As a partner with the business IT community, we are priveleged to be able to create, gather, and connect key communities of interest to solve common business, technology and organizational challenges. We are passionate about leveraging our broad industry contacts to give back to our client community. We’ve created several communities of interest in the past and present! Check out some of them below!  Registering for an Event?  Reserve your spot by registering here.

March 25, 2010 – Data Center and Cloud Computing Roundtable

The Economics & Technology of Hosting Services: Making Sense of the Options

Come participate in a Data Center & Cloud Computing Roundtable.  Hear  thought leaders from Carlson Marketing Worldwide, Kroll and enStratus discuss these timely questions and more.

• In today’s economic climate, what is the most cost effective mix of the following options to meet the current and future demands of the business —Construction, Colocation, Cloud Computing?
• Should I consider moving a portion of my existing traditional Data Center hosting services to the Cloud?  If so, which services and what type of Cloud?
• What is the current market pricing in the Twin Cities for hosting services options (Construction, Colocation and Cloud Computing)?
• What new trends should I be addressing in my near, mid and long term Hosting Services Strategy?  Are there non-traditional solutions I should be reviewing? What is real and what is hype?
• With new compliance and security regulations, how can I cost effectively ensure my hosting strategy meets the standards? (i.e. PCI-DSS and ARRA/HITECH/HIPAA)
• How do I ensure my hosting strategies align with the business requirements at the appropriate risk level?

Our Panelists include Jeff Kubacki, CIO of Kroll; Dave Zitur, CIO of Carlson Marketing Worldwide; George Reese of enStratus.  Click on the following link to register for this event, from 3pm-5pm, with a Networking Happy Hour following at Kips Pub in the Minneapolis Marriott West.

Performance Engineering Roundtables:

This community is focused on Capacity, Availability and Performance. Watch this space for future roundtables.  Expect a roundtable around the concept of “Operating in a Secured World: What Does Network Segmentation Mean to You?”.  Coming in Spring 2010!  Keep checking back here for details, or contact us if you have interest in this topic or would like to be involved.

Service Management Roundtable:

This community is comprised of IT executives, managers and practioners responsible for IT Service Management. Usually, community opinion leaders are recruited to share best practices and IT Service Management disciplines. Our last roundtable centered around Advancements in IT Request, Demand, and Relationship Management, and Service Catalog. It was a huge success, with speakers/panelists from Wells Fargo, UnitedHealth Group, and Allianz in attendance/participating.

Additional Roundtables in preliminary discussion/planning phase:

• Data Center revolving around cloud computing, Co-Location, and Company Owned Data Centers; dealing with cost, scaling and the delivery mix within your data center.
• Data Strategy/Governance, centering around CMDB, Security Frameworks, Monitoring Data, and the Authoritative Source of Truth

Interested?  have a suggestion about these two preliminary topics?  Send me a note!

Have a Roundtable you would like to see, or have a topic you think is a hot IT business industry topic? Let us know what you have in mind, we may have something in the works along some of the hottest topics in the industry already!  Watch this space for future roundtables.

Registering for an Event?  Reserve your spot by registering here.