Things I learned this week at Discover 2011

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Discover 2011 is starting to wrap up (although there are still plenty of things happening today, including a few more hours of the Discover Zone, lots of additional break-out sessions, and a concert by some Knight - not sure if it's Sir Lancelot, The Dark Knight, or someone else, but I guess I'll go find out for myself), and it's been an amazing week.

I've had a chance to meet a lot of great people - from fellow HP employees, to customers, to partners - even those 4 Elvii I mentioned in earlier blog.  Seems like everyone is here this week - but I hope I can find Marilyn one more time, as I need a picture!

I've also had some opportunities to learn a lot more about a lot of fascinating topics while working and wandering around the Discover Zone, and listening to our keynote speakers:

• "The Cloud" is going to be a BIG game changer - most of us non-technical folks are just starting to grasp the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the potential of the Cloud.  But everywhere you go at Discover 2011, you'll hear about how many different parts of HP (and there are a lot of us!) are all converging on the capabilities we'll need to offer our customers with regards to participating in the Cloud.

• Apple's iCloud *appears* (I have to put that in there for the legal folks - but I'm pretty sure it's more than just an appearance) to run on HP hardware.  Interesting timing that Apple announces the iCloud on Monday, to about 5,000 folks at their conference (I think that 10,000 is more than 5,000 - but again, I'm not the most technical blogger), and then releases images of their iCloud data center, where it *appears* there's a bunch of HP hardware in there.

• HP is in a great leadership position to not only compete, but win, against our competition.  We've got it all - the servers, the storage, the clients, the network to tie it all together - the mobile devices (I need a Touch Pad!), the services.  And most importantly - we've got the greatest people behind all of it. 

• While you can walk a lot at one of these conventions, and that should be really good for you - they keep putting food and drinks everywhere, which is probably off-setting any exercise I'm getting.  The Venetian and the folks responsible for running Discover 2011 have certainly taken GREAT care of us all.  Hopefully once I'm back home my kids will keep a nice stock of pretzels, popcorn, fruit, yogurt, ice cream and candy bars around the house so I can feel like I never had to leave the Discover Zone.

• Lastly - be at Discover 2012.  I can't wait to see what future Discover shows feature.  For our initial offering here in 2011, it's certainly started with a big bang.  Big enough to send those Clouds anywhere and everywhere - but in this case, I don't think folks are going to mind a little bit of a "Cloudy Day"!