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...

Podcast: Social media creates a 'paranoia of omission'

The following is the latest in our Beyond the Hype podcast series. For this segment, I sat down with Bob Maness, Vice President, Marketing, for Pillar Data Systems, an LP&P client, to discuss the evolution and incorporation of social media into B2B marketing efforts. Bob believes that paranoia, fear and omission too often lead to me-too marketing and confusion. Our conversation kicks off with Bob discussing how the paranoia of omission can lead to four challenges and how they can...

SNW, what's to come?

It was about this time last week that the dust was beginning to settle on another Storage Networking World (SNW) Spring Conference. No signs of hurricanes to delay the arrival of attendees or speakers as in years past. No signs of some major sponsors as in years past, Dell being one of many conspicuously absent. Few signs of major news conferences from multiple companies, Brocade being one of the only to leverage SNW for a press event. Fewer signs of...

SNW by the numbers

Another week. Another storage trade show. Another chance to question why. This week marked the annual pilgrimage to Dallas, host of the Fall SNW. As with many SNW's past, end users were a rare species. Vendors were left wondering how hard the economy would impact their customers. Some analysts were issuing projections that made a few wonder when the proverbial turn-around would come. And, many sponsoring companies were left questioning the value of their investment by either sponsoring or attending....

10 Signs that You Heart Storage

After surviving a heavy dose of storage news the past few weeks related to VMworld, Oracle Open World and Storage Decisions, all eyes turn to the Gaylord Texan Resort and Hotel near Dallas, Texas, home to the next venue in the busy storage conference season, Storage Networking World. Or, affectionately known to many by its initials SNW. So, it's with SNW in mind and creative license inspired by Diann Daniel at CIO.com, that we discuss the 10 sure-fire signs that...