Australian Storage Blogfest

Are you a blogger in Australia who covers a bit of storage? If so then you will want to know that SNIA Australia is hosting a blogfest with a range of storage vendors on Thursday November the 4th in Sydney.

Its a one day tour, face to face, with the major storage vendors IBM, HDS, EMC and Netapp.

Here is what SNIA have to say about the event :

• Bloggers benefit from a direct engagement with the key storage vendors to learn more about their technology and product strategy. With the increasing influence that bloggers have with customers it is important that authors are technically accurate and have a broad perspective of technology and the product/feature sets that differentiate the vendors. This is a unique opportunity to do a direct comparison across four major vendors in one day, at no cost other than an investment of your time.
• Sponsors benefit from a direct engagement with key influencers about their technology and product direction/strategy. Their participation in this session can ensure their technology is well understood by those who have the influence over customer perception. This is a rare opportunity to interact directly in an open, friendly environment with these key authors.
• The presentation sessions will be focused on technology themes determined by the bloggers themselves. The Blogfest is a one-day event with four 1.5-hour sessions. Each session includes time for technical presentation, hands-on activities and delegate discussion. We expect direct questions and feedback in return.

This should not be a dump of the latest product releases from each vendor. It will hopefully be a good discussion on storage technologies and the market. Moving from one vendor to another you can really compare and contrast on where each stand and their strengths and weaknesses.

Here is my personal recommendation for the topic for the day (which has not been accepted yet, its just an example).

“What new technologies in primary storage do you believe really gives customers better bang for their buck in the long term? What has your organisation seen and done in these areas in the last 12 months? Which new technologies do you think might not give customers the return they may think or are to risky to adopt in primary storage and explain your reasoning.”

I think there are many ways to answer that and it will be great to hear what IBM, HDS, EMC and Netapp's views are. Could be very telling. If you have an idea of a better theme or topic let me know.

The draw backs is that you can't work for a storage manufacture, bloggers must all be recognised independent writers on data storage related subjects working in Australia or New Zealand. You will need to take the day of work and if you are not in Sydney you will have to cover your own travel costs to the event (worth a flight I say). Travel throughout the day and meals are covered.

We really need to ramp up the amount of storage blogging happening in Australia and credit to SNIA and the vendors for giving this a go. Hopefully if this is successful we can get them to cover some travel costs next time around or hold it in a different city so that more people can be involved.

If you are interested, even if you are not a blogger but a person of influence in a community, then contact Paul Talbut, General Manager of SNIA ANZ with your details via paul.talbut@evito.net (or me). You never know, you may just get an invite!

I hope to see many people there!

Rodos