UPDATE: We will be starting at 2:30 and going until 6:30. This time change should allow some of the Business Partner Summit attendees to finish their session and attend the Open Cloud Summit on time. The event will start in Room 116 and we will have breakouts in Room 101.

We are also excited to announce that Intel Corp is co-sponsoring the event and will be holding a session during the summit.

We are thrilled to announce the Pulse Open Cloud Summit. The Summit will be free to all attendees and is offered on Sunday, March 3 from 2:30 PM to 6:30 PM.  Following the Summit, feel free to join us for the Pulse Solution Center opening including demos, drinks and hors d’oeuvres.

What exactly is this Summit and why is IBM hosting it? 

If you think about the changes that are occurring in IT, there is amazing new innovation happening in the cloud.  At the same time, customers and users are increasingly relying on mobile devices and social networks to access services or get information to make decisions. In order for organizations to leverage the power of these trends, they need to be able to integrate their traditional and evolving systems with these new devices and with technologies born on the cloud.  The only way to do this efficiently and effectively is through open standards.  IBM has a long-standing tradition of supporting open standards and open source software. Therefore we are putting significant money and effort into advancing these standards and hosting this summit.

There are a number of emerging standards that promise to improve interoperability across cloud and non-cloud applications and systems. In this Summit, we are bringing in some of the leaders from these organizations to discuss and demonstrate how these standards and technologies will help simplify and speed integrations that allow you to extend your organizations. There will also be interactive sessions with audience participation, giving you the opportunity to ask questions and contribute ideas that help advance these efforts.  This isn’t just theory; we will have real examples from clients and partners who are using these standards to drive better interoperability and innovation.

Structure of the Summit

We will start with an introduction and panel discussion from some of the key leaders from organizations such as OpenStack.org, OASIS, the Cloud Standards Customer Council, as well as some of the key IBM leaders in those organizations.

We will then launch into more focused discussions about these standards including IBM’s point of view, live demonstrations and business partner perspectives. The goal of each of these short interactive sessions is to educate, excite and recruit. Focused 30-minute sessions include:

•OpenStack
•Cloud Standards Customer Council
•Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration (OSLC)
•Topology and Orchestration Specification for Cloud Applications (TOSCA)
•Jazz for Service Management

Who is this for?

This Summit is appropriate for IT architects, IT management and business users interested in cloud interoperability.

Where and when is it?

The Summit will be from 2:30 PM until 6:30 PM on Sunday, March 3, in the MGM Grand conference center.

Cost?

Nothing. Just get here. This includes people not attending Pulse.

What do you need to do?

•Register. It’s easy! If you are already registered for Pulse, simply go into the agenda builder tool and add session #2286 Pulse Open Cloud Summit to your agenda. If you are not planning on going to Pulse but want to register for the Sunday event, go to the Pulse registration site and use special discount code PUL13OPSTKSUN to register for free. (This discount code is only for the Sunday Open Cloud Summit, not the full Pulse conference.) Then you can go into the agenda builder and add the session to your personalized agenda. (Note: You must select “Full Conference Pass” when registering, though this discount code is only for the Sunday Open Cloud Summit, not the full Pulse conference.)
•Book your travel to show up in time to attend the event. Hey, many of you are already planning on coming to Las Vegas anyway, so why not extend your value by showing up a little early and attending this event?
•Optional: Ask a question or suggest a topic that you would like to see covered at this Summit. Simply include your comment or suggestion in your registration email to sjaques@us.ibm.com and we will try to address it.

Special Offer for Summit Attendees:

If you would like to extend the value of your Open Cloud Summit experience by attending Day One of Pulse, we have created a special one-day pass rate of $495. This entitles you to attend Monday’s Pulse sessions as well as the Pulse Palooza celebration with Carrie Underwood. If interested in this special offer, use discount code PUL13OPSTACK to receive your pass for Sunday and Monday only of Pulse at the discounted rate. (Note: You must select “Full Conference Pass” when registering, even though this discount code is only for the Open Cloud Summit and Monday of Pulse.)

(Be sure to check out the Pulse Session Preview Tool to explore sessions by keyword, topic, industry name and stream and personalize your Pulse experience with SmartSite.)