2005 Breakout Sessions

Day 1 - Breakout Selection

IBM
In this general breakout session, the presenter will provide an overview of IBM’s current product offerings and future technology roadmaps. This session will provide an opportunity for you to ask specific questions on IBM platform products.

Turtlecase Media Transport and Storage by Perm-A-Store
Alan O'Regan/Ken Schneider
The Perm-A-Store team will engage the group in a dialogue on current issues in media storage and transportation. They will present new products and products that are currently in development. You will get a chance to inspect, drop and roughhouse these new products that Imation’s R&D team is also in the process of testing. This is an opportunity for the EUC to provide feedback on new storage containers as well as identify additional storage needs and requirements.

Government Regulations
This session is dedicated to the storage challenges we face in light of recent legislation and regulatory changes. In this EUC session, we will cover Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and other SEC and governmental regulations in more detail, but more importantly, what they mean to data center managers and IT storage professionals today. We'll expose security risks especially in the practice of selling your old and obsolete cartridges. This session will help you identify ways to prepare your operation appropriately and avoid common pitfalls.

Day 2 - Breakout Selection

StorageTek
Tom Maiorano, Director, WW Customer Marketing
In this general breakout session, the presenter will provide an overview of StorageTek’s current product offerings and future technology roadmaps. This session will provide an opportunity for you to ask specific questions on StorageTek platform products.

Media Lifetime and Retirement Strategies
Data retention continues to make headlines. Data centers are expected to retain more information with an expectation that it can all be retrieved quickly and accurately. Understanding the dynamics of magnetic media and other factors that touch your data center, will help you run your operation more smoothly. This session will dig into the key factors that impact media usage, performance, storage and transportation - how to get the most out of your operation and from your vendors.

Topics will include:

· Expected media life (archival)
· Expected usage life by format
· Tape error controls
· Usage life of storage containers
· Environmental hazards and concerns
· Software variances

Storage Optimization and Offsite Opportunities
Using the right tools for the right job--sounds simple right? Understanding the demands of your storage applications, performance criteria and maintenance requirements will lead to selecting the right tool for network or enterprise storage requirements. There are clearly two classes of “tools” (hardware/media) that are designed for vastly different applications. By selecting the appropriate tools for your application, you are optimizing your investment and may avoid overspending on initial acquisition costs or replacement and maintenance burdens. This session will provide guidelines to help you make the right technology decision and best manage your complete onsite and offsite storage operation. Offsite storage requirements are necessary components of your overall storage operation, however, it can be expensive. This session will help you identify opportunities to improve your offsite storage practices and ultimately protect your data investment and financial commitments. Offsite storage practices and pitfalls will also be discussed.