Cloud Computing is the new buzz word in the technology industry; but even industry insiders don’t agree on exactly what the term means, says Mike Eaton, Founder and CEO of Cloudworks and Atticus Information Systems. Eaton will be giving a breakout session at SYS-CON's 'Cloud Computing Expo' (November 20-21, 2008) - an adjunct to the 4th International Virtualization Conference & Expo being held at The Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, CA.

"We shouldn’t be surprised that mainstream business is approaching Cloud Computing with caution," notes Eaton. "Businesses have many concerns about moving their data to the cloud, some legitimate and some irrational."

"All these concerns need to be overcome in order for a widespread adoption of Cloud computing to occur," he continues. His breakout session will discuss the obstacles to getting customers to embrace the concept of cloud computing and how to overcome them, covering topics such as the dangers of preaching to the converted, why “better” isn’t good enough when moving customers away from the familiar, and communicating the benefits without getting lost in the technical details.

At the Cloud Computing Expo, Eaton will be speaking alongside other top Cloud luminaries and ecosystem participants, including:

• Dr Werner Vogels, CTO, Amazon.com (Keynote)
• Mike Eaton, CEO, Cloudworks
• Willy Chiu, VP of High Performance on Demand Solutions, IBM
• Dave Durkee, CEO, ENKI
• Patrick Harr, CO, Nirvanix 
• Thorsten von Eicken, CTO, RightScale 
• Kirill Sheynkman, Founder & CEO, Elastra Corporation 
• John Janakiraman, CTO, Skytap
• Billy Marshall, Founder & CEO, rPath
• Dr Thorsten von Eicken, CTO & Founder, RightScale
• Reuven Cohen, Founder & Chief Technologist, Enomaly
• Don MacAskill, CEO & Chief Geek, SmugMug
• Jason Hoffman, CTO, Joyent
• Lars Leckie, Principal, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners
  

The theme of the the inaugural Cloud Computing Expo is "The Delivery of IT Resources as Services" - and there will be a rich mix of technical and strategic sessions designed to help IT professionals make informed technology choices as well as understand how Cloud Computing will impact existing IT processes. Sessions will cover a range of Cloud-related topics including:

• Utility Computing
• SaaS
• Platform-as-a-Service
• Automation
• Grid Software
• Elastic Computing
• Cloud Databases
• Scalability
• Fabric Computing
• Green IT
• High-Performance Computing
• Service Management
• Web-scale Computing
• Cloud Standards
  
  
  Submit Your Speaking Proposal to the 1st International Cloud Computing Expo (20-21 November, 2008) in San Jose CA
  

• Cloud Computing: "Cloud Thinking" Abounds at Microsoft, Sun and Dell
• Cloud Computing - AT&T Takes to the Cloud
• Is Cloud Computing Right For You?
• Cloud Security: The Need for Two-Factor Authentication in Cloud Computing
• Cloud Computing: The On-Demand Model Has Been Available for a While
• Cloud Computing - Game Changing?
• Creating a Common Cloud Computing Reference API - Part Two
• Virtualization Is Not Cloud Computing
• Cloud Computing: Flip 80/20 and Go