Two years ago, Ron Williams, lead programmer analyst at Kaiser Permanente Southern California, was sitting in the audience at the UniForum '94 track sessions, asking questions and writing notes. This year, he will be one of the featured speakers in the Networking Technologies track.
"I learned so much at the UniForum conventions--and implemented so much of what I learned--that I wanted to give something back," he says.
Ron's experience may be uncommon, but it is not unique. Many UniForum attendees report that they have applied what they learned at UniForum track sessions to their own organizations with good results. Accordingly, this year's UniForum track sessions on distributed systems management and networking will focus even more on specific technical issues and recent case studies.
The Networked Distributed Systems Management Track is chaired by Donna Van Fleet, Vice President, AIX Systems Development, IBM Corp. The Networking Technologies track is chaired by David Bernstein, Vice President of Product Development, Electronic Publishing Resources, Inc. "We've assembled an impressive slate of experts in a variety of fields," says Van Fleet. "I think attendees will be impressed with the amount of knowledge they'll find."
Evaluations from last year's sessions confirm that attendees want nuts-and-bolts technical discussions and detailed reports about real world applications. "The depth of technical coverage is going to be atypical, even for a UniForum conference," Bernstein says. "We've made a real effort to deliver practical, usable information."
Speakers will present industry data on the cost of distributed management, along with ways to control these costs. A hands-on session will address the optimum sizing of servers, their clients, and their connecting networks. Another session will examine the functions and characteristics of cost-effective data storage. Options for software licensing will be also reviewed, including "floating" network licensing schemes and standardized schemes.
Other sessions will focus on the challenges of managing and developing mixed LAN and WAN environments with an emphasis on today's network management offerings. The unforeseen problems of system management will also be addressed, including how to deal with security problems and disaster recovery. Security issues will include recent developments in the design and implementation of secure systems. Discussions on disaster recovery planning will cover remote site pickup, network cutover, and the unique advantages of a distributed client/server architecture in dealing with recovery situations.
Sessions on management strategies will examine ways to implement a common change management solution and how to optimize performance and data recovery across platforms. The relative strengths of network management versus distributed systems management will also be debated, as well as the importance of using both strategies in a successful IT environment.
Today's organizations have to adapt quickly to changing business environments while making the best use of legacy environments, so messaging and standards will be covered thoroughly. Sessions will focus on case studies involving multiplatform, interapplication messaging, and networking solutions.
ISDN standards will be examined, with a concentration on setup and configuration problems, as well as interoperability among different ISDN devices. Emerging standards will also be evaluated.
High-speed LANs, ultra high-speed networks and packet-switched networks will be analyzed, including the pros and cons of different networking solutions. Future products will also be discussed.
Sessions on network monitors will cover issues such as Remote Network Monitoring Protocol (RMON), along with a benefits analysis of networking standards. The Internet Engineering Task Force will discuss future directions in networking including IP Next Generation (ipNG) and other elements of the TCP/IP arena. Other TCP/IP and networking issues will include performance evaluation from real transaction systems and the Internet.
All UniForum Networking and Distributed Systems Management sessions will emphasize both current directions and future trends, helping IT managers and system administrators stay abreast of industry trends and solutions.
As Williams puts it, "The UniForum track sessions provide me with a surfboard on the crest of the technology wave." He adds, "So far it's taken me in all the right directions."