At this moment we are busy with the organization of another Cephalocon. Cephalocon is an annual event organized by the Ceph Foundation. By organizing Cephalocon, Ceph aims to bring together technologists and adopters from across the globe to showcase Ceph’s history and its future, demonstrate real-world applications, and highlight vendor solutions. By doing this, Ceph enables the community to work closer together and at the same time become ‘’tighter’’. 

In previous years, some subjects that were discussed were:

– Status and future of the Ceph file system.
– Everything you want to know about RadosGW.
– Hybrid cloud based on Ceph object storage.
– Accelerating Ceph performance with high-speed networks and protocols.
– Ten ways to break your Ceph cluster.

Previously the Cephalocon events have been held in Spain, China and the United Kingdom. This year’s Cephalocon, although virtual, promises to make for incredible community building, cross-company collaboration and cutting-edge training. You may be thinking: how can a virtual event compare to the real-life version? Probably a question almost all of us have been asking ourselves for the past year.

Firstly, it is important to mention that physical events can be very busy, loud and are held in all kinds of venues, meaning they may not always be accessible to everyone. A virtual event removes any physical barriers someone may have to attending a venue. Entering an event via their own device means we can make use of the accessibility tools we need to gain information, navigate and communicate within the event. Hosting an event virtually means it can be completely diverse and accessible to all.

Moreover, a virtual event means that you can fit it in around your own schedule. Many events and trade shows will include a conference of industry speakers, but you may be interested in only one or two of the talks on offer. Having that said, attending virtually means that you can sit and watch as many talks as you want to, or you can dip in and out of them, whilst also popping into the expo area for meetings with exhibitors, meeting new people in the speed networking area, or even leave the event for a while to carry on with your own tasks. A virtual event will also send you notifications for any sessions you have signed up to, so you do not miss anything.

Networking is a benefit of any event, but it is more important than ever during this time of social distancing. These opportunities to exchange insights and establish relevant technical connections, cannot be beaten. The benefits compared to traditional events is no time crunch to meet everyone you would like to in between sessions and it’s easier to collect information from the people you meet online. Aside from the business aspect, it is good to have that human connection and sense of community during troubling times on a personal level. Other than the benefits mentioned above, we can also benefit from cost reduction, accessibility, and time saving, compared to real-life events.

So, with nearly only benefits to think of in attending the event, we at 42on, are exited for you to join our Ceph team, Ceph’s customers and partners, and the Ceph community as we discuss how Ceph, the massively scalable, open source, software-defined storage system, can radically improve the economics and management of data storage for your enterprise.

We, at 42on, love Ceph and would love to e-meet you at Cephalocon 2021! I am also curious if you have Ceph subjects which you would like to be handled during the event. If you have, then let me know below.