Cloud event ‘remains relevant’

Ten years on since the original conference, SNW Europe, first welcomed the industry in its new, German home, the event is now bigger and more relevant than ever, with over 130 informative and engaging sessions scheduled so far and a networking platform which is second to none. The co-located conferences Datacenter Technologies and Virtualization World, added to reflect the increased importance of other technologies alongside storage in the datacentre, also celebrate their fifth anniversary.

Over the last ten years, the conference, which is delivered in association with SNIA Europe, the storage industry vendor-independent body, has become a priority in the calendars of IT professionals, be they end users, vendors, resellers or influencers. The event’s organiser Angel Business Communications secured more than 70 sponsors at last year’s events and are confident to secure the same number or not even more sponsors for this year. The conference partners Cloud Security Alliance, BITKOM, Evaluator Group, EuroCloud Deutschland, GSE/SANBoard, Datacentre Alliance, IDC, Neuralytix and the strategic partner 451 Research play a vital part in contributing to the agenda. This year’s topics include:

· Data - storage, management, protection, security
· Disaster recovery and business continuity
· Public, private or hybrid cloud services
· Desktop, server, storage and network virtualisation
· Converged data centre and IT infrastructures
· Hosting, co-location or managed services

The new format, introduced in 2012 features Spotlight Session tracks led by industry analysts, providing thought leadership presentations, technology insights, case studies and panel sessions. This year there will be five main session streams over the two days covering:
· Big Data
· Securing your Data
· Managing IT for Business
· Rethinking your Data Centre Architecture
· Running Enterprise and Tier One applications in Today’s Hybrid World

As well as the Spotlight Sessions running in the main theatres there will be a series of Hot Topic sessions covering areas such as ‘Solid State Storage’, ‘Software Defined x’, ‘Cloud’, ‘Open Source’ and ‘Emerging Technologies’.

Making the agenda even more compelling for those following the rapid developments in cloud computing is CloudCamp, an unconference, which takes place alongside the main event on 29th October between 16:00 and 20:00, where IT professionals and vendors are encouraged to share thoughts in several open discussions.

Today the ‘Powering the Cloud’ events, designed to empower delegates with information about the key issues and how to address them, attract a wide variety of delegates from CIOs and IT directors to storage managers, project managers and administrators, and as many as 20% of 2012’s attendees were representatives of the channel.

Carly Stephens, event manager at Angel Business Communications, said: “The secret to our success is re-generation of themes and topics, and a balance between focusing on specific technologies yet appealing to a broad range of delegates. Having evolved from its 2004 focus on storage networking, the ‘Powering the Cloud’ events are now a stage to discuss all the major IT industry issues, the topics that keep decision-makers awake at night. Spending a couple of days with influential and emerging vendors as well as independent consultants enables end users to put their company’s architectures into perspective, challenge their own thinking and make informed judgements.”

Miguel Morell, CTO at SM&C Consultors, said, “SNW Europe is a key event in my agenda. In my view it is much better than the manufacturer-led events, well organised, with a lot of useful information given in the conferences.”

Jens Leischner, founder at SANBoard, said, “SNW Europe is the best place for us to meet with our existing members as well as to reach new ones via our conference sessions. Adding both virtualisation and data centre topics this year was the right thing to do and attracted new faces. The support we receive from the organisers is second to none and we look forward to extending our collaboration further in the future.”

Further information and registration for this event:
Powering the Cloud, 29th and 30th October 2013 at Congress Frankfurt
Doors open at 08:30 on Tuesday, 29th October 2013 for the first day of conference sessions and exhibition features. The three co-located conference programs start at 09:30 and feature a mix of half-day ‘Spotlight sessions’, keynote addresses, SNIA presentations, customer case studies, industry 'hot-topics' and vendor tutorials lead by a mix of independent experts, analysts, end-users and industry professionals. The full conference programme resumes on Wednesday, 30th October 2013 at 9:30 with the final sessions finishing at 15:20 (Expo Area in Hall 5 closes also at 16:00).

IT end users and channel partners register for free promo code W2M13 at www.poweringthecloud.com

Download the app on your mobile phone https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/ptcapp/id571665361?mt=8

For further information on the conferences please visit www.snweurope.net, www.virtualizationworld.net and www.datacentertechnologies.net