EMC World 2016: Biggest Takeaways

So Much...

There were so many announcements and so much excitement going on during EMC World last week that I just could not keep up with everything. So I decided to really hone in on a few of the products and do my bets to glean as much as I could during my time. Here is my take on a few of the products/announcements that happened during EMC World this year.

Unity (Mid-Range)

Web GUI built on HTML5 (Not Java!)! Enough Said!

That aside, This product family has some real promise because of its simplicity and scalability. With the price point starting at $10,000 (Mixed Storage) & $18,000 (All Flash) for 2 TB, this makes it a heavy contender in this space again. This will allow EMC to directly battle with companies like PureStorage again!

I'm going to say it just one more time... HTML5 built GUI

VCE VxRail/VxRack

The VxRail/VxRack Products are powerhouses that I think will be heavily utilized in the near future. Right now its a little too bleeding edge for most traditional enterprises to just pick up and run with it, but give it just a little while longer (1-3 years) in the market and let it prove its worth and I think this line-up will be an unstoppable force. They were already touting several huge contenders in the ring that have started digging into this market that are having huge success. 

I'm excited to see how this pans out and I'm hoping we dig in as well.

All-Flash Isilon (Nitro)

I had to mention this because it blew me away that this was a thing! Once the reasoning for this monstrosity was given (Mostly Video Rendering for the larger movie productions) it made a little more sense, but to the small fry like me and mine it just sounded too ridiculous to be real.

Useful Links/Info

Breakout Sessions Slide Decks

EMC World 2016: My Newbie Take - Summary

EMC World Aftermath

I quickly realized that at EMC World you better get ready to be overwhelmed! My Head was spinning so hard after the conference was completely over that I didn't know which way was up!

I was told before I went that I would have to "Choose Wisely" once I got there as to what I would give my attention to. Whether it be Breakout Sessions, vLabs, General Sessions, Mingling with the natives, or even the Expo. This didn't prepare me at all for what was to come.

As you can see, I was able to keep up with Day 1 of EMC World but I quickly was overwhelmed with all of the activities and events going on. I had to pick and choose carefully what breakout sessions fit our future needs the best, as well as juggle the vLabs as best as possible. All this while going to the keynotes and trying to socialize with everyone that I felt like I should.

All that being said, I enjoyed every minute of it and wouldn't take it back for anything. I appreciated everything byte of information I was able to download into my tiny brain and the full experience that came along with it.

I especially appreciate everything that our EMC Guys did for us during this trip down and all the hard work they put into helping us navigate through EMC World the best they could and knew how!

All in all, this was a great experience for me and I feel that having this knowledge and opportunity will help propel my career forward by leaps and bounds!

EMC World 2016: My Newbie Take - Day 1

First Day in EMC World Paradise

I started out the day with every intention to hit as many breakout sessions as I possibly could, but slowly realized how much was available. I quickly got overwhelmed with the sheer number of possibilities available throughout the day and surprising found myself more focused on the vLabs (Both Self Paced & Instructor Led) instead of the breakout sessions.

A majority of my day was spent learning more about the new storage product line, Unity Family, that was introduced during the general session that morning. I had a good experience running through one of EMC's first renditions of the Instructor led Unity: Admin and Config class, where we only had a few small snags which is pretty common in a setting like they had.

I then decided it would be a good idea to hit up some of the self paced labs right next door, where I quickly found out that they were having some major hardware issues on the testing equipment behind the scenes. I tried pushing through these technical difficulties but failed miserably.

I decided it was time to go take one of my FREE attempts at a Proven EMC Prof. I headed down and registered for a VNX Cert Exam and spent about an hour drudging through that attempt.

At this point my brain was turning to mush with all the info that was being thrown my way, so I decided it was time to go hit up the Lounge area and try out the amazing cushy bean bags and watch a little bit of EMC TV before I head to the last breakout session of the day.

I headed towards my first/final breakout session of the day, Unity Multi-Dimensional Flash Flexibility, to get a little deeper look at the hardware behind the new Unity product line. The session had some pretty good information and it also had some data that made my head spin, but at this point it wouldn't have taken much to do so because my brain was just about to give up after the long day I had.

Stay Tuned for more of my Tales from the Depths of EMC World!

Sessions

• General Session: Modernizing The Industry
• DellEMC started the week with a pretty big bang! I was pretty impressed with what Michael Dell had to say about the future of the Dell/EMC Merger
• Plus they were giving away laptops! I didn't win, but still
• Unity: Multi-Dimensional Flash Flexibility
• This was pretty informational. There was a ton of pretty deep info that made my head spin just a little bit, but overall was a decent breakout

LifeHack: Taking Notes for a Simpler & Less Stressful Life

Goals of building this into your Daily Schedule

• Jot down important milestones of your day/week/month
• Mark/Check off all items completed throughout your day/week/month (Keep History of all milestones completed)
• Sleep like you have no care in the world!

Tools Needed

• Note App of your choice (Ex: OneNote, Evernote, etc...)
• My favorite, after playing around with several options, is OneNote
• Willingness to constantly adapt the process on how you track your day
• I have been working on and tweaking my process since the start and I've been running with it for about 2 years now

How I got Started

I have to admit that I didn't come up with this base idea of keeping a daily journal, I believe it goes way back to to the ancient times of a troubled adolescents. That being said, they were on to something pretty significant by just jotting down important events during their hard day.

I was discussing my sleepless nights and interrupted dreams with one of my co-workers about 2 years ago and between me and him it was decided that my brain just couldn't stop processing my day and everything it entailed. I started researching this phenomenon and quickly realized that I wasn't the only poor schmuck with this exact issue in the beautiful world of IT.

After doing some extensive research, during my sleepless nights, I found that several experts in the field of sleep study were hinting towards the fact that one of the leading causes of these sleepless nights is that your brain keeps important "Oh My God I have to remember <fill in the blank>" moments stored in the forefront of your mind and as soon as it gets close to the abyss of forgetfulness it throws up an alarm saying "Don't you dare forget!".

Now that I've figured out my base issue, it was time to start resolving this thing. This is where the Note App entered the stage. I was looking for a proper journaling app or something along those lines so that I could just start writing down everything that happened during my day in hopes that I could stop the annoying Alerts my brain would send out anytime I got close to that precious REM Sleep. I started just writing everything that went on during my day (both Personal & Work related), but that quickly got too cumbersome and was impeding on my daily tasks. I decided to pull back on the reigns a bit and just list out the important events and to-dos of that day. This was much easier to accomplish since it was just a handful of items.

After a few weeks of this I decided this still wan't quite what I was looking for. It had helped my sleeping issues marginally, but I still would have those alarms going off every night. After a little more soul searching, I figured out I had missed a crucial piece of the puzzle. Throughout an IT Professionals day we are constantly bombarded with requests and issues that "Have" to be taken care of immediately, but because a day is only 24 hours, it's impossible to get everything taken care of within a day. With this in mind, I was able to find the process that would finally set me free of my annoying brain's reminders for good!

Finally a Cure

I had finally found my path to fixing my sleep deprivation that was slowly driving me insane. I started by writing down all the requests & issues that came my way everyday and I marked them complete as soon as I was able to finish them. This eventually evolved into a few separate lists that have led me into the blissful sleep I had been yearning for for so long. I now keep the following lists up to date at all times, which gives me peace of mind and keeps my brain at bay since it is written down and will not get anywhere near that abyss of forgetfulness:

• Daily Tasks - These are tasks you do on a daily basis
• Examples
• Check Storage Array Health
• Check VMWare VCenter Health
• Check VMTurbo Suggestions
• Must Do - Things that come your way that have to be completed in a timely manner
• Examples
• Write Blog Post (Like a Boss!)
• Migrate File Share Server to new Hardware
• On Hold/Waiting - Any task that you are waiting on someone or something to complete (With explanations as to why they these tasks are on hold)
• Examples
• Sign up for VCP6-DCV - Waiting to pass VCA6-DCV
• Setup Physical Server and Prep for App Analyst - Waiting for specs from App Analyst
• Nice to Have - These are things that you would like to get done in the near future but don't have a specific date
• Examples
• Automate specific tasks, thru scripting, on our storage arrays
• Create KB article for specific process (Because this never gets put on the back burner)
• Projects - This is a list of all Major Projects on your plate and it's details (I also tie milestones from projects into my Must Do List)

Summary

By keeping the above lists up to date and flowing throughout my day, I was able to appease my brain and finally keep it from sending out alarms at all hours of the night. This process is constantly evolving and I'm coming up with new and improved ways that work best for me. This may be completely different on paper for you than it is for me, but the concept will hold true. If you keep a "Journal" of sorts throughout your day, I truly believe this will help anyone to gain a little more control in your daily life. Don't get discouraged if you start jotting things down and it doesn't feel right to you at first. This will take time and can be frustrating sometimes, but you will find your spot that works best for you. Just keep pressing towards that goal and I promise it will click into place for you.

It's Alive!!!

Disclaimer: This is my first post, so don't criticize too hard ;P