Personal

This category contains posts of a personal nature.

Giving Thanks on Thanksgiving

Wednesday, November 23, 2011 in General, Personal by slowe | 6 comments

Here in the United States we are preparing to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday, and it’s a time of reflection. It’s a time to be thankful for what we have and what we’ve been given. This past year has been a tremendous year for me, both personally and professionally, with lots of things for which to be thankful:

  • Along with Forbes Guthrie and Maish Saidel-Keesing, in March we launched VMware vSphere Design (available here from Amazon). Even now—as far as I’m aware—it’s the only book on the market to comprehensively address vSphere-related design considerations.

  • In May, my oldest daughter gave birth to her first child, a girl.

  • I relocated from Raleigh-Durham, NC to Denver, CO. I’m very thankful for this relocation—my family and I are really enjoying the new area.

  • In October, Mastering VMware vSphere 5, still one of the only vSphere 5 books on the market (and the only comprehensive look at the new virtualization suite from VMware), became widely available.

  • In November, my 1998 Chevy Suburban (still with its original engine) rolled past 300,000 miles. Now that’s something for which to be thankful!

While I can thank a number of people who have helped me this year—people like Forbes and Maish, for allowing me to join them on the Design book; my editor, Agatha; my co-workers at EMC on the vSpecialist team; my wife, Crystal, for her never-ending support and tireless cheerleading; Forbes, Gabe, and Glenn for their help with the last version of Mastering—my greatest thanks is reserved for the Lord. All my successes and all my triumphs come from Him.

So, in this Thanksgiving season, while I extend my thanks to my family, my friends, and my co-workers, I’d also like to extend my thanks to the Lord. Thanks for blessing me, thanks for providing for me, and—most importantly—thanks for saving me.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

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The Move to Colorado: Day 1

Monday, September 5, 2011 in General, Personal by slowe | 3 comments

The move to Colorado has begun. I’m typing this from a hotel in Nashville, TN, where we wrapped up our day 1 travel just a short while ago. We’ll be here only one night, leaving in the morning to get to Kansas City for our second night.

The last few days have been a whirlwind. Crystal and I got home from VMworld 2011 on Friday night; Saturday we jumped in with both feet on getting our Chevy Suburban (nicknamed “Big Red” because it’s a big red Suburban; I’ll post a picture at some point) packed and ready for the trip to Colorado. Today (Sunday) we made our last visit as regular members to our home church in North Carolina so we could tell everyone bye. Saying good-bye was harder than I had anticipated. There were so many people that we’d grown close to over the years, and we’re really going to miss them. Of course, we know we’ll make new friends in Colorado, but that doesn’t change the fact we’ll still miss the old friends.

After attending church and saying our good-byes, we headed back to the house in Knightdale, did the final packing, and then finally hit the road around 4 PM Eastern or so. Our goal was Nashville, and we while we did make our goal (about 1 AM Central) it would have been easier if it hadn’t started raining before we even got to Knoxville. The rain slowed us down a fair amount, and I’m hoping that we’ll leave the rain behind tomorrow as we turn north toward St. Louis and then west toward Kansas City. Tomorrow night we’ll stay over in Kansas City (I need to take Crystal to eat some KC barbecue); if any KC-based friends are home and want to get together, let me know.

And that’s it for Day 1…another summary tomorrow after the end of Day 2.

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Time for a Fresh Start

Tuesday, July 19, 2011 in Personal by slowe | 24 comments

I’ll bet that when you saw the title for this post, your first thought was that I was leaving EMC and starting a new job with a new employer. C’mon, admit it! No, I’m staying at EMC; this post is about getting a fresh start in a new location. That’s right; I’m relocating to the Denver, CO area. In fact, I signed lease papers on a house in the Castle Pines North area, just south of Denver, yesterday afternoon.

I’m pretty excited about this move. I’ve lived in the Raleigh-Durham area for a really long time, and it’s been a great location for a technology guy like me. Even so, I’m looking forward to settling into the Denver area. Crystal and I want to make some lifestyle changes—get into shape and spend more time being active—and I’m confident that the new neighborhood and new area will encourage those lifestyle changes. If you follow me on Twitter, you might have noticed me inquiring about mountain bikes; mountain biking is a sport I intend to take up after the move to Denver. My two youngest sons (the only two kids still at home with Crystal and me) are also looking forward to learning to snow ski and snowboard, something I also plan to join them in. All in all, everyone in the family is really looking forward to the move. Certainly, there are close friends that we will miss, but we’re anticipating new friends and new experiences in a new region.

The move won’t affect my job; I’ll still continue in my role as field CTO for the vSpecialist team. My function isn’t tied to any particular geographical region (my role is global, actually), so as long as I live within a reasonable distance of an airport I’m fine. I have to say that I really appreciate the vSpecialist team and team management; they’ve been awesome and completely supportive of the move.

Given my current work schedule and other responsibilities, the move isn’t actually going to take place until early September, after we wrap up VMworld US in Las Vegas. So, between now and then, it’s all about uncluttering and packing for the move! If any readers are Denver residents, I’d love to hear any “tips and tricks” you’d care to share. Thanks!

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Announcing Mastering VMware vSphere 5

Wednesday, July 13, 2011 in Personal, Virtualization by slowe | 37 comments

Now that the lid has been officially lifted on VMware vSphere 5 (see my initial launch coverage here), I’m finally able to discuss a significant project that has been consuming a great deal of my free time for the last several months: Mastering VMware vSphere 5.

Yes, that’s right—there will be a new revision of my best-selling book on vSphere 4, completely updated and refreshed for vSphere 5. The previous edition, Mastering VMware vSphere 4, received rave reviews and was very well-received by the VMware community, selling over 20,000 copies since its release at VMworld 2009.

In the new revision for vSphere 5, you’ll find coverage included on the major new features:

  • Storage DRS
  • Profile-driven storage
  • VMFS-5
  • New hardware offloads in VAAI v2
  • The Linux-based vCenter Server virtual appliance

As in the previous edition, I’ve done my best to supply comprehensive coverage of the entire product suite, from installation to networking to storage, security, and automation. This book won’t go as deep as some other book on the market, but that’s not really its purpose. Mastering VMware vSphere 5 is targeted at getting you as much relevant, real-world information as possible to help you manage and optimize your vSphere 5 environment.

Right now, we’re targeting availability of Mastering VMware vSphere 5 around September 20, 2011. Due to the vSphere 5 release schedule, it was almost impossible to have the book ready any sooner. It will be available for pre-order via Amazon.com very soon. (In fact, some have said that the new book has already shown up on the Amazon UK site.) The book should be available in both print form and electronic form almost simultaneously.

As soon as the book is available for pre-order, I’ll update this article accordingly.

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Help Me Out

Wednesday, July 21, 2010 in General, Personal by slowe | 5 comments

Can I ask a favor? In the spirit of transparency and honesty, I want to point out that this is a request for my own benefit, but it shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes of your time. You see, a local EMC partner named eGroup (here’s their web site) is running this contest to win an iPad. The contest involves taking pictures of an “I love eGroup” sticker in various and interesting places. Since I recently traveled to Cork, Ireland, to support some of EMC’s European partners, I took a few photos while I was in Ireland and I submitted them to the contest.

Now, you might be saying, “But Scott, I thought you already have an iPad?” You’re right, I do. But I want to get one for Crystal, who could really use it with her online classes (she’s working toward a degree in education). So, if I can win this iPad, then I’ll have one for Crystal to use. (OK, so maybe it’s not entirely for my own benefit after all!)

Here’s what I need you to do:

  1. Log into Facebook.
  2. Go the eGroup Facebook page and “Like” the page.
  3. Go to the eGroup Official Photo Contest Entries page (here’s the URL).
  4. Vote for my photos by “Liking” the photos. I have two of them: one with me in the stocks at the Cork City Gaol (Jail), and another one of two wax figurines playing cards and one of the figures has an eGroup sticker as his “trump card”. You’ll need to be sure to actually click on the photo and then “Like” the photo in order for the vote to count!

That’s all! See, I told you it would only take a couple of minutes. Besides, we all know you’re probably going to log into Facebook sometime today anyway, so why not take a minute and help me out? Thanks!

UPDATE: It turns out you need to “Like” the main eGroup Facebook page as well. Be sure to click the photo that you want to vote for in order for the vote to count. I’ve updated the instructions, and thanks for your help!

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Hiatus

Saturday, June 19, 2010 in General, Personal by slowe

I just wanted to let everyone know I’m taking a blogging hiatus for a while. I don’t know yet how long. I do know that things are busy at work, I have a VMworld session to prepare, there are books to work on, and I have a family to enjoy while there is still time.

After five years of creating content for the site, it has become part of me. As such, I’m sure that I will pick up writing here again soon. For now, though, I’m going to take a break.

I do appreciate everyone who has read and responded to my work anytime over the last five years. I’m glad that I was able to help in some small way.

God bless!

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Blogging for the Right Reasons

Wednesday, June 9, 2010 in Collaboration, General, Personal by slowe | 39 comments

This will be a very quick blog post just to address a growing trend I’ve noticed. It started with the wave of prominent bloggers getting hired by EMC for the vSpecialist team. With the recent VMware vExpert 2010 awards, this trend has gotten even bigger. What is the trend? The trend I’m seeing is people starting blogs just to get attention in the industry.

Of course everyone wants to be noticed in their industry. I understand that. I respect that. I want to be noticed in my industry, too—there’s nothing wrong with that. But I cannot stress strongly enough that if you are starting a blog simply to make some noise in the industry, maybe win an award, or get hired by <Insert Company Name Here>, you are blogging for all the wrong reasons.

If you’re going to blog (or tweet), do it for the right reasons. I mentioned this in my recent chinwag with Mike Laverick. The successful bloggers are the bloggers who blog because of their passion for the topic(s) about which they are blogging. Consider some of the well-known and well-respected bloggers out there:

Why do these guys blog and/or tweet? Well, I’m not privy to their thoughts, but what I get out of their writing is that they are passionate about their topics. That passion comes through in their writing, it infects the readers, and their popularity grows. But I don’t think they started out with the intent of becoming popular or well-known. They started out because there was a topic that they were interested in or knowledgeable about and for which they had a passion.

So if you’re going to start a blog, fine. Do it. It’s fun (hard work, but fun). But be sure to do it for the right reasons.

UPDATE: If, for whatever reason, I didn’t list your name above, it doesn’t mean anything! Those names just jumped out of my head as some of the many virtualization-focused blogs that I follow. In addition, I know the writers of these sites on a more personal basis than the writers of most other sites. There are so many other excellent virtualization sites that I would be remiss to try to list them all. I’ll leave that to Eric Siebert!

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My Milestone Moment

Saturday, May 1, 2010 in General, Personal by slowe | 10 comments

In a recent post over on her site, fellow EMC’er Polly Pearson asked this question: in your day today, did you do what you hoped to be doing when you had that “milestone moment” as a kid?

Not being a regular reader of her site (sorry Polly!), I’m not 100% sure exactly what a “milestone moment” is. I’m guessing that it’s that moment of epiphany when you realize that you’ve found what you want to do for the rest of your life. With that definition in mind, it’s hard for me to exactly pinpoint my “milestone moment”. Was it the first time I sat down at a computer, a Tandy TRS-80 in the back of a Radio Shack where my older brother was the store manager? Was it the time I wrote my first BASIC program on an Apple IIe? Perhaps my milestone moment was when I agreed to take two years of piano lessons in exchange for my own computer. (The piano skills didn’t stick with me, by the way.) I don’t know exactly what my milestone moment was.

What I do know is that I’ve had a lifelong love of learning more about computers and technology. Notice I said “a lifelong love of learning more” about computers and technology. For some people, I think the very act of working on a computer—writing a program, building a PC from hardware components, or configuring routers and switches to build a network—is enough. That’s perfectly fine. I enjoy doing all of those things, but especially in the context of learning. I can’t really say that my love of learning is just a general love of learning; I don’t really care to learn more about philosophy, for example. (I mention that because my wife, Crystal, just had to take a philosophy course in college. Whew…) And if I get to help someone else understand the information, too, that’s a bonus!

So, to answer Polly’s question: did I do today (well, yesterday, because today’s Saturday) what I thought I would do in my milestone moment? Yes, I did. Yesterday, I learned more about access control lists (ACLs) on a Cisco Nexus 7000, I learned that BIOS revision 1.01e on Cisco UCS B-series blades doesn’t properly accept the boot order from the service profile, and I learned the basics of how VRF (well, VRF-Lite actually) works and can be used in an internetwork. And, as a bonus, I was able to help someone else understand as well!

I guess the key advantage of finding yourself doing what you envisioned in your milestone moment is that you are most certainly doing what you love. And when you do what you love, it hardly feels like work at all. (Chad, if you’re reading this, it does not mean I need more work!)

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So Long Status Quo

Monday, December 28, 2009 in General, Personal by slowe | 53 comments

Fans of Christian artist Nichole Nordeman will recognize the title of this post as a line coming from the chorus of her hit song “Brave” (from the album of the same name). The words go something like this:

So long status quo,
I think I just let go…

I think that these words are particularly applicable given the decision that I’ve just made. Talk about letting go of the status quo! You see, for the largest part of my professional career I’ve worked in the partner/reseller community. Working in the partner/reseller community has been great; you get to meet lots of different people, work in a variety of environments, and constantly chase the latest technologies. Still, the demands of the partner/reseller community almost force you, as a technical person, to be “a mile wide but only an inch deep,” meaning you know only a little bit about a lot of things. That can be difficult for some people, like me, who like to really know products. A lot of times, you just don’t get the time to do that. In a couple of weeks, though, all that changes.

In a couple of weeks, I’ll be joining EMC Corporation as a VMware-Cisco Solutions Principal. Yes, that’s right—I’m joining Chad’s team (sometimes referred to as “Chad’s Army”). I can’t tell you yet if I’m a warrior, a monk, a warrior-monk, or something else entirely; I imagine that will be just one of many things that I will discover in the coming months and years.

I can tell you that I’m very excited. As indicated by my job title, I’ll be focusing on VMware-Cisco-EMC and where these three companies converge. That means lots of exposure to Vblocks and other cool technologies that smart people in Hopkinton, San Jose, and Palo Alto are building right now as I write. Of course, I’ll be working directly with the VMware specialists on Chad’s team. If you’ve met some of these guys, you’ll know what a treat that is—there is some great talent on this team.

You might be wondering how this will affect my blogging. That was a concern that I shared while discussing this opportunity. The bottom line is that it won’t. I won’t let it. Sure, you’ll see a new disclaimer appear in the sidebar and on the About page that indicates this is a personal blog and not an EMC blog, etc., but otherwise my goal is to continue to share solid, helpful technical content with my readers. I intend to continue to provide viewpoints that are as impartial as possible, and to live up to Steve Chamber’s comments about being an anti-protocol passionista. I’m sure that I will be accused of being an EMC fanboy (that started months ago!) or a VMware fanboy, but I do aim to be as impartial and even-balanced as I possibly can be. Of course, I am human and prone to error from time to time, so don’t be too harsh on me.

To all my friends and colleagues at ePlus, it has been a tremendous pleasure working with you. Many of you I have known personally and worked with for more than ten years. It’s like we are family! I will sincerely miss your friendship and your support. ePlus is a great company with some fantastic talent, and I wish ePlus and all of you nothing but the best!

So long, status quo…

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I’m a Bad Student

Thursday, September 24, 2009 in Personal by slowe | 20 comments

As I mentioned a short while ago, I’m in the process of learning about EMC storage. To that end, I managed to get my hands on a copy of Information Storage and Management: Storing, Managing, and Protecting Digital Information (Wiley, 2009; available on Amazon). While general in nature, the book has a fair number of EMC-specific product examples.

The book, though, isn’t the focus of this post. As I’ve started reading this book and trying to expand or solidify my knowledge of the concepts found in it, I’ve come to a disappointing realization: I’m a bad student.

Yes, that’s right. I’m a bad student. Over the past few years, my studying skills have really deteriorated. In the past, the constant flow of certification tests kept my studying skills reasonably sharp. And while we can all debate the value of IT certifications, I think we can also agree that they do, at least, help sharpen the study skills.

Normally, I wouldn’t be too terribly worried about this, but I have to ask myself: is this a symptom of something more? Is my ability to learn, assimilate, process, and relate new information also deteriorating? I pride myself on being a smart guy that can pick up just any new technology—is that still accurate? What can I do to reverse these trends, if indeed they are occurring?

So I need to ask your help. What studying techniques do you guys (and gals!) find useful? If you were in my situation—specifically, let’s say you need to acquaint yourself with an entirely new set of products from a new vendor—what techniques would you use in the process? Additionally, what techniques are readers using now to help with certification exams? I have at least two very important certification exams looming on the horizon (one much closer than the other, but both very close), so any tips readers can provide are welcome. Help me become a better student!

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