The Experts Conference – TEC 2011–After Action Report

I enjoyed my time at the TEC2011 conference. The networking with fellow IT Pros was excellent and the discussions were rich in content. It’s fun to see that a lot of people are already looking at Windows 8 server. In that respect the session by Hans Vredevoort “Hyper-V Storage Deep Dive” was a very good one, offering a look at things to come. Information is not yet flowing in on Windows 8, or at least not in the quantities we’d like. We all expect that situation to improve before the end of the year when we’ll (hopefully) find a first beta under the x-mas tree to play with during the holidays season Smile. Jaap Wesselius  was haunted by the demo gods. Well it was either the demo gods or all those “always on” IT Pros bringing the wireless down. But he recovered strong in his session  “Virtualizing Exchange 2010” that was actually called "Exchange on Hyper-V:do’s and don’ts". Not even the demo gods can keep Jaap down. We also enjoyed seeing Carsten Rachfahl in action in his session on “Hyper-V networking Best Practices” which he brought well and with a sense of humor on his new best practice since the evening before when a bunch of us where testing things out on Hyper-V clusters all over Europe Smile  Maarten Wijsman  (in Holland) & Rick Slagers  (on the scene at TEC2011) form Wortell.nl were both assisting in this endeavor.

I had a good time, met a lot of people from the community  like Joachim Nässlander (@Nasslander). The Belgian ProExchange community was well represented and Ilse Van Criekinge was there as well. I learned a lot and I’m happy to have attended.To conclude our conference on Wednesday Carsten Rachfahl (@hypervserver), Hans Vredevoort (@hvredevoort) and I did a video panel interview on Hyper-V Windows 8 Server and some 10Gbps cluster networking. He’ll put it on line on his web site http://www.hyper-v-server.de/videos/ so you can find there when it’s released. Jaap, Hans and I went to dinner and concluded the conference with a beer in the bar. It’s back home tomorrow and then to work.

I’m Attending The E2E Virtualization Conference

Well I’ve just finished doing the paperwork for attending the Experts 2 Experts conference in London http://www.pubforum.info/pubforum/E2E2011London.aspx. It runs from 18th to 20th November 2011. I’m looking forward to this one as I’m going to meet up with a lot of people from my on line network and have a change to discuss our virtualization experiences and share information in real life, face to face.

It’s good to get to attend vendor independent events and exchange information, enrich and extend our networks. I already know several people from my twitter/blogging network will be attending and I’m happy to meet up with you if you’re there. Just let me know via e-mail, the feedback option on this blog or via twitter (@workinghardinit). Well, I’ll see you there!

Trip To London for BriForum

I’m on the Euro Star on my way to London. Well, we’re supposed to be heading there but we’re standing still in the middle of nowhere due to a train in front of us having some sort of (technical?) difficulties. The rails at this spot are not level so we’re hanging over a bit to the left. To make this little uncomfortable situation even a bit more uncomfortable I’m in a coach with a bunch of Dutch high school kids on a trip. Let’s just say that they are verbally strong and overactive.

My sidekick on this trip handed me an iPhone with Angry Birds so I can have a go at this blasting pigs to get some eggs back.

The Euro Star needs a haul over I think. The wagons are a bit worn out and are starting to show their age. As to the promise of fast travel … well at the moment I’m not very impressed with this high speed as we’re standing still … now we’re moving as I type this at cycling speed  … and now we’ve stopped again. Right …it’s like being on a local commuting train that stops in every village.

No need for the telco industry to worry about mobile internet business. The Internet on trains doesn’t seem to have taken off.

So I’m at the hotel. 1,5 hours later than planned. I’m off the register and attend the welcome reception at BriForum next. Sunny day in London, that’s always nice.