View from the top – Chris Mellor, Storage Editor, techworld.com

I was pleased to have the chance to catch up with Chris yesterday and some useful insights into what he sees as hot and what is of interest to him. Thanks, Chris.

About Chris: Chris bills himself as “a computer sales/ marketing / software support person who has moved into journalism and finds storage fascinating”. His other passions include sports cars and bourbon biscuits. 

Q – Tell us a little bit about Techworld and its interest in storage: Techworld aims to cover all the main news in the storage space and include features to put that news in context. We look to explain the technologies used in storage and hopefully how they relate to one another and are used in the real world. 

Q – What’s hot in storage this summer? The hot technologies this summer are:– de-duplication– thin provisioning– unified storage, that is SAN+NAS together– iSCSI storage– the relationship between virtual servers and automated storage provisioning; virtual storage is easier to provision that physical storage and– flash memory used to replace and/or augment hard drives in notebook computers from the likes Microsoft, Intel, Sony and Dell. 

Q – How many Storage Expos have you been to? I believe it is six. Over the years, they have each got larger and better. 

Q – This year is Storage Expo better than ever or is it like some shows in decline? It is going to be more interesting than before – because one characteristic of the storage industry is that the technology is always developing – and something new is always coming to the fore, for example, the number of thin provisioning suppliers has boomed – although it has been around for some time. Ditto data de-duplication. 

Q.  – What types of stories or companies are likely to attract your attention this Storage Expo? EMC with de-dupe on Symmetrix. Sun with its thin provisioning, VTLs and its hybrids – Thumper and Honeycomb. LeftHand Networks and EqualLogic and other iSCSI players. Acopia, Isilon, NetApp and the high-end, clustered NAS people. I’d also like to see there Zetera there with their networked product. Falconstor – it is a powerhouse. HDS with its storage controller front-ending heterogeneous storage – where is that going? And these are just the highlights. 

Q. How many interviews do you think you’ll do? 15-20 I would guess. Storage Expo is a fantastic opportunity to take the pulse of the industry across the whole spectrum of suppliers. 

Q – When do you start planning your diary at Storage Expo? About a month before and its often on a first come, first serve basis. Most suppliers have any interesting story and therefore once they are in the diary, they’re in. 

Q. – Who is worth listening to? Jon Toigo – opinionated but never known to understate an opinion – Hu Yoshida from HDS: careful, thoughtful, often profound; Sun – the STK side and the storage system side; the Yin and Yang of Sun storage you might say –  Jon Benson (STK) and John Fowler (Systems) Q. – What’s your favourite blog – outside storing up trouble?

 

My favourite is- Storagemojo aka Robin Harris and a close second is Jon Toigo’s drunkendata. Q – What is your favourite piece of technology?

My Mac book Q – What do you think is the most important development in storage networking to date? 

 

The development of unified storage, iSCSI, SAN block and file level combined, will be revolutionary. Q – What is the best piece of advice for exhibitors at Storage Expo? Comfortable shoes and a chair, and be distinctive. If you are one of five drive array suppliers for example, what is the distinctive difference? Don’t say “We solve business issues better.” Sorry, I am yawning already.

 

At Storage Expo, liaising with hacks is not the icing on the cake; customers should be the meat in the pie with journalists just being pastry.

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