Sponsored by SAS Institute, Inc.
February 7, 2006
One Montgomery Street, 34th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94104
Phone:  (415) 421-2227

NOTE:  Building Entrance is 120 Kearny Street

  AGENDA

8:30 ‑ 9:30      Registration and Continental Breakfast

               Speaker: Frank Kettenstock, MonoSphere Inc.

End users insatiable thirst for computer storage is growing exponentially as new applications generate more and more data.  In most data centers, storage needs on open, distributed systems have been growing at about 50-60% per year.  As a result, spending on storage infrastructure has become a larger and larger part of the total IT hardware budget, typically between 40%-50%.  Despite the large budget expenditures, utilization of storage continues to be less than 50%, meaning organizations are buying more than twice as much storage as they are actually using.  This presentation will address the need for systematic capacity planning, what a solution should look like, and the benefits gained from implementing a rigorous process.

10:45 - 11:45    Scalability on a Stick

               Speaker: Dr. Neil Gunther, Performance Dynamics Company

How can you accurately gauge application scalability BEFORE deployment?  You know it's going to hurt if you don't, and hitting reverse-thrust after deployment usually singes your customers as well as you. You already have a load-testing lab, you say. But how many virtual-user licenses can you afford? Even if you're flush with capital expensing, most people (even experts) use the word "scalability" without defining it precisely, let alone quantitatively. If you can't quantify it, you can't guarantee it.

In this talk Neil will not only QUANTIFY scalability, he will show you an entire testing methodology---he calls it Virtual Load Testing (VLT) that requires no more than a spreadsheet and some measurements you might already have lying around. It doesn't come any easier than that. And this is not some simple-minded curve-fitting game either. It's rigorously based on a queuing theorem of his from 2002 http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/cs.DC/0210017, which has recently been validated by simulation. VLT is not only Guerrilla-style capacity planning, it's more accurate than anything a financial planner does!  Oh! In case you're wondering, the answer is, yes. Virtual load testing applies to multiprocessors (SMP), multicores (CMP), clusters and J2EE.  Crikey, it's UNIVERSAL, mate!

11:45 ‑ 1:15    NCCMG Business Meeting/Lunch sponsored by SAS - plus ** SAS Technical and Product Presentation **

                        Update and Demonstration from SAS - SAS® IT Intelligence – Beyond BI™ for IT

What new capabilities are available in the SAS solution for IT? How will this simplify my job duties? How will this increase the value of IT to my organization? Answers to these questions and others will be addressed in this update on SAS IT Intelligence.
IT Intelligence is the hindsight, insight, and foresight to optimize the impact of IT on the organization. It is the difference between just managing IT and optimizing it. SAS IT Intelligence enables Resource Optimization, Service Optimization, Financial Optimization, and IT Performance Optimization to deliver the right services to the right people at the right time for the right cost to allow IT to evolve from supplier, to partner, to trusted advisor.

1:15 - 2:15      Scalability on a Stick……continued

                        Speaker: Dr. Neil Gunther, Performance Dynamics Company

Neal continues his talk on scalability and Virtual Load Testing.

2:30 - 3:30      Survivor – the Corporate Jungle

Speaker:  Denise Kalm, Cybermation Inc.

The IT world has changed. With job losses exceeding 400,000 in the last four years, survival in this New Age requires much more than just putting in a good day’s work. The tools and strategies you need include: career assessment, ‘managing up,’ personal public relations, networking and much more. Learn how to outwit, outplay and outlast the competition – to thrive, instead of just survive.