Guest Contributor: James Vincent, Deputy Director, Conference Operations
This week Gartner told their audience at the Gartner Symposium that cloud computing isn’t wishful thinking anymore. It is time for IT people to be prepared to examine what cloud computing will do for and to their environments. Cloud computing is not just the latest distraction anymore; it is a serious IT computing and enterprise direction. There are complications and risks involved with the different “flavors” of cloud computing that makes it very hard to understand them all and move forward quickly. The general idea of cloud computing is very enticing to CTOs and CIOs, and if yours have not already approached you about it, they likely will sooner than later. They may not have all the technical details of what it will take for a viable enterprise cloud computing environment, but they will expect you to build it, make it work, maintain it all and get it done faster than ever.
Virtualization will be playing a big role in making cloud computing environments robust and cost effective, from the storage and networks to the servers themselves. Even though virtualization has been going on for a number of years now, there are still a lot of complex issues to grasp in order to set up a practical enterprise offering. Cloud computing is going to force IT staff to embrace virtualization of resources in order to take advantage of rapid provisioning, sharing of real hardware, consolidated and simplified management and reduced capital expenses.
Reduce capital expenses. Lower the bottom line. Do more with less. Do any of these sound familiar? They should if you have been in IT through at least the last year, as the entire world economy has been challenged. Are things getting better? I really believe that is still up for debate but I do know that most large corporations are still watching their spending very closely. They are holding back on spending capital for IT that will not reduce overall expenses in some way. That makes it very hard to replace older equipment that could actually be costing more to maintain than to buy new, or to start new initiatives within the datacenter.
How does SHARE play into all of this? The very exciting thing is that SHARE is right in the middle of it all! As a member of the Conference Operations team I am one of the many folks involved in developing the conference themes. The SHARE 2010 themes are Enterprise Virtualization & Cloud Computing along with IT & the Bottom Line. SHARE is very fortunate to have an exceptional group of volunteers that put together relevant and timely sessions to help you solve your challenges in enterprise computing. In just under two weeks, the SHARE Conference Operations and Program Council will attend a scheduling summit to review all the ideas and sessions that will address the conference themes.
SHARE is definitely the place to be to see great sessions that will help you answer your tough IT issues. Another advantage about attending SHARE is your opportunity to interact with your peers and subject matter experts from around the world. It is really amazing to see how many questions and issues are solved by informal in-between-session conversations in the hallways!
SHARE will be at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle, WA on March 14-18, 2010 and
at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, MA on August 1-5, 2010.
Mark your calendar now and plan to attend SHARE in 2010 to be prepared for the future of IT computing!