Cloud Expo Silicon Valley 2011
The ninth annual Cloud Expo is set to take place November 7-10, 2011, in Santa Clara, CA. It is supposed to be a huge enterprise IT event that covers the entire scope of the cloud computing spectrum.
What is Cloud Expo?
First announced on February 24, 2007, Cloud Expo started in New York City with 450 delegates. This year, it has grown to include over 5,000 delegates and over 100 sponsors and exhibitors. In two short years, the term ‘cloud’ has become integral in computing and software. It’s expected that by 2012, over 50,000 delegates will participate in Cloud Expo.
According to Greg O’Connor, CEO of AppZero, a pioneer in the virtualization of enterprise applications, Cloud Expo reflects the direction of innovation in cloud computing. O’Connor says,
“Over the years, I’ve seen the focus at cloud Expo evolve from tire-kicking curiosity to laser-like search for practical ways to turn good ideas into good business. This year, out product leapfrogs the evolutionary pace with a sensible and innovative approach to moving enterprise applications – anywhere.”
Who is Cloud Expo for?
Cloud Expo is designed to benefit anyone involved with or hoping to be involved with cloud computing on an enterprise level. Past attendees included:
- Senior technologists (e.g. CIOs, CTOs, VPs of technology)
- IT directors/managers
- Network and storage managers
- Network engineers
- Enterprise architects
- Communications and networking specialists
- Directors of infrastructure
- Business executives (e.g. CEOs, CMOs, CIOs, presidents, VPs, directors, etc.)
- Business development
- Product and purchasing managers
What’s on the menu?
The following is a list of themes and topics that will be discussed in over 200 sessions planned during Cloud Expo:
- SaaS, PaaS, IaaS
- Storage as a Service
- Cloud standards
- Green IT
- Application portability
- Automation
- High-performance computing
- Cloudsourcing
- Grid software
- Cloud-delivered testing
- Performance monitoring for cloud applications
- Vendor lock-in vs. open cloud
- Web-scale computing
- In-cloud data encryption
- Hadoop as a service (Haas)
- Cloudbursting
- Multi-cloud world
- Eclipse and cloud computing
And many other innovative topics.
Some Highlights
While Cloud Expo has plenty to offer, some particularly interesting topics of discussion during Cloud Expo are discussed in this section.
Ross Mason, founder and CTO of MuleSoft is scheduled to discuss the top ten pitfalls of P2P integration, in order to avoid repeating these mistakes in the cloud. Issues include:
- Building vs. buying
- Quickfire integrations
- Embedding integrations in the application
- Creating dependencies between applications
- Assuming functionality
- Independent consultants
- Risk of black box solutions
Joe Seibel, CFA, CFO and VP of strategic development at Hexagrid is set to present in Cloud Expo. Seibel is going to present on:
“… how building and owning a cloud is not as difficult as some of the bigger vendors would like you to think. I will be showcasing some of our new Unovie cloud solution and showing how cloud brings business back to a time when technology wasn’t a burden… we hope businesses consider how much more productive [they] would be if IT just worked so you didn’t have to worry about the complexities of keeping the lights on and instead could just flip a switch to continue your progress.”
Another presenter of interest is Ciaran Dynes, the senior director of product management, in the application integration division at Talend. His presentation focuses on integration of hybrid applications and architectural challenges. According to Dynes,
“Enterprises going to the cloud need to deal with heterogeneity issues – more specifically, issues linked to a hybrid environment. Integrating on-premises systems, applications deployed in a private cloud, in the public cloud, and Software-as-a-Service systems causes numerous challenges due to the complexity of the architecture.”
Summary
This article talks about the upcoming Cloud Expo (November 7-10, 2011) in Santa Clara, CA. It provides a brief history of the event, from its beginnings as a small exposition to what it represents now, for cloud computing innovators. The article lists some interesting themes and topics to be covered during Cloud Expo and takes a closer look at some presenters of particular interest.
CCSK Exam Preparation
In preparation for the Certificate of Cloud Security Knowledge (CCSK), a security professional should be comfortable with topics related to this post, including:
- Provider selection (Domain 8)
- Technical support (Domain 8)
- Differences in S-P-I models (Domain 10)
