The Myths of Datacenter Conferences

 

There are so many datacenter conference events going on right now. in the last 30 days we had 3-4 conferences in Dallas and Austin alone. Multiply that by 5 or 6 large markets and a few smaller market events and it becomes challenging to decide where to spend your money and more importantly, your time.

 

The top myths and truths about datacenter conferences below, according to DeVita.

 

 

 

1.     The myth: A lot of end users attend these conference

 

The Truth: It depends on who your end user is. If your end user is a datacenter provider then bingo, you hit the jackpot! If your end users are enterprise customers, you should probably look elsewhere.

 

2.     The myth: Only sales people attend.

 

The truth: While there are a lot of salespeople, there are others as well. Most of the speakers at these events are high-level datacenter executives (see myth 1). If this is who you are targeting, then you’re in good shape.

 

3.     The myth: You have to sponsor these events to speak at them.

 

The Truth: If you are a newer provider then yes, you will most likely have to pay to speak at some of these events in the form of a sponsorship. If you are an executive at any of the larger datacenter providers you will be given a spot. Your presence drives attendance and sponsors for the event.

 

4.     Myth: There are too many datacenter conferences.

 

Truth: It depends on what type of conference you are looking for. They all have a different target audience, for instance:

 

▪        DICE- mainly real estate broker focused

 

▪        DCD- Enterprise (ish) focused

 

▪        IMN- Investor, C-Level Datacenter Providers

 

▪        HCTS- Investor, C-Level Datacenter Providers

 

▪        Gartner- Enterprise (if you can find them through the 4m vendors in attendance)

 

▪        Caprate- Regional Datacenter Executives

 

▪        Datacenter World- Datacenter Managers

 

▪        DCAC Live- Off the beaten path, non-main stream conference

 

In general, yes, there are entirely too many of these. I would expect some consolidation in this space or some to drop off the map entirely as sponsors continue to look for RIO in this space.

 

5.     The Myth: The content is really, really good.

 

The Truth; Ehh, sometimes but not usually. There are usually two or three really good, must-attend sessions. But that’s not the real reason to attend these events, it’s the networking and the side meetings that take place in the lobbies, hotel suites, and conference rooms.

 

I’m proud to say I wrote this without knocking any of the conferences, for the most part. It’s like datacenters in any large market, there is one for everyone with the benefits and price points to match it.