Workshops on Key IT Topics

Morning Sessions
9:00 AM-12:15 PM

Morning Session A: Microsoft Virtualization: Implementing Microsoft Virtual Technology

Microsoft has finally released Windows Server Hyper-V, its flagship virtualization hypervisor engine. They're late in the game with VMware having more than 10 years' experience in the field and Citrix running XenServer for more than a year. Is this first version of Hyper-V complete? Will it be able to compete without features such as VMotion and Distributed Resource Scheduling? Will it support the move to a dynamic datacenter, they way its competitors do? The one major advantage Hyper-V has over all of the others is that it is integrated into the Windows Server operating system. This means it can rely on all of the Windows Server technologies to provide complete dynamic datacenter services.

Morning Session B: Expanding Virtualization to Desktops and Applications


Many companies have already implemented server consolidation projects utilizing virtualization technologies. These projects have brought significant cost reductions to both capital and operational expenditures. Now companies are now looking to leverage server, desktop and application virtualization technologies to bring order to the long-standing chaos of enterprise desktop management. But what is desktop and application virtualization, and where do they apply in your environment? More importantly, how can your IT organization leverage these technologies to deal with the unrelenting daily demands of provisioning, administering, securing and supporting hundreds and thousands of corporate desktops and applications? During this workshop, industry analyst and virtualization experts from FOCUS Consulting will detail the technologies and solutions available for desktop virtualization, and application virtualization and streaming.

Afternoon Sessions
1:30 PM -4:45 PM

Afternoon Session A: Securing Virtualization: A Shortcut Guide to Virtual Security

Security is an issue that is pervading because it involves almost everything within your network. The object of security is to protect information. Determining the value of the information you need to protect will help you determine which level of security you need to apply to it. While protecting traditional networks is nothing new, protecting virtual infrastructures presents challenges that you may never have faced before. First, you need to understand which types of challenges will arise in the resource pool, the grouping of your host servers. Second you need to learn if unknown or unforeseen challenges will arise in the infrastructure you create to run your virtual workloads. This division of the infrastructure into physical and virtual machines demands new approaches and a serious reflection on security practices. Rely on this workshop to help identify new security practices and potential security issues as you move into the virtual datacenter.

Afternoon Session B:Advanced Virtualization Management and Automation

Once an organization has completed an initial server virtualization/consolidation phase, it becomes clear that a new breed of tools is required to better monitor, manage, troubleshoot and tune this new virtual infrastructure, in order to reap the full benefits of operational efficiency and IT agility. IT managers have to sift through the plethora of virtualization management solutions to identify which products are really ready for prime time, and then how to match their particular needs with available solutions. In addition, many shops with traditional Enterprise Systems Management solutions are wondering how new management tools integrate with/utilize what they already have.