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Every EMC World I’ve been to has certain things in common:
This year is no different – and we keep dialing it up! We are now at the 2 week countdown to the doors opening on May 3th (yes, there is stuff on Sunday for the super-keen) – and as usual, it’s a sprint to the finish line :-) I’ll be posting multiple blogs each day – and with each year, we make more and more available in real time online – so stay tuned to www.emcworld.com! The experience, however is always best in person. There’s still time to register – but is running out. Here are my top 10 things to see and do – from number 10 counting down to number 1! Read on!
Number 10: The “zLounge”While there is no doubt that our focus over the years spends more and more time on “Platform 2”, getting better at it (aka “Platform 2.5”), and of course the new world of apps built for the cloud and the infrastructure to support them (aka “Platform 3”) – last year we realized that we were neglecting an important constituency, and important workloads: “Platform 1” – ergo the mainframe. I think most of us would be amazed how much mainframes are still a critical part of our every day lives. In fact, they are still an integral part of almost everything on which society depends – from healthcare, to finance, to transportation, to the workings of the government. That said – mainframe types are a distinct group, for whom the latest updates on things like zHPF and Mainframe Performance Acceleration, things like DLm, and want to talk about very, very reliable multi-site active-active models. These people keep the lights on and water flowing so all the millenials can develop new P3 apps for us to communicate, they deserve respect, and a lounge just for THEM. We are bringing all the mainframe content to them in one place – the “zLounge”. It’s not for everyone, which is why this is an exclusive scene – just for them. The zLounge is a dedicated space for Mainframers to interact with EMC experts for all our Mainframe solutions – VMAX, DLm and Connectrix. It features 1:1 teaching opportunities, small group conversation areas, hands on demos, partner interaction, and social events. Also on display is EMC Mainframe compatible hardware and in partnership with IBM we will be showing the new z13. Mainframe customers have a chance to win a VFRIDGE at the end of the show in the zLounge. All of this is presented in a funky, retro environment, of course :-) You’ll see it as you enter towards the Solutions Pavilion. Number 9: Time with the Product Engineering TeamsEMC World was born as a technical conference, and it remains one. Sure there may be more theatrics, bigger venues, “storage” has expanded to all forms of information persistence… and the band has gotten better every year (more on that later)… But at it’s core – it’s a technical conference, and the annual industry event for information persistence. There are more patent holders there than you can shake a stick at. Pick your favorite (or least favorite!) EMC platform/solution – and you can find the person responsible, and tell them exactly what you think about their baby (love it!/hate it!) and where they should take it (roadmap, or out to the back shed :-) The easiest way to do this is to attend the breakout sessions which you can find on the event agenda. The next easiest way it to go to the EMC Booth in the solutions pavilion and go to the area for the area you want to dive deep. Don’t be afraid to ask the person at the booth who leads that particular engineering team and ask them to help connect you face to face – they will want to hear what you have to say! Number 8: Getting Certified, and Celebrating it!EMC Proven is THE industry standard when it comes to storage, but has expanded over the last few years into cloud architecture and data science as well as the EMC Global Education team expanding their 3rd party certifications for VMware, Oracle, Microsoft, Cisco and others in the ecosystem. Getting certified is a great way to advance your career, and make friends with folks that are in a similar boat rowing with you. There’s no better place to do it than at EMC World People to get your certs upped – it’s simple, it’s convenient, it’s fast. Lastly – those who commit themselves to becoming EMC Proven (or adding some new arrows to their quiver of knowledge) well, there is no greater thing for us to say “thank you”… So we do that every year in style – with prizes galore! The EMC Proven Knowledge Sharing Awards are Tuesday at 5:45 – see you there! Number 7: IT Leadership TrackThis is a great thing to see us do. Frankly – I’m finding that the most consistent correlation with succesful and transformational IT isn’t the tech itself, but great leadership, and the teams they build. It’s not rocket science, but it’s so often overlooked. Look at the speakers: you’ve got the founders and CTO at Cloudera, sharing experiences of change; you’ve got the leadership at Chef sharing DevOps experiences; you have the creative minds behind many “expresso shots for the mind”; you have someone that has unique experiences with data and what it can be used to change the world. Will be a very cool set of session. Number 6: Solution PavilionThe Solution Pavilion is a great high-bandwidth, low latency, “high parallelism” way to connect with so many in the ecosystem. At every conference, I scan the big booths (linger longer at the main tent), but spend more time around the periphery. You see a lot of cool things there – and every large player was in that periphery once. I would wager there are companies there that we’ll be saying “I met them when….” Opens at 6pm on Monday with a Reception – so you can do what I just said with a beer/glass of wine/cocktail in your hands. Sweet :-) Number 5: Input and Speaking “truth to power”Input comes in all forms – but needs: a) you to use your voice + b) someone using their ears. At EMC World, we will be using our voice, but also our ears. If you see David Goulden, Pat Gelsinger, Paul Maritz, or Joe Tucci – stop them, and give them a piece of your mind. They want to hear your voice, your input. What are we doing right – and what wrong? And hey – I’m not that in that inner sanctum (if there was a “tower of power!”, I would be a the LL floor :-) but do the same with me – reach out and speak the truth fearlessly! Number 4: DevOps DayFor anyone attending EMC World that is interested in DevOps, this should be on your radar. The EMC{code} crew have a great lineup of speakers as well as a large “open” space to network, have whiteboard discussions, see demos from various companies – some of those attending are in the logo list below… .. My favorite is the Toronto Public Library (we have a kick-a$$ Library in Toronto – seriously) It’s DevOpsDays format, so it’ll be lots of learning, very casual and lots of focus on open. Date: May 3, 2015 (this is the sunday before EMC World’s Official door opening). Registration is simple: http://emcdevops.eventbrite.com Registration is NOT auto-included with EMCW registration. You need to explicitly sign up at that link. Helps us with chairs, food/drinks. Good news? Registration is FREE. Right. Cost: $0.00 (USD – may vary for other currencies :-) Location: Venetian Hotel, near EMCW Registration (will be signage pointing to the rooms). Here’s what you can expect (what a killer agenda and speakers!):
Another perk? Sure! FREE HAPPY HOUR AFTERWARD!! Must be registered to attend. Number 3: Hybrid Cloud and PaaS General Session (Tuesday)This session will be the broad view at the Federation level. What’s going on with VMware, EMC, Pivotal – separately and together. Joe is always warm, and he speaks to so many people, so many CEOs, so many analysts and investors – the perspective is always good. Pat comes out swinging with the disruption VMware is driving across the compute, storage and networking domains – and there’s always something a little spicy! And of course – Paul Maritz. Paul is not only one of the smartest dudes I’ve met in my travels – but he has a strategic “long view” that is prescient. Plus – you can play the “how many times will he ’harrumph’ game – come on, you know what I mean :-) Number 2: Redefining Next Session General Session (Monday)This session will be a roller coaster – and will dive deep into what EMC is doing ourselves to help the biggest number of customers, across the biggest number of workloads. We’re talking about the things that make the world run – and how we are re-inventing them. You’ll see tactically what’s new in XtremIO, VMAX, VNX, and the Data Protection and Availability domains. More interestingly – you’ll get a peak into what’s next, and how we see this industry moving. And yes – there will be demos and reveals galore! Number 1: EMC.Next General Session (Wednesday)I feel a little funny putting the session that I’m in in the #1 spot, but it will be awesome (and not because I’m in it). There are so many amazing innovations we are working on, and this monster session will be the reveal. These are things that are built to support new applications, applications being built for cloud models, and low degrees of dependency on infrastructure resilience. They are all around us – and while they not the apps and infrastructure that “keep the lights on”, they are the apps and the infrastructure that are what we do as humans presuming the lights are on. They are the new edge. We will have announcements, reveals – and things people can do RIGHT AWAY. Trust me, this is going to be awesome :-) … And at the Number 0 spot: Fall Out Boy and One Republic!For those of you that know me – I’m a big Fall Out Boy fan – they have been a consistent soundtrack to the last few years of my life, and have been in the background as I write many a blog, or work on something for hours on an airplane. I’ve seen them in concert 3 times, and they have always put on a great show. One Republic is great too :-) The concert puts a cap on a great couple of days – of fun, of friends, of community, of learning, of unveilings, and of face melting awesomeness… Can’t wait to see YOU at EMC World – register NOW |
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