After spending the first half of the week in Nashville, Tennessee, I jumped on a plane to make the trek north to Buffalo, New York. My first stop was the beautiful Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel in downtown Niagara Falls, 15 miles north of Buffalo. The hotel is just a short walk from the three famous waterfalls that are the city’s namesake, and that impact the Niagara River that straddles the border between the United States and Canada. Although not exceptionally high, these falls are the most powerful in North America and are an important source of hydroelectric power, and one of the most recognized landmarks in the world.

Seneca Casino, one of PowerTech’s valued customers, graciously offered to host our 3^rd IBM i security workshop in their well-appointed conference facilities. The half-day session was another highly interactive one, and was accompanied by a fantastic lunch and free PowerTech giveaways. After bragging that previous sessions had finished within 5 minutes of the scheduled 4 hours, of course this session ran over; simply because of the great interaction and discussion with the attendees. For that reason, no one seemed to mind, and everyone seemed happy with the content that we provided, with topics that included system values, exit points, and object-level security.

Before heading back to Buffalo, I did make the short walk down to the breathtaking American and Bridal Veil Falls. If you have never seen this stunning sight—especially in the Winter—then it is hard to describe the power and sheer natural force of these natural wonders. While I had previously seen the view from the Canadian side in July, this was my first visit to the U.S. side. While a still-photograph doesn’t really do it justice, I hope my panorama conveys a fraction of its majesty.

The remainder of the evening was spent with the large group that comprises the Midrange Users Group of Western New York (www.mugwny.com). On this night, I presented a combined session called The Top 10 IBM i Security Vulnerabilities and The State of IBM i Security Study, which is based on the popular PowerTech white paper that is published annually. From the reaction of the crowd, some of the issues were quite eye-opening. Hopefully the information I provided will assist them with performing security improvements that might prevent corporate data from flowing out of the network as fast as water over the falls! As always, I offered to conduct a no-charge security review for anyone interested in using our fabulous automated Compliance Assessment solution.

Fortunately, the “lake effect snow” that I had been told about plaguing the region held off for the most part, and I was able to start my return travels on time. Ironically, while everyone had cautioned me about the likelihood of flight delays in and out of Buffalo, and my knowledge of the prevalence of seasonal delays at my connecting hub of Chicago’s O’Hare airport, it was my final destination of Des Moines, Iowa, that almost derailed my return. As we were beginning our descent into Des Moines, the pilot informed us that airport had just closed due to the blowing snow from a winter storm. We immediately went into holding pattern awaiting further instructions. The captain indicated that we had an extra 40 minutes worth of fuel in addition to the fuel required for a return to Chicago! Fortunately, we didn’t require much of either as the airport subsequently reopened and we were cleared to land after about 20 minutes of circling. I was so relieved that I didn’t have to end a fantastic work week with a winter travel horror story!

Thanks again for everyone’s continued hospitality on the road, both for the workshops and the user groups. I would be remiss if I didn’t also thank my team back in Minneapolis, especially Katie Carnicom, who tirelessly facilitates the numerous agendas (for me, as well as other members of staff), complicated travel schedules, and shipments of the t-shirts and presentation materials. It takes unbelievable organization to put these events on back-to-back, and she does an amazing job that allows me look good with little effort on my part!

This week will be a week to try and catch up, and then next week I will be off again, taking the workshop and user group presentation to Reno, Nevada, billed as “The Biggest Little City In The World.” That will be immediately followed by Portland, Oregon, the week of March 8^th.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 at 10:05 am and is filed under Events, Other, Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.