Two weeks ago I attended the TechUnplugged in London. For whom doesn’t know what TechUnplugged is. TechUnplugged is a full day conference focused on cloud computing and IT infrastructure. The conference brings influencers, vendors and end users together so it is possible to create interaction between these people. If you want more information, look at http://techunplugged.io/. All speakers had a slot of 25 minutes to tell their story. First I thought it was very little time to tell a story, but after a day of presentation I think it’s sufficient to do the job. If the subject of the presentation is not in your area of interest, it will only cost you 25 minutes of your time. The presentations of the influencers are interspersed with the vendors so you have varied subjects and presentation styles. The majority of the presentations were storage oriented. These presentations addressed subjects like: the history of storage, winners and losers in storage solutions, multiple vendors and secondary storage. Besides the storage presentations there was a session about OpenStack, Clouds and Containers and the presentation about the Software Defined Data Center from my colleague Arjan Timmerman with stroopwafels and chocolate. I gave, or it was the intention to give it live, a technical overview about vRealize Automation, but because of the bad Wi-Fi connection it was only a movie. The last part was an ‘Ask Me Anything’ panel consisting of influencers and vendors. Everybody could ask any questions got their answers from different perspectives. It seemed as a nice concept, but it’s always difficult to create this kind of interaction. After the ‘Ask Me Anything’ panel it was time to start the social part of the conference (beer, wine and networking). I’m looking back at a well-organized event with a broad pallet of interesting subjects and people involved. I think the combination of vendors and influencers and the presentations is perfect formula to be “updated” and involved in the last developments. For me some new products were introduced and I got some new insights in the fast changing world of cloud, storage and SDDC. I sincerely hope I meet you all at the next TechUnplugged in Amsterdam!