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Now that the Dell Enterprise Forum EMEA at Frankfurt has finished is possible comment this event and compare with the previous EMEA editions. This year, due to work commitments I was able to attend only one day (Tuesday), and for this reason my evaluations will certainly influenced by this limited time (that of course cannot describe the entire event).

But the first impression (and partly also shared by some of the other attendees) is that this event was a bit ‘resigned (or undertone, if you prefer), certainly compared to the London event (where perhaps there were less people, but was really great, probably because was the first, but also for the excellent organization, and has been above my expectations) than the one in Paris. To be honest, however, this is a general impression that covers many of the events of this year.

Something was really missing, for example I definitely expected something more for bloggers and for the Dell TechCenter Rockstars, if only because in events like VMworld there arises a lot of attention to these aspects.

Also the choice of location was a bit ‘strange (although appreciated): directly at hotels near the airport! It actually has its own logic, but at that point what the city becomes quite irrelevant, since then the party was also at the airport itself.

Dell Enterprise Forum EMEA 2014In terms of content, unfortunately I have follow only part of the session of Tuesday (my agenda was already full with only a free slot for sessions) and in part to what I heard from other participants.

Apart the press / bloggers events I was able to only participate in a technical session and I must say it was very good and well done (related to the design of the networking of a network for EqualLogic iSCSI) to indicate that the contents certainly were present. From what I have heard as well other technical sessions and especially the NDR were definitely up to par.

Very valuable also the 1:1 sessions with several leaders of the various areas Dell, shame that I had planned only two, but have been fruitful and interesting. With Dominique Vanhamme, head of networking, Dell EMEA, I had interesting discussions about the evolution of the networking (and in the event there has been much emphasis on the Dell networking products and technologies), while with Forrest Norrod, vice president and general manager, server platforms, Dell, I had the opportunity to speak of Fluid Cache and better understand how is different compared to other host cache solutions.

About the general sessions on Tuesday I shall merely observe the limited number of announces (many already knew and not comparable with the previous events were there was a great emphasis on this aspects). However, the announcement of Fluid Cache (a proprietary solution of host caching) definitely deserve some in-depth post. But there were also other interesting announcements like the new version of the Compellent Storage Center 6.5, the Mobile Version of Dell OpenManage and much more (especially in networking area).

The main message could be synthetized by this tweet:

Dell is trying to change the IT (often was also used the term “new IT” or “IT of the future”), surely with interesting products, but also with solutions, services, synergies and lot of emphasis on end users and customers. Of course, it’s really important found solution for everybody in order to have a new IT (or at least a better IT), with solutions both for the Enterprises but also for the SMBs.

The labs were really improved and more in numbers than the past events, and almost on interesting topics (like SDN).

Curiously, it seems that this time there has been no announcement on the location (and the days) of the Dell EMEA Enterprise Forum 2015. Personally I hope that after the turn of UK, France and Germany will be the time for Italy!

They are, however, remained valid the reasons on why attend at the Dell Enterprise Forum EMEA, because part of the negative notes in this edition are probably more related to a tendency of sobriety and simplicity of the events and certainly the fact that my stay was forcibly limited.

For more information see also:

For more information of the past EMEA events:

Disclaimer: I was invited to this meeting and my travel and accommodation are covered, but I’m not compensated for my time and I’m not obliged to blog. Furthermore, the content is not reviewed, approved or published by any other person than me.

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Virtualization, Cloud and Storage Architect. Tech Field delegate. VMUG IT Co-Founder and board member. VMware VMTN Moderator and vExpert 2010-24. Dell TechCenter Rockstar 2014-15. Microsoft MVP 2014-16. Veeam Vanguard 2015-23. Nutanix NTC 2014-20. Several certifications including: VCDX-DCV, VCP-DCV/DT/Cloud, VCAP-DCA/DCD/CIA/CID/DTA/DTD, MCSA, MCSE, MCITP, CCA, NPP.