Upcoming Targeted IT Conferences

Conference Program

8:00am - 9:00am - Registration and Continental Breakfast

9:00am-10:00am

Application Virtualization: How to Simplify IT Operations & Enable Business Strategies

Gordon Jackson, Virtualization Evangelist, DataSynapse

IT departments are under constant pressure to better utilize the investments they have made in their infrastructures.  At the same time, many companies are building more and more applications to meet the varying needs of both their internal and external customers.  This forces IT professionals to be faced with the challenges of reducing the server, storage and OS costs that seem to be growing out of control due to the heavy demand placed on them by all these different applications.

One of many solutions is Application Virtualization.  But how does it work?  How can it save your team time and make the IT organization more flexible?

In this session, you will learn approaches of Application Virtualization to:

• Better manage your applications

• Simplify IT operations and enable business strategies

• More effectively manage your resource utilization

• Protect your operating systems from poorly written code

10:00am -10:30am - Refreshment Break

10:30am -11:30am

Chris McDaniel, Solutions Architect, Nimsoft

11:30am -12:30pm

The Tenets of Storage Virtualization: Where, How and When
Mark Samuelson, Senior Enterprise Consultant, Optimus Solutions 

As with other types of virtualization there are several approaches to storage virtualization. Before acting on the idea that storage virtualization is going to be the savior to your storage challenges and worries, it is important that you understand the different approaches and determine which is best for your environment.

In this session attendees will gain an understanding of:

• The various storage virtualization architecture options

• Which areas it can be implemented in

• How to use a combination of technologies to address your specific needs and requirements

• The differences between in-band, out-of-band or split path architecture advantages

• How the different approaches will vary based on different tiers of storage and applications

12:30pm -1:30pm – Luncheon

This is a great opportunity to network with your peers from other companies and learn how they are work through their virtualization initiatives and projects.

1:30pm - 2:30pm

How to Plan for Imminent and Potential Security Risks in a Virtual Environment
Joe Fitzgerald, CEO and Founder of ManageIQ.

Leading analysts argue that as more applications use virtualization, there will be increased activity in VM bug disclosures.  Analysts say that one of the biggest challenges is that virtualization creates a new environment in IT infrastructure that traditional security approaches do not address well. 

In this session attendees will learn:

• Approaches to take to extend current physical security policies to a virtual environment

• What the next generation of hackers may be attempting to do to your virtual environment

• How real the threats are

• Planning and actions you can take today to mitigate these potential threats

Whether you have relaxed security policies in your environment or very tight controls, this discussion with go through the variety of scenarios that exist and provide suggestions for handling the potential of increased security risks when migrating to a virtual environment.

2:30pm - 3:00pm - Refreshment Break

3:00pm - 4:00pm

How to Enable Greater Efficiencies in a Disaster Recovery Environment through Virtualization

John Posavatz, Vice President, Product Management, Neverfail Group

 Many claim that there are inherent advantages in utilizing virtualization in a disaster recovery environment.  But what are they and is there a trade-off between increased potential security threats versus a more efficient DR environment?

In this session attendees will learn:

• How effective a test bed environment is with the involvement of virtualization

• How frequently should a DR plan be tested

• Can money be conserved in a testing environment and does this outweigh the investment in virtualization technologies?

• Is there personnel savings of time and money in this environment?

4:00pm - 5:00pm

Panel Discussion:

The Benefits of Virtualization to IT and the Extended Enterprise – An End-User Perspective - (panel discussion)

Moderator:  Jim Prentiss, Business Manager, Tideway Systems

Panelists: Joe Ryan, Manager of Operations & Infrastructure for Americas IT, Jones Lang LaSalle

Ilir Zenku, Director Information Systems, University of Chicago, BSD/UCPG

Jeremy Wendel, Systems Engineer - Desktop Virtualization, Hewitt Associates

Dean Hobart, Systems Team Lead; MCSE, MCP+I, CNE, ITIL, Philips Lighting North America
 

There is clear evidence that IT support and infrastructure costs can be decreased when migrating to a virtualization environment.  But what about the benefits to the business? As many companies look to IT as an enabler of business productivity, how can IT translate this investment in concepts that business executives can understand?  What is the real value to the business in terms of employee productivity, company profitability, and new business opportunities?

In this session attendees will have these questions, and more, answered by a group of seasoned enterprise IT virtualization professionals.

Conference Price: $179.00 per person