Systems evolution: final thoughts from the Uptime Symposium

While walking the show floor of the Uptime Symposium (Note: Uptime Institute is a business unit of the 451 Group) for the final time, I watched many of the vendors handing out 2 GB USB flash drives that contained their presentations, white papers and other marketing materials.  I found myself walking the show floor at an early DECworld in Boston's international trade center (DECworld was a huge show put on by Digital Equipment Corporation, now part of HP). No, I really didn't go back in time, I just remembered walking through the huge event just before the show opened.

One of the major marketing messages DEC was presenting was that there was over 2.4 GB of storage out on the show floor. At that time, that was an absolutely huge amount of storage.

Now, that amount of storage fits in a pocket and is inexpensive enough to be given away freely at a show.

Newly announced 1.5 MIP systems were on display at DECworld. Today, my mobile phone is nearly 1,000 times faster.