Powering the Cloud 2013 The Event for Europe’s IT Professionals

FOR EUROPE’S IT PROFESSIONALS 2013 represents probably the most challenging year in their careers. Emerging from the longest and deepest recession any of them have experienced, at a time when technology is changing at a faster rate than at any time in history and when traditional business models are being challenged by the cloud, consumerisation and social networking, all this combines to create a confluence of forces that will alter forever the way IT is purchased, consumed and deployed.

With all this turmoil in mind, and the challenges and opportunities that represents, the organisers of the ‘Powering the Cloud’ events have built an agenda that addresses the most important issues that CIOs, IT managers and other IT professionals are facing as they adapt and evolve in this new era. Presenters this year have also been challenged to provide ‘thought leadership’ around the business issues that IT professionals are grappling with and show examples and best practice in deploying solutions to address them. This challenge has been enthusiastically embraced as Content Director for this year, John Chapman explains, “With so many changes happening in IT, all at the same time, we felt it important that all our presenters rose to the challenge and agreed to provide some leadership ideas, addressed the real business issues rather than just the technology and were prepared to answer delegate questions and explain and debate their views.”

“What has been so encouraging is the enthusiastic way that all the presenters I have spoken to have agreed to this challenge. I am now confident that 2013 will be a landmark year for the ‘Powering the Cloud’ events with presentations and debate that will set the agenda for the next few years for Europe’s IT professionals.”

This year’s major sponsors have been the first to meet the ‘thought leadership’ challenge by putting forward their top Corporate and European executives for our Keynote presentations to give their personal views on the challenges and opportunities represented by this new era of IT. “With Keynote talks titled ‘The Great IT Migration’, ‘The BIG DATA-centre Evolution’ and ‘Redefining the economics of Enterprise Storage’ I am confident that our major sponsors will set the standard very high
for this year’s event,” comment John Chapman.

“But that is only for starters. Over the next few pages we outline our Spotlight Sessions, Hot Topic streams, Debates, Sponsor updates and case studies, all which combine to make 2013’s ‘Powering the Cloud’ the most important event for Europe’s IT Professionals.”

“On behalf of the organisers, partners, sponsors, analysts and independent speakers I look forward to welcoming you to what will be a challenging but deeply rewarding two days of talks, debate and networking.”
The most important aspect of the ‘Powering the Cloud’ events is ensuring that delegates have a great experience and go back to their roles inspired with ideas to discuss with colleagues. To this end the organisers work with many partners to help structure the event and enrich the content with independent, educated viewpoints and opinions.

Strategic and conference partners
The ‘Powering the Cloud’ partners are headed up by the SNIA (Storage Network Industry Association) who as well as providing advice on the structuring the event are providing many of the speakers and session moderators. SNIA Europe works to advance the interests of the storage industry by driving the evolution and adoption of storage standards and technologies, educating the market and influencing relevant EU and national policies. Together with its associated organisations the FCIA (Fibre Channel Industry Association), STA (SCSI Trade Association) and The Ethernet Alliance they are providing many of the ‘thought leadership’ presentations across the Spotlight and Hot Topic sessions. Don’t miss this opportunity to ‘Meet the Industry Experts’ who will be discussing key storage technology trends at the SNIA Europe stand 180. These mini tech talks will touch on various hot industry topics.

Other partners providing speakers and running independent sessions within the event are BITKOM, CloudCamp, EuroCloud Deutschland, Vision Cloud and SANBoard.

Giving real depth and experience this year are presenters from industry bodies and associations such as the Cloud Security Alliance, Data Center Alliance, eco.de and Guide Share Europe.
Importantly for such a pan European event the organisers have worked closely with global analyst companies 451 Research, IDC and the Evaluator Group to ensure that the content addresses all the major issues that IT professional faces in their business roles. These organisations will be providing some of their most senior analysts as speakers to give delegates an insight into the wider dynamics driving today’s marketplace. They will also be moderating many of the Spotlight Sessions.

Completing our line-up of partners and supporters are many independent speakers who give balance and variety as well as in-depth experience. These include previous year favourites Josh Krischer and Benjamin Woo of Neuralytix.

Panels and debates
An important aspect of this year’s event is the opportunity for delegates to question speakers, give their own views on what they have heard and listen to presenters and analysts debate important issues that have been raised throughout the event.
During the Spotlight Sessions moderators at the end of each topic session will host a short Q&A session with the speakers and during the Hot Topic, sponsor update and case studies the speakers have been encouraged to allow time at the end of their talks to take questions from the audience.

Most importantly this year we will have 3 major panel debates:

Big data – big debate
Concluding the two day Big Data Spotlight Session, Josh Krischer will host a debate with speakers, analysts and sponsors to answer the question assess whether we have addressed all the issues around Big Data and given delegates some real ‘takeaways’ that will enable them to go back and address their Big Data projects with more knowledge, ideas and enthusiasm.
Managed Services
There is much debate about the role of the Datacenter, the Cloud and Hosting in our evolving IT world but very little about the business model of Managed Services, which is how much of these services and facilities will be consumed over the coming years.

To balance the vision of the future of IT the organisers of Powering the Cloud 2013 will be hosting a major debate on the issues surrounding the role, delivery model and relationships within Managed Services.
The debate will feature end users, vendors, hosting and service providers as well as systems integrators.
SNIA panel
Completing the Hot Topics session the SNIA will provide a panel of their experts to take questions from delegates and give their views on the major issues that have come up throughout the event.
With so many experts available no delegate should leave the event with questions unanswered.

The ‘Powering the Cloud’ events in 2013 are the most comprehensive conference of the year for Europe’s IT Professionals. An event not to be missed and an engaging experience that will enrich each delegates professional knowledge,” concluded John Chapman.

IT end user and channel partner can register for free with promo code: P3M13 at www.poweringthecloud.com

Spotlight sessions

Building on the success of the Spotlight Sessions in 2012 we have enhanced the depth and appropriateness of the content to give delegates a real insight into the business opportunities and potential that the cloud and new data center technologies now offer. The Spotlight Sessions are a combination of ‘Thought Leadership’ presentations, technology insights, market leading case studies and perceptive panel sessions addressing the reality of implementing technologically advanced solutions.

“The Spotlight Sessions are designed to give CIOs, IT Managers and IT professionals the broadest view of a key topic within their sphere of operations,” explained John Chapman. “We have picked 5 themes for our spotlight sessions which address issues that are challenging IT professionals and arranged for presentations, from industry experts and analysts that will give them the deepest insight into their opportunities and possibilities. Over the two days of ‘Powering the Cloud’ we hope that delegates are informed, educated and inspired by our Spotlight Sessions.”

Big data - An exploration of reality
Big Data is one of the hottest topics all organisations are trying to get to grips with as they try to make themselves more competitive. In this two day session we will delve below all the hype and myths around Big Data and explore the reality of what it is all about. Over the two days we will explore Big Data & Analytics, Big Data & the Cloud, Big Data & the Law, the technology supporting Big Data and will finish with a major debate on what Big Data means to organisations and the impact on IT infrastructures.

Securing your data
Our theme for day 1’s security focused Spotlight Session is that Data Security is no longer optional. Data that companies acquire, manage and secure is much different than it was even a couple of years ago and the variety of customer and internal data held is placing new demands on CIOs both from a pure manageability front but also from external compliance and regulatory demands. This Spotlight Session will address the latest developments in traditional data security technologies as well as exploring issues of security and the Cloud and the security of data that exists across the network, at branch offices and on devices.

All about the management
Our third Spotlight Session on Day 1 addresses probably the biggest issue facing IT professionals and that is how, as organisations run more and more complex applications across diverse Data Center and Cloud infrastructures, it is possible to guarantee first class performance, security and user experience.

No longer is IT management about monitoring hardware performance and service outages or automating the configuration of devices. In today’s complex IT environment management solutions are taking on a more holistic role enabling the CIO and their staff to pro-actively define, control and deliver a true business service. This Spotlight Session will look at the issues of modern IT management and what is available to the IT professional.

Enabling ‘new & old world’ enterprise scale applications
On day 2 we start to explore how IT professionals are supporting the latest applications in their datacenters that often involve highly interactive mobile devices, high volumes of multimedia data, IP telephony and their integration into old world ERP systems and office productivity solutions. In this Spotlight session our presenters will also address the feasibility of deploying ‘Tier 1’ Applications in the Cloud as organisations become more confident of the Cloud’s viability for running real Enterprise level applications.

Rethinking your data center architecture
Our final Spotlight Session addresses how organisations are rethinking their Data Center architecture to create more application aware and responsive IT infrastructures to cater for the new challenge of enabling a more agile business model. As the pace of change is accelerating, the need to support a whole variety of real time and interactive applications places unique demands on the IT department. So rather than implementing data center upgrades in a ‘piecemeal’ fashion maybe it is time to rethink the
whole of the data center in a more holistic manner.

Hot topics

To complement the business orientated Spotlight Sessions we have a series of Hot Topic sessions addressing the latest technology advances and developments.

“An important reason for IT professionals attending an event like Powering the Cloud is to keep themselves up to date with the latest technology, learn how organisations are implementing it and hear different views on best practice,” commented John Chapman.

“For 2013 we have divided our Hot Topics into 5 themes, the Cloud, Open Source, Solid State, Software Defined ‘X’ and Emerging Technologies. On each of these topics we have a variety of speakers to give delegates a range of views and opinions. And, just as with our Spotlight sessions, we have challenged all the presenters to address clearly the topic of their talk and enthuse and inspire their audiences.”

The Cloud
In the Cloud session of the Hot Topics stream presenters will address issues ranging from best practice in implementing a Private Cloud to what applications are
best migrated to the Cloud and what are
best left in the Datacenter. In the same session our speakers will address the implications to the IT department when an organisation starts to move its IT operations to the Cloud.

Open Source
Rapidly deploying applications on new data center infrastructure or private and public clouds using proprietary operating systems, databases and technologies can often prove very expensive in the long term. Is there an alternative to proprietary in the data center and the Cloud. Our two speakers in this session will claim there is an alternative
and give real world examples of open
source based data center and Cloud deployments.

Solid State
Flash and Solid State technologies are put forward as the answer to all our data center bottlenecks increasing the performance of applications from traditional ERP deployments to Big Data and HPC solutions.

Presenters in this Hot Topics stream will give their views on where best to deploy flash and Solid State technology within the data center, give customer examples of how it has improved operations and give insights on the latest technology developments.

Software Defined ‘X’
As the IT vendor community develop their products to make them more responsive to the explosion of new applications and the variety and velocity of new data types they make a great emphasis on how technologies have to be application aware and adapt to the changing nature of the applications and data they handle. In this Hot Topic session presenters will try to explain what Software Defined Storage, Software Defined Networking and the Software Defined Data Center is all about.

Emerging Technologies
In the final session of the Hot Topics stream we will have a broad spectrum of speakers looking at the evolution of the latest technology for the data center.

This will include as well as new emerging technologies the latest development in industry standards such as ‘Hot Trends in Fibre Channel’, ‘Advances through SCSI Express’ and ‘SAS: The Emerging Storage Fabric’.

Enriching the experience

FOR EUROPE’S IT PROFESSIONALS 2013 represents probably the most challenging year in their careers. Emerging from the longest and deepest recession any of them have experienced, at a time when technology is changing at a faster rate than at any time in history and when traditional business models are being challenged by the cloud, consumerisation and social networking, all this combines to create a confluence of forces that will alter forever the way IT is purchased, consumed and deployed.

With all this turmoil in mind, and the challenges and opportunities that represents, the organisers of the ‘Powering the Cloud’ events have built an agenda that addresses the most important issues that CIOs, IT managers and other IT professionals are facing as they adapt and evolve in this new era. Presenters this year have also been challenged to provide ‘thought leadership’ around the business issues that IT professionals are grappling with and show examples and best practice in deploying solutions to address them. This challenge has been enthusiastically embraced as Content Director for this year, John Chapman explains, “With so many changes happening in IT, all at the same time, we felt it important that all our presenters rose to the challenge and agreed to provide some leadership ideas, addressed the real business issues rather than just the technology and were prepared to answer delegate questions and explain and debate their views.”

“What has been so encouraging is the enthusiastic way that all the presenters I have spoken to have agreed to this challenge. I am now confident that 2013 will be a landmark year for the ‘Powering the Cloud’ events with presentations and debate that will set the agenda for the next few years for Europe’s IT professionals.”

This year’s major sponsors have been the first to meet the ‘thought leadership’ challenge by putting forward their top Corporate and European executives for our Keynote presentations to give their personal views on the challenges and opportunities represented by this new era of IT. “With Keynote talks titled ‘The Great IT Migration’, ‘The BIG DATA-centre Evolution’ and ‘Redefining the economics of Enterprise Storage’ I am confident that our major sponsors will set the standard very high
for this year’s event,” comment John Chapman.

“But that is only for starters. Over the next few pages we outline our Spotlight Sessions, Hot Topic streams, Debates, Sponsor updates and case studies, all which combine to make 2013’s ‘Powering the Cloud’ the most important event for Europe’s IT Professionals.”

“On behalf of the organisers, partners, sponsors, analysts and independent speakers I look forward to welcoming you to what will be a challenging but deeply rewarding two days of talks, debate and networking.”
The most important aspect of the ‘Powering the Cloud’ events is ensuring that delegates have a great experience and go back to their roles inspired with ideas to discuss with colleagues. To this end the organisers work with many partners to help structure the event and enrich the content with independent, educated viewpoints and opinions.

Strategic and conference partners
The ‘Powering the Cloud’ partners are headed up by the SNIA (Storage Network Industry Association) who as well as providing advice on the structuring the event are providing many of the speakers and session moderators. SNIA Europe works to advance the interests of the storage industry by driving the evolution and adoption of storage standards and technologies, educating the market and influencing relevant EU and national policies. Together with its associated organisations the FCIA (Fibre Channel Industry Association), STA (SCSI Trade Association) and The Ethernet Alliance they are providing many of the ‘thought leadership’ presentations across the Spotlight and Hot Topic sessions. Don’t miss this opportunity to ‘Meet the Industry Experts’ who will be discussing key storage technology trends at the SNIA Europe stand 180. These mini tech talks will touch on various hot industry topics.

Other partners providing speakers and running independent sessions within the event are BITKOM, CloudCamp, EuroCloud Deutschland, Vision Cloud and SANBoard.

Giving real depth and experience this year are presenters from industry bodies and associations such as the Cloud Security Alliance, Data Center Alliance, eco.de and Guide Share Europe.
Importantly for such a pan European event the organisers have worked closely with global analyst companies 451 Research, IDC and the Evaluator Group to ensure that the content addresses all the major issues that IT professional faces in their business roles. These organisations will be providing some of their most senior analysts as speakers to give delegates an insight into the wider dynamics driving today’s marketplace. They will also be moderating many of the Spotlight Sessions.

Completing our line-up of partners and supporters are many independent speakers who give balance and variety as well as in-depth experience. These include previous year favourites Josh Krischer and Benjamin Woo of Neuralytix.

Panels and debates
An important aspect of this year’s event is the opportunity for delegates to question speakers, give their own views on what they have heard and listen to presenters and analysts debate important issues that have been raised throughout the event.
During the Spotlight Sessions moderators at the end of each topic session will host a short Q&A session with the speakers and during the Hot Topic, sponsor update and case studies the speakers have been encouraged to allow time at the end of their talks to take questions from the audience.

Most importantly this year we will have 3 major panel debates:

Big data – big debate
Concluding the two day Big Data Spotlight Session, Josh Krischer will host a debate with speakers, analysts and sponsors to answer the question assess whether we have addressed all the issues around Big Data and given delegates some real ‘takeaways’ that will enable them to go back and address their Big Data projects with more knowledge, ideas and enthusiasm.
Managed Services
There is much debate about the role of the Datacenter, the Cloud and Hosting in our evolving IT world but very little about the business model of Managed Services, which is how much of these services and facilities will be consumed over the coming years.

To balance the vision of the future of IT the organisers of Powering the Cloud 2013 will be hosting a major debate on the issues surrounding the role, delivery model and relationships within Managed Services.
The debate will feature end users, vendors, hosting and service providers as well as systems integrators.
SNIA panel
Completing the Hot Topics session the SNIA will provide a panel of their experts to take questions from delegates and give their views on the major issues that have come up throughout the event.
With so many experts available no delegate should leave the event with questions unanswered.

The ‘Powering the Cloud’ events in 2013 are the most comprehensive conference of the year for Europe’s IT Professionals. An event not to be missed and an engaging experience that will enrich each delegates professional knowledge,” concluded John Chapman.

IT end user and channel partner can register for free with promo code: P3M13 at www.poweringthecloud.com