The world of conventional IT thinking has traditionally provided essential information for storage, retrieval and "sorting” operations. Existing alongside conventional IT, however, is the world of operational engineering technology (OT). The combination of IT-enabled assets and event-driven architectures will ensure that these worlds collide. Gartner analysts will introduce the theme of this year’s conference and highlight the many ways the intersection of IT and OT affects IT projects, technology developments, and successful deployments in all facets of energy and utility companies.

Energy technology consumerization - driven by the need for sustainable and cleaner energy sources - results in a significant percentage of new generation being introduced by end-users. The distributed and intermittent nature of consumers' installed energy sources will have a considerable impact on the control and management of energy systems. This dual consumer/supplier, created by energy technology consumerization, will transform core business models and impact utility IT and OT. This presentation will:

Key Issues:

• Explore how the quest for lean and green drives energy technology consumerization.
• Examine implications of energy technology consumerization on operational technologies.
• Assess the impact of dual consumer/supplier role on energy companies.

The confluence of high energy prices, consumerization, and the drive toward the more agile enterprise, is forcing energy companies to invest in technologies that address rising customer expectations while maximizing shareholder return in uncertain regulatory environments. This presentation uses Gartner Hype Cycle to help users differentiate between the hype and reality behind energy and operational technologies and related adoption cycles. You will:

Key Issues:

• Gain an in-depth analysis of the technology adoption cycle.
• Assess maturity, appropriateness, and the impact of emerging energy and operation technologies.
• Gauge the industry’s readiness for adoption of various technologies and applications.

This session is among our most popular year after year and a must-attend for anyone considering new or sustained investments. We will explore both the potential and the reality of applications for the energy industry and separate the technologies with real promise, from those that are just based on wishful thinking. This presentation complements the Energy and Operational Hype Cycle and employs the Gartner Hype Cycle to help users differentiate between the fiction and fact behind information technologies and related processes. See how to:

Key Issues:

• Gain an in-depth analysis of the technology adoption cycles.
• Assess maturity, appropriateness, and the impact of emerging IT topics.
• Gauge the industry’s readiness for adoption of various processes and applications.

The new generation of Web 2.0 technologies and methodologies will have as much, if not more, impact on traditional IT as did the initial Web. Learn about the business uses of Web 2.0 blogs, wikis, folksonomies, social networks, and mashups, and explore the future of new Web architectures and consumerization, including:

Key Issues:

• What Web 2.0 technologies will be used within the enterprise, and how does IT make them enterprise-class?
• Which mashups will become the dominant model of composite applications?
• How will Web architectures evolve and how will consumerization impact those architectures and Web-based applications?

Converging technological advancements in field computing hardware, communication, back- office applications, and integration have helped utilities achieve significant workforce performance improvement. The mobile device is also proving to be a key enterprise information management tool, improving asset condition and network model data quality. In this presentation, you will:

Key Issues:

• Discuss communication and security issues: What are the pros and cons of public and private technology providers.
• Identify the killer utility mobile computing applications in use today: Crew Scheduling/Dispatch, Inspection/Maintenance, and Design/Estimating.
• Explore the additional value of mobile computing as an EIM tool when synchronized with EAM/ERP, GIS, and OMS.

The term “perimeter” has become an emotional discussion point on the scale of “politics” and “religion”. The triad of business demand, threat maturity and regulation has pushed most IT architects into inefficient custom responses to each security problem. It is time to assemble best practices into an efficient enterprise security architecture.

Key Issues:

• Why is the traditional “crunchy shell” approach obsolete?
• How are architects and implementers responding to new problems?
• What is the better way that is now evolving?

ETRM software vendors have enjoyed record growth because of continued high energy prices, volatility, huge financial risks, and fast-changing regulatory requirements. This is driving the requirement for a multicommodity environment with sophisticated risk analysis and real-time modeling. Utilities and financial companies are seeking more-advanced solutions for energy commodity trading and financial risk assessment. This session explores:

Key Issues:

• Current and emerging regulations for which utilities need to prepare.
• The critical functionality of modern ETRM applications.
• The differences and similarities of the leading ETRM vendor

Field operations technologies are enabling smarter and more reliable utility grids. IT departments can partner with business units to support these new technologies with integrated solutions that help establish reasonable OT governance. This presentation examines key issues at the heart of the IT/OT interaction and takes a close look at the emerging field technologies and applications used to improve business performance, including:

Key Issues:

• Distributed generation and electricity storage.
• Distribution and substation automation.
• Sensors and controls.
• Telecommunications.

Web 2.0 hype has fueled much of the celebrity surrounding mashup technology's potential for delivering composite application capabilities to end-users. Now, enterprises are looking to transform mashups from cool Web hobby into enterprise-class systems that will alter their model for delivering and managing applications. Established and startup vendors alike are entering the enterprise mashup market with promising tools. Application architects must investigate this growing space for the significant and transformational potential it may offer their enterprise.

Discover:

• What is enterprise mashup system architecture?
• What business value can enterprise mashup systems deliver?
• Which criteria qualify mashup tools as enterprise ready?
• How is the mashup vendor landscape evolving?

Converging technological advancements in communication, distributed intelligence, and storage have helped propel metering infrastructure into the foreground of the energy and utilities renaissance. Energy sustainability issues, coupled with the need to continuously improve the balance of asset reliability and costs in the distribution sector, are moving advanced metering into the intelligent grid environment clearly sanctioned by regulators and promoted by energy providers. In this session, you will:

Key Issues:

• Assess key business drivers and regulatory requirements for advanced metering.
• Discuss technology components (metering, communication, MDM) surrounding. advanced metering infrastructure.
• Examine technology providers and examples of advanced metering initiatives.

Increasingly, production equipment in many industries contains embedded IT or remotely monitored control systems. This escalating change in how assets are tracked and managed impacts EAM software providers and creates new dynamics and opportunities in the market. This session examines:

Key Issues:

• The current state of the EAM market.
• How customers and vendors are dealing with advanced asset needs.
• What the future holds for advanced asset care.