Ed. Note: As we prepare for the 2010 Nonprofit Technology Conference, we wanted share a wee bit of the wisdom our speakers will be serving up, so as not to overwhelm you when you get to Atlanta. We're asking them all to share their answers to five very important questions.

Speaker: Peter Campbell, Earthjustice

Session: The Tech Track

1. What's the most important trend in nonprofit technology for 2010?

It's cloud computing, hands down.  I know, I know: Social media! Online fundraising! All well and good, but those are evolutionary trends, cloud computing is a revolutionary trend. As it matures, it will remove the frustrating burden of managing servers and applications from our under-resourced organizations and allow IT to focus on tying systems to strategy, not just keeping the six year old systems alive. That's a really big deal.

Today's Blog Action Day 2009! The annual event's focus this year is Climate Change, an the issue that will impact all of our lives. 9,428 blogs from 150 Countries with 12,896,974 Readers and counting are participating -- you can still join the effort!

Peter Campbell, Earthjustice and Matthew Eshleman, Community IT Innovators

This year's Nonprofit Technology Conference offered a good chance to discuss one the most important -- but geeky -- developments in the world of computers and networks: server virtualization.

In a nutshell, virtualization technology allows many computers to run concurrently on one server, each believing it's the sole occupant. This allows for energy and cost savings, greater efficiency, and some astounding improvements in the manageability of your networks and backups.

Most of the discussion related to virtualization has been centered on large data centers and enterprise implementations, but a small network can also take advantage of the benefits that virtualization has to offer.

Virtualization is the revolution of the web.  Wiktionary states that to virtualize is:

• To run a program in virtual storage
• To simulate (or make virtual) some effect or condition on a computer
• To make or conform to a virtual reality.

Flickr Photo by lodev

NTEN Member and Superstar, Peter Campbell, will share his virtualization knowledge in 2 webinars starting next week:

Personal Virtualization on March 11 at 11am PT / 2 pm ET:  Learn how you can benefit from virtualizing your computer, whether you're just someone who loves your Mac but has to run a few Windows apps or an IT professional who could benefit from having access to multiple operating systems without having to purchase multiple computers or support inconvenient multi-bootup setups.

> Learn More and Register Today!

Server/Desktop Virtualization and Provisioning on March 27 at 11am PT / 2 pm ET: The geekiest webinar of the month will help you understand the changing landscape of virtualization. Learn more about the budgetary, environmental, and management advantages that virtualization offers to the difficult job of keeping your servers optimized and running.

> Learn More and Register Today!