ODCA details program plans for marquee conference focused on acceleration of enterprise cloud adoption

PORTLAND, Ore., March 19, 2014 — (PRNewswire) — The Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA), the global organization where members work together to advance the deployment of enterprise cloud solutions and services that are interoperable, secure and free of vendor lock-in, today announced the initial sponsors and preliminary agenda for its Forecast 2014 flagship conference.

Celebrating its third year, Forecast was created by enterprise IT executives, for enterprise IT executives to help accelerate adoption of cloud computing and business analytics based on ODCA's usage model requirements. The event features sessions and keynotes on enterprise best practice sharing, discussions on emerging challenges facing enterprise cloud deployments, and the latest solutions aligned with ODCA requirements delivered by the industry. The conference, which has expanded to three full days in 2014, is heralded as a unique opportunity for business discussions and networking opportunities with leading global enterprise IT executives, architects and solution providers.

The following organizations will sponsor Forecast 2014, scheduled for September 22-24 in San Francisco: Intel (underwriting sponsor), HP (platinum sponsor), Verne Global (gold sponsor), Appnomic Systems (silver sponsor) and CohesiveFT (lanyard sponsor). In addition, the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), the Cloud Credential Council (CCC), Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS), and TM Forum will join Forecast as collaborative sponsors.

Mario Mueller, ODCA chair and vice president of IT infrastructure at BMW, will deliver the opening keynote at Forecast 2014. The conference will also feature:

• Best practice presentations from leading enterprises embracing the cloud today
• Panel discussions on hot topics shaping tomorrow's data centers
• Proof of concept topic discussions on solutions meeting ODCA requirements
• Deep dive training on ODCA requirements through ODCA University
• The first-ever ODCA Hackathon, co-sponsored by HP and Intel and designed to encourage developer application resiliency for cloud environments.
• A full day of workshops delivered by ODCA workgroup members

To view the complete Forecast 2014 agenda, register for the conference or become a sponsor, please visit: http://www.opendatacenteralliance.org/forecast2014

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 14-member steering group, which includes representatives 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. 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:  Kami Toufar, 503-799-3724, Email Contact

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SOURCE Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA)

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Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA) Web: http://www.opendatacenteralliance.org/