Technically Speaking

It seems like just a few weeks ago I was returning from Seattle and Tech Field Day and here we are getting ready (on Wednesday of this week) to blast off for San Jose for another Tech Field Day.

First some concept.

Tech Field Day is an event that puts IT Pro bloggers who use technologies in a room with vendors that sell and create these technologies.  Sort of like media day, but without the media.  The idea is that we bloggers and techno-philes come in and ask questions and really get to know the products, vendors, and fellow delegates.

My experience with Tech Field Day as an event, and Gestalt IT have been absolutely great.  I have learned alot and met some very great people.  And it is already time to do it again.

Disclosure

Tech Field Day is a sponsored event and delegates attend all expenses paid.  There may be items given out during the event that I receive for free. These items were in no way presented to influence what I may post on this blog.

I am hoping to get more out of this trip in terms of worthwhile blog content.  I was a tad overwhelmed I think last time and the blog was updated, but not nearly enough.

This time I am ready.  I have an idea of what to expect and a list of items I want to cover (by vendor at this point) to at least put some schedule to it.

FCoTR

Fibre Channel over Token Ring has come back again for this Field Day and I am glad to see it (for now).  It is a technology designed to slow you down in the fast paced world of IT and based on what I learned last time… it does just that.  Sometimes it works (if you have the token) and sometimes it doesnt and you miss out.

I am looking forward to learning about new (and existing) products and seeing some old friends again (as well as meeting some new friends).  Should be a great few days of sessions and shenanigans.

Some of the companies we will get to hear from are:

NetApp

Aprius

Avere Systems

Actifio

Intel

SolarWinds

Asigra

I hope to learn a great deal about these companies and provide some thoughts as we go (and likely after based on the amount of things on the agenda).

Before I go pack and head to San Jose, I just wanted to thank Stephen Foskett and others at Gestalt IT for allowing me to attend such a great event.

Just this morning I received an email containing an invitation to Tech Field Day 4 in San Jose California from November 10 – 12.  I am jazzed about this for two three reasons that come to mind right now:

1. Stephen and Claire throw a great un-conference and there is always a lot to learn

2. I have never had the chance to visit San Jose

3. The Tech Field Day experience is fantastic.

Disclosure

Tech Field Day is an event put on by Gestalt IT and is all expenses paid for delegates like myself.  There will be blogging opportunities for the delegates to discuss the products/vendors we meet and learn about and there may be additional give away items from sponsor companies.  These items will in no way influence the tone of any blogging done regularly on this site or any blogging done in covering Tech Field Day events.

End Disclosure

So for those who haven’t heard of TFD, here is some brief information about what goes on.

Delegates are chosen to attend the event which is sponsored by several companies (at this time the sponsors cannot be disclosed).  The sponsor companies present to the delegates about their companies, products, and other things.  We as delegates and technology professionals are able to ask questions and discuss with these organizations concerns we may have and generally blog about or podcast about the event.

I sort of think of this as a press day for the technology pros who use the products and interact with the companies.

I am very excited to be a part of another Tech Field Day.

Tech Field Day Seattle is just about here.  There has been some interesting discussion about the things to do in Seattle around the conference that make me wish the plane from Appleton left at a more reasonable time, but the tickets are booked and I am jazzed to be headed out to the event.

I have not decided on  if I will be blogging from the event, but I will be taking lots of notes, and hopefully some awesome content will jump off the page.  Surely the event will see the blog… this blog and a few others, but I do not want to jump the shark with any ideas.

I am interested in the event sponsors and to see what they will bring to the table for sharing, but Im also interested in meeting some new people.  I have a feeling I am going to gain a huge appreciation for all things storage… it has begun already, but I do not get to do it everyday…

See you in Seattle

All people who use a computer have some contact with storage.  From the disk inside your PC to the flash drive that stores all of the photos of your kids, we all get to interact with storage.  Over the past two years I have been a Microsoft MVP in the File System Storage area and it has provided a great opportunity to see that there is more to storage than the disk(s) that hold the data.

Working with enterprise class storage, using SANs or direct attached storage in file servers, is an interesting role.  My organization uses a network attached storage box running Windows Storage Server 2003 with a very small amount of disk space.  Certainly not the piles of disks used by large companies, but still a good amount of storage to manage.

Finding out more

Last week I was in Redmond learning about storage and the ways it works within Windows Server (and client) as well as storage (or file system) related features in Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2.  The opportunity to interact with other MVPs and the product groups based around storage was amazing and I am hoping to really begin digging into storage more.  My first goal is to rebuild my Windows Server 2008 R2 box to look more at iSCSI and Storage Server.

My goal isn’t to build Peta-bytes of storage, but to look at smaller storage possibilities for mid-sized businesses.  Companies similar in size to my employer who might not have the resources for huge amounts of storage, but might want to create a very efficient storage platform perhaps using Windows based iSCSI and a reasonable amount of physical disks.

Storage is all about disk isn’t it?

For a good portion of my career I thought that disk was the only component of storage, after all to store the data, there has to be some where to put it.  However, another factor is the method by which the data gets to the disk and its availability.  Other things that influence storage (or certainly could in the future) are items like Virtualization.  Being able to captialize on the mobility of virtualized servers and the reduced hardware overhead they provide seems to bring a better storage utilization.

Many opportunities but just getting going

With the MVP Summit 2010 behind me, I am very interested in what I learned and the relationships I have formed.  Getting the opportunity to work with those at Microsoft, like Suzanne Morgan, who works with the storage initiatives in and around Windows Server is amazing. In the next few months I am sure I will have a few questions, both of Microsoft and of other Storage MVPs as my learning about enterprise storage is just getting started.

Being the sole IT person for an organization, I have often wondered where the value in technical conferences lies.  Is it in the interaction with other IT professionals or the opportunity to meet those who work in similar (and dissimilar) environments or perhaps it falls in the training and support gained from attending.

I have been to a few tech conferences in the years since I took this position and no year was more filled with them than 2009.  I started slow, attending Microsoft Convergence for a few years to get the latest on the Dynamics line of products (some of which we use) and to see what new BI might help my organization be better.

Convergence was great, I met a great many people who helped me understand more about the application I was supporting and determine that a change in Microsoft Partners was a good move for us.  Since the partner change, life has been much easier, at least in the "Who ya gonna call?” sense.

In 2009 I attended a customer interaction session at Microsoft for the System Center Online Desktop Manager product (still in beta) and because of some pure geek miracle the MVP Summit, which puts awarded MVPs on the Redmond campus for a week early in the year to learn about what’s here, what’s coming, and how/why Microsoft does x and y with those products the way they do.

Summit was awesome and there were tons of great people to meet and new opportunities I could never have imagined.  Being an MVP has taught me this fundamental principal:  use your technical skills to help those around you and be willing to share the information you have.  Good things come to helpful and willing people.

Following the MVP Summit last year I attended Microsoft Tech Ed North America for the first time.  I had previously wanted to attend Tech Ed, but the cost was prohibitive for me and my work schedule made it difficult as well.  Participating in several panels at the event was a great experience, although I was a bit nervous when getting started.

In the future, perhaps not in 2010, I will be returning to Tech Ed, the benefits and learning opportunities are amazing.

Technical conferences are a rather big expense, especially for individuals, but the possibilities for learning and networking with others are very high.  I think the bottom line is to look at the things you are interested in or use in your job and determine which conferences will advance your knowledge of the topic to better your job skills and work to attend these shows.  With the skills you acquire at the conference may well be worth the price of admission.

Now that the backup device and jobs to fill it have become the main focus of my work day, it seems I have also discovered that the root of the backup issues I am seeing stem from a locked tape drive.

I am not exactly sure what would cause the tape drive, in the middle of whichever job it chooses, to lock.  When this happens, the job runs… and runs… and makes no progress.  I guess understanding the root of the problem is good, but figuring out what causes a tape device to lock is another battle all together.  The tape is not full, there are enough tapes in the library to last for a good long time so I am really grasping at straws about the locking thing.

Digging through Bing and Google have not been much help either… I think figuring out this issue is going to be my goal for the week between the holidays.

If anyone has any thoughts about why a tape drive (used in a library) would lock, please share.

I have a few more backup and storage related post ideas coming in the new year, looking at the overall experience with the new Quantum Superloader, but I want to get it working completely and really understand it first…

I would also like to wish all of my readers, however many of you there are, a happy and safe holiday season.