Varrow

EMC World 2012 – Day 2

May 23, 2012 by nashwj

And the saga continues….  I had a meeting in the morning so missed the morning keynote session.

The Huuuuuge Lab List

Started off day 2 (Tuesday) by hitting the Hands-on Labs.  There is a HUGE list of labs that you can do and these aren’t simple labs…  They are extremely complex, involved, and well built.  Disclaimer:  I know a lot of the vSpecs that build these labs but the praise is well deserved.  The two labs that I did were ProSphere and the new VMAX Enginuity showing Unisphere and other new features.   Both were very well done….when I say complex and involved the ProSphere lab is a great example.  You had access to a good list of arrays, components, hosts, and switches so that you really got a feel for the product.  It wasn’t just a simple walkthrough of the interface but a great “use case” of the product.

Lab Attendees

I don’t think most attendees really understand how much work goes in to building, operating, and supporting these labs but it is a MAJOR undertaking to make those happens…so if you get a chance check them out and thank the guys in the lab for the work they’ve done.

Over 200 Seats for Lab Attendees

Later in the day it was back to more sessions.  Packed!  If you don’t get there early you may not have a seat….

Technical Sessions Bring the Crowd

Also spent more time in the expo hall to check out some of the demos.  Lots of stuff!

Craig Chapman (Pink headband – @VirtualChappy) EPOing a Vblock for a VPLEX demo

VCE was doing a good demo where they hard downed a Vblock for a VPLEX demo.  Ballsy.  I like it. 

Area 51 Session

In the afternoon I went to the “Area 51″ session which may have scored high on the cheese-factor but was pretty entertaining.  It showed some ways you can use big data and data analytics.  A highlight was Scott McNealy ”appearing” on the game show Who Wants to Be a Storage Millionaire showing the use of crowd sourcing by using his TwitPoll technology to sample the audience and compete against Scott.  The audience was right 2 out of 3 times, which supported the fact that the audience in the original game show was more accurate than the contestant who was often an expert.  I think my favorite moment was Scott stating something to the effect of “I just realized I’ve been reduced to a game show contestant….  I used to be important!”.

Best Thing All Day – Angie (My Wife) Flew In

 That was it for the day!  Tomorrow (Wednesday) is a big day.  I’ll be doing a quick presentation at the EMC Global Services booth on Varrow’s Cloud Transition consulting offerings and then appears ON STAGE at Chad’s World Live.  Wow!