A Brief History of StorageTV

In point of fact, it was Jeremy Evans, CEO of TPI Technologies and gadget geek, who came up with the idea for StorageTV. He had convinced the CFO of Toigo Partners to spring for the cost of a High Definition Video Camera so we could shoot quality footage at the Disaster Recovery & Data Protection Summit in Tampa in June 2006. She, the CFO, couldn't conscience such an extravagance unless there were other uses for the toy following the event. An afficianado of funny videos on the Internet, Jeremy mumbled something about running a website with lots of video clips of vendors and users in the storage world.

We noodled on the idea for awhile. Why not? We already travel extensively on consulting engagements and speaking gigs. Why not use these trips to capture some video and create a video blog focused on IT generally, and storage in particular? The idea had merit, Jeremy got his toy, and suddenly two things happened.

First, everyone in the industry wanted their 10 minutes of fame. Most saw it as an opportunity to spout off about their array or software or service -- another Internet advertising gimmick. We love those folks. They must not have seen any of our CTO Roasts at Storage Networking World, where we used to beat up on the CTOs of well-known storage companies for selling crap. While the Roasts are history (vendors are reluctant to do them, and SNIA now has greater control over the SNW agenda), the legend lives on in StorageTV.

In all fairness, when someone is selling a good product or service -- one with real business value -- we want to give them every opportunity to sound off about it. However, when someone is selling garbage, or making unsubstantiated claims about their products (e.g., lying), we want to use StorageTV to call them on it.

So, word up to the vendors. This is not another advertising vehicle. If you sell snake oil, and we manage to get you in front of our lense, be afraid. Be very afraid.

The second thing that happened was that consumers began asking if they could have a turn to sound off about products that worked, those that didn't and everything in between. Given their interest, we see this StorageTV thing potentially blossoming into something very important. Instant feedback to vendors on their latest foo.

So be it.

I am delighted to be the host of StorageTV. I promise my audience to be as fair as possible both in the interviews that I conduct, and in how the resulting footage is edited and presented.

In some cases, you can be sure that I will be on the attack in these interviews. In other cases, we will let the industry do what it does so well: open its collective mouth to change feet. Mostly, I will look at your commentary to guide us to a better understanding of what works and what doesn't. So, your comments following each video clip are extremely important. Do your job, and we'll do ours -- everything will be shiny.

Thanks for watching.

Jon Toigo, Moderator and Host, StorageTV