Agenda Tracks

Delivering Lower TCO and Higher Quality of Service Through IT Operations Excellence
IT operations is the key to delivering business benefits of lower TCO, managing and improving quality of services and lowering business risk. In this track we examine the increasingly complex and changing infrastructure, services (in-house, outsourced and cloud) and application environment and propose organizational, process (e.g. ITIL v3) and technology solutions to deliver business benefits rapidly without disrupting the business. We also examine the trends and best practices in IT operations. This here-and-now focus on IT operations management trends and disruptions provides practical advice on achieving excellence and contributing to business value now.

Some session highlights:

• IT Operations Management Scenario: Improving Your IT Business through Metrics CMDB Best Practices: What's Everyone Else Doing?
• ITIL Version 3 Gains Momentum in Transforming IT Operations
• Improving IT Service and Support Maturity
• Is IT Change Management Academic or Transformative?

Virtualization: Preparing for the Second and Third Phase
Most organizations are now familiar and are using some level of virtualization technology for servers, storage, and clients in their data center. However, the increasing heterogeneity of technology and diversity of vendors in the data center introduces new challenges. In this track we help organizations plot their journey towards the next steps in virtualization across various technology platforms, vendors and help identify how and where this will be the foundational technology for real-time infrastructure (RTI) and cloud computing. We will also examine trends, critical success factors, major pitfalls and best practices that will provide organizations the agility needed to manage rapid change without breaking the bank. Along with examining the newest technologies we look at the management challenges virtualization brings with it in areas such as operations, disaster recovery, and security.

Some session highlights:

• Virtualization With VMware or Hyper-V: What You Need To Know
• After the Dust Settles: Maximizing Your Virtualization Investment
• Managing Users and Applications in a Virtual World - An Achievable Paradox?
• Hosted Virtual Desktops: Issues, Implementations, and Infrastructure
• Using Virtualization for Server Consolidation in the non-x86 World
• Securing the Next Generation Virtual Data Center

Servers and Operating Systems: Tumult and Turmoil
2009 has proven to be one of the most eventful years in the server market with profound implications for 2010 and beyond. The proposed acquisition of Sun by Oracle as well as the entry of Cisco into a market where it now may be competing with vendors who formerly were partners. At the same time, HP and IBM are fiercely competing - both protecting their own installed base while aggressively pursuing competitive displacement. Microsoft remains a powerful force, yet faces challenges as to the pace of migration to its latest software releases. This track examines the competitive landscape of the complex server marketplace, including the Windows, UNIX, Linux, and z/OS markets, and the latest server developments and technologies addressing these concerns.

Some session highlights:

• The Future of Server Platforms in the Data Center
• 2010 - Return of the Operating System Wars
• The New Math: Oracle + Sun = ?
• Is the Luster Off Linux?
• Blade Servers and Compute Fabrics - Revolution or Evolution?

Storage: What are we going to do with all this data?
Application, users and business partner increasingly expect more, if not all, data to always be available and to be available quickly. This is leading to a dramatic increase in the amount of data that is being kept online. As demand for storage continues to explode, organizations must wrestle with the very real issues of data security, archiving, retrieval, sharing, and cost management. We will provide insight and advice into managing the storage explosion and provide best practices in procuring, deploying and managing storage across the enterprise. We will assess the practicality and timing of emerging storage architectures.

Some session highlights:

• Storage Trends in the Virtualized Datacenter
• Automating Storage Management - Fewer People, Fewer Vendors?
• Best Practices for Modernizing Your Data Life Cycle Plan
• Unlocking the Value of Emerging Storage Technologies: From Thin Provisioning To Cloud
• SSD: Super Strategies for Deployment

Maintaining the 21st Century "best in class" Data Center
A decade into the 21st Century data center managers are not only facing traditional data center facility issues but are being hit with a list of new challenges. The growing interest in green IT initiatives, the obsolescence of data centers based on power and cooling issues, and the impact of virtualization are just a few of the new concerns. Even just measuring the efficiency of their data centers is a daunting task. Data center managers are continuing to grapple with cost, technology, people, location, and environmental issues, while continuing to deliver a highly available, secure, flexible server infrastructure as the foundation for the business's mission-critical applications. This track provides new insights into power and cooling solutions, greening the data center, and facilities considerations.

Some session highlights:

• Emerging Trends in Data Center Design: Modernizing the Beast
• Obtaining Cost-Effective Data Center Facilities
• The Datacenter Container - When and Where Does it Make Sense?

Business Continuity Management and Disaster Recovery: Achieving World Class Business Resilliency
In the past year, at least one-third of organizations have had to put their DR plans into action. Yet in tough economic times, BC/DR budgets are under pressure and the opportunities to test are being limited. This track will help attendees assess their current state of recovery readiness and improve their DR management maturity in ways that are economical and achievable, and select the right BCM and IT disaster recovery technologies and services. We will also analyze technologies and provide best practices for delivering high availability.

Some session highlights:

• A Recovery, Continuity & Resiliency 5 Year Scenario
• Best Practices for Continuous Application Availability
• DR Economics 101
• Building Resiliency via Co-Location and the Cloud

Cost Optimization / Best Practices
This "all-encompassing track" delivers a well-rounded assortment of best-practice presentations on a diverse set of topics, which are of critical importance to data center and IT operations executives. In light of the 2009 economic pressures, this track will have a heavy emphasis on cost reduction and cost optimization strategies across the data center and IT Operations.

Some session highlights:

• IT Operations Cost Optimization - Now Is The Time
• Strategies for Server Cost Optimization
• Cost Optimization through IT Operations Management Tools Evaluation and Consolidation

Cloud Computing Virtual Track: How Will Data Centers Weather This Storm?
Cloud computing has been the hottest industry search term on gartner.com in 2009. We will integrate the implications of cloud computing across the data center in this year's agenda and have identified those sessions in each track which will provide a perspective on this topic.

Some session highlights:

• Private Cloud Computing and Virtualization
• Cloud Storage Services - Cheap Tier or Risky Savings?
• Cloud Computing Management - Making Sure Mountains Aren't Hiding in the Mist

Visit Agenda Builder for more details on:

• Gartner Analysts
• Conference Sessions
• Keynotes
• Recommended sessions for CIOs and for data center professionals in the financial services industry and the public-sector
• An exhibition showfloor with leading technology and service providers

Analyst/User Roundtables

Analyst/User Roundtables: Tap into sound advice for challenging times. Facilitated by Gartner analysts, these highly informative sessions offer the chance to learn directly from other participants' experiences. These sessions provide a peer-to-peer forum for sharing experiences and challenges on topics such as:

• PC Virtualization
• Government Agency Recovery and Continuity Management: Challenges and Opportunities
• Supply Chain Availability Risk Management
• Green IT and the Data Center
• Developing Effective Service Level Agreements
• iSCSI in the Enterprise
• Architecting for Extreme Availability
• Business Continuity Management and Its Relationship to Operational Risk Management
• Cloud Infrastructure Services
• IT Infrastructure & Operations: Cost Reduction in the Public Sector
• Application Performance Management
• IT Infrastructure & Operations: Consolidation Best Practices
• Shape the Evaluation Criteria for the Next Magic Quadrant on IT Event Correlation and Analysis
• Increasing IT Business Alignment Through Communications and Metrics
• IBM System z Specialty Engines
• Server Provisioning and Configuration Management: The Journey to RTI
• ITIL Implementation Best Practices and Lessons Learned
• Cloud Computing: Managing the Next Wave
• Hosted Virtual Desktops
• Increasing the Quality and Decreasing the Cost of the IT Service/Help Desk
• Using Virtualization Technologies in Your Disaster Recovery Strategy
• Virtualization in the Unix World
• Best Practices in Data Center Design
• Backup/Recovery Modernization
• Deploying Storage for Virtualized Servers
• Recovery in the Cloud
• IT Service Catalogs
• CMDB: It's Not Too Late to Get It Right
• Server Virtualization: The Move to Mission Critical
• Successful Strategies for Virtualization in the Public Sector
• Archiving for Cost Reduction and E-Discovery
• Oracle's Acquisition of Sun: Business and Technical Considerations Going Forward
• Contract or Construct - You need more compute but how will you acquire it?
• The Challenges of IT Modernization in the Public Sector
• Virtualization of External Storage

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