Agile Conference forced to relocate
The Agile 2010 Conference, originally scheduled for Nashville, Tenn., has been moved due to severe flooding that has ravaged the city. The conference will now be held at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin hotel in Orlando, Fla. The conference dates will remain the same (Aug. 9–13).
“With the uncertainty of when the Nashville facilities could be restored, we decided to relocate the Agile 2010 Conference to ensure we can accommodate the increased interest we have had from attendees,” explained James Newkirk, Agile 2010 Conference chair, in a written statement. “We are committed to providing the most compelling and practical sessions on agile software development principles and practices, and this move will ensure the conference will continue to provide an outstanding experience for all attendees.”
Business Briefs
IT spending in the Middle East and Africa is set to grow faster than almost any other region in the world as investment continues at a record pace with a 12% growth this year, four times that of the global average, according to research from IDC. While worldwide spending will only grow at 3%, the Middle East and Africa is set to buck the trend as emerging markets drive global industry growth, reports IDC. Global IT spending figures are set to reach US$1.48 trillion for 2010, according to the study.
Application performance monitoring company AppDynamics has closed a US$11 million round of financing, led by existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and Greylock Partners. To date, the company said it has raised $16.5 million in venture funding. AppDynamics will use the money to build out its next-generation APM solution that manages distributed applications in high-volume production environments, according to a statement announcing the funding. Features such as application mapping, transaction flow monitoring and cloud orchestration are key to next-generation APM, the company said.
Object Management Group Inc. has announced that it is sponsoring a case study competition to highlight business success stories from which other companies pursuing BPM/SOA adoption can learn. According to the consortium, entries will be judged on the complexity of the business problem address, the business value achieved, the level of sophistication of cross-organizational collaboration, and the use of BPM/SOA approaches and supporting technology. Entry forms can be picked up at www.bpmsoa-communityofpractice.org/cs-pr. Submissions will be accepted through June 29. Winners will be announced at the BPM/SOA Community of Practice meeting in Cambridge, Mass., on Sept. 21, and in October publications from OMG partners BPTech and TechTarget.
