IT Tracks

Application & Content Security

Ready to secure your core? Respond to attacks? Close vulnerabilities? Begin here!

Summary

Security issues and architectures are increasingly moving "up the stack," focusing on content, applications, and data. Enterprises are moving away from perimeter-based security and towards "defense-in-depth" architectures, which involve building protection into every element of the information architecture. This includes internal and external threat protection, messaging security, and identity management. As security becomes about more than just keeping intruders out, enterprises are also looking to ensure their proprietary information remains safe. They are looking for regulatory and corporate compliance and intellectual property protection, as well as automated encryption and archiving of sensitive information.

Analyst

Andreas Antonopoulos, Nemertes Research

Theme

Enabling Effective Security in a Risky World: Issues, Strategies, Best Practices

Speaker

John Arsneault, Director Network Operations, Harvard Business School

Presentation

Securing an Open Environment

Topics:

• Critical Issues for 2007
• The high cost of spyware
• VoIP and wireless security
• Patch management
• Logging and auditing management
• Application security and information protection
• Identity management and federation
• Policy management and automatic policy updates
• Architecting for Defense in Depth: Best Practices
• Bottom Lines

Technologies:

• Critical Issues for 2007
• Anti-spam
• Anti-phishing
• Anti-spyware
• Anti-virus
• Encryption
• Application firewalls
• Policy enforcement
• Regulatory compliance
• Identity Management
• Federated Identity
• Logging & Auditing

Enterprise Mobility

No technology has transformed the enterprise more. What's next? Find out here.

Summary

Access to information, and being able to act on it rapidly no matter where you are, are two essential capabilities in the hyper-competitive business world of today. Enterprises of all types and sizes are now taking advantage of advances in mobile computing and communications, and especially the broad range of wireless tools now available. This session will bring the entire spectrum of wireless networking into focus, with a discussion of the key topics that are making a difference in responsiveness, customer service, productivity, and even the bottom line. And we’ll focus on the hot emerging technologies that promise even greater returns in the near future.

Analyst

Craig J. Mathias, Farpoint Group

Theme

Mobilizing Everyone: Enterprise WLANs and Emerging Mobile Broadband Systems

Topics:

• The Big Picture of Wireless: Picking the right tool for the job
• Review of WLAN opportunities, constraints, and applications
• WLAN architectures and the role of MIMO
• Fixed/Mobile and Mobile/Mobile Convergence (FMC and MMC)
• WiMAX — where does it fit?
• Understanding wireless wide-area broadband
• Future directions and opportunities

Technologies:

• 3G/Broadband Wireless
• WiMAX
• Voice over IP over WiFi (VoFi)
• Bluetooth and Beyond: Ultra-Wideband Wireless Personal-Area Networks
• RFID and RTLS
• Wireless Web services
• 4G Wireless networks

Network Management

It's the new core competency. With today's innovative technology it's the engine that drives the agile enterprise. Are you on board?

Summary

Managing the various aspects of a network is critical to creating an infrastructure that responds to the changing needs of a business. To help take on this challenge, companies are looking to innovative technologies that manage applications, performance, security, Web services, compliance, and more. Configuration and patch management remain key issues in this area, while business-services management is emerging as a strategic way to link business and technology and IT Infrastructure Libraries promise more efficient delivery of IT services.

Analyst

Jim Metzler, Ashton, Metzler & Associates

Theme

The Link between an Agile Enterprise and Network Management

Speaker

David Hauser, CTO, GotVMail Communications

Presentation

Automation in network management

Topics:

• "The agile enterprise:" Reality vs. hype
• Innovation and network management--is it possible?
• Drill downs: On achieving agility in:
  • Applications Management
  • Performance Management
  • Security Management
  • Compliance
  • Business Service Management
  • Configuration and Patch Management
  • Service Level Management
  • Web Services Management

Technologies:

• Application Management
• Infrastructure Performance Management
• Configuration and Patch Management
• ITIL - IT Infrastructure Libraries
• Security management
• Web services management
• Business-services management
• Compliance management
• Service-level management
• Analytics

The New Data Center

The management, technology, and dynamics of data centers are changing so rapidly entire systems can go obsolete with the turn of a calendar page. Are you keeping up? Falling behind? Eager to move and stay ahead? Attend the new data center and you’ll be on the right track.

Summary

Gone are the glass houses as companies move to deploy clustered servers and grid computing; virtualized storage; perimeter-less, holistic security architectures; high-performance, high-capacity networks; and service-oriented management platforms.

In the 21st-century data center, shared resources replace fixed technology “silos”. Capacity expands dynamically to accommodate demand. And users experience real-time responsiveness regardless of where they are on the globe. Your ability to design, deploy, and manage this next-generation data center will spell the difference between competing effectively or not at all.

Analyst

Johna Till Johnson, Nemertes Research

Theme

One size fits none: Designing, deploying, and managing next-generation data centers

Speaker

Navid Atoofi, Director of System Production Services, Northeastern University

Presentation

Application Virtualization: The Other Dimension

Topics:

• Staffing the 21st century data center.
• Must-have expertise and where to source it
• Team building to maximize the value of virtualization and grid computing
• The suddenly obsolete: Skills to eliminate. And the one new position to fill.
• The five pillars of next-generation data center architecture.
• Identifying and orchestrating the critical components that support them.
• Building and moving toward tomorrow’s state-of-the-art physical plant
• The future key three: Clustering, virtualization, on-demand computing
• Unrolling a functional blueprint for evaluating, phasing and deploying emerging technologies at their first moment of enterprisewide effectiveness
• The new best practices. Real-world strategies for what works, what doesn’t, and what’s myth—documented exclusively by Nemertes-compiled data center benchmarks.

Technologies:

• Virtualization
• Management: infrastructure and applications
• Grid computing and clustering
• High-performance data center networking
• Business continuity and disaster recovery
• Security: From data to equipment to personnel
• Facilities: From HVAC to power systems to physical construction

Storage & Data Compliance

Regulation: The rule of the games-and how best to play it-are changing. Are you prepared? Find out here.

Summary

At the heart of the enterprise is the data; how it's managed and stored can make or break a company. This is particularly true when it comes to corporate and regulatory compliance, which is now a fact of life. New approaches such as wide-are file services, continuous data protection and data replication are emerging, while essential tasks such as backup and recovery and information life-cycle management are as important as ever. What's next for you?

Theme

Information Stewardship: Holistic Data Management in the Enterprise

Speaker

Ayad Shammout, Lead Technical Database Administrator, Caregroup Healthcare System

Presentation

Data Compliance: Challenges and solutions

Topics:

• Storage and ILM
• DQM
• Compliance
• BCP/DR
• Information Protection (IP)
• Tying it All Together: Building a world-class IT Architecture
• Organizational best practices
• Operations and processes: What works, what doesn't
• Linchpin technologies
• Bottom lines

Technologies:

• Wide Area File Services
• Continuous Data Protection
• Data Replication
• Backup and recovery
• Information life-cycle management

VoIP, Convergence & Collaboration

It went from "potential" to "best practice" at light speed. Where will "convergence 2.0" take the enterprise next? See here.

Summary

By now, most companies have rolled out at least some form of VoIP with hopes of reducing costs and boosting productivity. But building the VoIP infrastructure is just the beginning, it must be managed and secured. Tools that allow for real-time collaboration and other applications promise to deliver significant benefits as well. Looking to the future, emerging technologies such as Voice over WiFi promise to factor prominently into IT roadmaps. See how at this track.

Analyst

Johna Till Johnson, Nemertes Research

Theme

Convergence and Collaboration: The Next-Generation Network Paradigm

Speaker

John Turner, Director for Networks and Systems, Brandeis University

Topics:

• Key Trends in VOIP deployment
• Video-over-IP
• VoIP and wireless
• RTCDs and who uses them
• Critical Challenges and Issues
  • Security
  • Management
  • Build vs. buy: The big decision
• Case Studies
• Best Practices & Recommendations
• Bottom Lines

Technologies:

• VoIP Security
• VoIP Management
• VoIP Assessment Tools
• Voice over WiFi
• Business collaboration tools
• Voice-enabled applications

Network and Application Acceleration

Summary

The last few years have seen a growing emphasis on ensuring the optimal performance of a company's key applications and the networks that support them. The good news is that there is a continually growing number of technologies and products that are designed to ensure the optimal performance of networks and applications. The bad news is that it can be difficult to sort through the confusion and identify the value provided by each of these new technologies and products. This track will review the different approaches to boosting network and application performance and will analyze the applicability of each approach. This track will also describe a number of the leading products in this area and will discuss how these products have been used to enhance network and application performance.

Analyst

Jim Metzler, Ashton, Metzler & Associates

Theme

Making Sense of Network and Application Acceleration

Topics:

• Application Requirements
• Server Consolidation
• Compression
• Caching
• Differencing
• Read Ahead
• TCP acceleration
• QoS
• MPLS
• Load Balancing
• Wide-Area File Systems (WAFS)

Technologies:

• Compression/caching
• TCP acceleration
• QoS/Migration to MPLS
• VoIP
• Wide-Area File Systems

NAC (Network Access Control)

Today’s crucial final step for true security in depth. But as a just-emerging best practice, it can be the Achilles Heel of even the most forward-planned networks with even the tightest architecture. If NAC is new to you, or you want to overtake this quickly emerging management discipline before it overtakes you, attend our fast track to solutions.

Summary

Network Access Control is a revolutionary re-think of network security. Fundamentally changing the focus from edge-based security services, such as perimeter firewalls, and providing a revealing macroscopic view of security. The spotlight is now laser-like on individual points of access: the port; the VPN connection; and the end-user … and how best to secure them case by case, On this track, you’ll learn the language, the landscape and how to deal now with key issues emerging from this exciting new, and remarkably effective, management discipline.

Analyst

Joel Snyder, Senior Partner of Opus One

Theme

The Emergence of NAC: Exploring the New World of Security Management

Speaker

Curtis Simonson, Sr. Technologist, University of New Hampshire Interoperability Lab

Presentation

Putting NAC to the Test

Topics:

• The value of NAC and why it matters now
• How NAC mixes and merges with existing security solutions
• How NAC requires multi-disciplinary teams from around the organization to work together for a successful deployment
• The four key components of a successful NAC solution
• Where NAC first fits into enterprise networks to deliver the fastest benefits
• Which NAC architectures are destined to become industry standards
• How NAC will play a vital role in risk management and business continuity planning
• How to build a framework for evaluating NAC products

Technologies:

• NAC Authentication
• Access control
• End-point security
• Management
• LAN security
• Enforcement in Depth