Who and What was at CeBit 2018 on Day 1?
With Day 1 of CeBit rapidly drawing to a close, it is worth taking a moment to tell those who are attending this event from the public days tomorrow, exactly what the data brands have in store for you for the rest of the week. For those that have never attended this show before, it is worth highlighting that it is MASSIVE! Seriously, there is no way you can take it all in within a single day. Pace yourself and visit maybe two halls a day. Failing that, make a point of knowing the location of the brands that matter to you. For me, I wanted to look at the brands we cover here on NASCompares. I will be updating you on CeBit as the week goes on (as well as the Synology Solutions Exhibition tomorrow), but for now, here are the brands I recommend you check out if you care about your data. Fair warning, most stands were not fully completed, an official launch day for the public is not till tomorrow, but they did let me get a few snaps.
QNAP at CeBit 2018
Almost the first stand I headed to upon arriving at CeBit, the QNAP stand (Hall 12, stand B103) is a solid mix of new and the old. There is a couple of new toys there, but what is abundantly clear that the inclusion of ALOT of the IEI hardware. Finally getting the see the AfoBot in action was a nice surprise and I spotted the QNAP Mustang-200 Accelerator Card. There were a few gaps on the podiums too, so I am assuming there are a few more treats getting added. However, on the software side there is also lots of details regarding the Seagate Ironwolf health management support, Surveillance support with the HikVision camera series (more pictures to follow on that one) and a wide focus on IoT and how you can take advantage of numerous applications with big or small NAS in your own environment.
Fritz!Box at CeBit 2018
Fritz! (or Fritz!Box) are a brand that is rarely mentioned here on NASComapres or on SPANTv. This is largely due to them being a very big brand in Germany, and that notoriety diluting the further away from it you go. However, they are MASSIVE here and all too often users will ask me about recommendations for Fritz!Box’ for their home or office environment. Not only do they have a stand here at CeBit 2018, but they have a bloody bar outside?!? I am going to head back to there tomorrow (the stand, not the bar) and learn more about what is new in their range and more importantly, ask them directly why they are not bigger than they should be. From the looks for things, they have EVERYTHING there to see and I will let you know i nthe next couple of days why I think you will be seeing them more on NASCompares and SPANTv soon.
Cloud Storage at CeBit 2018
Less of a brand mention this time, but with each one of these shows that I attend, the push that almost all brands seem to be making towards getting everyone to the cloud. I have been pretty upfront about the cloud and NAS. I think both have their merits and you should technically have BOTH, however, NAS should be your primary and a little cloud storage for an offsite backup is best. There is an enormous push here to get EVERYTHING on the cloud. They are really going to push words like’ease’,’anywhere access’ and ‘never lose a file’ – but will rarely mention anything approaching security concerns or what happens when you cancel your subscription. Where do your files go and are they really truly deleted? As a big supporter of NAS, my opinion is a tad biased – make your own mind up and speak to a few cloud hosting brands whilst you visit CeBit. You may be surprised.
AI and IOT at CeBit 2018
In line with the big push on cloud services, the other big, BIG theme of CeBit 2018 is artificial intelligence and Internet of Things services. These are both things we have discussed on NASComapres and SPANTv before (and indeed above in the QNAP Stand mention). However, this si the first time I have seen many, many genuine hands-on (or inded hands-off) examples of it’s application in the real world. Be prepared to see many a robot or helpful droid at the stands. If the thought of this Skynet type intelligence scares you, then maybe skip CeBit and pop over the Synology Solution Exhibition next door to the Hannover Messe and stick with the humans. However, if you want to see how simply applied software in a PC or NAS, or a completely automated solution can be slotted into your business model, then head over to the very first Hall as you enter via the West Entrance and you are in for some cool shiz!
SSI Thunderbolt 3 at CeBit 2018
Although they have never been mentioned here on NASCompares. Originally involved in hard drive and protected storage media devices, they have since really evolved into something that is very much up the SPANTv and NASCompare Straße. Although their stand was cloaked in secrecy and covered for full access tomorrow, they have a host of Thunderbolt 3 solutions that I am very much looking forward to getting my hands on. You can too if you head over to them at Hall 13, Stand H111. Likewise, If you want to look at more data solutions outside of network attached storage, then head over to Stand A51 in Hall 12 stand, as they have a number of brands present for you to find out about covering everything from NAS, to DAS, to FreeNAS and more.
Huawei at CeBit 2018
Easily one of the biggest stands at the expo was Huawei. Occupying almost half an entire hall, they were around 25x bigger in their coverage than any of the other brands mentioned above. Luckily they made the most of that bit of real estate by covering…well… EVERYTHING. As soon as you entered Hall 13, you could not miss them. They have their own conference stand with keynote speakers for the next few days to cover everything important in this current age of everywhere-data. They had stands dedicated to AI and IOT operations in the home, in industry or in every office environment considered mainstream. They had a very, VERY interesting selecting of network equipment too – challenging the likes of Netgear and Fritz!Box rather aggressively at this expo. Portable data devices and easy to deploy AI solutions for numerous day to day situations. You could honestly lose yourself for half of the first day in this section alone. That said, it is worth highlighting that these guys mean business in the very literal sense and are not aiming at the small shopper – so be ready to talk the talk if you want to learn about their rather incredible wares.
More to follow as the week continues and CeBit is fully made open to the public. Stay tuned for further updates and don’t forget that if you have direct questions for the brands, to fire them below in the comments box, to me via twitter @RobbieOnTheTube or HERE on SPANTv.
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