Choose Your Own Adventure: Data Center World Workshops

As our Data Center World Global Content Advisory Team is working hard to build the best agenda yet, we’re leaving some of the most important choices up to you! This year we’re crowdsourcing more than ever. We need your help to select the workshops at Data Center World Global. The three* with the most votes will be offered at Data Center World Global on Monday, March 12.

Data Center World workshops are 3.5 hour interactive, educational sessions that take a deep-dive into a topic that is of current importance to the data center industry. Workshops include in-depth discussions and hands-on activities for an engaging and immersive experience. Workshop attendees will leave with practical experience as well as tools, plans, and checklists to implement their new knowledge into their organization immediately.

Attendance in a workshop is included in the All Access Pass along with other VIP benefits. All workshops will take place on Monday, March 12, 2018.

Cast your vote today! (Scroll down to read the descriptions)

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONS

Data Center Disaster Recovery – Not Just for the BC/DR Team!

Everyone’s job is disaster preparation and recovery. Not just those who have it in their job title. Through this interactive workshop, participants will learn about best practices in data center disaster planning and recovery through solving real-life scenarios. Small groups made up of varying roles in a data center will work together to develop optimal solutions to challenges they may face in their data center. Participants will walk away with practical experience and a disaster prevention and recovery plan template to implement in their data center.

Assessing Data Center Models

There are more data center delivery model options than there ever have been before and with that comes more fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Take a hard look at the pros/cons, considerations, and questions to ask to determine the right hybrid architecture for your data center: on-premises, colocation, cloud (public, private), or all of the above! Through small interactive workgroups, participants will utilize a check list of key questions to be answered in evaluating strategy alternatives to determine the best model option for any given business scenario.

Preventing and Addressing Data Center Security Threats

Are you ready to respond to a cyber-attack? Find out through a series of hypothetical (or real!) data center security breach scenarios. Workshop attendees will participate in hands-on “war games” to evaluate standard data center security response plans and where improvements need to be made in their own data centers. Through this interactive workshop, small groups will work together to learn about their company’s ability to react to a security attack by exploring best practices for identifying, containing, communicating, and adjusting business strategies in the wake of a security breach.

What does Hyperconvergence Really Mean for Data Centers?

According to Gartner, by 2019, approximately 30% of the global storage array capacity installed in enterprise data centers will be deployed on software-defined storage (SDS) or Hyperconverged integrated system (HCIS) architectures based on x86 hardware systems, up from less than 5% today. Through this interactive workshop, participants will explore what data center managers need to know NOW to be proactive and prepared.

Data Center Capacity Optimization – for IT People Only!

Based on the popularity of last year’s workshop, “Data Center Construction – for IT People Only,” this year we will offer training specific for data center IT staff on capacity optimization. Have you been in a situation where IT says the data center is full but Facilities says otherwise? This hands-on workshop will explore capacity optimization through various real-life data center scenarios. After learning the key considerations and tools for capacity planning, participants will work in small groups to solve problems, and then compare their results with 3D models of the optimized solutions. Participants will walk away with a checklist to evaluate data center capacity which can also be used as a scorecard for comparing and benchmarking their own data centers.

Effective Communication for Non-Communicators

Everyone communicates. Few connect. Good communication is crucial to business success; however workplace communication is rarely adequate. The good news is that you don’t have to be an extrovert or even particularly nurturing to communicate effectively. In this workshop, participants will learn five principles and five practices to connection one-on-one, in a group, or with an audience. You’ll see all of your relationships, from your boss to your kids, from your teammates, to your neighbors, take a quantum leap.

HOW ELSE CAN YOU HAVE YOUR VOICE HEARD?

Submit a session proposal! The call for proposals deadline is October 1, 2017.

*Final selection of workshops is subject to change and dependent upon workshop instructor availability.