A quick plug for the UK Storage Management Forum of which I’m a member but also part of the very loose organising committee. The forum is a Strictly End-User Group focused on large storage environments based in the UK.
EMC sponsor the forum to the degree of contributing to the fees of running the user group and also to cover the expenses of hosting the event. We meet 2/3 times a year and receive product updates and presentations from other users. Obviously as EMC sponsor the forum, competing vendors are not permitted to pitch their wares but we do have presentations from companies who are partnering with EMC or at least provide complimentary technologies.
For instance at the next event both Exanet (clustered NAS) and Emulex are going to be presenting. There’s generally good representation from the telco industry but we could do with more from other industries.
The end-user presentations can be quite ummm…different; last time, we had CERN presenting on their storage infrastructure. It was enlightening for both sides; for instance they can afford for large amounts of their data to be unrecoverable and still do useful analysis. They also do nutty things like change tape-drivers to use additional tracks and hence end-up completely unsupported.
There is a Linked In group set up here where more information can be found. Non-marketing and sales people from other vendors are welcome to join but no pitching of products is allowed; no bad-mouthing of competitors is allowed either. End-users are welcome to relate experiences of storage products be it EMC or anyone else, positive or negative experiences.
