Recently, techmesh held their second TechTalk event at the Aspire in Leeds. The evening began with networking and canapés as guests marvelled at the elegance of the prestigious Aspire building, which used to be the site of Yorkshire Bank.
The evening commenced with an introduction from Jim Pendrill, Editor of Yorkshire Business Insider and award-winning business journalist. Jim introduced the presenters and question time panel for the evening and announced the topic; ‘Cloud Computing and using Software-as-a-Service’.
James Akrigg, Head of Technology for Partners at Microsoft then took to the stage and began to unveil how Microsoft is innovating and developing their software to be more Cloud focussed. This included an exclusive demo of Microsoft Office 2010. Microsoft intends to completely reshape their software delivery approach, rather that just offering its software on premise, they are allowing over 400 million Windows Live users to access slimmed down, online versions, of its popular Office software.
Matt Holmes, Managing Director of Liquid Accounts, who are a new techmesh sponsor, discussed how Liquid’s accounting software was developed to be used in the Cloud. Matt decided to mix up the proceedings by using an alternative software provider for his presentation, Google docs. Matt’s presentation mapped out how Liquid Accounts began, raising investment to the sum of £770k and how they intend to capitalise on future trends.
The evening was then thrown open to a panel ‘question time’ format, taking questions from the audience. The main issue of concern was security in the cloud; will encryption be sufficient enough and what if data is lost? As with all web based services, there is no guaranteed security level for Cloud based applications, this was a heated topic on the evening. But in addition, there is no guaranteed security when a data server is destroyed at the office following a flash flood. One explanation that was suggested is that Hotmail have been operating their email service in the cloud for many years, this demonstrates that Cloud computing is not just a new development and is being tailored for more business and cost savings.
The event was a great success with nearly 80 delegates. We need your feedback on future events like this. Did you attend and was it useful? Did you not attend for any reason and what events would inspire you in the future? Send us an email info@techmesh.org
The next techmesh event is in Sheffield on 30th June at The Circle, S1 4FW. The keynote speaker for the evening will be from IBM. George Taylor from Digital Region will be discussing the services available for businesses in South Yorkshire. For further info visit: http://techmesh.org/events/view/60.
Join techmesh today to attend techmesh: Sheffield for free!
Showing posts with label Cloud Computing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cloud Computing. Show all posts
Monday, 7 June 2010
Friday, 7 May 2010
techmesh: Hull report
This was the first time techmesh had held an event in Hull and what an exceptional turnout it was!
techmesh: Hull was organised with support from Jon Moss at Hull Digital and Hull University Business School.
The evening proceeded with refreshments, food and plenty of networking as the other delegates arrived. Guests where then encouraged to take a seat in the presentation room where I (Gary Rowbotham, techmesh Programme Manger) introduced techmesh and the many benefits of becoming a member. The agenda then moved to Nick Riley, Director of the Logistics Technology Group, who gave a synopsis surrounding Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) implementation in logistics and freight handling. An interesting insight from the presentation was that a RFID transmitter can be equivalent in size to a grain of rice!
Mike Harlington, a techmesh sponsor, introduced telecoms company MediaSat3, who are striving to provide an alternative telecoms provider in the Hull area. Mike discussed how MediaSat3 are negotiating the use of new telecom satellites which would allow remote speeds of 100mb download and 10mb upload. Once MediaSat3 services are fully implemented they will be capable of moving an impressive 1 million terabytes of data every second.
The presentations were rounded off with an introduction from Jon Moss at Hull Digital, who discussed how he hopes to expand the digital community in Hull. Jon encouraged the audience to attend the highly anticipated event ‘Hull Digital Question Time’ on the 26th May at the Donald Roy Theatre in Hull. The event is an opportunity for delegates to join the conversation and hear about current topics that matter in digital, technology and the web.
After the presentation session, guests were invited to look at the Hull University Business School technology showcase. The showcase was exceptional and in some cases breathtaking; the enormous 3D TV that greeted visitors as they entered the room was amazing!
The techmesh team would like to thank everyone that helped to make techmesh: Hull a success, including: Jon Moss at Hull Digital, Hull University Business School for the venue and Nick Riley for introducing the audience to future technologies in RFID.
Join us at the next techmesh event on 25th May - focussed towards Cloud Computing and using Software-as-a-Service. The event will feature keynote speakers from Microsoft and Liquid Accounts. For further information visit http://techmesh.org/events/view/55
techmesh: Hull was organised with support from Jon Moss at Hull Digital and Hull University Business School.
The evening proceeded with refreshments, food and plenty of networking as the other delegates arrived. Guests where then encouraged to take a seat in the presentation room where I (Gary Rowbotham, techmesh Programme Manger) introduced techmesh and the many benefits of becoming a member. The agenda then moved to Nick Riley, Director of the Logistics Technology Group, who gave a synopsis surrounding Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) implementation in logistics and freight handling. An interesting insight from the presentation was that a RFID transmitter can be equivalent in size to a grain of rice!
Mike Harlington, a techmesh sponsor, introduced telecoms company MediaSat3, who are striving to provide an alternative telecoms provider in the Hull area. Mike discussed how MediaSat3 are negotiating the use of new telecom satellites which would allow remote speeds of 100mb download and 10mb upload. Once MediaSat3 services are fully implemented they will be capable of moving an impressive 1 million terabytes of data every second.
The presentations were rounded off with an introduction from Jon Moss at Hull Digital, who discussed how he hopes to expand the digital community in Hull. Jon encouraged the audience to attend the highly anticipated event ‘Hull Digital Question Time’ on the 26th May at the Donald Roy Theatre in Hull. The event is an opportunity for delegates to join the conversation and hear about current topics that matter in digital, technology and the web.
After the presentation session, guests were invited to look at the Hull University Business School technology showcase. The showcase was exceptional and in some cases breathtaking; the enormous 3D TV that greeted visitors as they entered the room was amazing!
The techmesh team would like to thank everyone that helped to make techmesh: Hull a success, including: Jon Moss at Hull Digital, Hull University Business School for the venue and Nick Riley for introducing the audience to future technologies in RFID.
Join us at the next techmesh event on 25th May - focussed towards Cloud Computing and using Software-as-a-Service. The event will feature keynote speakers from Microsoft and Liquid Accounts. For further information visit http://techmesh.org/events/view/55
Monday, 1 June 2009
Clouded Thinking?
TeckTalk 2008 on June 17th will debate the issues surrounding 'cloud' computing. How important is it for enterprises to be able to 'hug' their data? Is day when all server machines no longer belt out heat from your own rack but sit somewhere out in cyber space, maintained and upgraded by men in white coats.
The technology promises to bring the cost of application hosting, data storage and connectivity down via 'pay as you go' services and open source tools. But have may of us have already found that's not the whole story and the vendor perspective can be "when we have them by their databases, their hearts, minds and wallets will follow".
Cloud computing brings together high performance supercomputing capabilities to the masses. Is your application taking off? The promise is that you can scale processing power as your application grows. Backups? All taken care of for you. But what about security? That probably still is the Achilles heel of the cloud - are you going to entrust your precious corporate data to some outside your firewall?
And what about the green agenda? One of the companies backed by the South Yorkshire Seedcorn Fund has a novel approach to server cooling (no not locate them at the North Pole!). Full tilt computing generates a serious amount of hot air where ever the processor is located and that needs to go somewhere.
So on the 17th, let's hope the debate produces some clear thinking and we get demistify what cloud computing has to offer for the future and lets hope it not all vapourware! We have a great keynote speaker lined up from Oracle and a supporting panel to debate the issue: Cloud Computing - Is it all hot air or is there a silver lining? See you there.
The technology promises to bring the cost of application hosting, data storage and connectivity down via 'pay as you go' services and open source tools. But have may of us have already found that's not the whole story and the vendor perspective can be "when we have them by their databases, their hearts, minds and wallets will follow".
Cloud computing brings together high performance supercomputing capabilities to the masses. Is your application taking off? The promise is that you can scale processing power as your application grows. Backups? All taken care of for you. But what about security? That probably still is the Achilles heel of the cloud - are you going to entrust your precious corporate data to some outside your firewall?
And what about the green agenda? One of the companies backed by the South Yorkshire Seedcorn Fund has a novel approach to server cooling (no not locate them at the North Pole!). Full tilt computing generates a serious amount of hot air where ever the processor is located and that needs to go somewhere.
So on the 17th, let's hope the debate produces some clear thinking and we get demistify what cloud computing has to offer for the future and lets hope it not all vapourware! We have a great keynote speaker lined up from Oracle and a supporting panel to debate the issue: Cloud Computing - Is it all hot air or is there a silver lining? See you there.
Monday, 8 December 2008
Bonfires, Dry Stone Walls, Clouds, Inches & Death Computing
Colin Beveridge spoke at the 20/20 Vision event organised by Sandford Technology/Virtronix on Fighting the Trillion Dollar Bonfire (effective information systems for the 21st Century). His conclusion seemed to be that system integration is the way forwards. I have to agree. Most IS systems seems like good old Yorkshire stone walls - they require immense intricacy to put them together and great skill to build, then they fall down after a while because there's nothing but air and friction holding them together. What we need is some 'cement' to hold the functional bricks together and facilitate process, workflow, data sharing and increased productivity. Yorkshire Forward seem to have woken up to the fact that each 'brick in the wall' they fund is replicating data and not sharing it effectively with each other. They are introducing a CRM that all agencies can tap into, leverage and generally use. Great idea! I have been saying this for three year's and every other agency seemed to wave the data protection act at me as to why we can't share information more!!!
The death of the corporate datacentre seemed to also be on the vendor agenda with all our data being entrusted to third parties (like this blog and my emails). Ian Weatherhog and Mike Briercliffe waxed lyrically about how the PC was the root of all evil when it came to data security (he also spoke at our recent TechTalk event). I can remember far enough back when I accessed the old cloud i.e. our corporate IT server from a remote PC and the data could be viewed, but not manipulated. We used to say all this valuable data was "an inch from the desktop" and spent ten years going that final inch and start turning data into information, albeit with security and integrity compromised. Now we seem to be poised to unify the competing factions with the eventual promise of network computing and Larry Ellison's vision of thin clients that all they do is the final rendering.
I suppose it's only a matter of time before we all have enough certainty that "till death us do part" our data is safe and backed up in the cloud and not deleted when our credit card expires. Now that's what I call security.
The death of the corporate datacentre seemed to also be on the vendor agenda with all our data being entrusted to third parties (like this blog and my emails). Ian Weatherhog and Mike Briercliffe waxed lyrically about how the PC was the root of all evil when it came to data security (he also spoke at our recent TechTalk event). I can remember far enough back when I accessed the old cloud i.e. our corporate IT server from a remote PC and the data could be viewed, but not manipulated. We used to say all this valuable data was "an inch from the desktop" and spent ten years going that final inch and start turning data into information, albeit with security and integrity compromised. Now we seem to be poised to unify the competing factions with the eventual promise of network computing and Larry Ellison's vision of thin clients that all they do is the final rendering.
I suppose it's only a matter of time before we all have enough certainty that "till death us do part" our data is safe and backed up in the cloud and not deleted when our credit card expires. Now that's what I call security.
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