As was the case with our OpenFlow Symposium in October, the public will be invited to attend the Wi-Fi Mobility Symposium in January. Free tickets will be posted at EventBrite, and will be announced on this very page! The event will also be streamed live over the Internet if you are unable to attend in person.

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

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2011. | Wi-Fi Mobility Symposium – San Jose, CA
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.

I'll be returning to San Jose for another Tech Field Day event this week

This is an exceptionally busy but rewarding week. I’m traveling to the San Jose, CA area for two events I’ve organized: The OpenFlow Symposium and the second Networking-focused Tech Field Day. I’ll be surrounded by some of the smartest and most interesting folks in networking all week, which is both daunting and exciting for a storage guy like me. I invite my readers to follow along on Twitter, in blogs, and through live streaming video.

The OpenFlow Symposium

OpenFlow is a huge challenge for datacenter networking. OpenFlow is a type of Software-Defined Networking (SDN) in which a controller directs the actions of switches using a standard protocol. It’s really in its infancy, having burst onto the scene after promising deployments at Stanford, Google, Yahoo, and similar massive scale data centers. Now the enterprise networking folks are starting to get interested.

Greg Ferro of Packet Pushers and Etherealmind has been a partner on Tech Field Day planning since the very beginning, and he helped put together the OpenFlow Symposium concept. It’s a simple event, with two long panel discussions planned for Wednesday. But actually pulling it off was quite a challenge!

Our OpenFlow panel includes experts from key companies in the space: BigSwitch Networks, Brocade, Cisco, Juniper, and NEC. We’ll also welcome end-user experts from Google and Yahoo, and the whole thing will be moderated by the Packet Pushers crew.

I expect a very lively discussion on the technology involved as well as the basic concept. Ivan Pepelnjak of IOSHints has been very critical of the need for OpenFlow in general, so it’s great to have him involved as a Devil’s Advocate!

Networking Field Day

The Tech Field Day concept has really grown beyond my wildest expectations. Beginning with a one-off “Gestalt IT” event in 2009, we’ve now blossomed to include a number of focused events including this week’s datacenter-networking themed Field Day.

Networking Tech Field Day 2 (“Net Field Day”) has become the go-to event for the best independent networking folks, and we’re pleased to be bringing back many folks from our 2010 event as well as some newcomers.

Presentation-wise, we’ve got some solid returning companies like Juniper, Force10 (now part of Dell), and Cisco. But we’re also glad to welcome Brocade, Gigamon, NEC, and networking startup Embrane.

Stephen’s Stance

I’m thrilled just to be part of the great group of companies and thought leaders who are gathering in San Jose this week. To be the “ringleader” and orchestrator is more than I thought possible! Watch live at TechFieldDay.com Wednesday through Friday, and join us on Twitter. If you’re in the area, drop me a line – maybe you can join us at the Symposium or our Thursday night party!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2011. | Networking Field Day and OpenFlow Symposium
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Everything, Gestalt IT, Personal, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Join us (in Boston or online) for Tech Field Day 6 in two weeks!

Most of my readers know that I run the blogger co-op called Gestalt IT and organize the Tech Field Day event series. I see these activities as an example of “doing well by doing good” since they are incredibly popular with IT companies that present as well as the independent thought leaders who attend. A few weeks from now, I will head off to Boston for a special event focused entirely on server virtualization. Tech Field Day 6 brings together so many great things that it’s hard for me to summarize it!

Like all previous Tech Field Day events, the backstage work starts a few days before the presentations begin. I will arrive in Boston on Tuesday, June 7 to begin getting everything ready, and the delegates will join me on Wednesday, June 8. This is when some of the most important, and overlooked, elements of Tech Field Day really come together. If the event is all about community, then the preevent work is all about building the foundations that let community happen. We will gather Wednesday night to get to know each other, and I will also have a chance to make sure that everyone understands what Tech Field Day is all about.

The delegates will spend all day Thursday and Friday, June 9 and 10, meeting with key companies in the server virtualization space. We have Tech Field Day veterans like Symantec, SolarWinds, and VKernel presenting, as well as Embotics and a brand-new company still in stealth mode. We are also very excited that VMware will finally have their own presentation time Thursday afternoon. Although they have been involved in many of our events, this is the first time that VMware will present on their own.

Every Tech Field Day event includes a party, but we’re doing something much more exciting this time around: In association with VMunderground and the New England Area VMware Users Group, we have decided to bring a large number of local virtualization enthusiasts together at Fenway Park on Thursday night. Tickets are free, but space is limited, so reserve yours today. This promises to be a great evening of socializing and talking tech, even though the Red Sox will be at new Yankee Stadium that night.

All Tech Field Day presentations will be streamed as video live over the Internet, so tune in on June 9 and 10 at TechFieldDay.com, and follow the #TechFieldDay hashtag on twitter. We also have groups on LinkedIn and Facebook, if that’s your thing, and will be collecting posts and other articles on our Tech Field Day 6 links page. Then there’s Flickr, Vimeo, and even Digg!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2011. | Tech Field Day Boston: Virtualization and Baseball
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.

• Tech Field Day 5 links
  • Official stuff:
    • Tech Field Day 5: The Links
    • Tech Field Day 5: The Videos
  • Rob Novak shared his Thoughts from Tech Field Day 5
  • A great post by Greg Stuart: Symantec NetBackup 7 for VMware vSphere 4
  • I loved Tom’s Things I Learned From Tech Field Day, Part 1
• My writing
  • I’ve wanted to write this for quite a while: ATA over Ethernet protocol overview for data storage managers
  • I talked to Intel this week and wrote it up: Where Is Intel’s FCoE Solution?
  • Another big area for my virtual storage seminar preparation: VMware VAAI Storage Array Support in Plain English
  • And finally: Aerobie AeroPress Review: The Hacker Coffee Maker
• Other great stuff I’ve been reading
  • Barry Burke responded to my VAAI post with some competitive digs: reality check vsp vaai support
  • From Robin Harris is a DEC obituary: Ken Olsen, 1926-2011
  • A clever piece by Tom Petrocelli: Public Clouds : An Unregulated Utility
  • vKernel has a good point to make: Dear CIO’s, Please Send Paul Otellini a Thank You Note
  • Chris Evans covers the arrays we saw at TFD: Data Robotics Releases Business-class Arrays
  • Ivan Pepelnjak (inspired by Greg Ferro): Open FCoE – Software implementation of the camel jetpack
  • I loved this infographic: The Most Common and Dangerous Passwords
  • And this one: A Decade of Storage
  • Another great piece by Chris Evans: Managing iSCSI on Windows 2008 Core with Hyper-V

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.

As many of you know, I organize the Tech Field Day event series for Gestalt IT, a grass-roots gathering of freelance writers, bloggers, and such. It’s not a trade show or business conference – it’s a field day!

The ExecEvent is something totally different, yet somewhat the same in spirit.  Greg Duplessie brings together executives folks from a variety of IT infrastructure companies.  The ExecEvent includes two days of the other kind of networking – folks discuss potential business opportunities, investment, OEM deals, and the like.  It began a couple of years ago as the BDEvent, and the name change reflects an elevation of the focus from simple business development to real executive networking.

I’ll be heading to Palo Alto, CA for the ExecEvent during the week of the 24th.  It’s a great opportunity for me to network with the businesses that work with Foskett Services and Gestalt IT.  Although I’m not looking for venture capital investment, and don’t intend to come out with my own line of storage arrays, this gathering of high-powered industry folks has a lot to offer!

Many of my friends agree, and I look forward to seeing folks like W. Curtis Preston, Marc Staimer, Brad O’Neill, and too many others to list here.

I believe there is still space if you would like to represent your company at the ExecEvent.  If you are going, maybe you’d be interested in setting up a meeting with me!  I’ll be available most of Tuesday and Wednesday, so drop me an e-mail.  I look forward to seeing you there!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2011. | Will You Be At The ExecEvent?
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Personal. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Tech Field Day is all about community

As some readers of my blog know, I organize the independent Gestalt IT cooperative. We’re a group of folks who investigate and discuss enterprise IT technology, writing articles, running online communities, and organizing live events. Field Day is our chance to come together in various locations for face-to-face meetings with interesting product and technology companies. We’re in San Jose this week for our first networking-focused Field Day event, and things are getting interesting!

Networking on Networking

We brought a dozen well-known networking pros to San Jose for Field Day, most of whom had never met in person. It’s ironic that our online-centric world highlights the value of live interaction to such an extent, but it was evident right from the start. While planning the event, Greg Ferro and I put together a list of dozens of possible delegates, finally picking a “dream team” we hoped to get involved. Amazingly, just about every one of these folks walked through the doors and sat down Wednesday night!

The networking community is much like other enterprise IT crowds like storage and virtualization. They are reeling from the pressures of vendors driving adoption of products, the impact of server virtualization, and the increasing industry consolidation. A key topic of discussion was the continual assault on perennial market leader, Cisco. They see an opportunity for HP, Juniper, Brocade, and the other challengers to chip away at Cisco’s margins and topple their control of major niches.

Consolidation on Ethernet and IP continues to be a challenge. Network-centric vendors try to pull storage and other traffic into their traditional protocols, and the results are controversial to say the least. Topics like TRILL, FCoE (and FCoTR), and DCB/CEE caused intense debate in this crowd. But their discussions were nearly as heated when discussing Apple’s role in the enterprise world, the future of IT, cloud computing, and many other topics besides. The talk ranged to photography (cameras seem to be a hobby for many), coffee, travel, and family as well.

HP’s Attack on Cisco

Thursday began with a half-day session at HP’s beautiful Executive Briefing Center. The focus here was the burgeoning war between HP and Cisco. HP’s A-series networking products (acquired with 3Com) appear to match the technical capabilities of Cisco’s high-end datacenter networking equipment, but the Field Day crew remained skeptical. They continually returned to questions about HP’s support for professionals like themselves with documentation and training, as well as their long-term commitment to the networking field.

They were impressed by HP’s Intelligent Management Center (IMC) demonstration, and presenter Les Stuart was ready and able to field their questions. The S-series of security products (acquired with TippingPoint) also piqued interest, though many were concerned about the pricing.

Through it all, though, everyone remained respectful of HP. They seems ready to take on any company everywhere in the data center stack. Although questions remain on whether they will succeed, everyone agreed that they are uniquely positioned due to their size, resources, customer footprint, and broad product range. HP is the enterprise IT company to watch.

SolarWinds: Mining Metrics

Being a storage guy, I was not familiar with SolarWinds, but just about everyone in this networking group had experience with them. In fact, this session was much more focused on feedback and suggestions than education and exploration. SolarWinds dived deep into their ability to collect performance metrics and presented their future architecture for scalability. Although it was difficult for me to follow the discussion, the Field Day crew was impressed!

Cradlepoint Links 3G/4G and the LAN

Turning the tables, the Field Day delegates were unfamiliar with one of my favorite networking companies, Cradlepoint. This small firm from Boise markets a line of routers that link networks with wide-area wireless data on 3G/4G mobile networks. Tech Field Day runs on a PHS300 battery-powered router while on the road, and I am impressed with the MBR1200 high-availability router I’m testing at my home office. Once they took a look, the entire Field Day crew was excited about this technology, even suggesting new product ideas.

Force10 Takes the Whiteboard

Breaking from the more-corporate sessions of the day, Force10 eschewed the projector and turned to the whiteboard exclusively. Steve Garrison gave the lay of the land before turning the session to a deep dive into networking architecture and the company’s 10 GbE products. The Field Day delegates really responded to this presentation method, a lesson that future presenters would be wise to learn!

Computer History and the Babbage Engine

Thursday ends with a retreat to one of my favorite San Francisco locations, the Computer History Museum. All delegates, presenters, and a few friends will gather for socializing, ogling artifacts from our industry, and even a demonstration of the Babbage Engine!

Friday: Juniper, Arista, and Xsigo

Tomorrow will see Juniper Networks, Arista Networks, and Xsigo Systems take the floor. I will update this post with coverage of their sessions tomorrow evening!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2010. | Notes From Networking Field Day 2010
This post was categorized as Computer History, Enterprise storage, Personal. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Might Token Ring networks make a comeback or will pigs fly? Industry pundits believe they just might!

Industry veterans fondly remember the LAN wars of the early 1990′s, when a diverse set of excellent data link protocols competed for dominance. Although the victory seemed to have gone to Ethernet, industry insiders are looking for a resurgence of better alternatives. One technology, Token Ring, is undeniably superior for transporting modern protocols, especially Fibre Channel for storage. Let’s take a look!

Meeting Modern Needs

Ethernet is poorly-suited for modern datacenter needs. It lacks the reliability and guaranteed delivery needed by storage protocols, the packets are too small, traffic cannot be prioritized, and thick coaxial cables barrel connectors have proven unreliable. We have heard rumors of so-called “data center” enhancements, but analysts are unimpressed. “Ethernet doesn’t belong in the data center,” says Steve Duplicity of the Universal Strategy Federation. “Data center bridging extensions are as useless as the snow tires my Ferrari dealer sells. No one would ever use them in anger.”

Token Ring, in contrast, comes prepared for data center use right out of the box. Token Priority, previously used only to avoid collisions, can also be used to prioritize storage traffic over all other payloads. “Collisions are as common on Ethernet networks as on High School parking lots,” continues Duplicity, “and avoidance algorithms work as well as the American drivers’ education system.” Prioritization of Ethernet packets has been similarly problematic. “Guaranteed bandwidth is key,” claims Packet Pusher Ethan Banks. “Storage, like school kids, wants to be transported on a bus, and Token Ring can arbitrate that access.”

Token Ring’s 20% payload size advantage makes the network more efficient than Ethernet. Although a typical Fibre Channel frame of over 2 KB would still need to be split in two, Token Ring advocates insist that two of their frames will be “much better” than two Ethernet frames. This makes Fibre Channel over Token Ring (FCoTR) “a sure thing” according to insiders like W. Curtis Preston.

Industry Support

The entire industry is lining up to support Fibre Channel over Token Ring. “We’re looking at it,” admitted Liem Nguyen of Compellent at Gestalt IT’s Tech Field Day. “The more we hear about FCoTR, the more people are talking about it.” Nguyen admitted that Compellent was giving FCoTR the consideration it deserved.

Support for the Fibre Channel over Token Ring user group and blog has jumped rapidly in recent days (see Too good to be true). Storage startup Nimble Storage admitted at Tech Field Day that they were watching FCoTR “with great interest” and could, in theory, support the protocol alongside iSCSI. NetApp will respond to “customer demand” for FCoTR, agrees Alex McDonald.

Network manufacturers are excited to bring Token Ring back as well. “Madge Networks is ready to support demand,” notes USF’s Duplicity. “And I hear Proteon is making a comeback as well. IBM, of course, never stopped supporting Token Ring and has thousands of loyal customers.” Intel is reportedly working on a Micro Channel to PCI Express bridge to ease the transition.

Cisco is predictably sour on the product. “You have got to be kidding me,” said a company spokesperson who asked not to be identified. “Token Ring? Seriously? Are you calling on a Motorola StarTAC?”

Network experts were cautiously optimistic. “Trill uses isis, which was largely ripped off from DECnet,” notes potato fan Russell Heilling. “Is storage over DECnet just around the corner?” Jeff Darcy and Greg “Ethereal Mind” Ferro were excited at this prospect. “Whoa, the storage folks would LOVE THAT,” says Ferro of FCoDECnet.

Ferro sums up the appeal of FCoTR. “Anyone stupid enough to believe in Fibre Channel is absolutely stupid enough to be convinced that FCoTR is a good idea.”

Image source: Redgrittybrick/Wikimedia

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2010. | Fibre Channel over Token Ring: In-Depth Analysis
This post was categorized as Computer History, Enterprise storage, Personal. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Tech Field Day 101

Tech Field Day is a series of events organized by me, put on by professionals, but catalyzed by a group of loosely-affiliated volunteers. We bring a dozen or so hand-picked “delegates” to a city to meet with a half-dozen interesting IT technology companies. The last Field Day was in Boston, and we were in San Jose before that. We’ll be returning to San Jose for two more events in 2010: A networking-focused Field Day in September and another “gestalt” Field Day event in November.

One critical aspect is the selection of the delegates who get to attend, all expenses paid. It’s like setting up a dinner party: We have to get the right mix of focus areas, geographies, and personalities to make it work out. There are three most-desirable attributes for a delegate: Independence and an open mind, technical knowledge, and community leadership. Everyone we’ve brought in so far has certainly excelled in these areas!

The whole event is run as a cooperative endeavor rather than a corporate event. We’re trying to keep things a bit loose and fun, though we have to run a tight ship when it comes to the business of travel and logistics. The presenting sponsors have really grasped this concept, too, bringing their best and brightest for some rip-roaring discussions.

What’s In Store: Seattle

The Seattle event will center on the Microsoft campus, with 2/3 of the sessions held in their Partner Developer Center in Redmond. It’s here that we’ll hear from Compellent and Veeam, as well as a brand new company launching at the event on Thursday. We will also travel to the Seattle-area offices of F5 and NEC America.

One concern voiced by many was that companies were hiring up all the good independents. I’m glad to report that this is not the case. In fact, we’ve never had such a diverse mix of delegates, most of whom are new to the Field Day experience! There’s networking expert Ethan Banks, virtualization gurus Jason Boche, “Rodos” Haywood, and Craig Stewart, and familiar storage faces Ilja Coolen and Howard Marks. We’ve also got Kevin “Blades Made Simple” Houston, W. Curtis “Mr. Backup” Preston, and Bob “The Lone Sysadmin” Plankers. Making repeat Redmond pilgrimages are John “Absolutely Windows” Obeto and fellow storage MVP, Derek Schauland. Every one of these folks is respected for his technical knowledge, opinionated yet open-minded, and renouned for his support of the IT community.

The delegate group will be gathering Wednesday night to get to know one another before diving into two packed days of briefings, feedback, and roundtable discussions. As is our Field Day tradition, delegates, sponsors, and friends will come together Thursday night for an informal evening party. The signature local spot this time around is the Red Barn that served as the first manufacturing site for aircraft giant, Boeing. We also have some informal activities planned in the Seattle area before and after the event.

Follow Along

I encourage you to follow the action this week. We’ll be tweeting using the #TechFieldDay hashtag, or you can follow the entire delegate roster and presenting sponsors using our Twitter lists. Video is an important component, and we will be uploading to both Vimeo and YouTube as well as experimenting with live videocasting on Justin.tv. Blog posts and other long content will be noted in our Seattle Field Day Links page as well as on Posterous, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Look for Field Day photos on Flickr, too, and subscribe to our Roundtable Podcast on iTunes. Whew!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2010. | Live This Week: Gestalt IT Tech Field Day Seattle
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.

VMware vExpert

VMware gives its vExpert award to “individuals who have significantly contributed to the community of VMware users over the past year.” This isn’t a sign of deep secret technical knowledge, only that one is committed to assisting the user community.

I personally don’t know VMware ESX all that well technically speaking. But I do know storage, and I’ve spent a few years trying to figure out the impact of server virtualization on enterprise storage. I’ve even got a section on this blog dedicated to the topic, and I’ve started a blog at VMware’s Communities site as well. I have also been documenting Storage Changes in VMware. I also join the VMware Community Roundtable discussion as often as I can, and presented a series of seminars on the topic of virtual storage in the past. Server virtualization is part of the modern datacenter landscape, and we all would be wise to include that in our gestalt!

I believe VMware is recognizing this attempted contribution with the vExpert award. Put simply, I see the value in server virtualization and want to help the storage world integrate in this new space. And I’ll continue to work toward that, regardless of my award status!

Microsoft MVP

I was also notified that my status as a Microsoft MVP in the area of File System Storage has been renewed. I first received this recognition in 2008 (see my post Storage MVP: I Feel Great!) and it was renewed again for 2009 (see Dustin Pedroia And I Have Two Things In Common!). It’s great that I’ll be able to continue my involvement with Microsoft for another year!

Again, this did not come because I have a deep understanding of NTFS, despite the “File System” moniker”. Microsoft recognized me because I spent time helping folks understand the unique world of Windows storage in articles, presentations, and on my blog. I also participated in the improvement of Microsoft’s storage features, giving feedback on the iSCSI initiator, Windows Storage Server, and other storage-related components. Today, I’m pleased to see Microsoft offering solid (though under-rated) support for many enterprise technologies. They lead the way in some areas (e.g. VSS) and lag in others (e.g. FCoE). But on the whole, Microsoft is a good storage citizen.

The MVP award includes access to product managers, other MVPs, and software (in the form of a TechNet subscription) but little else. Although we do have an NDA (the only one I’ll sign – see 5 Tips To Avoid Violating NDAs), we don’t get much insider or advance information. It’s really about engagement, and I appreciate that.

Stephen’s Stance

I’m just really honored to be considered for both of these awards. Although some call me an expert, I wouldn’t go that far. I’m more interested in sharing knowledge, helping others where I can and seeking assistance in return. Being a vExpert and MVP helps me do that, and I thank VMware and Microsoft for the opportunity.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2010. | Recognition: VMware vExpert and Microsoft MVP for 2010
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.

Boche.net and Gestalt IT are giving away a trip to VMworld 2010 in San Francisco!

VMworld is an awesome event, and one of the few technical conferences that is still growing even as the old standbys falter. But it’s also expensive – a pass costs almost US $2,000, and airfare isn’t cheap these days, either. I was so pleased to see Jason Boche offering a VMworld 2010 pass as a contest prize that we at Gestalt IT decided to pitch in, too. We’ll pay for airfare for the winner, as well as providing them a platform to share what they learn at the event.

The economy remains pretty bad, and I know many people who are out of work or otherwise unable to afford a luxury like a tech conference trip. But this is just the sort of event that can kickstart community involvement, a career, or a job hunt. Don’t underestimate the value of attending in person – You really ought to go!

So head over to Boche.net and enter the contest, and check Gestalt IT for details on the air travel!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2010. | Contest: Free VMworld Trip Thanks To Boche.Net and Gestalt IT!
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.