(Updated through September 12, 2005 ALL SESSIONS SUBJECT TO CHANGE.)

Monday, November 28, 2005

TUTORIAL PROGRAM

8:00 AM

Registration opens

9:00 AM -- 4:30 PM

* Tutorial 1: Wireless Broadband: Principles, Technologies, Systems, and Products

Instructor: Craig Mathias, Principal, Farpoint Group

There’s still a prevalent assumption that wireless is slow unreliable, and expensive. Nothing could be further from the truth – wireless has entered the broadband era. This tutorial will explore wireless technology, and cover the basics of radio communications and networking systems. We’ll then explore wireless personal-area networks, wireless LANs, wireless metropolitan-area networks, and wireless wide-area networks. Well look at Wi-Fi, WiMAX, cellular broadband systems, ultra-wideband, emerging technologies and systems, wireless products, and key emerging applications. In short – this tutorial has everything you need to know about contemporary wireless – and where wireless is going.

Tutorial 2: Running IT as a Business (Management focused)

Instructor: Jim Metzler

How to better align your company’s IT functions and goals with the company business.

Tutorial 3: A New Vision for Total Security

Instructor: Tom Henderson, Principal Researcher, ExtremeLabs, Inc.

* Tutorial 4: IT Governance – A Best Practice Framework for Planning, Deploying and Sustaining for Competitive Advantage

Instructor: Dr. Gad J. Selig, PMP; Managing Partner, GPS Group, Inc.

Information technology (IT) has become an integral part of a business and is fundamental to support, sustain and grow the business. Successful enterprises understand and manage the IT investments to assure that they align with the business and as well as the risks and constraints of IT. The overall goal of IT Governance is to understand the issues and the strategic importance of IT, so that the enterprise can sustain its operations and implement the initiatives required to grow.

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

ComNet Summit Conference, day one

8:00 AM

Registration opens

8:45 AM – 9:45 AM

Opening Keynote, speaker TBA

9:45 AM – 10:00 AM

Morning conference attendee networking break

10:00 AM --10:50 AM

* Session 1: Utility Computing – Is it for Real? Industry expert Jeff Kaplan from THINKstrategies and a panel of industry executives take a look at the utility computing model and its economies. Is this new approach to IT right for you? Get an update on this technology, and advice about how to develop the best utility computing strategy to meet your IT/business needs.

* Session 2: Security Patch Management. Keeping up with literally dozens of updates on an ongoing basis is tough for the small business, but nearly impossible for the enterprise or a government agency. Learn how to develop a true patching plan and where the pitfalls lay. Moderator: Tom Henderson, Principal Researcher, ExtremeLabs.

11:00 AM -- 11:50 AM

* Session 3: Real Wireless Security.  A network without effective security isn’t really a network at all – it’s an invitation to disaster. One of the benefits of all of the recent publicity regarding wireless security concerns has been a renewed emphasis on overall network security, but wireless still introduces a special set of concerns and opportunities. This session will look at key issues in wireless LAN security today, and explore how WLANs can be made secure enough for enterprise-class applications. Moderator: Craig Mathias, Principal, Farpoint Group; Speakers: Jay Ennis, Sr. Director of System Architecture, Network Chemistry; and (speaker pending) from Airtight.

* Session 4: Processor Families in the Enterprise. Tom Henderson and his panelists take participants through the land of processors and weigh in on the coming landscape. Windows versus Open Source; Intel versus the rest of the world. It’s not a decision to take lightly.

12:00 Noon – 1:00 PM

Conference attendee lunch break

EXHIBITS OPEN (12:00 Noon through 2:00 PM)

1:00 PM – 1:50 PM

Mid-day keynote, TBA (CIO from a government agency or Fortune-class company)

2:00 PM – 2:50 PM

* Session 5: Sourcing Strategies for Success – Outsource, Off-shore or Backsource? Jeff Kaplan from THINKstrategies and a panel of industry experts will guide attendees through a review of the options, the benefits and the pitfalls of each scenario.

* Session 6: Grid Computing -- The path to pervasive adoption

Built on industry standards, grid computing enables organizations to share computing and information resources across department and organizational boundaries in a secure, efficient manner. Standardization of grid computing is being lead by the Global Grid Forum (GGF working throughout the industry to champion architectures, specifications and best practices that will enable the pervasive adoption of grid computing for business and research worldwide.  During this session, GGF Chair, Mark Linesch, will discuss the growing trend to focus horizontally within and across organizations for collaborative research and design; process and data integration, resource and information sharing. He will describe his perspectives on grid computing and outline a path toward pervasive adoption. 

3:00 PM – 3:50 PM

Session 7: Can VoIP Be Secured? VoIP is a great cost-saving technology but is it ready for prime time playing in today’s enterprise or government agency? How do we secure VoIP? Can we make it Sarbanes-Oxley compliant? Session is moderated by Steve Taylor, Distributed Networking Associates / Webtorials.

* Session 8: Lost & Found: Storage Networks and Metatagging. Storage is great, finding what you stored when you need it is better. Learn about the ins and outs of metatagging and how to develop consistent policies for your business or agency.

4:00 PM – 4:15 PM

Afternoon conference attendee networking break

EXHIBITS OPEN (4:00 PM through 7:00 PM)

4:15 PM – 5:45 PM

* ComNet Summit Annual Town Meeting: “A New Telecommunications Act?”

Do we need it?  Is it likely?  And, if so, what would be the key issues: broadband deregulation; VOIP and the future role of state regulation; universal service; inter-carrier compensation; industry restructure (in light of pending mergers); new technologies, etc.  On hand to discus and debate this area, in a fast-moving all question-and-answer session, will be leading government officials drawn from the Congress (Senate and House Commerce Committees), the Federal Communications Commission, and the National Telecommunications & Information Agency at the Department of Commerce.  Dick Wiley, Managing Partner of Wiley Rein & Fielding and former Chairman of the FCC, will moderate as always. Panelists include Howard Waltzman, House Commerce Committee (Majority); James Assey, Senate Commerce Committee (Minority); Michelle Carey, Legal Assistant to FCC Chairman Martin; and John Kneuer, Deputy Administrator, National Telecommunications & Information Agency, Department of Commerce.

5:45 PM – 7:00 PM

ComNet Summit Networking Reception on the exhibit floor.

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

ComNet Summit Conference, day two

8:00 AM

Registration opens

8:30 AM – 9:45 AM

* Cross Pollination in the Military and Commercial Communications Markets. Join the editors of Telecommunications Magazine and eDefense Online for a debate on the future of the technologies and products begin developed for dual markets.

9:45 AM – 10:00 AM

Morning conference attendee networking break

10:00 AM --10:50 AM

Session 9: Telcos and the Local Loop – a look at the options for the future and who will be delivering services in the future. James Hettrick, Director of IT, City of Loma Linda, CA

* Session 10: Telco Managed Services Future -- Telecoms are struggling to move beyond the pipe and are strengthening their managed services offering to provide differentiated value to customers.  What does the managed services demand look like?  Emerging technologies like MPLS VPN’s are ripe for telco managed services, and temperate enterprise interest still exists for more mature technologies.  In the future, telecoms will continue to offer new types of managed services - like seizing on the fast adoption of mobile enterprise applications and offering managed mobility services.  However, this future is daunting as telcos will face new types of competition from traditional managed service providers and will need to become even more customer-oriented in their service. Speaker: Ellen Daley, Forrester Research

11:00 AM – 11:50 AM

* Session 11: Fixed/Mobile Conversion. Join industry watcher Craig Mathias of Farpoint Group for a look at fixed/mobile technology and how it plays in today’s enterprise and government agency communications planning.

* Session 12: Tomorrow’s Killer Apps -- The technology economy has shown pronounced growth cycles over the past 50 years, alternating with periods of technology digestion when growth slows. We are in such a digestion period right now; history strongly suggests that another growth wave of IT innovation will begin in 2007 or 2008. The seeds of that next wave are all around us; Forrester's research agenda is focused on four important themes in technology development and deployment that will define what is running over our networks in the coming years. Speaker: Gene Leganza, Forrester Research

12:00 Noon – 12:30 PM

Conference attendee lunch break

EXHIBITS OPEN (12 Noon – 3:00 PM)

12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

* Network World Showdown: Managed Security Service Providers.

Security remains at the top of the list of enterprise bugaboos - a seemingly intractable problem that gets more complicated with each passing day and every new threat. But a growing number of organizations are turning to their service providers for help in wrestling with security problems, buying into managed security services (MSS) that can offload much of the work and investment that companies now shoulder on their own. Service providers bring some powerful assets to bear on the security challenge, not the least of which is an early-warning view into all the traffic flowing across their global networks to thousands of customers. But how do the providers' managed security services differ from one another? Where are the different carriers weak and strong in their outsourced offerings? In this unique, head-to-head discussion among the leading managed security providers, Network World Editorial Director John Gallant and Forrester Research telecom analyst Paul Stamp will ask tough questions and engage the participants in a presidential-style debate aimed at helping you make the best security choice for your organization. Don't miss it!

2:00 PM – 2:50 PM

* Session 13: Understanding the IPsphere (formerly Infranet Initiative) - The IPsphere Forum has a simple mission: Create standards to make the Internet as reliable as any private network. How? With a call to action that the most influential companies in the telecom and IT industries have answered. Forrester will break down the basics of this initiative and explain who’s involved, the forum’s overall goals, and how its standards proposals will transform public IP networks. Speaker: Robert Whiteley, Forrester Research

* Session 14: Making Your Storage a Knowledgebase. Strategic information is only good if you can find it and know how to deploy it. Learn from experts in knowledgebase deployment in a session moderated by ExtremeLabs’ Tom Henderson.

3:00 PM – 3:50 PM

Session 15: Cool New Technologies: A look at robotics, sensors, and more. Which are real, and which have true commercial potential? Doug Gold from IDG World Expo moderates this session with a look to the future.

Session 16: Making High-Availability Networks a Reality. We all shoot for as close to 100% but can we achieve it? This session looks at the network technologies needed to accomplish this goal and ways to improve your network performance and reliability – in the enterprise or in a government agency.