The Macarthur Stroud Symposium will address many of the key topics and issues facing organisations of all types, large and small, public and private. In all cases the topics will be discussed openly by the participating vendors with both morning and afternoon panel sessions, moderated by Macarthur Stroud to all delegates to get their own questions answered. Case study materials will also be included.

10:00 - Scaling the system architecture: meeting the needs across the organisation

1. Consolidation is taking many forms – is this the start point for most users to save costs?
2. Where does storage and server consolidation fit in?
3. What role does virtualisation play – or is this just another bit of hype?

Presented by:
Dennis Ryan
Partner Sales
Development Manager,
EMEA
EMC

1. What are the key system and storage network components that must be managed?


2. What tools help to deliver automated procedures – is this not where the real savings are to realised?


3. With the increasing volume of data – or is it information – being stored on our systems and networks, how can systems be developed to be always available and performing as expected?

Presented by:
Adrian Groeneveld
Senior Product Marketing Manager, EMEA
Pillar Data Systems

1. We hear about a centralised data centre and regional offices – do not organisations have multiple data centres?


2. What is the relationship between central and distributed environments – how are policies & solutions implemented consistently across the organisation?


3. What role does system architecture play in this distributed, yet consolidated environment ?


4. Why is the focus just on file services through to regional offices – do they not have other types of data and applications that must be secured and protected?

12:05 - Managing data storage and security in the outsourcing market

A customer case-study

13:45 – Afternoon session opening remarks

14:00 - Disaster Recovery – how organisations can plan for the unexpected?

1. This seems a large investment for questionable gain – if we are hit with a real disaster, maybe our business is dead?


2. How strong should our data protection services be?


3. How is DR different to keeping copies of data off-site?


4. Recovery is the issue, surely.  How quickly can we expect to be on-line if we experience a total outage, and what should our investment and systems look like?

Presented by:
Chris James,
Marketing Director EMEA
Overland

14:35 - Business Continuance – Can you afford downtime?

1. How much should you spend on providing business continuance? Where do you start?


2. How should organisations assess the risks to which they might be exposed?


3. What additional regulatory pressures are you finding yourselves under to ensure continuous business operations?


4. Are external pressures such as laws and regulation adding more demands to IT to remain fully functional and recoverable 24 x 7? If so, how is your business dealing with this?


5. How does the recovery bit work and how should we look to architect our systems to deliver continuous data protection with measured risk?

15:30 - Securing the infrastructure

1. Security has many facets.  When we look at securing the infrastructure should we just look at it at the edge, stop malware affecting the systems and stop unauthorised users?


2. With 80% of fraud and other mal-practices being perpetrated by trusted staff, how can the infrastructure secure the information assets of an organisation?


3. How do you track what is happening, how do you ensure that approved access is checked, not just for users, but applications and processes that are initiated when transacting business?

16:05 - Securing data at rest

1. We hear about many cases where tapes are lost or have been delivered to the wrong organisation.  Is this overstated or understated?


2. Is encryption the only way that we can protect data?


3. When securing data at rest, is it only for back-up or archive data that this is relevant?


4. What happens when disks are replaced or an array is upgraded?  What happens to the data – can it be easily and safely scrubbed?


5. How does securing data at rest fit in with an overall security strategy?

16:40 – Panel Discussion

Chaired by:
Hamish Macarthur

17:00 - CLOSE