A Taste of IT: Scheduled Seminars and Speakers

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October 2009

A Taste of IT

Technology First invites you to participate in the 3rd Annual Taste of IT Forum.

This forum will model the success of previous years’ events, providing IT professionals throughout the Southwest Ohio area the opportunity to choose from a variety of IT presentations. The forum and presentations are designed so the region’s IT community can meet and interact.

Breakfast Keynote: SharePoint Collaborations Now and in 2010! Ascendum Solutions
Teresa Grote will review and discuss the current landscape and challenges of using SharePoint 2007 and give practical examples of how many companies are using SharePoint to collaborate more effectively. Grote will also discuss how to govern this collaboration, avoiding sprawl and its associated risks (discussing an example from a fortune 500 retailer). Grote will then spend the remainder of her time presenting select topics on what is new in SharePoint 2010 including:

• “Cloud” computing
• Geneva – The Switzerland of Security
• How to prepare for 2010 – what you should be consider now!
• Access - Brush up your Access skills, it’s not going away
• Infrastructure requirements (Active Directory, servers, Operating Systems)

Teresa Grote brings over 30 years of experience as a CIO, Practice Director and Consultant developing and using innovative technology solutions to eliminate business problems. Grote is currently the Practice Director for Composite Solutions at Ascendum Solutions (an international consulting company that develops technology inspired business solutions) and is the Director of the SharePoint Center of Excellence across all participating Vora Venture companies.

Luncheon Keynote: Norton Healthcare's Experience and Success in Virtualization and VDI, Norton Healthcare
Norton Healthcare is the largest healthcare provider in Kentucky. As such, Norton’s Technology Services teams have worked very hard to architect and design highly redundant and reliable systems that fulfill the needs of their clinicians. Virtualization has been a large part of their design and architecture and consequently allowed them to achieve their goals. Brian Comp will present their virtualization roadmap, including VDI, their successes and lessons learned.

Brian Comp has served as Associate Vice President of Technology Services for Norton Healthcare based in Louisville, KY since April of 2007. Through Brian and his team’s leadership, Norton Healthcare has accommodated storage growth of >50% year after year while reducing incremental costs. Norton Healthcare has virtualized nearly 50% of their data center and 20% of their desktop environment. Currently the teams are working to further develop business continuity/disaster recovery of the production data center by architecting and building a second data center in the Louisville region. Their long term vision is to provide their end users with 99.999% system uptime by leveraging their investment in the second data center.

Maximizing Backup Storage with Deduplication, DataDomain
Data deduplication is a space saving technology that is being used to dramatically improve storage efficiency in backup environments. This technical session will address the question of what data deduplication is, how it is performed, and the architectural choices available today. The topics covered include inline and post-processing approaches, fixed length and variable length segmentation, as well as the availability and integrity of deduplicated data, and the complementary use of virtualization and replication technologies.

Cost Containment Through Innovative Software Engineering, Ross Group
Technology Innovations that support your business niche expertise is a strategy that is particularly important in this difficult economy. Everyone is budget cautious,” is an excerpt from an Information Week article that interviewed Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center CIO James. This presentation will discuss ways, using custom software development tools and techniques, to develop applications that improve the way a business enhances its niche. It will discuss the “Make or Buy” decision and when each is appropriate. It will discuss project planning and management to ensure no surprises. And it will discuss a fixed budget approach to delivering value for the organization.

What is Keeping Your Company from Implementing VDI? SIS
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) has been one of the most talked about technologies over the past two years, but many companies have been hesitant to implement. While the benefits of VDI have been highly touted, businesses still have questions that must be resolved before moving forward with a VDI strategy. This session will help answer those questions, as well as deconstruct some of the misperceptions surrounding VDI. Come learn how your company can start building a sound VDI strategy! Don't forget to bring a business card- door prize drawing will be held after the presentation!

Software as a Service (SaaS): What's the Impact? NCR
The SaaS model has emerged as a viable computing model for solutions. So what is different for IT shops in terms of:

• The model characteristics
• Where might the model fit and where might it be disruptive?
• The impact on internal processes
• Lessons learned from recent adoption

Mark Royce is an Enterprise Architect at NCR, responsible for driving and governing NCR's Enterprise Architecture, developing technology strategies, strategic planning and benchmarking.

Scan Directly into SharePoint, Bringing You One Step Closer to a "Digital Office," Document Solutions
Do you have paper documents that need to be stored in SharePoint? Learn how to :

• Scan documents directly into the correct Document Library, folder or subsite
• Create a searchable PDF with metadata for easy search and retrieval
• Browse SharePoint folders live from a Xerox Multifunction Device
• Save time and money
• Enhance office productivity, sharing and security

Managed Print Services, PEQ Services and Solutions
Reduce costs and better utilize IT resources with Managed Print Services (MPS). An MPS program can manage a broad range of printing and copy activity – from ink and toner replacement to maintenance and repair. Attendees of this session will learn how an MPS program can help reduce costs by optimizing document output fleets and freeing a company’s IT resources from dealing with mundane print related tasks, allowing them to focus on revenue generating activities.

Going Beyond Bar Code Scanning With Your Mobile Computer, Intermec
This presentation will highlight the multi modal use of mobile computers allowing companies to Do more with less – via the availability and use of multiple imbedded technologies in single platform i.e. image capture, scanning, VOIP, Speech, RFID, IP video.

VDI Best Practices, EMC
EMC will discuss best practices as it relates to implementing VDI, from both a technology standpoint and cost savings perspective. We will share considerations that need to be taken into account when deploying VDI, and we will discuss our methodology.

TBA, Dell

Social Media and Cloud Computing, Sogeti

Creating an Optimized Infrastructure Through Virtualization, IBM
You need to innovate and have the capability to deploy new applications into the market quickly – but are limited by existing infrastructure problems - server sprawl, low utilization rates and management complexity. In this session, IBM will discuss how virtualization and consolidation address these issues by lowering the complexity and cost of management while bringing flexibility, responsiveness and availability to your IT infrastructure.  

Collaboration: Right Tools, Right Time, Right Place to Boost Productivity and Profits, IBM
In order for your business to grow, you need to be able to communicate and collaborate with people, quickly and easily. Collaboration solutions help businesses gain control over their information assets to create new intelligence capabilities for their organizations. In this session, IBM will share practical ways collaboration technologies can help you increase knowledge sharing, productivity and cost savings across your company.  

Citrix Virtualization Cuts Desktop TCO by 40%, Citrix and XLN Systems
Citrix virtualization gives IT the flexibility and speed needed to keep pace with a dynamic, changing world. That's the power of virtualization. It's enterprise computing, simplified.

Archiving & eDiscovery for Storage Optimization, Litigation Support and Compliance, Symantec

• Archiving & retention management – indexed and optimized storage
• eDiscovery – platform approach to discovery of ESI
• Importance of centralized management of eDiscovery

SharePoint - Take Your Intranet to the Next Level, IBS
Let us take you in to some of the scenarios we have help clients with recently. We’ll look to SharePoint for:

• Creating unique, eye-catching designs that improved SharePoint utilization
• Developing Records Management solutions
• Capturing data through e-mail, scanning, and faxing
• Automating manual processes
• Enabling customer self-service by allowing customers to view their financial information and make changes
• Integrating SharePoint list data with reports
• Presenting legacy data by presenting insurance policy holder information
• Creating Knowledge Management systems leveraging the company’s information and expert knowledge

Answering the "iPhone for Business" Question, Ray & Barney
Apple has changed the market for mobile phones with the introduction of the iPhone, but businesses have been slow to formally support the iPhone as a mobile computing platform.  We will provide analysis on whether the iPhone is right for your business, the IT tools that can be leveraged to manage iPhones, potential cost savings when using iPhones, and iPhone business productivity solutions.

Windows 7, CDW
CDW will bring an expert from our Professional Services team to spend with you discussing Windows 7. This is a great opportunity to speak with a resource that has been using and reviewing Windows 7 for a significant period of time.

Highlights include:
Listen to a non-biased professional discuss the features and benefits of Windows 7
Learn tips and techniques to take advantage of all Windows 7 provides
Gain early visibility into Windows 7 as you plan for future deployments of Windows 7 (whether as a bulk migration, or as new systems arrive with the Windows 7 image from your OEM)
Ask questions of a Windows 7 expert
Bonus Discussion Includes speaking to a Licensing Expert on Microsoft 2010 Product Roadmap and Licensing Changes

Target audience is IT team members responsible for product evaluation, technology migrations and refreshes, workstation technical support, and those that are curious what all the hype is about!

Business Intelligence and Predictive Analytics, Sinclair Community College
This session will explain in detail what Business Intelligence and Predictive Analytics are, the difference between the two, how then are used. Business Intelligence and Predictive Analytical concepts and technologies will be explored for the audience.

SharePoint 2010: What do 'Geeks :)' (Practicing Technologies) Need to Know? Ascendum
Jonathan Mast, a Practice Architect in Composite Solutions, will review and discuss what practicing technologists need to know about SharePoint 2010 including:

• New and enhanced ‘out of the box’ features and capabilities
o Developer tools
o Authoring tools
o Workflow capabilities
• Using SharePoint 2010 as a development platform
• Exposing 2010 on the internet/extranet
• How to prepare for 2010 – what can we do now to existing applications to prepare for the upgrade!

Virtualization Enables the Cloud: IT as a Service, VMWare
Dave Schroeder, Director of Systems Engineering at VMware, will review the current state of virtualization and its benefits related to business agility, cost reduction, and the increasing focus on Green IT. In addition, he will discuss how virtualization has evolved into the enabling platform for internal and external cloud computing, promising a better way to manage IT applications from the desktop to the data center.

Outsourcing Software Projects: Assuring Success, Lighthouse Technologies
How big will this project be? How much will it cost? How long will it take? … AND the Million Dollar question -- How do I get what I expect? So often software development fails to deliver because of lack of measurement – it was not scoped accurately up front, nor tracked accurately en route, and therefore could not be judged accurately at the finish.

Lighthouse will discuss using industry benchmarks to set cost and schedule expectations for your leadership, establishing RFPs for success, what contract type is best (FFP, T&M, etc.), productivity measures and reporting you should expect from your vendors, tips for maintaining visibility throughout the lifecycle, minimizing your testing costs, and warning signs of impending doom. Throughout the presentation, Lighthouse will discuss real-world examples of managing offshored projects to “CMMI-5” companies and best practices that are also very effective for internal development teams.

Taste of IT Tech Source Seminars are intended to raise the IT IQ of Ohio's technology professionals.

Exhibiting Companies include:
Kastle Technologies
SMS proTECH
Uptime
DONet
City of Dayton
CityWide Development
Peak10