What is trending in Q1 and what can we expect in Q2 of this year?

What was trending in Q1 of 2013 and what can we expect in Q2?

I made a few observations over the past weeks and I’m seeing a few topics that got my attention:

  1. EMC now has a community appreciation program called EMC Elect and I’m one of the 10 original founders! I blogged about that here: http://www.50mu.net/2013/01/15/emc-elect-2013/.
  2. EMC announced new SAS drives for the formerly FC-only based VMAX
  3. VCE announced new vBlock models. I wrote a little blog post here: http://www.50mu.net/2013/02/22/vce-announces-new-vblock-models/
  4. a new Cloud Solution from EMC: VMAX CE. I wrote a blog about that too here: http://www.50mu.net/2013/02/26/vmax-cloud-edition-4all/.
  5. EMC VFCache is transformed into ExtremSF and faster and larger products will be made available. Also the XtremSW software suite is introduced that eventually is able to use third party flash card to be used as cache or DAS storage
  6. EMC introduces its XtremIO, all flash array with true inline deduplication

And for Q2 I’m looking forward to EMC World 2013 and maybe some new products like VNX2 or VMAX2, who knows? Rumors about a VNX2 have been around since half a year or so.

Being one of the 75 Elect I’m hoping to meet many of the other 72. Huh? 75 – 72 = 3. Did I meet 2 others already? Yes I did, in fact they’re valued colleagues of mine: Jon Klaus and Menno de Liège. They are Elect 2013 too and I believe that after EMC our employer “Open Line” now has the largest amount of Elect members. Well, actually I know 1 more Dutchman, who lives in the area: Roy Mikes. For the rest I can say I already met a few Elect people on EMC World last year, before they were Elect of course, since Elect is brand new!

So let’s talk about EMC World 2013 a bit:
I know it all focuses on Sunday evening to Thursday around noon, but since I’m already arriving on Friday the 3rd I’m making plans to do a bit of site seeing. Last year I arrived 1 day early and I was able to join the Dutch delegation to the Grand Canyon on Sunday where we enjoyed a helicopter flight through the Grand Canyon! This year however will be different since the eServices Customer Council, of which I’m also a member, planned to have a 1 day long meeting on the Sunday! So there you go, no Black Canyon River rafting for me this time, but I’ll actually be working on a Sunday! Which only leaves the Saturday for some pre EMC World fun. I’m thinking about visiting Fremont Street and parts of the old Vegas that you always see on tv. During the Saturday evening a lot of the Elect and all of the Council members known to me will arrive and I’m sure we’ll have a blast in some restaurant or bar in the vicinity of the Venetian hotel, where most of us will be staying.

I’m really hoping to spend some time with my fellow Elect members and Council members during the week, so socializing has a high priority for me this year. I want to use the Blogger’s launch, perhaps try 1 or 2 exams (first attempt for free: https://community.emc.com/docs/DOC-22697), do some labs and visit a few keynotes, morning sessions and the Solutions Pavilion of course (click to see the EMC World Agenda).

And Wednesday evening there will be (rock?) music. The band is still a secret, but I’m sure we will enjoy its performance! After the concert visiting the famous Bellagio fountains show and perhaps the treasure island lava and water show are on the agenda again for me. But for people in Western Europe who are able to visit the fun park “Efteling” really should pay a visit to this park near Tilburg in the Netherlands, since in my opinion the Aquanura water show is much better than the one at the Bellagio!

On Thursday a lot of people will already fly home, but I arranged the flight back home on Saturday, so that leaves me with yet another whole day of socializing fun. This time I would like to go see a beautiful site called the Valley of Fire, just North of Las Vegas.

I’m looking for tips, if anyone has sites that are really worth visiting, let me know by commenting on this post.

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