Why There's No Snoring in Storage

While it's safe to say there probably aren't many technologies I don't like, I've always had a soft spot for storage. And, yes, there are a few who know I take it seriously enough to "Heart Storage." With that said, one of the benefits of working in the industry for as long as I have, is that you get to meet some interesting people. Jerome Wendt, president and lead analyst at DCIG is one of them. I had a chance...

Are We Doing the Storage Industry a Disservice (#SNWUSA)?

Storage is hot. There I said it. If there’s one thing that is resonating loud and clear from the Santa Clara Convention Center, home to the Spring Storage Networking World Conference (#SNWUSA), there are still a large number --2,000+ if you believe some -- that "heart" storage and are alive and well. While I have waxed poetically in the past about the prospects for SNW, here, here and here, the age old questions still remain. Will the conference remain relevant?...

InfoSmack Live from London! A Survivor's Tale...

Last week all of London was a-Twitter with news that the heralded InfoSmack podcast hosted by the creative and sometimes less conventional genius of Greg Knieriemen and Marc Farley was going to record "live" from the Golden Fleece. Taking advantage of scheduled travel from leading bloggers for HDSday, and two excellent events,#StorageBeers (created as a "social gathering of storage and infrastructure folks") and #vBeers (created as a "social get together of like-minded virtualization enthusiasts"), 50 or so lucky people got...

Virtually in Dallas, A chat with Ovum's Tim Stammers on Citrix

I had a chance to catch up with Ovum Senior Analyst Tim Stammers after he attended a recent Citrix analyst event in Dallas, Texas. The following is a quick recap of the discussion. Tim, I understand there was considerable discussion it seemed coming out of the event about how relevant Citrix is in the virtual infrastructure, what’s your take? It’s difficult to credit Citrix with much influence over virtual infrastructure, aka public and private cloud building. Citrix’ XenServer is technically...

Five Reflections from VMworld with Ovum's Tim Stammers

Last week marked the annual pilgrimmage for many to San Franciso's Moscone Center to attend VMware's VMworld Conference The Conference is quickly becoming "the" conference in IT and is widely regarded as the pre-eminent virtualizationfocused conference in the industry. I had a chance to catch up quickly with Ovum Senior Analyst Tim Stammers who was one of many roaming the halls at the conference. Tim, VMworld is quickly becoming “the” IT/Technology Conference to be at, why do you think that...

A Buyer's Guide for Virtual Server Backup is Coming...

As the Universe gets ready for VMworld in San Francisco next week, I had a chance to sit down (virtually) this week with Jerome Wendt, lead analyst & President at DCIG and Bob Eastman, managing director, Research at SMB Research, LLC to discuss their upcoming Virtual Server Backup Software Buyer’s Guide. Jerome, Bob, you both are well underway on your latest Buyer’s Guide, this time on virtual server backup software. What are you hoping to accomplish with this Buyer’s Guide?...

SNW, a reflection and review of the numbers

Last week marked the annual pilgrimage to one of the storage industry's seasonal events, Storage Networking World, held at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort in Orlando, Florida. As with events past, last week had many industry watchers buzzing about the week’s events and conversations, while those of us who weren't fortunate enough to be able to attend, watched from afar. There were few real surprises from the week, although, as in years' past there were certain to be discussions emerging...

What's up with Virtual Desktops?

There's renewed interest now with the introduction of Windows 7 to evaluate desktop virtualization. This "trend" though is no surprise to Timothy Stammers, senior analyst at OVUM. Tim, along with his colleague Steve Hodgkinson, authored a comprehensive report on the virtual desktop market this summer, Enterprise Virtual Desktop Alternatives: A Market Scan. Coming on the heels of VMworld and Citrix Analyst day, we caught up with Tim to discuss trends in desktop virtualization for the latest in our Beyond the...

Podcast: In marketing, cadence is critical

The following is the second part in our Beyond the Hype podcast series with Bob Maness, Vice President, Marketing, for Pillar Data Systems, an LP&P client. We sat down with Bob recently to discuss the evolution and incorporation of social media into Pillar’s B2B marketing efforts. Bob begins with a healthy discussion on tracking and measurement. In particular, he focuses in on how to effectively measure social media impact on overall marketing initiatives. As Bob notes, while capturing data for...

As SNW Approaches, time to reflect...

Next week marks the annual pilgrimage for many to the SNW Fall conference. The agenda is full. The press and analyst list is even fuller still. Early rumblings are that it will again stir up the passions that many of us live each and every day in the storage industry. "Where's the best place to dedupe data?" "Tape is dead, long live disk." "FCoE is here, really it is, we're not kidding." "Cloud is coming, is here, is in use...