Quoting from the press release:

More than 380 industry executives joined IDC this year for the inaugural Virtualization Forums in New York and San Francisco. Today, IDC announced that an additional Virtualization Forum has been scheduled on September 12, 2006 at The Pantages Suites Hotel and Spa in Toronto, Canada.

Designed to help IT and business executives answer key questions about how to effectively exploit computer resources, the conference offers insight into the current and future trends of virtualization technology, as well as case study examples from users sharing their personal experiences with the implementation of virtualization, and the business benefits achieved as a result.

With a stellar line up of speakers, including IDC analysts, industry thought-leaders, and virtualization technology practitioners, the comprehensive program will cover:

-- A holistic view of the opportunities and challenges that virtualization will bring in the next 12-18 months.

-- A case study of how a virtualized environment allowed GHY International to reduce their costs, increase agility, and free up their IT team's time to focus on business deliverables.

-- An in-depth look at virtualization technologies that are being utilized to create a new generation of high-performance server solutions.

-- Insight into how virtualization provided an absolute in the definition of ROI for the City of Stratford and made a direct impact in capital budget dollars.

-- Solutions for server consolidation and containment, business continuity, development and test optimization and desktop manageability and security.

-- A discussion featuring a panel of IT executives, presenting their personal experiences with the implementation of virtualization technology, and the business benefits achieved as a result.

-- Insight into how leveraging virtualization innovations can help corporations achieve a truly dynamic datacenter.

According to Vito Mabrucco, managing director of IDC Canada, "We're delighted to bring this event to Canada as virtualization technology is gaining ground and becoming a defining solution for enterprises worldwide. IT and business executives are progressively understanding the impact that hardware and software approaches to virtualization can have on IT costs, business efficiency and overall value to the organization." Mr. Mabrucco, along with IDC's Program Vice President of Global Enterprise Server Solutions Matthew Eastwood, are co-chairing the conference.

Sponsors and Partners of the Virtualization Forum Canada include: Intel, Dell Canada, Hewlett-Packard (Canada) Co., Symantec (Canada) Corporation, VMware, Microsoft, ITAC, Communications & Networking Magazine, Computing Canada, EDGE Magazine and The Globe and Mail.

For more information or to register for the conference, please visit IDC's website http://www.idc.com/virtualization-toronto06. 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.