Around The Block Blog
by Liem Nguyen, (former) Director of Communications and Social Media, Dell Storage — August 31, 2010
VMworld 2010 is bigger than ever, with upwards of 12,000 – 15,000 people expected to converge on the Moscone this week. The registration lines snaked around several times yet moved along at a brisk pace thanks to efficiency of the event organizers. The blogger lounge has been upgraded to include live Internet streaming of VMworld TV and daily newscasts. I spent some time there yesterday and for me personally it was great meeting folks I’ve been following on Twitter or talking to on blogs (including the Roger Lund blog) over the past year or so.
While the VMware team really has perfected the art of running an event, sessions have been filled to capacity and some people haven’t been able to get into them. Before you head out to the Moscone check out this interview I did with Sean Clark, vExpert, consultant and blogger who is otherwise known as @vseanclark. For all you Twitter fanatics, you’ll appreciate the video angle that cuts off the top of Sean’s head, since most of you probably wouldn’t recognize him without his pith helmet. This year was Sean’s fifth VMworld so you’ll be wise to listen to his 3 tips on maximizing your time at VMworld: get to sessions early, start impromptu tweetups while in line, and head to hands-on labs to learn at your own pace. And his bonus tip: come see us at the Compellent booth 1022!
Do you have any additional tips on getting the most out of VMworld 2010? Feel free to leave us a comment.
by Liem Nguyen, (former) Director of Communications and Social Media, Dell Storage — April 22, 2010
As businesses create and use more office documents, digital photos and videos, they're going to face some big headaches on how to store and manage all that unstructured data. For once, it seems like everyone in the storage industry agrees: the growth of unstructured data is outpacing structured data generated by databases and data warehouses. Managing all this data can be difficult and expensive. That’s why vendors, including Compellent, make unified storage products, which consolidate file and block data into one system designed to be easily administered. If you have only one pool of storage, it’ll be easier to upgrade, scale and plan for future growth.
At the next #SANchat, Enterprise Strategy Group senior analyst Terri McClure will discuss the future of unified storage, scalable NAS and the convergence of file and block storage. What's the best way to plan capacity purchases for file and block storage? How do you measure cost-effective management of unstructured data? Bring your opinions and predictions and follow Terri @esganalysttmac and me @LiemNguyen.
Here are the details:
- #SANChat, Tuesday, April 27, 2010
- Time: 1:30 – 3:00 PM CDT, 2:30 – 4:00 PM EDT
- Topic: Unified Storage
- Guest: Terri McClure, Senior Analyst at ESG, @esganalysttmac
- If you can’t attend the session, you can submit questions in advance to @DellCompellent, and we’ll get them over to Terri for discussion during the chat
- Use the #SANchat identifier to submit questions during the chat session
- Follow: Terri McClure, ESG: @esganalysttmac, Liem Nguyen: @LiemNguyen, Compellent: @DellCompellent
- Join the conversation on tweetchat.com/room/sanchat
by Liem Nguyen, (former) Director of Communications and Social Media, Dell Storage — March 09, 2010
When it comes to your IT environment, sometimes the best decisions involve an element of risk. Implementing a new technology can be a difficult choice – but the payoff can be pretty big.
Just ask Ben Higginbotham, director of new technology at WhereToLive.com, a company that offers real estate brokers behind-the-scenes applications that support daily property transactions and listings. Ben’s job centers around evaluating new technologies to help manage the data that realtors need – and decide whether the risk of implementation is worth the payoff. Using the Compellent SAN, Ben has created an ideal Fluid Data platform to test new resources and assess new capabilities.
Compellent invites you to join Ben, as well as Compellent storage architect John Dias, for a Twitter Chat we’re calling #SANChat. The very first one will about new technology risks you are taking or considering in the data center – are you curious what others have similarly done? What about the results? Was the payoff worth the risk? Did your recommendations, particularly storage-related ones, generate business-improving benefits in the end? Take an hour to chat with us and share your questions, best practices, and advice about doing something new in storage.
#SANchat Details:
- Wednesday, March 24, 2010, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm CT
- Topic: Evaluating the Risk of New Technologies
- The hashtag #SANchat will be used to identify the thread for this chat; use the #SANchat identifier to submit questions during the chat session
- If you can’t attend the session, you can submit questions in advance to @Compellent, and we’ll provide these advance topics to our participants for discussion during the chat
- Follow: John Dias: @johnddias, Ben Higginbotham: @bencredible, Compellent: @DellCompellent
- We recommend using the service TweetChat.com to follow the conversation.