We admit it. We’re technology junkies, and if you’re reading this you probably are too. It’s fun to learn more about new tools and systems – but it sure is a lot more fun when there’s beer involved.

Last Thursday we hosted “Hops and IOPS” at Michigan Beer Company in Novi. There have been some exciting, game-changing developments in storage solutions lately that are going to make a big difference for a lot of companies, and we figured that our friends and clients would want to know about them. Judging by the response, we were right about that.

Once everyone had had the chance to mingle a little and relax with flights of craft beer, Red Level’s emcee of the evening (and Director of Sales) Shanon Berry kicked off the evening’s events with introductions and a brief overview of Red Level for the previously uninitiated. After helpfully directed everyone’s attention to the buffet line, Shannon ceded the mic to Red Level Cloud Solutions Engineer Pat Dooley, who briefly outlined three distinct solution case studies, ranging from colocation to the centralization of data centers for a diverse range of businesses. Pat showed how different carefully-strategized configurations could serve the needs of companies with security, HIPAA compliance, remote/mobile workforces, FINRA compliance and other challenges.

Then, as they say, the rubber really hit the road. Dell’s Tim Brock took the floor, beginning by addressing some decidedly big news: Dell’s acquisition of EMC. “How many of you are EMC customers? Welcome to the Dell family.” Tim explained that Dell had bought EMC for its strengths, and was committed to continuing to develop the EMC product line.

Tim moved on to the evening’s central subject – its Compellent line of cutting-edge storage devices. Over the course of a few minutes, he provided a high-altitude overview of the future of storage—“the spinning disc is dead”—and sketched out some of the innovations behind the Compellent line’s impressive range of features. These breakthroughs included the ability to exponentially increase storage capacity through advanced compression (86 times better than the best JPG standard!) and “Intelligent Data Placement” – a filing system that ensures that high-priority data is the most easily and quickly accessed for the best performance. Compellent technology now allows for up to 90 terabytes of data to make its home within a single drive! That’s big data for you.

Of course, it wouldn’t have been a Red Level event without door prizes, great food, and great people – and we were very happy to see that all were there in abundance. A big thank you to everyone who came out – you helped make it a great night! Here’s looking forward to next time.