Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat » Chris Evans Archives – Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat http://blog.fosketts.net Understanding the accumulation of data Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:40:43 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= Dell Storage Forum – London, UK http://blog.fosketts.net/2011/12/20/dell-storage-forum-uk/ http://blog.fosketts.net/2011/12/20/dell-storage-forum-uk/#comments Tue, 20 Dec 2011 22:06:29 +0000 Stephen http://blog.fosketts.net/?p=6547

I’m very pleased to have been invited to attend the Dell Storage Forum in London on January 9-12. I’ve been closely following Dell’s progress in the field of enterprise storage, and look forward to learning more at this event. Even better, I have been told that many of my friends in the enterprise storage community will be joining me in London, including Chris Evans, Nigel Poulton, Martin Glassborow, and many others.

This post is really something of a placeholder at this point, and I will be updating it with information as the event approaches.

Ok, a bit more information. I’ve been told the following folks will be there, and I’m really looking forward to seeing them again!

Then there are all the great folks from Dell itself who’ll be there:

Even if you’re not coming to Dell Storage Forum, you can join the crew in London for storagebeers on Tuesday evening at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese in Fleet Street. Greg Knieriemen and Ed Saipetch will be recording the Nekkid Tech podcast, and it looks like a huge number of storage folks will be there.

More information about this event is available at the following links:

If you are interested in my tech travel preparations, I recommend reading the following articles:

Disclaimer: As is the case with many similar events, Dell is paying my travel and living expenses to attend the Storage Forum. But if you think I’m going to write about Dell just because I went to this event you’ve got it exactly backwards. I’m going to attend the Storage Forum because Dell is a critical company in my area of expertise and I will be writing about them regardless. I’ll just be better informed (and better armed) thanks to this event.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2011. | Dell Storage Forum – London, UK
This post was categorized as Personal. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

]]> http://blog.fosketts.net/2011/12/20/dell-storage-forum-uk/feed/ 0 European Trip: SNW Europe, Storage Expo NL, and Storagebeers http://blog.fosketts.net/2011/11/01/european-trip-snw-europe-storage-expo-nl-storagebeers/ http://blog.fosketts.net/2011/11/01/european-trip-snw-europe-storage-expo-nl-storagebeers/#comments Tue, 01 Nov 2011 18:06:44 +0000 Stephen http://blog.fosketts.net/?p=6349

I am looking forward to many happy beers in Frankfurt, Utrecht, and Amsterdam this week!

I never skip a chance to travel to Europe, and I’m really looking forward to my trip to Storage Networking World (SNW) in Frankfurt tomorrow. As always, the great folks over there are organizing a Storagebeers event, and it will be wonderful to see all my European friends once again. First thing Thursday morning I’ll be on a train to Amsterdam and Storage Expo NL.

Storage Networking World Europe: Powering the Cloud?

The theme for SNW Europe 2011 is “Powering the Cloud” and includes the related Datacenter Technologies and Virtualization World conferences. I think I’m going to have to bring my official Cloud Security Blanket if all this talk of virtualization and the cloud overcomes my emotions. Seriously, can we talk about infrastructure like the good old days?

I’ll only be on-site in Frankfurt for a short time, arriving just before noon and staying through the night. I’ve avoided making too many vendor briefing appointments, even though they tracked me down to set them up. I just won’t have much time for that sort of thing.

Storagebeers Frankfurt

I see that a transplanted Storagebeers London event is scheduled in Frankfurt, and I look forward to it. Hopefully we’ll be having dinner as well, since all beer all the time is likely to put me to sleep after a overnight flight!

While on-site in Frankfurt, I’ll spend most of my time with my good friend Ilja Coolen, who will be traveling with me to Utrecht on Thursday morning. Also joining me in Frankfurt is my wife, Shannon. I know she always looks forward to spending hours watching me geek out with my friends!

I also look forward to seeing other friends, including Chris Evans (see his post, too), Chris Mellor, Enrico Signoretti, Calvin Zito, Fred Monsone, Rose Ross, Rick Schlander, Nancy Hurley, and many others.

Storage Expo NL and More Beer

First thing Thursday morning, Ilja, Shannon and I will hop on a high-speed train to Utrecht in the Netherlands. I’ll have a few hours to compose myself before I go on stage with my “VMware as Oedipus” presentation at Storage Expo NL. Once again, it’s a whirlwind tour of the Expo Hall, and I look forward to seeing my Dutch friends once again.

Thursday night is another Storagebeers event. It looks like Ilja has scheduled this for the Café-Restaurant Olivier in Utrecht, which is a short walk from the Expo Trade Fair Halls. If you’d like to join us Thursday night, hop over to Facebook or LinkedIn and register.

After Thursday, I’ll take a couple of days off to visit Amsterdam. I’ve never been there before, and Shannon I really look forward to exploring a new city. See you in Europe!

I'm getting charged up and ready for Europe!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2011. | European Trip: SNW Europe, Storage Expo NL, and Storagebeers
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Personal, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

]]> http://blog.fosketts.net/2011/11/01/european-trip-snw-europe-storage-expo-nl-storagebeers/feed/ 0 Back From the Pile: Interesting Links, February 11, 2011 http://blog.fosketts.net/2011/02/11/pile-interesting-links-february-11-2011/ http://blog.fosketts.net/2011/02/11/pile-interesting-links-february-11-2011/#comments Sat, 12 Feb 2011 00:52:38 +0000 Stephen http://blog.fosketts.net/?p=4900 I’ve spent this week in San Jose, CA at Tech Field Day 5, and that’s the bulk of my news. We heard from great companies: Symantec, Drobo, Druva, Xangati, NetEx, InfoBlox, and HP. Whew!

Subscribe to my Google Reader feed or follow me on Twitter to see these in real-time.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2011. | Back From the Pile: Interesting Links, February 11, 2011
This post was categorized as Computer History, Enterprise storage, Everything, Personal, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

]]> http://blog.fosketts.net/2011/02/11/pile-interesting-links-february-11-2011/feed/ 1 Back From the Pile: Interesting Links, February 4, 2011 http://blog.fosketts.net/2011/02/07/pile-interesting-links-february-4-2011/ http://blog.fosketts.net/2011/02/07/pile-interesting-links-february-4-2011/#comments Mon, 07 Feb 2011 15:25:33 +0000 Stephen http://blog.fosketts.net/?p=4859 I spent last week tying up loose ends before Tech Field Day 5 in San Jose. It’s going to be a great event, with presentations by Symantec, Drobo, Xangati, NetEx, InfoBlox, HP, and a new company making their US launch! In the mean time, I am working hard to wrap up the Small Enterprise Storage Array Buyers’ Guide for DCIG and continuing my regular work – spreading the word about state of the art IT! I’ve been researching VMware extensively, and building a home lab server, in preparation for my Storage for Virtual Servers seminar, too.

Subscribe to my Google Reader feed or follow me on Twitter to see these in real-time.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2011. | Back From the Pile: Interesting Links, February 4, 2011
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Personal, Terabyte home, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

]]> http://blog.fosketts.net/2011/02/07/pile-interesting-links-february-4-2011/feed/ 1 Back From the Pile: Interesting Links, October 22, 2010 http://blog.fosketts.net/2010/10/24/pile-interesting-links-october-22-2010/ http://blog.fosketts.net/2010/10/24/pile-interesting-links-october-22-2010/#comments Sun, 24 Oct 2010 19:12:15 +0000 Stephen http://blog.fosketts.net/?p=3934 This regular series features highlights from the past week.

Subscribe to my Google Reader feed or follow me on Twitter to see these in real-time.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2010. | Back From the Pile: Interesting Links, October 22, 2010
This post was categorized as Apple, Enterprise storage, Everything, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

]]> http://blog.fosketts.net/2010/10/24/pile-interesting-links-october-22-2010/feed/ 0 Back From The Pile: May 30, 2009 http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/06/01/pile-30-2009/ http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/06/01/pile-30-2009/#comments Mon, 01 Jun 2009 17:55:16 +0000 Stephen http://blog.fosketts.net/?p=1910 It was a week of HAM in the enterprise storage industry and angry arguments in the CloudCamp camp. But things looked up at the end with a productive discussion about backups. Google sent us a wave, but nobody was happy when GM threatened to collapse.

Enterprise Storage

Misc

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2009. | Back From The Pile: May 30, 2009
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Personal, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

]]> http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/06/01/pile-30-2009/feed/ 0 Back From the Pile: Interesting Content From the Week of May 2, 2009 http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/05/04/pile-interesting-content-week-2-2009/ http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/05/04/pile-interesting-content-week-2-2009/#comments Mon, 04 May 2009 14:21:44 +0000 Stephen http://blog.fosketts.net/?p=1826 There were some interesting events and blog posts last week. This new weekly feature highlights those!

Enterprise IT

Apple

Life

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2009. | Back From the Pile: Interesting Content From the Week of May 2, 2009
This post was categorized as Everything. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

]]> http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/05/04/pile-interesting-content-week-2-2009/feed/ 0 Tracking EMC’s Symmetrix V-Max Launch http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/04/14/emc-symmetrix-vmax-launch/ http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/04/14/emc-symmetrix-vmax-launch/#comments Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:14:39 +0000 Stephen http://blog.fosketts.net/?p=1704 EMC completely took over April 14 to launch their next-generation Symmetrix enterprise storage system. Sporting their new V-Max architecture, the Symmetrix (let’s just call it DMX-5, ok?) is a scale-out system based on standard components wrapped together into a multiprocessing powerhouse.

This news is so fresh you would leave footprints if you step in it, but here’s a collection of my favorite links and coverage so far. I’ll be updating this list throughout the next few days:

That’s the news that’s fit to print so far! Stick with this post and Gestalt IT’s continuing coverage of the V-Max!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2009. | Tracking EMC’s Symmetrix V-Max Launch
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

]]> http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/04/14/emc-symmetrix-vmax-launch/feed/ 2 Introducing Gestalt IT, a New Web Magazine For Enterprise IT Infrastructure Commentary http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/02/25/gestaltit-enterprise-infrastructure/ http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/02/25/gestaltit-enterprise-infrastructure/#comments Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:06:57 +0000 Stephen http://blog.fosketts.net/?p=1476 Gestalt IT is a new publication for the best independent IT commentary

Gestalt IT is a new publication for the best independent IT commentary

Times are changing in the tech media world, with paper publications disappearing quickly and new online ventures springing up to take their place. For a long time, it seemed that individual blogging and RSS might become the next big thing in DIY technical media. But, frankly, it’s not working out. Even after years of publicity and solid technical capability, RSS and feed readers just aren’t attracting much of an audience. A recent study showed that just 11% of Internet users use RSS feeds at all!

The majority of my blog traffic comes from Google searches – more than 2/3 in fact! But my best traffic (meaning those that stay and read a few pages and perhaps even comment) come as referrals from articles I’ve written in respected online publications. These engaged readers, my core peer group, are why I blog, and what I am hoping for! But even for-profit web sites are feeling a squeeze. No one can figure out how to monetize enterprise IT topics , paper publications are failing, and we in the industry risk losing our best source of engagement PR. This has to change!

Therefore, a core group of independent enterprise IT bloggers have come together to combine our writing into a mega blog or web magazine focused on enterprise IT infrastructure topics like virtualization, networking, and storage: Gestalt IT. The idea is that the best content from the best enterprise IT folks is brought together in one place. See the Gestalt IT FAQ for more information.

I am pleased to announce that we already have seven fine writers for Gestalt IT:

My blog is changing, too:

  • From now on, most of my enterprise IT blog posts will be available both here and at Gestalt IT.
  • I will be writing exclusive pieces for Gestalt IT as well, and linking to them from here. Check out my recent posts on the flexible nature of IT equipment pricing and the TechTarget Storage Product of the Year awards, for example.
  • Many of my subscribers have complained that they don’t care about some of the non-IT things I write about (Apple computers, iPhones, blogging, etc) and they would be better served by subscribing to Gestalt IT’s feeds.
  • I intend to ramp up my posting in other areas in the coming months.

Note that some things will not change. I will still be speaking and writing for TechTarget and other fine publications. Gestalt IT is simply another outlet for use independent writers to use. If you’d like to be involved, drop me a note. There’s always room for more writers!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2009. | Introducing Gestalt IT, a New Web Magazine For Enterprise IT Infrastructure Commentary
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Everything, Personal, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

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