First Conferences, 12 TB, and a Road Trip!

Thursday was quite the day for us. I mentioned earlier in the week that I was setting up the storage for Lori to digitize all of the DVDs, well we came to the conclusion that we needed 12 terabytes of raw disk to hold movies + music. Our current NAS total was just over four Terabytes, clearly not enough.

While I take it in stride that I would consider purchasing an additional 12 TB of disk space, you have to stop in awe for a moment, don’t you? It was just a decade ago that many pundits were saying most enterprises didn’t need more than a terabyte of data, now I’m considering 12 for personal use? And while it isn’t cheap, it is in the range of my budget, if I shop smartly. Kind of mind boggling. Makes you wonder what most enterprises are at. Sure, they’re not digitizing HD movies, but they are producing HD content, and that’s just a portion of what they’re turning out. I’ll have to go dig up some research on current market trends.

So I ordered another NAS from Dell. For price plus simplicity, they suited our needs best – though the HP product a PR rep sent me a link to was interesting, it only had 1.5 TB of space, and I don’t feel like bulk-replacing disks on brand new kit. It seems that my ARX is going to get its workout in the near future… Almost gave it up about a month ago, now I’m glad I didn’t, that’s four NAS’s plus a couple of large shares that it can manage for us. We’re also reconfiguring backups, and I (at this time) have no idea how best to make use of the ARX in this process… It’s learning time.

Shortly after I placed the order for the new NAS, we left for Milwaukee, where Lori was due to speak at the Paragon Development Services conference (they’re a partner of F5’s). We decided that since he was nearly three years old, it was time to take The Toddler to his first IT conference… He went, fit in well, and appears to have all the traits of conference attendees. He picked up on the “free water” thing pretty quickly, paid rapt attention, and was ready to go before she even started.

Since PDS is pretty big on private clouds, and Lori knows a thing or two about clouds, their issues, their potential, and how to get started, it was a natural fit for her to speak there, and all accounts are that she did well. Yes, I had The Toddler in hand, so I left before she actually started to speak, didn’t want him to do to her what he did in church, shouting “I see a barn!” into the silence of her taking a breath. But everyone that talked to us on the way out was pleased with her presentation, and the slides were rock-solid, so I’m assuming she rocked it like she always does.

So our Thursday was pretty full of excitement, but all went well. We have a shiny new NAS on the way (Dell Storage employees, it is on the way, isn’t it?), The Toddler got to see his first tech conference, and we ran all over Milwaukee looking for a hobby store afterward. The one we wanted to go to either closed or moved, the building was empty… And we ended up coming home without the hobby store stop along the way.

Lori preparing to speak at PDS Tech 2010

Free Water!

 

I will no doubt update you about the new NAS when it arrives, much the same as I have on previous new NAS purchases. Meanwhile, it’s back to the joys of WOM for me…