Vendor Neutral IT Strategist Conference
-
@John-Nicholson said in Vendor Neutral IT Strategist Conference:
I know I"m crazy late to this but I'll throw my 2 sense out....
Vendor neutral for what?
VMworld (and VMware in general) is essentially Switzerland if your curious what people are doing for networking, and storage. You can talk with Cisco, and AWS people at the conference. You could go to this conference and focus on non ESXi related conversations and sessions the entire time if you wanted (there are like 700 different sessions). Throw in the brownbag and booth theatre sessions and there are likely over 1000 unique presentations. The other reason I'm a fan of the conference for al long time is the community. There is a conference before the conference (Opening Acts) put on by the VMunderground team where it's panels's and you can talk to people over vBrisket lunch about how/why they are doing things. A conference with a lot of people in your field gives you the opportunity to talk to peers about not just what people are saying on stage but also validate what others are doing.
DellWorld is neutral if your wanting to see where non-hardware overlay vendors are going (Microsoft, RedHat, VMware are all there to talk and present).
AWS and Microsoft conferences will yield similar benefits partly because they (like VMware and Dell) have so many products (and partner ecosystem partners) surrounding them that while there are always slightly rose tinted glasses on things they had enough product diversity that you can learn a little about everything in them.
If you want an analyst driven conference about the future of IT, IDC is what Gartner promises to be IMHO. Any of their presentations at other conferences (I saw their people speak in vForum in Kuala Lumpur and their vision for digital transformation is really spot on with what I see in the field).
The "vendor focused" conferences really only get tunnel vision when they are about a single vendor who only has a single product (or maybe 2 products) in a very narrow filed. Pure Storage's conference would be an example (Where you can expect the sessions on HCI to be pure FUD, because they don't have an HCI product).
I'm pretty sure I attend more conferences than everyone else on this website.
I think talking to your peers hurts more than it helps. A lot of my misunderstandings (not all, but most) stem from me receiving misinformation. I probably spend more time unlearning incorrect concepts than I do learning correct ones. I can count the amount of humble IT peeps I've met on one hand--whether they really know what they are doing or not. This field seems to attract a lot of people who want to be the authority on things but aren't. I fit into this category, but I try my absolute best to not give misinformation if I can.
-
@Kelly said in Vendor Neutral IT Strategist Conference:
It sounds like you liked what Gartner's analysts had to say. They have a poor reputation here, but I haven't looked at their output enough to form my own conclusions.
If you feel that this makes sense, you've not understood our point. You cannot look at their output and know what they do on the other side. They ARE pay to play marketers, there is no question, opinion or grey area there. That's what they are. We've all worked for vendors that have been charged or attempted to have been charged to give them good results in the Gartner products. Everything Gartner does is designed to make you feel like their output is legitimate, that's the entire goal. That they are unethical and absolutely undermining to you as an IT pro cannot be in question.
There is no condition where false information designed to confuse you should be considered, none. Once you know that that is what they do, there is no condition under which they should be considered further.
-
@wirestyle22 said in Vendor Neutral IT Strategist Conference:
I think talking to your peers hurts more than it helps. A lot of my misunderstandings (not all, but most) stem from me receiving misinformation. I probably spend more time unlearning incorrect concepts than I do learning correct ones. I can count the amount of humble IT peeps I've met on one hand--whether they really know what they are doing or not. This field seems to attract a lot of people who want to be the authority on things but aren't. I fit into this category, but I try my absolute best to not give misinformation if I can.
Partially matters how you define peers. Or who your peers are. If you are an entry level person, your peers are entry level and yes, listening to them is very, very bad. If you go to SW, it's clear what the peerage there has done and it has destroyed the knowledge and competence there in so many cases. So much misinformation passed back and forth to make it look legitimate.
-
@Kelly said in Vendor Neutral IT Strategist Conference:
It sounds like you liked what Gartner's analysts had to say.
No, he likes IDC, not Gartner.
-
@scottalanmiller said in Vendor Neutral IT Strategist Conference:
@wirestyle22 said in Vendor Neutral IT Strategist Conference:
I think talking to your peers hurts more than it helps. A lot of my misunderstandings (not all, but most) stem from me receiving misinformation. I probably spend more time unlearning incorrect concepts than I do learning correct ones. I can count the amount of humble IT peeps I've met on one hand--whether they really know what they are doing or not. This field seems to attract a lot of people who want to be the authority on things but aren't. I fit into this category, but I try my absolute best to not give misinformation if I can.
Partially matters how you define peers. Or who your peers are. If you are an entry level person, your peers are entry level and yes, listening to them is very, very bad. If you go to SW, it's clear what the peerage there has done and it has destroyed the knowledge and competence there in so many cases. So much misinformation passed back and forth to make it look legitimate.
This is the same train of thought I take, which essentially means most of you are not my peers but are more my mentors
-
@scottalanmiller said in Vendor Neutral IT Strategist Conference:
@Kelly said in Vendor Neutral IT Strategist Conference:
It sounds like you liked what Gartner's analysts had to say.
No, he likes IDC, not Gartner.
Thanks for clearing that up. It makes more sense now.
-
@Kelly said in Vendor Neutral IT Strategist Conference:
@scottalanmiller said in Vendor Neutral IT Strategist Conference:
@Kelly said in Vendor Neutral IT Strategist Conference:
It sounds like you liked what Gartner's analysts had to say.
No, he likes IDC, not Gartner.
Thanks for clearing that up. It makes more sense now.
I've not worked with IDC but have no knowledge of them working like Gartner does. And it is hard to hide because if you have any vendor side exposure, that Gartner reaches out to extort vendors is common knowledge as they do it to everyone. Same kind of thing that Dunn & Bradstreet do. Give us money, or we'll report bad things about you.
-
@scottalanmiller said in Vendor Neutral IT Strategist Conference:
@Kelly said in Vendor Neutral IT Strategist Conference:
@scottalanmiller said in Vendor Neutral IT Strategist Conference:
@Kelly said in Vendor Neutral IT Strategist Conference:
It sounds like you liked what Gartner's analysts had to say.
No, he likes IDC, not Gartner.
Thanks for clearing that up. It makes more sense now.
I've not worked with IDC but have no knowledge of them working like Gartner does. And it is hard to hide because if you have any vendor side exposure, that Gartner reaches out to extort vendors is common knowledge as they do it to everyone. Same kind of thing that Dunn & Bradstreet do. Give us money, or we'll report bad things about you.
The biggest issues with Gartner I have is how they arbitrarily define what a market is. They will ignore the #1 vendor in a space by making an artificial distinction (HCI must be an appliance and not software, All Flash arrays must be an array that isn't just sold with only flash, but has a magic SKU that prevents you from installing non-flash drives) etc.
-
@John-Nicholson said in Vendor Neutral IT Strategist Conference:
@scottalanmiller said in Vendor Neutral IT Strategist Conference:
@Kelly said in Vendor Neutral IT Strategist Conference:
@scottalanmiller said in Vendor Neutral IT Strategist Conference:
@Kelly said in Vendor Neutral IT Strategist Conference:
It sounds like you liked what Gartner's analysts had to say.
No, he likes IDC, not Gartner.
Thanks for clearing that up. It makes more sense now.
I've not worked with IDC but have no knowledge of them working like Gartner does. And it is hard to hide because if you have any vendor side exposure, that Gartner reaches out to extort vendors is common knowledge as they do it to everyone. Same kind of thing that Dunn & Bradstreet do. Give us money, or we'll report bad things about you.
The biggest issues with Gartner I have is how they arbitrarily define what a market is. They will ignore the #1 vendor in a space by making an artificial distinction (HCI must be an appliance and not software, All Flash arrays must be an array that isn't just sold with only flash, but has a magic SKU that prevents you from installing non-flash drives) etc.
Yes, that's how they do the marketing. Find what you want to sell, and define the research by whatever makes that product stand out. Rather than looking for the needs and finding the product that meets it, they find the product and seek a need.
-
And then they make whatever need that is sound general and ubiquitous. Same trick, but way more powerful, than what FreeNAS does. FreeNAS says "to get X you need to do Y" but don't mention that X isn't something you want, they present it as a foregone conclusion and people just get suckered right into that. At least FreeNAS never pretends to be neutral or giving advice. People just convince themselves of that.
