Working as an Industry Analyst...
During 2005 I occupied the role of European Research Director for Storage for the industry analyst company IDC. This role involved meeting with the supplier companies, manufacturers and large users to analyse trends and patterns of usage in the storage market place. it was necessary both to investigate quantify and report on the latest trends and in many instances this resulted in formal reports or public presentations such as the CeBIT show in Hanover.
It was a valuable experience and I had the opportunity to observe the development of a number of products and systems which are now in the mainstream, as well as learning from some of the brightest minds in the Storage Development world. Overall I found the required objectivity and formality of the environment somewhat frustrating, as clearly an Analyst cannot discuss product development with one major provider and then take all their ideas to the next meeting with one of their competitors... The Chinese wall must remain rock solid, but frequently the pros and cons of the different approaches were often largely irrelevant in terms of solving the end users challenges. By definition there was very little opportunity to provide input to the development process and I found this very difficult, as I do like to be able to contribute!
I delivered several presentations on IDC's behalf, wrote a number of reports either featuring specific equipment review, or comprising a technical assessment of comparative development strategies, and I got to know quite a number of well respected fellow analysts, whose opinions I still value today.