Technical Awareness Series

  • Interact with the experts and other IT professionals
  • Learn how to integrate and invigorate the business with new IT capabilities
  • Hear the inside stories on successes and failures
  • Learn to think more independently and communicate more clearly
  • Learn to lead more effectively
  • Learn to choose technology more wisely
  • Inquire about our full lineup of TAS seminars that you can bring in-house.

TAS Overview:

Have you noticed that everybody talks about innovation, but nobody wants to change the way they do business? The obstacles to innovation are becoming less technological and more cultural, political, and philosophical. Now that SharedServices is getting some traction, the key is choosing the right things to do, andthen doing the right things the right way. Many organizations try to tackle thingsthat are not ready for change. IT pros are learning that innovation is hard to comeby. Host an event and we'll discuss the best practices for innovation, managinggrowth, and accelerating the pace of change. Well also help you keep up with thelatest in these important areas:

(This 3-day agenda is typical for Ottawa and Hilton Head events. Topics and speakers can be customized for specific audiences and needs)

Day 1 morning:

  • IT Trends - Virtualization, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Quantum Computing, Unified Communication, Green Computing, Cloud Computing, SOA, cybersecyrity, exposing myths.
  • Vendor Strategies (HP, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Google, Amazon). Where are vendors trying to take us? Looking to the Future.
  • The Executive's Guide to the Mainframe - The latest on System z and z/OS, zLinux, and z/VM

Day 1 afternoon:

  • IT Security - protecting your business, protecting a nation, vulnerabilities, costs of breaches, evolving malware, future threats, insider threats (fascinating stats from 150 incidents), NATO's prep for Cyberwar, Methods of Attack, Lines of Defense

Day 2 morning:

  • Enterprise Alignment: Linking Business Strategy and Enterprise Architecture - first steps, governance, roles, portfolio management, Master Data Management, Optimizing IM and IT, Zachmann, Federal Enterprise Arch, DoDAF, TOGAF, architectural patterns from IBM and Microsoft

Day 2 afternoon:

  • Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) - motivations, first principles, levels of integration
  • Cloud Computing for Large IT Organizations - strategy, trade-offs, best practices, economics, tools and skills needed.

Day 3 morning:

  • The Modernizaton of Applications: Merits and Demerits - extreme programming, agile development methods, scrum masters, best practices.

Day 3 afternoon:

  • IT Woes and Remedies - Why IT projects fail and how to fix them. Discussions on best practices, complexity, politics, and bureaucracy.
  • The Executive's Guide to ITIL - An overview of ITIL, learning from ITIL successes and failures, the need for ITIL champions. ITIL 4 in 2019.

For the last 30 years we've helped our clients stay current with IT, avoid pitfalls and improve their chances for success. Attend TAS and learn about the greening of IT, cloud computing, ITIL, software-as-a service, IT security, total cost of ownership, virtualization, vendor strategies, SOA, the keys to making architecture-based design work, and how to modernize applications. Learn how to integrate, and invigorate business with IT. If you want to broaden your technical fluency, if you prefer straight answers, and if you don't mind having very frank discussions about vendors and technology, you'll like our seminars. Each day is a stand-alone seminar so you can attend all or part of the sessions as your needs dictate.

Bill Carico, ACTS Corp. President and Sr. Consultant, presents topics throughout the seminar, bringing his unique insights to help explain and demystify the technical and business challenges facing IT professionals. In addition, the series is complemented by numerous guest speakers.

Bill has over 45 years of experience working in IT. He works as an IT consultant and is an author of numerous articles appearing in a number of publications, including The Mainframe Executive, zJournal and he has written a number of white papers. He is the founder of the Technical Awareness Series (TAS) which has been held over 50 times world-wide since 1987. (Inquire about our full lineup of TAS seminars offered in this unique series, plus see our Speakers Bureau offerings). His specialty areas include cyber-security, business continuity, server consolidation, performance and tuning, virtualization, open source software, and mobile apps. Bill began his IT career with IBM, MRI Systems, and Intel, giving him a unique perspective from which to understand the technical and marketing dynamics of the computer industry.

Dr. Gururaj Rao is an IBM Fellow and business executive. For many years had the responsibility for establishing the technical direction for IBM's Enterprise Systems leading an inter-divisional team of hardware, software and Research engineers. Working with enterprise customers he determines business and customer needs and drives the system design of IBM's enterprise systems to meet those needs. At TAS seminars, he provides insights into IBM's server strategy and look at their road map for the future. Dr. Rao is an energetic speaker and brings with him a wealth of knowledge about the IT industry.

Jim Porell retired from IBM as a distinguished engineer where he served in a number of high-profile roles during his career. He had been chief architect for the IBM System z Software Brand and a former chairperson of the zSeries Software Design council, a group which oversees all IBM mainframe operating systems and middleware. Jim's focus was to ensure IBM deployed technology that worked consistently across operating systems, and enabled application growth for IBM's customers, either by writing their own new applications or deploying new code from independent software vendors. Then and now, Jim continues to work with customers to build secure solutions. He is co-author of Larstan's Black Book of Corporate Security and has been consulting with customers on security solutions for decades.

Monte Bauman, IBM Technical Specialist and member of the ACTS Advisory Board. Monte is a System z IT Architect and America's group designated specialist for System z technical support based in Colulmbus, OH. His specialties include the new and emerging architecture and workloads arena. Monte has nearly 25 years of experience in the IT industry, starting in the Glendale Processor Development Lab in Endicott NY. Amidst recent work efforts, Monte has helped his customers deploy Java/WAS workloads and zAAP technology, Linux workloads and IFL technology, and DB2 workloads and zIIP technology, and he has pioneered new techniques for analyzing and comparing alternatives in server virtualization. Monte's "model" provides a technical and cost (aka TCO) comparative analysis, helping customers understand the finer points of virtualization and the machines that support virtualization (i.e. System z and zVM, and x86 and VMWare).

John Kirschner, ACTS advisory board. He was formerly the VP of Special Projects and CTO for ABSi. John is a technology specialist who has over 35 years experience in IT. He has worked for Lockheed Martin and IBM as a IT architect, systems engineer, systems programmer, instructor, and as a consultant. He is a certified IT security specialist and helps establish US government security policies in regard to new technologies. John is a certified IT architect, certified business manager and certified large systems specialist. John is the author of numerous white papers on systems architecture availability, performance, and ADPE modernization.

Testimonials

Here are some comments from people who have previously attended TAS:

Murray MacDonald - Government of Canada - "TAS is like one stop shopping. It is a great seminar to get the most up to date information on industry trends and direction."

Douglas B. Hanson, Ph.D., Executive Director of Information Systems, The Forsyth Institute - "The Technical Awareness Series is a great soup-to-nuts workshop not only for IT managers, but anyone interested in understanding current and future trends in the fast-paced arena of information technology."

IT Architect for a large defense contractor - "The Technical Awareness Seminar provided a coherent technical overview of IT data center concepts, designs, solutions, and issues. The seminar material prompted discussions of real-world issues and solutions from the sttendees. Overall, it provided an excellent opportunity for information sharing and exposure to technology."

Dave Vogel, President, COMPASS Information Systems, Inc. - " I found the TAS conference to be a great vehicle to gain special insights into information planning considerations for strategic direction."

Bill Roth, Sterling Commerce: "TAS is a highly informative, concise presentation of IT trends. It offers unbiased viewpoints in an entertaining format. Well worth the time."

Mark Moeller, Bank One: "The TAS presentations were excellent! They were entertaining and informative. The speakers were very knowledgeable about their subject matter."

Mike Rhodes, Target Corp.: "Excellent technical overview with candid feedback vendors may not provide."

Jim Shille, CIO - American Fidelity Assurance: "The TAS Seminar provides a solid description (understanding) of many technical issues, the instructors are outstanding and have exceptional credentials. I would recommend this training to all IS Management personnel."

Maynard Honesty, Formerly of Siemens Shared Medical: "I have never attended a TAS sessions where I didn't come back with at least one new idea that saved significant money or improved processes."

Larry Tucker, Broadwing: "The TAS seminar exceeded all my expectations. The instructors were excellent, and class content was timely and well-planned. I walked away with a much better understanding of the current state of the IT industry and where its headed. I would whole-heartedly recommend this class to anyone who is involved in making IT decisions...small or large"

Ralph Johnson, President - Techsys Software Services, Inc.: "I found the TAS seminar as a very beneficial IT level-set. From infrastructure to emerging technologies, the TAS instructors were knowledgable and well organized. I was very impressed!"