Posts Tagged ‘game’

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority says, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,” but we absconded from Caesars Palace with far too many pictures and videos from Parallels Summit to adhere to their suggestion. Over the course of three days, attendees stayed busy with presentations, networking sessions, parties, cocktails and (of course) the Server Challenge II. And thanks to Alan’s astute questions in The Hangover, we didn’t have to ask if the hotel was pager-friendly, whether a payphone bank was available or if Caesar actually lived at the hotel … We could focus on the business at hand.

This year, Parallels structured the conference around three distinct tracks — Business, Technical and Developer — to focus all of the presentations for their most relevant audiences, and as a result, Parallels Summit engaged a broader, more diverse crowd than ever before. Many of the presentations were specifically geared toward the future of the cloud and how businesses can innovate to leverage the cloud’s potential. With all of that buzz around the cloud and innovation, SoftLayer felt right at home. We were also right at home when it came to partying.

SoftLayer was a proud sponsor of the massive Parallels Summit party at PURE Nightclub in Caesar’s palace on the second night of the conference. With respect to the “What Happens in Vegas” tagline, we actually powered down our recording devices to let the crowd enjoy the jugglers, acrobats, drinks and music without fear of incriminating pictures winding up on Facebook. Don’t worry, though … We made up for that radio silence by getting a little extra coverage of the epic Server Challenge II competition.

More than one hundred attendees stepped up to reassemble our rack of Supermicro servers, and the competition was fierce. The top two times were fifty-nine hundredths of a second apart from each other, and it took a blazingly fast time of 1:25.00 to even make the leader board. As the challenge heated up, we were able to capture video of the top three competitors (to be used as study materials for all competitors at future events):

It’s pretty amazing to see the cult following that the Server Challenge is starting to form, but it’s not very surprising. Given how intense some of these contests have been, people are scouting our events page for their next opportunity to step up to the server rack, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see that people are mocking up their own Server Challenge racks at home to hone their strategy. A few of our friends on Twitter hinted that they’re in training to dominate the next time they compete, so we’re preparing for the crowds to get bigger and for the times to keep dropping.

If you weren’t able to attend the show, Parallels posted video from two of the keynote presentations, and shared several of the presentation slide decks on the Parallels Summit Agenda. You might not get the full experience of networking, partying or competing in the Server Challenge, but you can still learn a lot.

Viva Las Vegas! Viva Parallels! Viva SoftLayer!

-Kevin

Wakka wakka wakka wakka. All your base are belong to us. I’m sorry Mario, but our princess is in another castle. It’s dangerous to go alone. Do a barrel roll.

If you can place any of those quotes from the video games of yore, you’ll probably love the Server Challenge II. Taking cues from classic arcade games, we’ve teamed up with Supermicro to build a worthy sequel to our original Server Challenge:

If you come across Server Challenge II at a conference, your task is clear. You step up to the full-sized server rack and perform three simple tasks:

1. Load the data.
2. Connect the network.
3. Save the world.

You’ve got two attempts per day to install twenty-four drive trays into two 2U Supermicro servers and plug eighteen network cables into their correct switches. Get all of that done in the fastest time at the conference, and you walk away with a brand new Macbook Air. During booth setup at GDC Online, we shot a quick video of what that looks like:

The new challenge is sure to garner a lot of attention, and we’re excited to see the competition heat up as the show progresses. Beyond being a fun game, the Server Challenge II is also a great visual for what SoftLayer does. When you get to touch servers in a server hosting company’s booth, you’re probably going to remember us the next time you need to order a new server. You also get to see the Cisco and Supermicro switches that you’d see in all of our thirteen data centers around the world … It’s a tech geek’s dream come true.

In honor of the launch of Server Challenge II, we’re going to offer some “live” coverage of the competition at GDC Online this week. If you want to watch the Server Challenge II GDC Online 2012 remotely via “challenge-cast,” bookmark this blog post and refresh frequently. We’ll update the leader board every hour or two so that you can keep track of how the times are progressing throughout the show:

Game on.

**UPDATE** GDC Online has officially wrapped, and after some last-minute heroics, Derek Manns grabbed the top spot (and the MacBook Air) for his Server Challenge II efforts! If you’ve been watching the leader board throughout the conference, you saw the top attendee time fall from 1:59.30 all the way down to 1:09.48. We hope you’ve enjoyed the “challenge-cast” … Keep an eye on SoftLayer’s event schedule to prepare for your next chance to take on the Server Challenge II.

-@khazard

At the beginning of the baseball season, we gave away tickets for a lucky customer to see a Texas Rangers game, and as a result of that generosity, the Rangers thought it fitting to make it to the World Series. Well … our little giveaway may not have had anything to do with their success, but we like to think our support helped a little.

Understanding that we have customers and employees who are die-hard St. Louis Cardinals fans, I don’t want to turn anyone off with this blog post, but with all of the buzz in the air about the World Series coming back to Arlington this year, I started thinking about the Top 10 Ways SoftLayer is Like the Texas Rangers:

10. Secret handshakes / fist bumps.
9. Have a no “I” in “Team” mentality … In fact, there are no I’s in “Texas Rangers” or “SoftLayer.”
8. Teams’ leaders (i.e. coach and the CEO) are … um … charismatic (to say the least).
7. Come ready to play on any day that ends in “y.”
6. Strong lineups all the way through.
5. Texas is home, but both teams do amazing jobs “on the road.”
4. Both have Michaels who like pink.*
3. Both have Louisville Slugger bats … The Rangers’ bats do great things, while SoftLayer’s bats are given to recognize employees that have done great things.
2. Support is awesome from the customers (fans) to the back office to the team on the field making plays.
1. Champions of the World, baby!!**

* Apologies to Michael Young, as this statement may not be true as applied to him. Each of my blogs to date has a veiled (or obvious) reference to our CFO, and it was very difficult to think of how to incorporate this reference in a blog dealing with the Texas Rangers, so I may have taken undue liberties for which I apologize.

** The aspirations associated with that last comparison may have strayed me from an unbiased comparison.

-@badvizsla