Rational Survivability

You might remember a post from a few days ago wherein I lambasted InfoWorld for not including security as a mainline topic for their upcoming Executive Forum on Virtualization.  I was pretty gruff, but I don’t think out of line, in calling them on this point.

I blogged about it, tracked down the Forum organizers’ contact information and fired off an email to Jill Martay (VP of Events) and Doug Dineley (Conference Chair) with no expectation that I’d receive a response.

In the meantime, Alan Shimel piped in, consoling me in his ever-effervescent style, by suggesting that despite my longwinded plea for sanity, I was merely wasting my breath — but that I shouldn’t worry because he’s making up for it with all the interviews he’s giving on how StillSecure will address the topic 😉

My friend Chris Hoff has himself all worked up. In fact Hoff is in a huff.
What has Christofer (for those who may not realize he spells his name
funny) so worked up you ask? It seems the good folks over at InfoWorld
are staging an Executive Forum
on virtualization next month down in NYC.  No where on the agenda is
even a mention of security and the challenges that a secure
virtualization environment poses.  Chris goes so far as to offer, on
his own dime, to go down and personally deliver a presentation on
security and virtualization. Well Chris it would be nice to see the
InfoWorld folks take you up on this, but I would not hold my breath.

 While I obviously agree with Alan that virtualization is a fantastically interesting and relevant topic, It’s nice to know that even Alan can be wrong sometimes, too…it wasn’t a waste of time, at all.

Today I received an unexpected response to my email that described my disappointment in the lack of security content in the forum.  This email came from both Jill Martay and Doug Dineley which I thought was not only classy but reasonable:

I don't disagree. My original plan for this event included an expert 
panel session on security, and I spent a good deal of time trying to 
put that together. I found it quite difficult to create a meaningful 
session that included people with useful things to say. And I didn't 
want a session with a lot of hand waving and cries of "the sky is falling.

I hope to do better for the next forum, which is coming around in 
February (I think). The level of discussion around securing virtual 
servers will rise over time, as more security officers start grappling
with larger virtual environments.

I thank you Doug and Jill for both responding and explaining the situation and I look forward to speaking with you soon with some recommendations for content which satisfies your requirements — and those of your attendees.  I’m convinced there’s plenty out there…

So, Alan, sometimes it’s worth a few altruistic exhales oh behalf of a secure humanity.   You never know, you might get back a breath of fresh air in return.

/Hoff