Telehouse News Waves Vol: 2 Issue: 7 SPECIAL ISSUE Managed Services BOOT CAMP @TELEHOUSE Center ===================================================================== eDelta Consulting, Compulinx, Symantec, the SIEDC, and TELEHOUSE Hold 1st Managed Services BOOT CAMP @ TELEHOUSE Center TELEHOUSE was a flurry of activity as it inaugurated its new BOOT CAMP @ TELEHOUSE Center series on October 28. The series' concept focuses on granular interactive workshop sessions loaded with 'insider secrets' that attendees can take back and use immediately. The 'expert-speakers' presentations and audience interaction also aims at removing the mysteries behind the day's topics. The attendees gathered at Camp TELEHOUSE at 0930 hours for registration, morning chow and networking with other attendees. Beginning at 10 hundred hours (10 AM civilian time), the audience was treated to morning presentations by eDelta Consulting's Jon Bosco and Symantec's Joe Giesken. After a lunch break and more networking, Compulinx Managed Services' Terrence Chalk manned the podium, followed by the Staten Island Economic Development Corporation's Jay Anderson. The discussion material dealt with regulatory compliance, managed services, data storage, government resources, and business continuity. Each speaker supplied real case methods to analyze, set up and implement processes and services enabling success and cost-efficiencies. An underlying point throughout the day was that many companies tend to rely solely on in-house resources to develop their DR and BCP strategies, although a small proportion have sufficient in-house expertise to address their DR needs. eDelta & the Compliance and Regulatory Environment Jon Bosco set the stage for the day with his comprehensive talk on IT compliance and the impact of today’s regulatory environment on corporate outsourcing decisions. He explained eDelta’s perspective on IT core principals, i.e. availability and data integrity, and the role they play in managing the risks inherent in technology organizations. Through explanations of COSO, the recognized framework for building an enterprise-wide risk management program, and the IT-focused governance framework known as COBIT, Bosco highlighted common challenges found in managed services relationships. To illustrate the clear link between his talk on meeting regulatory compliance goals and the managed services discussion to follow later in the day, Bosco spoke about key considerations in the relationship between IT and business and what goes into making an outsourcing decision. As a former member of one of accounting's Big 4 IT audit divisions, the audience heard Bosco's insider’s viewpoint. He outlined key priorities from an auditing perception and imparted internal controls examples essential to achieving and maintaining compliance. This led to a discourse of the compliance challenges facing management when utilizing managed services. He concluded by explaining various available tools to certify a third party provider’s control of its own risks, such as SAS70, and how a SAS70 can aid in the decision process for companies contemplating managed services options. Balancing Risk & Goals The talk by Symantec's Joe Giesken encompassed the need to balance a company's risks and goals, when developing, establishing and implementing a business continuity plan. On the cost side he spoke of security, availability and performance relative to the risks such as security threats, continuity and compliance. Giesken segued into an outline of items that are on the C-level executives' radar screen of concerns - SLAs, reduced RPO/RTO requirements, environments consolidation, the technologies to support business, becoming more service centric, simplifying and automating operations and establishing service level agreements and what can threaten them. Giesken then said that Symantec sees client attention to business continuity planning programs rising with business unit leaders becoming more engaged in the development, implementation and testing of business continuity plans and related infrastructure. He summed up his talk with some practical advice on preserving information integrity. It requires the management of six risks - compliance, recoverability, scalability, performance, availability and security. Outsourced Managed Services Leads to Cost Efficient Compliance The outsourcing managed services case was made by Compulinx's Terrence Chalk. He described business today as 24x7, scalable and highly competitive with expectations in minutes and seconds. Decisions are mandatory and no longer optional thanks to regulations. Data loss or network downtime often resides in two major areas - hardware/system malfunctions (44%) and human error (32%), while the challenges and the solution lies in the platform, applications, network and storage. Chalk went on to define the current market as driven by a regulatory environment and one that called for expanding customer relationships, while managing customer care across channels in the face of cost constraints and increased productivity requisites, leveraging new technology, building in security and business/technical disruptions resiliency. The keys to success, in his opinion, are a combination of business knowledge, relevance and partnerships. This opens up opportunities such as proactive compliance, revenue/financial loss protection-continuation, business continuity efficiencies and controlled liability. Managed services, noted Chalk, accomplishes all of the above while mitigating threats - unauthorized use, service disruptions, business continuity, enforcement and partner risks. These risks could lead to penalties for non-compliance, staggering liabilities, FDIC insurance loss, penalties for fraudulent access to sensitive information or loss of client trust. To further the rationale for outsourced managed services, Chalk mentioned a real case scenario that involved a banking institution involving 150 workstations. The challenge was to protect non public information and a corporate reputation. A managed service solution, designed for financial services, was the answer. Government Resources Overlooked? SIEDC’s Jay Anderson scored a bulls-eye with a well-crafted talk that connected the role of government and non-profit organizations with the day's theme - utilizing managed services to achieve compliance goals cost effectively. He pointed out that the requirements to meet compliance and security goals puts stress on any business' financial and operational side. Organizations, such as the SIEDC, exist to help by offering direct business services, and economic development projects and business incentives, such as the Empire Zones Program. Businesses can utilize these organizations to expand their resource base and alleviate bottom line pressures. Among the many organizations he cited, in addition to his own group, were the Empire State Development Corporation, the NYC Economic Development Corporation and local economic development corporations. Anderson then emphasized Staten Island's benefits by pointing out the inherent value of the recent SIEDC Comprehensive economic development study available to all attendees. Listeners learned that the report's data is a road map of how to be successful in the Staten Island market and is a must read for any business looking to expand market share and revenue. The session ended as promised - someone walked away with the door prize - an iPod Nano. Kent Browne of Compulinx had the winning business card. Please click on the presentation you would like to read: eDelta Consulting's BOOT CAMP Presentation, Symantec's BOOT CAMP Presentation, Compulinx BOOT CAMP Presentation, The SIEDC's BOOT CAMP Presentation http://www.telehouse.com/vuploads/PhotosBootCamp.pdf ===================================================================== Industry Waves Birthday Waves -- well it is November baking cake and lighting candles time for Lori Brown of Cogent, Nichole Montague of Compulinx Managed Services, and Diane Stoner of CIBER, Inc.. Get those cards and flowers ready. TELEHOUUSE Event Waves -- make sure to check you email invitation for our Nov. 16th BREAKFAST ON BROADWAY seminar with KDDI America and Court Square Data as the co-hosts. John Sorensen of KDDI Am. will talk on the enterprise and network opportunities in China. And John Graham of Court Square Data Group will give a talk on the impact of regulations on IT services, best practices and solutions across a broad spectrum of industry sectors. C.P.E.Waves -- On Nov. 18th the C.P.E. will present Contingency Planning 2010 - A Forward-Looking Examination of Preparedness over the Next Five Years from 8a to 4p at host Goldman, Sachs & Co. located at 32 Old Slip-Training Center in NYC. The agenda includes vendor showcase and presentations by Mark Thomas (VP, Goldman, Sachs & Co.); Roseann McSorley (MD-Deutsche Bank); Dick Andrews (Sr. Dir.-Homeland Security, NC4); David Nolan (Former SVP-Forsythe Solutions), and Don Donahue (COO-Depository Trust & Clearing Corp.) WSTA Waves -- along with the C.P.E. the guys 'n gals at the WSTA are also burning the midnight oil to prep for their 2 upcoming events. They will have their Hot Technologies: Part II (Future) seminar on Nov. 15th. This seminar assesses technologies that are likely to play an increasingly critical role in your business in the not-too-distant future. And Janet Knudsen has her hands full taking orders for their Dec. 14 holiday gala. Look for my colleague, Peter "Dancing Shoes" Messina. He will the one cutting a rug on the dance floor, ready to instruct you on some hot steps. Misc. Waves -- congrats to Terrence Chalk and the gang at Compulinx on their new HQ up in White Plains. ===================================================================== ===================================================================== To Visit the Telehouse Website please use the following URL http://www.telehouse.com Telehouse is a registered trademark of TELEHOUSE America