I stopped going to Uptime Symposium three years ago, when I was no longer able to attend the conference as media. My blog doesn’t qualify as full time industry publication. Explained another way, my blog doesn’t play by the rules influenced by the industry vendors and analysts. If I had any ad sponsorship money from the data center industry then it is hard to say it wouldn’t influence what I write. I do get influenced by my friends and what they think. :-)

Missing the conference means I don’t see friends, but I find I can go to other conferences like 7x24 Exchange and see most of the people I want to connect.

When I took a look at the latest schedule for the 2014 Symposium it reminded me of a Gartner Data Center conference where most of the presenters are Gartner analysts with a sprinkling of industry people. This next Uptime has 451 group as the speakers which is great for those who subscribe to 451 Group’s services.

I remember going to my first Uptime Symposium with Mike Manos and Christian Belady. I learned a lot and made good friends. One of the more memorable is an ex-Google data center engineer who I was able to have insightful discussions on the state of the data center industry and still keep in touch with.

Industry events are great places to meet people. Next week I am off to wireless/mobile conference in Vancouver.

Here is the event.

The session I am speaking on is this one.

What’s Real at the Nexus of Forces: Mobile, social, data, cloud?

This time, change is coming from four directions. Post-web computing harnesses disruptive technologies in the cloud and on mobile devices, and puts social media and big data to work. While consumer-driven tech leaks into the enterprise, line of business management and IT must collaborate to get the most of these four critical technologies. But hold off the hype, and keep the futurists focused: this session will zero in on what’s realistic in the next 12-24 months. What’s pie-in-the-sky and what’s driving 12-24 month decisions that can show payoff?