EMC World 2008, Las Vegas

How big is your electronic footprint ? We're all producing electronic material at an astonishing rate : pictures, e-mail, work documents. And all that stuff has to be stored somewhere. Luckily, storage devices are getting bigger and cheaper every year : I just bought a 8GB memory stick for under 40$. Storage is expanding at an incredible rate : the megapixel count of digital cameras keeps expanding every year, more and more people are taking more and more pictures, and video content is just starting to boom. I'm not yet even talking about high-definition material, only a small part of the early adopters is starting to use this, and probably only partially.

Storage is an incredibly intriguing area to work in. That's why I'm visiting EMC world right now, held in Las Vegas. EMC World is a yearly event by EMC for technical people, digging in the storage areas EMC is working on. EMC World is big, even for American standards. The current head count is over 9300 visitors, and that's not counting the people organising this event (catering, security, ...). The Mandalay Bay hotel and convention center is equally sized, getting from one convention room to another can be quite a walk. I received a pedometer which counted an astonishing 7.4km for the first convention day only !

Las Vegas itself isn't quite my cup of tea : last year I already wrote about the plastic fake environment, but luckily the Luxor hotel is rather modest in this area. It featured a sushi bar, which was my first sushi experience, and I must say I like it. Unfortunately, they didn't offer Japanese whisky, so I had to content myself with a taste of a shot of Jim Beam American whisky. One glass is rather insufficient to offer a decent review, but I found Jim Beam rahter sweet, and begging to be mixed with coke. I must say whisky and sushi make a very good combination.

Time to head off for the second EMC World day, there's lot's of stuff to explore...