Commvault Connections21 - global hybrid data services event

finding an event without Metallic is almost impossible :)

Hi, @Bart, yes, Cloud is hard to avoid :) BUT there will be plenty more - we’ll share more later this week about a series of Hands-On Lab sessions after the keynote and panel sessions, and we’ll continue to offer more Tech Talks like this one from last week. (And if you have any feedback or topic suggestions on future Tech Talks, please note on that thread or DM me and I’ll pass them along.)

Don’t miss the Hands-On Labs after the main presentations at Connections21.  You can sign up for these sessions  here: https://www.commvaultconnections21.com/page/1944323/hands-on-labs

Hands-On Lab: Applying the Lessons Learned from Ransomware Attacks

Learn how to evaluate and deploy various controls and features to better protect your environment from ransomware and other threats. This lab steps through a simulated attack and illustrates the ease of recovering on-prem, and to the cloud, thanks to Commvault protection layers. (Estimated Time Length: 10-15 minutes)

Hands-On Lab: Deploying Cost Efficiencies with Streamlined Data Protection

Get the basics on reducing cloud spending through Commvault. Cloud-native architectures that do not involve costly gateways or long-running infrastructure can be used through advanced power management capabilities and direct access. In addition, explore auto-scaling and cloud-enhanced deduplication with compression to drive down cost further while leveraging integrated automation to remove error-prone tasks. (Estimated Time Length: 10-15 minutes)

Hands-On Lab: Powering Your Hybrid Cloud Strategy with Metallic SaaS

The hybrid cloud journey in this lab starts in Metallic, showing Office 365 and VM protection. After a quick Hyperscale X deployment on-prem, Hyperscale X is docked to Metallic to protect on-premises workloads such as Active Directory, all through Command Center. It doesn’t matter if you start on-premises or in the cloud – the power of AND ensures all your workloads are protected and managed with ease. (Estimated Time Length: 10-15 minutes)

Personally I found Connections21 very disappointing. A lot of "marketing” talking, but only a few real connections with the product and how the product can actually be used to solve todays challenges. The roadmap session was especially disappointing, most time was spend on looking back over the last few months and no real exciting new features. Maybe you should consider splitting the session and and have one Metallic and one Commvault session. 

As @Bart pointed out in general way too much focus on Metallic. I understand the focus from Commvault on SaaS as that market also has a lot of traction but we also know the world is getting more and more depended on a few big companies which is also seen by a lot of governments hence you already see focus on sovereign solutions not to forget that there many Commvault customers……..

Curious to hear the voice from others who attended it. 

Reminds me of the previous session, where there was an explanation regarding “activate”. Sales talk.  I asked one simple question regarding the practical use in reality. They couldn’t answer and they would come back to me with more information. Never got anything of course :)

In another (previous) session I had a similar more real life question regarding SQL I think (I even forgot my own question :p ), they would also come back to me after the session, also didn’t hear anything :)

Hi @Onno van den Berg and @Bart - thanks for the honest feedback and for attending!

I have shared this feedback internally.  You should both have received the attendee survey that went out yesterday via email. Please do make sure to complete and submit that if you haven’t already.  (Or let me know if you haven’t received it - may have gone to spam filter too.)

I also wanted to share a little more background, as we know Connections as a virtual half-day event can’t offer the depth of content or engagement everyone is looking for, and we’re also working on some other things to deliver more of that. We want to hold GO (full in-person user conference) again, but with COVID-19 it is not feasible or safe at this point.  We had originally intended Connections to be a bigger series of regional in-person or hybrid events, but over the summer that proved impossible due to COVID as well. We did include things like the Hands-On Labs and Meet the Expert sessions to try to offer more of the product- and technical-level engagement that happens at GO, but we know it’s not the same.

Since we can’t bundle it all into one virtual event, we are focused on creating longer-term series, specifically bringing back the Tech Talk series - starting with the one we held in October on Immutability and the next one on Zero-Trust Nov. 16.  This series is just getting started again, but they should be a better way to connect with our product management leads on more technical topics and features.  If you have suggestions for specific topics or people you’d like to see in that series, please shoot us a note!  

Finally, @Bart you referenced getting an answer before on Activate.  Is that something you’re still looking for?  If so, start a separate topic and @Mike Struening or I can chase that down via the community.

Hi @Jennifer Kelley,

I indeed received the attendee survey and as always submitted my honest feedback in there as well.

You are referring to the current situation with Covid-19 which is impacting us all. We indeed still live in a strange world with a lot of distance, so sending the right message to customers and possible prospects can be challenging. I totally understand that a GO conference would deliver better possibilities, but this doesn't change the subject and payload of a session. If a session carries the wording roadmap than I expect to hear what we can expect in the near future / 12 months. Instead the session looked back for 20 minutes and the only real touchable "innovation" was the release of a dashboard for Metallic. All “features” and “enhancements” shown on the presentation were things that were released in past releases. So not a lot of new exciting innovations I would say and this is something I would expect from the one who strives to be the number one in data management. 

Sanjay reflected to todays challenges related to ransomware and but without relaying these challenges to touchable solutions that are delivered by the Commvault software solutions. Commvault is a software company and such an event is the perfect place to show it off to existing customers and possible prospects how your software can be used to handle all these challenges.

I also honestly do not see how the Tech Talk series result in a better interaction between customers and PM as scheduling a webinar once a month will not really result in a good, responsive feedback loop. I truly believe the community forum would be the right place for PM to interact with customers to gather feedback and requirements which helps in organizing the product development backlog and for them to gather experiences and feedback from customers who are consuming newly developed enhancements.

One suggestion I also would like to bring forward is to make sure the videos who are shown on the on-demand library are also indexed via Google so they become available for a broader audience. Searching for FR24 and older videos on Google doesn’t give back results while if you search for release video from competitors it is way more easy to find these kind of videos. It really helps to point prospects and existing Commvault customers to insights in what’s new.