Canadian Cloud Council Announces Final Agenda For Inaugural National Cloud Conference

Feb. 24, 2012 - PRLog -- Calgary, Canada, February 9, 2012 - Robert Hart, President of the Canadian Cloud Council, announced the final agenda today for the council's semi-annual national conference titled “A Call to Action – Awakening Canada’s Cloud Agenda” on March 12 and 13, 2012 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The event is one of the most comprehensive and expansive cloud conferences ever to be staged in Canada and will feature 30 North American cloud thought leaders.

The conference will bring together a diverse group of senior business and technical leaders to discuss the state of cloud computing in Canada and how innovative technologies and best practices can be applied to achieve business transformation and economic development. This initial conference will focus on four major key focus areas: Government Cloud Computing, Cloud Implementation Best Practices, Data Security and Privacy and Corporate Culture Change Management.

“Canada has been one of the slowest nations to adopt cloud computing and has not yet effectively leveraged local data center facilities to deliver value through shared technology services. As a result, the country is quickly losing its global competitive advantage to other nations that have more assertively invested in and commercialized cloud infrastructure and technology,” noted Mr. Hart.

“We plan on tackling this critical issue head-on and leaving this conference with a clearly defined action plan related to the acceleration of Canadian cloud adoption,” concluded Hart.

The keynote speakers listed below aim to provide practical solutions to attendees, along with the proper planning, deployment and support of critical cloud infrastructure to assist enterprises in dramatically improving their competitive advantage, operational continuity and corporate growth continuum.

A CALL TO ACTION – AWAKENING CANADA’S CLOUD AGENDA
Date: March 12 and 13, 2012
Location: Matrix Hotel Edmonton, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Event Sponsors: VMware, Mitel, IBM, Bell, Dell, Microsoft, HP, Salesforce.com, Awarebase

For more information on the conference please visit: www.canadiancloudcouncil.ca
To register for the event please visit: http://www.regonline.ca/EdmontonMarch2012

AGENDA – MARCH 12, 2012
OPENING REMARKS – THE CANADIAN CLOUD ECOSYSTEM
- Brian Fry, Chief Marketing Officer and Co-Founder – RackForce

SHARED SERVICES – THE CASE FOR GOVERNMENT CLOUD COMPUTING
Jirka Danek, Chief Technology Officer – Shared Services Canada
Rob Meikle, Chief Information Officer – City of Brampton
Vijai Karthigesu, Director Technology Planning – eHealth Ontario
John Cousens, Manager Public Sector Canada – Salesforce.com
Doug Hodgson, Chief Information and Technology Officer – City of Calgary

CLOUD IMPLEMENTATION BEST PRACTICES – REAL LIFE LESSONS LEARNED
Doug Jones, Senior Director Blackberry Cloud Infrastructure – RIM
Justin Webb, Vice President Western Canada – Bell Canada
Malcolm Smith, Cloud Business Development Executive - IBM
David Toonders, Director Systems Engineering – VMware Canada

AGENDA – MARCH 13, 2012
OPENING REMARKS – SHAPING CANADA’S DATA STRATEGY
- Perry Kinkaide, President – Alberta Council of Technologies

THE CLOUD PARADIGM – ENABLING ORGANIZATIONAL READINESS THROUGH CHANGE
MANAGEMENT
David Booth, Chief Information Officer – North American Construction Group
Robert Lam, President – Calgary Council for Advanced Technology
Leonard Hendricks, CEO – BlackBridge Networks
Robin Winsor, President – Cybera

CLOUD’S GREAT BARRIER – INFORMATION SECURITY AND PRIVACY
Ed Rebane, Senior Security Practice Lead – Bell Canada
Jeff MacMillan, Chief Executive Officer – Dark Matter Labs
Prashant, Manager IT Security and Compliance – The Brick
Liam Lynch, Chief Information Security Officer - Inkuru
Omkhar Arasaratnam, Global Lead Security Architect - IBM SmartCloud Enterprise+, IBM

CLOSING REMARKS
- Patrick Pushor, Canadian Regional Organizer – Cloud Camp and Founder – CloudChronicle.com

5:00 PM CLOUD CAMP – An “un-conference” for cloud developers

ABOUT THE CANADIAN CLOUD COUNCIL
The Canadian Cloud Council (www.canadiancloudcouncil.ca) was established in 2011 as an educational forum for Canada's cloud computing thought leaders and advocates.

Although cloud computing is widely recognized as one the most influential movements in the history of Information Technology, it has been slow to adopt in Canada. Our conferences will discuss how cloud computing technologies can be applied to achieve business transformation while mitigating barriers to entry.

While seeking to define intelligent and innovative methods of enterprise cloud design and service delivery, the Canadian Cloud Council aims to accelerate the speed of cloud adoption and utilization in Canada.

Media Contacts
Robert Hart, President and Chairman
(403) 360-3989
r.hart@canadiancloudcouncil.ca

Jaethen Reichel, VP, Marketing and Communications
(250) 682-0155
j.reichel@canadiancloudcouncil.ca