ODCA to Accelerate Enterprise Data Center Innovation at Forecast 2014: September 22 - 24 in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 18, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA), today announced that the third annual Forecast conference will be held September 22-24 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.  Forecast is ODCA's premier annual cloud computing and business analytics event where the organization's leadership, including senior IT experts from BMW, Capgemini, China Unicom, Infosys, Lockheed Martin, Marriott International, Inc., National Australia Bank (NAB), NTT Data, SAP, T-Systems, UBS, Verizon Terremark and The Walt Disney Company, come together with a host of enterprise IT experts to advance the development and deployment of enterprise data center implementations that are open, interoperable and secure.

"We're thrilled to be heading back to San Francisco for Forecast 2014 with an expanded agenda featuring best practice and proof of concept results sharing, deep dives on ODCA requirements publications, and, for the first time, workshops that are aimed at accelerating member solution delivery and deployments," said Marvin Wheeler, executive director, Open Data Center Alliance. "This agenda has been designed by enterprise IT experts for enterprise IT organizations specifically aiming to deploy world class IT services for their organizations."

Forecast was first launched as a one-day event in 2012, and since then the conference has grown to include hundreds of annual participants from around the world. Attendees and sponsors attend Forecast to engage in actionable business conversations about enterprise cloud computing and to build and expand their professional network of peers utilizing cloud and business analytics solutions as a core focus of corporate strategy. Attendees learn how organizations are leveraging the work of ODCA to help accelerate both deployments and solutions delivery to corporate competitive advantage, and get the latest perspectives on the key challenges facing IT organizations today.

Preliminary Forecast 2014 highlights include:

Expanded workshops and educational sessions
A wide range of new interactive and hands-on sessions, panels and keynotes that focus on best practices and case studies to ensure Forecast 2014 participants get the information they need to speed the deployment of open enterprise cloud services.

New opportunities for sponsors
Streamlined sponsor packages to maximize sponsor visibility and ROI prior to, during and after Forecast 2014, which include NDA meetings with C-Level IT leaders from member companies at the event and participation in news and promotional programs.

Deep focus on networking
All sessions and events are designed to maximize networking and business opportunities during and after the event including meet-ups in the Forecast Cloud Cafe and a conference reception open to all attendees.

More information about the conference, including information about how to register, initial information on the three day agenda and details about early bird pricing, is available on the Forecast 2014 website. ODCA will announce workshop topics, speakers, sponsors and sessions on a regular basis throughout 2014. Get the latest information about Forecast 2014 on Twitter by following hashtag #Forecast14.

"Forecast is ODCA's once-a-year 'must-attend' event where enterprise IT takes the lead in sharing best practices, providing insight on key challenges ahead, and engaging in real business discussions that accelerate business," said Correy Voo, CTO at UBS and president of the ODCA Board of Directors. "We strongly encourage current and prospective ODCA members, cloud and business analytics providers, and enterprise IT thought leaders to join us September 22-24 in San Francisco."

About The Open Data Center Alliance
The Open Data Center Alliance^SM is an independent IT consortium comprised of global IT leaders who have come together to provide a unified customer vision for long-term data center requirements. The organization is led by a fourteen member steering committee. Intel serves as technical advisor to the Alliance. ODCA hosts a Flash Webinar Series every other Tuesday at 8:00am US PT. These public events are one of the best ways to get to know ODCA usage models from the ODCA members who worked on creating the documents. View the calendar and register to attend the webinars on the ODCA Flash Webinar page. More information about ODCA publications and membership can be found at the organization's website: www.opendatacenteralliance.org, and on Facebook, LinkedIn, Slideshare, Twitter, and YouTube.

Contact:
Russ DeVeau
Open Data Center Alliance
908-251-1549 – mobile/text
[email protected]

SOURCE Open Data Center Alliance