TECHunplugged Austin is One Packed Event

February 1, 2016 by Stephen Leave a Comment

This week I’m headed to Austin for two events: Tech Field Day 10, which I run, and a really special conference, TECHunplugged. I spoke at TECHunplugged London back in April and loved the experience. Now it’s coming to the USA for the first time, and the agenda is packed with great content. I highly recommend attending these events!

Attack of the Cloud!

So much talk over the last few years has been cloud hype and cloud fear. This was my topic from April, even, and I had some fun poking holes in the thesis that the cloud is coming to gobble us all up. We’re continuing that trend in Austin, with Justin Warren, Nigel Poulton, Theresa Miller, and Arjan Timmerman taking up a bit of a cloud reality check.

What I said in April is definitely coming true: Rather than stomping on us all, Kaiju style, cloud is emerging as simply another enterprise computing thread. It’s mainframe and open systems all over again: There’s lots of fear but the truth is it’s just another alternative for enterprise applications.

In that spirit, we have Justin Warren talking about the non-IT business drivers for cloud: Time to market and ease of implementation. Nigel Poulton takes on clouds and containers, while Theresa Miller explains why cloud is relevant for end-user computing. Finally we have Arjan Timmerman explaining software-defined datacenter, and why that’s not just another synonym for cloud computing. In all these cases, we have thoughtful analysis rather than more cloud mania.

Next-Generation Datacenter

Speaking of thoughtful analysis, I’m really looking forward to comparing Chris Evans on software-defined storage, Tom Hollingsworth on software-defined networking, Joep Piscaer on hyper-convergence, and Arjan’s SDDC talk. I wonder if they’ll be able to come up with the “software-defined” definition the Networking Field Day 11 delegates couldn’t get to.

Whatever it is, I’m looking forward to all these new concepts colliding in a next-generation datacenter solution.

Then there are the key “point concepts” in this future datacenter: Karen Lopez brings her thoughts on big data, Enrico Signoretti talks large-scale deployments, and Ray Lucchesi presents emerging storage technologies. And I’ll get a bit part, leading a panel discussion on all-flash, all-software storage. Whee!

Companies Making it Happen

TECHunplugged also brings a retinue of companies who are making the next-generation datacenter to life. We have Veeam, Exagrid, and Zerto on the main stage in the morning, along with break-out sessions from Hedvig, PernixData, Cloudian, Violin, DDN, and NetApp in the afternoon. Whoa!

I’ve personally worked with every one of the speakers from these companies and I can vouch for them: They’re as passionate, technical, and invested in the future as the rest. All of these companies are trying to push the boundaries, not just sell more gear.

Register and attend TECHunplugged Austin!

Speaking in Tech

A few years back, some of my friends launched a little podcast called Speaking in Tech. Today, it’s one of the most important tech podcasts out there, raking in the listeners with quality content and lots of laughs mixed in. I’ve been fortunate to be a guest a few times, and now they’re bringing it to Austin and TECHunplugged.

This promises to be a great listen, pulling in the speakers and the content from the day and summing everything up. If you’re not in Austin, definitely watch for this podcast to be posted!

Subscribe to Speaking in Tech in your favorite Podcast app!

StorageBeers

But Tuesday isn’t complete with TECHunplugged and Speaking in Tech. No, we’re going to wind down with a few beers afterwards, bringing StorageBeers to Austin for the first time.

This informal gathering has been held in London many times and has spread to many other cities. In Austin, we’re fortunate enough to have NetApp sponsoring, with Rubrik, Hedvig, and Veeam also buying a round of drinks for everyone.

Attendance is wide open – swing by the Omni Austin Southpark Hotel any time between 5:30 and 8 PM!

Register to attend StorageBeers!

Tech Field Day 10

But wait! There’s more!

Wednesday through Friday is Tech Field Day 10, and anyone, anywhere can watch that online. We’ve got an amazing set of independent tech thinkers, including most of the TECHunplugged speakers and more besides. And we’ll be meeting with even more companies: Caringo, Dell, Diablo, Platform9, Rubrik, SolarWinds, and VMTurbo.

Watch Tech Field Day 10 online, Wednesday through Friday, Feb. 3-5!

All in all, it’s a busy week.

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