Brace Yourself: Networking Field Day 2 Posts Are Coming

What is Networking Field Day? It’s the brainchild of Stephen “The Gandalf of Storage” Foskett (@sfoskett),  storage guy extraordinaire and all around awesome dude. Also working the event was Matt “No Nerd Left Behind” Simmons (@standalonesa).  He had the idea to put together these two day events, bringing vendors and bloggers together. Vendors pitch their wares in a way that is probably a bit scary: They are in no way guaranteed that the bloggers will write about them, and if we do, whether or not it will be positive or negative. In fact, it’s happened where bloggers have called a vendor’s product shit, to their face and in writing. What’s more, all the presentations (including a oftentimes tough blogger Q&A) is available online at Vimeo.

Stephen runs Tech Field Day, which has evolved into more focused field days such as Networking Field Day, Wireless Field Day, and the last Tech Field Day (Field Day 8) which was an unofficial Storage Field Day for the most part.

The Field Days are great for a couple of reasons. It allows vendors to spread their ideas to people that aren’t just going to parrot a press release. We’re the technical folk most qualified to call bullshit on a vendor claim.  The bloggers get to learn about technologies they were previously unaware of, or only peripherally aware of. And boy did I get my learn on. It’s hard not to with this fantastic group of people who comprised the other delegates/bloggers:

• Ivan “Mr MPLS” Pepelnjak (@IOSHints)
• Greg “Unicorn Tears” Ferro (@EtherealMind)
• Ethan “I’d rather be on a mountain” Banks (@ECBanks)
• Tom “Trampstamp” Hollingsworth (@NetworkingNerd)
• Kurt “I Bring Destruction In Candy Form And They Are Called Musk Sticks” Bales (@NetworkJanitor)
• Brandon “The Other Instructor” Carroll (@BrandonCarroll)
• Tony “I will caption you like one of the french girls” Mattke (@tonhe)
• Jeremy “Choose  A Big Fucking Router” Gaddis (@JLGaddis)
• Jeff “I Can Has Nexus 7000 MIBS” Fry (@FryGuy_PA)

There were two overall themes to this Networking Field Day. One is “The Problem”, the common state of networking and the common set of challenges we face, and the second is OpenFlow and what it means. There was some pretty exciting stuff discussed, and brace yourselves because many of the next posts are going to involve my experiences at tech field day. Fear not, it’s not vendor ass-kissing. We’re tough but fair, and if a product is shit, I’m not afraid to say so (like I did with Symantec).

Note: As a delegate/blogger, my travel and accommodations were covered by Gestalt IT, who vendors paid to have spots during the Networking Field Day. Vendors pay Gestalt IT to present, so while my travel (hotel, airfare, meals) were covered indirectly by the vendors, no other remuneration (save for the occasional tchotchke) from any of the vendors, directly or indirectly, or by Gestalt IT. My time was unpaid.