Over a week ago since the event and the team are starting to catch their breath!

All delegates will have now received an email containing login details to access all the event presentations.

Courtesy of our exhibitor John Cassidy Photography, we have a selection of event photos ready to view here

http://www.johncassidyphoto.co.uk/clientgallery.php?z=smwf18854z

If you would like copies of any of the photos, please contact John directly at johncassidyphoto (@ ) mac.com

Star Announces launch of ‘Dev2Live’ Services for SIs and ISVs

Star provides on-demand business services to support software development projects from build and test to ‘go live’

LONDON, 15 March 2010 – Star, a provider of on-demand computing and communication services to UK businesses, has announced the launch of a specialist Dev2Live service. This is a complete range of services aimed at developers and giving them access to the managed infrastructure and collaboration tools needed to support software development projects, from build and testing to the ‘live’ environment.

Star’s Dev2Live service is a solution to the resource and cost challenges of managing multiple providers and in-house hardware for every development project. Project leaders can now focus on a project’s success with the support of an extensive range of on-demand, pay-as-you-go services managed within a private cloud environment, all from one trusted partner.

Dev2Live services are built up from components that make up the Star cloud computing platform, and include a dedicated virtualisation cluster, that gives developers a single scalable platform on which to build, test and deploy software with the ability to deploy additional machines in minutes.  To ease collaboration, Star Business Email provides the resources to co-ordinate team activities and improves productivity without the need for in-house servers. Dev2Live services can be deployed within a Star managed network infrastructure, simplifying the secure delivery of applications and data to people wherever they are located.

As part of the launch of the service, Star is offering the ‘QuickStartDV’ Pack which includes a 7-day free trial of the virtualisation platform with a 30 day ‘money back’ guarantee, 5 free users of Star Business Email and Microsoft Team Foundation Server.

James Griffin, Head of Hosting Strategy at Star comments: “Whether they’re working for large corporates or smaller agencies, developers face a host of challenges in taking projects from test phase to live environments. Pressures on time scales, resources and project management combine to create a number of issues which can create barriers to successful project completion.”

He continues:  “Star’s Dev2Live services are designed to provide a complete package, which can help to overcome these obstacles with the tools and infrastructure specifically designed for the needs of developers. Star is an established provider of resilient, secure and tailored services all of which is backed up by a dedicated UK technical support team.”

Dev2Live customer Harvey Flather, CEO at Intelligent ID, recalls his earlier attempt to do everything in-house: “We recognised early on that we had to find a better way to deliver our services than trying to do everything ourselves. We didn’t want the cost and distraction that creating our own delivery platform would mean and the negative impact this would have on our business. I think it had the potential to hold back the development work on our solutions as well as our financial growth if we did not get this right. Making the right decision meant finding a partner with the infrastructure already in place that would help us to deliver our services quickly and cost effectively.”

Download the free developer whitepaper, “Remove the road blocks to project success” from: www.star.co.uk/developer

About Star

Star provides on-demand computing and communication services to UK businesses. Utilising an advanced cloud computing platform, the company has redefined how business people use and pay for the technology that supports them. Star’s On-demand Business Services™ are easy to use and pay for and are available any time and from anywhere, removing unnecessary costs for hardware, software and ongoing maintenance.

Since 1995, when Star was founded, the company has been an Internet technology innovator and pioneered the system for cloud based spam and virus scanning for business email that became MessageLabs. In the last 14 years Star has established itself as a leading IT and communications service provider of the highest pedigree looking after 3,500 UK business customers and their 500,000 users.

Star has UK based data centres that sit within a network and communications capability that forms the basis of the Star Platform, from which a wide range of computing and communication services are delivered to customers. Star has over 230 employees working from offices throughout the UK, providing the highest levels of customer service and support. Star’s technology roadmap will deliver on-demand, cloud computing services to UK businesses who want immediate access to the latest enterprise technologies. For more information please go to: www.star.co.uk

Media Contacts:

Kirsten Scott/Maria Muller

éclat Marketing

Tel: 01276 486000

Email: star@eclat.co.uk

Juniper research, a Media Partner of the Cloud Computing Congress, reports on new mobile cloud computing findings.

As collaborative applications become ever more important for enterprise, a new report from Juniper Research has found that the number of enterprise customers using mobile cloud-based applications will rise to more than 130 million by 2014, facilitated by platform as a service (PaaS) deployments from key players such as Google and Microsoft.

The report found that the market for connected enterprise apps had benefitted from the success of Apple’s iPhone and App Store. It said that this was reflected both by a marked increase in both the number of enterprise apps available to end-users and also in the fact that such apps were themselves becoming far more attractive given the wide-ranging enhancements to smartphone user interfaces in the wake of the iPhone launch.

Furthermore, Juniper’s Mobile Cloud Applications research found that as cloud providers were increasingly opening up their APIs for application providers seeking to develop browser-based or thin client applications, this provided greater opportunity and incentive for developers seeking to reduce the costs associated by porting apps across multiple platforms.

According to report author Dr Windsor Holden, “A cloud-based ecosystem for enterprise apps will be attractive both for developers and enterprises alike. For developers, cloud opens up a far wider potential audience for their products; for enterprise customers, outsourcing application management to a remote third-party, costed on a scalable, pay-per-use basis, offers far more flexibility combined with a significant reduction in capital expenditure.”

Other findings from the Mobile Cloud Applications report include:

•         A cloud-based ecosystem offers storage and infrastructure suppliers the opportunity to enter the mobile arena by leverage their strengths in these areas to develop mobile-oriented cloud services

•         While enterprise applications will comprise the majority of cloud-based application revenues over the next five years, consumer applications including games, social networks and music services will together generate more than 25% of such revenues by 2014.

Juniper Research assesses the current and future status of mobile cloud based on interviews, case studies and analysis from representatives of some of the leading organisations in this bleeding edge industry.

Mobile Cloud whitepaper and further details of the study ‘Mobile Cloud Applications & Services: Monetising Enterprise & Consumer Markets 2009-2014’ can be freely downloaded from www.juniperresearch.com.  Alternatively, please contact John Levett at john.levett@juniperresearch.com, telephone +44(0)1256 830002.

To find out more about Mobile Cloud Computing you can visit the free to attend workshop sessions at the Cloud Computing Congress

Speaker line-up announced at the London Social Media Events.  200 confirmed speakers across the conferences.  See our full line-up below.

Speakers @ Enterprise Social Media & Cloud Computing http://www.cloudcomputingcongress.com – 15/16th March

* David Akka, MD, Magic Software Enterprises UK, Eire & Nordics
* Chris Rae, EMEA Director, Automation Solutions, CA
* Dion Hinchliffe, Editor in Chief, Social Computing Magazine & Web 2.0 Journal
* Geoff Timblick, Group Internal Communications Manager, New Media, Vodafone Group
* Helen Farrar, Head of Internal Communications, Virgin Media
* Martin Bellamy, CIO, Cabinet Office
* Adrian Steel, Head of Infrastructure Management, Royal Mail
* Thanos Kokkiniotis, Business IT Analyst, Shell International Ltd
* Eachan Fletcher, CIO, Sporting Index
* Simon Revell, Associate Director, Collaboration and Web Technologies, Pfizer
* David Wilde, CIO, Westminster City Council
* Per Rombouts, Project Manager Intranet & Social Media, ING Group
* Kenneth Verlage, CIO, DHL Express
* Paul James, CIO, Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, MOD
* Dominic Burch, Head of Corporate Comms and New Media, ASDA
* Sonia Carter, Senior Manager Online Communications, AXA
* Anthony Frost, Head of Corporate Communications, Santander
* Euan Semple, Independent Advisor/former Director of Knowledge Management BBC
* Alison Coward, Owner, Bracket
* Evangelos Kotsovinos, Vice President, Technology, Morgan Stanley
* Eachan Fletcher, CIO, Sporting Index
* Richard Ellis, Manager, UK & Ireland, Iron Mountain Digital
* Andrew Charlesworth, Director, Centre for IT and Law, University of Bristol
* Dr Bill Ashraf, Director of Technology Enhanced Learning, University of Sussex
* Adrian Davey, Head of IT, Tube Lines

Speakers @ Social Media World Forum 15/16th March – http://www.socialmedia-forum.com

* Lucas Herscovici, Global Marketing Manager, Becks
* Dr. Torsten Wigenter, Head of Social Media Marketing, Lufthansa
* Trevor Johnson, Head of Strategy and Planning, EMEA, Facebook
* Stephane Panier, Global Head, Bebo
* Nick Halstead, CEO, Tweetmeme
* Allison Wightman, Head of Marketing Systems, Virgin Atlantic
* Kerryn Dinsdale, Senior PR Manager, Barclaycard
* Muhammad Karim, Senior Brand Manager, Mars
* Peter Crosby, COO, Viadeo
* Dr. Helmut Becker, COO, XING
* Mark Schmid, Communications Director, Talk Talk
* Martine Edgell, CRM Specialist, Mercedes Benz
* Neal Sato, CTO, mixi
* Christian Schultz, Head of Communications, Mattel
* Michael Smith, Deputy Director of Interactive Services, COI
* Lorenz Bogaert, CEO, Netlog
* Jason Baker, Head of CRM and Digital Media, Ikea UK
* Justin Kan, founder and President, Justin.tv
* Guy Clapperton, Freelance Journalist, Editor and Broadcaster
* Penny Power, Author, International Speaker, Entrepreneur and founder of Ecademy
* Matthew Fraser, Senior Fellow at INSEAD & co-author of  ‘Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom
* Fred McIntyre, Vice President, Product, CBS Interactive
* Sienne Veit, Social and Mobile Commerce Development, Manager, M&S Direct
* Ricky Chopra, Digital Marketing Manager, Speedo International Limited
* Igor Beuker, Founder, SocialMedia8
* David Henry, VP Digital Marketing, Europe, Monster Worldwide
* Mark Watts-Jones, Head of Development & Innovation, Orange UK
* Lisa Mane, Head of Social Media, COI
* Mike Gamoroff, Owner & MD, Gamoroff
* Will McInnes, Managing Director, NixonMcInnes
* Michael Caselli, Editor, Online Casino News
* Adam Caplan, Vice President – Virtual Currency (Super Rewards), Adknowledge
* Neal Sato, CTO, mixi
* Fred McIntyre, Vice President, Product, CBS Interactive
* Oli Newton, Head of Emerging Platforms, i-Level
* Celina Maguire, Consumer Director, Gorkana
* Laila Takeh, Online Manager, British Heart Foundation
* Kristin Wadge, Director, Metrica
* Sam Barratt, Head of Media, Oxfam
* Craig Elder, Online Communities Editor, Conservative Campaign HQ
* Alex Aiken, Head of Communications, Westminster City Council
* Kerry McCarthy, Labour MP for Bristol East & New Media Communications Spokesperson
* Mark Jones, Online and Social Media Editor, Thomson Reuters
* Alex Miller, Head of Social Media, i-Level
* Markus Berger – de Leon, CEO, VZ Networks
* Angel Gambino, Vice President, Sonico

Speakers @ Social TV & Mobile Social Media 15/16^th March  include – http://www.social-tv.net & http://www.mobilesocial-networking.com

• Robert Marsh, VP, Interactive & Telephony, Freemantle Media
• Peter Ward, Co-founder & CEO, WAYN
• Bob Rapp, Head, User Communities, Vodafone Group
• Rahul Chakkara, Controller of TV Platforms, BBC
• Angel Gambino, Vice President, Sonico
• Mark Watts-Jones, Head of Development & Innovation, Orange UK
• Yoel Flohr, Head of Mobile, Bebo
• Andrew Kearney, Vice President TV Products at UPC Broadband
• Richard Griffiths, Director TV and Entertainment, Eircom
• Nicolas Bry, Vice President, Orange Vallee
• Kevin Baughan, Head Technical Strategy, Virgin Media
• Ian Kegel, Head of Future Content Group, BT UK
• Triona Campbell, CEO, Campbell Ryan
• Pasa Mustafa, Head of Digital Studios, Endemol
• Damien Byrne, Head of Entertainment, T Mobile
• Miroslaw Smyk, General Manager TV Business Division at Romtelecom
• Matt Dicks, CMO, Flirtomatic
• John Cole, Managing Director UK, Adknowledge
• Claudio Venezia, Researcher, Telecom Italia
• Cian O’Sullivan, Editor in Chief, GoMo News
• Tim Hussain, Head of Mobile and Video Advertising
• Guillaume de Saint Marc, VP R&D New Initiatives, NDS
• Konstantinos Papamiltiadis, Head of Product, Mobile – EU, Yahoo!
• Paul Berney, Managing Director Europe, Mobile Marketing Association
• Adrian Drury, Principle / Media, Broadcast & Telecoms, Ovum
• Paul Berney, Managing Director, Europe, MMA
• Deborah Porton, Head of Mobile Development, Badoo Ltd
• Franco Beschizza, Head of Mobile, Interactive Services, COI
• Konstantinos Papamiltiadis, Head of Product, Mobile – EU, Yahoo!
• Martin Harris, SVP Corporate Sales, Bango
• Peter Ward, Co-Founder & Co-CEO, WAYN.com
• Stefanie Hoffmann, CEO Finance, Business Development, aka aki
• Simon Spanswick, Chief Executive, Association for International Broadcasting
• Dan Cryan, Head of Broadband, Screen Digest
• Paul Bristow, Vice-President of Strategy, ADB
• Dr William Cooper Founder and Chief Executive, informitv.com
• Justin Kan, founder and President, Justin.tv
• Aliza Beckett, Business Development, Web, Mobile & New Platforms, Channel 4
• Chi-chi Ekweozor, Director, RealFresh.tv
• Dick Rempt, CEO, Talents Media
• Richard Lindsay Davis, Director General, DTG
• Benjamin Schwarz, Owner, CTO Innovation Consulting
• Martin Jarrold, Chief, International Programme Development GVF

The success of Web 2.0 consumer web sites teaches us many lessons about how we can improve internal IT and business to consumer online applications. Social technologies have made it progressively easier and easier for people to find each other, share information and collaborate, and we have seen how a singular focus on supporting individual needs can crete powerful network effects when aggregated at scale.

However, these and other lessons have not yet penetrated the world of corporate IT in most companies today, which means expensive, centralised and highly bureaucratic models of co-ordination and collaboration are the norm.

The recession is a perfect time to change this, and to seek leaner, flatter business processes and structures that act as enablers rather than dampeners of innovation and initiative. We simply cannot afford the high-cost models of internal co-ordination that have persisted for so long.

The key to this change is recognising that, in most cases, people power is the best way to get things done, and the role of technology is to augment human cognition and decision making, rather than try to replicate or replace it. People over process. This is why so many employees in companies have reached out to find each other using consumer online social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn in preference to their own internal systems, which do not provide easy ways to network with colleagues to get the job done. Similarly, we have seen people go outside the firewall to initiate wikis for collaboration, or blogs for sense making, or perhaps consumer RSS management tools for information management. Each of these capabilities should be available within a modern corporate IT setting.

We can now take advantage of a range of enterprise-ready social tools, including blogs, wikis, social networking tools, information management tools and so on, and these are generally a great deal cheaper and more effective than older generations of internal IT systems. As people have become accustomed to the simple user experience of Google’s tools or Facebook in their non-work lives, they are increasingly asking why the experience of internal IT in their companies must be so poor, so frustrating and such a time sink. The fact is, it doesn’t need to be that way. It can be smarter, simpler and more delightful to use, and the transition to lightweight social tools can achieve much of what internal IT has promised, but so far failed to deliver.

Lee Bryant is the Director of headshift www.headshift.com

To find out more about the next Enterprise Social Media event taking place on 15th March 2010 at Olympia, London, visit http://www.enterprisesocialmedia.net/

We’re pleased to announce a new incentive – a quota of 50 complimentary conference passes for CIOs and IT Directors.

The pass includes:
• Access to Enterprise Social Media on 15th March 2010
• Access to the Cloud Computing Congress on 16th March 2010
• Access to the conference exhibition
• Access to the conference workshops
• Post event online presentation
• Lunch & refreshments
• WiFi access
• Invite to the evening networking party

The number of passes is limited, so if you are a CIO or IT Director, register today for a free pass.

To register, please send your full details to Andy (@) sixdegspeople.com. Once approved you’ll receive your free CIO pass.

For full event details for Day 1 visit www.enterprisesocialmedia.net, for Day 2 visit www.cloudcomputingcongress.com

Time to let your staff use social media at work?

It’s a license for staff to waste time.   There’s no control about what they say.   What happens if a customer makes contact with them direct?

Today’s arguments against allowing your staff to use social media at work?  Actually they were pretty much the arguments used by companies to restrict email use in the mid 1990s.

That’s worth bearing in mind as the social media in the office debate rages.

Today it’s received wisdom that email is an essential business tool, and so it will be with social media before too long.

Especially with metrics firm Nielsen showing that communication via social networks overtook communication via email.   And from personal experience, I can now think of several instances of clients messaging me direct on Twitter as opposed to pinging me an email.

However just like with 90s email, the first stage of workplace social media acceptability is to publish dos and don’ts guidelines about what’s allowed.   Even though a survey by Monster showed that 90% of workers are afraid of using Twitter for fear of getting in trouble, a number of firms have done just that.

As with all internal guidelines this ranges from the simple to the ones filled with corporate speak.

For example, Opera, the makers of the Internet browser of the same name, published a series of eight easy to understand rules: Share your thoughts, be active, “we’re not your mama”, don’t give away the farm, check your sources, our friends are your friends, for the squeamish post a disclaimer and use your common sense.

Australian telecoms giant Telstra publicly released guidelines revolving around the ‘three Rs’ – responsibility, respect and representation.   And at the far end of the scale, Canadian broadcaster CBC published criteria that they backtracked on after it caused a fuss, saying that personal blogs couldn’t be used to espouse a partisan political opinion.

The bottom line is though social media isn’t going to go away, it’s part and parcel of today’s Internet environment and it’s what graduates in particular who join your organisations see as second nature.

As with so much of social media, you can either set out the parameters of your involvement now.   Or stick your head in the sand and wait until it comes to you, when you are forced to react to it.

Follow Dirk Singer, Director and Digital Planner at brand communications agency Cow, on Twitter at twitter.com/dirkthecow or visit his blog at http://www.thisisherd.com

The next Enterprise Social Media event takes place on 15th March 2010 at Olympia in London.

Six Degrees is launching a new group of events – the Cloud Computing Series. The first Cloud Computing Congress Europe is taking place on 16th March 2010 at Olympia Conference Centre, London.

The series of events will look at how Cloud Computing is revolutionising information technology in the European, North American, and Asian market. Topics discussed include the latest state of Cloud Computing in the respective markets, its benefits and technical challenges, the impact on the IT function, and how the applications can be build, controlled and managed in a cloud-based environment.

The Cloud Computing Congress Europe will run alongside Enterprise Social Media & the Social Media World Forum, a leading Social Media event that brings together all industry facets.

The Cloud Computing Congress & Enterprise Social Media in London will feature industry leading speakers, including:

•    Martin Bellamy, Director, Office of the Government CIO & SIRO, Cabinet Office
•    Dion Hinchliffe, Editor in Chief, Social Computing Magazine &  Web 2.0 Journal
•    Dominic Burch, Head of Corporate Comms and New Media, ASDA
•    Paul James, CIO, Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, MOD
•    Sonia Carter, Senior Manager Online Communications, AXA
•    David Wilde, CIO, Westminster City Council
•    Kenneth Verlage, CIO, DHL Express
•    Eachan Fletcher, CIO, Sporting Index
•    Simon Revell, Associate Director, Collaboration and Web Technologies, Pfizer
•    Evangelos Kotsovinos, Vice President, Morgan Stanley
•    Kostas Tsatsaris, CTO and Director, Strategy and Architecture, HM Revenue and Customs
•    Henri Reinbolt, CIO, Greenwich Council

You can join the Linkedin group on the event web site  to network with other attendees, or follow the latest event activity on the Cloud Computing Congress Twitter account.
The Cloud Computing Series is closely connected to the Enterprise Series, which looks at the next generation workspace, how new application stores can be harnessed within a web 2.0 environment, and how internal business communities can be built.

Book your space today to take advantage of our 25% discount until the 22nd December!