As I mentioned here, Martin Banks is Bloor's resident Cloud guru, and he has strong opinions on the usage and abusage of the term "Cloud Computing". Now, there's a chance to hear Martin explain in person what "The Cloud" (or "Information Exostructure" as he prefers to call it) really means—and how it can be managed.

Martin is speaking at the BCS Configuration Management Specialist Group's Cloud Workshop on March 28th at the BCS London Office, 5 Southampton Street, off the Strand. Sign up at http://www.bcs-cmsg.org.uk/events/e20090331.shtml. The cost is £75 (+VAT) for BCS members (£110 (+VAT) for non-members)—and lunch is provided.

As well as Martin, one of the world leading experts on Application Lifecycle Management, Kevin Parker (VP and Chief Evangelist at Serena Software), will be looking at how an enterprise-scale Agile team that exploits SaaS and Cloud computing can provide the enterprise with a "lean" and adequately controlled service delivery environment.

The afternoon is devoted to an interactive Workshop on "Managing a Fluffy Cloud" by Shirley Lacy (co-author of the ITIL v3 Transitions volume) and Brenda L. Peery (an experienced Service Architect and Management Consultant).

This workshop is an opportunity for participants to explore the real and current concerns of those currently deploying (or considering) Cloud and Virtual architectures. The focus is specifically on some back-to-basics questions in the area of change, configuration and release management.

The day finishes off with a Panel Discussion, with all the speakers and chaired by Martin Banks, talking around the question: "Can we use a standard configuration management approach for cloud computing and virtualisation?".

We look forward to meeting some of our readers on the 28th.