More than 500 industry executives joined IDC this year for the Virtualization Forums in New York and San Francisco. Today, IDC announced that a third conference, the IDC Virtualization Summit Midwest, has been scheduled on September 23, 2008 at the InterContinental Chicago in Chicago.

IDC’s annual Virtualization conferences provide attendees the opportunity to learn about the latest technologies and designs for the most demanding virtualization scenarios, while offering practical information about how to execute and manage a virtual and dynamic IT infrastructure. The program addresses how to leverage virtualization’s benefits – business continuity, development agility, server consolidation – alongside its significant challenges – complexity, security concerns, and implementation issues.

In addition, IDC analysts and subject matter experts debate and discuss the top issues as they relate to virtualization:

• How to keep up with cutting-edge technology in the face of mounting pressure to reduce IT budget
• How to improve capital and operational efficiencies, and reduce costs
• How to find a means to increase uptime and manage risk

“Virtualization has evolved from being used solely as a tactical tool to reduce costs to new use cases where it can increase revenue, productivity, and data security. While this next leg in adoption holds significant potential, it also will require more integration across the storage, server, and network environments,” said John Humphreys, program vice president in IDC's Enterprise Platform Group and the opening keynote speaker. “The IDC Virtualization Summit Midwest will examine the trends driving companies to leverage virtualization in new and unique ways as well as the successes and challenges IT organizations have faced in implementing the technology to address strategic business problems.”

The speaker line-up to date includes these practitioners and thought leaders:

• Tony Arnett, Senior Systems Engineer, Pentair Water Pool and Spa
• Matthew Eastwood, Group Vice President, Enterprise Platform Group, IDC
• Norm Fjeldheim, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, QUALCOMM Incorporated
• John Humphreys, Program Vice President, Enterprise Platform Group, IDC
• Dylan Larson, Director of Server Software, Technologies & Initiatives, Server Platform Group, Intel Corporation
• Paul D. Seay, Jr., Northrop Grumman Corporation, IT Sector Technical Fellow
• Clay Swartz, General Manager, Global Services Division, NEC Corporation of America
• Richard Villars, Vice President, Storage Systems, IDC

Sponsors and Partners of the Virtualization Summit include: Intel, NEC Corporation of America, Vizioncore, AITP Windy City Chapter, Technology Executives Club of Chicago, Data Center Journal, IT Toolbox, Virtualization Review magazine and Virtual Strategy magazine.

For more information or to register for the conference, please visit http://www.idc.com/virtualizationsummit08. Complimentary press passes are available for qualified journalists. To request a press pass, please contact Dana Basilone at 508-988-6891 or dbasilone@idc.com.