BladeSystems Insight Summit 2010
- Boton Kiss, Worldwide Line Manager, IBM BladeCenter
- Mike Lance, VP of Product Marketing, NextIO
- Rob Peglar, VP of technology for Xiotech
- Paul Prince, CTO, Enterprise Product Group, Dell, Inc.
Later on I'll be presenting on the full story of virtualization and why a comprehensive plan and well thought out architecture is key to a successful implementation of a virtualized environment.
If I learn something interesting at the event, I'll fill you in on the details later on.
9:00 AM Update: Presentation from James Staten (Principal Analyst at Forrester Research) James presented an interesting discussion of the common myths of Blade Systems. Here are a few notes from his presentation.
- He pointed out that regardless of the architecture of a system, pricing is best examined on a whole system rather than a per blade basis.
- Operational efficiency should be the focus. All blade systems offer converged processing, storage and networking to some extent.
- Maintenance of operational systems and equipment (MOOSE) often eats 60% to 80% of an organization's operational budget. Reducing these costs can free up budget for new things. James pointed out that the data he's seen so far indicates that blade systems can help free up funds for additional new projects.
He then went on to compare several major competitors. It was an interesting session.
10:00 AM Update: Panel
The panel addressed the following questions:
- What are the various forms of virtualization and how do they enhance datacenter operations?
- What are the goals when organizations select virtualization technology? Are they the same across organizations?
- What do they need to consider before embarking on a journey to a virtualized environment?
Since each of the panel members came from different disciplines, they took very different approaches to presenting the answers to those questions.
11:00 AM Update: Jonathan Eunice (Founder and Principal IT Advisor, Illuminata)
"Sailing Through the Maelstrom" was the topic of Johnathan's session. As always, he presented an interesting take on what's happening. His focus was how organizations can get value out of their investments in IT, facilities and the staff that makes it all run.
Johnathan's sense of humor was evident as well as he taught the audience some "advanced kung fu," the best firefighting techniques and his take on the secret to happiness.