Counting down to Cloud Expo west

Just back from Gitex (more about this later) and it is only one week to go to Cloud Expo west, which starts Monday November 1st. I will be speaking in track 4 “Real-World Cloud Computing & Virtualization” on Wednesday at 6:25 PM (the cloud is no 9-5 affair) about How Cloud and Virtualization Are Changing the Way Business and IT Will Interact.

After speaking about this in Prague in June I was invited to give my perspectives also at the event in Santa Clara. Only 5 months have passed, but in cloud terms that is a life time. Come by and check out what has changed. If you cannot wait for that, have a quick peek at the below conversation I had with Brian McKenna of Reed publishing at a recent event in London (which by the way is tipped as the location for Cloud Expo Europe 2011). It was after “The BIG debate: Outsourcing versus Cloud” a keynote panel with representatives from HP, IBM, Symantec and CA. For those keeping score: the cloud won!.

PS unlike in Europe I wont be the only speaker form CA Technologies at Cloud Expo, far from that. As you may have noticed (and unless you were on a cloud or under a rock I cannot imagine how you may have missed it) CA did no less then 6 cloud acquisitions recently (see CRN’s graphical review of these). Most of these acquisitions will be represented at Cloud Expo in some shape or form. That’s the thing with aquiring technology innovators, they are determined and industrious, so they do not change their plans to tell the world about their great ideas, just because somebody acquired them.

We however managed to convince most of them to share space on the expo floor. The fact that this also made them a partner in the party organised by 3tera did help (that’s another thing with innovative startup’s, they sure know how to throw a party, just ask the crowd that came to the 3tera party at VMworld Europe two weeks ago). I can’t disclose the theme of the party yet – as large companies like ours have strict rules on sharing insider knowledge – but can tell you it is Tuesday evening and you need to come by Stand 100 for a ticket. Hope to see you there, BTW the sessions by my colleagues are:

Is There a Right Way to Build a Cloud?
Prabhakar Gopalan, Mon. Nov. 1, 4:40-5:25pm

How the Cloud is Changing the Role of IT and What to do About IT
Jay Fry, Tue. Nov. 2, 2:25-3:10pm

Advanced Cloud Architectures: Security by Design with Zero-Trust Network Architecture
Peter Nickolov, Tue. Nov. 2, 5:35-6:20pm

How Cloud and Virtualization Are Changing the Way Business and IT Will Interact
Gregor Petri, Wed. Nov. 3, 6:25-7:10pm

Making cloud and equal partner in the enterprise (bootcamp session)
Jay Fry, Th.Nov.4, 9.55 – 10.40 am

Changing the Game: How to Get a Cloud Service Up and Running in Less Than 30 Days
Adam Famularo, Th. Nov.4, 1:35 – 2:05 pm