Organisations are facing unprecedented growth in data
storage, with capacity requirements projected to increase by at
least 50% a year in the medium term.
At this month's Storage
Expo 2007 you can find out about all the technologies designed
to help organisations cope with this data growth. The show features
more than 100 storage suppliers and an extensive free education
programme, with 62 experts speaking in the keynote conference and
technical and business strategy seminars. The event enables
organisations to compare products and services and assess how to
incorporate the latest storage technology into their IT
infrastructure.
At the keynote conference industry experts will look at the
business advantages that sound application of storage strategy can
deliver for an organisation.
Storage practice has traditionally been driven by the push of
regulation, legislation, and business continuity rather than the
pull of sound business practice. The impetus is changing from push
to pull, with the emphasis increasingly on business efficiency,
utilisation of intelligence, process management and productivity
benefits. The keynotes at Storage Expo reflect this change in the
data storage landscape.
Impact ofMifidon data storage
PJ Di Giammarino, chief executive at think-tank JWG-IT, and Phil
Higgins, chief executive at networking provider Brookcourt, will
participate in a keynote on how the Markets in Financial
Instruments Directive (Mifid) will affect data storage.
From 1 November, all UK financial firms will have to meet the
requirements of the directive, in what is expected to be one of the
largest compliance exercises the financial sector has seen in a
decade. Mifid will govern all transactions from core investment
businesses, as well as some activities of retail banks and other
organisations that have financial transaction elements.
2007 is a significant year for compliance, and this session will
explore the impact on companies of the latest swathe of regulations
coming into force. Information to date indicates that many
organisations are behind the adoption curve, with potentially
catastrophic consequences for future trading operations. A survey
by Storage Expo found that 70% of firms do not have the mechanisms
in place to destroy regulatory-expired records.
According to Di Giammarino, Mifid introduces a fundamentally new
requirement for record keeping, in which the financial institution
is accountable for storing and retrieving both structured and
unstructured data in the context in which it was created.
This moves the European Union towards a world where the
financial institution is guilty until it can prove its innocence
and the customer can, and will be encouraged to take the bank to
task and prove that they are executing its business both
effectively and efficiently across long periods, he said.
Life-cycle risk management
Bob Plumridge, director at the Storage Networking Industry
Association, will tackle the issue of information lifecycle risk
management at Storage Expo. His keynote will look at the cycle from
creation to destruction of data, and the application and value of
information as it moves through cycles of importance.
The changing nature of data equity comes with a corresponding
risk profile, and data is especially vulnerable at certain phases
in its lifecycle. This session will explore the nature and
advantages of lifecycle management, and look at the vulnerability
profiles and ways that information can be exploited and protected
in the modern business.
Business continuity
Michael Faber, vice-chair at the Institute of Operational Risk,
will chair a panel on business continuity data protection
strategies. Long gone are the days when business continuity was
synonymous with disaster recovery. Today's business continuity
practitioners are using data storage and retrieval techniques that
provide not just remedial cover, but solid state advantages for
everyday data handling.
The implementation of business continuity practices can provide
huge benefits for productivity, efficiency and governance - not
just in the event of a disaster, but also in the day-to-day
functioning of IT services. In this session, the techniques that
can be employed to ensure that intellectual property is protected
and available under all circumstances will be explored by a panel
which includes Ian Wood, head of IT at the Wildfowl & Wetlands
Trust, Sagar Vadher, head of IT at Iwantoneofthose.com, and Najaab
Ahmad, technical projects and support manager at Sunlight Service
Group.
Business intelligence
John Abbott, chief analyst at The 451 Group, leads a panel that
investigates how organisations can use storage to power
business intelligence and process management.
Charles Curran, storage consultant at nuclear research lab Cern,
and Jim Lewis from the Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit will take
part in this panel, which will debate whether business process
management is about technology or people.
The greatest source of information for the efficient functioning
of an organisation is organic - and by ensuring that data storage
is effective, you can exploit this for business advantage. This
session will explore the concepts of business intelligence and
business process management, and look at the ways in which sound
data storage can be used to ensure an organisation is utilising all
of its data assets.
Governance and liability
Jon Collins, service director at analyst firm Freeform Dynamics,
will discuss governance, liability and responsibility from the
often overlooked perspective of getting rid of information.
Studies show that 66% of companies do not have processes in
place to get rid of regulatory-expired information. The problem is
that this data requires money to support, opens up potential for
misuse and investigation, and without removal will continue to foul
up storage facilities for an organisation.
The softest consequence of failure to control the archiving
schedules for data is that it requires continued investment to
support its existence the hardest consequence is that it
demonstrates weak IT governance and lays an organisation open to
prosecution or fines. Ensuring that data is stored, archived and
destroyed in accordance with legislation and regulations is both a
technological and a process-driven problem.
Jon Fell, partner at law firm Pinsent Masons, and Greg
Gawthorpe, technical operations team leader at CMC Markets, will
take part in this session to cast illumination on some of the
techniques that can be employed, and the consequences of poor data
death control.
Green IT
A survey of 335 companies by Storage Expo found that 95% of
organisations are investing in IT infrastructure to reduce their
carbon footprint. Green IT is an issue that everyone is
discussing at the moment, with storage facilities and datacentres
consuming vast amounts of power.
Computer Weekly editor Brian McKenna will pick the brains of
experts from the largest data storage companies in the world for
the keynote on why this trend is not sustainable, and how
organisations are looking to reduce the footprint of their
electronic activities.
Peta projects
Peta projects involve the global application and delivery of
information. Scientific, financial, military, media and government
organisations typically need to store vast amounts of data.
Although the type and application of this data changes from
organisation to organisation, handling huge amounts of data drives
best practice - delivering efficiency, productivity and
environmental returns.
James Hayes, editor of Information Professional Magazine, will
reveal why these types of organisation provide an insight into
storage on a grand scale and what practices can be employed by
other organisations.
David Lipsey, IS infrastructure manager at Ordnance Survey, and
Steve O'Donnell, global head of datacentres and customer experience
management at BT, will pass on their experience of what is involved
in working on peta projects that store data on a global scale, and
discuss what issues have been overcome to ensure the effective
control of this data.
Deal or No Deal
Deal or No Deal, the toughest challenge in data storage, returns
to Storage Expo this year. It involves six companies - Acronis,
Gresham Computing, Neverfail, Pillar Solutions, Promise, Quantum,
Quest Software - being given three minutes each to pitch their
product to a panel of experts, buyers and analysts, before facing a
barrage of questions.
Intimidating, educational and interesting, this is the forum for
companies that believe that their product is the best in the
market. At the end of the keynote, the panel will give their
judgment - and there will be only one company that emerges
victorious.
VMware ESX
Dennis Zimmer's book on VMware ESX is a best seller in Germany,
with a five-star rating on Amazon.de and more than 2,500 copies
sold in six weeks. The book, now translated into English, describes
how to manage and set up a VMware EXX Server environment. Visitors
to Storage Expo can meet the author on stand 350 and pick up a free
copy (worth £40) compliments of Pillar Data Systems.
Seminar programme
There is a packed seminar programme at Storage Expo presented by
some of the leading lights in the storage industry. The programme
is divided into two streams - technical and business strategy.
Seminars in the technical stream include:
● "From Server Virtualisation to a Simpler Storage Environment"
by Dennis Zimmer, virtualisation consultant, Pillar Data Systems
EMEA
● "Storage Efficiencies for Messaging and Collaboration tools in
the Enterprise" by Paul Hargreaves, consulting engineer, Network
Appliance
● "Back-up on Mount Everest" by film maker Ben Clowes and
expedition organiser Tom Clowes
● "The Phases of File Virtualisation" by Darren Soothill,
Rainfinity technology consultant, EMC
● "The Next Big Thing" by Hu Yoshida, vice-president and chief
technology officer, Hitachi Data Systems.
Business strategy seminars include:
● "Increasing the Productivity and Reducing the Environmental
Impact of your Datacentre" by Ian Bond, consulting systems
architect, Cisco
● "Green Your Storage" by Thomas Langkjaar, EMEA manager
Enterprise Storageworks, Hewlett-Packard
● "The Green Datacentre: BT's Learning in Reducing Carbon
Footprint" by Steve O'Donnell, global head of datacentres and
customer experience management, BT
● "Simplifying Storage for Business Continuity" by John
Coulston, head of enterprise and solutions marketing, Dell UK &
Ireland.
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