Editor's Note: DatacenterDynamics Canada 2015 InsightaaS collaborated with global conference organizer DatacenterDynamics to deliver a major IT/cloud

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Editor's Note: DatacenterDynamics Canada 2015

InsightaaS collaborated with global conference organizer DatacenterDynamics to deliver a major IT/cloud trade show event in Toronto last week. Our contributions to the Cloud/App conference stream were based on the articulation of best practices in cloud adoption developed by the Toronto Cloud Business Coalition, a group of more than 40 leading Canadian cloud experts that is managed by InsightaaS.
The DCD-Canada 2015 event, which included the inaugural TCBC Cloud Symposium, attracted 40 exhibitors and well over 500 attendees to the Allstream Centre. InsightaaS principals Mary Allen and Michael O’Neil moderated nine of the 24 sessions, including:
○ Five sessions based on the best practices developed by TCBC working groups, in the areas of enterprise cloud planning, delivering cloud via public, private and hybrid environments, cloud business models, metrics and imperatives (positioning cloud for non-IT executives), adoption and enablement of advanced cloud applications, and governance, risk and compliance (GRC) in the cloud.
○Two sessions – on IoT and analytics – that combined expert panelist input with discussion of the results from an InsightaaS survey of 402 Canadian businesses, conducted last month by global research firm Techaisle.
○ The opening and closing plenary sessions. The opening session was a panel discussion including Seneca College CIO Roy Hart, PwC’s Matt Ambrose, TeraGo Networks CEO Stewart Lyons and Canadian internet executive AJ Byers, and the closing “fireside chat” featured a discussion with Rogers SVP Terry Canning.
The event was a tremendous success on several fronts: it provided exposure for the best practices work being done in 10 key areas by TCBC members, and it acted as the launch for two new community initiatives (IoT Coalition of Canada and Canadian Analytics Business Coalition), and attracted dozens of new subscribers to the InsightaaS Insighter enewsletter.
InsightaaS would like to thank DCD for organizing this event, and would like to recognize the work of Stephen Symonds, Nancy Mendoza and Doug Adams in engaging with hundreds of event delegates in the InsightaaS sessions and at our booth.
IT journalist and frequent contributor to InsightaaS, Denise Deveau also attended the event. Her observations on key points in several of the sessions are offered below. (ed.)

Mary Allen, managing editor, InsightaaS

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November 17, 2015 by Denise Deveau

The central theme: talk about process
“A thought that resonated throughout the day was best articulated by Joel Steacy, software defined enterprise strategist for VMware, who said that the technology aspect of cloud is the easiest one to tackle. “You have to get over the people and process hurdles first. If you can get those two areas squared away, technology will align with what you want to achieve.”
Infrastructure transformation: investment cycles
“Even though cost savings have been identified as a primary driver, when you move to cloud-based consumption, you have to spend money in order to achieve faster revenue growth and lower labour costs.” Matt Starkie, world wide data center, center of excellence for Microsoft.
The big challenge: embed change management in Big Data projects
“Providing a path to the democratization of analytics is much more of a team sport. Change management around analytics and Big Data is where the challenge lies. The technology part is already solved,” Chris Dingle, director of customer intelligence, Rogers Communications.
To help tackle this and other analytics issues InsightaaS is launching the CABC (Canadian Analytics Business Coalition) in February 2016.
Read more

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FOCUS 15 trains lens on the Threat Detection Lifecycle
November 16, 2015 by Mary Allen

Intel revamping its security business
Intel has developed a whole new approach to security matters.
“We’re going to rethink everything. Everything about our business, our people, our offerings so that we can do better at serving you” says Chris Young, SVP and GM, Intel Security Group.
Steps to security success
According to Young, the company is repositioning to “have security at core of its offerings,” and taking “advantage of cloud speed and scale” to deliver a range of connected solutions in its security portfolio, including the Global Threat Intelligence service.
Read more

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From threat to theatre: CenturyLink and the cloud channel conundrum
November 12, 2015 by Mary Allen

Bik Dutta, director of alliances and market development at CenturyLink spoke with InsightaaS about company efforts to develop its Canadian channel cloud presence.
‘Why’?….
"When you look at VARs that are capable of delivering managed services, for example, they have the relationships and do a lot of unique things for that customer base that they have developed through decades of working with clients. And as the customers transition to different providers, they still go back to the VAR for assistance. We want to piggyback on that."
The objective: from customers to partners
“There is a lot of automation, but there is still work to be done within that to manage the cloud, and this functionality can be outsourced to the consultant that the customer is used to dealing with.”
How…
Bik Dutta noted that this transition to channel- based distribution will resemble a “crawl, walk, run approach” but that CenturyLink is committed to providing the resources needed by partners who are shifting to cloud service delivery. The company’s goal is to “educate them on the high level sales process, on sales qualification and the way we go to market, so they will become more comfortable doing this independently over time.” Read more

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Could 3D printing change enterprise culture and processes?
November 6, 2015 by Denise Deveau

“In the early iterations, it was the stuff of science fiction, where machines could generate everything from weaponry to human clones.”
The product…
From aerospace to fashion, “3D printing has evolved to the point where it can play a key role in enterprise settings beyond the ‘conventional’ ones”.
Time and cost savings…
Helping companies on their journey to 3D printing, Think2Thing provides the resources and knowledge to “bringing 3D production in-house“
Across all industries…
“I often compare it to the music industry, when computers started to allow anyone to record and sample music, as well as change beats and stretch phrases. That capability has changed the music industry. The same is happening in the visual world. We’re already seeing major shifts in the gaming and film industries as a result of 3D modeling and printing.” says David Didur, design director, founding partner, Think2Thing. Read more

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Caterina Didio-Duggan

InsightaaS exploring the ‘why’ in enterprise technology

“Working with InsightaaS has been a great experience. The editorial team is attentive, creative, and tells a compelling story. Their editorial pieces are timely and represent the topics and individual organizations in an educational and informative format. Our stories are getting fantastic traction in the market, resulting in more readers and followers…..”

- Caterina Didio-Duggan, Area Marketing Director at Information Builders

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InsightaaS Cloud Training for Business Professionals

Discover the 8 key areas of our new Certified Cloud Business Advisor cloud training curriculum, created to respond to widespread demand for business-level cloud training. Register today

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