Breakfast in the cloud? Join ZDNet UK for croissants and ideas

If you're in London and fancy starting the day with ZDNet UK, we're throwing a free breakfast briefing near Charing Cross at 8:30am on the 20 October. There are just two catches - you've got to come hungry, and you've got to be curious about the practical aspects of planning for the cloud.

We've assembled a guest panel from Cisco, Google and Verizon (which is sponsoring the gig), and we're going to talk about what should we all be doing now to get ready for the cloud in 2014. The event will be chaired by the ZDNet UK editor.

Why then, and why cloud? Even with all the hype around web-based computer services, we think that the drive to enterprise-based cloud computing is genuine, not driven by vendors. We also think it's not going to pan out the way the marketeers would like us to think.

And we know that in three years' time, it's not going to be an option but a necessity, in the same way that the internet went from nice to have to business requirement remarkably quickly.

So, now's the time to start planning. We're going to be concentrating on networking infrastructure, software implications and security - hence our panel - but come with any questions for the experts. Practical problems preferred. There'll be half an hour of discussion starting at nine, and half an hour of Q&A: it'll all be over by 10, so the nation's productivity won't be harmed, and we're looking to learn a lot ourselves about what you think and what you need.

So: please come along. It's first come first served (literally, for the breakfast part), and places are limited. RSVP now to secure your place at table - and in the future of enterprise IT.

See you there.