Enterprises, governments and service providers are virtually drowning in a quagmire of underutilized servers, networking equipment and cables, and everyone is grabbing at "virtualization" technologies to provide their lifeline. However, if implemented improperly, virtualization can actually increase complexity and operating expenses. Simply using hypervisor technologies to cram multiple virtual servers onto fewer physical servers may save you some money up front, but this solution does not address the physical complexity of the data center or the inherent limitations of the legacy x86 server architecture. Also, even virtual servers need to be managed! What is needed is a total solution, incorporating hypervisor technology and utility computing into a new, simplified server architecture that virtualizes processing, storage and network resources, thereby significantly reducing not only server count but network and SAN ports, cables and KVM equipment.

The very topic of aligning business objectives with IT is why SOA is on the minds of so many IT organizations today. In this session, we will discuss some of the business drivers that are driving IT organizations to evaluate, plan, and implement SOA. In today's radically changing business economy, organizations are demanding faster time to market, real-time knowledge, and reusable, functional applications that drive profitability and reduce operational expenses.

The silos of yesterday do not work. Today's business leaders are forced to have better, cross-functional information access that allows them to respond faster and more efficiently to the ever changing economy. Composite Applications that leverage open standards like web services, java, and xml are some of the key enablers to make this cross-functional information available. There are many technologies that make SOA possible. What's right? What's wrong? What are the requirements? During our time together we will try to dispel some of the myths and shed light on some of the realities.

"Access virtualization" is the ability to separate where an application or entire desktop is used from where it runs -- in essence, cutting the ties of the application to the user's device. Instead of leaving critical data and applications exposed at the endpoint, they reside in the controlled, secured environment of a datacenter. A "virtual" instance of the application interface is delivered to the user, who gets the same, local desktop experience from any location, over any network, using any device. Virtualizing applications consolidates and centralizes business-critical applications and data -- which provide a secure foundation for many top-priority business and IT initiatives. This is even more critical in today's environment, where employees are often traveling and working remotely and stolen laptops with confidential information are becoming too common of a news story.

This session will cover how access virtualization enables access from anywhere, any time, and any device. It facilitates rapid application deployment, while providing secure access to your business critical applications for all your users. Access Virtualization will essentially support:

Virtualization is no longer an experimental technology - it has quickly become core part of the mission critical infrastructure at industry leading companies around the world. As the virtualization market has entered the mainstream, the drivers for virtualization adoption have evolved as well. While companies initially deployed the technology to achieve tactical savings through server consolidation, there is growing consensus that virtualization is transforming the datacenter. With infrastructure virtualization entire server, storage and network farms can be managed as a shared utility and dynamically allocated to different business units or projects; new capacity can be added or removed non-disruptively based on business demand; applications can be migrated automatically to meet changing resource requirements; hardware failures can be automatically overcome with minimal disruption; business data can be protected with minimal impact to production SLAs. Customers are deriving these benefits today by implementing the vision of shared IT infrastructure powered by virtualization. As virtualization becomes pervasive, it will redefines the traditional role of the operating system, change the way applications are deployed, and enable IT service levels that were not possible before.