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BrainShare day one is now in the books and it looks like we have a technical conference. Yes, I said technical and conference in the breath, figuratively speaking anyway, and I really meant it.

The two biggest points from the Keynote were the cloud and identity. But even more important, it is now clear that Novell is well focused on what may well prove to be the future of IT. Not surprisingly, or even all that new, this direction seems to position Novell squarely in a very powerful strategic position. We sure have come a long way from file and print services!

Also mentioned was SUSE Studio, although it was pretty much only a mention. After attending a demo I am nearly as excited as I was when the SUSE deal was first announced years ago (has it really been that long). This amazingly simple idea is, well just that, simple and left me wondering where I have been to miss such a cool piece of technology.

Not mentioned in this mornings keynote was mono, a product that seems to be gaining a lot of traction among the development community. In my own development I have used mono to create cross platform applications, leveraging my existing programing knowledge and tools while ultimately saving an unbelievable amount of time. As an IT consultant I am often stuck deploying Microsoft products because some vertical application developer only supports Microsoft. If these developers would adopt mono they would not only open up new business opportunities for themselves but they would also open up more opportunities for Novell while enhancing the security, scalability and reliability of there products.

Enough of my soap box.

The sessions I attended seemed to have a very good balance of technical information while remaining on point and relevant to todays realities. I will definitely take a lot of good usable information with me when I return to my office, information that I can use in a very strategic manner.

In the end I attend BrainShare because it gives me the opportunity to collaborate with technology providers and my peers. Over the years I have formed countless relationships and learned more than I could ever hope to in a formal setting, This is my number one reason for attending and at least one other attendee, that I had the pleasure of getting to know, mirrored my feelings. This leads me to the party, where I met this other attendee. What a great opportunity to meet others in a casual environment, oh yea did I mention the great entertainment. Novell certainly proved it can put on a great party, smartly at that, while conducting an incredible act of generosity.

I can't wait for day 2!

Disclaimer: As with everything else at Cool Solutions, this content is definitely not supported by Novell (so don't even think of calling Support if you try something and it blows up).

It was contributed by a community member and is published "as is." It seems to have worked for at least one person, and might work for you. But please be sure to test, test, test before you do anything drastic with it.