Lots of folks use the expression, “having a field day” – mostly with positive connotations, like a day set aside for athletic competitions or a time of extraordinary pleasure or opportunity. From my time in the Marine Corps, a field day meant housecleaning and inspections (definitely not fun). Today at Drobo, we indeed had an extraordinarily positive experience sponsoring a Gestalt IT Tech Field Day event, the 4th time Drobo has been a sponsor.
Who was at this field day? Engineers: 13 delegates + 2 more organizers =15 Engineers who thrive on technology. Continuing with definitions, engineers apply scientific knowledge & ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. With a background in engineering, I totally agree with the organizers’ guidelines for presenting to engineers. A long slide presentation is not necessary to explain most technologies, no matter how complex, actually the opposite. We do believe, however, that there must be cupcakes.
After we read the guidelines, we made a decision that really wasn’t so difficult:
0% PowerPoint and 100% white board, live demo, and/or show & tell. After a brief welcome from Tom Buiocchi, CEO, the chalk talk began. Rod Harrison our Chief Architect was a maestro with colored markers explaining exactly how BeyondRAID works under the covers and how SSDs in the Drobo B1200i work. Like everything with Drobo, it was easy, especially with our new Automated Data Aware Tiering to dive into. You can see Erik Pounds in this latest YouTube video or my whiteboarding video on Drobo Technology @ Drobo Storage for Business Demo on Demand.
Net = It was a fun field day, and it continues for the delegates tomorrow with a very full day. Expect to see some product reviews on B1200i with SSDs and tiering from several of the delegates in the coming weeks (Howard Marks, Chris Evans, and others). Also expect blogs on Drobo from many as well, in a few days once the field day is over and they are back home after the extraordinary pleasure of their time in the bay area.
Talk live to Mario and other Drobo experts @ http://www.drobo.com/live or e-mail mario@drobo.com.
Mario Blandini
Mario is VP of Technology Solutions @ Drobo. Responsible for technical marketing, the pre-sales technical team, product marketing contribution, and solution development with industry partners, he is the voice of Drobo webcasts / podcasts and the pitch man in most Drobo videos. Talk live to Mario and other Drobo experts @ http://www.drobo.com/live, or e-mail mario@drobo.com.
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