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World's System i security expert attends Halcyon Software's open day seminar

Date Posted: 21/02/07

Systems management software provider, Halcyon Software, experienced a grand turnout and excellent feedback at its open day seminar on 1st February 2007 to celebrate more than 10 years in business. More than 30 individual companies which included existing clients, prospective customers and business partners were given the opportunity to view the company’s new Peterborough-based premises and see demonstrations of their new software as well as attend a number of topical IT seminars at the nearby Marriott hotel. The day’s main attraction was the presence of award-winning American speaker, Carol Woodbury (above right), formerly of IBM Rochester USA and now President of SkyView Partners Inc. of Seattle. Woodbury is the acknowledged, world expert on security for IBM’s System I and presented a key note speech entitled “The Top Ten Security Threats Facing IT Today.”

In the afternoon Halcyon took the opportunity to showcase its new systems management tools for IBM Midrange and Windows platforms.

Lorraine Cousins, Managing Director of Halcyon Software, comments, “We were delighted to celebrate the day with our customers and partners. The feedback we had from the event was great too. One common thread was that our customers were saying that as IT Managers it was always hard to justify a day out of the office because they have such pressurised jobs. But they were pleased they had taken the time out because they had found the day extremely useful in terms of advice they received for securing IT systems against attack as well as some practical tips on managing many different computer systems across their business. We are going to help our customers implement smarter ways of monitoring their computer systems over the next few months.”

The seminar, held at the Peterborough Marriott Hotel, was attended by 33 companies including some familiar names such as David Wilson Homes, Raleigh, Domestic and General, Budget Insurance, REAL Solutions, NorthDoor and Chilli IT. All attendees were then given the opportunity to tour Halcyon’s new premises on the Minerva Business Park over lunch.

Head of Technical Services at Halcyon, Donnie MacColl then showcased Halcyon’s Systems Management solutions, including a range of security monitoring tools that provide real time alerting as well as new systems management modules including Disk Space Manager and Network Server Suite.

Carol Woodbury, former Chief Security Architect for OS/400 at IBM in the US, led a specialist Security Compliance Workshop, which encompassed many practical hints and tips on security compliance; including running a risk assessment, setting up a compliance policy and maintaining it, and how to keep the auditors happy.

Carol Woodbury said “It was a great visit from my perspective and very interesting for me to meet with so many IT Managers here in the UK. There’s no substitute for having face to face meetings with individuals to gain a true understanding of how things are managed over here. I was able to pass on my knowledge about how the legislation in Europe differs to the laws in the States and advise companies on which laws they needed to comply with, how to get started on security projects and adopt a best practice approach for security. They were a very receptive audience and asked a lot of questions so I know that the issue of security is high on the agenda in the UK.”