My conference day started with catching part of the morning keynote, The Power of Speed, delivered by Hasso Plattner. Columnar storage and hardware technical specs are not areas of expertise for me, but I still enjoyed hearing his remarks and observing the reactions. Once again, Ian Kimbal's demos during the keynote brought it all to life on the big screen; he has done so many demos during the keynotes that even Hasso got into the act of teasing Ian about them, to appreciative chuckles from the audience. I especially liked the demo of the email about a laptop purchase that linked him right to the transaction he needed.
Next up for me was a Strategy Session on SAP NetWeaver Security, IdM, and GRC with Peter McNulty and Bettina Schaeumer from SAP NetWeaver Product Management. Peter and Bettina started out talking to a group of customers about the value proposition of SAP's IdM solution. As it turned out, the session was so well attended that I had to leave before I got say much of anything, so I'll try to fit it in again tomorrow.
My next session was the Environment and Sustainability Community gathering in ASUG's Community Lounge area. SAP Mentor Jim Spath facilitated the session, which was also attended by a number of people from SAP as well as several other SAP Mentors including Marilyn Pratt and Jon Reed. This session covered a lot of ground, all of it of interest to me. Among the subjects I was interested to hear about included remarks by Marty Etzel of SAP about new announcements concerning SAP sustainability initiatives, and Marilyn Pratt's comments about grassroots sustainability advocacy. Tom Rafferty shared some observations on SAP's initiatives as well and challenged SAP to go carbon neutral as quickly as possible. I'd really like to see this session be a full day pre-conference session next year or at least a multi-session web cast series.
After lunch I was off to the Sustainability Roundtable in the Global Communications Center with Peter Graf, SAP's Chief Sustainability Officer. He talked about the business case for sustainability and shared some information from McKinsey studies on the impact that IT can have on helping companies reduce their carbon footprint. He gave us some food for thought when considering the possibilities for either damage to or enhancement of the brand due to sustainability issues. Scott Bolick, SAP's Vice President Sustainability Solutions, gave an overview of SAP's online Sustainability Map; I definitely plan to check it out in detail when I get home and vote in the online survey.
Then it was time to head back to the south side for a customer case study, Starting Secure and Staying Secure - An Approach to Global Security and Controls. I was interested in their explanation of the RASCI model for managing project deliverables and their recommended practices for security design, but I would have preferred to hear their recommendations for production support after they went live and were real-life tested.
Security SIG Round table was my last session of the day, held in ASUG's Community Lounge area. I facilitated a discussion among security professionals on our current challenges, pain points, and wish lists. User provisioning toolsets, compliance toolsets, the challenges of heavily customized landscapes, and security role design strategies were among the current issues.
Next stop: dinner and SAP Celebration Night!
