Surveys by industry analysts have found that three out of four IT departments have implemented or are planning to implement virtualization.  An additional analyst survey found that of those that are currently using virtualization, 45 percent of new server deployments within the new year will be virtualized.

 Virtualization of IT infrastructure and applications promises the following benefits:

•   Desktop Virtualization (VDI) can significantly decrease maintenance and support costs

•     Consolidation of servers and storage can achieve significant cost savings

•     Equipment can be maintained with less effect on the availability/functionality of applications

•   Virtualization offers a logical, rather than physical, view of consolidation of computing and    data, allowing IT to replicate or relocate workloads from one virtual environment to another

•     Business needs can be prioritized

•   Service levels can be improved

But what is it, how does it work and what are the real benefits and pitfalls to watch out for?

This conference is designed for:  Enterprise IT professionals who are trying to understand how virtualization can help their organization as well as individuals who are learning how to refine their current virtualization implementation.

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Conference Program

 

7:30am - 8:30am - Registration and Continental Breakfast

 

8:30am -10:00am

Campbell Pilafas

How to Leverage Virtualization/Cloud Computing as a Business and Technology Strategy for 2009

Dean Campbell, Principal Consultant, Hitachi Data Systems

Gary Pilafas, Director of Product Strategy and Planning, Hitachi Data Systems

 

In the current turbulent economic environment, how technology is used becomes even more important. Companies are faced with the following business challenges:

• How to cut costs

• How to use resources more efficiently

• How to reduce the carbon footprint

In this session attendees will learn where and when the following types of virtualization make sense as well as tangible business benefits:

• Server

• Storage

• Application

• Desktop

Focus will also be placed on Cloud Computing.

 

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

 

10:30am -11:30am

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) – When and Where it Makes Sense and How to Effectively Implement

James "Scot" Curry, Systems Engineer, Symantec Corporation

 

VDI or Virtual Desktop Infrastructure has generated great interest in the industry because it provides many of the benefits of traditional desktops as well as some added new benefits.  But does it make sense for everyone?

 

In this session attendees will learn:

• When does VDI make sense?

• VDI advantages over local desktops and Server Based Computing (SBC)

• Local desktop advantages over VDI

• SBC advantages over VDI

• A framework for desktop planning that fits your organization

• How to effectively implement VDI assuming it make sense for your organization

11:30am -12:30pm

Christensen

How to Make Storage and Server Virtualization Work Together

Server virtualization drives an organization’s need for increased storage efficiency and I/O performance.  This results in virtual storage pools that can deliver disks to more application servers which are deployed as needed.

 

But how do you make this work and what techniques should you use?

 

In this session, attendees will learn the interplay between storage and server virtualization and how to design a plan that makes efficient use of each.

 

12:30pm - 1:30pm - Luncheon 

 

1:30pm - 2:30pm

Susina

From the Desktop to the Datacenter – Best Practices for Securing/Recovering Your Entire Virtual Infrastructure
Steve Susina, Director of Marketing, Laurus Technologies

 

Virtualization has gained massive acceptance through most elements of the IT infrastructure.  But the more elements that become virtualized the more potential exists for security challenges.

 

In this session attendees will be provided with a security and recovery framework that covers desktops, servers and storage.

 

Attendees will learn strategies for plugging potential security holes and revising their backup and recovery procedures with solid tactics that work.

 

2:30pm - 3:00pm - Refreshment Break 

 

3:00pm - 4:00pm

Wilson

Virtual Performance: How to Identify and Resolve Critical Gaps that Affect Efficiency and Stability of Your Virtual Environment

Rob Wilson, Service Director - Virtualization Practice, Glasshouse

 

The key drivers for virtualized systems are performance and availability management.  In a recent study by industry analysts, most respondents concluded that reducing downtime and business continuity improvements are their main reasons for deploying virtualization.

 

But what areas should you measure to help resolve gaps in efficiency, stability and performance?

 

In this session attendees will be provided with a plan that includes five areas to measure.

• Insight into the complete topology of each IT service

• Monitoring your physical infrastructure

• Monitoring your virtual infrastructure

• Monitoring operational services

• Measuring performance of physical and virtual components from the data center and from end-user experiences

Attendees will also learn how to avoid pitfalls by understanding the hidden costs in measuring your environment.

Klauser Shi Sumar Schmidt

 

4:00pm - 5:00pm

Taking it to the Bank: How Organizations Have Implemented Virtualization to Save Money & Increase Business Efficiencies

Moderator:  David Klauser, Director, Transcendent, LLC

Panelists include:

Joshua Shi, Security Architect, TransUnion

Annur Sumar, Senior Infrastructure Engineer, DUFF & PHELPS, LLC

Nick Schmidt, Senior Manager, Information Technology, CDW and other enterprise IT professionals

 

In this session, attendees will learn from a panel of seasoned virtualization implementers, from enterprise IT departments, on strategies and tactics that they have used.  They will also share their experiences on how they avoided various pitfalls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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What You Will Learn

 

In this one day conference we will cut through the clutter and hype and provide enterprise IT professionals with in-depth information on:

• Understanding the different definitions of virtualization and what they mean to your organization

• What are the real versus promised benefits

• How to leverage virtualization for the extended enterprise

• How to understand the different approaches to server, storage and application and desktop (VDI) virtualization

• How to implement an assessment of virtualization readiness

• How to put your plan in action

• How to avoid pitfalls in planning and implementation

 

Conference price: $219 per person.