elstar IT

IBM InterConnect 2017 is over, I must say I totally enjoyed it. Lots of attendees, it was crowded everywhere, but it gave a good vibe.  I have met a lot of new people

I heard that it was Lotusphere in the old days. I totally agree with the blog by Gabriella Davis, it is time to get out our own yellow bubble and integrate it in InterConnect. There is so much both worlds can learn from each other.

 

Keynotes

On Monday there was the InterConnect Welcome keynote with, of course, a lot of announcements. IBM Cloud Storage Flex, ‘yes we have a marketing department’, to provide flexible storage.

There was great example of IBM Blockchain in the diamant industry. IBM is pushing hard on Blockchain and their offer is way ahead of the competitors. You can test your own blockchain app on 4 nodes to see if it works, FOR FREE.

The keynote ended with Will Smith. He was very funny and relaxed and was certainly not scripted.

The central message of the keynote was your data on the IBM Cloud is your data, and will not be shared with others. The security is one of most important factors on the IBM Cloud. They told us that the IBM Cloud would be more secure then your on premise data center.

 

On Tuesday the CEO of IBM, Ginny Rometty was on stage, first time I saw here in person, to speak about IBM offers. She interviewed some companies, like AT & T about there network and sensors. Really big data. Most important, what to do with ths data.

Marc Berniof, CEO of SalesForce was on stage to talk about the recently announced partnership between IBM and Salesforce.

 

At the ShowCase

The Showcase was packed with lots of vendors, the most I never heard of so that makes it more interesting to learn what they have to offer.

Of course IBM has also good presence with booths about their various products and offerings, like Bluemix, IBM Cloud, IBM Blockchain, Security and many more. The Dev Zone was my favorite. The area where you can talk to the devs, but also build your own

 

Champions @ InterConnect

As an Champion we were pampered by Libby Ingrassia and her other Champions wranglers. We had our own desk, on high traffic location. VIP seating at the keynotes and at the IBM Rocks event.

I felt very special to attending InterConnect as an Champion. Thanks to make is even more special for us.

Nice thing was also to meet ‘other’ IBM Champions from Cloud, Analytics and Security.

 

My session

My session about the HR Assistant application, was at Wednesday 22nd of March at 2 PM. There were 20 people, not many, but for InterConnect it was ‘not bad’ ;-). It went well, as far I could see it. Bluemix was up, so I could demo the HR Assistant .

Explaining the XSP runtime was may be the hard part. No one knows this runtime as it is still experimental and I think it will stay there.

 

Next year…

As I look back at the conference InterConnect showed me so much value. Lots of new technologies, meeting new people. I will be back next year……

 

In my next post I will zoom in several technologies which were mentioned at InterConnect.