TCBC is committed to working with stakeholders and partners across the IT community to discuss and promote the ways in which cloud contributes to economic growth and business success. Highlights of our 2015 event schedule, including Community Sessions, the 2015 Cloud Bootcamp, the 2015 Cloud Symposium and the 2015 Business of the Cloud Seminar are shown below.
If you would like to ask TCBC to work with your organization on an event, please contact us at events (at) businesscloud (dot) to.
2015 Events
Community sessions
TCBC is pleased to be working with TechConnex - the only GTA industry association embracing all members of the ecosystem to advance the growth of small and midsize tech businesses and their people - to deliver community sessions that combine best/proven practices research and community interaction, networking and discussion.
TechConnex Cloud Peer Groups are held on the second Friday of each month except July and August. Topics change each month; please refer to the TCBC or TechConnex website for updated information.
TCBC members interested in attending a session are encouraged to contact us at events (at) businesscloud (dot) to. TechConnex members or members of the GTA business community wishing to attend the events are asked to contact Ryan Ellis at ryanellis (at) techconnex (dot) ca.
2015 Cloud Bootcamp
TechConnex and The Toronto Cloud Business Coalition are collaborating on the 2015 Toronto Cloud Bootcamp, a full-day event that provides practical guidance on adopting, connecting, and driving business benefit from cloud.
Attendees – individuals with responsibility for managing cloud adoption and integration – will be divided into working groups. Using a variety of case study scenarios, the session will examine the important steps in effective cloud deployment and optimization from a variety of different contexts. Each participant will work with peers drawn from across the GTA cloud community to identify key actions and practices in six primary areas:
- Cloud strategy and planning – Cloud has different implications for enterprise and SMB organizations, but it requires planning in both cases: integration within the overall IT delivery fabric (and ensuring that cloud’s increasing presence doesn’t lead to increased security/regulatory exposure) within enterprises, and enablement of new business process within SMBs. This session will identify key issues that need to be considered in the adoption and expansion of cloud within IT and business contexts.
- Skills requirements and development – Cloud reduces the importance of some traditional IT skills, but it also drives requirements for many new competencies. This session will help attendees to understand which new skills are important within and outside the IT department, the best ways of developing them.
- Governance, risk and compliance (including privacy and data residency) – In many cases, the key cloud management issue for businesses is governance: how is cloud incorporated within existing governance, risk and compliance structures? This session will explore what needs to be done for cloud to be a positive contributor to GRC, and not a point of exposure.
- Delivering cloud via public, private and hybrid cloud environments – In a world that is transitioning from traditional on-premise infrastructure to corporate IT fabrics that incorporate multiple cloud platforms, defining and delivering cloud infrastructure is more a journey than a destination. This session will provide a framework for identifying key issues in establishing public, private and hybrid clouds within “brownfield” and “greenfield” environments.
- Advanced cloud application adoption and enablement – Increasingly, cloud is the platform enabling the most compelling next steps in IT. Collaboration, Analytics and Big Data, IoT and mobility all draw on cloud capabilities to improve a wide variety of business processes. This session will delve into the key issues in supporting advanced applications within an evolving cloud infrastructure.
- Cloud standards and security – Cloud standards and cloud security are both fundamental to building and delivering cloud services to business users (and customers). Standards (including OpenStack) and alternative commercial cloud foundations are important to creating the core of cloud infrastructure, and security is essential to using that infrastructure in a business context. This session will provide guidance in identifying what should businesses consider to ensure that they have the right foundations for cloud-based IT service delivery.
Each module will draw on the best practices work that is being done within the TCBC, and TCBC member experts drawn from the global vendor, local IT services, legal and consulting and IT management ranks will be involved in working group discussions and in panel presentations framing key issues in each of the six areas. And to ensure that the bootcamp delivers value over time, attendees will be emailed best practices documents for each of the six key areas, developed by TCBC and authored by GTA-area cloud experts InsightaaS.
To ensure that the session is highly interactive, there is a strict limit on overall attendance. TCBC members can reserve a seat by contacting us at events (at) businesscloud (dot) to. TechConnex members, other interested individuals and/or firms wishing to sponsor the bootcamp are encouraged to contact Ryan Ellis at ryanellis (at) techconnex (dot) ca.
Date/Time: July 8, 2015, 8:00-5:00
Location: Fasken Martineau, 333 Bay Street, Toronto
Attendees: Target of 70, maximum 90
2015 Cloud Symposium
TCBC is delighted to have the opportunity to work with DatacenterDynamics to combine the 2015 Cloud Symposium with DCD's 2015 Converged event. Under the Converged banner, TCBC will deliver tracks on subjects that are essential to creating viable cloud perspectives within Canadian businesses. The TCBC Symposium will share a show floor and plenary sessions with Converged, giving attendees an opportunity to hear from leading experts and to explore state-of-the-art options in data center technology as well as in cloud.
Sessions hosted by TCBC within the event will include:
- Cloud strategy and planning – Cloud has different implications for enterprise and SMB organizations, but it requires planning in both cases: integration within the overall IT delivery fabric (and ensuring that cloud’s increasing presence doesn’t lead to increased security/regulatory exposure) within enterprises, and enablement of new business process within SMBs. This session will identify key issues that need to be considered in the adoption and expansion of cloud within IT and business contexts.
- Governance, risk and compliance (including privacy and data residency) – In many cases, the key cloud management issue for businesses is governance: how is cloud incorporated within existing governance, risk and compliance structures? This session will explore what needs to be done for cloud to be a positive contributor to GRC, and not a point of exposure.
- Advanced cloud application adoption and enablement – Increasingly, cloud is the platform enabling the most compelling next steps in IT. Collaboration, Analytics and Big Data, IoT and mobility all draw on cloud capabilities to improve a wide variety of business processes. This session will delve into the key issues in supporting advanced applications within an evolving cloud infrastructure.
- Cloud standards and security – Cloud standards and cloud security are both fundamental to building and delivering cloud services to business users (and customers). Standards (including OpenStack) and alternative commercial cloud foundations are important to creating the core of cloud infrastructure, and security is essential to using that infrastructure in a business context. This session will provide guidance in identifying what should businesses consider to ensure that they have the right foundations for cloud-based IT service delivery.
- Delivering cloud via public, private and hybrid cloud environments – In a world that is transitioning from traditional on-premise infrastructure to corporate IT fabrics that incorporate multiple cloud platforms, defining and delivering cloud infrastructure is more a journey than a destination. This session will provide a framework for identifying key issues in establishing public, private and hybrid clouds within “brownfield” and “greenfield” environments.
Attendees who elect to purchase "all access" passes will also have the opportunity to visit sessions in the data center design and strategy, data center power and cooling and IT and networking infrastructure tracks.
For more information on the Toronto event, please visit the DatacenterDynamics website.For information on show passes or booth space, feel free to contact us at events (at) businesscloud (dot) to.
Date/Time: September 15, 2015, 8:00-5:00
Location: TBD
Attendees: Target/maximum of 450 on site
2015 The Business of the Cloud Seminar
Cloud is an essential component of IT strategy for most businesses today - but it is more than that for businesses in the IT industry. For IT firms - software vendors, services firms, channel members and companies looking to work with the cloud ecosystem - understanding and acting on the unique opportunities and requirements associated with cloud is essential to business growth.
What are the critical factors in building a successful cloud business? Using a case-based approach, attendees - business leaders of cloud-based or cloud-reliant companies - will explore key issues with guidance from experts with deep, practical advice in key issues: financing, management and go-to-market enablement. Attendees will also receive new materials developed by globally-recognized channel expert Michael O'Neil - hard copy and online tools that attendees can use to help build industry-leading practices within their own organizations.
Event sessions will include:
- Financing cloud businesses
- Cloud startups have inherent advantages: they generally require limited up-front capital and can scale globally. But what are the keys to obtaining financing for launch and growth?
- Cloud business models, metrics and imperatives
- Cloud offers tremendous opportunities for scale, but successful management of a cloud business requires an understanding of the core business models, metrics and management imperatives associated with cloud success. What should cloud business executives focus on to provide best leadership to their organizations, and best potential to shareholders and customers?
- Cloud go-to-market
- Cloud businesses are lauded for their ability to both provide new ways of addressing existing challenges and for their ability to reduce adoption friction by converting capital requirements to OPEX. However, these new models are accompanied by specific challenges in marketing, sales compensation and management, and channel development. What do cloud businesses need to do to address unique requirements in these areas?
Date/Time: TBD; likely, late October
Location: TBD
Attendees: Target of 40; likely maximum of 50
