Business Technology Conference

In this session, Jim Metzler of Ashton, Metzler & Associates will describe in detail the set of challenges that is driving the transition to Application Delivery 2.0.  This includes virtualization of every component of IT, public and private cloud computing, the need to support mobile workers and the need to support applications such as Unified Communications.  Jim will also provide an overview of the emerging networking, optimization and management technologies that hold the potential to mitigate these challenges and will focus on the technologies that will be featured at Interop. 

The last few years has seen a great growth in the deployment of virtualized servers and storage.  We are now seeing the deployment of software based application delivery appliances such as WAN optimization controllers (WOCs) and application delivery controllers (ADCs).  These devices hold the promise of fundamentally changing application delivery.  The members of this PowerPoint-free session will discuss the pros and cons of these appliances.  What kind of performance improvements will you experience with a virtualized appliance?  How will these devices be managed?  Do they work with all hypervisors?  Are they integrated with other branch office or data center functionality?  Are they certified with any major software or storage vendors?  How are they priced vs. a traditional appliance? 

The great growth over the last few years in the use of Web applications combined with the recent interest in cloud computing has caused IT organizations to realize that simple server load balancers can’t keep up with the emerging demands.  What is needed is an application delivery controller (ADC).  In addition to balancing traffic, an ADC offloads computationally intensive tasks off of a server farm.  However, the ADCs that are currently available in the market differ dramatically in terms of their underlying architectures and the functions that they provide.  In this fast-paced, PowerPoint-free session, leading ADC vendors will be asked questions that serve to identify the similarities and differences between their products. 

One impact of the movement to use more private and public cloud computing solutions is that it increases the likelihood that IT resources will be accessed over a relatively low capacity, high latency WAN.  Even worse, in some cases these IT resources will be accessed over multiple WAN links.  The panelists on this session will identify both the performance challenges associated with cloud computing as well as myriad technologies and services that IT organizations can use to mitigate the impact of those challenges.

Most IT organizations are taking IT resources such as servers, applications and storage out of branch offices and placing them in centralized data centers.  This raises some critical questions:  How can IT organizations overcome the impediments to the broad deployment of virtual desktops?  Should the next generation branch office be serverless?  What type of device(s) needs to still be in the branch office and how is it managed?  What techniques can be used to overcome the performance issues?  The speakers on this panel will answer those questions and will present alternative designs for your next generation branch office.

Public cloud computing has the potential to be a management nightmare.  For example, public cloud computing services have at least three separate management domains:  the enterprise, the WAN service provider and the various cloud computing service providers.  Effective management requires that detailed, consistent management data be gathered from each of the domains.  Effective management also requires processes that span the various management domains.  The panelists on this session will identify what you can and must do to manage this complex environment.    

When you buy a car, it comes with a speedometer. It doesn't come with a roofrack. The automobile industry decided long ago what was built into a car, and what was purchased from third-party vendors. While many companies are using cloud computing today, the cloud ecosystem is still in flux. It's unclear what functions are part of a cloud, and what pieces will come from third party providers. In this opening session, Bitcurrent's Alistair Croll looks at how the industry is deciding what's an essential part of a cloud offering and what's an optional, third-party component.

Anything that disrupts a market reveals new opportunities -- and few changes have been more disruptive to IT than cloud computing. This panel of investors talks about how utility computing is changing their investment philosophies. From reduced upfront capital that changes founder dillution to the ecosystem of tools and infrastructure that's emerged to support cloud computing, you'll get a long view of on-demand IT in this session.

Data security via Web application and database controls is difficult and rapidly evolving. With the introduction of cloud computing new questions around sensitive data protection arise. Learn how data security can be achieved within cloud computing environments. See several use cases demonstrating effective, risk mitigating strategies.

Enterprises are now leveraging cloud storage services at a rapid pace and are looking for qualified answers on how using a cloud platform can increase efficiency and ROI simultaneously. The old model of purchasing expensive storage systems or using large amounts of tape are prehistoric, adapting a new approach to storage is necessary in today’s tough economic climate as budgets continue to be slashed and performance upkeep is critical . This session will enable users to learn about the benefits and economies of scale as it relates to developing/implementing a cloud storage solution, a focus will be placed on performance, cost-effectiveness, user experience, and customer service/satisfaction.

The dream of portable, fluid workloads is far from today's reality. While companies might like to move their IT from provider to provider, or from on-premise to on-demand environment, quickly and easily, the reality is that competing standards and formats stand in the way. There's no common language for managing cloud computing, and proprietary formats, custom scripts, and relying on third-party middleware to insulate applications from the underlying platform are the norm. In this session, we'll look at cloud standards that are trying to overcome this chaos, and see whether truly portable, interoperable cloud platforms will become a reality.  

As IT is challenged to deliver services – not manage assets – could computing presents itself as an affordable, scalable strategy. And the pressure is mounting for data center managers to move their on-premise infrastructure and applications into the cloud. But security concerns, poor service-level commitments, and lack of organizational readiness – and willingness – are all valid roadblocks that stand in the way. This session will help data center managers determine if could computing is right for them – and if not, how to achieve cloud-like efficiencies in their current environment.

The biggest obstacle to cloud computing adoption is trust. Whether you think of it as vulnerabilities, leakage of private data, or fear of lock-in, it all amounts to one thing: whether you trust your cloud platform. Now that on-demand computing is an IT certainty, it's time to establish best practices and governance, and mitigate the inherent risks of outsourced infrastructure. This presentation looks at the thorniest legal issues surrounding cloud computing.
 

One impact of the movement to use more private and public cloud computing solutions is that it increases the likelihood that IT resources will be accessed over a relatively low capacity, high latency WAN.  Even worse, in some cases these IT resources will be accessed over multiple WAN links.  The panelists on this session will identify both the performance challenges associated with cloud computing as well as myriad technologies and services that IT organizations can use to mitigate the impact of those challenges.

What's a cloud worth? With so many definitions of cloud computing, and such a diverse range of implementations, it's hard to get a grip on cloud costs. This session will look at the fundamentals of cloud economics, as well as many of the factors enterprises need to consider when making financial decisions about on-demand options.
 

Public cloud computing has the potential to be a management nightmare.  For example, public cloud computing services have at least three separate management domains:  the enterprise, the WAN service provider and the various cloud computing service providers.  Effective management requires that detailed, consistent management data be gathered from each of the domains.  Effective management also requires processes that span the various management domains.  The panelists on this session will identify what you can and must do to manage this complex environment.    

While evaluating and managing technology comes naturally to IT professionals, communicating business value may not. With data center transformation at the heart of delivering on businesses demand for reliable, flexible and resilient IT services at an affordable cost, data center managers must learn to develop and articulate business cases. This session will help attendees create a successful transformation strategy by: demonstrating ROI to secure CEO support for migrating to a next-generation data center; highlighting attributes to build the business case; and identifying infrastructure features that increase efficiency and lower costs, while delivering business value.

With corporate environmental sustainability on the rise, IT departments are increasingly turning to green IT initiatives. While most organizations start on their path towards greener IT in the data center – organizations oftentimes lack a comprehensive strategy and struggle to prioritize projects. To spend time and capital wisely – ultimately delivering financial and environmental benefits – this session will help data center managers develop a comprehensive green data center framework across their server, storage, network and facilities assets.

Physical servers now support multiple Virtual Machines (VMs) that can be dynamically provisioned and moved between servers.  There is just one huge problem - today the supporting network and management infrastructure is still largely static and physical.  So while it is possible to move a VM between data centers in a matter of milliseconds, it can take days to get the supporting infrastructure in place.  Many industry pundits believe that the way to solve this problem is both through automation and orchestration and by implementing a flat Layer 2 LAN.  Potentially those are good solutions, but what do they actually mean and how do we get there?  In this two-hour, rapid-paced session two groups of panelists will address those questions.  The first group of panelists will discuss what has to happen to the data center LAN in order to support virtualization and what migration strategies make the most sense.  The second group of panelists will discuss the data center automation and orchestration functionality that is ready for production networks today and how that may change over the next twelve months

The over-provisioning model used by data centers for years is unsustainable – and a new dynamic model is emerging driven by virtualization and automation. While these technologies aren’t necessarily new, IT departments must become competent and refine their skills in the use of virtualization and automation to contain costs as businesses continue to demand IT services. This session will help data center managers learn how to leverage these virtualization and automation technologies to create a business-driven data center that delivers new levels of service quality, efficiency, agility and risk reduction.  

Virtualization is causing the convergence of server, storage, and network platforms. At the same time, fewer CAPEX dollars coupled with rising energy costs is promoting data center managers to incorporate energy efficient and highly utilized IT equipment in the data center. This session will help data center managers understand virtualization’s role in convergence and plan for a more efficient and highly utilized server, storage and network environment.

As IT is challenged to deliver services – not manage assets – could computing presents itself as an affordable, scalable strategy. And the pressure is mounting for data center managers to move their on-premise infrastructure and applications into the cloud. But security concerns, poor service-level commitments, and lack of organizational readiness – and willingness – are all valid roadblocks that stand in the way. This session will help data center managers determine if could computing is right for them – and if not, how to achieve cloud-like efficiencies in their current environment.

By adopting server virtualization we’ve reduced the number of physical servers in the data center but the proliferation of separate storage, data, management and VMotion networks has made the back of our server racks look like an explosion in a spaghetti factory.  Now that 10Gigabit Ethernet is widely available several solutions have arisen to consolidate network and storage I/O onto a smaller number of higher bandwidth connections.  With consolidated networking users can stop playing the game of one cable, two cable, orange cable, blue cable. 

This session will explore the solutions available to server and storage administrators for reducing cable clutter and consolidating network and storage I/O. Ranging from Fibre Channel NPIV and using vLANs to segregate data traffic to cutting edge technologies including Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and PCIe extension, We’ll look at the technologies, the players, the politics and how users can integrate new technologies into their short and long term planning. 

 Topics include:

·        I/O virtualization for management and security

·        The state of FCoE

·        End of Row vs. Top of Rack configurations

·        External I/O virtualization solutions

·        10Gig Ethernet, CEE, DCB, DCE – Ethernet for the Data Center

As data centers move become more virtualized, companies are still determining how to secure these environments. This session will examine the inner workings of the virtual data center, including where the security weak spots are and what can be done to ensure protection of critical data being stored there.

The last few years has seen a great growth in the deployment of virtualized servers and storage.  We are now seeing the deployment of software based application delivery appliances such as WAN optimization controllers (WOCs) and application delivery controllers (ADCs).  These devices hold the promise of fundamentally changing application delivery.  The members of this PowerPoint-free session will discuss the pros and cons of these appliances.  What kind of performance improvements will you experience with a virtualized appliance?  How will these devices be managed?  Do they work with all hypervisors?  Are they integrated with other branch office or data center functionality?  Are they certified with any major software or storage vendors?  How are they priced vs. a traditional appliance? 

Most IT organizations are taking IT resources such as servers, applications and storage out of branch offices and placing them in centralized data centers.  This raises some critical questions:  How can IT organizations overcome the impediments to the broad deployment of virtual desktops?  Should the next generation branch office be serverless?  What type of device(s) needs to still be in the branch office and how is it managed?  What techniques can be used to overcome the performance issues?  The speakers on this panel will answer those questions and will present alternative designs for your next generation branch office.

When discussing virtual desktops, most people think of virtual desktop infrastructures (VDI) based on server virtualization technologies. However, there are a number of methods for delivering, provisioning and managing virtual desktops. This session will examine a range of technologies that can be used to deploy and manage virtual desktops, and how to match these technologies with user requirements.

You have heard good things about VDI, but is there really a business case for moving to a virtual desktop infrastructure? Whether you are just starting to evaluate desktop virtualization or have started implementing virtual desktops, building a business case for your next phase can help you get the investment dollars you need to move forward. This session will give you the information you need to begin to create that business case and help your management understand how desktop virtualization can reduce your total cost of ownership (TCO), including your ongoing OpEx costs.  

This session provides a comprehensive overview of the opportunities for organizations to realize improved business performance in the areas of workplace performance, customer centricity, sales and marketing.

The focus will be on strategic business purpose and tactical process context to drive tangible returns, and will address your people, their processes and the tools they use to be more efficient.

Collaborative concepts and Enterprise 2.0 technologies can bring significant organizational performance acceleration opportunities to businesses. By strategically leveraging our social constructs to solve specific issues across broad workplace performance, and within discrete processes (i.e. sales and marketing operation, channel and supplier partnerships and customer engagement) businesses achieve tangible value in the form of increased revenue, cost efficiencies and reduced risk.

We will also address pitfalls and common misconceptions and provide an overview of the technology landscape from established  enterprise vendors to innovative new startups.

To date, technology analysts have quite properly focused on the social and business aspects of social software. And yet, social software tools (including collaboration suites, pure-play blog / wiki / social-networking products, and revamped portal products from major vendors) differ quite substantially in maturity, approach, and support. This session will share customer research from noted evaluation firm CMS Watch on leading social software technologies, and provide a framework for customers to evaluate the marketplace based on their own needs.

Major vendors are racing to build out viable, enterprise-class, software-as-a-service (SaaS) e-mail solutions. For IT, e-mail is only conspicuous in when it is absent, so treating e-mail as an utility and managing it for maximum uptime is IT’s mantra. Therefore, the opportunity to offload e-mail to reliable service is very attractive because of the management and economic benefits.

Social networking represents special challenges to security, to safety, and to privacy for individuals, companies, and government agencies.  Attendees will come away with a historical perspective and better understanding of the scope, attractions and dangers of Social Networking in every form, plus special points of protection, of needed protection, and of user education that can secure a system in these treacherous waters.

Information security is quickly evolving into information risk management.  The enterprise of today can no longer rely on technology alone to protect information and information infrastructure, and requires a business-aligned approach to information risk management, governance, and compliance to be successful.  The growth in global regulatory and compliance requirements, lack of available resources and funding, and constant need to balance protection with the business needs of the organization is a great challenge for professionals in this area.  The Governance, Risk, and Compliance track will focus on providing insights and guidance from experienced practitioners on key issues which enterprises are facing today as they mature their capabilities and transform a reactive and technologically focused approach to information security into a proactive approach to information risk management.

The Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS) has become the central driver of the Information Technology Security. The Data Security Standard’s oppressive costs and low efficacy have distracted organizations from performing true information risk management. Paved with good intentions, where does this road lead? Did raising the bar lower it? Is the cure worse than the disease? We will compare PCI to “No Child Left Behind Act”, explore PCI’s origins, motives, and impact, and outline actionable areas for improvement.  

The biggest obstacle to cloud computing adoption is trust. Whether you think of it as vulnerabilities, leakage of private data, or fear of lock-in, it all amounts to one thing: whether you trust your cloud platform. Now that on-demand computing is an IT certainty, it's time to establish best practices and governance, and mitigate the inherent risks of outsourced infrastructure. This presentation looks at the thorniest legal issues surrounding cloud computing.
 

This presentation will discuss 10 years of research and benchmarking of 1,000 organizations by the IT Process Institute, that uncovered the 20% of IT controls that deliver 80% of the performance improvement, as well as creating a sustainable and secure controls environment.  Case studies of effective organizations will be discussed as well as observations and conclusions that where developed as a result of the research.

Despite a challenging economic year in 2009, green IT initiatives persisted. Why? The primary motivation to pursue greener IT is to reduce costs, and what better time to purse cost saving initiatives than in a recession. Without budget available, most organizations have focused their efforts on the low-to-no cost process improvements, from duplex printing to turning up the temperature in the data center. But as capital becomes more easily accessible into 2010, IT infrastructure and operations professionals must get up to speed on larger scale green IT hardware, software and service investments. This session will help attendees define green IT and its evolution, review and prioritize the spectrum of green IT investments, and highlight examples of green IT in action that cut costs, avoid risk and even grow revenues.

With corporate environmental sustainability on the rise, IT departments are increasingly turning to green IT initiatives. While most organizations start on their path towards greener IT in the data center – organizations oftentimes lack a comprehensive strategy and struggle to prioritize projects. To spend time and capital wisely – ultimately delivering financial and environmental benefits – this session will help data center managers develop a comprehensive green data center framework across their server, storage, network and facilities assets.

Rising energy costs, an economic slowdown and environmental awareness are forcing enterprises and government to consider greener IT. To address these challenges, the State of California initiated one of the largest government-green IT projects across its 50,000 hardware devices and 2 million software titles. In all, the initiative expects to save $44 million in energy expenses and avoid over 200,000 tons of carbon emissions. This case study will provide attendees with the State of California’s approach to green IT, projects initiated and valuable lessons learned along the way.

PC and monitor power management – or the practice of powering down PCs and monitors when not in use but still on consuming energy – is a high impact but low-cost, low-effort way to energy-related costs and CO2 emissions. While many organizations have some sort of PC power management in place, policies are oftentimes too relaxed – such as requesting users to turn off their PCs at night – and lack automation technology to baseline energy consumption, activate policies and report savings. This session will help organizations identify PC power management benefits, barriers and solutions through tested case studies.

There is continued pressure in today’s corporate environment to do more with less, to reduce costs and to become more agile in order to meet rapidly changing business demands in a difficult global economy. Outsourcing IT Security services is often senior management’s response to these challenging times, so the question is not if it will happen, but rather when and how it will happen, if it hasn’t already.  However, has anything really changed, though?  What is the true impact of the decision to outsource IT Security services?  When IT Security is outsourced, what are the hidden challenges?  This session will be presented from the perspective an enterprise security manager who has first-hand knowledge of how outsourcing certain IT Security services can help meet the resource and costs pressures of an organization without compromising its IT Security posture.

Data security via Web application and database controls is difficult and rapidly evolving. With the introduction of cloud computing new questions around sensitive data protection arise. Learn how data security can be achieved within cloud computing environments. See several use cases demonstrating effective, risk mitigating strategies.

When companies conduct risk analyses, they often have to take into consideration the costs associated with protecting their organizations against malware (malicious software) and the potential likelihood that the end user is going to take an action that will increase their risk. To combat the complexity and sheer volume of malware creation and distribution, analyzing malware traffic, behavior and code continue to be the known methods for identifying and reducing the malware risk. Taking behavior analysis to the next level: the end user - provides a means of determining whether or not end users have been exploited and now pose a threat to themselves and, potentially, their organizations. The end user has, traditionally, been regarded as the “weakest link”. Learning and leveraging end user behavior has the potential to not only add to the security layering, but also increase the strength of the weakest link.

Vulnerability identification and management has quickly become an essential capability within information security organizations.  This capability has moved beyond basic identification of unpatched systems and open ports to include elements such as log management, security event monitoring, and other advances that help organizations understand where they have technological challenges.  This session will focus on the concepts and technologies that are used in next generation technical vulnerability identification and management capabilities and how to more effectively use the information that is generated from them.  

 To mitigate website security risks, organizations need to know what vulnerabilities bad guys are exploiting as well as issues that could possibly be taken advantage of. This session will combine comprehensive data with leading industry insight to address the “possible” and “probable” to help attendees make better website security decisions.    

While major wireless security concerns have long since left the front page, security is the one area in IT (and especially in mobile IT) where “done” is never achieved. New challenges and outright threats appear on essentially a weekly basis, and it’s important to keep up with the ever-changing security landscape. Our goal for this session is to look at the latest in mobile security threats, and how new solutions are enabling mobile users to go about their business without compromise to corporate assets.

Social networking represents special challenges to security, to safety, and to privacy for individuals, companies, and government agencies.  Attendees will come away with a historical perspective and better understanding of the scope, attractions and dangers of Social Networking in every form, plus special points of protection, of needed protection, and of user education that can secure a system in these treacherous waters.

Recent data breaches have taught us that we cannot solely rely on Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS) alone to identify security challenges. Enterprises need to take a proactive approach to securing their network and applications by implementing a log management system that allows for real time access to data and reports so problems can be stopped before they start.  This session will discuss the current industry leading methods and practices for log management.

As data centers move become more virtualized, companies are still determining how to secure these environments. This session will examine the inner workings of the virtual data center, including where the security weak spots are and what can be done to ensure protection of critical data being stored there.

Given the rapid rate of change in wireless and mobile technologies, services, products, and applications, it’s no surprise that the experts will disagree as to what the single most important item on your mobility to-do list should be. This session, nonetheless, will provide just that – a list of single best ideas (and subsequent debate) to enable you to pick what will be at the top of your list. Join us for a fast-paced kickoff session that will bring the entire range of wireless and mobile opportunities into focus.

Wi-Fi is now a fixture in a huge range of applications within enterprises around the globe. With the 802.11n standard now finished, many have assumed that Wi-Fi is now “done”. Not so fast – new developments continue within both the IEEE 802.11 Working Groups and the Wi-Fi Alliance, all of which will influence what you’ll be doing with Wi-Fi over the next five years. In this session, we’ll present the views of experts and practitioners, helping you set a wireless LAN strategy delivering maximum benefits at the lowest possible cost.

To be sure, there’s still a good deal of debate around the very definition of 4G, and 4G services to date has been spotty. Fear not, 4G is in fact well on the way to reality now, offering improved throughput and a broad range of additional capabilities to mobile devices and their users. This session will examine the key options for 4G, including their features, benefits, and status, and discuss the evolution of 4G as plows ahead towards ubiquity, and, we might add, 5G.

Key to the success of any mobile strategy is putting the right devices into the hands of users in the field. But this can be a difficult task – with so many choices, including a broad range of handsets, operating environments, and applications, how can IT management make the best choice? This session will feature a look at some of the key alternatives, provide show-and-tell demonstrations of important features, and help you make the decision as to the optimal mobile arsenal for your enterprise.

It’s more than a question of Web/cloud services vs. traditional applications vs. device-specific apps. It’s a question of how best to get enterprise information into the hands of those who need it no matter when or where. Building mobile apps has definitely become easier with device-independent tools, but challenges remain. We’ll look in detail at the key options for building mobile apps, and suggest alternatives that provide the greatest flexibility at the lowest cost.

While major wireless security concerns have long since left the front page, security is the one area in IT (and especially in mobile IT) where “done” is never achieved. New challenges and outright threats appear on essentially a weekly basis, and it’s important to keep up with the ever-changing security landscape. Our goal for this session is to look at the latest in mobile security threats, and how new solutions are enabling mobile users to go about their business without compromise to corporate assets.

Even as the blistering pace of innovation in wireless and mobile continues, there are signs that the industry in converging (so to speak) on a set of technologies that will provide a degree of stability that’s not been seen in the past two decades. Which technologies will survive and prosper, and what direction should your planning take to maximize benefits while minimizing costs? This session will explore key wireless technologies and the impacts they will have.

The 802.11n standard is official, and enterprises are now rolling out .11n both in replacement/upgrade and greenfield deployments. This session will explore the best ways to implement 802.11n in your enterprise. We’ll look at channel planning, device issues, system architecture, wireless network management, and how to perform the big upgrade with a minimum of disruption, cost, and confusion.    

It’s finally time to stop thinking of wireless as “the other network”, and instead to begin enjoying the benefits of a unified wired/wireless network infrastructure. Wired and wireless share broad areas of commonality, but wireless does indeed introduce new concerns inherent in signals that propagate unpredictably and new benefits in terms of location-based services, user convenience, and more. We’ll look at opportunities to take advantage of the unification of wired and wireless into a single network, with a focus on unified network management strategies that lower operating expenses while providing great visibility to the enterprise.

Physical servers now support multiple Virtual Machines (VMs) that can be dynamically provisioned and moved between servers.  There is just one huge problem - today the supporting network and management infrastructure is still largely static and physical.  So while it is possible to move a VM between data centers in a matter of milliseconds, it can take days to get the supporting infrastructure in place.  Many industry pundits believe that the way to solve this problem is both through automation and orchestration and by implementing a flat Layer 2 LAN.  Potentially those are good solutions, but what do they actually mean and how do we get there?  In this two-hour, rapid-paced session two groups of panelists will address those questions.  The first group of panelists will discuss what has to happen to the data center LAN in order to support virtualization and what migration strategies make the most sense.  The second group of panelists will discuss the data center automation and orchestration functionality that is ready for production networks today and how that may change over the next twelve months

Experts agree that the IPv4 address space will be depleted in about two years. In this session, John Curran, the president and chief executive officer of the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), will identify the challenges that IPv4 depletion presents to networks and the Internet community as a whole, and how organizations can prepare for these challenges.  The session will discuss the considerations for IPv6 adoption, as well as how to get involved in the community-driven public policy process that dictates how the remaining IPv4 address space is allocated. 

Given the combination of the economic malaise and the sensationalism that surrounds topics such as cloud computing and server virtualization, it is possible to surmise that nothing of significance is happening in the networking space.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Venture capitalists and others have been funding significant investments in a wide range of networking technologies and the results of those investments are beginning to hit the market.  The panelists in this fast-paced, PowerPoint-free session will discuss some of the most promising emerging networking technologies.  Attend this session to get an early look at what could be some significant networking breakthroughs.

Video conferencing could be the toughest application your enterprise network has to support.  It places significant bandwidth demands on the network, while simultaneously demanding priority treatment (QoS). Designing the right network solution to support an enterprise video conferencing deployment is critical to getting early positive feedback on using a video capability which will affect its acceptance as a business tool.  This two hour session will look at the technical details of designing, testing and managing an enterprise network to support high quality video conferencing and telepresence communications with deep dives into security, LAN QoS and WAN QoS issues.

By adopting server virtualization we’ve reduced the number of physical servers in the data center but the proliferation of separate storage, data, management and VMotion networks has made the back of our server racks look like an explosion in a spaghetti factory.  Now that 10Gigabit Ethernet is widely available several solutions have arisen to consolidate network and storage I/O onto a smaller number of higher bandwidth connections.  With consolidated networking users can stop playing the game of one cable, two cable, orange cable, blue cable. 

This session will explore the solutions available to server and storage administrators for reducing cable clutter and consolidating network and storage I/O. Ranging from Fibre Channel NPIV and using vLANs to segregate data traffic to cutting edge technologies including Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and PCIe extension, We’ll look at the technologies, the players, the politics and how users can integrate new technologies into their short and long term planning. 

 Topics include:

·        I/O virtualization for management and security

·        The state of FCoE

·        End of Row vs. Top of Rack configurations

·        External I/O virtualization solutions

·        10Gig Ethernet, CEE, DCB, DCE – Ethernet for the Data Center

Most IT organizations are taking IT resources such as servers, applications and storage out of branch offices and placing them in centralized data centers.  This raises some critical questions:  How can IT organizations overcome the impediments to the broad deployment of virtual desktops?  Should the next generation branch office be serverless?  What type of device(s) needs to still be in the branch office and how is it managed?  What techniques can be used to overcome the performance issues?  The speakers on this panel will answer those questions and will present alternative designs for your next generation branch office.

It’s finally time to stop thinking of wireless as “the other network”, and instead to begin enjoying the benefits of a unified wired/wireless network infrastructure. Wired and wireless share broad areas of commonality, but wireless does indeed introduce new concerns inherent in signals that propagate unpredictably and new benefits in terms of location-based services, user convenience, and more. We’ll look at opportunities to take advantage of the unification of wired and wireless into a single network, with a focus on unified network management strategies that lower operating expenses while providing great visibility to the enterprise.

The role of network management has fundamentally changed.  It is no longer just about the availability of networks.  In now includes managing the performance of networks and applications.  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, PowerPoint-free session will discuss some of the most promising of the emerging network management technologies.     

When one looks at the main benefits of storage networking people often cite performance.  Performance means many things to many people in the IT world.  This two hour session identifies just what aspects of performance are and are not critical to the successful deployment of these storage and storage networking technologies.  We will look at the different kinds of information flow requirements and how best to map those to storage infrastructures today.  We will examine the best place to invest for performance as well as talk about some of the performance "myths" as well.  Session topics will include:   Performance Elements - What's Important Storage Device & Controller Technology - Performance Enablers Storage Networking: Bit Rate, Bandwidth, Latency & Throuput The Role of iSCSI and Fibre Channel in today's data center Unified Fabric and FCoE Developments  

Deduplication (dedupe) and single instance storage (SIS) are perhaps the hottest topics in the storage industry.  EMC just acquired a dedupe startup for over two billion dollars!  Meanwhile, all of the leading backup vendors are scrambling to integrate dedupe into their products.  But this is just the beginning of a major new technology trend!  Dedupe offers benefits not just for backups, but also for cloud storage, archiving, virtual desktops, and even primary storage for high performance production servers and VMs.   This session is broken into three parts:  1) The first section discusses the fundamental technology of dedupe, revealing both the shortcomings of current approaches and the opportunities for new solutions.  2)  The second section focuses on dedupe for backups.  We illustrate different ways to integrate dedupe into backup systems as well as revealing non-dedupe approaches that might deliver similar results at lower costs.  3)  Lastly, we describe applications for dedupe and SIS in rich media archives, virtual desktops, and primary storage.    

Data storage is just one element in the application delivery ecosystem, but it turns out that it is often the critical performance bottleneck.  A number of new technologies have come out in the recent years to optimize storage performance.  This session reviews several of these innovations and explains how  some performance-optimization technologies can be easily integrated into the existing storage infrastructure. Topics include spindle aggregation, various storage acceleration devices, application-level QoS techniques, and caching or hot-spotting with solid state disk.  Specific attention will be given to accelerating network file systems, MS Exchange, and SQL databases. 

The concept of thin provisioning is not new, but the state of the art has advanced, adding awareness between the operating system and storage device for enhanced efficiency. This session introduces the value proposition and concept of thin provisioning, covers the technology of the major thin storage vendors (3PAR, BlueArc, Compellent, Dell, EMC, HDS, HP, IBM, NetApp, Pillar) and operating system integration layers (Symantec, VMware, and T10), and presents novel approaches from Data Robotics, Apple, and cloud storage systems. We will present the pros and cons of these various approaches in the context of enterprise storage management.

Virtualization is causing the convergence of server, storage, and network platforms. At the same time, fewer CAPEX dollars coupled with rising energy costs is promoting data center managers to incorporate energy efficient and highly utilized IT equipment in the data center. This session will help data center managers understand virtualization’s role in convergence and plan for a more efficient and highly utilized server, storage and network environment.

Enterprises are now leveraging cloud storage services at a rapid pace and are looking for qualified answers on how using a cloud platform can increase efficiency and ROI simultaneously. The old model of purchasing expensive storage systems or using large amounts of tape are prehistoric, adapting a new approach to storage is necessary in today’s tough economic climate as budgets continue to be slashed and performance upkeep is critical . This session will enable users to learn about the benefits and economies of scale as it relates to developing/implementing a cloud storage solution, a focus will be placed on performance, cost-effectiveness, user experience, and customer service/satisfaction.

This session provides introductory material and discussion of solid state storage.  A comprehensive overview of the technology, from components to devices to systems is provided, along with an overview of several current topics surrounding the integration, deployment, use and application of solid state storage.  The material is intended for those who are not familiar with solid state storage in the enterprise and wish to develop a working understanding of the technology and its usage.   Learning Objectives Understand solid state storage technology in its various forms Understand common characteristics and behaviors of solid state storage Understand the benefits of using solid state storage in enterprise applications  

By adopting server virtualization we’ve reduced the number of physical servers in the data center but the proliferation of separate storage, data, management and VMotion networks has made the back of our server racks look like an explosion in a spaghetti factory.  Now that 10Gigabit Ethernet is widely available several solutions have arisen to consolidate network and storage I/O onto a smaller number of higher bandwidth connections.  With consolidated networking users can stop playing the game of one cable, two cable, orange cable, blue cable. 

This session will explore the solutions available to server and storage administrators for reducing cable clutter and consolidating network and storage I/O. Ranging from Fibre Channel NPIV and using vLANs to segregate data traffic to cutting edge technologies including Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and PCIe extension, We’ll look at the technologies, the players, the politics and how users can integrate new technologies into their short and long term planning. 

 Topics include:

·        I/O virtualization for management and security

·        The state of FCoE

·        End of Row vs. Top of Rack configurations

·        External I/O virtualization solutions

·        10Gig Ethernet, CEE, DCB, DCE – Ethernet for the Data Center

Traditional video conferencing vendors and a set of recent market entries are pushing a wide variety of video conferencing solutions all the way from high end Telepresence suites to software solutions running on the PC desktop.  Which technologies will provide the right communications solution for the needs of your enterprise?  This session will propose a decision tree for sorting through the vendor offerings and hype and focusing on the right size, right bandwidth and right features to meet your visual communications needs.  

Desktop video conferencing has traditionally consumed the PC, used up the screen real-estate and provided poor images.  Has this technology evolved into a useful tool?  What are the enterprise applications where desktop video can provide productivity enhancements or better customer interactions that justify its deployment?  In this session we will quiz the desktop video vendors to see if we can rationalize deploying yet another complex application on the desktop.  

Video conferencing could be the toughest application your enterprise network has to support.  It places significant bandwidth demands on the network, while simultaneously demanding priority treatment (QoS). Designing the right network solution to support an enterprise video conferencing deployment is critical to getting early positive feedback on using a video capability which will affect its acceptance as a business tool.  This two hour session will look at the technical details of designing, testing and managing an enterprise network to support high quality video conferencing and telepresence communications with deep dives into security, LAN QoS and WAN QoS issues.

The over-provisioning model used by data centers for years is unsustainable – and a new dynamic model is emerging driven by virtualization and automation. While these technologies aren’t necessarily new, IT departments must become competent and refine their skills in the use of virtualization and automation to contain costs as businesses continue to demand IT services. This session will help data center managers learn how to leverage these virtualization and automation technologies to create a business-driven data center that delivers new levels of service quality, efficiency, agility and risk reduction.  

As data centers move become more virtualized, companies are still determining how to secure these environments. This session will examine the inner workings of the virtual data center, including where the security weak spots are and what can be done to ensure protection of critical data being stored there.

As virtualization implementation progress, the key to realizing the full potential of virtual infrastructures is though advanced management, optimization and automation. This session is a primer on advanced management capabilities such as dynamic workload balancing, high availability, disaster recovery, capacity and performance management, and automated policy-based workflows. It will discuss the value of implementing advanced management features and describe the landscape of solution vendors, from start-ups to long-time industry leaders.

Virtualization is great, but the business application is king! Getting your virtual infrastructure to perform optimally is essential to meeting application service levels. This requires performance monitoring and management; capacity management and chargeback; and troubleshooting tools that successfully navigate the complexities of the entire virtual infrastructure including servers, storage and networking.  This session introduces some of the ways IT can address application performance and capacity management across the virtual infrastructure.  

Open Source PBXs have become a force in the enterprise communication market, with some estimates showing as much as 18% of stations shipped (for all size segments) may be open source. Clearly, this is an option that many enterprises are taking much more seriously than they might have expected to a few years ago. But does that mean open source should be a part of your next procurement, or at least included in RFIs and RFPs? This session will look at the technical aspects of Open Source PBX/communications systems. You’ll come away with an understanding of what open source can do for your enterprise’s communications infrastructure, and the true nature of the investment you’ll have to make to procure, customize, install and support Open Source PBXs.

This two-part session is designed to help enterprises chart their course through UC adoption and deployment. The first hour will provide a comprehensive overview of the options available for Unified Communications, along with an assessment of suppliers for each option. It is intended for enterprise CXOs, decision-makers, IT managers, communications managers, and business managers who are planning to install UC -- either via a new system or by adding UC to existing PBXs, email systems and business applications. The session will highlight the five most popular Unified Communications enterprise deployment options. Top-ranking vendors for each option will be compared and evaluated, and estimated pricing of each approach will be included in the analysis.   The second hour will provide you with the details you need to make your UC decisions, to select the best vendors, and to plan your implementation. This section will show the specific UC configurations and investments that are required for the most common cases for UC investments. In each case, we will review the system configurations, the added software and hardware elements, and the systems integration scope of work likely to be required to achieve the desired outcome.  

The recession economy has taken its toll on market demand for enterprise communications systems and solutions. It may be bad time for suppliers, but a good time for buyers who can enjoy lower prices, increased system performance, and no/low interest financing as buying incentives. The crowded competitive field is preparing for the next OCS release from Microsoft that is likely to affect major market equilibrium changes while more than a few long time system suppliers, such as Nortel, struggle to survive. In addition, the trends towards cloud-based computing and greater reliance on mobile communications each threaten to bring a new paradigm shift in the way enterprises communicate internally and externally. This session will include updated telephony system market forecasts and supplier share estimates; a discussion of which enterprise communications system features and applications are hot (selling) or cold (stagnating); a review of major market trends, such as cloud computing, hosted solutions, and Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC); and a critical analysis of the leading system suppliers and their flagship offerings.