Cloud Computing Expo

Apache Hadoop: Now, Next, and Beyond at Cloud Expo New York

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:25:00 EST

In 2011, Apache Hadoop received tremendous attention for helping organizations cost-effectively capitalize on their big data. Hadoop is now disrupting the business of analyzing data. In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Eric Baldeschwieler, Co-Founder & CEO of Hortonworks, will look at the current state of the Hadoop project, lessons learned by deploying it at scale, and the roadmap for its future. Big Data Track attendees will learn about the exciting developments that have happened recently with the Apache Hadoop project, what is has already accomplished (including real-world examples), and what it is going to make possible in the future.

Cloud Expo New York Speaker Profile: Mark Hinkle – Citrix Systems

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:45:00 EST

Cloud Expo New York Speaker Profile: Dave Asprey – Trend Micro

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 06:45:00 EST

With Cloud Expo 2012 New York (10th Cloud Expo) just four months away, what better time to start introducing you in greater detail to the distinguished individuals in our incredible Speaker Faculty for the technical and strategy sessions at the conference... We have technical and strategy sessions for you every day from June 11 through June 14 dealing with every nook and cranny of Cloud Computing and Big Data, but what of those who are presenting? Who are they, where do they work, what else have they written and/or said about the Cloud that is transforming the world of Enterprise IT, side by side with the exploding use of enterprise Big Data – processed in the Cloud – to drive value for businesses...? We have technical and strategy sessions for you every day from Nov 7 through Nov 10 dealing with every nook and cranny of Cloud Computing, but what of those who are presenting? Who are they, where do they work, what else have they written and/or said about the Cloud that is transforming the world of Enterprise IT?

Cloud Expo New York: Cloud Computing and Healthcare

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 06:15:00 EST

What are the legal implications and consequences of cloud computing in the healthcare and high-tech sectors? What are the potential legal protections and solutions from the point of view of providers, suppliers and consumers? In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Paul Rubell, a Partner at Meltzer Lippe, will discuss the federal mandates that will encourage “meaningful use” of EHR technology by 2015, and what those mandates will require executives to understand about cloud computing and solutions for implementing cloud computing across large companies, corporations and not-for-profits in advance of federal mandates.

Cloud Expo New York Speaker Profile: Andreas Sundquist – DNAnexus

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 04:45:00 EST

With Big Data Expo 2012 New York (co-located with 10th Cloud Expo) just four months away, what better time to start introducing you in greater detail to the distinguished individuals in our incredible Speaker Faculty for the technical and strategy sessions at the conference...

Big Data Expo New York Speaker Profile: Eric Baldeschwieler – Hortonworks

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 03:30:00 EST

Cloud Expo New York: The Java EE 7 Platform - Developing for the Cloud

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 07:00:00 EST

The focus of Java EE 7 is on the cloud, and specifically it aims to bring Platform-as-a-Service providers and application developers together so that portable applications can be deployed on any cloud infrastructure and reap all its benefits in terms of scalability, elasticity, multitenancy, etc. The existing specifications in the platform such as JPA, Servlets, EJB, and others will be updated to meet these requirements. Java EE 7 continues the ease of development push that characterized prior releases by bringing further simplification to enterprise development. It also adds new, important APIs such as the REST client API in JAX-RS 2.0 and the long awaited Concurrency Utilities for Java EE API. Expression Language 3.0 and Java Message Service 2.0 will undergo an extreme makeover to align with the improvements in the Java language. There are plenty of improvements to several other components. Newer web standards like HTML 5 and Web Sockets will be embraced to build modern web applications.

Cloud Expo New York: Mobilizing Enterprise Applications for the Cloud

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 06:00:00 EST

2011 was a year of rapid adoption for public and private cloud services. Instant and on-demand server provisioning was the driving force behind the massive growth. On top, cloud server templates and script automation simplified application installation for simple and pre-defined application stacks, but have not targeted more complex enterprise application environments. In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, John Yung, CEO of Appcara, will discuss how 2012 will be the year for application integration and dependency management technologies to take center stage and accelerate enterprise application workloads into the cloud with single pane-of-glass view and control.

ScaleOut Software to Exhibit at Cloud Expo 2012 New York

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 09:15:00 EST

SYS-CON Events announced today that ScaleOut Software, a leading provider of distributed in-memory data grids and data analysis solutions, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 10th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 11–14, 2012, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York. ScaleOut Software develops and markets distributed in-memory data grid (IMDG) software for storing, managing, and analyzing data in the cloud, on-premise, and mixed environments. Its flagship product, ScaleOut StateServer®, accelerates application performance with linear scalability and enables automatic data migration to and from the cloud. Integrated map/reduce functionality provides intuitive, powerful data analysis.

Cloud Expo New York: The Dark Side of Virtualization

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 06:15:00 EST

Virtualization and private cloud are good for server consolidation, creating flexible environments, and saving IT budget dollars. A recent survey of 1200 companies with 500+ employees showed that 59% had server virtualization in production or pilot. But that doesn’t tell the whole story. In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Dave Asprey, VP of Cloud Security at Trend Micro, will explain the types of situations when you should consider not virtualizing some of your applications. Reasons range from technical to legal to IT ops to politics to finances. Attend this session, and hear a true IT insider’s guide to the truth about virtualization.

Cloud Expo New York: Cloud Security for Regulated Industries – CloudAudit

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 06:00:00 EST

Regulation of consumer and corporate data is increasing in response to the growing movement into cloud service offerings. Coupled with high-profile intrusions by groups such as Anonymous and Lulzsec, the necessity for a standard way to assess the security of cloud service providers becomes apparent. CloudAudit is an open standard developed by a Cloud Security Alliance working group that provides an open, common, extensible namespace and interface to enable cloud providers and authorized customers to automate audits, assertions, assessments and assurance for their cloud infrastructure, platform or application environments.

Cloud Expo New York: Goodbye PaaS 1.0, Hello PaaS 2.0

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 08:00:00 EST

The Platform as a Service (PaaS) market grew out of the fact that no other cloud solution addressed the ever-increasing complexity of managing and writing modern applications: no frameworks, libraries or APIs alone could tackle the sticky application engineering challenges. Unfortunately, PaaS 1.0 is what people are now seeing as strictly a “tool” to easily deploy apps to the infrastructure in a self-service way with little or no differentiation among offerings. However, in order for PaaS to reach its full potential and become the modern day abstraction layer for software delivery, we must enter the PaaS 2.0 phase. In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Sinclair Schuller, Co-Founder & CEO of Apprenda, will explain how organizations are currently using PaaS, where PaaS is evolving to, and highlight best practices to maximize the value of existing investments when adopting PaaS today.

Cloud Expo New York: Best Practices for Big Unstructured Data Storage

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 07:15:00 EST

Big Data has become very popular as what can probably best be described as “loosely structured large scale data”, i.e., data sets of relatively small files. In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Tom Leyden, Director of Alliances and Marketing at Amplidata, will explain what Big Unstructured Data is (lots of large, unstructured files) and how you build scalable storage infrastructures that can handle such volumes of data. The focus will be on Object Storage, which is the future storage paradigm that uses concepts of cloud computing to optimize the back-end storage for cloud applications.

Cloud Expo New York: The Growing Big Data Tools Landscape

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 06:45:00 EST

Hadoop, MapReduce, Hive, Hbase, Lucene, Solr? The only thing growing faster than enterprise data these days is the landscape of big data tools. These tools, which are designed to help organizations turn big data into opportunities, are gaining deeper insight into massive volumes of information. A recent Gartner report predicts that enterprise data will increase by 650% over the next five years, which means that the time is now for IT decision makers to determine which big data tools are the best – and most cost-effective – for their organization. In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, David Lucas, Chief Strategy Officer at GCE, will run through what enterprises really need to know about the growing set of big data tools – including those being leveraged by organizations today as well as the new and innovative tools just arriving on the scene. He will also help attendees gain greater insight on how to match the right data center tools to a specific enterprise challenge and what processes need to change to handle big data.

Cloud Expo New York: Cloud Architectures Require Scale-out Storage

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 06:15:00 EST

Building a cloud computing environment with on-demand access to compute, network, and storage resources requires an elastic infrastructure at multiple levels. Virtualization combined with x86 servers has transformed the way we scale out compute resources. Unfortunately, legacy Fibre Channel and iSCSI storage architectures are rooted in rigid mainframe-era designs, and are fundamentally mismatched with the dynamic, shared modern data center. In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Kevin Brown, CEO of Coraid, will discuss how Ethernet SAN architectures leverage off-the-shelf hardware, standard Ethernet, and distributed storage processing to enable a building block approach to scalability – no forklift upgrades required. With Ethernet SAN, capacity and performance both scale linearly with user demand without forcing users into a complex tiered storage environment to deal with price-performance tradeoffs. Now the same storage building blocks can be configured for backup or production, virtualization or database, enabling a flexible one-tier-for-all architecture. Learn how organizations today are already leveraging Ethernet SAN as the storage backbone of their dynamic public and private cloud architectures.

Cloud Expo New York: Big Data, Colocation and the Cloud

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:15:00 EST

As more enterprises are adopting clouds, the nature of cloud computing is changing. Previously, clouds were used to test applications or for non-mission critical applications. Today, enterprises are using clouds for cost-saving advantages and launching more mission critical applications that have defined performance needs. In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Eric Shepcaro, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Telx, will discuss how distributed computing has many advantages. It would allow organizations to have a cloud at various data centers instead of one cloud at one datacenter. Costs are reduced significantly since one big Internet pipe is not needed.

Open Data Center Alliance Named “Bronze Sponsor” of Cloud Expo New York

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 13:00:00 EST

SYS-CON Events announced today that The Open Data Center Alliance, an independent organization that gives stakeholders a voice in shaping the future of cloud computing, has been named “Bronze Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 10th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 11–14, 2012, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York. The Open Data Center Alliance was formed in 2010 as a unique consortium of leading global IT organizations. The Alliance is led by a steering committee of senior IT executives from BMW, China Life, China Unicom, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Lockheed Martin, Marriott International, Inc., National Australia Bank, Terremark, Disney Technology Solutions and Services, and UBS. Intel Corporation serves as the organization’s technical advisor. The Alliance came together to deliver a unified voice for emerging data center and cloud computing requirements. Its mission is to speed the migration to cloud computing by enabling the solution and service ecosystem to address IT requirements with the highest level of interoperability and standards.

Open Data Center Alliance to Co-Locate “Forecast 2012” at Cloud Expo NY

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:54:00 EST

SYS-CON Events announced today that the Open Data Center Alliance, an independent organization that gives stakeholders a voice in shaping the future of cloud computing, will co-locate its one-day event “Forecast 2012: Shaping the Future of Cloud Computing” on June 12 at SYS-CON's 10th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 11–14, 2012, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York. “Forecast 2012: Shaping the Future of Cloud Computing” will be open to Alliance members, partner organizations and any companies and organizations interested in addressing the most pressing challenges associated with transitioning to cloud computing. The event will include presentations by top cloud visionaries, classes presented by Alliance technical leaders and the latest industry advancements in delivery of solutions based on Alliance requirements. For more information, or to register for Forecast 2012, please visit Forecast 2012.

UShareSoft to Exhibit at Cloud Expo 2012 New York

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 08:45:00 EST

SYS-CON Events announced today that UShareSoft, provider of a cloud template factory, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 10th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 11–14, 2012, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York. UShareSoft offers a cloud server template factory and enterprise app store platform for self-service software onboarding to cloud. UShareSoft's UForge enables customers to automate the creation and management of cloud images and server templates, with full software governance. Additionally, UForge allows hosting providers to build their own dynamic app store for enterprise IT applications, quickly scaling their cloud services business and ecosystem. UShareSoft tools are helping hosting providers, ISVs and enterprises in their transition phase to the cloud. Headquartered in Europe, UShareSoft has an R&D center in Argentina and offices in the United States and Japan.

Riding the Enterprise Cloud Computing Wave of Change into the Future

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 08:30:00 EST

In her general session at the 9th International Cloud Expo, Jill Tummler Singer, CIO for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), discussed the key elements needed for a triumphant enterprise cloud computing migration and highlighted strategies (including security advantages found in the cloud) to ensure you don't crash and get caught in the riptide of this rapidly emerging technology. Jill Tummler Singer is CIO for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)- which as part of the 16-member Intelligence Community plays a primary role in achieving information superiority for the U.S. Government and Armed Forces. A DoD agency, the NRO is staffed by DoD and CIA personnel. It is funded through the National Reconnaissance Program, part of the National Foreign Intelligence Program.

The DNA of an Enterprise Cloud

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 07:45:00 EST

Cloud computing has gained momentum and is increasingly being embraced by enterprises of all sizes for application delivery. But the cloud itself is often its own worst enemy as performance, reliability, and the lack of enterprise level capabilities have led to obstacles in growth and adoption of this still promising infrastructure methodology. This is only exacerbated by an increasingly mobile and global world, one that is plagued with security concerns. In his Day 3 Keynote at the 9th International Cloud Expo, Willie M. Tejada, Senior Vice President & General Manager of the Enterprise Cloud Division at Akamai, discussed what Akamai is doing to solve the challenges you face in the cloud, and how Akamai's Intelligent platform can help you leverage both public and hybrid cloud infrastructures without sacrificing security or control.

CodeFutures Corporation to Exhibit at Cloud Expo 2012 New York

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 05:30:00 EST

SYS-CON Events announced today that CodeFutures Corporation, the company behind dbShards, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 10th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 11–14, 2012, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York. CodeFutures Corporation, the company behind dbShards, is a leading supplier of database performance and reliability tools that reduce the time and effort required to dramatically increase database scalability and performance. With dbShards, production environments gain scalability, high-availability and easy management of multi-terabyte databases through its Continuous Replication technology, providing an ideal foundation for fast-growing, 24X7 applications.

OpSource Named “Bronze Sponsor” of Cloud Expo 2012 New York

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 04:00:00 EST

SYS-CON Events announced today that OpSource, Inc., Dimension Data’s wholly owned enterprise cloud and managed hosting business, has been named “Bronze Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 10th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 11–14, 2012, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York. OpSource provides cloud and managed hosting solutions that enable businesses to accelerate growth and scale operations while controlling costs and reducing IT infrastructure support risks. Headquartered in Santa Clara, with operations in California, Virginia, the UK, Ireland, and India, more than 600 enterprises, service providers and Software-as-a-Service ISVs rely on OpSource's expertise, experience and cloud automation technology to operate high-availability, business-critical hosting environments. OpSource is a Dimension Data company.

Private vs Public vs Hybrid: Moving Beyond the Soundbites at Cloud Expo

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:15:00 EST

Endless discussion about the "right" cloud delivery model has not produced a consensus. Instead, the cacophony of discussion resembles a Fox News Show – all talking points and no enlightenment. The reality is that every IT organization will face a mixed deployment model going forward. The key issue is how that mixed environment will be implemented and managed as well as how to decide which environment is right for a given application. In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Bernard Golden, CEO of HyperStratus, will address the opportunities and constraints IT organizations confront as they chart their hybrid cloud future. It will discuss the deployment decision criteria IT organizations should follow as they decide where to install applications, and identify administrative tool requirements to make operating a hybrid cloud environment successful.

Unlock the Value of the Cloud

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 05:00:00 EST

Red Hat technology powers the world’s largest and most successful clouds. We have seen firsthand how to make cloud work for businesses and government organizations, both large and small. Companies are looking to cloud computing as a way to fundamentally change the economics of information technology and the agility of their enterprise. In his general session at the 9th International Cloud Expo, Vijay Sarathy, Director of the Cloud Business Unit at Red Hat, discussed how Red Hat helps transform IT service delivery, build production infrastructure and applications in the cloud where new levels of openness, interoperability and flexibility can be realized.

Big Data Gold Mine in Cloud Governance and Automation

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 03:30:00 EST

I've been working on Enterprise Cloud Strategy and in the course of this work identified some interesting and non-obvious opportunities in the Cloud. One solution I’ve examined is the well-crafted solution that is enStratus. enStratus has built a SaaS Cloud Management / Governance product focused on providing critical management, monitoring, governance capabilities tailored to the needs of the Global 2000 market, rather than the startup market. As I have worked with a current Fortune 500 client to identify Cloud solution components, my assessment is that enStratus is uncannily well designed for the enterprise market. Yet as a result of working with the enStratus team and product I found not just a management tool, but also a deeply insightful perspective as to the how and what of the Cloud.

The Enterprise Cloud Tightrope - Balancing for Success

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:00:00 EST

Implementing a successful Enterprise Cloud requires that the needs of all stakeholders be balanced and in harmony. Without this balance, it simply doesn't work, leading to failed projects - as a number of early cloud adopters have already discovered to their cost. Balance is not just about consultation, it's about selecting technology that works to address the needs of each stakeholder. In his Day 2 Keynote at the 9th International Cloud Expo, Pete Malcolm, CEO of Abiquo, demonstrated that not only is balance possible, but that with it, the Enterprise Cloud actually becomes greater than the sum of its parts, truly achieving both the individual goals of each stakeholder, and the collective goal of the organization.

An Enterprise Cloud for Business-Critical Applications

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:45:00 EST

For enterprise class cloud services, companies need a broad, comprehensive and flexible platform for their applications. Oracle recently announced the Oracle Public Cloud, which offers a broad set of best-in-class, integrated services that are elastic, secure and manageable, offering organizations choice in development and deployment of business critical applications. In his opening keynote at the 9th International Cloud Expo, Tyler Jewell, VP, Product Management & Strategy, Oracle Public Cloud, discussed how the new services can speed your application development and deployment time, while maintaining a low cost infrastructure and the ease with which you can access, use and manage them.

Has Cloud Computing Changed IT for the Better?

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 06:30:00 EST

fast-moving industry discussion panel at the 9th International Cloud Expo at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, November 7-10, Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan was joined by Dr. Rich Wolski, CTO and Co-founder of Eucalyptus Systems Inc.; Sheng Liang, CTO Cloud Platforms Group, Citrix Systems; Rick Nucci, Co-Founder and CTO of Dell Boomi; Paulo Rosado, Founder & CEO of OutSystems; Jeff Hobbs, VP Engineering, ActiveState; Brian Lillie, CIO at Equinix; and Vineet Tyagi, Head of Impetus Labs at Impetus Technologies. Some of the questions discussed were: are truly secure public clouds feasible, for example, or only private ones? and how exactly does a company or organization go about deciding whether to migrate only specific applications to the cloud - such as storage or security - or their overall IT infrastructure?

Mission-Critical Applications and the Cloud – Myth or Reality?

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:30:00 EST

The first generation of cloud computing focused primarily on low-cost personal cloud services along with some capability for application developers and non-mission–critical applications. The latest generation of cloud computing is now capable of addressing the needs of enterprise mission-crucial applications. Mission-critical applications of the enterprise require computing infrastructure that is secure, optimizes performance and is highly resilient. In his general session at the 9th International Cloud Expo, Henry Fastert, Chief Technologist and Managing Partner at SHI, highlighted how the latest cloud computing designs have evolved in terms of security, availability and overall service quality to meet the needs of mission-critical applications.

Many Clouds, Many Choices

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:45:00 EST

As enterprise adoption of cloud computing accelerates, organizations must have a strategy and plan for moving to the cloud. What should you put into public clouds? Should you create a private cloud? Should you use cloud applications, platform or infrastructure? How should organizations get started on the road to cloud computing? In his general session at the 9th International Cloud Expo, Rex Wang, Vice President of Product Marketing at Oracle, explored best practices for how organizations can move to cloud computing.

The Security Trope from a Best-Practices Perspective

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 10:00:00 EST

The ever-present raven of Cloud Computing called “security” cannot be ignored. In this Lunchtime Power Panel at the 9th International Cloud Expo, five prominent members of the Cloud Network of Women (CloudNOW) – Jocelyn DeGance Graham, Founder and President of Cloud Network Of Women (CloudNOW); Jill Tummler Singer, CIO for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO); Jamie Dos Santos is President & CEO, Terremark Federal Group; Kristin Lovejoy is the Vice President of Information Technology Risk for IBM; and Melissa Siems, Sr. Director, Cloud Security at McAfee – explored the security trope from a best practices perspective.

The Benefits of Moving to the Cloud

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:45:00 EST

Just how big is Cloud Computing going to get, and by what date? What, five years on, are already the main drivers? What are the most profitable cloud implementations that are already in use "under the hood" of businesses, agencies, and organizations? In which new areas are we seeing most attention being given to the benefits of moving to the Cloud? These and other key cloud questions were asked and answered in this very special "Power Panel" at the 9th International Cloud Expo at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, November 7-10. Moderated by Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan, parpticipants in this Power Panel included Treb Ryan, Co-Founder & CEO atOpSource; Mårten Mickos, CEO of Eucalyptus Systems; Dave Roberts, VP, Strategy & Marketing at ServiceMesh; Rodney Rogers, Chairman & CEO of Virtustream; and Warren Heffelfinger, CEO of GoGrid.

Where Does the Cloud Take Us Next?

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:30:00 EST

Where does the cloud take us next? In this fast-moving discussion panel at the 9th International Cloud Expo at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, November 7-10, Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan, along with Pete Malcolm, CEO of Abiquo; Lawrence Guillory, CEO of Racemi Inc.; Mårten Mickos, CEO of Eucalyptus Systems; and Darryl Brown, Director of Cloud, SaaS & Media at Telx provide their unique perspectives on how cloud computing is changing the way we work and live. Cloud Expo New York, June 11–14, 2012, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York, and Cloud Expo Silicon Valley, November 5–8, 2012, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading Cloud industry players in the world.

Integrating Enterprise Clouds

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:00:00 EST

While the cloud represents a revolution in IT strategy, it's not a cloud-only world, and IT leaders today are faced with the challenge of integrating cloud infrastructure with existing applications, technologies, networks and processes. In his general session at the 9th International Cloud Expo, Bill Lowry, Vice President, Cloud Services at Terremark, presented a practical and pragmatic guide on integrating clouds for the enterprise, focusing on how to take advantage of the power and potential of the cloud while minimizing disruption, waste and compromise.

Not Your Grandpa’s Cloud

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:30:00 EST

What are the differences between dedicated servers and cloud computing? Are dedicated servers a thing of the past? Or has dedicated hosting evolved alongside of cloud hosting? In his general session at the 9th International Cloud Expo, Duke Skarda, CTO of SoftLayer, explored the flexibility in the cloud environment. Duke Skarda joined SoftLayer in November 2010. As the CTO, he holds responsibilities for implementing, designing andenhancing the proprietary SoftLayer Infrastructure Management System (IMS).Prior to joining SoftLayer, he served as the Vice President of Information Technology and Software Development at The Planet. Previously, Mr. Skarda spent 10 years with Level 3 Communications in a series of increasingly responsible positions. As SeniorVice President for its Content Markets Group, he led Engineering and IT development for its Content Distribution Network platform and IT support systems. Mr. Skarda earned a BS in Computer Engineering and Electrical Engineering from The University of Texas at El Paso.

Rackspace Hosting “Platinum Plus Sponsor” Cloud Expo NY & Silicon Valley

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 09:15:00 EST

SYS-CON Events announced today that Rackspace Hosting, the service leader in cloud computing, has been named “Platinum Plus Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 10th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 11–14, 2012, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York, and the 11th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 5–8, 2012, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA Rackspace Hosting is the service leader in cloud computing, and a founder of OpenStack, an open source cloud operating system. The San Antonio-based company provides Fanatical Support® to its customers and partners, across a portfolio of IT services, including Managed Hosting and Cloud Computing. Rackspace has been recognized by Bloomberg BusinessWeek as a Top 100 Performing Technology Company and was featured on Fortune’s list of 100 Best Companies to Work For. The company was also positioned in the Leaders Quadrant by Gartner Inc. in the “2010 Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service and Web Hosting.”

Hackers Hackers Everywhere, Is My Public Cloud That Safe?

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:00:00 EST

Now that SSL has been compromised, fake certificates abound, and very sophisticated attacks are targeting private and public sector alike, enterprise adoption of cloud computing is coming under more scrutiny than ever. Nobody wants to be the next high-profile name in the news. In his general session at the 9th International Cloud Expo, Terry Woloszyn, Founder/CTO of PerspecSys Inc., introduced some of the key privacy, residency, and security areas to consider when adopting public cloud applications, and best practices for securing cloud to be enterprise-ready.

Identity Driven Security in the Cloud

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 08:00:00 EST

Security is moving to Trust Management and the Cloud is going to make it happen. In a connected world security is morphing quickly and we are no longer focused on disconnected servers, objects and things. In his general session at the 9th International Cloud Expo, Scott Chasin, CTO McAfee Content & Cloud Security, discussed how it's a relationship-driven world where security is now largely about the identity of everything and how we manage security is going to come down to identifying trusted relationships. Scott Chasin is CTO McAfee Content & Cloud Security. He is widely recognized as a pioneer and leading visionary in the cloud security industry, having pioneered the development and marketing of several SaaS-based messaging, collaboration and security-focused technologies. He is credited with the launch of the first Web-based email consumer service, and delivered the first IP-based commercially hosted messaging service supporting thousands of businesses and millions of end users worldwide. Chasin also created and moderated the first full-disclosure security discussion list, Bugtraq, and was a key contributor to the creation of the first open-source, one-time password system, S/Key. Prior to its acquisition by McAfee in 2009, Chasin served as CTO of MX Logic. He was also CTO and Chief Visionary for USA.NET, helping establish the company as one of the first global providers of Internet-based email and advanced messaging services.

Re-think IT. Re-inventing Business

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 08:30:00 EST

The world is getting smarter – more instrumented, interconnected and intelligent. At the same time, IT leaders are faced with the challenge to do more and support aggressive business growth, while reducing costs. Business leaders feel pressure to initiate new revenue streams, drive faster time-to-market for new services and meet changing customer expectations. With cloud computing, business and IT can create and deliver value in fundamentally new ways by removing IT boundaries, improving speed-to-market, and empowering users to drive innovation like never before. Next-generation cloud platforms and new “as-a-service” industry solutions are emerging to help shape this innovation. In his general session at the 9th International Cloud Expo, Rich Lechner, Vice President Energy & Environment at IBM, discussed the latest in these cloud technologies and how they enable companies to truly re-think IT and re-invent business.