Amsterdam

Last week I went off to do a speech for Network Appliance in Amsterdam.  I used to do this kind of stuff all the time - the money is great and I get to go to really super places - but I rarely do it anymore.  After a million flights, I found that a few years ago I became a white knuckle flyer - the kind normal flyer's hate to have on their aircraft.  Doctors and shrinks tell me its natural, after my bout with cancer, but I don't think that's it.  Anyway, I see no point in interjecting fear and terror into my own life, after all, I have a 15 year old daughter to do that for me.

This time I said yes, partly because I really needed a few days out of town and partly because, well, it's Amsterdam.  I took my lovely wife, Jess along, figuring I couldn't get in that much trouble if she was with me.  A six-foot blond tends to draw attention away from me in most situations.

I have several observations; first, the Dutch are giants.  Being statistically average in many ways (5 foot 7 inches is exactly statistically average, though tall people disagree) I never really stand out in a crowd.  In Amsterdam I was an oddity.  Every Dutch male was at least 6'3".  Jess was average - words I never thought I'd say. Everywhere you looked, there were tall, gangly Dutch folk peddling away on their 1943 looking bicycles.  All of them looking at me and seeming to say "Look Hans, a little person..."

The Dutch ride bikes.  Lots and lots of bikes.  Unlike Beijing, or Rome, where bikes and scooters also outnumber cars, in Amsterdam the cohabitation of bikes and autos seemed to work.  I couldn't figure out the rules, but it wasn't "just go" as it seems is the rule in the other spots.  I didn't see any flattened Dutch while there.

I took the red eye to Amsterdam, landed, got changed at my hotel, and went to the event.  My wife went to sleep.  I enjoyed a fine lunch with a handful of Netapp customers - two of which stood out; a gentleman from Phillips asked the most intelligent questions of my Dutch host around the areas of data center virtualization and another from @Home, who apparently either didn't go out of business in the bust as I thought, or no one told the Dutch.  The Phillips fellow knew that adding virtualization for utilization and operational benefit at the server level was mandatory - but recognized that once that occurs the ability to see end-to-end from a virtual server through virtual storage was all but impossible.  I couldn't agree more.  The @Home dude was explaining how Holland is a wired country - effectively the Verizon FIOS equivalent of the Dutch - and that they were able to pump outrageous levels of bandwidth direct to the household.  (I'm dying for FIOS, but of course can't get it.  They have to dig up my street, which means it will be years.  My buddy has it a mile away from me, and thinks that now that he gets HBO he is a power user.  My kid is playing interactive video games with others around the globe while I pipe video all over the house through my MCE and am dying to get into IPTV, but I have to wait.) 

My speech was entitled "How Transactional Systems Are Killing IT" - which is a darned good one if you ask me, though I'm not sure how my logic translates.  I'm also quite certain I was ridiculed by the hired Dutch MC.  (I know he was hired due to his outrageous paisley jacket). My premise, which I'll explain in my next Computerworld article, is that our entire industry is based on the commercial computing success spawned by transactional systems, and that ever since then we've tried to come up with more and more products based on that same architectural principal.  It was OK until lately, because now the nature of data itself has changed.  What was valued upon being dynamic or transactional is now static or fixed digital content, and yet we continue to attempt to apply the same methods as always in dealing with it.  It won't work.

I then had a Heineken and returned to my hotel, to find my wife all dolled up and ready for dinner.  We were invited to attend a small dinner with some Netapp folks and their local channel partners.  We were graced with the Big Gouda, Dan Warmenhoven (oh yes, a name as Dutch as they come) and his lovely wife.  Suffice it to say the poor channel folks didn't get to say too much.  (However, it is important to note that one of the very tall Dutchmen at the table had apparently spent a significant amount of time attempting to pick up my wife right in front of me, which of course I didn't notice.  I don't think it was until the cancer story that he really gave up.)  I had a great time applying sports metaphors to business concepts with Dan while our wives discussed everything from the Red Light District to tulips, and the channel guys tried to figure out just what was going on.

The following day Jess and I goofed around, saw all that was to be seen, and then we left the country before I got into any real trouble.  I can't wait to go back.