Below is a selection of the sessions that will be presented as part of the Summit 09 program. Check back for additional program and speaker updates in the coming weeks.

>>> CANARIE NEP Exhibition and Dinner Reception
Join us at the Network-Enabled Platform (NEP) Project Exhibition and Dinner Reception on Wednesday , October 14th as Canadian innovators showcase promising research supported by CANARIE, Canada`s advanced research and innovation network. With critical funding from CANARIE, these scientists are developing new tools that exploit the power and potential of advanced networks, enabling researchers to analyze very large amounts of data, collaborate more effectively and apply results in innovative ways. To view the participating projects, click here.

>>> Launching, Managing and Doing Business in the Cloud
This panel will discuss some of the business challenges of launching, managing and doing business in the cloud.  Speakers will discuss diverse topics from their personal experiences in identifying “cloud ready” opportunities, how cloud computing infrastructure looks in the real world, and how to manage and grow your customer base in a Web 2.0 world.

>>> New Frontiers in Data Integration
We live in an era ruled by data. Information is constantly being captured, processed, stored, visualized, and distributed. This session will showcase a selection of leading-edge initiatives that are breaking new ground and setting new precedents around the collection and integration of data.

>>> Green IT: Does it Work?
Join leaders from academia, industry and government as they debate the value proposition of green IT and its potential to contribute to research, business and policy objectives. Panelists will share ideas, success stories and lessons learned as they explore the advantages and challenges of translating green IT strategy into practice.

>>> Canada - California R&D Collaboration Enabled by CI
Learn about how the ultra-high bandwidth connection between CANARIE, Canada’s Advanced Research and Innovation Network, and CENIC, the California State Education Network, is enabling novel bilateral research projects in life sciences, digital media and information and communications technologies. This session will explore how CI is helping to bring together brilliant minds and innovation resources from California and Canada and open up new R&D possibilities that promise to deliver economic and social benefits to both jurisdictions.

>>> Cyberinfrastructure Uptake
A panel of senior researchers and cyberinfrastructure (CI) providers will talk about the benefits, service gaps, and improvement areas regarding cyberinfrastructure uptake within their stakeholder communities. Areas of discussion will include:

•       What are the real benefits of cyberinfrastructure?
•       Why is uptake slow?
•       How can we better realize the benefits of cyberinfrastructure?
•       How can we close the gaps, and who can do it?
•       Does researcher formation need to change?
•       Is mass adoption coming soon and is the infrastructure ready?

>>> HPC and Grid Computing in the Cloud
Spread over four sessions, this workshop will be geared at technology providers, developers and users in the HPC and grid communities who are considering implementing clouds as solutions. Join a brainstorming platform to learn about the innovative potential of the new cloud technologies and debate the differences, benefits, and barriers compared to grids. Demonstrations and presentations will showcase how cloud computing can support HPC or complement existing grid infrastructures. The four sessions will also explore the challenges of porting HPC applications to the cloud, the limitations of clouds for HPC applications, and the future landscape of cloud computing.

>>> Requirements for Future Cyberinfrastructure
The infrastructure used to support comptational and data-intensive research is changing. This is evident within Europe, where the EGEE (Enabling Grids for e-Science) has evolved into the larger-scale EGI (European Grid Infrastructure), and within the USA, where the investments made in TeraGrid and Open Science Grid projects are now being adapted to new users and additional hardware infrastructure. Similar initiatives are taking place in other parts of the world to accommodate advances in both infrastructure and application science technology. This session is the second in a series of workshops that are gathering cyberinfrastructure / e-infrastructure requirements from end-users. This session will focus on identifying a set of common application use cases and the user communities that need them. This could form the basis of a gap analysis between the current infrastructure offerings and the future needs of particular user communities.

>>> Identity Management Solutions
This workshop is an opportunity for participants to share their experiences with creating and implementing identity management systems (IDM) that enable common account management across multiple service providers. There will be representation from organizations that are creating and running national IDM systems, as well as organizations that create IDM solutions for specialized sectors, such as education, health and the enterprise. Talks will address how the organization’s needs were identified and how technical solutions were developed to satisfy these needs. Current limitations and future solutions with IDM systems will also be discussed.

>>> Summit 09 Cloud Challenge
Summit 09 is hosting a live cloud challenge and is inviting entries for demonstrations of the deployment and orchestration of cloud based services using underlying grid computing infrastructures.

Examples might include the provision of an infrastructure service, offering access to compute or storage resources, on demand; or their configuration into a platform service, showing  the provision of a command line or graphical interface demonstrating the supply of capacity and management tools on demand; or in the deployment of application services, possibly multi-tenanted, demonstrating individual  access to application functionality – again on demand. Applications may also encompass the provision of information as a service.

The intent of this challenge is to demonstrate the viability for on-demand grid based end user services at several levels, demonstrating capability for load balancing and distribution using conventional grid computing tools and potentially including new cloud concepts.

To see the 'People's Choice' winner of the Summit 09 Cloud Challenge, click here.