SPARC - (S)un (P)rofessionals' (A)ssociation of (R)ichmond (C)omputer users

DATE: Thursday, March 6, 2003

TIME: 4:00pm - 6:00pm

MEETING SPONSOR: Sun Microsystems

March Topic: Storage Area Networks and the Next Generation Data Center

Now that SANs are more than just an industry buzzword and the Fibre Channel switch vendors are finally moving to true interoperability, it's time to take stock of what's possible today, and learn something about what you can expect in the future for storage technology.

As an active member of the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA), Sun is working with that standards-setting body to define and establish open standards that set the stage for truly open storage networking. SNIA is the organization responsible for developing the "Bluefin" standard for storage management. Bluefin leveraged WBEM and CIM to set the standard by which companies can design software (like Sun's Enterprise Storage Manager and recently-introduced offerings from HP and IBM) that manages multi-platform storage resources. Sun is also a founder and steering committee member of the InfiniBand Trade Association (IBTA). Sun plans to leverage InfiniBand technology in future server platforms, application environments, switches and storage.

If you'd like to hear the "State of the SAN" and more of what the future may hold, come be a part of the next Richmond SPARC meeting and hear Cecil Jacobs, a Sun storage technologist, and former Sun Data Management Ambassador.

With over 15 years of experience in the computer industry, Cecil's background includes structured programming for the USAF at Langley AFB followed by almost 8 years of field experience installing, integrating, and maintaining Sun and other UNIX solutions in the government and commercial sectors. He was a Sun Education Partner instructor for over 6 years, and joined Sun in 1999 to become a pre-sales systems engineer. From 2000 to 2002, he functioned as a Data Management Ambassador for Sun and has continued with a strong focus on HA technologies for systems and storage in the data center.

Sun will be sponsoring the March meeting. Instead of Door Prizes, the first thirty attendees will receive a Sun Microsystems baseball cap. These are very nice tan colored caps with a black visor and Sun logo. Be sure to get yours!

The Sun user community in Richmond is growing, and you are an important part of it! We look forward to your participation in the User's Group and are confident that you will find it technically enriching. Bring an associate. Just RSVP, below.

Location:

GE Financial Assurance, in the PFS Building (6630 West Broad St) on the sixth floor in the Boundaryless Room.

GE Financial Assurance is located on West Broad Street in the Brookfield Office Park. After turning at the light on Broad Street and entering the Brookfield Complex, you should stay in the left lane and turn left at the stop sign. Follow the road around past the Richmond Sheraton to the 6630 building towards the back of the campus. Turn left for Visitor Parking. Additional parking is located on the far side of the building as well. Please enter at the front main entrance.

For directions to 6630 West Broad St. go to the following URL:
http://maps.yahoo.com/py/ddResults.py?Pyt=Tmap&tarname=&tardesc=&tarhash =&taraddr=6630+West+Broad+St&tarcsz=Richmond,+VA+23230-1702&newtcountry=us&newcountry=us&doit=1

RSVP:

Please send an email RSVP at RSVP@RichmondSparc.org. You can also RSVP via the web site. We need to have a list of attendees for the Security Guards at GE Financial Assurance.

SEE YOU THERE!!!

For additional information about the Richmond SPARC Users Group, please visit http://www.RichmondSparc.org - We hope to see you there!