Rose Ross talks to Hans De Leenheer, independent Blogger and vEXPERT

By Rose Ross, @Rose_at_O, and Rosalind Carr, @Rosalind_at_O

This summer Rose caught up with Belgium based independent Blogger Hans De Leenheer @hansdeleenheer, chatting storage, virtualization, American Football and Storage Beers… Check out his latest insights at  http://hansdeleenheer.blogspot.co.uk/

Q. Tell us a bit about yourself:

As I was previously a systems engineer, I suppose initially I fell into blogging by putting solutions to problems encountered into a blog to help tackle these problems. In the last three years, I have put my focus more towards storage, compiling the how to’s and offering my insights into different areas of storage and virtualization.

As I started blogging more about new products and industry moves I gained interest from the vendor community. I got invites from DELL, HP and others to come to their events as an influencer. The best thing I do is being passionate about technology and sharing that passion with others, whether that is through writing, presenting or just speaking to people in person. And that is what I do today; I represent vendors when they need someone passionate to explain their technology.

Big Opportunity for Storage Startups: The Tech Trailblazers Awards @techtrailblaze #TTAwards

Prize fund of an estimated $1 million+ makes this an opportunity definitely worth looking at

There’s an exciting new global award for storage startups: the Tech Trailblazers Awards. Unlike other enterprise IT awards that are tied to a specific publication or event, these awards are completely independent and global. The global independence of the Tech Trailblazers Awards makes it possible to offer entrants a wide and diverse prize fund from multiple industry supporters—making this one of the best enterprise tech awards from a Return on Investment (ROI) perspective.

All entrants to the Tech Trailblazers Awards will win a prize of commercial value, even if they do not place in the awards. For winners, prizes include CTO and VC/IPO boot camp and mentoring, plus products and services worth tens of thousands of dollars.The growing prize fund, worth an estimated $1 million+, is supported by industry vendors, analysts, venture capitalists, government bodies, the media, event partners and other industry-specific services.

Call all Storage gurus: #SNWEurope Call For Papers now open

By Rose Ross, AKA Rose_at_O

Calling all storage experts as the ‘call for papers’ for the SNW Europe, Datacenter Technologies and Virtualization World conferences is now open. The event billed as part of the “Powering the Cloud” experience takes place this year on 30th and 31st October in Frankfurt, Germany. As the event stradles Halloween, I wonder if we’ll have any scary storage storytelling? Perhaps darkened rooms, upward pointing torchlight of the presenter’s faces? Well you’ll have to just wait and see if you’re brave enough 🙂 – We will, of course, be doing trick or treating to the stands during the expo. So you’ve been warned exhibitors, have your candy ready or you know the consequences!!!

Deadline for submissions is 27th April 2012

Click here to submit papers online

We interviewed one of the organizers Paul Trowbridge about his top tips for success in securing a speaker slot here.

The official line from this year’s website is as follows:

They are looking for quality submissions from IT end-users, consultants, industry analysts and system integrators/VARs, describing case studies or technology update sessions that focus on real-world deployments and/or methods and best practices to evaluate new, existing or future solutions.

Submissions from IT vendors may also be considered but it is vital that these sessions be delivered in a vendor-neutral/product-agnostic manner. To encourage contemporary content, they request that all proposals discuss fresh deployments.  Submissions will be ranked and selected by the Conference Committee based on suitability and adherence to these submission guidelines.

Sponsoring vendors please note:  Speaking slot entitlements that are included in your sponsorship package should NOT be submitted via this process.

Hot Topics:

• Cloud Security
• BIG DATA
• Desktop/client Virtualisation
• Converged Infrastructures
• Next Generation Data Protection
• Solid State Storage
• Public/Private Cloud storage solutions
• Outsourcing, Hosting and co-location
• The delivery of managed services

Other Technology Topics of interest:

• Big data solutions
• Business Continuity: Protection, Archiving, Backup & Recovery
• Business Intelligence / Data Warehousing
• Cloud Service Providers / Managed Service Providers
• Converged Data Center Networks
• Data Archiving and Digital Preservation
• Data Center/ IT Infrastructure
• Data Governance / Regulatory / Compliance / E-Discovery
• Data Lifecycle Management
• Data Storage-as-a-Service (DaaS) and Cloud
• Data Security / Data Encryption
• Desktop virtualization’s impact on storage
• Emerging Technologies and Services
• Green Storage / Energy Efficient IT / Green Computing
• Enterprise Content Management / Document Management
• High Performance Computing
• Implementation of Cloud Storage Solutions
• Information and IT Security
• Information Management
• Infrastructure convergence
• SaaS and Data Migration
• Solid State Storage
• Storage Networking
• Storage Resource Management
• Systems Integration / Corporate IT Architecture / SOA
• Virtual Data Center / Outsourcing / Hybrid Cloud
• Virtualized Environments & Storage / Server Virtualization

We’ll see you in Frankfurt in October and have already spied a great venue for #storagebeers (See we do love you!) The Champions bar in the Marriott is OK, but this new venue is hopefully “wunderbar” (I know don’t give up the day job for a career in comic writing!)

Have you got what it takes for #TechfieldDay? Find out if you have the influence for this tech deep dive

By Rose Ross, @Rose_At_O

Seeing a tweet like this. You got a click right? Curious how to become a #TechFieldDay delegate? Here’s all you need to know: http://t.co/1PFo8FrQ

After all, curiosity is my middle name.

For any click-averse out there. This is what it says:

Would you like to be a Gestalt IT Field Day Delegate? The good news is that our delegate selection process is open and flexible – no one is excluded from potentially being part of our events. The bad news is that we can’t take everyone who would like to go. Read on to learn how you can be part of Tech Field Day in the future!

Delegate Qualification

Our selection process is based on a simple idea: We want to bring together just the right group of people for every event regardless of where they come from! Qualification is based on who you are and what you do, and no one is excluded.

We are looking for the following key characteristics in our Field Day delegates:

1. Independence – This is a state of mind, but employment status comes into play as well. Are you open-minded and willing and able to consider and recommend products and technologies based on their own merits? Independent critical thinking and discussion is a crucial part of the Field Day experience!
2. Contribution – Are you a selfless contributor to the advancement and sharing of knowledge? Field Day Delegates devote hours every day writing, advising, and supporting the technology community. Attending Field Day events gives them knowledge and connections they can use and share.
3. Knowledge – Field Day Delegates open up the hood and explore technology, discovering how and why things work. The are authoritative experts and the Field Day events are a chance to dive deep, applying what they know and learning more.
4. Fit – Each Field Day event is like a dinner party: The selected Delegates must be able to come together as a group, with everyone adding to the discussion. Some of our events are focused on a certain area of technology, while others celebrate the diversity that gives Gestalt IT its name.

It is never easy selecting delegates for a Field Day event. We narrow our list based on the criteria above, sorting and weighing each individual to pick just the right group. The ideal event includes many first-timers along with a few repeat delegates to help the group to gel. Selection isn’t automatic, even for past delegates, and space is always limited.

How to Get Selected

It’s easy to get selected: Excel in independence, contribution, and knowledge and fit in with the event! But this isn’t something you can try to accomplish. Instead, it’s something you do naturally. The best Field Day Delegates are selected because they naturally do all of these things every day!

Although there is no secret recipe for being selected, here are a few tips to help you along.

1. Become active in your field – Start a blog, support users in a forum, join a user group, or write tutorials – the possibilities are endless!
2. Claim your name – It’s difficult to get to know someone who keeps their identity hidden. Make sure you have “about” pages, boxes, and profiles including your name and employer.
3. Be yourself – Have some personality and show the world why they would want to get to know you better. Be yourself, not who others want you to be.
4. Be visible – Get a Twitter account, register on LinkedIn and Facebook, and set up a Google profile. It’s a connected world, so make yourself easy to find.
5. Tell us – Fill out the form below, and get to know the current set of Field Day Delegates. Let us know you’re interested and share what you’re doing.

A pleasant side effect of these efforts is your growing stature in the community and contribution to its advancement. That’s good for everyone!

If you want to then even the click-averse will have to actually click: http://t.co/1PFo8FrQ or ping the lovely @sfoskett for more info 🙂

Don’t miss Peter Levine at @theExecEvent next week in Santa Clara

By Rose Ross, @Rose_at_O

Seriously after having seen Peter at theExecEvent last year in Boston and he is definitely worth listening to! Last June he was discussing in the context of his role at Citrix on VDI and the inportance of storage within that environment. Next week Peter will take the stage with his VC hat firmly on.

As the ExecEvent’s founder, Greg Duplessie states: “Peter Levine, ExecEvent alumni, major-league silicon valley tech player and now Venture Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, is our new event kickoff speaker (replacing Mike Feinberg of EMC).  Peter is a great speaker and is very insightful and knowledgable about the storage, cloud, virtualization and security spaces.  Peter  has (or will very soon) be leaving his part-time role at Citrix and is going back into the VC world full-time.  He tells me with his new role at Andreessen Horowitz (a top-tier VC firm) he is anxious to talk to our attendees and explore opportunities.” Crunchbase profile is a useful backgrounder on this VC firm: http://www.crunchbase.com/financial-organization/andreessen-horowitz

OK, so go and schnap yourself a place at the front of the auditorium. There will be plenty of other great discussions and contacts to be made next week. More info on the ExecEvent here: www.theexecevent.com. Just sad I can’t get over for this one. But my fingers are firmly crossed for the January Marketeers Summit.

PS The ExecEvent will also premier in London on October 19th. Very handy for those execs travelling to London for IP EXPO that day 🙂 Watch this space for more on that soon.

Opportunity knocks for UK Cloud storage and other start-ups: @UKTI mission to Silicon Valley offers great ops

by Rose Ross AKA @Rose_at_O

At great opportunities for some sassy UK cloud start-ups to get some flowers in their hair or more excitingly meet with leading Cloud lights such as VMware and Salesforce. Full info below.

UKTI Cloud Mission: 24 – 28 October 2011 San Francisco

Following the success of last year’s mission, UK Trade & Investment is organising a second Cloud Mission to Silicon Valley. The Cloud landscape is becoming clearer, the PaaS market continues to expand, hybrid Clouds are a reality, and enterprises and governments are planning to adopt Cloud services beyond Dev & Test and for a range of their business functions. The US market is looking for further Cloud technologies, products and services to drive adoption.

We are currently recruiting CEOs of cutting edge companies whose software deliverables might include:

     -Compliance, security, reliability, or privacy benefits which address business concerns around Cloud adoption 
     -Cloud enabling features for scaling, performance, virtualisation, storage, or middleware 
     -Real cost reductions for business users of private or hybrid Cloud architecture 
     -Analytics of Real-time / Big Data across the Cloud 

Or, is your technology part of the Cloud that powers smartphones and tablets, mobile and collaborative working?

Join UKTI’s 4 day agenda, including meetings with a selection of the following major vendors: Salesforce, Citrix, VMware, HP, IBM, plus local incubators, business environment advisers, strategists and peer companies.  Mission participants will have the opportunity to attend FailCon (www.thefailcon.com) on Monday the 24th at a special UKTI 20% discounted rate. 

Places are limited for the mission, register your company today and find out more about this fantastic opportunity –HERE.  The link will take you to the EventBrite website where you will have 90 minutes to complete your application. 

Participation in the mission will require commissioning a £888 Overseas Market Introduction Service (OMIS) through UK Trade & Investment. This service provides for overall mission programme and outlined activities. Delegates are responsible for covering the cost of their own transportation and accommodation.

Top tips for data storage startups: Check out the @Searchstorage top data storage startup list and aspire

By @Mike_at_LPDE

Dave Raffo at SearchStorage.com has compiled a list of his top emerging data storage startups.

http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/feature/Data-storage-startups-10-emerging-vendors-worth-watching

Think SSD, VDI and cloud and you’re on the money with his selections.

Many of them hopefully will be enjoying a well earned Labor Day break today as most, if not all, are HQ’d stateside. But keep an eye out over here in Europe for them, as many are exhibiting at top European shows such as IP EXPO, SNW Europe and VMworld Europe this Autumn (AKA Fall).

ExecEvent – One we really didn’t want to miss

by Rose Ross, @Rose_at_O

Alright, enough of this!

We were very much hoping to get over to Palo Alto last week for the ExecEvent (formerly the BDEvent reviewed here previously) but the planets didn’t align. We’ll try to get over it and focus on better timing for our calendars for Boston in June and London hopefully later this year.

Anyway, to share some of the great stuff from last week’s fun here is founder and organiser, Greg Duplessie’s insight into the days there in a tid bit format here. Enjoy!



StorageNewsletter’s Editor’s Choice for the most promising storage start-ups

Jean-Jacques Maleval’s (Esteemed editor of www.storagenewsletter.com) pick of the storage start-ups bunch. Congratulations to :

1. Nimble Storage storage, backup, and DR into a single iSCSI solution with SSDs and HDDs
2. Nimbus Data Systems storage subsystem with SSD only
3. ExaGrid Systems de-dupe
4. SandForce SSD processor
5. Mimecast email management including archiving, discovery, continuity, security and policy
6. Fusion-io PCI SSD
7. Axxana asynchronous replication with no data loss over any geographical distance
8. Violin Memory DRAM and flash RAID appliance
9. GreenBytes de-dupe for primary storage and backup
10. Pliant Technology enterprise flash SAS SSD
11. Amplidata RAID by storing data across a selection of disks
12. Veeam Software agentless data protection for VMware
13. Scale Computing clustered disk-storage solution for SMBs
14. Avere Systems tiered NAS appliances
15. InQuinox appliance for Symantec de-dupe software

We also like Actifio, Cloud Engines, Coraid, CTERA Networks, Druva Software, GridIron, Kaminario Technologies, Locust Storage, Lortu Software, Memopal, Nasuni, NextIO, Permabit, RethinkDB, Scale Computing, Scality, Terasky, Virsto Software, VirtenSys and Virtual Instruments.

Full story here: http://www.storagenewsletter.com/news/business/most-promising-storage-start-ups