Valhalla Partners Conducts Successful StorageFest℠ II
After an overwhelming response to our first StorageFest℠ in January 2011 in Palo Alto, we did it again! Valhalla's invitation-only StorageFest℠ II was held at Sparks Steakhouse in New York City and drew 60 attendees from key players in the storage and next-generation infrastructure industry for a spirited discussion of Big Data, the "voice of the infrastructure customer," and building quality of service at affordable cost in storage systems.
We were very pleased with the turnout from our companies, colleagues and friends in the storage ecosystem. We were looking for a fun and educational evening and we got both. There were great comments about the event using hashtag #storagefest on Twitter, including this from Dave Vellante of Wikibon:
dvellante @dvellante Thinking about #storagefest. Best small event I've attended in a while. Practitioners, VC's, BoD's, entrepreneurs and pundits. #winners
Perhaps the highlight of the evening was a dialog between execs from companies like Goldman Sachs, NASCAR, GE, Turner Broadcasting, and investors, vendors, and analysts. A StorageFest guest, CTO of an online analytics firm and Big Data expert, led the discussion and drew out the audience into a spirited exchange.
There were differing views among the participants on issues such as what constitutes Big Data and what the needs of the various sectors are or will be. Think about the difference between a 3D movie in digital format, the test data for a jet turbine, and details of customer interactions with a website. But everyone agreed that we have only seen the beginning of what will be an explosion of data in the coming years, and that addressing the needs of Big Data users will be the biggest story in storage for the foreseeable future.
We conceived the event as an intimate gathering where players from different parts of the ecosystem -- customers, OEMs, startup vendors, investors, analysts, and Big Data users of storage systems -- could meet for an evening and discuss broad topics for the industry. The caliber of the attendees and the overwhelming response to our invitation makes us confident that it will emerge as a "must-attend" infrastructure industry event.
To find out more about StorageFest℠ II, please look here , visit our Facebook page , or search for #storagefest.