Events & Webinars

As much as the term Cloud Computing gets tossed around these days you would think everyone’s using it. But do cloud predictions really match real world use? If you aren’t “in the cloud” are you already behind the competition?

During this presentation, we will discuss the pros and cons of moving applications to the cloud, with a particular focus on business critical applications. We will share our experiences working with clients to determine if their applications are “cloud ready” through a review of availability, costs, and operational impacts. Examples of successful use cases in the public cloud will be explored including emerging technologies, DRaaS, new applications, older applications running on older hardware, and startups.

You’ll leave with a better understanding of the types of applications that are best suited for the cloud, a list of questions you should be asking when considering moving to the cloud, and a checklist you can use to evaluate your application’s cloud readiness.

Presenter:

• Jim Hannan, Principal Architect, House of Brick Technologies

In this session we will provide an overview of licensing Oracle programs using Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) on POWER/AIX VMs in the Skytap Cloud. There is a lot of confusion around Oracle licensing, especially in virtualized or cloud environments. Many of the references to discussion points and legal challenges resulting from running virtualized x86 platforms apply directly to POWER environments as well.

Key takeaways from this webinar include:

– Skytap Cloud is an effective option for IaaS, including for Oracle-based POWER/AIX applications.
– The use of POWER/AIX VMs for Oracle workloads in Skytap Cloud ensures that Oracle workloads stay running only on licensed processors.
– Skytap Cloud provides support for Oracle licensing by allocating dedicated resources to Oracle workloads.
– In an Oracle audit, usage of Skytap Cloud environments will be documented as if the LPARs or servers are part of the customer’s on-premises environment.

Presenters:

• Mike Stone, CIO, House of Brick Technologies
• Dan Jones, Director of Product Management, Skytap

(Alternate Title: Using Sofware-Defined Storage for your Applications: A Best Practices Guide)

Software-defined storage is quickly becoming mainstream and not having to deal with all of the headaches of storage management can be a wonderful thing.

Placing your tier 1 database workloads onto software-defined storage is possible, but it needs to be done correctly. Tier 1 database workloads are typically the most I/O intensive systems in an environment. Consequently, there are additional considerations that need to be taken into account in order to ensure performance and redundancy for these critical workloads. It doesn’t matter if your workload is SQL Server or Oracle, or if you are running Hyper-V or VMware, the concepts are the same.

In this session, we will walk through SDS, and cover topics including: sizing your workload, validating performance characteristics, and following recommended best practices for placing your most important applications on SDS.

Presenter:

• Shawn Meyers, Principal Architect

Virtualizing Oracle and SQL Server databases on a private cloud infrastructure has become common for many organizations worldwide. However, extending that virtual strategy to include a public cloud component brings both advantages and challenges. In this session, cStor and House of Brick will share our experiences with private, public, and hybrid cloud environments and address key operational and licensing considerations for a leading cloud providers including AWS, vCloud Air, and Microsoft Azure.

Presenters:

• Bob Lindquist & Jim Hannan, House of Brick
• Pete Schmitt, cStor

Businesses sometime ignore Oracle database performance until poor performance impacts profitability, or the cost of Oracle licensing becomes significant. But this consideration frequently comes a bit late, and can cause tension between the business and technical staff.

Hear how we have helped our clients bridge the gap between business needs and technical resources. Learn how using the right tools, like Statspack and AWR, can help identify performance trends and enable a healthy dialogue between the business, technical, DBA, developer, and infrastructure teams.

Presenter:

• Jonas Mason, Senior Consultant & Joe Grant, Principal Architect