Cloud Connect offers several flexible passes to choose from when registering. Here are my top 8 reasons (in reverse order) why you purchase a Cloud Connect All Access Pass:

8. Free Lunch! Nom nom nom

7. Make the most of your Cloud Connect experience by joining any of the following receptions or networking events.

6. Expo: See what’s new, learn what’s cutting edge and identify technology must-haves for your business.

5. Vendor Sessions

4. Keynotes: Learn from industry experts, peers and providers all sharing their insights, case studies and strategies – hear from PayPal, VMware, General Electric, Cisco and more.

3. Cloud Connect offers a variety of comprehensive workshops on both standards and emerging trends from recognized thought-leaders in the cloud space.

2. Conference Sessions: Learn about the latest cloud computing innovations at the Cloud Connect Conference—including Big Data, Infrastructure, Cloud Security, and more.

1. Save $300! Register with priority code SMBlog and save up to $300* on your Interop All Access or Conference Pass!

Lock in an All Access Pass for the best value and receive behind the scene access to Cloud Connect!

Cheers,

Jason

Feel free to follow me on Twitter for more inside Cloud Connect updates.
*Discount calculated based on the on-site price and not combinable with other offers. Offer good on new registrations only. Prices after discount applied: All Access: $2,099.00 Conference: $1,699.00, Workshop Pass: $799.00, Expo Plus: $150.00, Expo Only: Free

Tags: adoption big data CIO Cisco cloud adoption cloud computing cloud connect IaaS PayPal VMware

IT professionals today are dealing with a lot of challenges to make sure that their department is running in an efficient and productive manner. Staying up with the latest releases of products, putting out small fires within their organization, keeping their data centers cool and of course the cloud, which is constantly hanging overhead. LOB executives want to make sure their organization is prepared for the future in terms of IT productivity and the words they keep hearing are: The Cloud! I’m pretty sure Sys Admins cringe every time those words are mentioned, but they do know it is an important aspect to their IT framework.  However there are so many types of cloud computing deployment models to consider, that it can make your head feel like a cloud. Here are a few examples of cloud computing deployment models that are out there right now: Continue Reading »

Tags: adoption Architecture cloud cloud adoption cloud computing cloud connect IaaS PaaS private clouds utility computing

Our editors at Network Computing recently published an interesting Comparison of Infrastructure-as-a-Service Providers. This extremely helpful buyer’s guide includes information on 17 of the top IaaS vendors in the market and includes a features matrix of more than 60 decision points to help you make the right decision for your business.

Our own Cloud Connect and Everest Group Research shows that companies are increasingly looking at public IaaS options with 31% of our survey respondents indicating they already use public IaaS and an additional 49% indicating near and long-term plans for adoption.  So what’s driving the move to public IaaS?

Network Computing writes:

The IaaS product category has taken off because moving computing capacity to the cloud allows companies to focus on their core competencies rather than worry about buying, deploying and maintaining hardware. IaaS is why Instagram sold at a $1 billion valuation with only 13 employees, and why Pinterest served nearly 12 million monthly unique visitors with only 16 employees. For many companies, IaaS — and public cloud services overall — can yield significant benefits, but with an ever-growing number of providers, it can be difficult to know which will be the best choice. This comparison will help IT professionals make a more informed decision about which IaaS vendor to select. –Joe Masters Emison

This is also a topic we’ll explore in-depth at the upcoming Cloud Connect Conference in Silicon Valley including this newly added workshop on Amazon Web Services:

Amazon Web Services Training: Jumpstart Your Cloud Computing Knowledge Base

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the pioneer of cloud computing and its unstoppable growth dominates the industry. If you want – or are under pressure — to begin using AWS, this workshop is for you. Both fundamental and advanced AWS services are discussed during the workshop, ensuring that you gain a complete overview of the AWS service. The instructor will provide a live demonstration of the AWS system and management console during the workshop to allow you to see the power of AWS. The workshop is presented in a highly interactive fashion to address any questions you have about AWS.

Be sure to download the guide and we’ll see you at Cloud Connect Silicon Valley!

Tags: Buyer's Guide cloud cloud computing IaaS Network Computing

Cloud Computing was supposed to usher in an era of computing on demand. However what we have today is a mix of the old and new – difficult to scale compute resources and billing models that penalize consumption based billing, both of which are only as granular as a preset server size and hourly or yearly based billing.

In this upcoming Cloud Connect webcast we’ll review how we got here, where the architectures of our applications are and how they fit to today’s cloud. We’ll also look at common IaaS packaging models, billing models and how new innovations are driving a more “true” cloud model and how future application architectures will take advantage of the next generation cloud computing architectures. We will discuss how to optimize cloud architectures to maximize infrastructure and control costs for today’s and tomorrow’s cloud computing platforms.

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Time: 11:00 am PT/2:00 pm ET
Sponsored by ProfitBricks
Presented by Cloud Connect
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Join Joe Weinman, noted cloud-computing expert and author of Cloudonomics and Pete Johnson, Platform Evangelist at ProfitBricks for a lively discussion and practical takeaways on cloud architectures and cost modeling.

*** Register now for this free webcast ***

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Presenters:

Joe Weinman, Author, Cloudonomics and Senior Vice President, Telx

Pete Johnson, Platform Evangelist, ProfitBricks

Moderator:

Steve Wylie, General Manager, Cloud Connect

Tags: architectures cloud computing cloud connect IaaS infrastructure ProfitBricks

Many consider cloud computing as a shortcut, an IT path that uses technology to wire around the need to plan.  Architecture and design are big parts of traditional plans.  Without a sound foundation of good architecture and design best practices, your cloud computing project will fail.  This is true for traditional projects as well as for your cloud computing strategy.  Many are finding this out the hard way as cloud computing projects begin to ramp up. 

Architecture and design come in two core patterns: Those that integrate the use of cloud computing services, either PaaS, IaaS, or SaaS, with existing enterprise IT systems which extend those systems to the platforms of the clouds.  Or, there is the second pattern, those that actually build private, community, or public cloud services for use within a single enterprise, a community of users, or perhaps become public cloud computing providers themselves.

There are a range of cloud computing startups with unique solutions that require specialized approaches to cloud computing concepts including multitenancy, virtualized and managed resources, as well as advanced security solutions.  New ground is covered each day, and the approaches to architecture and design in the world of cloud computing continuously evolve.

Now is the time to get smart around the right and the wrong ways to design and build clouds.  Understand best practices, and, yes, learn and borrow from architecture and design practices from days gone by.  SOA and existing application and enterprise architecture approaches and techniques have proven themselves in the enterprise, and are now proving their value as we extend those architectures to public, private, and hybrid cloud computing.  In short, we’re converging what’s best with the existing architecture approaches and techniques, with what’s emerging in the world of cloud computing. 

So, what are the proper ways to design, build, and leverage cloud computing systems?  What are the steps to success?  What are the emerging best practices?  At Cloud Connect, we’ve put together a track that covers a range of topics relating to the right and wrong ways to leverage, design, and build cloud-based systems and infrastructure.  This includes advice from those currently in the trenches who make cloud computing work for the Global 2000 and government, to those who will soon fight to make cloud computing work for their clients, employers, and/or investors. 

Sessions that will guide you through this process include my session on “How to Get Cloud Architecture and Design Right the First Time,” where I walk you through the basics of design and architecture as applied to cloud computing.  Moreover, there is Bernard Golden’s session on “Cloud Applications: New Techniques for Developers,” including how to deal with elasticity and scalability. 

 If cloud computing is in your future, you need to start here.  With a bit of planning, and some good architecture and design disciplines, you can do amazing things.

Tags: Architecture cloud computing cloud connect cloud performance summit design IaaS PaaS SaaS SOA