Gestalt IT was gracious enough to invite me back as a delegate for Tech Field Day Seattle which is happening… well… now, not to put too fine a point on it. I’m really excited about this opportunity! For the next two days, I’ll be at the Microsoft campus in Redmond, WA taking in vendor presentations and participating in peer discussions spanning a few different technology verticals.
We kicked things off tonight with dinner, discussion, and door prizes at Cedarbrook Lodge in Seatac, WA. There are a lot of new faces in this group of delegates. I don’t know most of the guys but that makes for a great opportunity to meet new people and network. In a word, Cedarbrook is gorgeous. It has more of a resort feel to it than a hotel. It’s too bad I won’t be spending more time here but the show must go on.
Tomorrow (Thursday), the other delegates and I will be meeting with Veeam, F5, and a stealth company which officially launches in our very presence tomorrow. I’m familiar with most of Veeam’s offerings but as a virtualization guy, I’m hoping to see more about their SureBackup technology. I’ve known of F5 for many years but just recently I’m seeing them push their way into the virtualization arena. Just last week they have expressed interest in participating in the Minneapolis VMUG. I’m anxious in seeing what value they bring to the virtualized datacenter. We cap off the day with a party at the Museum of Flight which should be really cool.
Moving into Friday, we’ll hear from Compellent on what they have been up to in the storage arena and how they are doing things differently than other storage vendors such as EMC, NetApp, Hitachi, HP, IBM, 3PAR, Dell, FalconStor, Pillar, etc. We’ll also be spending some time with NEC. I’m real curious as to what they are going to present. Talk about a diverse portfolio of products (as well as professional services). Whatever it is, I’ll be looking for virtualization relevance. Not only that, but will we see a landscape that continues to cater to cloud agility? Cloud has picked up a lot of momentum. It’s real. Adopt, adapt, integrate, or get run over by it. There may be one more vendor on Friday… that remains to be seen at this point. We end Friday with dinner in the evening and then some of us will start our journey back home.
I’m looking forward to a couple of great days.
Note : Tech Field Day is a sponsored event. Although I receive no direct compensation and take personal leave to attend, all event expenses are paid by the sponsors through Gestalt IT Media LLC. No editorial control is exerted over me and I write what I want, if I want, when I want, and how I want.
Hey Jason,
Great Post! I am jealous not being there as I know how super-cool TFD was last time. Plus, this time you all are going to the center of the world (kinda) – Microsoft HQ in Redmond.
Still, with your well-written posts like this I feel like I am almost there!
Have a great time & keep up the great posts!
-David
I’m guessing NEC shows off their Express5800 fault-tolerant servers, they’ve been trying to position them in the virtualization realm as of late.
Better late than never.