Datastream's President, Eric Hoffman, was pleased to be invited to the Canadian Cloud Council's national conference located in Banff, Alberta comprised of C-Suite executives.   As Datastream continues to expand its product offerings in the cloud, critical partnerships have emerged with our Canadian neighbors and we look forward to bringing effective and secure solutions to businesses in both countries.

The presentations and discussions amongst those in attendance were thought-provoking and we look forward to opportunities with the Canadian Cloud Council over the upcoming year.

The Canadian Cloud Council is a vendor-neutral association providing an educational forum for Canada's cloud computing thought leaders, policy makers and industry advocates.

While defining innovative and repeatable methods of enterprise cloud transformation, the Canadian Cloud Council accelerates the speed of Canadian cloud adoption and positions Canada as a global leader in the field. 

The Canadian Cloud Council’s third and most important national conference (CLOUD MATTERS) will pull the proverbial curtain back and ask a question that many people may have stopped asking, lost in the cloudy weather of complex technology, privacy and security concerns, data protectionism, and the almost comically endless stream of “things” delivered as-a-service. Why does the cloud really matter?

Is the cloud really about virtualization 2.0, dynamic scalability, accelerated IT deployment and high system availability or is it about business social transformation, innovation enablement, economic development, exponential intelligence and social revolution? Do any of these things matter if the cloud does not drive significant cost savings for the corporation deploying it?

“Cloud Matters” will ask CIO’s, CEO’s, CFO`s, CMO’s and cloud policy makers to define the cloud value proposition and why it is so important to their business, our citizens, this country’s position in the global economy and our children’s future on Planet Earth. What are the real risks of moving to the cloud - but more importantly, what are the real risks of not moving to the cloud? Why, how and when .... can we encourage government, investors and enterprises to invest in and proliferate a collaborative, thriving and globally enabled cloud ecosystem?

The mission of the Open CFML Foundation is to increase the awareness and adoption of open source CFML solutions via advocacy and education, to provide support to select open source CFML projects, and to promote the growth and development of the CFML language and related technologies.

At the Oct 9th, 2012 meeting in Washington DC, Datastream Connexion's President Eric Hoffman presented covering several topics.  Hoffman presented how DSCXN was able to leverage open source Mura CMS to develop and deploy a sophisticated ecosystem of websites to improve information sharing and collaboration between 50 states and the FDA.  Highlights included the ability to work within a single install and leverage Mura's internal data sharing capabilities, while demonstrating significant user adoption of the sites because of its ease of use for busy administrators at each state.

Further discussed was the state of ColdFusion and the community in the context of Hoffman's role as CIO for Victree, a local healthcare company in Minneapolis/St. Paul. 

For more information on OpenCFML, please visit http://www.opencfmlfoundation.org.

Datastream has long been the technical team behind Rod Simons' Game ON! TV show on Fox Twin Cities locally every Sunday.   We have developed the web properties, created the social media strategy, and managed the streaming and long term video and audio options for the show through iTunes and YouTube for our passionate fans.

This week, Datastream's own Eric Hoffman has joined a new Game ON! podcast with host Rod Simons, and longtime video guru Artie Kuh of 2SEVEN Productions.   The trio discusses sports themes of the week and is published midweek every week.  Taped live at SEVEN Steakhouse, Sushi, and Ultralounge in downtown Minneapolis, Episode 1 has just gone live.

DSCXN has created a podcast management and streaming workflow for the show, and you can listen to the first show at Game ON! TV's website, and soon in iTunes, the iPhone and Android apps (also developed and implemented by Datastream).

For the best in sports entertainment in the Twin Cities, its Game ON!

Datastream Connexion President Eric Hoffman will be attending the 2012 GovSec and FoSEC security conferences in Washington DC, Apr 2-4, 2012. 

Continuing Datastream's commitment to security in the web applications we deliver, he will be attending a significant series of sessions around Cloud Security to better provide well rounded solutions for our customers from the Federal Government to small business.   Key sessions will include roundtables with the National Institute of Standards in Technology (NIST) (FISMA) Cloud Director, GSA's Cloud Director and FEDRAMP lead, as well as critical presentations from Gordon M. Snow, Assistant Director, FBI Cyber Division.

GovSec 2012 will provide valuable insights into key issues central to the protection of our nation, and Datastream is proud to be a part of these critical conferences.

  Datastream President, Eric J. Hoffman, was recently invited to participate in "The Security Leaders Summit", an annual gathering of leading IT security leaders from around the country representing well-known large corporations and a handful of up-and-coming companies like Datastream Connexion.

The discussion revolved around advancing security within our organizations and with our clients.  Mr. Hoffman spent significant time in round table executive discussions reviewing various Cloud strategies and opportunities faced by the group.

In preparing our clients for the move to the cloud, there is no simple answer and Datastream approaches it on a case-by-case basis.   There are significant hurdles and security concerns that will not prevent businesses like yours from adopting the cloud, but these issues must be addressed to insure your business is not disabled if the worst happens.   Adopting the cloud for your infrastructure in general allows cost savings while still offering agility, flexibility, and scalability that could not be achieved by traditional approaches.  If you are considering the Cloud for your operations, contact us for more information about the realities of placing your operations in the Cloud.