Due to the abundance of networking technologies available, as well as the changing needs of corporate enterprises, it is essential to have a well thought-out network and systems management plan.  To be most effective the plan must align network and systems operations to the needs of the business.

Conference Program

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

9:00am - 10:00am

Gaining Competitive Advantage: How to Align Network & Systems Infrastructure with Business Needs
Dennis Wenk, Principal Business Consultant, Hitachi Data Systems

CEOs and CIOs want IT to be converted from a cost center into an enabler of competitive advantage.  But what does this mean and how do you accomplish this?  Can disciplines such as ITSM/ITIL really help you?  What things can you do informally or at a ‘grass roots’ level that can help you make your infrastructure more responsive to business needs? How can you leverage your infrastructure to better support applications that the business is demanding?

In this session, attendees will learn:

• How to leverage formal IT disciplines to help align infrastructure with business needs

• How to ensure your systems will be able to support next generation business required applications

• How to articulate to management that IT is an enabler and not a cost center

• How to form teams internally to drive business/IT infrastructure decision making that is closely aligned to business needs

• How to make the datacenter and systems more agile/flexible to support business needs

• How to choose technologies that support the next generation business application needs

• How investments today can help reduce cost operating costs in the future

• What individual and collective actions you can take to 'push' vendors to fill your needs

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

10:30am - 11:30am 

Migration: How to Plan for, Implement and Manage Infrastructure Changes & Upgrades
Jeff Stecyk, Solutions Architect, Tideway Systems

Since infrastructure and applications have become more closely tied to an organization’s core business processes, it is essential that you have a well mapped out plan for managing changes and upgrades in your network and systems infrastructure.  Without it you can place your business at risk.  Will your current network support the projected applications your business requires?  What should you do to handle the increased stress that future applications will place on your already overburdened network?

In this session, attendees will learn:

• How to determine what you have, where you are and where you need to be

• How to design a plan for infrastructure changes, additions and upgrades that support today’s and tomorrow’s needs

• How to understand if your network can readily support new technologies that are being driven by business needs

• How to manage conflicts that arise

• How to deliver the project on time

• How to avoid potential stumbling blocks during a migration

• How to balanced the business needs vs. the stress on the network and the IT department

11:30am - 12:30pm

Pinpointing the Problem:  How to Analyze and Optimize the Performance of Your Network
Jeff Trawick, Network Engineer, Technical Instructor, WildPackets

As businesses have increased demands upon IT for helping deliver value-added services to the organization, an increased burden has been placed on the network.  Additionally, next generation applications have made network problem identification more complicated.  Is it the Network, the Servers, or the Applications??

In this session attendees will learn an in-depth framework for monitoring the performance of the network based on user expectations.  Topics that will be discussed include:

• Irrespective of tools to be used, how can you better refine your approach?

• Is performance degradation related to the network or the application?

• Is your infrastructure meeting the needs of your internal and external users?

• What are the affects of a new application or network service on the existing IT infrastructure?

• Can your network support more involved applications such as VoIP, Collaboration, Wireless, etc?

• How can should we apply QoS and CoS?

12:30pm - 1:30pm - Luncheon

1:30pm - 2:30pm
How to Gain the Most Value from Network, Systems, Application and Facilities Monitoring
Brian Shomock, Technical BDM, CITTIO, Inc.

Explosive growth in the number of network devices and applications has outpaced IT’s ability to configure and maintain network monitoring systems.  Yet 70% of Network World readers state they don’t ever expect to finish deploying their network-management system.  Why is that?

In this session, attendees will learn how to take a granular approach to get the most out of network monitoring.

By understanding these associated best practices, attendees will learn how to improve productivity, increase network systems monitoring effectiveness, reduce network downtime and maximize full time employee resources.

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

3:00pm - 4:00pm

Network Management & Compliance: Strategies for Insuring Your Network is Compliant, Secure and Meets Business Goals
John Karabaic, Systems Engineer, Kace

Companies of all sizes are being affected in some way by the various government regulations.  Because the network infrastructure is the primary way to make information available, the IT infrastructure plays an integral role in compliance efforts.  At the same time, current network management techniques were not designed to handle the compliance challenges that have been presented.   What should you do as a network professional to insure that your network infrastructures are compliant?  How will you be able to prove your network is compliant if the government knocks on your door? 

In this session attendees will learn:

• How to map specific IT goals to network management functionality 

• How different regulations may affect their organization and more specifically their role

• Steps they should take to make sure their network adheres to these regulations

• How they should implement a holistic framework that achieves business goals, adheres to compliance and adheres to service levels

4:00pm - 5:00pm

Supporting the Business through Effective SLAs: How to Design, Implement and Refine Network & Application Specific SLAs (panel discussion)

Moderator: Peter Beniaris, Insight

Panelists will include: Steve Tindall, Sr. Network Analyst, Cardinal Health

Kyle Bowerman, Sr. Systems Engineer, US Cellular,

Fred Kwong, Network Consultant, Zurich Insurance

In this session attendees will learn the following from a panel of enterprise IT network professionals:

• How to define Network/Application specific SLAs

• How to implement an SLA approach

• SLA objectives vs. actual SLA performance

• Consequences for falling below goals

• Why network & application acceleration may be unnecessary or even counterproductive
   

What You Will Learn

In this one day conference attendees will learn:

• The Role the Network Will Play in the Next Generation Data Center

• How to Plan for, Implement and Manage Infrastructure Changes & Upgrades

• Strategies for Simplifying Network Management

• Implement Service-Level Management through IT Processes (ITIL)

• Monitor Availability and Performance Through Metrics

• How to Monitor Diverse Systems and Technologies and Make Sense of the Results

• How to Articulate the Value of the Network and Systems in Terms that Line Executives can Understand

Conference price: $199 per person
 

Each attendee will receive a certificate awarding 7 CPE credits for CISSP continuing education, in addition to 0.7 CEUs and 7 PDUs.CISSP is a registered certification mark of (ISC)², Inc.

Exhibits

As is always the case at CAMP IT Conferences events, the talks will not include product presentations.  During the continental breakfast, coffee breaks, and the luncheon break you will have the opportunity to informally meet representatives from the following sponsoring companies, who have solutions in the area of the conference.