Charles Hood Dot Net

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Notes from VMworld 2010 – Part 1

Sep 1

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Just a quick update from the floor at VMworld, the conference is in full swing and the attendance has been amazing. Over 17,000 registered according to the keynote yesterday.

The big news at the show for us is our announcement of the ServerIron ADX 4000 ASM-4 bundle.  Think of it as a “stepping stone” between a fully-licensed ADX1000 (4 cores) and a significantly more expandable chassis-based system.  It also gives customers with specific fiber connectivity needs more deployment flexibility, in case the 1000’s all-copper + two 10G ports won’t suffice.

We are demonstrating ADX in our booth, in conjunction with the Application Resource Broker, to show how we can provide automated, policy-based provisioning and de-provisioning of resources based on application performance metrics.  Stop by and check it out, it’s very slick technology.

I’d also like to give a quick shout-out to Frank Iglesias of Radiant Systems, winner of the first drawing for Bose headphones from Brocade.  We will be giving away a pair of headphones every day at the show, so be sure to enter!  Hope to see you there.

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Ready For VMworld 2010!

Aug 28

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The excitement is in the air, it’s that time of year again — time for VMworld 2010 in San Francisco!  I go to a lot of conferences, but I must confess that VMworld is one my favorites.  (Second only to EMC World, or maybe a tie.)  It’s a great place for technologists to gather, learn and share.

This will be a working conference for me, so I’ll be dividing my time between attending sessions and representing Brocade in booth #1307.  We have a great location this year, conveniently located between the VMware booth and the Blogger’s Lounge!  As you walk through the Solutions Exchange area, please be sure to stop by and say Hello.  Foursquare is going to be a big part of the Social Media experience at VMworld this year, so be sure to “check-in” at our booth when you visit!

We have a lot of activity packed into our 10″ x 20″ space!  Ken Newman (@KenNewman) will once again be our Master of Ceremonies, and he will have giveaways for everyone that attends his presentation.  We will also have a daily raffle for a set of Bose 3 Noise Cancelling Headphones, as well as our Grand Prize drawing for the ever-popular Apple iPad.  (I’d venture to guess that VMware has the highest iPad-to-attendee ratio of any conference I’ve attended, so chances are good to win an iPad from somebody!)

We will be doing several technology demonstrations, but the one I’m most excited about is the Brocade Application Resource Broker (ARB).  ARB is a vSphere client plug-in that works in conjunction with Brocade ServerIron ADX to provide on-demand resource provisioning for virtualized infrastructure.  Here is a link to a 2 minute web presentation that provides an overview of how it works, but I hope you will stop by to see it in person, it’s really cool technology.  Hope to see you there!

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Kodak Zi8 Unboxing

May 15

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I was in the market for a new portable HD video camera, something that could fit in my pocket and replace my old standard definition Flip video camera.  A new Flip is out of the question, since they are now owned by a company that competes with my employer, so I wanted to explore alternatives.  Luckily I was able to find the Kodak Zi8 and it meets my requirements perfectly.  Here’s a brief unboxing video:

After unboxing the Zi8, I let it charge for about two hours while I read the manual.  (Yes, I am one of those people that read manuals, and no it didn’t take me two hours to read the manual, but that’s how long it took the battery to charge.)  This camera uses SD cards for storage, so I put in an 8GB Class 6 card, and fired it up.  For comparison, I did a quick follow-up video using my same desk from the unboxing, but this time actually using the Zi8 and recording in 720p.  The follow-up video is linked here:

Please note that you have to manually select 72oP in the lower right corner of the video to watch in HD.

I haven’t had time for a full review of this camera, but my first impressions are very positive.  I like the image stabilization feature, from my limited testing it seems to work well.  I also like the fact that it has a microphone jack so I can use a higher quality mic and control it’s placement.  My 8GB SD card will hold about and hour and 20 minutes of video at 720p / 30 fps, so at some point I’ll probably invest in a higher capacity card.

That’s all for now, stay tuned for more thoughts after I’ve actually had a chance to use this camera in the field.

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EMC World 2010 – Day 3 and Wrap-up

May 13

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Day 3 was another big day at EMC World.  It was the last day the Exhibition hall was open, and we went out with a bang.  The big press release news of the day was that the Brocade Encryption Switch won the EMC Partner Solution Award for Best New Offering for RSA.

At 2 PM we held the drawing for our big $10,000 give away.  Brocade VP Charlie Leeming was on hand as master of ceremonies to announce the winner.  Four runners up were awarded iPads before the final drawing for the grand prize.  After a couple of false starts due to no-shows, the prize was ultimately awarded to the gentleman in the picture on the left.  Pictures from the ceremony, as well as pictures of the runners up can be found on Flickr.  Congratulations to all the winners!

At 4:15 PM we had the distinct honor of being interviewed by EMC’s Stuart Miniman, broadcasting live from the Blogger’s Lounge at EMC World.  On the hot seat were Doug Ingraham, Brocade Vice President of Product Management, and myself, to talk about Converged Networking and the EMC/Brocade partnership.  Mr. Miniman was a gracious host, as always, asking good questions and speaking highly of our 10+ year partnership.  The entire interview is available here for replay if you missed it.

At 5PM, Roger Bouchard wrapped up a long day with our final session on the award winning Brocade Encryption Switch.  Even though sessions continued on Thursday, this marked the end of the line for us, as exhibitors starting breaking down their booths for shipping.  Soon we were all moving to the final evening event, the Beantown Bash at Faneuil Hall.

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EMC World 2010 Update – Days 1 & 2

May 12

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Busy busy busy at EMC World 2010 in Boston!  So much going on, where to begin?

First, the big news for us on Monday:  EMC announced an agreement to resell the Brocade IP networking portfolio of 10 Gigabit Ethernet switching products through the EMC Select program.  Needless to say, we are all very excited about this announcement.   This move will streamline our customer’s migration toward high-performance virtualization, data center convergence and private cloud infrastructures.  I can’t wait for this to go live this summer.

Hot off the heels of this news, Christopher Kusek (@cxi) stopped by the Brocade booth and did a nice write up on us in his blog!  Be sure to check out the video link to see Seth Fiermonti give a most excellent MLX overview!

Monday night was the Brocade party at the House of Blues, starring the Fried Ice Cream band.  These guys really rocked the house, and a good time was had by all.  I uploaded some pictures and a short video to Flickr, be sure to check ‘em out.

On Tuesday it was back to work, with our first break out session of the conference, titled “Be Virtualized” delivered by AJ Casamento from Brocade.  The session was packed, with over 100 people attending, with some folks standing in the back of the room.  Meanwhile back in the booth, Roger Bouchard was hard at work giving away signed copies of his book, “Securing Fibre Channel Fabrics“.  Roger will be doing a break session on Wednesday on SAN security titled, “Be Protected.”  (Can you tell we are really loving the Be Next campaign?)

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EMC World 2010 – Arrival Day

May 9

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EMC World 2010 kicked off tonight in Boston, and registration was packed!  I can already tell this is going to be a great show — there is lots of enthusiasm and excitement in the air.  Social Media is always huge at EMC shows, and this year is bigger than ever.  I’ve already met some new friends through Twitter — big shout outs to @ldanakos, @Niketown588, @the_super_dave, and @basraayman!

Tonight was the welcome reception and concert before the real work begins tomorrow.  The Counting Crows were the entertainment, and I actually got a chance to get my picture taken with them before the show thanks to Len Devanna! (Thanks Len!)  I don’t actually have a copy of my picture with the band yet, but hopefully they will email it to me soon so I can post it.

Lots of fun tonight, but tomorrow the event begins in earnest.  I hope to catch the Joe Tucci keynote at 9:30 am, before I have to scurry off to the Exhibition hall at 10:30 am.  I’ll be working the Brocade booth (#409) so please stop by and say Hello if you get a chance!

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My Date with iPad

Apr 3

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iPad ReviewI’m calling this “My Date with iPad” instead of a review, because I feel like I’m just getting to know the iPad.  Half a day isn’t enough time to really get a feel for the device.  So rather than a review, I offer instead my first impressions.

First, the logistics:  UPS did a great job of getting the device to me on Saturday.  I received my shipment at noon, and I was really impressed with ThomasAtUPS and MikeAtUPS for keeping everyone informed on Twitter.  UPS made effective use of Social Media to have an ongoing dialog with their very eager customers.  Well done!

There have been many “unboxing” videos done on the iPad already, so I didn’t bother to shoot one.  I’ve never really understood the appeal of an “unboxing” video, to be honest.  Ooh, look at the quality of the packaging!  Seriously?  But hey, whatever you’re into man, it’s all good with me.  ;-)

As I mentioned in my earlier blog post, I bought the 64 GB Wi-Fi model iPad, along with a case, and VGA adapter.  I only received the iPad itself today, the accessories shipped separately and won’t arrive until Monday.  Therefore I’m unable to do a review of using the iPad to drive a projector using KeyNote, but that is something I’m keen to try early next week.

First impressions:  The size of the screen is a game changer.  Yes, it is a big iPod touch as some people have mentioned scornfully.  But already some of the early apps are making beautiful user interfaces that simply weren’t possible before.  I think the full potential of this device will be realized in the coming weeks as more and more software becomes available for this form factor.  In the picture above, you can see how TweetDeck was able to craft an exquisite and full featured Twitter client for iPad, putting all that extra screen real estate to good use.

From a negative perspective, I am somewhat surprised at how heavy the iPad feels.  Sure, it’s only 1.5 pounds, but compare that to the 10.2 ounces that a Kindle weighs, and it’s a big difference.  The weight was noticeable  on my wrist as I held the iPad one-handed to read an eBook.  It’s too early to tell if this is going to be a real problem;  I want to withhold judgement until I’ve actually read an entire book on the iPad.  Stay tuned.

At a high level, everything I tried worked as expected, which has come to be taken for granted with Apple products.  I was able to get on Wi-Fi, surf the web, and setup my Corporate Exchange email with no difficulties.  The iBooks app holds lots of promise for me, but I don’t want to say more until I’ve had the chance to use it to actually read an entire eBook cover to cover.  All the iPad apps I tried looked good and performed as advertised.  I fully expect more good things on the development front after programmers have had more time with the device.  I will say that running iPhone apps on iPad is pretty underwhelming, but it’s good to have the capability, I guess.  In the long run, I don’t foresee iPad owners running anything but apps that were designed for the larger screen.

In closing, if you are looking for a more comprehensive review of the iPad, you’ll find none finer than the one done by Joshua Topolsky over at Engadget.  So head over there now and read up.  I’ll report back here in a couple of days when I have more to say.  Adios for now!

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National iPad Pre-Order Day

Mar 12

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Today was National iPad Pre-Order Day, when all of us fan boys got out our wallets and paid the semi-quarterly membership fee to the Cult of Steve for the latest Apple gadget.  In other words, yes I pre-ordered my iPad today, along with a gazillion of my closest friends.

I actually agonized over this decision quite a bit, because I couldn’t decide if I wanted the Wi-Fi version or the Wi-Fi + 3G version.  The 3G version would be handy, no doubt, but it would delay my order for almost a month, plus I really didn’t want to sign up for another monthly bill.  I finally decided to go with the 64GB Wi-Fi version based on availability, price, and the fact that I won’t miss 3G much based on how I expect to use the device.

(And let’s face it — my darling wife made the decision easy with her most insightful comment on Facebook.)  Boom!  Decision made, I ordered the Wi-Fi model.  ;-)

I work for a networking company doing technical pre-sales, so a big part of my job involves visiting customers and delivering presentations on our products and services.  One of the things I’m interested in using the iPad for is to give presentations.  I added an iPad Dock Connector to VGA Adapter to my order, so I can hook it up to a projector.  I’m looking forward to downloading a copy of Keynote once I receive the unit.  I figure 3G won’t be required for this use case, since I will prep my presentations in advance from the Wi-Fi connection in my office or hotel.  I’ll let you know how this works out once I’ve had a chance to field test it.

In the course of doing my job, I also frequently find myself sitting on an airplane.  Luckily, most Delta flights have Wi-Fi on them now.  (Another use case where 3G isn’t required.)  I can really see the iPad coming in handy on a plane, both for watching movies and reading books.  I watch TV shows and movies on my iPhone now, but the bigger screen on the iPad is bound to improve the experience.  I’ve never owned an electronic book reader, but I am looking forward to using the iPad to read books.  I’m a voracious reader, and I really enjoy devouring a good Science Fiction book, but it’s often hard to find my kind of books at the local bookstore.  (Darn near impossible at an airport newsstand!)  For example, I just finished “The Dreaming Void” by Peter J. Hamilton and thoroughly enjoyed it.  However when I rushed out to the bookstore to buy the sequel it was nowhere to be found.  With the iPad, I suspect I will be able to download most books to get instant gratification.  We shall see how the selection pans out.

All in all, I’m happy with my decision.  Stay tuned for more updates and the unboxing on April 3rd!

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RSA Conference Wrap Up – That’s All Folks!

Mar 7

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RSA Conference 2010 has come to a close, the last day was a bit of a whirlwind, with lots of people getting ready to go home.  The highlight of the show for us on Thursday had to be our guest speaking opportunity at the McAfee booth.  John Harcourt from Brocade was a guest presenter on the McAfee stage at 2:15 PM and even though the show was winding down, the audience was probably one of our best yet.  I’d like to think it was our deft use of Social Media to hype the event, but it probably had just as much to do with the superb location of McAfee’s booth as well as Ken Newman being mic’ed up and pulling folks in.  Either way, it was the message that held everyone’s attention, and I’m grateful to our good partner McAfee for the opportunity to share the stage with them.

I didn’t participate in any of the parties Thursday night, instead I had the opportunity to join some customers for dinner at McCormick and Kuleto’s.  As it turns out, we had some great customers from my patch in town for a Corporate briefing, and I was able to join them for a fine technology discussion and even finer meal.

In case you are wondering, this lovely picture of me on the left was snapped by a co-worker.  It’s a picture of me tweeting from the show floor with my iPhone.  I think it was originally intended as a blackmail shot, so I figured the only way to defuse the situation was to post it myself!  Ha!  So there.  ;-)

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RSA Conference Day 3 – Where did all these people come from?

Mar 4

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Although this is my first RSA Conference, I’ve done a lot of shows over the years, and the general rule of thumb is that the booth traffic generally dwindles as the week wears on.  (Unless there is a prize drawing or something, of course there are exceptions.)  So imagine my surprise when our Day 3 traffic at the Brocade booth was heavier than ever.  I had several people tell me they were experiencing information overload from all the sessions, and decided to walk around the Expo floor just to unwind and take a mental break.  There was one very nice lady who was obviously very tired, but I was able to convince her to stay for the presentation that was just starting…. and she ended up winning the $50 Visa Gift Card!  How cool is that?  Of course I’d like to think that word has simply gotten around on how good Ken Newman‘s presentation is…. he really knows how to work an audience.

I’d also like to thank RSA for inviting me to their party Wednesday night at the St. Regis Hotel.  It was a very nice venue, the food was great, and DJ had mad scratching skills.

One more day to go!  Look for my final post tomorrow.

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