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. But company management and staff expect service levels consistent with headier times. 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 this CIO's toolkit, and how new approaches are paying for Aviall Services.

-- Joe Lacik, Vice President, Information Services, Aviall, Inc., a division of Boeing

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
-- Arthur Brant, Director, Networking Services, Abilene Christian University
-- Kevin Dunn, Director, IT Network Operations, First Command Financial Services, Inc
-- 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.

-- John Burke, Network World Columnist and Principal Research Analyst, 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

Green IT Solutions For Your Business
Green IT now has two definitions. One typically thinks of "going green" as saving the environment. But, there are economic benefits of going green, as well, and organizations can control costs simply by implementing Green IT solutions. Verizon Business and Cisco, two leaders in implementing Green IT will share what they are doing internally, and the solutions they are providing to their customers to help them "Go Green". They will also share best practices of organizations that are harnessing technology solutions to control costs, enhance their operations and improve the environment.

-- Tim Tomlinson, Lead Solutions Consultant, "Green IT", Verizon Business and Tere’ Bracco, Senior Manager for Network Systems Marketing, Cisco

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.

-- Jason Lamb, Solutioneer, Brocade

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

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

Architecting the Agile Data Center
As virtualization, cloud and other technologies transform the data center landscape, we must consider how they affect the data center architecture. Business needs pull the data center in more directions all the time, and require it to change directions quickly and cleanly. To meet these needs IT must re-architect the data center in ways that allow it to scale services up or down on the fly, to waste fewer resources (power, space, human), and to turn on a dime to pursue new opportunities or abandon failed strategies.

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

Building an Agile Foundation
Faced with rising cost pressures, higher service expectations and ever-evolving risks and threats, a company's success is largely determined by the overall health, agility and flexibility of its business and its interconnected business and IT infrastructure. How do you create a network infrastructure that drives down cost and enables innovation and productivity? That helps standardize and automate services? That is intelligent, security-rich and resilient across both the IT and instrumented business assets? That is as dynamic as today's business climate? In this session, learn how to:

• Determine where your organization is now on the path to realizing that strategy
• Develop a detailed roadmap for getting the rest of the way there
• Focus on addressing today's challenges while building for tomorrow's opportunities

-- Cindy Klepich, Director Networking Strategy, Optimization & Integration Services Integrated Communications Services, IBM

Advancing the Economics of Data Center Networks
Today’s data centers are overbuilt, underpowered and overly complex. Too many devices run too few apps wasting precious time and energy—not to mention your money. In this session, you will learn a set of best practices for simplifying your data center architecture. Key topics covered will be: reducing the amount of managed devices with Virtual Chassis technology; collapsing layers to simplify the architecture; consolidating and virtualizing security services; lowering operational expense with a single operating system extending virtual networks between data centers; and simplifying management and orchestration.

-- Mike Banic, Vice President, Product Marketing, Ethernet Platforms Business Group, Juniper Networks

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

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

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

iPhones All Around
Abilene Christian University gives iPhones or iPod Touches to all incoming freshman, as students use the devices as part of their classroom work. Arthur Brant will detail the network infrastructure that supports the ambitious wireless endeavor.

-- Arthur Brant, Director, Networking Services,
Abilene Christian University

Big Benefits from Virtual Desktop
Learn how a virtual desktop strategy not only helps AmerisourceBergen Specialty Group tie in developers in far flung areas, but improves security and compliance at the same time.

-- Richard Burk, Vice President, IT Operations,
AmerisourceBergen Specialty Group

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

Green IT at JC Penney
IT is just one area in which JC Penney is going green. Daryl Molitor, IT director for the retail giant, will explain how his green data center and storage initiatives fit into the bigger picture.

-- Daryl Molitor, Director, Information Technology, JC Penney

Security Threats & Trends in 2009
Security threats to organizations are taking on new forms as well as expanding on time tested attacks. Social attacks, hacker exploits and multiple forms of computer targeted threats occur daily on a global basis. Cisco will discuss their findings from their Mid-Year Security Report and unveil where the biggest challenges are and what we expect in 2010.

-- Fred Kost, Director, Security, Cisco

Raise Your Wireless Network to the Power of N
Mobility has become a business expectation. IT is coming face to face with an increasingly savvy user community demanding the wireless performance required to deliver a ubiquitous computing experience. Wireless technologies are striving to keep up, and the ratification of 802.11n promises to unleash the true power of mobility. This session addresses the benefits of high performance wireless and provides prescriptive guidance on how IT can harness the value of 802.11n, while avoiding the pitfalls. You’ll learn the latest on this technology transition and leave with a checklist of best practices for how to best integrate 802.11n into your enterprise network.

-- Chris Kozup, Senior Manager, Mobility, Cisco

Design Considerations for Rackmount Power Distribution: Eight Steps to Understand for Cost Requirements
This presentation addresses eight key elements to understanding the cost requirements of implementing a rackmount power distributions strategy. This session will help attendees understand how best to manage their true power load and plan for expansion.

-- Keith Woodley, District Sales Manager, Eaton

Unified Services Delivery Managemtn: 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

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

Fewer Servers and Better DR
Virtualization technology helped Ty Brewer of CAS PARTNERS not only reduce the number of servers he needed but also dramatically improve his disaster recovery plan.

-- Ty Brewer, Chief Information Officer, CAS Partners

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.

-- Warren Kamealoha, Dell Field Application Engineer, Avocent

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

New Generation Server Load Balancers
This presentation discusses new generation server load balancers to meet today's application delivery requirements. A case study example includes solutions that a large financial institution leverages to increase application performance and lower latency.

-- Todd Harcourt, Senior Systems Engineer, A10 Networks

Automating Network Change & Configuration
In this session, learn how to solve the challenges associated with network change and configuration management (NCCM), the business benefits of NCCM, and how you can automate it. You'll also see a case study of a large financial services firm that automated PCI compliance and change management, and understand how and why that helps the company meet its goals.

-- Tim Connelly, Director, Systems Engineering, NetCordia