Overview
It's no mystery why data center professionals keep coming back to Gartner's Annual Data Center Conference. For more than 25 years, the conference has given them real-world perspectives and strategies to transform their data centers.
In three and a half packed days we will cover servers, IT operations, storage, business continuity and disaster recovery. Our experts will also present a comprehensive look at best practices from throughout the data center field.
You'll get the drill down about servers and storage, including virtualization, consolidation, workload management, procurement, and major platforms. Gartner analysts will explain how you can increase agility and service quality while reducing costs.
As the pressure mounts on IT to improve the utilization levels of assets and reign in the labor component in budgets, the result is many new products being brought to market. We will analyze the risk and rewards in next-generation virtualization technologies - and share how to avoid creating new problems down the road - with the deepest coverage of virtualization we've ever had. We will also investigate emerging storage technologies designed to help data center executives manage, secure, backup and archive the burgeoning growth in data.
Learn what the future holds for those running Unix, Linux, Windows and z/OS server environments as we explore new management and operations technologies, processes and organizational structures designed to optimize the environment while maintaining critical business service levels.
Additionally we will provide business continuity and disaster recovery planners with the tools and information they can use to enlighten their senior executive team on the exposures if commitment and attention to this critical area is not increased. And as always - a few surprises!
In total we will have at least 30 senior Gartner analysts will participating in the conference, giving you an unparalleled opportunity to discuss your specific data center issues with the experts. Plus, as always, there will be plenty of opportunities to network with your peers.
Conference Chairs
- Mike Chuba
- Research VP, Stamford, CT
- Read Analyst Profile
- John R. Phelps
- Research VP, Ormond by the Sea, FL USA
- Read Analyst Profile
Q&A with Gartner Analysts Mike Chuba and John Phelps; Research VPs
Where’s your Data Center headed?
A delicate balancing act: immediate challenges vs. future opportunities Data center leaders must stay focused on the urgent, immediate needs of running a 24/7 operation while looking to the future, where new and emerging technologies will pose a different set of opportunities and challenges. In this Q&A, Gartner Data Center Conference Co-chairs Mike Chuba and John Phelps discuss the issues of growth, cost, process and future planning.
Q: When you talk about growth in the data center what exactly are your referring to?
A: The unending need to support an ever-increasing number of mission-critical applications. Business units always come up with new applications, which require a whole new series of decisions and actions– how do you keep them running at a competitive cost level, what’s the right level of security, what about quality of service, etc,. There are more mission-critical applications now than there were 5 years ago, and they’ll be even more 5 years hence. Meanwhile, the legacy workload doesn’t disappear. When it comes to the latest research and analysis on today’s burning issues, Gartner Data Center Conference 2007 delivers it all. Review our complete agenda – 6 tracks and over 60 sessions and register today at gartner.com/us/datacenter.
Q: Have the costs of running a 24/7 data center shifted significantly in the past few years?
A: Not too long ago, technology was the lion’s share of data center costs. Now it’s labor costs. And the question of the moment is how to reduce them. It’s imperative to make people more efficient – in effect, to raise the capacity per full-time employee whether it’s server, storage or transactions. The answer lies with automation. It’s an issue we fully explore in the IT Operations, Storage and Best Practices tracks.
Q: What’s one of the biggest process issues right now in the data center?
A: Business continuity and disaster recovery continue to rank as top priorities according to our latest surveys. A range of events from the growing number of worldwide terrorist attacks to Hurricane Katrina is driving expanded scenario planning, public/private sector coordination and an increased focus on legislating BC into business operations. Then there’s the growing realization that continuity plans should also be centered around people, rather than solely on assets. Our dedicated track on BC and DR provides tactics and strategies on how to implement sound business continuity plans.
Q: What does the conference offer in terms of future planning?
A: Many of the sessions in the IT Operations and Virtualization tracks look at how a real-time infrastructure is evolving today. Organic growth, the support of new applications, as well new business requirements make the realization of an optimum IT environment an even more daunting task. Yet it can be achieved. In fact, we‘re seeing some of the pieces come together now with virtualization.
