-scale advantages to market leaders—the consolidation of public clouds is inevitable. To stay independent, providers will have to differentiate themselves by focusing on specific customers, geographies, certifications, or service model. This panel will look at the differentiation of cloud offerings, and what that means to enterprise customers seeking tailored solutions but fearing lock-in.

On Day One of Enterprise Cloud Summit, we'll turn our eye outward to look at the many public cloud offerings that are levelling the IT playing field. Public cloud providers offer pay-as-you-go economics and tremendous flexibility; but they also create new security, portability, and performance concerns. Once the exclusive domain of web startups, today enterprises big and small are finding ways to incorporate public cloud platforms into their IT strategy. Whether you're deciding how to embrace them or want to learn from what others are doing, Enterprise Cloud Summit is the place to do it.

For a detailed agenda click here.

In the first of our under-the-covers sessions, Amazon Web Services will have ten minutes to answer our shortlist of questions on pricing, capacity, service levels, data location, and architecture.

Real-time traffic (voice and video) demands a network that delivers low latency, low packet loss and low jitter. And that’s not easy to accomplish. The dynamic character of modern networks, and the growing requirement for highly distributed configurations can lead to errors in design or implementation that cause quality problems for voice and video apps. And so, a new breed of testing methodologies and tools is required to test or monitor converged networks and to isolate problems. This session will analyze and categorize these tools, and list vendors that provide the different kinds of solutions needed to manage today’s complex networks.

As the world of information technology changes, the skill set required to lead your IT organization continually evolves. Attend Day Two of this intensive two-day CIO Boot Camp to learn firsthand from successful CIOs. Hear about common mistakes, how to avoid making them and how to apply their lessons to your world.

Topics include:

• Vendor Management
• Managing the Next Technology Portfolio
• Green IT/Sustainability
• Managing Social Media
• IT Leadership

For more information click here.

Real-time traffic (voice and video) demands a network that delivers low latency, low packet loss and low jitter. And that’s not easy to accomplish. The dynamic character of modern networks, and the growing requirement for highly distributed configurations can lead to errors in design or implementation that cause quality problems for voice and video apps. And so, a new breed of testing methodologies and tools is required to test or monitor converged networks and to isolate problems. This session will analyze and categorize these tools, and list vendors that provide the different kinds of solutions needed to manage today’s complex networks.

Workplace technology is rapidly changing and driving a new normal in employee productivity and efficiency. Unified Communications, Video, Mobile and Social Networking each play an important role in improving how we work, but their real value may still lie ahead as these technologies come together to truly redefine the work experience. Attend this panel which includes Interop's wireless, Enterprise 2.0, unified communications, and video track chairs and experts for a lively, forward-looking discussion on the future of work.

Thanks to the perfect storm of improved video conferencing technology, QoS capable wide area networks, economic and environmental pressure to reduce travel and a big marketing budget at Cisco, video conferencing is entering mainstream use in many businesses. Due to the burgeoning market, vendors have introduced many new models of video conferencing equipment and services. The enterprise decision-maker is faced with a confusing array of potentially incompatible solutions. This session will sort through the endpoints, the infrastructure, the support options and the interoperability issues to guide the video conferencing management team in a direction that will support the enterprise’s needs.

- Technologies for video conferencing, formats, telepresence, room-based, executive desktops, software, consumer video, mobile video

- Infrastructure tradeoffs, protocols, bridging, call security, signaling infrastructure, UC integration

- User requirements: scheduling, meeting support, reports

- Network requirements, bandwidth, QoS, firewall traversal

- Service provider support and outsourcing

Video conferencing has been relabeled as Telepresence, and Telepresence is being reinvented every day. Moore’s law is helping video move to standard platforms, and software developers are integrating video into communications infrastructures like UC, into web-based collaboration tools and directly into business applications. In this session leading-edge vendors will present different views on what we can expect from visual communications tomorrow, next year and beyond.

Is anyone really using this stuff? How can they justify the expense? In this session we will present case studies from video conferencing users to see how real businesses have integrated video into their communications infrastructures (e.g. UC) and into the daily flow of their business. We will examine the hard and soft ROIs around how video conferencing was justified, and how it has or has not paid off once deployed.

Video streams have very different requirements for network transport, and have traditionally been difficult to handle well. The rapid uptake of video in various forms (video conferencing, video streaming, security, etc.) have put pressure on the network to do a better job. New architectures are evolving that better match the requirements of heavy video usage and ubiquitous connectivity. This session will have three leading-edge vendors presenting different approaches to supporting video in an IP network environment. These new approaches help solve the issues of bandwidth management, quality of service management, firewall traversal and business-to-business connectivity.

It's unlikely that clouds are an all-or-nothing affair, at least in the short term. Companies will blend on-premise and on-demand clouds into what some call a hybrid model, combining the control of machines you own with the flexibility of those you merely rent. But a distributed architecture has its own problems—particularly reliability. In this panel, we'll learn what the challenges of a "stretched cloud" are and how technology can help mitigate performance issues when workloads happen at a distance.

On-demand computing resources are the most disruptive change in IT of the last decade, and much of that disruption begins at home. Day Two of Enterprise Cloud Summit will focus on private clouds -- radically new ways to combine virtualization, automation, and self-service models in order to change how you deliver IT to your business.

For a detailed agenda click here.

Virtualization impacts every major compliance standard and requires fundamental changes to security practices. What should this mean to you? This session will discuss what gaps are introduced in the move from physical to virtual where compliance is concerned, and prescribe specific steps to ensure compliance for production deployments. Regulatory areas discussed will include FISMA, DIACAP, PCI, HIPAA and SOX/GLBA. We will review how to build a framework for securing virtual data centers and private clouds, and how to take physical security constructs like Zones and propagate them to the virtual infrastructure to enable consistent security across the entire data center, virtual and physical. You will also learn about various hypervisor security architectures coupled with VM Introspection and automation can deliver dynamic, granular insights into security.

Virtualization and cloud computing hold the promise of enabling IT organizations to become more agile in large part because they support the dynamic creation and movement of IT resources. There is just one problem – supporting the dynamic movement of resources is extremely difficult. It requires a more dynamic approach to traditional management tasks such as DNS, DHCP and IP address management. It also requires that service delivery controllers can effectively accommodate the movement of virtual machines, that VLANs can be extended across the WAN, that all of the resources can be automatically orchestrated and that huge volumes of information can be quickly moved across the WAN. The panelists on this session will describe the functionality that has to be in place to support the dynamic creation and movement of IT resources and will identify how much of that functionality is available today.

Hear industry visionaries discuss the growth and future of IT.

Video streams have very different requirements for network transport, and have traditionally been difficult to handle well. The rapid uptake of video in various forms (video conferencing, video streaming, security, etc.) have put pressure on the network to do a better job. New architectures are evolving that better match the requirements of heavy video usage and ubiquitous connectivity. This session will have three leading-edge vendors presenting different approaches to supporting video in an IP network environment. These new approaches help solve the issues of bandwidth management, quality of service management, firewall traversal and business-to-business connectivity.

iPad. Galaxy. Cius. New mobile devices and tablets drive new user behaviors. IT is increasingly challenged with providing acceptable device use policies and designing WLAN’s for an optimal user experience. This session will cover best practices that can be implemented to prepare your network and embrace the mobility trend, securely, seamlessly and reliably.

Depending upon whose definition you accept, 4G wireless wide-area networks are here from almost all (and soon all) of the major carriers. This session will examine each of the major alternatives for 4G, including HSPA+, LTE, and WiMAX, and discuss the core technologies, rollout plans, features, benefits, and limitations of today’s 4G networks. We’ll also discuss the evolution of 4G towards the ITU’s definition of 100+ Mbps, including the evolution of standards, industry specifications, and related capabilities, and help you set a mobile broadband course for both today and tomorrow.

With dozens of cloud computing firms to choose from, the battle lines are drawn. In this interactive, moderated discussion, we'll try to determine which cloud providers are best for different IT goals. You'll learn which companies are high-touch, and which are no-touch; which are cheap, and which are premium-priced; which are complex and which are turnkey. Come armed with your own scenarios, awkward questions, and shortlist criteria and put these providers on the spot.

Huge revenue, customer acquisition and retention, and brand credibility implications are riding on the ability of Service Providers to leverage their data center and IP infrastructure to deliver profitable network-based IT services. The Carrier Cloud Forum will provide high-quality education and peer-to-peer interaction on building a cloud infrastructure that is manageable and billable, ensuring high-performance security and service quality to meet SLA demands, recognizing best practices for packaging and monetizing XaaS services and applications, and learning what works and what does not for vertical industry customization.

For more information click here.

As data centers converge, the lines of responsibility for storage, server, application and network teams are blurring. The politics can get messy, but bring these specialists together right and you’ll gain significant benefits by breaking down silos and integrating key roles in ways that allow you to be incredibly flexible and responsive to the business. Our Analytics experts will discuss practical ways to quell turf wars and build truly converged teams.

IT faces increasing demands for business-enhancing services yet is saddled with static budgets and outsized operational loads, where 80% of the time, effort and dollars are spent on routine, “keep the lights on” activities, not service or application development. Automation is a key lever in budging this roadblock to innovation, but so too is effective use of service providers, whether external hosting facilities, cloud-based SaaS and IaaS, or third-party managed services. Our Analytics experts will share results of our survey and address some key questions: What areas are ripe for outsourcing? Where to automate internal IT processes? We’ll cover managing across multivendor, heterogeneous in-house/as-a-service systems, providing transparency to the business, and adhering to best-practices frameworks. We'll also examine the human equation -- how to transition IT staff from operational to business-focused tasks, how to increase collaboration both within the enterprise and with external service providers, and how to capture IT knowledge to create policies, SLAs and automation-friendly run books.

The definition of a “desktop” is changing in many ways. Virtualization technologies have expanded and improved, offering better ways to deliver desktops and applications, ranging from VDI to session virtualization to streamed desktops to client hypervisors to Desktop as a Service. New devices continue to emerge and proliferate (including tablets, smartphones, thin clients and zero clients), and Bring Your Own Computer (BYOC) initiatives are gaining ground. As IT organizations consider the best strategy for delivering and supporting desktops and applications for the next decade, and address tactical issues like migration to Windows 7, IT has the opportunity to change the paradigm for delivering endpoint access to users and devices anywhere. Desktop and application virtualization offer new ways to incorporate the new types of users and devices, and many of the past barriers to virtual desktops have been overcome.

For more information click here.

On Day One of Enterprise Cloud Summit, we'll turn our eye outward to look at the many public cloud offerings that are levelling the IT playing field. Public cloud providers offer pay-as-you-go economics and tremendous flexibility; but they also create new security, portability, and performance concerns. Once the exclusive domain of web startups, today enterprises big and small are finding ways to incorporate public cloud platforms into their IT strategy. Whether you're deciding how to embrace them or want to learn from what others are doing, Enterprise Cloud Summit is the place to do it.

For a detailed agenda click here.

Cloud computing is ripe for acquisition and consolidation, with the potential for near-monopoly power in relatively short order. This could endanger the open IETF process that has served us well, and threaten the future of open, multi-vendor protocols. Avoiding such an outcome will start with education, and may well end with regulation.

On Day One of Enterprise Cloud Summit, we'll turn our eye outward to look at the many public cloud offerings that are levelling the IT playing field. Public cloud providers offer pay-as-you-go economics and tremendous flexibility; but they also create new security, portability, and performance concerns. Once the exclusive domain of web startups, today enterprises big and small are finding ways to incorporate public cloud platforms into their IT strategy. Whether you're deciding how to embrace them or want to learn from what others are doing, Enterprise Cloud Summit is the place to do it.

For a detailed agenda click here.

Have a look at the list of projects now underway at IEEE 802.11 and the Wi-Fi Alliance and you’ll quickly get the message: there’s more going on than ever in WLAN standards, specifications, and advanced wireless-LAN technologies. Always a popular topic at Interop, this session will dive into important developments in each of these areas, with detailed discussion of the implications for enterprise network planning and operations. We’ll also provide a look at the farther-term future of the wireless LAN.

At a time when the drive toward social, mobile, virtual and cloud computing is all but certain, the enterprise network is evolving to ensure it meets IT and business needs. The converged enterprise is transitioning to a newer, efficient and intelligent network. As a result, network managers are on the front line of key industry trends.

Join IDC's Enterprise Communications and Datacenter Network experts, for an analyst briefing and get answers to the following questions:

• What are the key technologies that will be in play in 2011 and beyond?
• What are the key requirements for unified wired/wireless?
• How do Ethernet fabrics meet the needs of the virtualized datacenter?
• What's next for voice and video?
• How is application delivery changing in the era of cloud computing?

Agenda

7:30 AM - 7:45 AM
Registration/Breakfast

7:45 AM - 8:05 AM
The Enterprise Network in the Era of the Cloud

8:05 AM - 8:15 AM
The Future of Unified Communications: Voice and Video

8:15 AM - 8:30 AM
Datacenter Hot Topics for 2011

8:30 AM - 8:45 AM
Q&A

There’s a popular feeling that all handsets are the same, with the iPhone having define both new user interface and applications paradigms. But there are in fact major differences in form factor, ease of use, network and application integration, and other capabilities among handsets today, so it’s important to dig into the technologies and trends surrounding this critical element of mobility. We’ll cap this year’s conference with a look at some of our favorites, and the intriguing possibilities lurking in the future of handset technology.

Hear Rackspace answer our shortlist questions on pricing, capacity, service levels, data location, and architecture.

On Day One of Enterprise Cloud Summit, we'll turn our eye outward to look at the many public cloud offerings that are levelling the IT playing field. Public cloud providers offer pay-as-you-go economics and tremendous flexibility; but they also create new security, portability, and performance concerns. Once the exclusive domain of web startups, today enterprises big and small are finding ways to incorporate public cloud platforms into their IT strategy. Whether you're deciding how to embrace them or want to learn from what others are doing, Enterprise Cloud Summit is the place to do it.

For a detailed agenda click here.

In the first of our under-the-covers look at private cloud stacks, we'll learn about Openstack.

On-demand computing resources are the most disruptive change in IT of the last decade, and much of that disruption begins at home. Day Two of Enterprise Cloud Summit will focus on private clouds -- radically new ways to combine virtualization, automation, and self-service models in order to change how you deliver IT to your business.

For a detailed agenda click here.

The last few years has seen a great growth in the development of virtual service delivery appliances such as WAN optimization controllers (WOCs) and application delivery controllers (ADCs). These virtual appliances hold the promise of fundamentally changing service delivery. The members of this session will discuss the benefits of this new class of service delivery appliances as well as where these appliances should and should not be deployed. The panelists will also discuss the challenges associated with this new set of appliances and identify specific criteria that you can use to evaluate them.

All of the technologies and design approaches that IT organizations have used for years in the data center are now being questioned. This includes the use of the spanning tree protocol, the separation of the LAN and the SAN and the use of a three-tier design based on access, distribution and core switches. In addition, the emergence of 802.11n and virtualized access points highlights the fact that the branch office LAN is fundamentally changing. The panelists in this fast-paced, session will discuss some of the most promising emerging LAN technologies and the most current thinking about LAN design.

In the final under-the-covers look at private cloud stacks, we'll learn about Eucalyptus.

On-demand computing resources are the most disruptive change in IT of the last decade, and much of that disruption begins at home. Day Two of Enterprise Cloud Summit will focus on private clouds -- radically new ways to combine virtualization, automation, and self-service models in order to change how you deliver IT to your business.

For a detailed agenda click here.

On Day One of Enterprise Cloud Summit, we'll turn our eye outward to look at the many public cloud offerings that are levelling the IT playing field. Public cloud providers offer pay-as-you-go economics and tremendous flexibility; but they also create new security, portability, and performance concerns. Once the exclusive domain of web startups, today enterprises big and small are finding ways to incorporate public cloud platforms into their IT strategy. Whether you're deciding how to embrace them or want to learn from what others are doing, Enterprise Cloud Summit is the place to do it.

For a detailed agenda click here.

In this discussion, Brian Butte of PWC and HP's Joe Weinman, author of the influential Cloudonomics blog, will discuss the economics of utility computing and public clouds.

Customers looking to implement Enterprise 2.0 technologies can select among a broad variety of competing solutions in an expanding marketplace that now offers point solutions, broad suites, and major infrastructure platforms. Meanwhile, SharePoint has become “a fact of life” in many organizations; but SharePoint is not a panacea, nor the only game in town. Nevertheless, the Enterprise 2.0 technology space has matured to the extent that we can now talk about social and collaboration architectures. However, practitioners, experts, and vendors disagree about what those architectures should look like, and how enterprises should plan for emerging trends and standards. This session will critique current state-of-the-art social and collaborative technologies, as well as analyze market trends shaping next generation platforms.

IT teams are under heavy pressure to deliver new social and collaboration solutions to today's knowledge workers, along with heightened expectations from business units that IT managers will understand a wide array of complex content integration toolsets. This fast-paced workshop is designed to give you a baseline of knowledge and best practices to make the right technology decisions and give you greater confidence in addressing business demands.

The workshop is divided into six segments, each reflecting an enterprise information imperative:

1) Filtering

Focuses on how Enterprise Portals and Enterprise Search technologies attempt to address the problem of information overload, with an in-depth look at how they work (and don't work) underneath the covers.

2) Collaborating

Takes a hard look -- from both a business and architectural perspective-- at how emerging toolsets Social and Collaboration tools can help your colleagues filter and leverage information and relationships.

3) Streaming

Contrasts different approaches for handling burgeoning media streams within and beyond your firewall.

4) Managing

Looks at the promise and pitfalls of Document and Records Management technologies for addressing longstanding needs around structured workflow processes, regulatory compliance, legal obligations, and e-discovery.

5) SharePointing

Outline SharePoint's true strengths and weaknesses, and teaches you how to put suitable boundaries around this vast platform.

6) Selecting

Shows you to how to navigate these marketplaces effectively in uncertain times, providing a practical approach to help you identify the right "fit" for your particular requirements.

Led by Real Story Group (formerly CMS Watch) founder Tony Byrne, the workshop will offer a critical look at what content-oriented technologies can reasonably accomplish, and what's just vendor marketing hype. Get an insider's perspective on how enterprise content technologies really work -- their benefits and inevitable shortcomings -- so you can better support your colleagues today.

Who Should Attend:

• Business Analysts
• Enterprise Architects
• IT Leaders
• Program and Project Managers
• Technology Consultants and Integrators
• Enterprise Procurement Managers

In this session, Carol Wilson will interview two top service providers, uncovering their specific real-world experience offering cloud-based services, including business, technology and strategic challenges.

Huge revenue, customer acquisition and retention, and brand credibility implications are riding on the ability of Service Providers to leverage their data center and IP infrastructure to deliver profitable network-based IT services. The Carrier Cloud Forum will provide high-quality education and peer-to-peer interaction on building a cloud infrastructure that is manageable and billable, ensuring high-performance security and service quality to meet SLA demands, recognizing best practices for packaging and monetizing XaaS services and applications, and learning what works and what does not for vertical industry customization.

For more information click here.

Service providers have capitalized on their existing data centers and global IP networks to roll out cloud services, in some cases partnering with other infrastructure and networking providers. Going forward, as cloud computing becomes more widely deployed, service providers need to achieve greater integration and efficiency for their cloud offerings. This panel will look at what telecom network operators need to do to prepare and manage their networks, including breaking down internal barriers between the network transport and IT functions of the carrier operation, as well as opening up to third-party application providers, designing billing systems for pay-as-you-go charging models, and preparing back-office operations to deliver on SLAs for cloud customers.

Data holds a key to your success. Changes to the data landscape are making it increasingly difficult to store, retrieve, and deliver the right data where and when it’s needed. In this session, learn how Dell’s Intelligent Data Management solutions can help transform your data from an administrative nightmare into a strategic asset.

Video conferencing has been relabeled as Telepresence, and Telepresence is being reinvented every day. Moore’s law is helping video move to standard platforms, and software developers are integrating video into communications infrastructures like UC, into web-based collaboration tools and directly into business applications. In this session leading-edge vendors will present different views on what we can expect from visual communications tomorrow, next year and beyond.

There are now multiple proven and effective methods for close-coupled cooling at the IT rack or row level. With the install base of these products on the rise solution costs are decreasing, but how do these products and technologies stack up against more conventional approaches such as perimeter room based cooling? This presentation will detail the economics involved with each solution, CAPEX, OPEX, Total Cost of Ownership and payback to help make a complex challenge fundamentally easier to solve.

While power, cooling and cost control remain top concerns in the data center, new questions including Green IT, energy efficiency, PUE, utility negotiations and return on investment are highlighting the need for a new business orientation to the management of data center physical infrastructure (DCPIM). Holistic management of the data center ecosystem lets you achieve efficient operations, forecast capacity, plan for business growth and streamline workflow management. Learn how Data Center Infrastructure Management software enables a healthy, efficient data center by integration with virtualization platforms, enterprise and Building Management Systems.

Across IT organizations, there is strong interest in deploying applications in a cloud environment to achieve increased business flexibility and cost savings. However, the importance of performance and reliability of the overall application and content delivery chain from the cloud infrastructure to the end user has been largely overlooked. In this session, you will learn how to make cloud computing part of a total IT solution that provides competitive advantage through improved end user experience, while simultaneously delivering the flexibility and financial benefits promised by the cloud.

In IT we often overuse the phrase next generation to apply to an obvious upgrade such as the movement to implement higher speed Ethernet LANs. However, given the dramatic shifts being driven by virtualization and cloud computing, we have to ask ourselves “Do we want to keep building networks the way we always have been?” The panelists in this session will discuss the new approaches to network design coming out of the research community as well as the approach taken by the leading cloud computing vendors. In some cases these approaches are somewhat radical. Attend this session to learn about new approaches to designing networks – approaches that are built around enabling the vision of a truly dynamic, virtualized data center.

Tablets have been a topic of discussion for more than 25 years, but the recent confluence of technology and price is leading to an explosion of products in the marketplace. Still, it’s fair to ask what role the tablet will really play in the enterprise – is it an adjunct to more traditional subscriber units, or will it replace the venerable notebook PC to become everyone’s second screen? This session will explore the key requirements for the success of tablets in enterprise settings, and evaluate scenarios for the success (or not) of tablets going forward.

Hear industry visionaries discuss the growth and future of IT.

For years IT organizations built three-tier data center LANs based on a number of broadly accepted axioms. This included the use of the spanning tree algorithm, the separation of the data center LAN and the SAN as well as the use of Ethernet on a best effort basis. However, trends such as the adoption of server virtualization are causing IT organizations to rethink every aspect of data center LAN design. The panelists on this session will be given an actual data center LAN and asked to redesign the LAN to support a highly virtual, dynamic data center. They will also be asked to explain why they are, or are not, recommending specific technologies.

Virtualization increases vulnerability and risks from server outages by consolidating many workloads on individual servers. At the same time it offers unparalleled opportunities to deliver business continuity through next generation data protection technologies. Business continuity is becoming increasingly important to compete effectively, while basic backup is still widely regarded as the bane of IT’s existence, and fully tested recovery plans are a rarity outside of a few critical systems. When the need to restore inevitably arises, relying on traditional methods results in business delays and a heavy drain on technical resources. Learn from real-world experiences how the use of virtualization and next generation technologies and techniques can deliver business continuity at affordable cost, including backup and recovery systems that move business continuity from overhead to competitive benefit.

On Day One of Enterprise Cloud Summit, we'll turn our eye outward to look at the many public cloud offerings that are levelling the IT playing field. Public cloud providers offer pay-as-you-go economics and tremendous flexibility; but they also create new security, portability, and performance concerns. Once the exclusive domain of web startups, today enterprises big and small are finding ways to incorporate public cloud platforms into their IT strategy. Whether you're deciding how to embrace them or want to learn from what others are doing, Enterprise Cloud Summit is the place to do it.

For a detailed agenda click here.

In this case study session, a cloud user from the Canadian Pacific Railway will walk you through his experience with cloud platforms, sharing what's worked and what hasn't.

On-demand computing resources are the most disruptive change in IT of the last decade, and much of that disruption begins at home. Day Two of Enterprise Cloud Summit will focus on private clouds -- radically new ways to combine virtualization, automation, and self-service models in order to change how you deliver IT to your business.

For a detailed agenda click here.

The earliest cloud offerings were Web-based services, but as telecom service providers move into the cloud, they are promising to bring more secure services, safe from possible intrusion or data breaches; better guaranteed service quality and SLAs; and broader global footprint and integration with IP transport. This panel will look at the infrastructure service providers need to build in order to deliver on those promises and to differentiate their services in both their quality and the functionality offered.

Huge revenue, customer acquisition and retention, and brand credibility implications are riding on the ability of Service Providers to leverage their data center and IP infrastructure to deliver profitable network-based IT services. The Carrier Cloud Forum will provide high-quality education and peer-to-peer interaction on building a cloud infrastructure that is manageable and billable, ensuring high-performance security and service quality to meet SLA demands, recognizing best practices for packaging and monetizing XaaS services and applications, and learning what works and what does not for vertical industry customization.

For more information click here.

Service providers have capitalized on their existing data centers and global IP networks to roll out cloud services, in some cases partnering with other infrastructure and networking providers. Going forward, as cloud computing becomes more widely deployed, service providers need to achieve greater integration and efficiency for their cloud offerings. This panel will look at what telecom network operators need to do to prepare and manage their networks, including breaking down internal barriers between the network transport and IT functions of the carrier operation, as well as opening up to third-party application providers, designing billing systems for pay-as-you-go charging models, and preparing back-office operations to deliver on SLAs for cloud customers.

Virtualization impacts every major compliance standard and requires fundamental changes to security practices. What should this mean to you? This session will discuss what gaps are introduced in the move from physical to virtual where compliance is concerned, and prescribe specific steps to ensure compliance for production deployments. Regulatory areas discussed will include FISMA, DIACAP, PCI, HIPAA and SOX/GLBA. We will review how to build a framework for securing virtual data centers and private clouds, and how to take physical security constructs like Zones and propagate them to the virtual infrastructure to enable consistent security across the entire data center, virtual and physical. You will also learn about various hypervisor security architectures coupled with VM Introspection and automation can deliver dynamic, granular insights into security.

In this session, learn the differences between and the benefits of both the public and private clouds. Find out how to analyze which type of cloud solution is right for your company. We will be discussing cloud technology options as they relate to virtualization, business continuity and storage, integration and infrastructure replacement.

Video streams have very different requirements for network transport, and have traditionally been difficult to handle well. The rapid uptake of video in various forms (video conferencing, video streaming, security, etc.) have put pressure on the network to do a better job. New architectures are evolving that better match the requirements of heavy video usage and ubiquitous connectivity. This session will have three leading-edge vendors presenting different approaches to supporting video in an IP network environment. These new approaches help solve the issues of bandwidth management, quality of service management, firewall traversal and business-to-business connectivity.

One of the critical decisions to be made when rolling out a mobile solution is the choice of mobile operating system on handsets and related devices. Or is it? With advances in mobile device management, personal-liability operational polices, and Web-based services, perhaps the OS wars are over. We look at both sides of this question in this session, and help you understand the key difference in mobile OS and app strategies.

Hear Salesforce answer our shortlist questions on pricing, capacity, service levels, data location, and architecture.

On Day One of Enterprise Cloud Summit, we'll turn our eye outward to look at the many public cloud offerings that are levelling the IT playing field. Public cloud providers offer pay-as-you-go economics and tremendous flexibility; but they also create new security, portability, and performance concerns. Once the exclusive domain of web startups, today enterprises big and small are finding ways to incorporate public cloud platforms into their IT strategy. Whether you're deciding how to embrace them or want to learn from what others are doing, Enterprise Cloud Summit is the place to do it.

For a detailed agenda click here.

Are private clouds clouds? Or is the third-party business model inherent in what makes a cloud a cloud? As the FUD flies on both sides, everyone's got a different opinion of what defines cloud computing. We're going to see if we can get to the bottom of it, sitting public cloud providers across from private cloud toolmakers.

On-demand computing resources are the most disruptive change in IT of the last decade, and much of that disruption begins at home. Day Two of Enterprise Cloud Summit will focus on private clouds -- radically new ways to combine virtualization, automation, and self-service models in order to change how you deliver IT to your business.

For a detailed agenda click here.

Driven largely by the deployment of chatty protocols and the need to transmit large files, many IT organizations have implemented network and application optimization functionality. The traditional approach to doing this is for the IT organization to implement WAN optimization controller (WOC) functionality themselves or to obtain it as part of a managed service. While those options still exist, new options are emerging. This includes obtaining network and application optimization functionality from a SaaS provider or by using WAN services that have embedded optimization functionality. The panelists in this session debate the pros can cons of the various approaches and give you the insight you need to refine your optimization strategy.

With dozens of cloud computing firms to choose from, the battle lines are drawn. In this interactive, moderated discussion, we'll try to determine which cloud providers are best for different IT goals. You'll learn which companies are high-touch, and which are no-touch; which are cheap, and which are premium-priced; which are complex and which are turnkey. Come armed with your own scenarios, awkward questions, and shortlist criteria and put these providers on the spot.

Interoperability - and in particular, federation of UC systems - continues to be one of the biggest pain points for UC customers. The “plugfest” approach, also known as bilateral testing, becomes increasingly expensive and lengthy as the market expands, and is giving way to unilateral testing. The Unified Communication Interoperability Forum (UCIF) is creating and certifying UC interop scenarios that will give customers needed confidence while easing the burden on vendors. This panel explores the challenges faced when federating UC systems, and will delve into the challenges the UCIF can encounter on the path to a robust and comprehensive UC validation program.

Transitioning to IPv6 may not be an imperative in 2011, but you do need to start putting a plan in place. Our Analytics experts will discuss how to prioritize migration (services available to the Internet should probably move quickly; internal networks can wait longer). We’ll discuss architectural and design considerations for dual-stacking IPv6 and IPv4, supporting network devices that can't run in this mode, network number assignments, and other key considerations.
PLUS: A sneak peek at the No. 1 problem child of IPv6 migrations: Security.

Whether it’s an iPad, Android phone or Mac laptop, users are bringing their personal devices to work and expecting IT to support them. Except in heavily regulated shops, trying to turn back this tide may well be counterproductive and cost the company money. Our Analytics experts will explain how IT can apply well-defined processes and goals that balance the needs of the business against a happy workforce and thus make consumerization work for you, not against you.

Major vendors are fighting to control the next generation of the data center. Battle lines are drawn, with Cisco, VMware and EMC on one side, and HP, IBM and Hitachi on the other. Are you willing to be tied to an OPEC-like consortium in exchange for tightly integrated network, compute and storage? Or can you build an agile data center by playing the field and linking disparate vendors with third-party software? Our Analytics experts help you decide.

Moving enterprise applications to the cloud – how hard can it be? In this session, we’ll review some of the key challenges enterprise face, and what options exist to ease migration. We’ll focus on complex, multi-tier apps that require connectivity with the enterprise data center for security, networking and other services.

On Day One of Enterprise Cloud Summit, we'll turn our eye outward to look at the many public cloud offerings that are levelling the IT playing field. Public cloud providers offer pay-as-you-go economics and tremendous flexibility; but they also create new security, portability, and performance concerns. Once the exclusive domain of web startups, today enterprises big and small are finding ways to incorporate public cloud platforms into their IT strategy. Whether you're deciding how to embrace them or want to learn from what others are doing, Enterprise Cloud Summit is the place to do it.

For a detailed agenda click here.

This presentation uses McAfee Labs research as well as real-life customers. Original content designed to paint a clear picture of today’s threat landscape will illustrate the differences between insiders, industrialized hackers, and advanced persistent threats. Attacks are coming from all angles. In some cases they are very rudimentary; others are highly complex. Organizations must be able to protect themselves regardless, and do so in a way that is in parity with business operations, maintains employee and partner agility, and is manageable without the complexity of the solution being worse than the attack itself. Attendees will leave the presentation more knowledgeable about insider threats, industrialized hacking, and Advanced Persistent Threats. They will also gain a strong grasp of attacker motives and understand attack vectors. Several non-vender, non-product specific countermeasures that attendees can leverage within their own organizations will also be explored.

You cannot fight what you cannot see. You also cannot trust the external industry prophets and experts to tell you what you should and should not be concerned about in your world. Gone are the days of loud, boisterous network worms like Slammer and Blaster. They know you've ticked the compliance checkbox and they no longer care. They also read all of the same reports and studies that tell you where you are supposed to focus your time and attention and what will help you to solve your problems. What is needed to be successful in meeting today’s information security challenge is more visibility and a mind-shift: from looking for the "evil bit" to more situational awareness and prompt and agile response. This session will explore the ever increasing blindness of our environments, how to reclaim and expand our visibility, and how this visibility can enable more tenable and strategic approaches to facing and defeating modern threats. Participants will leave knowing how to better leverage their existing investments to gain this level of visibility and best focus their future ones.

Tablets, Laptops, and Smartphones, fact is wireless clients have displaced wired as the primary network connection. Coverage alone is not enough – IT must support greater densities, higher bandwidths and any application over a diverse set of devices. Learn how providing a ‘wired-like’ service doesn’t require greater cost, just a greater understanding of Wi-Fi.

Desktop and application virtualization hold the promise of solving many of the desktop management problems that have been plaguing IT since PCs first began to multiply in corporations in the early 1980s. How can these various technologies help reduce desktop and application management nightmares? Where should they fit into an overall desktop management strategy? What benefits can be gained and what pitfalls can be avoided? What is involved in evaluating, planning and implementing them? How should desktop management change to best leverage these technologies? How do SBC/hosted applications, VDI/hosted virtual desktops, client hypervisors, application virtualization and user virtualization fit together? Learn best practices for implementing various desktop and application virtualization technologies and how you might incorporate these types of solutions into your desktop and application management strategy.

At a time when the drive toward social, mobile, virtual and cloud computing is all but certain, the enterprise network is evolving to ensure it meets IT and business needs. The converged enterprise is transitioning to a newer, efficient and intelligent network. As a result, network managers are on the front line of key industry trends.

Join IDC's Enterprise Communications and Datacenter Network experts, for an analyst briefing and get answers to the following questions:

• What are the key technologies that will be in play in 2011 and beyond?
• What are the key requirements for unified wired/wireless?
• How do Ethernet fabrics meet the needs of the virtualized datacenter?
• What's next for voice and video?
• How is application delivery changing in the era of cloud computing?

Agenda

7:30 AM - 7:45 AM
Registration/Breakfast

7:45 AM - 8:05 AM
The Enterprise Network in the Era of the Cloud

8:05 AM - 8:15 AM
The Future of Unified Communications: Voice and Video

8:15 AM - 8:30 AM
Datacenter Hot Topics for 2011

8:30 AM - 8:45 AM
Q&A

Virtualization management is the key to successfully moving beyond basic server consolidation to an agile virtual infrastructure to a private cloud service. Getting there successfully means addressing such areas as automation of provisioning and virtual operations; performance, capacity management and troubleshooting across and through the virtual and physical infrastructure; lifecycle management; and eventually managing across multiple hypervisors. Hear experiences and best practices from our expert panel on how layering the right management capabilities onto your virtual environment will improve your IT operations and transform your environment into a private cloud.

Cloud computing turns many fundamental IT assumptions on their heads. Machines are free. Data doesn't always need to be right. We assume everything fails. Infrastructure is code. To thrive in the world of utility computing, you need to think cloudy. In this session, you'll learn where common wisdom fails, and how to change your mindset when it comes to on-demand architectures.

In cloud computing, security is the monster in the closet. Studies have shown that enterprises see security as the biggest reason not to adopt utility computing—and the biggest reason to use it. Proponents of clouds suggest that they have access to better talent and tools than their users do, and after all, most breaches come from within. Detractors warn that with clouds, someone else controls your destiny, and the shared model exposes you to the mistakes of your neighbours. Who's right? In this Oxford-style debate, we'll put both arguments to the test, and see who's got the most convincing story.

On Day One of Enterprise Cloud Summit, we'll turn our eye outward to look at the many public cloud offerings that are levelling the IT playing field. Public cloud providers offer pay-as-you-go economics and tremendous flexibility; but they also create new security, portability, and performance concerns. Once the exclusive domain of web startups, today enterprises big and small are finding ways to incorporate public cloud platforms into their IT strategy. Whether you're deciding how to embrace them or want to learn from what others are doing, Enterprise Cloud Summit is the place to do it.

For a detailed agenda click here.

Enterprise Cloud Summit Chairman, Alistair Croll will set the stage for the two-day program, looking at where the cloud industry is today and where the challenges lie.

What should go where? With all the new options available to IT professionals, this quick presentation offers a framework for evaluating which parts of your business should migrate to where, from bare metal, to private clouds, to public PaaS and IaaS.

On-demand computing resources are the most disruptive change in IT of the last decade, and much of that disruption begins at home. Day Two of Enterprise Cloud Summit will focus on private clouds -- radically new ways to combine virtualization, automation, and self-service models in order to change how you deliver IT to your business.

For a detailed agenda click here.

We'll kick off Day Two of Enterprise Cloud Summit with a quick look at private clouds and the emergence of elastic on-premise computing.

Think you know clouds? Think again. Many of the assumptions we make about IT—from the value of machines to the reliability of the underlying platforms to the requirement that data is always accurate—are dead wrong. In this session we'll look at ten fundamentals of cloud computing that every IT professional needs to take to heart.

Hear industry visionaries discuss the growth and future of IT.

As the world of information technology changes, the skill set required to lead your IT organization continually evolves. Attend Day One of this intensive two-day CIO Boot Camp to learn firsthand from successful CIOs. Hear about common mistakes, how to avoid making them and how to apply their lessons to your world.

Topics include:

• Tales from Top-of-Tech
• The CIO Role Today
• The IT Organization of the Future
• IT in the SMB World – Issues, Realities & Best Practices
• Health Care IT
• Business Analytics
• CIO Unplugged

For more information click here.

As the world of information technology changes, the skill set required to lead your IT organization continually evolves. Attend Day Two of this intensive two-day CIO Boot Camp to learn firsthand from successful CIOs. Hear about common mistakes, how to avoid making them and how to apply their lessons to your world.

Topics include:

• Vendor Management
• Managing the Next Technology Portfolio
• Green IT/Sustainability
• Managing Social Media
• IT Leadership

For more information click here.

Experts agree that the IPv4 address space will be depleted in the near term and that there is nothing that can be done to stop that. The members of this panel will identify what enterprise IT organizations need to do to prepare for IPv6 deployment. The panelists will also identify the steps that ISPs and network hardware vendors need to take in order to implement IPv6 and will present a status report identifying how well the major players are doing.

The hottest topic in enterprise communications today isn't tablet computers or smartphones or even The Cloud: It's SIP Trunking. SIP Trunking offers enterprises the opportunity to save as much as 80% on their Wide Area Network costs for voice, while also improving network management and resiliency. Perhaps most significant in the long term, SIP Trunking lets enterprises connect VOIP "islands" via IP WANs that allow for true end-to-end IP sessions, maximizing the potential for Unified Communications benefits. The challenge is to turn these opportunities into real cost savings and enterprise benefits. In this session, you’ll get practical advice on how to specify, procure, implement and architect SIP trunks in order to capture the maximum benefit for your enterprise.

Meeting end-user demands and IT/ network growth projections with no growth to your existing staff requires innovation, planning, and optimization. Virtual desktops are being deployed in massive rollouts in many organizations to help eliminate support and maintenance issues, and increase end user satisfaction and mobility, allowing users to access their desktops from any device on the network. With this change comes a host of new issues. Learn how to evaluate your environments and determine where virtual desktops are most appropriate as well as how to measure ROI to demonstrate success throughout the organization.

Despite its popularity, many people struggle to understand cloud computing due to jargon that has also emerged. This presentation will explain common cloud computing terminology and discuss some common misconceptions about cloud computing, as well as highlight some interesting cloud technologies you and your business may not even know exist.

Interested in unleashing the power and improving the performance of your virtualized data center—without replacing your entire network? Implementing a flat, any-to-any connected data center network is as easy as adding a new switch. In this session, you will learn how to migrate to a single-tier data center network architecture, improving application performance, scalability, and operational efficiency up to 10X while seamlessly integrating with your existing data center infrastructure.

Whether it’s an iPad, Android phone or Mac laptop, users are bringing their personal devices to work and expecting IT to support them. Except in heavily regulated shops, trying to turn back this tide may well be counterproductive and cost the company money. Our Analytics experts will explain how IT can apply well-defined processes and goals that balance the needs of the business against a happy workforce and thus make consumerization work for you, not against you.

IT teams in midmarket companies—those with around 500 employees—are pivotal in the process of growth but face unique challenges. In this session, our Analytics experts will discuss innovative ways to securely equip a mobile workforce. We’ll discuss a range of new technologies that provide enterprise-class productivity and data protection without breaking the budget.

Cloud computing has been portrayed as a panacea for companies looking for the flexibility and scalability they need to grow their businesses, while keeping costs down. Many companies have moved their applications and processes to the cloud, because of these benefits. Great! But once in the cloud, a lot of folks are having a "what did I do" kind of moment? Now that all my stuff is in the cloud, how do I get information out? How do I move information around and get it to interact with each other? Unfortunately for many, data, application or B2B integration is an afterthought when evaluating the cloud, and it becomes the stumbling block that prevents companies from realizing the cloud's true benefits. This session helps attendees understand how to proactively think about integration as part of their overall cloud strategy, and develop a clear roadmap for maximizing results from the cloud.

On-demand computing resources are the most disruptive change in IT of the last decade, and much of that disruption begins at home. Day Two of Enterprise Cloud Summit will focus on private clouds -- radically new ways to combine virtualization, automation, and self-service models in order to change how you deliver IT to your business.

For a detailed agenda click here.

There’s a popular feeling that all handsets are the same, with the iPhone having define both new user interface and applications paradigms. But there are in fact major differences in form factor, ease of use, network and application integration, and other capabilities among handsets today, so it’s important to dig into the technologies and trends surrounding this critical element of mobility. We’ll cap this year’s conference with a look at some of our favorites, and the intriguing possibilities lurking in the future of handset technology.

Ethernet and the upper layer protocols are designed to handle packet loss and variable delay between packets. Fibre Channel, which is just SCSI over a network, needs a stable, lossless connection to work.The Data Center Bridging (DCB) standards define how Ethernet can be lossless, but choke points and congestion can wreak havoc on storage traffic by adding delay and jitter to FCoE. Multi-path Ethernet using Fabric Shortest Path First, TRILL, or Shortest Path Bridging, finds the shortest path and load balances traffic over multiple Ethernet links reducing congestion and making better use of your Ethernet capacity. Multi-path Ethernet can have significant impact on the product selections you can add to your FCoE fabric as well as the management and operations of your data and storage network. In this session, we will describe the commonality of multi-path Ethernet protocols, the differences, and the impact to integration and management.

With much of IT now dependent upon Web and cloud services, it’s important to consider how this key strategy will extend to mobile users and devices. With the advent of much improved WLANs and WWANs, it’s now practical to consider both public and private clouds as key elements in a mobile IT solution. This session will explore the requirements to make such a strategy operational, including the tools and procedures required, and will also consider the requirements of collaboration and the role of both virtualization and the mobile device capabilities in a cloud-computing environment.

Over the last few years, many IT organizations have started to focus on application management. However, just as some leading edge IT organizations are beginning to get good at managing service delivery they are now faced with a new challenge. That challenge is to manage service delivery, where a service can be a collection of inter-related applications that support a business process, or it could be a component of an application such as compute or storage. Making the challenge even more difficult is the fact that on an ever-increasing basis, service delivery must be supported over a combination of wired and wireless networks. In this session, Jim Metzler will compare and contrast the approach to application and service management being taken by some of the industry’s leading vendors.

With the increasing diversity of mobile devices, applications, and missions, it’s more important than ever to have the necessary policies, procedures, and operational systems in place to manage mission-critical and rapidly-growing mobile activities. This session will examine the key requirements in each of these areas, including a checklist of required policies and an examination of mobile device management and mobile policy management alternatives.

The role of network management has fundamentally changed. It is no longer just about the availability of networks. It now includes managing the performance of networks, applications and services. In addition, the continued deployment of new functionality, such as mobility and the virtualization of just about every component of IT, is making the task of network management significantly more challenging. Thankfully, there has been a lot of investment in network management, and the panelists in this fast-paced session will discuss some of the most promising of the emerging network management technologies.

Service providers see cloud computing as a new opportunity for adding value to their IP transport offerings. For this new opportunity to generate profits, however, service providers must be able to differentiate their services, package them with user-friendly SLAs, and deliver robust services without major customization requirements. Many will also want to develop a portfolio of XaaS offerings including security, storage, software, and applications, all of which can be packaged with IP transport services or with other managed services. This panel will explore how cloud-based services will evolve to be profit engines of the future, including the possibility of industry-specific vertical offerings, as well as ways to make better service translate into market success.

Huge revenue, customer acquisition and retention, and brand credibility implications are riding on the ability of Service Providers to leverage their data center and IP infrastructure to deliver profitable network-based IT services. The Carrier Cloud Forum will provide high-quality education and peer-to-peer interaction on building a cloud infrastructure that is manageable and billable, ensuring high-performance security and service quality to meet SLA demands, recognizing best practices for packaging and monetizing XaaS services and applications, and learning what works and what does not for vertical industry customization.

For more information click here.

Experts agree that the IPv4 address space will be depleted in the near term and that there is nothing that can be done to stop that. The members of this panel will identify what enterprise IT organizations need to do to prepare for IPv6 deployment. The panelists will also identify the steps that ISPs and network hardware vendors need to take in order to implement IPv6 and will present a status report identifying how well the major players are doing.

The definition of a desktop is changing. As new devices emerge and proliferate (tablets, smartphones, and other new types of clients) and Bring Your Own Computer (BYOC) initiatives are gaining ground, IT must evaluate how to deliver and support desktops and applications on these new devices for the next decade. Desktop and application virtualization offer new ways to incorporate all these devices, and many of the past barriers to virtual desktops have been overcome. What is the relationship between virtual desktops/ application and the mix of access devices from iPads to thin/zero client devices? Learn if, why and how all these technologies should fit into your desktop strategy.

HP Virtual Connect is the simplest, most flexible server connection to any network. Wire-once, Change-ready, Automated infrastructure. Learn about the exciting new Virtual Connect solutions for even more of your data center. And, find out how HP Virtual Connect plus HP Network innovations solve the converged infrastructure demands of your Cloud Computing future.

With wireless LANs now the edge of the corporate network, many firms have big expansion plans for this key capability. But a major debate has been brewing here for some time, and one with far-reaching implications: which WLAN architecture is going to best serve the diverse missions of today’s (and tomorrow’s) enterprise LAN? Is a controller still required, or will more-distributed architectural approaches dominate? This vital question is certain to kick up a good deal of dust, but the answer is certain to be a key factor in your next WLAN purchasing decision.

Cloud computing can fuel innovation, accelerate business processes and reduce time to revenue. To capitalize on this, many enterprises and service providers are looking to build a cloud environment. Attend this session and learn how HP can help you build a cloud that integrates and automate systems management, servers, storage, networking and security.

Hear industry visionaries discuss the growth and future of IT.

The definition of a desktop is changing. As new devices emerge and proliferate (tablets, smartphones, and other new types of clients) and Bring Your Own Computer (BYOC) initiatives are gaining ground, IT must evaluate how to deliver and support desktops and applications on these new devices for the next decade. Desktop and application virtualization offer new ways to incorporate all these devices, and many of the past barriers to virtual desktops have been overcome. What is the relationship between virtual desktops/ application and the mix of access devices from iPads to thin/zero client devices? Learn if, why and how all these technologies should fit into your desktop strategy.

Moving to a virtual infrastructure brings both significant benefits and challenges in terms of data protection and availability. A well-managed virtual environment should include leveraging virtualization and newly available tools to improve the way you implement Backup, Disaster Recovery, High Availability and possibly Fault Tolerance. Learn how various virtualization capabilities fit on the continuum of protection and availability and hear best practices involving various technologies including image backup, VM and storage snapshots, replication, HA clustering, and fault tolerance.

Virtualization increases vulnerability and risks from server outages by consolidating many workloads on individual servers. At the same time it offers unparalleled opportunities to deliver business continuity through next generation data protection technologies. Business continuity is becoming increasingly important to compete effectively, while basic backup is still widely regarded as the bane of IT’s existence, and fully tested recovery plans are a rarity outside of a few critical systems. When the need to restore inevitably arises, relying on traditional methods results in business delays and a heavy drain on technical resources. Learn from real-world experiences how the use of virtualization and next generation technologies and techniques can deliver business continuity at affordable cost, including backup and recovery systems that move business continuity from overhead to competitive benefit.

Virtualization impacts every major compliance standard and requires fundamental changes to security practices. What should this mean to you? This session will discuss what gaps are introduced in the move from physical to virtual where compliance is concerned, and prescribe specific steps to ensure compliance for production deployments. Regulatory areas discussed will include FISMA, DIACAP, PCI, HIPAA and SOX/GLBA. We will review how to build a framework for securing virtual data centers and private clouds, and how to take physical security constructs like Zones and propagate them to the virtual infrastructure to enable consistent security across the entire data center, virtual and physical. You will also learn about various hypervisor security architectures coupled with VM Introspection and automation can deliver dynamic, granular insights into security.

The definition of a desktop is changing. As new devices emerge and proliferate (tablets, smartphones, and other new types of clients) and Bring Your Own Computer (BYOC) initiatives are gaining ground, IT must evaluate how to deliver and support desktops and applications on these new devices for the next decade. Desktop and application virtualization offer new ways to incorporate all these devices, and many of the past barriers to virtual desktops have been overcome. What is the relationship between virtual desktops/ application and the mix of access devices from iPads to thin/zero client devices? Learn if, why and how all these technologies should fit into your desktop strategy.

Meeting end-user demands and IT/ network growth projections with no growth to your existing staff requires innovation, planning, and optimization. Virtual desktops are being deployed in massive rollouts in many organizations to help eliminate support and maintenance issues, and increase end user satisfaction and mobility, allowing users to access their desktops from any device on the network. With this change comes a host of new issues. Learn how to evaluate your environments and determine where virtual desktops are most appropriate as well as how to measure ROI to demonstrate success throughout the organization.

Transitioning to IPv6 may not be an imperative in 2011, but you do need to start putting a plan in place. Our Analytics experts will discuss how to prioritize migration (services available to the Internet should probably move quickly; internal networks can wait longer). We’ll discuss architectural and design considerations for dual-stacking IPv6 and IPv4, supporting network devices that can't run in this mode, network number assignments, and other key considerations.
PLUS: A sneak peek at the No. 1 problem child of IPv6 migrations: Security.

On Day One of Enterprise Cloud Summit, we'll turn our eye outward to look at the many public cloud offerings that are levelling the IT playing field. Public cloud providers offer pay-as-you-go economics and tremendous flexibility; but they also create new security, portability, and performance concerns. Once the exclusive domain of web startups, today enterprises big and small are finding ways to incorporate public cloud platforms into their IT strategy. Whether you're deciding how to embrace them or want to learn from what others are doing, Enterprise Cloud Summit is the place to do it.

For a detailed agenda click here.

Hear Joyent answer our shortlist questions on pricing, capacity, service levels, data location, and architecture.

In this case study session, Reddit's Operations Manager will walk us through their experience with cloud platforms, sharing what's worked and what hasn't.

On Day One of Enterprise Cloud Summit, we'll turn our eye outward to look at the many public cloud offerings that are levelling the IT playing field. Public cloud providers offer pay-as-you-go economics and tremendous flexibility; but they also create new security, portability, and performance concerns. Once the exclusive domain of web startups, today enterprises big and small are finding ways to incorporate public cloud platforms into their IT strategy. Whether you're deciding how to embrace them or want to learn from what others are doing, Enterprise Cloud Summit is the place to do it.

For a detailed agenda click here.

On-demand computing resources are the most disruptive change in IT of the last decade, and much of that disruption begins at home. Day Two of Enterprise Cloud Summit will focus on private clouds -- radically new ways to combine virtualization, automation, and self-service models in order to change how you deliver IT to your business.

For a detailed agenda click here.

Real-time traffic (voice and video) demands a network that delivers low latency, low packet loss and low jitter. And that’s not easy to accomplish. The dynamic character of modern networks, and the growing requirement for highly distributed configurations can lead to errors in design or implementation that cause quality problems for voice and video apps. And so, a new breed of testing methodologies and tools is required to test or monitor converged networks and to isolate problems. This session will analyze and categorize these tools, and list vendors that provide the different kinds of solutions needed to manage today’s complex networks.

Are things settling down a bit in wireless and mobile? Perhaps – but just a bit. The rate of innovation in wireless technologies and networks, and in mobile devices and related technologies, continues at a furious pace, but some might claim that there’s an air of stability afoot. And some might claim quite the opposite – which is why we’re kicking off this year’s conference with an engaging debate of the key issues among the most involved thought leaders in wireless and mobile today.

Over the last few years, many IT organizations have started to focus on application management. However, just as some leading edge IT organizations are beginning to get good at managing service delivery they are now faced with a new challenge. That challenge is to manage service delivery, where a service can be a collection of inter-related applications that support a business process, or it could be a component of an application such as compute or storage. Making the challenge even more difficult is the fact that on an ever-increasing basis, service delivery must be supported over a combination of wired and wireless networks. In this session, Jim Metzler will compare and contrast the approach to application and service management being taken by some of the industry’s leading vendors.

Is anyone really using this stuff? How can they justify the expense? In this session we will present case studies from video conferencing users to see how real businesses have integrated video into their communications infrastructures (e.g. UC) and into the daily flow of their business. We will examine the hard and soft ROIs around how video conferencing was justified, and how it has or has not paid off once deployed.

Desktop virtualization is more than just VDI. IT must understand the different technologies, how to choose which users to start with, and how to take that success and expand it. Learn how desktop virtualization can transform desktop computing to address your management challenges while offering the flexibility that users demand.

Desktop and application virtualization hold the promise of solving many of the desktop management problems that have been plaguing IT since PCs first began to multiply in corporations in the early 1980s. How can these various technologies help reduce desktop and application management nightmares? Where should they fit into an overall desktop management strategy? What benefits can be gained and what pitfalls can be avoided? What is involved in evaluating, planning and implementing them? How should desktop management change to best leverage these technologies? How do SBC/hosted applications, VDI/hosted virtual desktops, client hypervisors, application virtualization and user virtualization fit together? Learn best practices for implementing various desktop and application virtualization technologies and how you might incorporate these types of solutions into your desktop and application management strategy.

Workplace technology is rapidly changing and driving a new normal in employee productivity and efficiency. Unified Communications, Video, Mobile and Social Networking each play an important role in improving how we work, but their real value may still lie ahead as these technologies come together to truly redefine the work experience. Attend this panel which includes Interop's wireless, Enterprise 2.0, unified communications, and video track chairs and experts for a lively, forward-looking discussion on the future of work.

Come learn how this global technology and service provider was able to establish new cloud computing business for increased revenues, lower operational costs to provide better competitive pricing and increase agility and responsiveness to customer demands through cohesive, automated infrastructure.

Power over Ethernet has been used since its inception as a technology to deliver power to devices over Ethernet cables. The original IEEE802.3af-2003 standard allowed only delivery of power over 2-pairs of wires. In this session, learn how the new IEEE802.3at-2009 standard allows IT managers to use PoE as a smart energy efficient power distribution system.

On Day One of Enterprise Cloud Summit, we'll turn our eye outward to look at the many public cloud offerings that are levelling the IT playing field. Public cloud providers offer pay-as-you-go economics and tremendous flexibility; but they also create new security, portability, and performance concerns. Once the exclusive domain of web startups, today enterprises big and small are finding ways to incorporate public cloud platforms into their IT strategy. Whether you're deciding how to embrace them or want to learn from what others are doing, Enterprise Cloud Summit is the place to do it.

For a detailed agenda click here.

In this case study session, EPAM'S VP of Technology will walk you through their experience with cloud platforms, sharing what's worked and what hasn't.

On-demand computing resources are the most disruptive change in IT of the last decade, and much of that disruption begins at home. Day Two of Enterprise Cloud Summit will focus on private clouds -- radically new ways to combine virtualization, automation, and self-service models in order to change how you deliver IT to your business.

For a detailed agenda click here.

As data centers converge, the lines of responsibility for storage, server, application and network teams are blurring. The politics can get messy, but bring these specialists together right and you’ll gain significant benefits by breaking down silos and integrating key roles in ways that allow you to be incredibly flexible and responsive to the business. Our Analytics experts will discuss practical ways to quell turf wars and build truly converged teams.

The definition of a desktop is changing. As new devices emerge and proliferate (tablets, smartphones, and other new types of clients) and Bring Your Own Computer (BYOC) initiatives are gaining ground, IT must evaluate how to deliver and support desktops and applications on these new devices for the next decade. Desktop and application virtualization offer new ways to incorporate all these devices, and many of the past barriers to virtual desktops have been overcome. What is the relationship between virtual desktops/ application and the mix of access devices from iPads to thin/zero client devices? Learn if, why and how all these technologies should fit into your desktop strategy.

Gartner reports indicate a single vendor network costs, can be reduced between 15 percent to 25 percent, by adopting a dual vendor network strategy. Hear about best practices of implementing a dual vendor network solution and how Alcatel-Lucent’s Application Fluent Network approach can deliver increased resiliency and security, streamlined operations, lower power demands and an enhanced user experience.

Data storage is the foundation of how IT gets work done. Perhaps more important than server, OS choice, or networking, choosing the right types of storage is critical to ensure that your organization can save and retrieve data. The storage world is rapidly changing. The amount of data that is being stored is increasing. The amount of storage that is being requested is increasing. The way storage is being used and access is changing. In this session, we will go over new technologies including thin provisioning, automated tiering, SSD’s, deduplication, and more. We’ll also cast a look forward to what is coming in the near future.

The notion that Fibre Channel is for data centers and iSCSI is for SMB’s and workgroups is outdated. Increases in LAN speeds and the coming of lossless Ethernet position iSCSI as a good fit for the data center. Whether your organization adopts FC or iSCSI depends on many factors like current product set, future application demands, organizational skill-set and budget. In this session we will discuss the different conditions where FC or IsCSI are the right fit, why you should use one and when to kick either to the curb.

With wireless LANs now the edge of the corporate network, many firms have big expansion plans for this key capability. But a major debate has been brewing here for some time, and one with far-reaching implications: which WLAN architecture is going to best serve the diverse missions of today’s (and tomorrow’s) enterprise LAN? Is a controller still required, or will more-distributed architectural approaches dominate? This vital question is certain to kick up a good deal of dust, but the answer is certain to be a key factor in your next WLAN purchasing decision.

Data storage is the foundation of how IT gets work done. Perhaps more important than server, OS choice, or networking, choosing the right types of storage is critical to ensure that your organization can save and retrieve data. The storage world is rapidly changing. The amount of data that is being stored is increasing. The amount of storage that is being requested is increasing. The way storage is being used and access is changing. In this session, we will go over new technologies including thin provisioning, automated tiering, SSD’s, deduplication, and more. We’ll also cast a look forward to what is coming in the near future.

Server architectures are both changing in response to application deployment models as well as changing how applications are deployed. Everything from multi-core CPU, cache strategies, hardware virtualization support, IO management, and interconnects have an impact on how you deploy applications and has an impact on power consumption and cooling. In this session, you will learn about new technologies in servers and how to integrate them into your data center. You will will be able to differentiate the advantages of blade chassis from rack mount systems and determine when to use them. Lastly, you will understand how IO options impact overall performance and connectivity to the rest of the data center.

Ethernet and the upper layer protocols are designed to handle packet loss and variable delay between packets. Fibre Channel, which is just SCSI over a network, needs a stable, lossless connection to work.The Data Center Bridging (DCB) standards define how Ethernet can be lossless, but choke points and congestion can wreak havoc on storage traffic by adding delay and jitter to FCoE. Multi-path Ethernet using Fabric Shortest Path First, TRILL, or Shortest Path Bridging, finds the shortest path and load balances traffic over multiple Ethernet links reducing congestion and making better use of your Ethernet capacity. Multi-path Ethernet can have significant impact on the product selections you can add to your FCoE fabric as well as the management and operations of your data and storage network. In this session, we will describe the commonality of multi-path Ethernet protocols, the differences, and the impact to integration and management.

A well designed data center is inherently as energy efficient as it can be when it is designed and built, but new technologies and techniques evolve that can significantly improve efficiency. The question that IT struggles with is how to determine which improvements will have the best bang for the buck. Measuring and trending data center power and cooling usage provides a management context to make decisions on where to focus improvements and provides a way to measure the success. In this session, we will discuss new technologies and strategies to measure, trend, and optimize data center power and cooling, and articulate which technologies and strategies work for new or existing data centers.

DevOps means many things to many people, but loosely is defined as collaboration between developers and operations to create better applications, streamline operations, and continually improve both over time. Organizations are demanding more from both application development and operations and tossing problems and services over a wall is not sufficient. In this session, you will learn what DevOps is and how DevOps aligns IT groups and assets into a cohesive whole.

The role of network management has fundamentally changed. It is no longer just about the availability of networks. It now includes managing the performance of networks, applications and services. In addition, the continued deployment of new functionality, such as mobility and the virtualization of just about every component of IT, is making the task of network management significantly more challenging. Thankfully, there has been a lot of investment in network management, and the panelists in this fast-paced session will discuss some of the most promising of the emerging network management technologies.

With much of IT now dependent upon Web and cloud services, it’s important to consider how this key strategy will extend to mobile users and devices. With the advent of much improved WLANs and WWANs, it’s now practical to consider both public and private clouds as key elements in a mobile IT solution. This session will explore the requirements to make such a strategy operational, including the tools and procedures required, and will also consider the requirements of collaboration and the role of both virtualization and the mobile device capabilities in a cloud-computing environment.

Hear industry visionaries discuss the growth and future of IT.

If you're trying to build utility computing, you'll need a combination of virtualization, automation, self-service, and monitoring. In this panel, we'll discuss the building blocks of a private cloud, and look at the options IT has today to turn their data centers into on-demand computing resources for their organization.

On-demand computing resources are the most disruptive change in IT of the last decade, and much of that disruption begins at home. Day Two of Enterprise Cloud Summit will focus on private clouds -- radically new ways to combine virtualization, automation, and self-service models in order to change how you deliver IT to your business.

For a detailed agenda click here.

Is anyone really using this stuff? How can they justify the expense? In this session we will present case studies from video conferencing users to see how real businesses have integrated video into their communications infrastructures (e.g. UC) and into the daily flow of their business. We will examine the hard and soft ROIs around how video conferencing was justified, and how it has or has not paid off once deployed.

Virtualization and cloud computing hold the promise of enabling IT organizations to become more agile in large part because they support the dynamic creation and movement of IT resources. There is just one problem – supporting the dynamic movement of resources is extremely difficult. It requires a more dynamic approach to traditional management tasks such as DNS, DHCP and IP address management. It also requires that service delivery controllers can effectively accommodate the movement of virtual machines, that VLANs can be extended across the WAN, that all of the resources can be automatically orchestrated and that huge volumes of information can be quickly moved across the WAN. The panelists on this session will describe the functionality that has to be in place to support the dynamic creation and movement of IT resources and will identify how much of that functionality is available today.

In IT we often overuse the phrase next generation to apply to an obvious upgrade such as the movement to implement higher speed Ethernet LANs. However, given the dramatic shifts being driven by virtualization and cloud computing, we have to ask ourselves “Do we want to keep building networks the way we always have been?” The panelists in this session will discuss the new approaches to network design coming out of the research community as well as the approach taken by the leading cloud computing vendors. In some cases these approaches are somewhat radical. Attend this session to learn about new approaches to designing networks – approaches that are built around enabling the vision of a truly dynamic, virtualized data center.

With much of IT now dependent upon Web and cloud services, it’s important to consider how this key strategy will extend to mobile users and devices. With the advent of much improved WLANs and WWANs, it’s now practical to consider both public and private clouds as key elements in a mobile IT solution. This session will explore the requirements to make such a strategy operational, including the tools and procedures required, and will also consider the requirements of collaboration and the role of both virtualization and the mobile device capabilities in a cloud-computing environment.

Have a look at the list of projects now underway at IEEE 802.11 and the Wi-Fi Alliance and you’ll quickly get the message: there’s more going on than ever in WLAN standards, specifications, and advanced wireless-LAN technologies. Always a popular topic at Interop, this session will dive into important developments in each of these areas, with detailed discussion of the implications for enterprise network planning and operations. We’ll also provide a look at the farther-term future of the wireless LAN.

Orchestration pulls together technologies and processes throughout your data center to rapidly provision all of its dependencies in a matter of minutes or hours versus days or weeks. While much of the hype about orchestration is focused on end-user self-provisioning of applications and services, there is real, practical value to orchestrating your data center without going to the extreme of end-user self-provisioning. The challenge for IT is creating the necessary processes and workflows to reliably deploy orchestration without getting bogged down in dealing with every possible corner case. In this session, you will learn the principles in building runbooks for application deployment, discover how to translate runbooks into orchestrated processes, and learn strategies to pre-emptively identify and recover from product or system failures.

Virtualization and cloud computing hold the promise of enabling IT organizations to become more agile in large part because they support the dynamic creation and movement of IT resources. There is just one problem – supporting the dynamic movement of resources is extremely difficult. It requires a more dynamic approach to traditional management tasks such as DNS, DHCP and IP address management. It also requires that service delivery controllers can effectively accommodate the movement of virtual machines, that VLANs can be extended across the WAN, that all of the resources can be automatically orchestrated and that huge volumes of information can be quickly moved across the WAN. The panelists on this session will describe the functionality that has to be in place to support the dynamic creation and movement of IT resources and will identify how much of that functionality is available today.

Interested in unleashing the power and improving the performance of your virtualized data center—without replacing your entire network? Implementing a flat, any-to-any connected data center network is as easy as adding a new switch. In this session, you will learn how to migrate to a single-tier data center network architecture, improving application performance, scalability, and operational efficiency up to 10X while seamlessly integrating with your existing data center infrastructure.

With dozens of cloud computing firms to choose from, the battle lines are drawn. In this interactive, moderated discussion, we'll try to determine which cloud providers are best for different IT goals. You'll learn which companies are high-touch, and which are no-touch; which are cheap, and which are premium-priced; which are complex and which are turnkey. Come armed with your own scenarios, awkward questions, and shortlist criteria and put these providers on the spot.

The cloud breaks things up into chunks, making them easier to move around, recover, and work with in parallel. A result of this is that disaster recovery isn't so much a feature as a pleasant side-effect. Enterprises that use the cloud as a DR site pay a fraction of what they would if they built a second site themselves, but putting data in the cloud tends to lead to putting the applications there too. On-demand, utility-based storage allows for pay-as-you-go economics that CFOs will find irresistable, and could pave the way to the cloud for many enterprises. In this panel, we'll look at how cloud storage is disrupting traditional backup and disaster recovery solutions for businesses of all sizes and shapes.

Vulnerability management has become a key component to information infrastructure security, however it needs to evolve quickly to stay ahead of the hacking community and become more useful to IT Leadership. In order to keep up with the ever-growing threat landscape of technical vulnerabilities it is important to understand where you are vulnerable from both an application and network perspective. Traditional vulnerability management capabilities, techniques, and technologies may no longer be sufficient as the sophistication of attacks and the number of business solutions that are being deployed continue to outpace the resources and capabilities which most organizations currently have available to address. Lastly, many security organizations have had mixed results in driving vulnerability management programs into IT organizations due to both the volume of vulnerabilities and credibility of the results. This session will focus on the current leading practices and the next generation of tools and techniques which organizations can deploy for effective and realistic vulnerability management. These include prioritization of exploitable vulnerabilities, vulnerability enumeration techniques, remediation management concepts, and compliance reporting capabilities which organizations can use to understand and demonstrate their current state of security while staying one step ahead of the hacker's that are at their doorstep.

There’s a popular feeling that all handsets are the same, with the iPhone having define both new user interface and applications paradigms. But there are in fact major differences in form factor, ease of use, network and application integration, and other capabilities among handsets today, so it’s important to dig into the technologies and trends surrounding this critical element of mobility. We’ll cap this year’s conference with a look at some of our favorites, and the intriguing possibilities lurking in the future of handset technology.

Today, thanks to virtualization and cloud, the role and function of storage is changing. The evolution of storage has gone in different directions and enterprises have many options. In addition to this, the nirvana of leveraging resources from both a public and private cloud environment is becoming more a reality every day. The need for a more comprehensive strategy becomes necessary. Today, enterprises have begun to leverage unified storage in an attempt to simplify their challenges. As enterprises datasets continue to massively grow, storage becomes an even bigger issue. Many have started looking beyond, as they start to migrate towards a hybrid cloud environment. The need for Object based storage becomes increasingly important as organizations look to further simplify their storage environment, while still efficiently handling large amounts of data. Where to start? In this session we will cover storage challenges still facing enterprises today, a high-level overview of different types of storage solutions (SAN, NAS, unified storage, object based storage) and how and when to leverage each type of storage solution.

Many IT teams are frustrated with the boundaries of their existing storage systems. Thousands have found a better way to manage their data. Fluid Data storage always puts the right data in the right place at the right cost—automatically. See firsthand how Dell Compellent is redefining the data center.

Current computing products are generally location specific, enhancing the ability of governments to enact regulations representing their national priorities. This, in turn, provides contractual certainty to users of computing resources who can reasonably anticipate which laws will apply to their contracts, and analyze risk pertinent to their transactions. In contrast, cloud computing in its fullest form will likely have a disruptive impact on the transnational regulation of security issues. This session will present an overview of U.S. and EU laws, regulations and policies pertinent to the use of computing resources in general, drawing attention to areas that regulators might reasonably target regarding cloud computing. Possible regulatory and legal schemes emerging from this evaluation will be presented, followed by a discussion of resources available to users of cloud computing resources in response to potential changes, primarily regarding contract terms and risk management theories.

Feeling bewildered by the slew of new acronyms, technologies and concepts describing virtualization? Need a high-level overview of what different types of virtualization mean to you and your business? Do you want to get your arms around server virtualization, available hypervisors and tools, virtual desktops and where all the various virtualization vendors fit? This is the session for you.

Everyone is talking about desktop virtualization, but what does it really mean? It certainly includes virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) based on server virtualization technologies. But taking a broader look, there are a variety of virtualization technologies for delivering, provisioning and managing desktops and applications. This session will offer a view of desktop virtualization which includes and explains VDI, server-based computing/session/presentation virtualization, hosted applications, terminal services/RDS, client hosted virtualization, client hypervisors, server-side and client side application virtualization, user virtualization/personalization and more, and how to match these technologies with user requirements.

Desktop and application virtualization hold the promise of solving many of the desktop management problems that have been plaguing IT since PCs first began to multiply in corporations in the early 1980s. How can these various technologies help reduce desktop and application management nightmares? Where should they fit into an overall desktop management strategy? What benefits can be gained and what pitfalls can be avoided? What is involved in evaluating, planning and implementing them? How should desktop management change to best leverage these technologies? How do SBC/hosted applications, VDI/hosted virtual desktops, client hypervisors, application virtualization and user virtualization fit together? Learn best practices for implementing various desktop and application virtualization technologies and how you might incorporate these types of solutions into your desktop and application management strategy.

Virtualization management is the key to successfully moving beyond basic server consolidation to an agile virtual infrastructure to a private cloud service. Getting there successfully means addressing such areas as automation of provisioning and virtual operations; performance, capacity management and troubleshooting across and through the virtual and physical infrastructure; lifecycle management; and eventually managing across multiple hypervisors. Hear experiences and best practices from our expert panel on how layering the right management capabilities onto your virtual environment will improve your IT operations and transform your environment into a private cloud.

Now that you've implemented server virtualization, the next step to realizing its full potential is to add the management layers to deliver cloud-like services. By optimizing and automating the virtual infrastructure, IT can transform itself to run as a private cloud. This session is a primer on how to implement advanced management capabilities such as dynamic workload balancing, automated policy-based workflows, self service provisioning, high availability, automated disaster recovery, and capacity and performance management. It will discuss the value and process of implementing these advanced management features and describe the landscape of solution vendors, from start-ups to long-time industry leaders.

Once an organization has completed the initial phase of server virtualization and consolidation, the next step is to optimize the virtual infrastructure to enable expansion from the typical initial 25% virtualized to a more complete fully virtualized infrastructure. Along with this expansion, the critical path to realizing the full potential of virtualization is to add the management layers to transform IT operations and deliver IT as a service. By properly managing, securing, protecting, optimizing and automating the virtual infrastructure, IT can transform itself to run as a private cloud.

For more information click here.

The definition of a “desktop” is changing in many ways. Virtualization technologies have expanded and improved, offering better ways to deliver desktops and applications, ranging from VDI to session virtualization to streamed desktops to client hypervisors to Desktop as a Service. New devices continue to emerge and proliferate (including tablets, smartphones, thin clients and zero clients), and Bring Your Own Computer (BYOC) initiatives are gaining ground. As IT organizations consider the best strategy for delivering and supporting desktops and applications for the next decade, and address tactical issues like migration to Windows 7, IT has the opportunity to change the paradigm for delivering endpoint access to users and devices anywhere. Desktop and application virtualization offer new ways to incorporate the new types of users and devices, and many of the past barriers to virtual desktops have been overcome.

For more information click here.

Today, thanks to virtualization and cloud, the role and function of storage is changing. The evolution of storage has gone in different directions and enterprises have many options. In addition to this, the nirvana of leveraging resources from both a public and private cloud environment is becoming more a reality every day. The need for a more comprehensive strategy becomes necessary. Today, enterprises have begun to leverage unified storage in an attempt to simplify their challenges. As enterprises datasets continue to massively grow, storage becomes an even bigger issue. Many have started looking beyond, as they start to migrate towards a hybrid cloud environment. The need for Object based storage becomes increasingly important as organizations look to further simplify their storage environment, while still efficiently handling large amounts of data. Where to start? In this session we will cover storage challenges still facing enterprises today, a high-level overview of different types of storage solutions (SAN, NAS, unified storage, object based storage) and how and when to leverage each type of storage solution.

Organizations are investing in Enterprise 2.0 as a means to improve employee engagement, collaboration, and knowledge sharing. While social tools can play a critical role, driving organizational change requires IT strategists to look beyond technology deployment. This session will help IT architecture and infrastructure personnel understand E2.0 adoption issues, the role of change management, and alignment of social tools with strategic business initiatives.

The consolidation of applications and servers out of branch offices and into centralized data centers has driven an increased amount of delay sensitive traffic over the WAN. Now the WAN is being challenged to support the adoption of desktop virtualization and to enable both SaaS and the dynamic movement of VMs. Unfortunately the WAN is not experiencing the same type of price reduction as is computing and storage resources. The panelists in this fast-paced session will discuss some of the most promising emerging WAN technologies and services that you can utilize today to successfully support emerging requirements.

For years IT organizations built three-tier data center LANs based on a number of broadly accepted axioms. This included the use of the spanning tree algorithm, the separation of the data center LAN and the SAN as well as the use of Ethernet on a best effort basis. However, trends such as the adoption of server virtualization are causing IT organizations to rethink every aspect of data center LAN design. The panelists on this session will be given an actual data center LAN and asked to redesign the LAN to support a highly virtual, dynamic data center. They will also be asked to explain why they are, or are not, recommending specific technologies.

Moving to a virtual infrastructure brings both significant benefits and challenges in terms of data protection and availability. A well-managed virtual environment should include leveraging virtualization and newly available tools to improve the way you implement Backup, Disaster Recovery, High Availability and possibly Fault Tolerance. Learn how various virtualization capabilities fit on the continuum of protection and availability and hear best practices involving various technologies including image backup, VM and storage snapshots, replication, HA clustering, and fault tolerance.

Hear industry visionaries discuss the growth and future of IT.

New devices such as smart phones and tablets, new applications and virtualization have changed everything. Existing networks can no longer deliver the end user experience and reliability demanded as new applications such as video, enterprise TV, and voice become mission critical. Simply adding raw bandwidth is not enough; a new approach is needed where bandwidth is allocated dynamically based on business priority. Learn about how introducing application fluency into your network can help you provide high quality application delivery with reduced complexity and improved ROI.

With much of IT now dependent upon Web and cloud services, it’s important to consider how this key strategy will extend to mobile users and devices. With the advent of much improved WLANs and WWANs, it’s now practical to consider both public and private clouds as key elements in a mobile IT solution. This session will explore the requirements to make such a strategy operational, including the tools and procedures required, and will also consider the requirements of collaboration and the role of both virtualization and the mobile device capabilities in a cloud-computing environment.

Caught between addressing today’s challenges and transforming IT infrastructure requires using new insights for action. Industry leaders are tapping cloud, analytics, and industry expertise to accelerate the financial value of IT while shifting resources to transform business outcomes. Learn how to leverage analytics-based services to gain insights to evaluate alternatives, model outcomes, speed implementation, and reduce operational risk in traditional, cloud, and hybrid environments.

The last few years has seen a great growth in the development of virtual service delivery appliances such as WAN optimization controllers (WOCs) and application delivery controllers (ADCs). These virtual appliances hold the promise of fundamentally changing service delivery. The members of this session will discuss the benefits of this new class of service delivery appliances as well as where these appliances should and should not be deployed. The panelists will also discuss the challenges associated with this new set of appliances and identify specific criteria that you can use to evaluate them.

As data center technologies evolve and organizations embrace the benefits afforded by server virtualization, new architectural challenges relating to application delivery are emerging. How should mission critical load balancing resources be optimally coupled with virtual application servers? Attend the session and learn how you can exploit the agility afforded by virtualization without compromising service performance and reliability.

How are the world’s small business IT pros using social networks to get their jobs done? What are the hot buying and deployment trends? IT is going social and it’s transforming how IT pros discover, buy and manage technology. Come hear how “social IT” is powering this transformation.

The hottest topic in enterprise communications today isn't tablet computers or smartphones or even The Cloud: It's SIP Trunking. SIP Trunking offers enterprises the opportunity to save as much as 80% on their Wide Area Network costs for voice, while also improving network management and resiliency. Perhaps most significant in the long term, SIP Trunking lets enterprises connect VOIP "islands" via IP WANs that allow for true end-to-end IP sessions, maximizing the potential for Unified Communications benefits. The challenge is to turn these opportunities into real cost savings and enterprise benefits. In this session, you’ll get practical advice on how to specify, procure, implement and architect SIP trunks in order to capture the maximum benefit for your enterprise.

As infrastructure converges and becomes increasingly agile, there is a need to develop new business processes that are neither server, storage or network centric. All traditional network vendors seek to promote the significance of the network, and are seeking to control as many services as possible regardless of what is best for the business. Learn how Dell solutions-based perspective shifts management across the entire stack to achieve a best in class process.

Service providers see cloud computing as a new opportunity for adding value to their IP transport offerings. For this new opportunity to generate profits, however, service providers must be able to differentiate their services, package them with user-friendly SLAs, and deliver robust services without major customization requirements. Many will also want to develop a portfolio of XaaS offerings including security, storage, software, and applications, all of which can be packaged with IP transport services or with other managed services. This panel will explore how cloud-based services will evolve to be profit engines of the future, including the possibility of industry-specific vertical offerings, as well as ways to make better service translate into market success.

Huge revenue, customer acquisition and retention, and brand credibility implications are riding on the ability of Service Providers to leverage their data center and IP infrastructure to deliver profitable network-based IT services. The Carrier Cloud Forum will provide high-quality education and peer-to-peer interaction on building a cloud infrastructure that is manageable and billable, ensuring high-performance security and service quality to meet SLA demands, recognizing best practices for packaging and monetizing XaaS services and applications, and learning what works and what does not for vertical industry customization.

For more information click here.

Whether it’s an iPad, Android phone or Mac laptop, users are bringing their personal devices to work and expecting IT to support them. Except in heavily regulated shops, trying to turn back this tide may well be counterproductive and cost the company money. Our Analytics experts will explain how IT can apply well-defined processes and goals that balance the needs of the business against a happy workforce and thus make consumerization work for you, not against you.

Major vendors are fighting to control the next generation of the data center. Battle lines are drawn, with Cisco, VMware and EMC on one side, and HP, IBM and Hitachi on the other. Are you willing to be tied to an OPEC-like consortium in exchange for tightly integrated network, compute and storage? Or can you build an agile data center by playing the field and linking disparate vendors with third-party software? Our Analytics experts help you decide.

Information Security data is widely available. How do you locate it, assess it, analyze it, mine it and create a plan to use it? Learn about one team’s approach to applying the OODA Loop (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act) to reputable security data sources to bring greater context to critical information security decisions. Explore tactical approaches to implementing short-term effective responses (firewall rules, IPS signatures) and providing operational situation awareness. Discuss strategic options for budgeting, creating new controls and providing executive situational awareness.

The role of network management has fundamentally changed. It is no longer just about the availability of networks. It now includes managing the performance of networks, applications and services. In addition, the continued deployment of new functionality, such as mobility and the virtualization of just about every component of IT, is making the task of network management significantly more challenging. Thankfully, there has been a lot of investment in network management, and the panelists in this fast-paced session will discuss some of the most promising of the emerging network management technologies.

A well designed data center is inherently as energy efficient as it can be when it is designed and built, but new technologies and techniques evolve that can significantly improve efficiency. The question that IT struggles with is how to determine which improvements will have the best bang for the buck. Measuring and trending data center power and cooling usage provides a management context to make decisions on where to focus improvements and provides a way to measure the success. In this session, we will discuss new technologies and strategies to measure, trend, and optimize data center power and cooling, and articulate which technologies and strategies work for new or existing data centers.

Hear industry visionaries discuss the growth and future of IT.

Video streams have very different requirements for network transport, and have traditionally been difficult to handle well. The rapid uptake of video in various forms (video conferencing, video streaming, security, etc.) have put pressure on the network to do a better job. New architectures are evolving that better match the requirements of heavy video usage and ubiquitous connectivity. This session will have three leading-edge vendors presenting different approaches to supporting video in an IP network environment. These new approaches help solve the issues of bandwidth management, quality of service management, firewall traversal and business-to-business connectivity.

The cloud breaks things up into chunks, making them easier to move around, recover, and work with in parallel. A result of this is that disaster recovery isn't so much a feature as a pleasant side-effect. Enterprises that use the cloud as a DR site pay a fraction of what they would if they built a second site themselves, but putting data in the cloud tends to lead to putting the applications there too. On-demand, utility-based storage allows for pay-as-you-go economics that CFOs will find irresistable, and could pave the way to the cloud for many enterprises. In this panel, we'll look at how cloud storage is disrupting traditional backup and disaster recovery solutions for businesses of all sizes and shapes.

Huge revenue, customer acquisition and retention, and brand credibility implications are riding on the ability of Service Providers to leverage their data center and IP infrastructure to deliver profitable network-based IT services. The Carrier Cloud Forum will provide high-quality education and peer-to-peer interaction on building a cloud infrastructure that is manageable and billable, ensuring high-performance security and service quality to meet SLA demands, recognizing best practices for packaging and monetizing XaaS services and applications, and learning what works and what does not for vertical industry customization.

For more information click here.

Service providers have capitalized on their existing data centers and global IP networks to roll out cloud services, in some cases partnering with other infrastructure and networking providers. Going forward, as cloud computing becomes more widely deployed, service providers need to achieve greater integration and efficiency for their cloud offerings. This panel will look at what telecom network operators need to do to prepare and manage their networks, including breaking down internal barriers between the network transport and IT functions of the carrier operation, as well as opening up to third-party application providers, designing billing systems for pay-as-you-go charging models, and preparing back-office operations to deliver on SLAs for cloud customers.

Hear industry visionaries discuss the growth and future of IT.

While VMware virtualization is already widely adopted, and private clouds are constantly talked about, many IT organizations are unclear how to implement the steps to build a VMware private cloud. Many CIOs, IT managers and IT administrators are in the process of evolving their data centers and adopting this technology that is re-inventing the model for IT infrastructure. This session will discuss how several IT organizations are building on their VMware infrastructure and adopting private cloud computing, and will show how private clouds can address a wide range of technology and business challenges that span industries.

With the increasing diversity of mobile devices, applications, and missions, it’s more important than ever to have the necessary policies, procedures, and operational systems in place to manage mission-critical and rapidly-growing mobile activities. This session will examine the key requirements in each of these areas, including a checklist of required policies and an examination of mobile device management and mobile policy management alternatives.

With IT spread across on-premise and on-demand components, and virtual machine sprawl creating a deluge of new systems to manage, CIOs face a huge challenge: measuring and managing their virtual infrastructure to ensure adequate performance, good management of risk, and a controlled approach to billing. In this panel, we'll look at how companies are tackling management and monitoring in utility computing deployments.

On Day One of Enterprise Cloud Summit, we'll turn our eye outward to look at the many public cloud offerings that are levelling the IT playing field. Public cloud providers offer pay-as-you-go economics and tremendous flexibility; but they also create new security, portability, and performance concerns. Once the exclusive domain of web startups, today enterprises big and small are finding ways to incorporate public cloud platforms into their IT strategy. Whether you're deciding how to embrace them or want to learn from what others are doing, Enterprise Cloud Summit is the place to do it.

For a detailed agenda click here.

In this session, Carol Wilson will interview two top service providers, uncovering their specific real-world experience offering cloud-based services, including business, technology and strategic challenges.

Service providers see cloud computing as a new opportunity for adding value to their IP transport offerings. For this new opportunity to generate profits, however, service providers must be able to differentiate their services, package them with user-friendly SLAs, and deliver robust services without major customization requirements. Many will also want to develop a portfolio of XaaS offerings including security, storage, software, and applications, all of which can be packaged with IP transport services or with other managed services. This panel will explore how cloud-based services will evolve to be profit engines of the future, including the possibility of industry-specific vertical offerings, as well as ways to make better service translate into market success.

Huge revenue, customer acquisition and retention, and brand credibility implications are riding on the ability of Service Providers to leverage their data center and IP infrastructure to deliver profitable network-based IT services. The Carrier Cloud Forum will provide high-quality education and peer-to-peer interaction on building a cloud infrastructure that is manageable and billable, ensuring high-performance security and service quality to meet SLA demands, recognizing best practices for packaging and monetizing XaaS services and applications, and learning what works and what does not for vertical industry customization.

For more information click here.

For years IT organizations built three-tier data center LANs based on a number of broadly accepted axioms. This included the use of the spanning tree algorithm, the separation of the data center LAN and the SAN as well as the use of Ethernet on a best effort basis. However, trends such as the adoption of server virtualization are causing IT organizations to rethink every aspect of data center LAN design. The panelists on this session will be given an actual data center LAN and asked to redesign the LAN to support a highly virtual, dynamic data center. They will also be asked to explain why they are, or are not, recommending specific technologies.

Ethernet and the upper layer protocols are designed to handle packet loss and variable delay between packets. Fibre Channel, which is just SCSI over a network, needs a stable, lossless connection to work.The Data Center Bridging (DCB) standards define how Ethernet can be lossless, but choke points and congestion can wreak havoc on storage traffic by adding delay and jitter to FCoE. Multi-path Ethernet using Fabric Shortest Path First, TRILL, or Shortest Path Bridging, finds the shortest path and load balances traffic over multiple Ethernet links reducing congestion and making better use of your Ethernet capacity. Multi-path Ethernet can have significant impact on the product selections you can add to your FCoE fabric as well as the management and operations of your data and storage network. In this session, we will describe the commonality of multi-path Ethernet protocols, the differences, and the impact to integration and management.

Security is a key concern in cloud today. Security solutions are often sold on the basis of fear—how to stop malicious hackers. And there is value in this, for the threats are often real. But in today’s competitive world, one must also focus on how technology allows growth and innovation while also meeting security requirements. Attendees will learn how Intel is enhancing platforms with new security capabilities and enabling a broad ecosystem of solutions that allow companies to embrace virtualization and cloud without compromising security, thus gaining more efficiency, control and functional compliance.

If you're trying to build utility computing, you'll need a combination of virtualization, automation, self-service, and monitoring. In this panel, we'll discuss the building blocks of a private cloud, and look at the options IT has today to turn their data centers into on-demand computing resources for their organization.

On-demand computing resources are the most disruptive change in IT of the last decade, and much of that disruption begins at home. Day Two of Enterprise Cloud Summit will focus on private clouds -- radically new ways to combine virtualization, automation, and self-service models in order to change how you deliver IT to your business.

For a detailed agenda click here.

In this quick update, Marty Kagan of Cedexis will review his organization's research, collected from millions of samples across cloud and CDN providers, about the performance and uptime of public clouds.

On Day One of Enterprise Cloud Summit, we'll turn our eye outward to look at the many public cloud offerings that are levelling the IT playing field. Public cloud providers offer pay-as-you-go economics and tremendous flexibility; but they also create new security, portability, and performance concerns. Once the exclusive domain of web startups, today enterprises big and small are finding ways to incorporate public cloud platforms into their IT strategy. Whether you're deciding how to embrace them or want to learn from what others are doing, Enterprise Cloud Summit is the place to do it.

For a detailed agenda click here.

Virtualization and cloud computing hold the promise of enabling IT organizations to become more agile in large part because they support the dynamic creation and movement of IT resources. There is just one problem – supporting the dynamic movement of resources is extremely difficult. It requires a more dynamic approach to traditional management tasks such as DNS, DHCP and IP address management. It also requires that service delivery controllers can effectively accommodate the movement of virtual machines, that VLANs can be extended across the WAN, that all of the resources can be automatically orchestrated and that huge volumes of information can be quickly moved across the WAN. The panelists on this session will describe the functionality that has to be in place to support the dynamic creation and movement of IT resources and will identify how much of that functionality is available today.

There’s a popular feeling that all handsets are the same, with the iPhone having define both new user interface and applications paradigms. But there are in fact major differences in form factor, ease of use, network and application integration, and other capabilities among handsets today, so it’s important to dig into the technologies and trends surrounding this critical element of mobility. We’ll cap this year’s conference with a look at some of our favorites, and the intriguing possibilities lurking in the future of handset technology.

Are private clouds clouds? Or is the third-party business model inherent in what makes a cloud a cloud? As the FUD flies on both sides, everyone's got a different opinion of what defines cloud computing. We're going to see if we can get to the bottom of it, sitting public cloud providers across from private cloud toolmakers.

On-demand computing resources are the most disruptive change in IT of the last decade, and much of that disruption begins at home. Day Two of Enterprise Cloud Summit will focus on private clouds -- radically new ways to combine virtualization, automation, and self-service models in order to change how you deliver IT to your business.

For a detailed agenda click here.

In cloud computing, security is the monster in the closet. Studies have shown that enterprises see security as the biggest reason not to adopt utility computing—and the biggest reason to use it. Proponents of clouds suggest that they have access to better talent and tools than their users do, and after all, most breaches come from within. Detractors warn that with clouds, someone else controls your destiny, and the shared model exposes you to the mistakes of your neighbours. Who's right? In this Oxford-style debate, we'll put both arguments to the test, and see who's got the most convincing story.

Server architectures are both changing in response to application deployment models as well as changing how applications are deployed. Everything from multi-core CPU, cache strategies, hardware virtualization support, IO management, and interconnects have an impact on how you deploy applications and has an impact on power consumption and cooling. In this session, you will learn about new technologies in servers and how to integrate them into your data center. You will will be able to differentiate the advantages of blade chassis from rack mount systems and determine when to use them. Lastly, you will understand how IO options impact overall performance and connectivity to the rest of the data center.

It's unlikely that clouds are an all-or-nothing affair, at least in the short term. Companies will blend on-premise and on-demand clouds into what some call a hybrid model, combining the control of machines you own with the flexibility of those you merely rent. But a distributed architecture has its own problems—particularly reliability. In this panel, we'll learn what the challenges of a "stretched cloud" are and how technology can help mitigate performance issues when workloads happen at a distance.

On-demand computing resources are the most disruptive change in IT of the last decade, and much of that disruption begins at home. Day Two of Enterprise Cloud Summit will focus on private clouds -- radically new ways to combine virtualization, automation, and self-service models in order to change how you deliver IT to your business.

For a detailed agenda click here.

Successful consolidation in the data center means introducing a high performance two-layer L2 switching mesh that is resilient, low latency, low power and follows an application fluent approach with automated controls for high quality application delivery. Support for future convergence of data and storage networks with loss-less Ethernets and FCoE is also a must. Hear about how this can be achieved while including a true services-based architecture enabling seamless private and public cloud application delivery as well as providing for interconnect of data centers over a WAN.

All of the technologies and design approaches that IT organizations have used for years in the data center are now being questioned. This includes the use of the spanning tree protocol, the separation of the LAN and the SAN and the use of a three-tier design based on access, distribution and core switches. In addition, the emergence of 802.11n and virtualized access points highlights the fact that the branch office LAN is fundamentally changing. The panelists in this fast-paced, session will discuss some of the most promising emerging LAN technologies and the most current thinking about LAN design.

Fibre Channel requires a lossless network with predictable performance. Ethernet, being best effort, can’t support Fibre Channel as is. Fibre Channel over Ethernet enables storage traffic over Ethernet, but doesn’t address the lossless and performance requirements. IEEE standards grouped under the name Data Center Bridging (DCB) for Priority Flow Control, Enhanced Transmission Selection, Quantized Congestion Notification, and Data Center Bridging Capability Exchange, are designed to make Ethernet lossless and ensure that critical traffic such as FCoE has the required bandwidth available at all times. DCB enhances any Ethernet traffic within a layer 2 network, not just storage. Switches are coming to market capable of supporting DCB, today. In this session, you will learn how the various DCB protocols enhance Ethernet and the impact on network design and operations.

All of the technologies and design approaches that IT organizations have used for years in the data center are now being questioned. This includes the use of the spanning tree protocol, the separation of the LAN and the SAN and the use of a three-tier design based on access, distribution and core switches. In addition, the emergence of 802.11n and virtualized access points highlights the fact that the branch office LAN is fundamentally changing. The panelists in this fast-paced, session will discuss some of the most promising emerging LAN technologies and the most current thinking about LAN design.

All of the technologies and design approaches that IT organizations have used for years in the data center are now being questioned. This includes the use of the spanning tree protocol, the separation of the LAN and the SAN and the use of a three-tier design based on access, distribution and core switches. In addition, the emergence of 802.11n and virtualized access points highlights the fact that the branch office LAN is fundamentally changing. The panelists in this fast-paced, session will discuss some of the most promising emerging LAN technologies and the most current thinking about LAN design.

On Day One of Enterprise Cloud Summit, we'll turn our eye outward to look at the many public cloud offerings that are levelling the IT playing field. Public cloud providers offer pay-as-you-go economics and tremendous flexibility; but they also create new security, portability, and performance concerns. Once the exclusive domain of web startups, today enterprises big and small are finding ways to incorporate public cloud platforms into their IT strategy. Whether you're deciding how to embrace them or want to learn from what others are doing, Enterprise Cloud Summit is the place to do it.

For a detailed agenda click here.

Driven largely by the deployment of chatty protocols and the need to transmit large files, many IT organizations have implemented network and application optimization functionality. The traditional approach to doing this is for the IT organization to implement WAN optimization controller (WOC) functionality themselves or to obtain it as part of a managed service. While those options still exist, new options are emerging. This includes obtaining network and application optimization functionality from a SaaS provider or by using WAN services that have embedded optimization functionality. The panelists in this session debate the pros can cons of the various approaches and give you the insight you need to refine your optimization strategy.

Tablets have been a topic of discussion for more than 25 years, but the recent confluence of technology and price is leading to an explosion of products in the marketplace. Still, it’s fair to ask what role the tablet will really play in the enterprise – is it an adjunct to more traditional subscriber units, or will it replace the venerable notebook PC to become everyone’s second screen? This session will explore the key requirements for the success of tablets in enterprise settings, and evaluate scenarios for the success (or not) of tablets going forward.

Workplace technology is rapidly changing and driving a new normal in employee productivity and efficiency. Unified Communications, Video, Mobile and Social Networking each play an important role in improving how we work, but their real value may still lie ahead as these technologies come together to truly redefine the work experience. Attend this panel which includes Interop's wireless, Enterprise 2.0, unified communications, and video track chairs and experts for a lively, forward-looking discussion on the future of work.

Interoperability - and in particular, federation of UC systems - continues to be one of the biggest pain points for UC customers. The “plugfest” approach, also known as bilateral testing, becomes increasingly expensive and lengthy as the market expands, and is giving way to unilateral testing. The Unified Communication Interoperability Forum (UCIF) is creating and certifying UC interop scenarios that will give customers needed confidence while easing the burden on vendors. This panel explores the challenges faced when federating UC systems, and will delve into the challenges the UCIF can encounter on the path to a robust and comprehensive UC validation program.

The hottest topic in enterprise communications today isn't tablet computers or smartphones or even The Cloud: It's SIP Trunking. SIP Trunking offers enterprises the opportunity to save as much as 80% on their Wide Area Network costs for voice, while also improving network management and resiliency. Perhaps most significant in the long term, SIP Trunking lets enterprises connect VOIP "islands" via IP WANs that allow for true end-to-end IP sessions, maximizing the potential for Unified Communications benefits. The challenge is to turn these opportunities into real cost savings and enterprise benefits. In this session, you’ll get practical advice on how to specify, procure, implement and architect SIP trunks in order to capture the maximum benefit for your enterprise.

Is anyone really using this stuff? How can they justify the expense? In this session we will present case studies from video conferencing users to see how real businesses have integrated video into their communications infrastructures (e.g. UC) and into the daily flow of their business. We will examine the hard and soft ROIs around how video conferencing was justified, and how it has or has not paid off once deployed.

Hear GoGrid answer our shortlist questions on pricing, capacity, service levels, data location, and architecture.

On Day One of Enterprise Cloud Summit, we'll turn our eye outward to look at the many public cloud offerings that are levelling the IT playing field. Public cloud providers offer pay-as-you-go economics and tremendous flexibility; but they also create new security, portability, and performance concerns. Once the exclusive domain of web startups, today enterprises big and small are finding ways to incorporate public cloud platforms into their IT strategy. Whether you're deciding how to embrace them or want to learn from what others are doing, Enterprise Cloud Summit is the place to do it.

For a detailed agenda click here.

In this “primer” session, we’ll help you understand the elements of Unified Communications, why UC matters, and the key technology and business underpinnings of the move to UC. You’ll learn about key issues including:

* The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), which promises better (if not complete) interoperability among the diverse network elements that comprise UC. You’ll learn where SIP fits in your network and how the standard is evolving.

* UC Platforms from the leading vendors (Avaya, Cisco, Microsoft and others); how vendor approaches differ, and the strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches.

* UC’s place in the larger IT infrastructure—You’ll learn about the challenges of making your UC strategy conform to your enterprise’s plans for virtualization in both the datacenter and the desktop; the relationship with security issues; and the need to coordinate enterprise mobility strategies and policies with the core UC platform.

* UC and the cloud: You’ll hear about vendor initiatives around the cloud, and whether a cloud-based UC strategy is feasible today.

This session will give you a strong foundation in the basics of UC and UC’s “touch points” with other elements of your enterprise IT infrastructure.

Desktop and application virtualization hold the promise of solving many of the desktop management problems that have been plaguing IT since PCs first began to multiply in corporations in the early 1980s. How can these various technologies help reduce desktop and application management nightmares? Where should they fit into an overall desktop management strategy? What benefits can be gained and what pitfalls can be avoided? What is involved in evaluating, planning and implementing them? How should desktop management change to best leverage these technologies? How do SBC/hosted applications, VDI/hosted virtual desktops, client hypervisors, application virtualization and user virtualization fit together? Learn best practices for implementing various desktop and application virtualization technologies and how you might incorporate these types of solutions into your desktop and application management strategy.

The definition of a “desktop” is changing in many ways. Virtualization technologies have expanded and improved, offering better ways to deliver desktops and applications, ranging from VDI to session virtualization to streamed desktops to client hypervisors to Desktop as a Service. New devices continue to emerge and proliferate (including tablets, smartphones, thin clients and zero clients), and Bring Your Own Computer (BYOC) initiatives are gaining ground. As IT organizations consider the best strategy for delivering and supporting desktops and applications for the next decade, and address tactical issues like migration to Windows 7, IT has the opportunity to change the paradigm for delivering endpoint access to users and devices anywhere. Desktop and application virtualization offer new ways to incorporate the new types of users and devices, and many of the past barriers to virtual desktops have been overcome.

For more information click here.

Network-based business models depend upon the availability of Internet infrastructure. But as the criticality of uptime has grown, so too have threats (e.g., DDoS) aimed at creating downtime. This session will explore how organizations can leverage recent advancements of Internet’s infrastructure to provide greater protection, while managing growing complexity

If you're trying to build utility computing, you'll need a combination of virtualization, automation, self-service, and monitoring. In this panel, we'll discuss the building blocks of a private cloud, and look at the options IT has today to turn their data centers into on-demand computing resources for their organization.

On-demand computing resources are the most disruptive change in IT of the last decade, and much of that disruption begins at home. Day Two of Enterprise Cloud Summit will focus on private clouds -- radically new ways to combine virtualization, automation, and self-service models in order to change how you deliver IT to your business.

For a detailed agenda click here.

Desktop and application virtualization hold the promise of solving many of the desktop management problems that have been plaguing IT since PCs first began to multiply in corporations in the early 1980s. How can these various technologies help reduce desktop and application management nightmares? Where should they fit into an overall desktop management strategy? What benefits can be gained and what pitfalls can be avoided? What is involved in evaluating, planning and implementing them? How should desktop management change to best leverage these technologies? How do SBC/hosted applications, VDI/hosted virtual desktops, client hypervisors, application virtualization and user virtualization fit together? Learn best practices for implementing various desktop and application virtualization technologies and how you might incorporate these types of solutions into your desktop and application management strategy.

The definition of a desktop is changing. As new devices emerge and proliferate (tablets, smartphones, and other new types of clients) and Bring Your Own Computer (BYOC) initiatives are gaining ground, IT must evaluate how to deliver and support desktops and applications on these new devices for the next decade. Desktop and application virtualization offer new ways to incorporate all these devices, and many of the past barriers to virtual desktops have been overcome. What is the relationship between virtual desktops/ application and the mix of access devices from iPads to thin/zero client devices? Learn if, why and how all these technologies should fit into your desktop strategy.

Security budgets have recently come under intense scrutiny and, often are being cut or left the same as previous years even in a climate where security threats and attacks are on the rise. In these conditions where do you invest your available budget? Why isn’t the technology you have invested previously solving your security problems? How do you use the technologies and capabilities that you already have more effectively? How do you convince your management and leadership that security is still relevant and important? What should you be thinking about next? This panel discussion will answer these questions and more by providing knowledge and insights from professionals who are successfully overcoming these challenges everyday.

this case study session, Zynga's Chief Technology Officer - Infrastructure Engineering, will walk you through their experience with cloud platforms, sharing what's worked and what hasn't.

On-demand computing resources are the most disruptive change in IT of the last decade, and much of that disruption begins at home. Day Two of Enterprise Cloud Summit will focus on private clouds -- radically new ways to combine virtualization, automation, and self-service models in order to change how you deliver IT to your business.

For a detailed agenda click here.

Experts agree that the IPv4 address space will be depleted in the near term and that there is nothing that can be done to stop that. The members of this panel will identify what enterprise IT organizations need to do to prepare for IPv6 deployment. The panelists will also identify the steps that ISPs and network hardware vendors need to take in order to implement IPv6 and will present a status report identifying how well the major players are doing.

It’s one thing to deploy a wireless LAN, and quite another to grow it over time into a large-scale, mission-critical resource. This session will examine the requirements for doing just that, including the design and management of high-density (both clients and infrastructure) deployments, management and other operational requirements, and how to provision and manage large-scale multimedia (including voice and video) services on the enterprise WLAN.

The consolidation of applications and servers out of branch offices and into centralized data centers has driven an increased amount of delay sensitive traffic over the WAN. Now the WAN is being challenged to support the adoption of desktop virtualization and to enable both SaaS and the dynamic movement of VMs. Unfortunately the WAN is not experiencing the same type of price reduction as is computing and storage resources. The panelists in this fast-paced session will discuss some of the most promising emerging WAN technologies and services that you can utilize today to successfully support emerging requirements.

With IT spread across on-premise and on-demand components, and virtual machine sprawl creating a deluge of new systems to manage, CIOs face a huge challenge: measuring and managing their virtual infrastructure to ensure adequate performance, good management of risk, and a controlled approach to billing. In this panel, we'll look at how companies are tackling management and monitoring in utility computing deployments.

On Day One of Enterprise Cloud Summit, we'll turn our eye outward to look at the many public cloud offerings that are levelling the IT playing field. Public cloud providers offer pay-as-you-go economics and tremendous flexibility; but they also create new security, portability, and performance concerns. Once the exclusive domain of web startups, today enterprises big and small are finding ways to incorporate public cloud platforms into their IT strategy. Whether you're deciding how to embrace them or want to learn from what others are doing, Enterprise Cloud Summit is the place to do it.

For a detailed agenda click here.

Are private clouds clouds? Or is the third-party business model inherent in what makes a cloud a cloud? As the FUD flies on both sides, everyone's got a different opinion of what defines cloud computing. We're going to see if we can get to the bottom of it, sitting public cloud providers across from private cloud toolmakers.

On-demand computing resources are the most disruptive change in IT of the last decade, and much of that disruption begins at home. Day Two of Enterprise Cloud Summit will focus on private clouds -- radically new ways to combine virtualization, automation, and self-service models in order to change how you deliver IT to your business.

For a detailed agenda click here.

Server virtualization requires careful planning to understand how to squeeze the most out of server resources without compromising application performance. Enterprise IT also needs comparative performance information to assist them in critical purchasing decisions. This presentation reviews best practices for data center virtualization, including test results from the industry-first 10GbE top-of-rack and core switch test for data center clouds.

With so many cloud providers entering the market—and clear economy-of-scale advantages to market leaders—the consolidation of public clouds is inevitable. To stay independent, providers will have to differentiate themselves by focusing on specific customers, geographies, certifications, or service model. This panel will look at the differentiation of cloud offerings, and what that means to enterprise customers seeking tailored solutions but fearing lock-in.

On Day One of Enterprise Cloud Summit, we'll turn our eye outward to look at the many public cloud offerings that are levelling the IT playing field. Public cloud providers offer pay-as-you-go economics and tremendous flexibility; but they also create new security, portability, and performance concerns. Once the exclusive domain of web startups, today enterprises big and small are finding ways to incorporate public cloud platforms into their IT strategy. Whether you're deciding how to embrace them or want to learn from what others are doing, Enterprise Cloud Summit is the place to do it.

For a detailed agenda click here.

The cloud environment, built on the backbone of virtualization, requires a robust power delivery system with management solutions that can ensure the highest availability. Power management doesn’t just stop at the outlet either. It requires thorough integration into the virtualization layer to ensure the compute environment that stays protected.

Join Eaton as we explain what impacts you can expect if you decide to try a cloud experiment, and what solutions are available to give your cloud a magnificent rainbow.

Modern enterprises recognize the need to test their web applications for security vulnerabilities, but few security organizations can quantify the success or failure of their programs to the business. That is because traditional security lifecycle metrics fail to convey whether the organization is actually reducing risks. Attendees will learn how to develop organizational metrics that leverage proven QA data, in addition to security data, to form a complete picture. The session will cover five critical KPIs that demonstrate security risks associated with web applications as a function of overall software quality.

This session will provide a practical guide to evaluating enterprise clouds and cloud providers. Go beyond the marketing hype, the brands and the buzzwords, and learn how differences in architecture, infrastructure, security and design can have significant impact on your ability to take advantage of the cost-effectiveness and agility of infrastructure-as-a-service without compromise to availability, performance and compliance. Also, hear examples of how leading enterprises and government agencies are taking advantage of the power and flexibility offered by enterprise cloud computing architecture.

Hear industry visionaries discuss the growth and future of IT.

Video conferencing has been relabeled as Telepresence, and Telepresence is being reinvented every day. Moore’s law is helping video move to standard platforms, and software developers are integrating video into communications infrastructures like UC, into web-based collaboration tools and directly into business applications. In this session leading-edge vendors will present different views on what we can expect from visual communications tomorrow, next year and beyond.

Service providers see cloud computing as a new opportunity for adding value to their IP transport offerings. For this new opportunity to generate profits, however, service providers must be able to differentiate their services, package them with user-friendly SLAs, and deliver robust services without major customization requirements. Many will also want to develop a portfolio of XaaS offerings including security, storage, software, and applications, all of which can be packaged with IP transport services or with other managed services. This panel will explore how cloud-based services will evolve to be profit engines of the future, including the possibility of industry-specific vertical offerings, as well as ways to make better service translate into market success.

Huge revenue, customer acquisition and retention, and brand credibility implications are riding on the ability of Service Providers to leverage their data center and IP infrastructure to deliver profitable network-based IT services. The Carrier Cloud Forum will provide high-quality education and peer-to-peer interaction on building a cloud infrastructure that is manageable and billable, ensuring high-performance security and service quality to meet SLA demands, recognizing best practices for packaging and monetizing XaaS services and applications, and learning what works and what does not for vertical industry customization.

For more information click here.

The real value of UC is in using communications to accelerate business processes and make your enterprise more efficient, with faster time to revenue and other tangible business benefits. The ability to achieve this with UC is called Communications Enabled Business Processes or CEBP—but is anyone really doing CEBP today? This session will offer a reality check on what business processes are being communications-enabled today, and where the potential remains untapped. You’ll also learn about technical challenges around interoperability and performance, and will get an understanding of how these issues are being addressed by vendors and users.

The real value of UC is in using communications to accelerate business processes and make your enterprise more efficient, with faster time to revenue and other tangible business benefits. The ability to achieve this with UC is called Communications Enabled Business Processes or CEBP—but is anyone really doing CEBP today? This session will offer a reality check on what business processes are being communications-enabled today, and where the potential remains untapped. You’ll also learn about technical challenges around interoperability and performance, and will get an understanding of how these issues are being addressed by vendors and users.

Virtualization management is the key to successfully moving beyond basic server consolidation to an agile virtual infrastructure to a private cloud service. Getting there successfully means addressing such areas as automation of provisioning and virtual operations; performance, capacity management and troubleshooting across and through the virtual and physical infrastructure; lifecycle management; and eventually managing across multiple hypervisors. Hear experiences and best practices from our expert panel on how layering the right management capabilities onto your virtual environment will improve your IT operations and transform your environment into a private cloud.

Are things settling down a bit in wireless and mobile? Perhaps – but just a bit. The rate of innovation in wireless technologies and networks, and in mobile devices and related technologies, continues at a furious pace, but some might claim that there’s an air of stability afoot. And some might claim quite the opposite – which is why we’re kicking off this year’s conference with an engaging debate of the key issues among the most involved thought leaders in wireless and mobile today.

Server architectures are both changing in response to application deployment models as well as changing how applications are deployed. Everything from multi-core CPU, cache strategies, hardware virtualization support, IO management, and interconnects have an impact on how you deploy applications and has an impact on power consumption and cooling. In this session, you will learn about new technologies in servers and how to integrate them into your data center. You will will be able to differentiate the advantages of blade chassis from rack mount systems and determine when to use them. Lastly, you will understand how IO options impact overall performance and connectivity to the rest of the data center.

IT faces increasing demands for business-enhancing services yet is saddled with static budgets and outsized operational loads, where 80% of the time, effort and dollars are spent on routine, “keep the lights on” activities, not service or application development. Automation is a key lever in budging this roadblock to innovation, but so too is effective use of service providers, whether external hosting facilities, cloud-based SaaS and IaaS, or third-party managed services. Our Analytics experts will share results of our survey and address some key questions: What areas are ripe for outsourcing? Where to automate internal IT processes? We’ll cover managing across multivendor, heterogeneous in-house/as-a-service systems, providing transparency to the business, and adhering to best-practices frameworks. We'll also examine the human equation -- how to transition IT staff from operational to business-focused tasks, how to increase collaboration both within the enterprise and with external service providers, and how to capture IT knowledge to create policies, SLAs and automation-friendly run books.

Major vendors are fighting to control the next generation of the data center. Battle lines are drawn, with Cisco, VMware and EMC on one side, and HP, IBM and Hitachi on the other. Are you willing to be tied to an OPEC-like consortium in exchange for tightly integrated network, compute and storage? Or can you build an agile data center by playing the field and linking disparate vendors with third-party software? Our Analytics experts help you decide.

Data storage is the foundation of how IT gets work done. Perhaps more important than server, OS choice, or networking, choosing the right types of storage is critical to ensure that your organization can save and retrieve data. The storage world is rapidly changing. The amount of data that is being stored is increasing. The amount of storage that is being requested is increasing. The way storage is being used and access is changing. In this session, we will go over new technologies including thin provisioning, automated tiering, SSD’s, deduplication, and more. We’ll also cast a look forward to what is coming in the near future.

Storage virtualization can do for storage systems what server virtualization did for operating systems—sever the ties that bind your organization to rigid and expensive storage systems that don’t easily fit into your IT goals. You can retain your existing block or file storage behind an abstraction of virtualized storage and migrate data without impacting applications and users. In this session, you will learn about the benefits and pitfalls of storage virtualization, understand how it can fit into your IT and storage strategy, and discover how you can migrate to storage virtualization at a pace that works for you.

With the increasing diversity of mobile devices, applications, and missions, it’s more important than ever to have the necessary policies, procedures, and operational systems in place to manage mission-critical and rapidly-growing mobile activities. This session will examine the key requirements in each of these areas, including a checklist of required policies and an examination of mobile device management and mobile policy management alternatives.

With the increasing diversity of mobile devices, applications, and missions, it’s more important than ever to have the necessary policies, procedures, and operational systems in place to manage mission-critical and rapidly-growing mobile activities. This session will examine the key requirements in each of these areas, including a checklist of required policies and an examination of mobile device management and mobile policy management alternatives.

With so many cloud providers entering the market—and clear economy-of-scale advantages to market leaders—the consolidation of public clouds is inevitable. To stay independent, providers will have to differentiate themselves by focusing on specific customers, geographies, certifications, or service model. This panel will look at the differentiation of cloud offerings, and what that means to enterprise customers seeking tailored solutions but fearing lock-in.

Hear Navisite answer our shortlist questions on pricing, capacity, service levels, data location, and architecture.

On Day One of Enterprise Cloud Summit, we'll turn our eye outward to look at the many public cloud offerings that are levelling the IT playing field. Public cloud providers offer pay-as-you-go economics and tremendous flexibility; but they also create new security, portability, and performance concerns. Once the exclusive domain of web startups, today enterprises big and small are finding ways to incorporate public cloud platforms into their IT strategy. Whether you're deciding how to embrace them or want to learn from what others are doing, Enterprise Cloud Summit is the place to do it.

For a detailed agenda click here.

Video streams have very different requirements for network transport, and have traditionally been difficult to handle well. The rapid uptake of video in various forms (video conferencing, video streaming, security, etc.) have put pressure on the network to do a better job. New architectures are evolving that better match the requirements of heavy video usage and ubiquitous connectivity. This session will have three leading-edge vendors presenting different approaches to supporting video in an IP network environment. These new approaches help solve the issues of bandwidth management, quality of service management, firewall traversal and business-to-business connectivity.

Are things settling down a bit in wireless and mobile? Perhaps – but just a bit. The rate of innovation in wireless technologies and networks, and in mobile devices and related technologies, continues at a furious pace, but some might claim that there’s an air of stability afoot. And some might claim quite the opposite – which is why we’re kicking off this year’s conference with an engaging debate of the key issues among the most involved thought leaders in wireless and mobile today.

Workplace technology is rapidly changing and driving a new normal in employee productivity and efficiency. Unified Communications, Video, Mobile and Social Networking each play an important role in improving how we work, but their real value may still lie ahead as these technologies come together to truly redefine the work experience. Attend this panel which includes Interop's wireless, Enterprise 2.0, unified communications, and video track chairs and experts for a lively, forward-looking discussion on the future of work.

This session considers the “big picture” of mobility, using examples to examine what to do (and what not to do) when architecting, designing, deploying, and managing mobile solutions. Our focus here will be on wide-area mobility, considering alternatives in networks, devices, and applications strategies. We’ll also explore issues of total cost of ownership (TCO) and other financial and operational concerns.

Over the last few years, many IT organizations have started to focus on application management. However, just as some leading edge IT organizations are beginning to get good at managing service delivery they are now faced with a new challenge. That challenge is to manage service delivery, where a service can be a collection of inter-related applications that support a business process, or it could be a component of an application such as compute or storage. Making the challenge even more difficult is the fact that on an ever-increasing basis, service delivery must be supported over a combination of wired and wireless networks. In this session, Jim Metzler will compare and contrast the approach to application and service management being taken by some of the industry’s leading vendors.

As the world of information technology changes, the skill set required to lead your IT organization continually evolves. Attend Day One of this intensive two-day CIO Boot Camp to learn firsthand from successful CIOs. Hear about common mistakes, how to avoid making them and how to apply their lessons to your world.

Topics include:

• Tales from Top-of-Tech
• The CIO Role Today
• The IT Organization of the Future
• IT in the SMB World – Issues, Realities & Best Practices
• Health Care IT
• Business Analytics
• CIO Unplugged

For more information click here.

As the world of information technology changes, the skill set required to lead your IT organization continually evolves. Attend Day Two of this intensive two-day CIO Boot Camp to learn firsthand from successful CIOs. Hear about common mistakes, how to avoid making them and how to apply their lessons to your world.

Topics include:

• Vendor Management
• Managing the Next Technology Portfolio
• Green IT/Sustainability
• Managing Social Media
• IT Leadership

For more information click here.

It’s one thing to deploy a wireless LAN, and quite another to grow it over time into a large-scale, mission-critical resource. This session will examine the requirements for doing just that, including the design and management of high-density (both clients and infrastructure) deployments, management and other operational requirements, and how to provision and manage large-scale multimedia (including voice and video) services on the enterprise WLAN.

On Day One of Enterprise Cloud Summit, we'll turn our eye outward to look at the many public cloud offerings that are levelling the IT playing field. Public cloud providers offer pay-as-you-go economics and tremendous flexibility; but they also create new security, portability, and performance concerns. Once the exclusive domain of web startups, today enterprises big and small are finding ways to incorporate public cloud platforms into their IT strategy. Whether you're deciding how to embrace them or want to learn from what others are doing, Enterprise Cloud Summit is the place to do it.

For a detailed agenda click here.

The vast majority of today's cloud offerings are little more than rented metal—virtual machines, with virtual storage, and all of the management headaches. But a new generation of computing platforms is on the horizon that promises portable computing without machine-level operations. Are Platform as a Service clouds ready for the enterprise? What will they look like? This session will look at the road enterprises face from today's infrastructure-centric models to the portable workloads and everything-as-a-service of tomorrow.

This session focuses on Enterprise IPv6 deployment considerations for specific areas of the network such as campus, WAN/branch and data center. The session features best practices for deploying IPv6 with a variety of associated technologies.

In IT we often overuse the phrase next generation to apply to an obvious upgrade such as the movement to implement higher speed Ethernet LANs. However, given the dramatic shifts being driven by virtualization and cloud computing, we have to ask ourselves “Do we want to keep building networks the way we always have been?” The panelists in this session will discuss the new approaches to network design coming out of the research community as well as the approach taken by the leading cloud computing vendors. In some cases these approaches are somewhat radical. Attend this session to learn about new approaches to designing networks – approaches that are built around enabling the vision of a truly dynamic, virtualized data center.

Virtualization management is the key to successfully moving beyond basic server consolidation to an agile virtual infrastructure to a private cloud service. Getting there successfully means addressing such areas as automation of provisioning and virtual operations; performance, capacity management and troubleshooting across and through the virtual and physical infrastructure; lifecycle management; and eventually managing across multiple hypervisors. Hear experiences and best practices from our expert panel on how layering the right management capabilities onto your virtual environment will improve your IT operations and transform your environment into a private cloud.

The definition of a desktop is changing. As new devices emerge and proliferate (tablets, smartphones, and other new types of clients) and Bring Your Own Computer (BYOC) initiatives are gaining ground, IT must evaluate how to deliver and support desktops and applications on these new devices for the next decade. Desktop and application virtualization offer new ways to incorporate all these devices, and many of the past barriers to virtual desktops have been overcome. What is the relationship between virtual desktops/ application and the mix of access devices from iPads to thin/zero client devices? Learn if, why and how all these technologies should fit into your desktop strategy.

The hottest topic in enterprise communications today isn't tablet computers or smartphones or even The Cloud: It's SIP Trunking. SIP Trunking offers enterprises the opportunity to save as much as 80% on their Wide Area Network costs for voice, while also improving network management and resiliency. Perhaps most significant in the long term, SIP Trunking lets enterprises connect VOIP "islands" via IP WANs that allow for true end-to-end IP sessions, maximizing the potential for Unified Communications benefits. The challenge is to turn these opportunities into real cost savings and enterprise benefits. In this session, you’ll get practical advice on how to specify, procure, implement and architect SIP trunks in order to capture the maximum benefit for your enterprise.

As cloud adoption has become the hot topic in the Enterprise, there are many lessons to be learned as to how the early adopters have found success (and some failure) with Cloud projects. There are pragmatic means to use the cloud to accomplish your business goals without having to overhaul the critical applications that are the life-blood of your organization. This session will examine how and where enterprise IT can lower costs and improve the efficiency and performance of their projects through the proper use of Cloud services.

It’s one thing to deploy a wireless LAN, and quite another to grow it over time into a large-scale, mission-critical resource. This session will examine the requirements for doing just that, including the design and management of high-density (both clients and infrastructure) deployments, management and other operational requirements, and how to provision and manage large-scale multimedia (including voice and video) services on the enterprise WLAN.

At a time when the drive toward social, mobile, virtual and cloud computing is all but certain, the enterprise network is evolving to ensure it meets IT and business needs. The converged enterprise is transitioning to a newer, efficient and intelligent network. As a result, network managers are on the front line of key industry trends.

Join IDC's Enterprise Communications and Datacenter Network experts, for an analyst briefing and get answers to the following questions:

• What are the key technologies that will be in play in 2011 and beyond?
• What are the key requirements for unified wired/wireless?
• How do Ethernet fabrics meet the needs of the virtualized datacenter?
• What's next for voice and video?
• How is application delivery changing in the era of cloud computing?

Agenda

7:30 AM - 7:45 AM
Registration/Breakfast

7:45 AM - 8:05 AM
The Enterprise Network in the Era of the Cloud

8:05 AM - 8:15 AM
The Future of Unified Communications: Voice and Video

8:15 AM - 8:30 AM
Datacenter Hot Topics for 2011

8:30 AM - 8:45 AM
Q&A

Interoperability - and in particular, federation of UC systems - continues to be one of the biggest pain points for UC customers. The “plugfest” approach, also known as bilateral testing, becomes increasingly expensive and lengthy as the market expands, and is giving way to unilateral testing. The Unified Communication Interoperability Forum (UCIF) is creating and certifying UC interop scenarios that will give customers needed confidence while easing the burden on vendors. This panel explores the challenges faced when federating UC systems, and will delve into the challenges the UCIF can encounter on the path to a robust and comprehensive UC validation program.

For years IT organizations built three-tier data center LANs based on a number of broadly accepted axioms. This included the use of the spanning tree algorithm, the separation of the data center LAN and the SAN as well as the use of Ethernet on a best effort basis. However, trends such as the adoption of server virtualization are causing IT organizations to rethink every aspect of data center LAN design. The panelists on this session will be given an actual data center LAN and asked to redesign the LAN to support a highly virtual, dynamic data center. They will also be asked to explain why they are, or are not, recommending specific technologies.

All of the technologies and design approaches that IT organizations have used for years in the data center are now being questioned. This includes the use of the spanning tree protocol, the separation of the LAN and the SAN and the use of a three-tier design based on access, distribution and core switches. In addition, the emergence of 802.11n and virtualized access points highlights the fact that the branch office LAN is fundamentally changing. The panelists in this fast-paced, session will discuss some of the most promising emerging LAN technologies and the most current thinking about LAN design.

The last few years has seen a great growth in the development of virtual service delivery appliances such as WAN optimization controllers (WOCs) and application delivery controllers (ADCs). These virtual appliances hold the promise of fundamentally changing service delivery. The members of this session will discuss the benefits of this new class of service delivery appliances as well as where these appliances should and should not be deployed. The panelists will also discuss the challenges associated with this new set of appliances and identify specific criteria that you can use to evaluate them.

The last few years has seen a great growth in the development of virtual service delivery appliances such as WAN optimization controllers (WOCs) and application delivery controllers (ADCs). These virtual appliances hold the promise of fundamentally changing service delivery. The members of this session will discuss the benefits of this new class of service delivery appliances as well as where these appliances should and should not be deployed. The panelists will also discuss the challenges associated with this new set of appliances and identify specific criteria that you can use to evaluate them.

The media is overflowing with discussions of the benefits of adopting cloud computing and enabling technologies such as virtualization. What has been missing from that discussion is an analysis of what has to happen to the network and the management of the network to enable them to support cloud computing. For example, the deployment of vSwitches will potentially result in IT organizations having to manage hundreds of new switches from multiple vendors. In addition, today’s WAN can’t effectively support the dynamic movement of VMs nor cloud bursting and most management tools and processes are focused on static not dynamic resources. In this session, Jim Metzler of Ashton, Metzler & Associates will describe in detail the set of challenges created by cloud computing and will also provide an overview of the emerging networking, optimization and management technologies that hold the potential to mitigate these challenges.

For years IT organizations built three-tier data center LANs based on a number of broadly accepted axioms. This included the use of the spanning tree algorithm, the separation of the data center LAN and the SAN as well as the use of Ethernet on a best effort basis. However, trends such as the adoption of server virtualization are causing IT organizations to rethink every aspect of data center LAN design. The panelists on this session will be given an actual data center LAN and asked to redesign the LAN to support a highly virtual, dynamic data center. They will also be asked to explain why they are, or are not, recommending specific technologies.

All of the technologies and design approaches that IT organizations have used for years in the data center are now being questioned. This includes the use of the spanning tree protocol, the separation of the LAN and the SAN and the use of a three-tier design based on access, distribution and core switches. In addition, the emergence of 802.11n and virtualized access points highlights the fact that the branch office LAN is fundamentally changing. The panelists in this fast-paced, session will discuss some of the most promising emerging LAN technologies and the most current thinking about LAN design.

Virtualization and cloud computing hold the promise of enabling IT organizations to become more agile in large part because they support the dynamic creation and movement of IT resources. There is just one problem – supporting the dynamic movement of resources is extremely difficult. It requires a more dynamic approach to traditional management tasks such as DNS, DHCP and IP address management. It also requires that service delivery controllers can effectively accommodate the movement of virtual machines, that VLANs can be extended across the WAN, that all of the resources can be automatically orchestrated and that huge volumes of information can be quickly moved across the WAN. The panelists on this session will describe the functionality that has to be in place to support the dynamic creation and movement of IT resources and will identify how much of that functionality is available today.

The consolidation of applications and servers out of branch offices and into centralized data centers has driven an increased amount of delay sensitive traffic over the WAN. Now the WAN is being challenged to support the adoption of desktop virtualization and to enable both SaaS and the dynamic movement of VMs. Unfortunately the WAN is not experiencing the same type of price reduction as is computing and storage resources. The panelists in this fast-paced session will discuss some of the most promising emerging WAN technologies and services that you can utilize today to successfully support emerging requirements.

In IT we often overuse the phrase next generation to apply to an obvious upgrade such as the movement to implement higher speed Ethernet LANs. However, given the dramatic shifts being driven by virtualization and cloud computing, we have to ask ourselves “Do we want to keep building networks the way we always have been?” The panelists in this session will discuss the new approaches to network design coming out of the research community as well as the approach taken by the leading cloud computing vendors. In some cases these approaches are somewhat radical. Attend this session to learn about new approaches to designing networks – approaches that are built around enabling the vision of a truly dynamic, virtualized data center.

Over the last few years, many IT organizations have started to focus on application management. However, just as some leading edge IT organizations are beginning to get good at managing service delivery they are now faced with a new challenge. That challenge is to manage service delivery, where a service can be a collection of inter-related applications that support a business process, or it could be a component of an application such as compute or storage. Making the challenge even more difficult is the fact that on an ever-increasing basis, service delivery must be supported over a combination of wired and wireless networks. In this session, Jim Metzler will compare and contrast the approach to application and service management being taken by some of the industry’s leading vendors.

Driven largely by the deployment of chatty protocols and the need to transmit large files, many IT organizations have implemented network and application optimization functionality. The traditional approach to doing this is for the IT organization to implement WAN optimization controller (WOC) functionality themselves or to obtain it as part of a managed service. While those options still exist, new options are emerging. This includes obtaining network and application optimization functionality from a SaaS provider or by using WAN services that have embedded optimization functionality. The panelists in this session debate the pros can cons of the various approaches and give you the insight you need to refine your optimization strategy.

In this “primer” session, we’ll help you understand the elements of Unified Communications, why UC matters, and the key technology and business underpinnings of the move to UC. You’ll learn about key issues including:

* The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), which promises better (if not complete) interoperability among the diverse network elements that comprise UC. You’ll learn where SIP fits in your network and how the standard is evolving.

* UC Platforms from the leading vendors (Avaya, Cisco, Microsoft and others); how vendor approaches differ, and the strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches.

* UC’s place in the larger IT infrastructure—You’ll learn about the challenges of making your UC strategy conform to your enterprise’s plans for virtualization in both the datacenter and the desktop; the relationship with security issues; and the need to coordinate enterprise mobility strategies and policies with the core UC platform.

* UC and the cloud: You’ll hear about vendor initiatives around the cloud, and whether a cloud-based UC strategy is feasible today.

This session will give you a strong foundation in the basics of UC and UC’s “touch points” with other elements of your enterprise IT infrastructure.

The real value of UC is in using communications to accelerate business processes and make your enterprise more efficient, with faster time to revenue and other tangible business benefits. The ability to achieve this with UC is called Communications Enabled Business Processes or CEBP—but is anyone really doing CEBP today? This session will offer a reality check on what business processes are being communications-enabled today, and where the potential remains untapped. You’ll also learn about technical challenges around interoperability and performance, and will get an understanding of how these issues are being addressed by vendors and users.

Huge revenue, customer acquisition and retention, and brand credibility implications are riding on the ability of Service Providers to leverage their data center and IP infrastructure to deliver profitable network-based IT services. The Carrier Cloud Forum will provide high-quality education and peer-to-peer interaction on building a cloud infrastructure that is manageable and billable, ensuring high-performance security and service quality to meet SLA demands, recognizing best practices for packaging and monetizing XaaS services and applications, and learning what works and what does not for vertical industry customization.

For more information click here.

Real-time traffic (voice and video) demands a network that delivers low latency, low packet loss and low jitter. And that’s not easy to accomplish. The dynamic character of modern networks, and the growing requirement for highly distributed configurations can lead to errors in design or implementation that cause quality problems for voice and video apps. And so, a new breed of testing methodologies and tools is required to test or monitor converged networks and to isolate problems. This session will analyze and categorize these tools, and list vendors that provide the different kinds of solutions needed to manage today’s complex networks.

Across IT organizations, there is strong interest in deploying applications in a cloud environment to achieve increased business flexibility and cost savings. However, the importance of performance and reliability of the overall application and content delivery chain from the cloud infrastructure to the end user has been largely overlooked. In this session, you will learn how to make cloud computing part of a total IT solution that provides competitive advantage through improved end user experience, while simultaneously delivering the flexibility and financial benefits promised by the cloud.

Depending upon whose definition you accept, 4G wireless wide-area networks are here from almost all (and soon all) of the major carriers. This session will examine each of the major alternatives for 4G, including HSPA+, LTE, and WiMAX, and discuss the core technologies, rollout plans, features, benefits, and limitations of today’s 4G networks. We’ll also discuss the evolution of 4G towards the ITU’s definition of 100+ Mbps, including the evolution of standards, industry specifications, and related capabilities, and help you set a mobile broadband course for both today and tomorrow.

Have a look at the list of projects now underway at IEEE 802.11 and the Wi-Fi Alliance and you’ll quickly get the message: there’s more going on than ever in WLAN standards, specifications, and advanced wireless-LAN technologies. Always a popular topic at Interop, this session will dive into important developments in each of these areas, with detailed discussion of the implications for enterprise network planning and operations. We’ll also provide a look at the farther-term future of the wireless LAN.

Transitioning to IPv6 may not be an imperative in 2011, but you do need to start putting a plan in place. Our Analytics experts will discuss how to prioritize migration (services available to the Internet should probably move quickly; internal networks can wait longer). We’ll discuss architectural and design considerations for dual-stacking IPv6 and IPv4, supporting network devices that can't run in this mode, network number assignments, and other key considerations.
PLUS: A sneak peek at the No. 1 problem child of IPv6 migrations: Security.

IT teams in midmarket companies—those with around 500 employees—are pivotal in the process of growth but face unique challenges. In this session, our Analytics experts will discuss innovative ways to securely equip a mobile workforce. We’ll discuss a range of new technologies that provide enterprise-class productivity and data protection without breaking the budget.

The reality of cloud computing is that it is another paradigm shift for how we manage IT resources, both human and machine. Many have been sold on the vision of step 1 virtualize, step 2 deploy in cloud, but the fact is that moving an existing environment to any cloud architecture, public or private, first requires IT management to address risk mitigation strategies, migration, security, DR/COOP, CapEx/OpEx analyses, connectivity and user experience. This session will provide a high-level roadmap to help jumpstart the process toward moving to cloud-based architectures.

With dozens of cloud computing firms to choose from, the battle lines are drawn. In this interactive, moderated discussion, we'll try to determine which cloud providers are best for different IT goals. You'll learn which companies are high-touch, and which are no-touch; which are cheap, and which are premium-priced; which are complex and which are turnkey. Come armed with your own scenarios, awkward questions, and shortlist criteria and put these providers on the spot.

On-demand computing resources are the most disruptive change in IT of the last decade, and much of that disruption begins at home. Day Two of Enterprise Cloud Summit will focus on private clouds -- radically new ways to combine virtualization, automation, and self-service models in order to change how you deliver IT to your business.

For a detailed agenda click here.

Most enterprise cloud adoption has relied on virtual machines and infrastructure as a service. But there's a lot to love about the other approach to clouds—platform as a service. In a PaaS model, you worry about your code, and the systems take care of the rest. Lots of smart analysts think PaaS is the inevitable consequence of true utility computing. In this session, Tom Mornini explains why PaaS might be the future for enterprises.

In IT we often overuse the phrase next generation to apply to an obvious upgrade such as the movement to implement higher speed Ethernet LANs. However, given the dramatic shifts being driven by virtualization and cloud computing, we have to ask ourselves “Do we want to keep building networks the way we always have been?” The panelists in this session will discuss the new approaches to network design coming out of the research community as well as the approach taken by the leading cloud computing vendors. In some cases these approaches are somewhat radical. Attend this session to learn about new approaches to designing networks – approaches that are built around enabling the vision of a truly dynamic, virtualized data center.

Security budgets have recently come under intense scrutiny and, often are being cut or left the same as previous years even in a climate where security threats and attacks are on the rise. In these conditions where do you invest your available budget? Why isn’t the technology you have invested previously solving your security problems? How do you use the technologies and capabilities that you already have more effectively? How do you convince your management and leadership that security is still relevant and important? What should you be thinking about next? This panel discussion will answer these questions and more by providing knowledge and insights from professionals who are successfully overcoming these challenges everyday.

A video-capable architecture provides a scalable and flexible way for organizations to deploy multiple video and collaboration applications across a range of use cases, including conferencing. Discover the value of this approach from Cisco SVP Praveen Akkiraju and Cisco’s own Borderless Network IT Architect, Plamen Nedeltchev.

In this case study session, Boeing’s Chief Strategist of Cloud Computing will walk us through their experience with cloud platforms, sharing what's worked and what hasn't.

On Day One of Enterprise Cloud Summit, we'll turn our eye outward to look at the many public cloud offerings that are levelling the IT playing field. Public cloud providers offer pay-as-you-go economics and tremendous flexibility; but they also create new security, portability, and performance concerns. Once the exclusive domain of web startups, today enterprises big and small are finding ways to incorporate public cloud platforms into their IT strategy. Whether you're deciding how to embrace them or want to learn from what others are doing, Enterprise Cloud Summit is the place to do it.

For a detailed agenda click here.

Virtualization impacts every major compliance standard and requires fundamental changes to security practices. What should this mean to you? This session will discuss what gaps are introduced in the move from physical to virtual where compliance is concerned, and prescribe specific steps to ensure compliance for production deployments. Regulatory areas discussed will include FISMA, DIACAP, PCI, HIPAA and SOX/GLBA. We will review how to build a framework for securing virtual data centers and private clouds, and how to take physical security constructs like Zones and propagate them to the virtual infrastructure to enable consistent security across the entire data center, virtual and physical. You will also learn about various hypervisor security architectures coupled with VM Introspection and automation can deliver dynamic, granular insights into security.

The last few years has seen a great growth in the development of virtual service delivery appliances such as WAN optimization controllers (WOCs) and application delivery controllers (ADCs). These virtual appliances hold the promise of fundamentally changing service delivery. The members of this session will discuss the benefits of this new class of service delivery appliances as well as where these appliances should and should not be deployed. The panelists will also discuss the challenges associated with this new set of appliances and identify specific criteria that you can use to evaluate them.

WAN optimization has been defined by accelerating centralized, consolidated IT architectures. With the rise of cloud-based applications, video and Internet, the requirements for WAN optimization are changing. This session will explore how organizations can optimize applications that exist beyond the control of IT while accelerating network performance.

A well designed data center is inherently as energy efficient as it can be when it is designed and built, but new technologies and techniques evolve that can significantly improve efficiency. The question that IT struggles with is how to determine which improvements will have the best bang for the buck. Measuring and trending data center power and cooling usage provides a management context to make decisions on where to focus improvements and provides a way to measure the success. In this session, we will discuss new technologies and strategies to measure, trend, and optimize data center power and cooling, and articulate which technologies and strategies work for new or existing data centers.

Decentralizing data within the enterprise through shared storage memory provides native access to an organization’s most active data, significantly increasing database and application performance. This discussion will examine best practices in utilizing PCI Express-based high performance storage memory in the server to optimize database layers and enterprise applications.

The biggest obstacle to third-party utility computing is security. In this session, we will look at securing data as it moves to and lives in on-demand environments.

On Day One of Enterprise Cloud Summit, we'll turn our eye outward to look at the many public cloud offerings that are levelling the IT playing field. Public cloud providers offer pay-as-you-go economics and tremendous flexibility; but they also create new security, portability, and performance concerns. Once the exclusive domain of web startups, today enterprises big and small are finding ways to incorporate public cloud platforms into their IT strategy. Whether you're deciding how to embrace them or want to learn from what others are doing, Enterprise Cloud Summit is the place to do it.

For a detailed agenda click here.

Once an organization has completed the initial phase of server virtualization and consolidation, the next step is to optimize the virtual infrastructure to enable expansion from the typical initial 25% virtualized to a more complete fully virtualized infrastructure. Along with this expansion, the critical path to realizing the full potential of virtualization is to add the management layers to transform IT operations and deliver IT as a service. By properly managing, securing, protecting, optimizing and automating the virtual infrastructure, IT can transform itself to run as a private cloud.

For more information click here.

This session provides an uncompromising look at the challenges in auditing and assessing clouds for regulatory compliance. Technology is on a path of constant change. Is cloud computing an exception or the rule? See how national and industry regulations will adapt to concepts like rapid elasticity, resource pools, and self-service.

Hear Microsoft answer our shortlist questions on pricing, capacity, service levels, data location, and architecture.

On Day One of Enterprise Cloud Summit, we'll turn our eye outward to look at the many public cloud offerings that are levelling the IT playing field. Public cloud providers offer pay-as-you-go economics and tremendous flexibility; but they also create new security, portability, and performance concerns. Once the exclusive domain of web startups, today enterprises big and small are finding ways to incorporate public cloud platforms into their IT strategy. Whether you're deciding how to embrace them or want to learn from what others are doing, Enterprise Cloud Summit is the place to do it.

For a detailed agenda click here.

It's unlikely that clouds are an all-or-nothing affair, at least in the short term. Companies will blend on-premise and on-demand clouds into what some call a hybrid model, combining the control of machines you own with the flexibility of those you merely rent. But a distributed architecture has its own problems—particularly reliability. In this panel, we'll learn what the challenges of a "stretched cloud" are and how technology can help mitigate performance issues when workloads happen at a distance.

On-demand computing resources are the most disruptive change in IT of the last decade, and much of that disruption begins at home. Day Two of Enterprise Cloud Summit will focus on private clouds -- radically new ways to combine virtualization, automation, and self-service models in order to change how you deliver IT to your business.

For a detailed agenda click here.

In this “primer” session, we’ll help you understand the elements of Unified Communications, why UC matters, and the key technology and business underpinnings of the move to UC. You’ll learn about key issues including:

* The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), which promises better (if not complete) interoperability among the diverse network elements that comprise UC. You’ll learn where SIP fits in your network and how the standard is evolving.

* UC Platforms from the leading vendors (Avaya, Cisco, Microsoft and others); how vendor approaches differ, and the strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches.

* UC’s place in the larger IT infrastructure—You’ll learn about the challenges of making your UC strategy conform to your enterprise’s plans for virtualization in both the datacenter and the desktop; the relationship with security issues; and the need to coordinate enterprise mobility strategies and policies with the core UC platform.

* UC and the cloud: You’ll hear about vendor initiatives around the cloud, and whether a cloud-based UC strategy is feasible today.

This session will give you a strong foundation in the basics of UC and UC’s “touch points” with other elements of your enterprise IT infrastructure.

Unified Communications is now the core of enterprise communications and should also be considered in the design of new or updated business processes or software applications. Thousands of case studies have defined the values and ROIs for UC, ranging from direct reductions in costs and capital to less direct but far more valuable business process improvements or revenue and profit growth. This workshop will demonstrate how to find and then logically and economically implement these UC applications in your enterprise.

Course Outline

• The workshop will answer these questions:
• What is Unified Communications (UC)?
• What are the new technologies that make UC possible?
• How can you find the best UC applications for your enterprise?
• What are communications "hot spots" and how do you find them?
• How do you design a UC application or solution?
• Who are the major suppliers of UC technologies?
• What are the UC solution elements from the top suppliers (template format)?
• How do you select among desktop, IP Telephony, applications, and mobility UC vendors?
• How do we determine the ROI of a new UC application?
• What are the implications for UC applications for my network?
• How can we organize the best applications into a multi-year UC Plan?
• What are the steps in implementing the typical UC configurations and applications?
• What other steps are required for successful implementation, adoption and ROI?

You Will Learn

At the end of the Workshop, attendees will know how to find UC opportunities in your enterprise; how to investigate and evaluate UC solutions; what technology choices are available for the solutions; how to create a plan and roadmap based on those solutions; how to select the appropriate technologies and vendors; and what steps are usually required for implementation of typical configurations. The workshop will include a UC Planning Toolkit which will be available in electronic form for all course attendees.

Who Should Attend

• Roles in any of the three stages of UC planning, vendor selection, and implementation management:
• IT Director/Supervisor: Communications, Messaging, Applications or Network
• Telecom Director/Supervisor: Communications, Applications or Network
• IT Strategic Planning or CTO Director/Supervisor
• Director/Supervisor of Business Analysis (IT or Line of Business)

In today's competitive global business environment, companies are recognizing the need to reduce complexity and cost in order to increase their business agility. To do so, many organizations are accessing key business applications through SaaS models and cloud deployments. This session addresses key challenges businesses face in successfully adopting cloud delivery models including:

· Integrating the disparate systems running in their data centers with new cloud based applications, and how this no longer involves time-consuming and resource-draining coding work

· How to rapidly integrate cloud-based applications and on-premise systems

· How enterprises can blend data from on-premise applications with public and private cloud systems

· How to integrate business applications, no matter where those applications reside

· How expensive custom coding can be eliminated, allowing cloud integrations to be completed in the space of days, rather than weeks, using a physical appliance, a virtual appliance or a cloud service.

Server architectures are both changing in response to application deployment models as well as changing how applications are deployed. Everything from multi-core CPU, cache strategies, hardware virtualization support, IO management, and interconnects have an impact on how you deploy applications and has an impact on power consumption and cooling. In this session, you will learn about new technologies in servers and how to integrate them into your data center. You will will be able to differentiate the advantages of blade chassis from rack mount systems and determine when to use them. Lastly, you will understand how IO options impact overall performance and connectivity to the rest of the data center.

Sometimes using tools like PING and Traceroute aren’t enough to isolate the cause of network problems. This class will take a hands-on approach to learning how to use the Wireshark protocol analyzer to capture packets and analyze network traffic. Numerous examples will be used throughout the day to walk the attendees though the process of filtering out those packets that are working well and drilling down to those that are at the root of the problem. Attendees will be provided with a CD containing a number of open source network troubleshooting tools, as well as the trace files used in the class. Laptops are required.

Course Outline:

• Installing and Configuring Wireshark
• Using Display Filters
• Using Capture Filters
• Isolating the cause of slow data transfers
• Running Wireshark from the command-line
• Building a capture to disk appliance

Who Should Attend:

• Network Administrators
• Network Analysts
• Server Administrators
• Desktop Administrators
• Network Managers

Every company has one, the slow application. Whether it started that way, or slowed down over time, it has become unbearable for the customers. This course is designed to provide insight into what makes applications run poorly and what can be done to correct the problem.

Attendees will leave this presentation with an understanding of how to troubleshoot application performance problems and how to recognize an application that was not designed to run in a WAN environment. As part of this course, we will examine a number of applications, including HTTP, SQL, and SMB.

Course Outline

• Predicting Application Performance – Know how an application will perform before putting onto your network.
• Troubleshooting Multi-Tiered Environments – Learn how to track transactions through web, application and database servers.
• Impact of Bandwidth and Latency on Application Performance – Throwing more bandwidth at the problem doesn’t always make things faster. This presentation discusses the differences between a bandwidth dependent and latency dependent application.
• Monitoring Application Performance – After the application has been implemented it is important to ensure it is operating as it should.
• What makes a good WAN application? – The characteristics of a good WAN based application will be covered in this presentation.

Who Should Attend:

• Network Analysts
• Application Developers
• Network Managers
• Server Administrators
  

Service providers are tailoring their cloud services strategies to the needs of their enterprise IT customers. This panel will focus on what enterprise IT executives are saying they need today, how cloud service fit into their overall strategy and what their greatest concerns about cloud-based services are.

Huge revenue, customer acquisition and retention, and brand credibility implications are riding on the ability of Service Providers to leverage their data center and IP infrastructure to deliver profitable network-based IT services. The Carrier Cloud Forum will provide high-quality education and peer-to-peer interaction on building a cloud infrastructure that is manageable and billable, ensuring high-performance security and service quality to meet SLA demands, recognizing best practices for packaging and monetizing XaaS services and applications, and learning what works and what does not for vertical industry customization.

For more information click here.

This presentation demonstrates a Capacity Planning Tool (CPT) you can use to model your business needs coupled with your supporting IT data center. These tools incorporate system architecture design lessons learned from over 20 years of consulting experience, identifying design inputs (what you need to know about your business needs), your existing network infrastructure, and your selected IT platform configurations. The CPT analysis translates peak user loads to network traffic and platform utilization for your selected environment. This session will provide an overview of the system design process along with real world examples and demos on how to use the free capacity planning tools to better manage your IT data center. The tools are open source and fully documented - developed within a Microsoft Excel framework.

With wireless LANs now the edge of the corporate network, many firms have big expansion plans for this key capability. But a major debate has been brewing here for some time, and one with far-reaching implications: which WLAN architecture is going to best serve the diverse missions of today’s (and tomorrow’s) enterprise LAN? Is a controller still required, or will more-distributed architectural approaches dominate? This vital question is certain to kick up a good deal of dust, but the answer is certain to be a key factor in your next WLAN purchasing decision.

Today, thanks to virtualization and cloud, the role and function of storage is changing. The evolution of storage has gone in different directions and enterprises have many options. In addition to this, the nirvana of leveraging resources from both a public and private cloud environment is becoming more a reality every day. The need for a more comprehensive strategy becomes necessary. Today, enterprises have begun to leverage unified storage in an attempt to simplify their challenges. As enterprises datasets continue to massively grow, storage becomes an even bigger issue. Many have started looking beyond, as they start to migrate towards a hybrid cloud environment. The need for Object based storage becomes increasingly important as organizations look to further simplify their storage environment, while still efficiently handling large amounts of data. Where to start? In this session we will cover storage challenges still facing enterprises today, a high-level overview of different types of storage solutions (SAN, NAS, unified storage, object based storage) and how and when to leverage each type of storage solution.

Hybrid clouds have generated buzz and interest over the last year, with many seeing them as a way to capture the cost and scale benefits of public clouds while hedging against the perceived security and control risks. But what options exist today, and does this hype match reality? OpenStack is allowing organizations to build compelling hybrid cloud scenarios based on their business goals through an open source, highly scalable cloud operating system. In this session, Bret Piatt, Director of Product Management for Rackspace Cloud Builders, will discuss potential hybrid cloud use case, including off-site backup and disaster recovery for private clouds leveraging an open, compatible public storage cloud.

In cloud computing, security is the monster in the closet. Studies have shown that enterprises see security as the biggest reason not to adopt utility computing—and the biggest reason to use it. Proponents of clouds suggest that they have access to better talent and tools than their users do, and after all, most breaches come from within. Detractors warn that with clouds, someone else controls your destiny, and the shared model exposes you to the mistakes of your neighbours. Who's right? In this Oxford-style debate, we'll put both arguments to the test, and see who's got the most convincing story.

Security budgets have recently come under intense scrutiny and, often are being cut or left the same as previous years even in a climate where security threats and attacks are on the rise. In these conditions where do you invest your available budget? Why isn’t the technology you have invested previously solving your security problems? How do you use the technologies and capabilities that you already have more effectively? How do you convince your management and leadership that security is still relevant and important? What should you be thinking about next? This panel discussion will answer these questions and more by providing knowledge and insights from professionals who are successfully overcoming these challenges everyday.

Somewhere along the way information security become about buying the next great piece of technology to solve the problem or fill the box in the auditors checklist. Unfortunately this approach has yielded only nominal results to date and the challenges of information security and risk management are far surpassing any of the technology or compliance requirements we have today to solve them. Instead of moving the pieces of the puzzle around the board in a desperate effort to combat the technical and regulatory threats of today, we should instead be trying to solve the puzzle to effectively and adequately address the information risks of both today and tomorrow. This session will discuss five key actions an organization can take to truly enhance their information security and risk management capabilities, and avoid purchasing a technology that may ultimately become part of the problem.

For years IT organizations built three-tier data center LANs based on a number of broadly accepted axioms. This included the use of the spanning tree algorithm, the separation of the data center LAN and the SAN as well as the use of Ethernet on a best effort basis. However, trends such as the adoption of server virtualization are causing IT organizations to rethink every aspect of data center LAN design. The panelists on this session will be given an actual data center LAN and asked to redesign the LAN to support a highly virtual, dynamic data center. They will also be asked to explain why they are, or are not, recommending specific technologies.

With IT spread across on-premise and on-demand components, and virtual machine sprawl creating a deluge of new systems to manage, CIOs face a huge challenge: measuring and managing their virtual infrastructure to ensure adequate performance, good management of risk, and a controlled approach to billing. In this panel, we'll look at how companies are tackling management and monitoring in utility computing deployments.

On Day One of Enterprise Cloud Summit, we'll turn our eye outward to look at the many public cloud offerings that are levelling the IT playing field. Public cloud providers offer pay-as-you-go economics and tremendous flexibility; but they also create new security, portability, and performance concerns. Once the exclusive domain of web startups, today enterprises big and small are finding ways to incorporate public cloud platforms into their IT strategy. Whether you're deciding how to embrace them or want to learn from what others are doing, Enterprise Cloud Summit is the place to do it.

For a detailed agenda click here.

A panel of industry analysts in the cloud computing and managed services space will debate and discuss potential roadblocks to cloud computing success, the breadth of the market opportunity and the chances telecom service providers can succeed in competing with Web-based companies, large system integrators and other competitors in providing outsourced corporate IT services.

Huge revenue, customer acquisition and retention, and brand credibility implications are riding on the ability of Service Providers to leverage their data center and IP infrastructure to deliver profitable network-based IT services. The Carrier Cloud Forum will provide high-quality education and peer-to-peer interaction on building a cloud infrastructure that is manageable and billable, ensuring high-performance security and service quality to meet SLA demands, recognizing best practices for packaging and monetizing XaaS services and applications, and learning what works and what does not for vertical industry customization.

For more information click here.

The role of network management has fundamentally changed. It is no longer just about the availability of networks. It now includes managing the performance of networks, applications and services. In addition, the continued deployment of new functionality, such as mobility and the virtualization of just about every component of IT, is making the task of network management significantly more challenging. Thankfully, there has been a lot of investment in network management, and the panelists in this fast-paced session will discuss some of the most promising of the emerging network management technologies.

Tablets have been a topic of discussion for more than 25 years, but the recent confluence of technology and price is leading to an explosion of products in the marketplace. Still, it’s fair to ask what role the tablet will really play in the enterprise – is it an adjunct to more traditional subscriber units, or will it replace the venerable notebook PC to become everyone’s second screen? This session will explore the key requirements for the success of tablets in enterprise settings, and evaluate scenarios for the success (or not) of tablets going forward.

Video conferencing has been relabeled as Telepresence, and Telepresence is being reinvented every day. Moore’s law is helping video move to standard platforms, and software developers are integrating video into communications infrastructures like UC, into web-based collaboration tools and directly into business applications. In this session leading-edge vendors will present different views on what we can expect from visual communications tomorrow, next year and beyond.

On Day One of Enterprise Cloud Summit, we'll turn our eye outward to look at the many public cloud offerings that are levelling the IT playing field. Public cloud providers offer pay-as-you-go economics and tremendous flexibility; but they also create new security, portability, and performance concerns. Once the exclusive domain of web startups, today enterprises big and small are finding ways to incorporate public cloud platforms into their IT strategy. Whether you're deciding how to embrace them or want to learn from what others are doing, Enterprise Cloud Summit is the place to do it.

For a detailed agenda click here.

The vast majority of today's cloud offerings are little more than rented metal—virtual machines, with virtual storage, and all of the management headaches. But a new generation of computing platforms is on the horizon that promises portable computing without machine-level operations. Are Platform as a Service clouds ready for the enterprise? What will they look like? This session will look at the road enterprises face from today's infrastructure-centric models to the portable workloads and everything-as-a-service of tomorrow.

On Day One of Enterprise Cloud Summit, we'll turn our eye outward to look at the many public cloud offerings that are levelling the IT playing field. Public cloud providers offer pay-as-you-go economics and tremendous flexibility; but they also create new security, portability, and performance concerns. Once the exclusive domain of web startups, today enterprises big and small are finding ways to incorporate public cloud platforms into their IT strategy. Whether you're deciding how to embrace them or want to learn from what others are doing, Enterprise Cloud Summit is the place to do it.

For a detailed agenda click here.

In cloud computing, security is the monster in the closet. Studies have shown that enterprises see security as the biggest reason not to adopt utility computing—and the biggest reason to use it. Proponents of clouds suggest that they have access to better talent and tools than their users do, and after all, most breaches come from within. Detractors warn that with clouds, someone else controls your destiny, and the shared model exposes you to the mistakes of your neighbours. Who's right? In this Oxford-style debate, we'll put both arguments to the test, and see who's got the most convincing story.

This two day tutorial focuses on specific steps you can take to improve your IT organization, business model, tools, staffing and skill levels, as well as your policies and operational procedures. In an environment of constant change, IT accountability has taken on new levels of urgency. IT departments regularly struggle with staffing levels, turnover, burnout, lack of credibility, or end-user and managerial dissatisfaction. If you're questioning how to satisfy the end user, control or cut costs, and still offer a balanced and fulfilling career progression to IT professional staff, we have answers for you.

For more information click here.

This two day tutorial focuses on specific steps you can take to improve your IT organization, business model, tools, staffing and skill levels, as well as your policies and operational procedures. In an environment of constant change, IT accountability has taken on new levels of urgency. IT departments regularly struggle with staffing levels, turnover, burnout, lack of credibility, or end-user and managerial dissatisfaction. If you're questioning how to satisfy the end user, control or cut costs, and still offer a balanced and fulfilling career progression to IT professional staff, we have answers for you.

For more information click here.

The consolidation of applications and servers out of branch offices and into centralized data centers has driven an increased amount of delay sensitive traffic over the WAN. Now the WAN is being challenged to support the adoption of desktop virtualization and to enable both SaaS and the dynamic movement of VMs. Unfortunately the WAN is not experiencing the same type of price reduction as is computing and storage resources. The panelists in this fast-paced session will discuss some of the most promising emerging WAN technologies and services that you can utilize today to successfully support emerging requirements.

Depending upon whose definition you accept, 4G wireless wide-area networks are here from almost all (and soon all) of the major carriers. This session will examine each of the major alternatives for 4G, including HSPA+, LTE, and WiMAX, and discuss the core technologies, rollout plans, features, benefits, and limitations of today’s 4G networks. We’ll also discuss the evolution of 4G towards the ITU’s definition of 100+ Mbps, including the evolution of standards, industry specifications, and related capabilities, and help you set a mobile broadband course for both today and tomorrow.

DevOps means many things to many people, but loosely is defined as collaboration between developers and operations to create better applications, streamline operations, and continually improve both over time. Organizations are demanding more from both application development and operations and tossing problems and services over a wall is not sufficient. In this session, you will learn what DevOps is and how DevOps aligns IT groups and assets into a cohesive whole.

With IT spread across on-premise and on-demand components, and virtual machine sprawl creating a deluge of new systems to manage, CIOs face a huge challenge: measuring and managing their virtual infrastructure to ensure adequate performance, good management of risk, and a controlled approach to billing. In this panel, we'll look at how companies are tackling management and monitoring in utility computing deployments.

On Day One of Enterprise Cloud Summit, we'll turn our eye outward to look at the many public cloud offerings that are levelling the IT playing field. Public cloud providers offer pay-as-you-go economics and tremendous flexibility; but they also create new security, portability, and performance concerns. Once the exclusive domain of web startups, today enterprises big and small are finding ways to incorporate public cloud platforms into their IT strategy. Whether you're deciding how to embrace them or want to learn from what others are doing, Enterprise Cloud Summit is the place to do it.

For a detailed agenda click here.

Meeting end-user demands and IT/ network growth projections with no growth to your existing staff requires innovation, planning, and optimization. Virtual desktops are being deployed in massive rollouts in many organizations to help eliminate support and maintenance issues, and increase end user satisfaction and mobility, allowing users to access their desktops from any device on the network. With this change comes a host of new issues. Learn how to evaluate your environments and determine where virtual desktops are most appropriate as well as how to measure ROI to demonstrate success throughout the organization.

As the world of information technology changes, the skill set required to lead your IT organization continually evolves. Attend Day One of this intensive two-day CIO Boot Camp to learn firsthand from successful CIOs. Hear about common mistakes, how to avoid making them and how to apply their lessons to your world.

Topics include:

• Tales from Top-of-Tech
• The CIO Role Today
• The IT Organization of the Future
• IT in the SMB World – Issues, Realities & Best Practices
• Health Care IT
• Business Analytics
• CIO Unplugged

For more information click here.

As the world of information technology changes, the skill set required to lead your IT organization continually evolves. Attend Day Two of this intensive two-day CIO Boot Camp to learn firsthand from successful CIOs. Hear about common mistakes, how to avoid making them and how to apply their lessons to your world.

Topics include:

• Vendor Management
• Managing the Next Technology Portfolio
• Green IT/Sustainability
• Managing Social Media
• IT Leadership

For more information click here.

For years IT organizations built three-tier data center LANs based on a number of broadly accepted axioms. This included the use of the spanning tree algorithm, the separation of the data center LAN and the SAN as well as the use of Ethernet on a best effort basis. However, trends such as the adoption of server virtualization are causing IT organizations to rethink every aspect of data center LAN design. The panelists on this session will be given an actual data center LAN and asked to redesign the LAN to support a highly virtual, dynamic data center. They will also be asked to explain why they are, or are not, recommending specific technologies.

Driven largely by the deployment of chatty protocols and the need to transmit large files, many IT organizations have implemented network and application optimization functionality. The traditional approach to doing this is for the IT organization to implement WAN optimization controller (WOC) functionality themselves or to obtain it as part of a managed service. While those options still exist, new options are emerging. This includes obtaining network and application optimization functionality from a SaaS provider or by using WAN services that have embedded optimization functionality. The panelists in this session debate the pros can cons of the various approaches and give you the insight you need to refine your optimization strategy.

Security budgets have recently come under intense scrutiny and, often are being cut or left the same as previous years even in a climate where security threats and attacks are on the rise. In these conditions where do you invest your available budget? Why isn’t the technology you have invested previously solving your security problems? How do you use the technologies and capabilities that you already have more effectively? How do you convince your management and leadership that security is still relevant and important? What should you be thinking about next? This panel discussion will answer these questions and more by providing knowledge and insights from professionals who are successfully overcoming these challenges everyday.

Driven largely by the deployment of chatty protocols and the need to transmit large files, many IT organizations have implemented network and application optimization functionality. The traditional approach to doing this is for the IT organization to implement WAN optimization controller (WOC) functionality themselves or to obtain it as part of a managed service. While those options still exist, new options are emerging. This includes obtaining network and application optimization functionality from a SaaS provider or by using WAN services that have embedded optimization functionality. The panelists in this session debate the pros can cons of the various approaches and give you the insight you need to refine your optimization strategy.

It's unlikely that clouds are an all-or-nothing affair, at least in the short term. Companies will blend on-premise and on-demand clouds into what some call a hybrid model, combining the control of machines you own with the flexibility of those you merely rent. But a distributed architecture has its own problems—particularly reliability. In this panel, we'll learn what the challenges of a "stretched cloud" are and how technology can help mitigate performance issues when workloads happen at a distance.

On-demand computing resources are the most disruptive change in IT of the last decade, and much of that disruption begins at home. Day Two of Enterprise Cloud Summit will focus on private clouds -- radically new ways to combine virtualization, automation, and self-service models in order to change how you deliver IT to your business.

For a detailed agenda click here.

If you're trying to build utility computing, you'll need a combination of virtualization, automation, self-service, and monitoring. In this panel, we'll discuss the building blocks of a private cloud, and look at the options IT has today to turn their data centers into on-demand computing resources for their organization.

On-demand computing resources are the most disruptive change in IT of the last decade, and much of that disruption begins at home. Day Two of Enterprise Cloud Summit will focus on private clouds -- radically new ways to combine virtualization, automation, and self-service models in order to change how you deliver IT to your business.

For a detailed agenda click here.

A video-capable architecture provides a scalable and flexible way for organizations to deploy multiple video and collaboration applications across a range of use cases, including conferencing. Discover the value of this approach from Cisco SVP Praveen Akkiraju and Cisco’s own Borderless Network IT Architect, Plamen Nedeltchev.

A well designed data center is inherently as energy efficient as it can be when it is designed and built, but new technologies and techniques evolve that can significantly improve efficiency. The question that IT struggles with is how to determine which improvements will have the best bang for the buck. Measuring and trending data center power and cooling usage provides a management context to make decisions on where to focus improvements and provides a way to measure the success. In this session, we will discuss new technologies and strategies to measure, trend, and optimize data center power and cooling, and articulate which technologies and strategies work for new or existing data centers.

In the third of our under-the-covers look at private cloud stacks, we'll hear about Red Hat and private PaaS stacks.

On-demand computing resources are the most disruptive change in IT of the last decade, and much of that disruption begins at home. Day Two of Enterprise Cloud Summit will focus on private clouds -- radically new ways to combine virtualization, automation, and self-service models in order to change how you deliver IT to your business.

For a detailed agenda click here.

Social networks simultaneously offer huge business benefits and unheard of security risks. How can enterprises effectively use social networks while not putting their security and data at risk? This session will detail the significant security and privacy risks that social networks create, while also providing detailed guidance on ways organizations and individuals can use social networks in a safe and secure manner.

Some networking vendors tell a story of simplicity that dead ends with higher costs and “lock in”. This session will uncover a better way to build upon their existing infrastructure while still advancing the performance and capabilities of the network. See firsthand how to develop and manage a flexible network, grow smart, and simultaneously reduce costs associated with the demands of cloud-based computing, virtualization and mobility.

Moving to a virtual infrastructure brings both significant benefits and challenges in terms of data protection and availability. A well-managed virtual environment should include leveraging virtualization and newly available tools to improve the way you implement Backup, Disaster Recovery, High Availability and possibly Fault Tolerance. Learn how various virtualization capabilities fit on the continuum of protection and availability and hear best practices involving various technologies including image backup, VM and storage snapshots, replication, HA clustering, and fault tolerance.

Hear industry visionaries discuss the growth and future of IT.

The last few years has seen a great growth in the development of virtual service delivery appliances such as WAN optimization controllers (WOCs) and application delivery controllers (ADCs). These virtual appliances hold the promise of fundamentally changing service delivery. The members of this session will discuss the benefits of this new class of service delivery appliances as well as where these appliances should and should not be deployed. The panelists will also discuss the challenges associated with this new set of appliances and identify specific criteria that you can use to evaluate them.

Interoperability - and in particular, federation of UC systems - continues to be one of the biggest pain points for UC customers. The “plugfest” approach, also known as bilateral testing, becomes increasingly expensive and lengthy as the market expands, and is giving way to unilateral testing. The Unified Communication Interoperability Forum (UCIF) is creating and certifying UC interop scenarios that will give customers needed confidence while easing the burden on vendors. This panel explores the challenges faced when federating UC systems, and will delve into the challenges the UCIF can encounter on the path to a robust and comprehensive UC validation program.

Ethernet has long been the interface choice for networking and is now is rapidly becoming the storage interface of choice as well. This session will discuss the practical implications of “one-wire” Convergence (Networking and Storage) vs. Consolidation; what does this mean, who should care about it and when?

Many IT teams are frustrated with the boundaries of their existing storage systems. Thousands have found a better way to manage their data. Fluid Data storage always puts the right data in the right place at the right cost—automatically. See firsthand how Dell Compellent is redefining the data center.