PCD-Converge Innovation Centre – Virtual Sessions Oct 12th & 19th

Special bulletin – 2021 meeting format changed due to COVID

Each year, PCD Solutions (now a Converge company) organizes the Innovation Forum, a conference that brings together CIOs and IT leaders from many companies in the metropolitan area. Our 2021 event was originally scheduled for September in person at the Mirabel ICAR Racetrack and promised to be an adrenaline-filled day. However, with the beginning of the fourth COVID wave and some concern about the evolving health situation in September, we have had to completely revise the event plan.

We will therefore take advantage of our Innovation Centre’s technology and facilities to present the conference portion of this event live online. Naturally, we are aware that the race and sports car enthusiasts won’t be thrilled with this alternative COVID format, but we promise to reschedule the ICAR event in the spring or as soon as it is possible and safe to do so.

The live-streamed lunch and learn sessions will be split into two parts (October 12 and 19). This format has the advantage of being easily extended and shared with other members of your team. Presentations and interviews will be offered in French with our various invited experts. This 90‑minute, highly effective, user-friendly and condensed format also includes a delicious lunch of your choice. Now, without further ado, I would like to present the agenda, topics and invited experts.

2021 theme: Where do businesses stand in their Cloud transformation?

Some companies are already working on modernizing their applications and automating their services to benefit their business. For others, the priorities are reviewing their environment, categorizing their various generations of applications, and defining a strategy to better leverage the Cloud.

Would you say that your organization is meeting its Cloud transformation objectives? Are you successfully leveraging the agility and benefits that you were aiming for at the beginning?

On Tuesday, October 12 and 19, join us to hear testimonies from invited experts and the experiences of various companies.

Main topics include:

Where do businesses really stand in their transition to the Cloud era?
Are they shifting to the public Cloud for the right reasons and motivations?
What services should be kept in-house?
How do you adapt your strategy to your own organization’s objectives and situation?
What are the success factors most often observed in this type of business project?

“Today, companies are facing many challenges: a lack of resources affecting the IT sector, pressure to accelerate projects, supply issues, aging infrastructure, cyberattacks and the need to modernize applications. For many months now, companies have been isolated while handling their own situation and issues without having much opportunity to take the pulse of the market and compare their practices. This event is a unique opportunity for our clients to meet and take part in presentation workshops and interviews with various invited experts to finally ask their questions,” explained Carl Deschênes, PCD Co-Founder.

Part 1 – Tuesday, October 12 | 11:30 a.m. – 13:00 p.m. |

Live streamed – lunch provided

Main topics

Cloud approach – Taking stock of the situation of companies in Quebec
Main success factors observed in planning and implementing Cloud initiatives
How to respond to certain common organizational obstacles
The importance of the first Cloud use cases – Choosing the right candidates from the beginning
Case study – Selecting the right Cloud solution (public / private, Cloud-based / Onsite-managed) based on your company’s strategy, objectives and culture
Case study – Realizing a successful application modernization project

Interviews with teams from PCD / Converge, Dell Technologies, VMware and Microsoft Azure

*Please note that presentations & interviews will be held in french

Agenda

11:30 Opening remarks and presentation

11:35 5 essential elements to a successful Cloud transformation initiative
The importance of the project strategy and start-up phase (with Sylvain Mony and Mathieu Bouffard from PCD)

12:00 Interview with Ron Haber and Eric Amar from Dell Technologies

12:20 Interview with Martin Comeau from Microsoft Azure

12:40 Interview with Sébastien Morasse from VMware

12:55 Closing remarks

Part 2 – Tuesday, October 19 | 11:30 a.m. – 13:00 p.m. |

Live streamed – lunch provided

Main topics

Moving toward a “hybrid” solution architecture approach
Case study – Reviewing disaster recovery measures. Advantages of the Public Cloud and different DRaaS options to consider
Case study – Modernizing datacentres, supporting developers and planning the transition to IaaS services
Modernizing infrastructure, applications and practices – the different roles that the VMware platform plays in hybrid Cloud management

Interviews with teams from PCD / Converge and VMware

*Please note that presentations & interviews will be held in french

Agenda

11:30 Opening remarks and presentation

11:35 Beyond virtualization… Moving to the hybrid Cloud!
A few concrete examples and use cases where the hybrid Cloud approach will help your company move to the next level
(with François Rainville and Marc De Grasse from PCD)

12:20 Making the shift to the Cloud Era – Modernizing infrastructure, applications and practices
Interview with Sébastien Morasse from VMware

12:55 Closing remarks

Invited experts

They will share their vision, knowledge and experience implementing Cloud transformation projects.


Mathieu Bouffard Specialist, Strategy and Cloud Architecture, PCD Solutions	Sylvain Mony Vice President, Strategy and Innovation, PCD Solutions

Sébastien Morasse Senior Cloud Specialist – Management and Operations, VMware	Ron Haber Country Manager – Modern Data Centre Commercial Canada, Dell Technologies

Martin Comeau Cloud Solution Strategist, Microsoft Azure	François Rainville Solution Architect – VMware and Cloud, PCD Solutions

Marc De Grasse Expert Advisor, Cloud Solutions and VMware, PCD Solutions	Eric Amar Data Center Specialist, Dell Technologies