2009 Meetings

December 1, 2009 Meeting - Great Turnout, Good discussions

Due to the hectic holiday calendar, we combines our November and December meetings on December 1st.

Topic: Data Classification and Audit Reporting: What data classification is and why you need to care.
Click here for the Powerpoint slides from tonight's meeting.

How do you report file access to your auditors?
Do you know where your Confidential, PII, PCI, HIPAA data is located?
Do you know what your sensitive data is?
    What users and groups have access to sensitive data?
    What users and groups are accessing sensitive data?
    Where is sensitive data most at risk?
    Which of your sensitive data is not being used and can be archived or simply deleted?

Over 20 local IT professionals joined in the discussion.
Thank you to Varonis for their presentation and generous support of appetizers.
Thanks also go to the Hilton Garden Inn for the facility.

Watch for our next meeting in early January where we'll be talking about NAC and other must-have security features in your environment.

October 2009 Meeting a Success!

Thank you to the attendees and presenters for the October meeting, and to to Hilton Garden Inn.

The October meeting was a success. Please spread the word and help us build attendance. We're working to expand the steering committee and publish topics and speakers for the next few months. Stay tuned to this space for more updates.

Materials from the October meeting:
Intro slide deck (Steve Noel / Rob Bergin)
VDI in real-life (Chris House's presentation from VMWorld)
Linux Lightweight Desktop / Linux Terminal Server by Resara (Warren Luebkeman)

Meeting date set - Wed. Oct 21, 2009

The response to our last mailing was overwhelming. You like us, you really like us! We heard from dozens of you, here's a summary:

- You miss attending Sea-Tug events and want more technical info hosted locally
- Wednesdays are a good night for meetings
- You prefer meeting once/month over once/quarter
- You want meetings held where we can consume adult beverages

So, we're happy to announce the next meeting will be held WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21st at 6pm at the Hilton Garden Inn in downtown Portsmouth.

The topic is still slated to be The Future of the Corporate Desktop (see below). The exact agenda is still being formed, but we'll be talking about the future of Windows as well as Desktop Virtualization and alternatives such as Linux. Are the alternatives viable? What's working today? Come to the meeting and find out more!

Meeting Location:
100 High Street, Portsmouth, NH, 03801
    Directly across from the parking garage
    Plenty of street parking available (meters run until 7pm)
    Or you can park in the garage for 75 cents/hour
    The Hilton has a full bar and kitchen (open until 10pm) on-site

Directions to the Hilton Garden:
From the South: I-95 north to Exit 7; at the base of the exit, turn right, and proceed through traffic light. The road will fork slightly, stay to the left and follow to stop sign. Right at stop sign onto Hanover St. - right onto High St.

From the North: I-95 South to Exit 7 in New Hampshire. at base of exit turn left. Proceed through 2 lights, road will fork slightly, stay to the left and follow to stop sign. Right at stop sign onto Hanover St. - right onto High St.

September 2009 - Rebirth of Sea-Tug!

Hello fellow SEA-TUGians,

Rob & Steve are back in town (Steve from a 2 year stint driving to Merrimack and Rob from a 1 year stint driving to Boston) - so we figured: let's get the band back together!

It's been a long time since we held a meeting - and it's time to change that. For those of you who have attended presentations in the past, and those of you who always intended to attend and haven't made it yet, now is the time to get off the couch and get some free technology education, see some products, and network with other people in the industry.

There are a lot of new products coming out in the next few months, from Microsoft and others. The industry has grown up in the last couple years, too. Disaster recovery, unified threat management, cloud computing, virtualization, Exchange 2010, Server 2008R2, Windows 7... all great topics. All topics that we might cover at a SEA-TUG meeting.

October 2009 Meeting: The future of the corporate desktop

I'm sure most of you have started a migration to a virtual infrastructure. We have a speaker lined up to come talk to us about the future of the corporate desktop: Is Linux really a contender? How about Desktop Virtualization? What are the benefits of using each of these technologies, are they really viable? What are some of the competing products on the market? This will be a technical presentation and will provide an overview of the technologies, and will include a live presentation on how Linux on the desktop is working today, integration with Windows applications and servers, and real-world examples of deployed solutions. Attend this free presentation, bring all your questions and skepticism, and win fabulous door prizes, get free food and beverages, and drink responsibly.

So my questions to you are:

- Are you are interested in learning about this (or other) technology solutions?
- Would you make efforts to attend SEA-TUG meetings on a semi-regular basis?
- Is a monthly or quarterly meeting schedule more likely to garner your attendance?
- What is your preferred meeting location? Town / specific place?

- What other topics would you like to see covered?
- What nights would work best for you?
- Are you willing to join the steering committee?

The venue for the next meeting has not yet been set, but we're targeting an October meeting and will have food and beverages available for attendees. We're looking at continuing to hold meetings mid-week, after work (approximately 6pm to 9pm) and will have door prizes in addition to the food and beverages.

Please let us know if you are interested in attending so we can make appropriate arrangements for space and food. The more feedback I get the better I'll be able to accommodate the needs of the group.