Events

Federal IT Infrastructure Optimization Symposium                

Achieving a Lean, Green, and Flexible IT Infrastructure through Consolidation and Virtualization

Thursday, June 21, 2007

A clear vision of the consolidated, cost-effective data center is at the core of OMB’s IT Infrastructure Optimization Initiative (IOI). The GAO estimates that the IOI could recoup more than $20 billion for the government within a decade, making the business case for implementations of the initiative compelling indeed.

Along with OMB’s infrastructure guidelines, expanding procurement requirements around green computing product standards are creating a complimentary driver for improved efficiency. To fulfill these requirements, agencies will need to incorporate virtualization, energy-efficient products, and other evolving approaches that facilitate consolidation while minimizing complexity and risk.

Under the IOI standardized framework for comparing performance across the federal government, agencies will be accountable for exceeding industry average cost efficiency and service level performance within five years. Does your agency have an actionable plan to meet these objectives for optimized infrastructure?

Today’s event brings federal executives and IT managers together at this informative symposium to learn how to:

• Leverage proven best practices to gain cost savings, increased efficiency and improved service
• Reduce total costs in IT infrastructure and realize the return in core agency mission areas by leveraging emerging virtualization technologies
• Implement innovative solutions to meet DR/COOP guidelines
• Meet expanding requirements around green computing IT product standards
• Improve performance and availability while consolidating data center infrastructure

Additional Sponsors

Server Blade Summit 2007 - May 1-3, 2007  Anaheim, CA

Barb is conference chair of this special event:

• Download Barb's Chairperson's Statement

• View/Download 2007 Presentations from the SBS Website

Server Blade Summit is the only conference in North America to address how to deliver better services and save money using blade technology and virtualization.

Decide how blades, server virtualization, and virtual desktops fit into your corporate strategy through:

• NEW - Strategy & business, IT implementation & vendor technical tracks
• End-User networking opportunities
• Expert Panels
• NEW - Interactive lab focusing on ROI & TCO
• Keynotes from VMware, Microsoft & Countrywide Financial

Topics of Interest

Publication Sponsors:

Storage Networking User Group Meeting - February 20, 2007

“Virtualization, Blades and Storage – “The Intertwining Impacts”

Abstract

Barb Goldworm, independent analyst, columnist and author of the upcoming book, "Blade Servers and Virtualization: Transforming Enterprise Computing While Cutting Costs," will provide insights into the intertwining relationships between virtualization, blade technologies, and storage. She will give an overview of the various technologies and trends, the key vendors and approaches in each area, and the interrelationships and considerations for implementation. Come learn the latest about these technologies, when and where they can help in your environment, and some of the pitfalls to avoid. There will also be an opportunity for Q & A with Barb and Anne and several users who have implemented some of these technologies.

Speaker Bio

Barb Goldworm is the founder and President of FOCUS, a research, analyst and consulting firm focused on systems and storage. Barb has spent thirty years in the computer industry in various technical, marketing, sales, senior management, and industry analyst positions with IBM, Novell, and StorageTek. A frequent speaker at industry events worldwide, Barb currently chairs the Server Blade Summit Conference, created and chaired the Storage component of Networld+Interop, and has been one of the top three ranked analyst/knowledge expert speakers at Storage Networking World. She has also been a regular featured analyst speaker for TechTarget Search Sites and Ziff Davis. She has authored numerous business and technical white papers on systems and storage, storage networking, and enterprise management, and has just finished a book published by Wiley, titled Blade Servers and Virtualization: Transforming Enterprise Computing While Cutting Costs.

Panelist and Co-Author Bio:

Anne Skamarock, Barb’s co-author, has spent nearly 30 years in high-tech fields in various positions, including end user, systems administrator, scientific programmer, NFS software engineer, backup and recovery software engineer, technical sales, marketing, and product management, and industry analyst with SRI International, Sun Microsystems, Solbourne Computer, StorageTek, and Enterprise Management Associates (EMA). In addition to working with FOCUS, Anne is also founder and president of Skamarock Consulting, a technology, marketing, and research firm focused on systems and storage. While at EMA, she co-authored Storage Solutions: A Buyer’s Guide and authored the weekly “Storage in the Enterprise” NetworkWorld online newsletter.

Server Blade Summit 2006

Barb was a speaker at several sessions at the 2006 Server Blade Summit April 18-20 at the Hyatt Regency in Orange County, CA

The server blade market in 2005 topped $2 billion for the first time, growing by 84% over 2004. Blades remain the main growth area in the server market and remain at the forefront of IT and data center managers in most surveys. The future for blades is bright despite the many challenges. IDC forecasts the market to reach $9.6 billion by 2009, representing a compound annual growth rate of over 350%. This Summit will provide the opportunity to trade ideas with colleagues and gain new perspectives during presentations from a wide variety of analysts and experts from large and small companies. Learn about hardware, software, interconnect, and applications.

Special User Case Histories Session

Chairperson: Barb Goldworm, FOCUS

Barb moderated this session which reviewed three case studies, focusing on how and why different organizations have implemented blade technology, the benefits they have seen, and the lessons they have learned during the process. Learn what to expect in the real world from users who have been there - both the successes and challenges.

Wrap-Up/Market Analysis/Future of Server Blades

Analyst Panelists:

• Barb Goldworm, FOCUS
• Joe Kovar, CRN Magazine
• Kelly Quinn, IDC
• Anil Vasudeva, IMEX Research

Ziff-Davis E-Seminars

Barb was a featured speaker in the Ziff-Davis E-Seminar: Storage Key to Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery

It’s obvious that businesses have to protect their data, but many organizations don't know quite what they're up against. Not only must they protect against viruses and worms that can corrupt data, but a well thought out disaster recovery plan as part of an overall business continuity strategy is essential. This has been brought to the forefront as of late as a result of terrorist attacks and natural disasters that have crippled business that didn't have a clear and well-defined recovery strategy. Storing is the critical component to any disaster recovery or business continuity plan. How often systems are backed up, how easily they are to access and by whom and where they are physically located are all important decisions that need to be addressed. So how do you make sure your data's secure in an era when hackers, terrorists and natural disasters seem to be against you? How does social engineering and data vaults fit into the picture?

Listen to this e-Seminar and our panel of experts as they discuss:

• Security techniques to keep data secure even if your initial layers of security are breached
• Physical security techniques to further protect your data
• How to implement a storage plan as a part of an overall disaster recover strategy