Resource Library

Cloud can be described as the ability for users to provision new environments and/or services in a self-service fashion backed by automation. z Systems use technologies that best allow us to apply the strengths of our platform to cloud methodologies while complying with industry standards and preserving the security and manageability of our platform. This enables us to use the strengths of z Systems scalable multitenant architecture for on-premise cloud deployments. z Systems can also expose valuable enterprise services in a secure manner that feels native to mobile and Web application developers, enabling organizations to use enterprise services on z Systems with a frictionless experience for distributed developers.

If you're responsible for creating marketing content and the demand for fresh content is stressing you out, help has arrived. In this hour-long webinar, award-winning content creator Gail Mercer-MacKay will show you how to easily create new content that will attract prospects even if you're short on time and budget. You will learn how basic building blocks, such as blogs, social media and newsletters, support each other and can be reused multiple times. By producing fresh content, leveraging the content of others and broadcasting through various mechanisms to drive awareness, followers, likes and leads, you can obtain your desired results by investing only seven to 10 hours a month.

Often we let personal biases and other intuitive mental forces push us towards quick decisions. In contrast, good decision makers make the effort to really analyze issues. Instead learn how to become a critical thinker by separating facts from assumptions to make consistent, high-quality decisions.

There are many questions you should ask before selecting your PaaS provider. Learn what you need to know in order to compare and contrast PaaS with the other offerings like IaaS and SaaS, and what they require in terms of setup and configuration. As with any decision involving IT infrastructure there are many variables that should be considered to ensure you find a solution that will fit your current and future needs, budget and support requirements.

The advantage—and disadvantage—of IaaS cloud computing is complete control. The user is responsible for sizing, installing, and maintaining operating systems and applications, backing up the systems, etc. This enables the user to configure everything in an optimal way for the workloads that need to be accomplished, but it requires time and effort to determine how it should be set up, secured, etc. With the goal of providing a good place for you to start your IaaS implementation and highlighting some areas that you should plan for and design for, Global Knowledge instructor John Hales provides a review of IaaS, as well as insight into what you need to know before implementing IaaS. He also shares a laundry list of things to consider when implementing IaaS, including questions to ask yourself, your company and your potential cloud provider.

Do you want to take your Power System to higher levels of cloud functionality but don't know what's available? Join us for this free webinar, presented by IBM and sponsored by Global Knowledge, to hear senior power cloud consultants Vess Natchev and Kyle Wurgler share an exciting new cloud solution for Power Systems. In this interactive webinar, you'll gain insight on the details and features of the new cloud solution from IBM and VMware.

Learn about the Amazon Web Services platform, products, and services. Gain on-demand access to compute, storage, and database services without upfront costs.

Learn about Cloud Computing with AWS and the benefits AWS provides to hundreds of thousands of customers globally.

In this hour-long webinar, Global Knowledge course director Brian Egler will examine key new features of Microsoft SQL Server 2016 that demonstrate how it provides automatic end-to-end security, seamless generation of business analytics and elastic integration of data in the cloud.

The cloud revolution is truly a revolution - the way we work, learn and even play is very different now than it was just 10 or 15 years and will probably be a lot more different in 10 or 15 years. With this in mind, let's look at 10 ways the cloud will (and to a large degree already has) changed the world.

The four-part Cloud TechTalks series shares practical insights and best practices for using the cloud. With exponential growth and unparalleled demand, there are few areas with greater opportunity than storage in the cloud. Join us for this complimentary, hour-long webinar to hear Susan Schreitmueller, IBM distinguished engineer and senior cloud advisor, share IBM's cloud storage solutions. Along with exploring trends and directions around IBM's roadmap for storage in the cloud, Schreitmueller will review Cloud Managed Services and SoftLayer options, as well as software-defined storage and IBM's suite of products.

Every business needs to have a consultative approach that increases organizational buy-in, enhances client relationships and improves customer service. Applying consulting skills can mean greater success for individuals and organizations alike. In this one-hour webinar, Michelle Moore will provide an overview of the Consulting Skills Lifecycle and present practical ideas from our McMaster Certified Consulting Skills Program. You'll learn how to engage your clients, gather and analyze information, present findings and recommendations, plan and implement recommendations and conclude the engagement and evaluate results.

Cloud computing is a big force in IT today, and it isn't going away. In fact, cloud adoption is going up geometrically, both for end users (think apps on your phone or tablet) as well as for organizations of all sizes. In fact, many smaller organizations may not have any on-premises infrastructure at all, other than networking infrastructure to get connected to the cloud. With this transformation in IT, it behooves all of us in the industry to understand it and adapt or risk being out of a job, like punch card operators.

In this world of volatility and complexity, it seems that the only certainty is the unstoppable advancement of technology. As people and organizations look to improve productivity, innovate their business models and processes, and differentiate their client and employee experiences, they need to be prepared to work in new and different ways. The challenge is that recent data reveals that Canada is falling behind the rest of the world in innovation, especially regarding new and disruptive technologies that promise to significantly impact every industry and organizations of all types and sizes. In this 60-minute webinar, we will explore the concept of digital disruption and provide information about how to future-proof yourself and your organization to succeed in this new world.

PowerVC is a cloud tool based on OpenStack technology used to manage your virtualized environment running on your Power System. It automates rapid provisioning/deprovisioning and provides simple ongoing management of LPARs on Power Systems. Join us for this free, interactive webinar to hear senior power cloud consultants Vess Natchev and Kyle Wurgler from IBM System Lab Services.

Microsoft Office 365 has a vast array of features to explore. A rich administration interface, streamlined security, and versatile migration options make this one of the most interesting products when it comes to an SaaS public cloud solution.

This paper provides an overview of how to judge the rigor of one's decision making. It describes how anyone can make better (higher quality) decisions, in any situation.

Change managers and project managers come at the same goal of maximizing ROI for their organizations, but from different perspectives and approaches and with different skill sets. While project managers are responsible for achieving specific objectives on time and on budget, the change manager's role is broader. Change managers apply a structured approach to helping individuals, teams and organizations negotiate relentless change. A project manager turns ideas into reality. Increasingly, project managers are required to take on the role of change manager as well. Business today can't afford to carry out tasks without considering the larger picture. Today, integration is unavoidable - and expected. In this hour-long interactive session, we'll discuss the similarities and differences between project management and change management. We'll also identify the occasions when both a project manager and a change manager might be needed.

AWS is an incredibly rich ecosystem of services and tools, some of which have security aspects baked in (like S3 SSE), and others that provide overarching security capabilities (like IAM and VPC) that apply to many services. With regard to data storage, operating system, and applications, security functions largely the same in the cloud or on-premises software. Customers can and should continue to follow best practices that have served them well in their own data centers.

Accessing cloud-based resources, whether they be IaaS/PaaS/SaaS-based, is very convenient. With a browser and Internet connection, you are up and running. No driving to your work office, no need to log into the corporate network. Just open up your web browser and go. This convenience, however, comes with a security risk. All of your business work is conducted over an insecure communication network. Unlike your office network, where the network link between you and the data center is under corporate control and is physically secure, the cloud access link is over the Internet.

Discover how the enhanced performance and reliability of Amazon Aurora will help AWS customers reduce performance bottlenecks in their applications. The relatively low cost of Aurora will tempt many customers to migrate workloads to this implementation of RDS.

Change is no longer an isolated event. In the digital world, professional and personal change is constant. It is the new normal. Today's leaders and teams are asked to handle relentless upheavals, while still being expected to deliver on their short-term goals. To succeed, they must toggle between the often-conflicting priorities of today's profits and tomorrow's growth. Organizational change management has been documented and many approaches exist; the same can be said for personal change. But rarely have organizations holistically thought about how these two drivers of positive change can collectively enable ongoing success. Join Jocelyn Bérard, Global Knowledge Vice President, International Leadership and Business Solutions, and Phil Buckley, Managing Director at Change with Confidence, for this informative hour-long webinar to learn a powerful and practical framework to help you manage organizational and personal change.

Kirsten Lora, our senior product director, discusses how Global Knowledge's Business Transformation Services prepare your employees to support your organizational change.

Technology in the digital age is disrupting everything in our lives and our workplace -- and it's impacting all aspects of the "People, Process and Technology" paradigm. Changes for IT professionals, project managers and business analysts are profound and are happening at lightning speed - faster than we've ever seen before. Individuals and organizations must keep pace or get left behind. Never fear. Along with the danger of quickly finding yourself on the sidelines are opportunities for tremendous career growth. Join us for this one-hour session on career management in the digital age. You will learn about the forces that are impacting business, how skills are evolving, which new skills will emerge and what you can do to adapt and succeed in the digital age.

Amazon Redshift opens up enterprise data warehouse (EDW) capabilities to even the smallest of businesses, yet its costs, security, and flexibility also make it appealing to the largest of enterprises. It allows companies to easily and conveniently scale their EDW needs both up and down, and as a managed service, it allows your team to offload all of the "undifferentiated heavy lifting" of building and maintaining an EDW. Its raw storage costs are about one-fifth to one-tenth of traditional in-house EDW, and AWS has taken great care to ensure its performance is still competitive with those in-house solutions. Before deciding to use Amazon Redshift, however, it's important to understand what it is and is not.

This white paper explores the native AWS storage solutions, enabling you to deliver applications in the cloud in the most efficient, cost-effective, and secure manner. In terms of storage, it's important to understand the characteristics of each AWS storage option so that you can implement one or more AWS storage services to meet your needs. Often, you'll find that utilizing multiple storage options together will give you the best outcomes.

You will learn how many organizations approach change management as compared to how best practices dictate that change management should work. Global Knowledge instructor and ITIL Expert Michael Scarborough will fill you in on the purpose of change management and the difference between change management and change tickets. He will provide a high-level guide for establishing a change management process that uses real-world examples as its basis.

Communication in our work and personal life has been dramatically transformed, not only by technology, but also by new practices and habits. At the same time, numerous studies show that communication is one of the top critical skills required to be successful. In fact, because of the way organizations and jobs are evolving, the importance of communication keeps increasing for professionals and leaders. This hour-long complimentary webinar is not about how to maximize your LinkedIn contacts or attract more Twitter followers. Jocelyn Bérard is a psychologist specializing in human performance and will share innovative ways to influence others through communication. He will also help you raise your knowledge and awareness about your personality traits and personal characteristics, how they impact communication and how to use them effectively.The digital age is here and you can't control it. But you can certainly improve and better use the human side of your communication.

Today's organizations must integrate and align people, processes, structures, culture and strategy to successfully transition individuals and/or groups from a current state to a future state to achieve their desired business outcomes and objectives. It is how we define change management today, which directly affects everyone from the entry-level employee to senior management. Everyone must learn how to make organizational changes, where managers are charged with the additional responsibility of making these changes happen in and through the different levels of strategic execution. This one-hour webinar focuses on change management in the areas of organizational development and human resource management combined with standardized portfolio, program, and project management practices (i.e., A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge-Fifth Edition (PMBOK® Guide)).

This power session is an introduction to Managing Stakeholder relations. It offers new ways of managing and dealing with projects, which focus more on communications, understanding stakeholders' needs and managing their expectations, as well as learning about organizational politics and culture, and performing value-add activities. It provides a practical approach to managing issues that matter most for project success - communication, stakeholder expectations, risk, change and quality; so that the scope, schedule and cost end up on target, achieving the desired outcomes for the organization.

Problem Solving - Root Cause Analysis using Kepner Tregoe

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) created a cloud definition that has been well-accepted across the IT industry. NIST was mandated to assist government agencies to adopt cloud computing for their IT operations. As part of their mandate, NIST created multiple working groups to define cloud computing, its architecture, and requirements. In this paper we explore the center core of NIST's cloud definition.

With Forrester Research declaring "Waterfall processes have become obstacles to speed, quality and predictability," and more than 85% of CIO's surveyed by CIO Magazine using or planning to pursue Agile practices in 2014, this one-hour webinar will explore the basics of Agile and why so many organizations are adopting Agile methods.

Many people believe that cloud computing requires server (or desktop) virtualization. But does it? We will look at using virtualization without cloud computing, cloud computing without virtualization, and then look at using both together. In each case, we'll look at where each deployment might be most useful, some use cases for it and some limitations.

With the onset of the Digital Age, IT professionals today are hit with a tsunami of changes! "By 2018, adoption of mobile, social, cloud, analytics will redefine 90% of IT roles" according to IDC 2014 Predictions: CIO Agenda. Large organizations are eliminating silos. Small and medium organizations are outsourcing technology services. Digital natives have entered the workforce. New roles will emerge as new ways of doing business are introduced and as old technology fades away. Today's IT professionals must adapt, and a new set of skills is in order. Join Pranav Shah, Manager of Information Technology and Security at Sony Canada, and Pam Maguire, Business Development Manager, Global Knowledge, for a 60 minute webinar on how to future-proof your IT career in the Digital Age. You will learn about how IT roles are changing, what organizations are looking for, and what you can do now to be ready.

The principles in this white paper help you introduce greater predictability into your own Agile requirements activities, both individually and across your organization. As you start to apply these ideas and pose these questions, you'll likely see certain patterns emerge that will help you establish your own set of practices that make Agile work for you.

After a review of Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and its close cousin Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), this white paper addresses three main deployment scenarios: SDN without deploying cloud computing, cloud computing without deploying SDN, and deploying cloud computing in conjunction with SDN. We'll look at use cases, when the approach makes sense, and any applicable limitations.

Amazon Web Services: An OverviewThere's a really good chance that Amazon Web Services (AWS) has more than a few products to help you work faster, smarter, and more cost effectively. After all, the depth and breadth of AWS is significant, comprising more than 30 services in dozens of data centers located in nine regions across the globe. They offer computing, storage, networking, deployment, management, and a host of supporting services, such as queues and email services. Getting a clear understanding of what AWS is and how it can help your business can be challenging. Never fear. In this hour-long webinar, Global Knowledge instructor and cloud and big data analyst Rich Morrow will help. He'll give an overview of AWS and its many benefits.

In this seminar, discover how OpenStack can simplify your cloud infrastructure management. Experts from Red Hat, the leading contributor to the OpenStack project, will fill you in on how organizations have solved problems and increased business value with open-source cloud technology. They will also give you a peek into the future of Red Hat OpenStack and reveal how Red Hat training and certification can ensure the success of your cloud deployment.

In this video, Practice Leader Craig Brown discusses the new Microsoft Cloud Computing platforms and how to keep your organization's data secure and functioning properly while operating either partially or entirely on the cloud.