Tech Field Day, if you hadn't heard, is my signature event. I bring together a great group of independent "delegates" to meet with interesting IT product vendors. As you might expect, after three years and 34 events, many of our vendors have gone on to bigger and better things. After seeing today's acquisition of Xsigo by Oracle, I decided to go back and look at how many of our … [Read more...] about Where Are They Now? A Tech Field Day Presenter Retrospective
Ocarina
Why Should Anyone Take Dell Seriously in Enterprise Storage?
For a massive IT company, Dell sure doesn't get the kind of respect given their competitors. Time and again, I'll hear the sneers about Dell being little more than a “box shifter” who doesn't “get” real enterprise IT needs. After a series of acquisitions in storage and networking, Dell is trying to stake a claim as a serious competitor to HP, IBM, Oracle, and the like. But why … [Read more...] about Why Should Anyone Take Dell Seriously in Enterprise Storage?
The Enterprise IT Acquisition Game
Today is the (a?) day of reckoning in the 3Par saga, with Dell widely expected to make a counter-offer higher than HP's bid. But this mega deal, like the Data Domain war before it, sends a strong signal to the enterprise IT world: It's open season on data storage companies! But the rising superpowers are also likely looking at networking as an area of expansion. The game is … [Read more...] about The Enterprise IT Acquisition Game
Meet the Enterprise IT Superpowers
After years spent focusing on personal technology, businesses are increasingly turning back to the enterprise. There are many reasons for this, but the biggest one is the poor economy. Individuals simply have less free cash to spend on gadgets and software, and the meagre profits are increasingly going into the pockets of a single company: Apple. The corporate IT market is … [Read more...] about Meet the Enterprise IT Superpowers
Dell + EqualLogic, Exanet, Ocarina, 3Par = What?
The storage industry got a lot more competitive this morning, as Dell announced plans to buy 3Par. This is the latest round in a well-established race for the enterprise storage dollar, challenging superpower (and Dell partner) EMC in the high-end SAN space. What does this acquisition say about the industry as a whole? Where are we headed? I've long wished for a new … [Read more...] about Dell + EqualLogic, Exanet, Ocarina, 3Par = What?