I attended my first INSIGHT in Las Vegas in 2018.If you had asked me then to predict the future, I never would have imagined how things would developed from there.

At that time, the event was still taking place in Mandalay Bay, in walking distance to the Fabulous Las Vegas sign. In the Expo Hall there was a big original A-Team Van and I really liked it, because… you know, the A-Team…. heroes of my youth.
That’s when I first met the wonderful Sam Moulton and we sat down next to the van and had a conversation about The NetApp A-Team… Who are those people, what makes them so special and why are they the smartest minds and the rock stars when it comes to NetApp Technologies…

2018 – my first INSIGHT Las Vegas

In 2018 I already had some NetApp experience (I take care of ONTAP systems since 2003), I passed some certifications when I attended INSIGHTs in Berlin the years before. And, most importantly, I love my job and I love to share the knowledge and learn from other poeple. But I was not very visible at that time, no blog, no social media. So we basically had a very nice chat, but nothing happened…
It was also in 2018, when I briefly met Justin Parisi and he gave me a Tech ONTAP T-Shirt. He is a podcasting legend and I never believed I would be his guest some day 🙂

If you had asked me about my highlight from INSIGHT 2018, I would have said: Lenny Kravitz rocking the INSIGHT party!

2019 and beyond

In 2019 I joined the group of NetApp Tech Advisors, a group of extremely skilled and passionate NetApp users… all very friendly and helpful. Everybody brought his own topics to the table and we discussed openly, respectful and in a very helpful way.
This group was not only meeting online, but on rare occasions even personally, offline. And that’s how I was able to spend a few wonderful days with brilliant minds from inside and outside of NetApp in Vienna.
And for the NetApp folks: They were willing and able to listen to the customer, hear our pain points, make changes within the organisation to mitigate those topics.

Corona – shutting down everything

Then Corona happened and INSIGHT was only taking place online and INSIGHT Europe is gone (that’s so sad, getting travel allowance to the US is becoming harder every year.)

Early Access Program for new hardware

In 2023 I had the great opportunity to test a new hardware generation of ONTAP hardware. Some of the best design decisions ever were happening:

• very small foot print in rack space, integrated U.2 NVMe disks
• IO-cards following the OCP standards allowing more slots than ever and upgrading frontend and backend to 100G Ethernet and beyond
• even though there are lots of cards and cables, the system is still very servicable
• a lot of DRAM (during my Strato times I dreamed about 1TByte in a single system)
• illuminated bezels and environmentally friendly packaging (only cardboard, no styrofoam)

During the testing period I did what I do best: unpack and install a system, upgrade, replace hardware… but I also made checklist tests and gave valuable feedback to the design team.
That was the time when Sam Moulton saw my potential and asked me if I wanted to join the A-Team. And of course I wanted to be part of the A-Team! A dream came true! For me this is a very special recognition and I am honored to be part of this wonderful group. Since then I have been a guest to Justin Parisis Tech ONTAP podcast, I have been working on NetApp Certifications, I have been talking about our projects and challenges – just wow! And even better, my employer understands the value of this and allows me to count the time I spent with A-Team topics as budget for personal growth, that’s fantastic.

INSIGHT 2025

So INSIGHT 2025 is already around the corner, what am I really looking forward to?

Top priority: Socializing!

• Of course, the most important point, and I really can’t stress this enough, is meeting people. Meeting experts and friends from all over the world, catching up, chatting, having fun, having a beer together,…
  Since covid we all need to be around people more than ever and have these kinds of fireside chats.

But it’s not only about meeting friends, I usually have a bunch of very technical questions in my head, like:

• how do I use $(new technology here)
• If I use X to do Y, how can I prevent Z from happening?
• Can you show me on a block diagram how components are connected in hardware platform $(dont say codenames here 😉
• What’s the best way to size my platform for

And every year, I meet people who know, who answer my questions, deepen my knowledge… or at lease guide me to somebody who can.
This scavenger hunt for knowledge is so exciting, it usually takes less than 3 hops to answer all of my questions. It always amazes me, and I have not found out how it works, but it does every time.

Hands-On Labs and Certifications

I usually don’t do Hands-On Labs at INSIGHT. When I learn about a new topic, the easiest way to try out is the web-centric Hands-On Labs. After I found out how the pieces are put together, I go through all command line options or ansible parameters to get a deep understanding. And then I implement for production. This process takes time and I need silence and concentration for this, so I love to learn new topics and then I start implementing when I’m back home.

But I want to take (and hopefully pass) 2 certifications this year:

• Metrocluster exam (I hope I filled my knowledge gaps in IP metrocluster during the last 12 months)
• the new CyberResilience Certification

If I pass at least one of them, all my other active certifications are renewed. Being certified shows you know what you’re talking about.

Breakout Sessions

Last year, the best A-Team Member (Pascal.deWild) and I talked about our StorageGRID, how we scaled from 58 to 110 nodes in less than 6 months.
This year we’ll take it one step further, because with great power comes great responsibility. And that’s why we completely redesigned our backend network. We want to share why we had to do this, what our new (ideal) design looks like. As this is a production system, the migration had to be done without downtime. We will sprinkle a few grafana dashboards on top to prove how much better it is now.

Personal Bucket list, what to do when visiting Las Vegas besides visiting INSIGHT:

Las Vegas is a great adventure, packed with gambling, shows, concerts, lights and sound… You’ll find entertainment (or should I say distraction) everywhere, you can go shopping or just look at the casino themes. I especially love Cesars Palace and the Venetian, so be sure to visit them and just look around. But I also love to get away from the noise and find some calm in the desert before INSIGHT takes off. Take a rental car and have a road trip, visit some scenic places… and don’t forget your sun protection and plenty of water)

my personal favorites are (so far):

• Grand Canyon (you really can’t describe it or take photos, you have to be there… Look at it and remind yourself how small you are)
• Valley of Fire is so beautiful and has several trails, there should be a perfect one for everybody
• Hoover Dam is a miracle of engineering, be sure to arrive early and take the long tour, it’s absolutely worth it.

And I especially love breakfast at Denny’s. The jetlag usually kicks me out of bed very early, so it’s possible to find me there before sunrise. If you do, say hi and let’s have breakfast together 🙂