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Reporter's notebook: A week at IBM University |
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By Kenneth Milberg
02 Oct 2006 | SearchSystemsChannel.com
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IBM Business Partners had a chance to hone their skill sets at the IBM System p, AIX 5L and Linux Technical University, recently held in Las Vegas, Nev. Contributor Kenneth Milberg shares his findings, from session overviews to conference buzz -- and even some of the best parties!
If you're an IBM Business Partner and were anywhere but Vegas during the week of Sept. 11, shame on you!
What was happening in Vegas? Of course, IBM System p, AIX 5L and Linux Technical University. What is it exactly? As I've told clients, its not just another conference. It's the place to be if you have IBM pSeries servers or are thinking about investing in them.
Here I'll offer my reporter's notebook from the conference, giving you a breakdown of what to expect from such an event, then discuss some specific issues or "buzz" I heard that may interest you.
Conference overview: From sessions to parties
From start to finish, this "technical university" is a non-stop geek concert full of countless sessions based on various technical tracks. This years' tracks included:
- AIX
- HACMP (high availability cluster multiprocessing)
- Linux
- Systems
- Virtualization
In addition, there were APV (advanced power virtualization) workshops and open-lab sandboxes for administrators who love to play around. Most exciting was that you had the ability to take sessions in more than one track; you could take AIX, HACMP and Linux if you wanted. Of course, it got a little frustrating as there was just no way to take advantage of every class you might want to attend -- there were just so many repeat classes.
If you weren't fully exhausted from all the classes, you could study for the certification tests you want to take. IBM offered fully discounted certification tests in all its specialized areas. There were usually between 15 and 20 people in the class every time I looked, but there were always a few seats available. I was able to take and pass (yay!) the three tests I took, and received the certification I came to get (IBM Certified Advanced Technical Expert – IBM System p5 2006). As this certification is widely recognized as being the top level technical certification that one can achieve in pSeries land, I'm hoping it will lend credibility to statements that publicize our high level of expertise. From an IBM business Partners perspective, you should maintain a certain number of certifications to move up the ladder to advanced levels of Business Partner Status. These include: Business Partner, Advanced Business Partner and Premier Business Partner.
If you were not so completely exhausted by the sessions, labs and tests, you could go to the IBM party they had at AdventureDome at Circus Circus Hotel & Casino, an indoor playground of sorts. Plenty of fun and booze to go around! I passed on that, as I was actually at some private invitation-only IBM party the night before, so I was already in good (or bad) shape.
To read up on the conference "buzz," read part two of Ken Milberg's reporter's notebook: HACMP meet Linux.
About the author: Kenneth Milberg is a systems consultant with his own independent consulting firm, Unix-Linux Solutions. He has 15 years' worth of experience with Unix and Linux systems, as well as broad technical and functional experience with AIX, HP, SCO, Linux and Solaris. Milberg holds certifications with IBM (IBM Certified Systems Expert -- eServer p5 and pSeries Enterprise Technical Support AIX 5L V5.3 & IBM Certified Specialist –HACMP), SUN (SCNA,SCSA), HP (HP Certified –HP-UX administration) Cisco (CCNA) and Oracle (OCP-DBO).
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