Network World

Managing Expectations in a Belt-Tightened Economy: How One CIO Innovates to Reduce Costs
Today's CIOs are challenged with stretched staff and resources, perhaps none more so than those in the auto industry. How do you manage expectations in the current climate? What innovative approaches can the CIO's team apply to reduce costs while maintaining service levels acceptable to the business? How can the CIO create an environment where cost-saving approaches are not only actively considered, but the business buys in to innovative changes? How do you prepare to take advantage of opportunities when the economy turns around? In this session, learn what's in Dale Frantz’s toolkit, and how new approaches are paying off for Auto Warehousing Company.

-- Dale Frantz, CIO, Auto Warehousing Company

Moderated Panel Discussion: Generation Transformation – How Younger Hires are Drastically Changing Business and IT Paradigms
If you’ve spent time with someone born after 1980, you know their brains are wired differently from those born before then. The younger the person is, the more dramatic the distinction. They have grown up with video games, computers, chat, and mobile devices, and the post-1990 crowd has text messaging and social networking, as well. Simply stated, they know how technology can make them more productive and keep them better connected. As these people enter the workforce and elevate to management positions—within or outside of IT—their comfort level with technology will change the way businesses run. Their influence also stands to raise the relevance and significance of IT staffs. This lively panel will discuss the influence of the younger generation today and tomorrow—and how you must prepare for the paradigm change in a way that benefits the business, the IT team, and you as an individual.

Moderator:
-- Robin Gareiss, Network World Columnist , Executive Vice President & Senior Founding Partner, Nemertes Research

Panelists:
-- Andreas Antonopoulos, Network World Columnist and Senior Vice President & Founding Partner, Nemertes Research
-- Jim Metzler, Network World Columnist and President, Ashton Metzler & Associatesh

SaaS, Cloud Computing & Managed Services – Sorting Out the Realities from the Myths
All the talk about SaaS, Cloud Computing and Managed Services is creating more confusion than clarity, and posing more challenges for IT/business decision-makers who are trying to determine how they can leverage these new solutions to meet their corporate objectives. This session will clearly define what each of these offerings is all about and show how organizations of all sizes can capitalize on these ‘on-demand’ services to overcome the ongoing challenges of traditional IT and applications. It will also discuss the key issues that need to be carefully considered before adopting these services and selecting a strategic vendor, including security, reliability and performance.

-- Jeff Kaplan, Network World Columnist, Founder & Managing Director, THINKstrategies

Virtualize, Adapt, Improve
Nearly all data centers now have some virtual servers. The question organizations face is no longer whether but when and how to virtualize. Drawing on interviews with innovative and effective IT practitioners, Nemertes brings attendees the distilled wisdom of those who have successfully reaped the benefits of server virtualization: hardware consolidation, lower capital expense, and reduced operating expenses up front; increased resilience, agility, and flexibility longer term. Far fewer organizations virtualize desktops yet. Capital cost reduction is possible there too, but is less compelling than reduced operating expenses and improved security, manageability, and even performance. To fully realize the benefits of virtualized servers and desktops, organizations will need use an array of enabling technologies. The session will illustrate how these all fit together to create a newly coherent, rational, efficient, and effective paradigm for engineering IT services.

-- Andreas Antonopoulos, Network World Columnist, Senior Vice President & Founding Partner, Nemertes Research

The Transformation of Network Management
There is relatively little discussion of network management, automation and control in the trade press. That is unfortunate for two reasons. One reason is that all of the new technologies such as virtualization that are being deployed are driving fundamentally new management requirements. The second reason is that the role of network management is in a state of flux. This session will discuss how the role of network management has changed and how it is likely to change over the next two years. The session will also discuss the challenges created by the deployment of technologies such as virtualization and will analyze how IT organizations can respond to these challenges.

-- Jim Metzler, Network World Columnist and President
Ashton Metzler & Associates

The Borderless Network
Jobs are becoming more and more globalized and our workspace is no longer defined by walls in the office. In essence, today’s work model is now borderless. Not only that, applications are more pervasive and complex and video usage is on the rise. This calls for a new kind of architecture. Marie Hattar, Cisco VP of Network Systems and Security Solutions, will discuss how Cisco’s vision for this new architecture can help business and IT transform and how processes based on mobility, video, collaboration and virtualization can be accelerated in game-changing ways.

-- Marie Hattar, Vice President of Network Systems & Security Solutions, Cisco Systems, Inc

Application Delivery in a Virtualized, Distributed and Economically Challenging Environment
In the last few years, ensuring acceptable application performance has gone from a nice to have to a mandate for most IT organizations. For example, a few years ago it was rare to find an IT organization that provided its internal users with a service level agreement (SLA) for application performance. Today, it is somewhat common. Unfortunately, whether or not an SLA is provided, the task of ensuring acceptable application performance is extremely complex. This session will analyze some of the factors that complicate the task in the current environment and will discuss factors that will further complicate the task in the near term. This session will also discuss a wide range of technologies that IT organizations can use to improve their ability to ensure acceptable application performance.

-- Jim Metzler, Network World Columnist and President
Ashton Metzler & Associates

Planning and Enhancing the Resilient, Dynamic Data Center
Whether you’re building a new data center, managing an existing one, or procuring services from an outsourcer, the challenges are multidimensional. You have to plan for growth, manage power and cooling issues, and ramp up to handle ever-increasing demands for servers, storage and bandwidth. How do you fit it all in one building? What are the options for outsourcing? Which contractors and professional services organizations really know how to help? How to you use new technologies and new strategies to manage growth? Can you take it a step further and deliver improved services to the business – faster provisioning of resources and lower cost?This session examines the data center trends and the challenges data center managers face. It provides clear strategies and solutions for both new and existing data centers.

-- Johna Till Johnson, Network World Columnist and President & Senior Founding Partner, Nemertes Research

Success Strategies for Green IT
Green IT is more than just a buzzword. It’s about rolling out critical technologies and policies that enable organizations to reduce costs while reducing their carbon footprints—all while increasing agility. This session helps IT practicioners develop a workable green strategy that delivers measurable results. Attendees will learn how which technologies are "low-hanging fruit" and which policies are most effective. You’ll learn the critical success factors that ensure a green IT strategy will actually work. And you’ll come away with a checklist of technologies to explore and assess for your organization.

-- Johna Till Johnson, Network World Columnist and President & Senior Founding Partner, Nemertes Research

Organized Crime Meets the Distributed Enterprise: Adapting to the New Threat Landscape
Over the past several years the security threat landscape has evolved, suddenly and dramatically. Today's threats are stealthy, subtle and web-based. The motive behind attacks is easy profit from identity and resource theft. At the same time, companies are more vulnerable than ever because they are morphing from centralized and closed environments to distirbuted, mobile, interconnected and open environments. These two trends collide, forcing us to re-evaluate everything we knew about security: perimeter defenses, defense-in-depth, compliance, audit. In this session, Network World columnist and expert Andreas Antonopoulos brings you an exciting, entertaining and insightful view of the latest developments in security.

-- Andreas Antonopoulos, Network World Columnist and Senior Vice President & Founding Partner, Nemertes Research

Crafting Successful Landline, Wireless Network Strategies
With enormous demand for high-speed, voice, data, and multimedia applications available to any device at any location, the need for a robust network is stronger than ever. This session helps you understand how to select, contract, and implement the latest landline WAN technologies, as well as wireless options for both fixed locations and mobile users. When should you use MPLS vs. Ethernet services? What about SIP trunking? How do you make sure the network is optimized for top performance? How do you narrow down the provider choices and select the right one using a "matrix RFP?" And, what’s the best way to develop and enforce a consistent networking approach across numerous branch offices so each location isn’t an isolated island? Learn how to evaluate, select, and contract for the optimal mix of products and services for WAN and LAN.

-- Robin Gareiss, Network World Columnist, Executive Vice President & Senior Founding Partner, Nemertes Research

Integrating UC, VOIP, and Collaboration to Improve Efficiency
The integration of collaboration, social networking, enterprise applications, and VOIP into a UC architecture is one of the most complex, pressing projects in IT today. UC strategies require massive involvement from all IT disciplines, as well as a compelling business case. Nearly 90% of businesses operate a virtual workplace, and effective communications capabilities are crucial to working in a distributed enterprise

This session will provide best-practices recommendations and answer: Which technologies make the most sense, when, and why? What are the key pain points? What’s the best way to manage design, implementation, integration and ongoing operations? Is access to social networking sites cause for legal concern? What’s the best way to leverage social networking and other collaborative applications? Learn how to architect and implement the most effective UC strategy for your organization.

-- Robin Gareiss, Network World Columnist, Executive Vice President & Senior Founding Partner, Nemertes Research

Choosing Wisely Among the Hosted Options
After experiencing dramatic growth, Michael Howell had to reassess Broadlane’s data center options. Learn how he shaved some 20% off his operating budget by going with a hosted solution that makes effective use of virtualization technology.

-- Michael Howell, Senior Vice President Technology, Broadlane

Streamlining Global Server Support with a Unified Management Solution
As power and real estate costs grow, site selection criteria for datacenters is being heavily weighed by overall operational costs and not just availability of staff. The presentation covers ways to simplify management of datacenters as more of them are located remote from the staff. A case study of SAS shall further illustrate real life usage of all technologies discussed. The presentation also discusses ways to monitor and manage capacities and costs in order to ensure the optimum use of existing infrastructure.

-- Del Hassen, Senior Sales Engineer, Avocent

Success with Managed Services
Greg Tatum has years of experience in using managed services for applications including email and Web hosting at Careington International. He’ll offer up some keys to success in making the services work as promised.

-- Gregory Tatum, Network Administrator, Careington International

Managing Web-Based Applications
The American Heart Association relies heavily on web-based applications for both internal and external users. Josh Hinkle will explain the tools and techniques he uses to ensure proper performance at AHA, and the challenges that virtualization technology brings to the mix.

-- Josh Hinkle, Manager, Network Management & Security,
American Heart Association

Performance Management on a Global Scale
In his role at Boeing, James Farricker is repsonsible for end-to-end application performance management. He’ll discuss the tools and techniques he uses to ensure good application performance across wireless as well as airline and enterprise global environments.

-- James Farricker, Senior Technical Fellow - Chief Engineer, Boeing

Green IT at Energy Northwest
Power companies are particularly sensitive to green issues and Energy Northwest is no different. CIO Keith Cooke will explain how this public energy company reduced its data center power consumption by two-thirds and its desktop energy use by a third.

-- Keith Cooke, Chief Information Officer, Energy Northwest

Ensuring Compliance Over the Long Haul
Kurtis Holland, principal in IT security for the travel services giant Sabre Holdings, will explain the tools and strategy he employed to ensure the firm remains in compliance with security regulations including PCI.

-- Kurtis Holland, Principal in IT Security, Sabre Holdings

Diving Deep into UC
Premera Blue Cross is deep into the process of bringing unified communications technology to the company, with a mix of presence, unified messaging, VOIP and collaborative Web sites. But that’s only the start of where Christopher Wallick expects the technology to go.

-- Christopher Wallick, Solutions Architect, Premara Blue Cross

It Takes a Village to Deliver an Application
With more than 3,000 employees in 60 offices, plus developers overseas, The Standard has a range of application delivery requirements. To meet them, it uses a range of solutions, from WAN accelerators to application and desktop virtualization. Brian Moore will explain the role each plays and the thinking for the future.

-- Brian Moore, Network Architect, Standard Insurance Company

Streamlining Global Server Support with a Unified Management Solution
As power and real estate costs grow, site selection criteria for datacenters is being heavily weighed by overall operational costs and not just availability of staff. The presentation covers ways to simplify management of datacenters as more of them are located remote from the staff. A case study of SAS shall further illustrate real life usage of all technologies discussed. The presentation also discusses ways to monitor and manage capacities and costs in order to ensure the optimum use of existing infrastructure.

-- Ashish Moondra, Sr. Product Manager, Avocent

Best Practices in Application Virtualization
Application virtualization is a breakthrough technology that can improve the portability, manageability and compatibility of applications by encapsulating them from the underlying operating system. Virtualized applications are dramatically simpler to deploy, manage and remove and they remove conflicts and OS slowdowns associated with traditional installations.

In this presentation, we will review various virtualization technologies and demonstrate how Application Virtualization fits into the systems management mix, along with its benefits to both IT and end users. We will then put this into practice and demonstrate how you can deploy virtualized applications with a series of screen shots showing the operation of KACE Virtual Kontainers. Finally, we will summarize with what you need (and what you don’t need) to deploy Virtual Kontainers.

-- Mike Saladino, Systems Engineer, KACE Networks

Inside the Oregon State University Open Source Lab
Oregon State University has emerged as a global leader in the expanding open source movement and is part of a growing movement in support of community based innovation and collaboration that is finding favor in the business world. OSU’s Open Source Lab – named by Network World in 2008 as one of “10 really cool university networking labs” - is home to Drupal, Apache, the Linux kernel (per the request of Oregon resident Linus Torvalds) and more than 50 other open source projects. The OSL provides an open climate for doing leading edge research, teaching and business in Oregon and beyond. Curt Pederson will describe OSU’s role in today’s emerging “open ecosystem” and how the OSL, in only six years, has gone from being a spectator to having one of the largest host sites of open source applications and community Linux releases in the world. As the open source community has grown so has its dependence on the OSL for the services the lab provides.

-- Curt Pederson, Vice Provost and CIO, Information Services, Oregon State University

Data Centers on a Budget
With experience from his days as CIO of ChoicePoint to his current position at Vertafore, a leading provider of software and services for the insurance industry, Darryl Lemecha knows what it takes to build an effective, reliable data center. In this session he’ll offer up his perspective on how to strike a balance between requirements and budget.

-- Darryl Lemecha, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Vertafore

The Deep Data Center Network
In this presentation, you’ll learn about the latest trends in building data center network infrastructures for the resilient data center — including the effect of network infrastructures on the data center, and how the requirement is increasingly to build a deep data center network built out at both the LAN, as well as the SAN levels. You’ll not only understand the benefits a two stage, deep, data center network delivers for server virtualization, as well as business continuity, but you’ll hear about trends to be aware of when architecting the deep data center network.

-- John Oram, Principal Solutions Architect, Brocade

Extended-Net Networks Strategies and Best Practices
MPLS has become ubiquitously available and enterprises are looking to build their networks with one carrier that can support their growing communications needs throughout the world. Dealing with one carrier instead of multiple carriers allows for companies to save money, cut down on cycles, and focus on their business rather than managing numerous global carriers. In this session, get an understanding of the unique attributes of extended-net networks and inter-carrier interconnects, best practices with a seamless implementation, and what to look for and how to ensure that one network provider has enough experience to deliver a “best-of-breed” global MPLS network solution.

-- Rex Stover, Vice President, Enterprise Business Development, PCCW Global

UC for the Enterprise & Beyond
Kevin Dunn will discuss the challenges inherent in rolling out a Microsoft-based VoIP and unified communications solution not only internally, but to affiliates in branches outfitted with computing equipment the company doesn’t own.

-- Kevin Dunn, Director, IT Network Operations,
First Command Financial Services, Inc

Compliance on a Shoestring
Budgets are tight but companies can’t afford to skimp on security, especially in a highly regulated environment such as health care. Christopher Paidhrin, chief security officer for Southwest Medical Center, will explain the strategies he uses to keep his organization in compliance without breaking the bank.

-- Christopher Paidhrin, Chief Security Officer, Southwest Medical Center

Consolidation through Virtualization
Wesley Peper, IT manager for Coffman Engineers, will explain the benefit that virtualization technology is bringing to the firm that serves on construction projects large and small, enabling Coffman to dramatically consolidate the number of physical servers required to support offices in four U.S. cities.

-- Wesley Peper, IT Manager, Coffman Engineers

A Picture Perfect Combo
It takes lots of computing power to edit digital images and plenty of storage capacity to store the finished product. Consequently, the photo editing site Picnik needs large quantities of both. Rather than continually buy additional capacity, the company has turned to Amazon EC2 and Amazon S3 services to augment its internal servers and storage facilities. Justin Huff will explain how the hybrid model is proving to be a cost-effective way for Picnik to keep up with its steady growth.

-- Justin Huff, Operations Engineer, Picnik

Virtualization and Business Continuity
We have seen throughout history how long standing technologies are quickly adapted and integrated with emerging technologies providing cultures and businesses cost effective and efficient solutions driving competitive advantages. The Virtualization and Business Continuity presentation will discuss how current, emerging technologies are coalescing into practical and cost effective business solutions. Attendees will learn how technologies like virtualization, disk-to-disk backup solutions, hardware and replication software are combined to create simpler more cost effect disaster recovery and business continuity solutions.

-- Clinton Gatewood, Vice President, Corporate Development, Zenith ARCA

Mastering Service Delivery: The Future of Application Delivery
The presentation discusses how assessment, planning, optimization and process improvement improves the ability of the IT organization to manage application and service performance. A case study demonstrates how a high tech manufacturing organization was able to implement a solution that proactively identified application degradation problems.

-- Michael Valladao, Product Marketing Manager, NetScout

Unified Services Delivery Management: Key to Assuring Services to the Business
The presentation discusses the reality of managing the modern IP network in which monitoring the health of individual infrastructure elements no longer guarantees success. In order to be successful, IT organization must focus on monitoring business services in a manner that assures the quality of the user experience. A case study demonstrates how a healthcare organization implemented effective service delivery management.

-- Michael Valladao, Product Marketing Manager, NetScout

The Demise of the Modern Data Center and the Future Requirements for a Cloud Computing Model
We are entering a transition period where compute resources and intelligence is migrating from the desktop to centralized data centers and will morph into cloud based services. The fundamental architecture is not designed or capable of handling the processing power and bandwidth that will be demanded of a global mobile population. A new data center architecture is required that will support the elasticity and scalability where global compute resources and intelligence is centralized. The market drivers and dynamics of this transition will be discussed.

-- Troy Herrera, Director, Enterprise Solutions Marketing, Juniper Networks

Going Private
To bring (lots of) bandwidth to its 90+ sites, Seattle Public Schools opted to join a private fiber consortium headed up by the city of Seattle. Jim Ratchford, CIO for the schools, will talk about the decision-making process behind the move, the technology involved and the value it brings, along with the project management challenges along the way.

-- Jim Ratchford, Chief Information Officer, Seattle Public Schools