Reflections on SWUG

This past Thursday, I began my morning by packing my bags and preparing to head home from the SolarWinds User Group (SWUG) meeting in Austin, Texas. As I packed, I couldn't help but reflect on the two-day event and the many great experiences I was privileged to have been a part of.

I've been fortunate to attend many SWUGs in years past, all across the United States—but this one was special, and if you had the opportunity to participate, you'd understand why.

Attending the event, we had 105 passionate individuals. Of these, 97 were n00bs (new SWUG attendees). In addition to our Loop1 crew, three other partners providing SolarWinds services had their staff of engineers on hand to learn and grow. We were all gathered in classrooms for focus groups and education. The material was authentic and it was relevant.

Special kudos to the speakers who hosted talks for us. The time and effort you put into your material and commentary resulted in an excellent experience for the audience. A special thank you to Kevin M. Sparenberg (SolarWinds MC); I can now relate the silos in my organization to my Dungeon & Dragons (D&D) play—such a fantastic talk.

Brandon Shopp and Tim Brown , thank you for sharing with us, from your seat, the work you are pouring into the SolarWinds products. Hearing you and your teams' talks over the two days was very exciting and reassured us that our choices and commitment were the right decisions to make.

Charles Priddy and Peter J. Di Stefano , thank you for your talks on SolarWinds Observability (SWO) and Hybrid Cloud Observability (HCO). The much anticipated general availability is a date many of us look forward to. Also, thank you for your offer to speak to our teams about these upcoming products and how to learn more about them.

Carley Cousineau , thank you for sharing from your seat. The UX perspective is always a fun one to learn more about. I appreciate your role in these products much more, having had my team participate in the process with you. 

JP, thank you for your talk. It was great to meet you, and I appreciate your walk-through with scripts.

Cheryl Nomanson , you are a fantastic trainer, and I appreciated your Study Hall session.

Sean Sebring, ITIL® 4 MP, SL 's session on SolarWinds Service Desk was amazing. It was great to meet you. We have already been able to take much from your session into our conversations.

Howard Williams Jr. , thank you for sharing from your experience in the Network Operations Centre (NOC). Our conversation regarding operating as an engineer in healthcare was of even more relevance to Kristoffer Maxwell and myself. It was a ton of fun to connect over.

Chrystal Taylor 's sessions on the Notification Decision Tree and the free tools were super helpful. We are already discussing the Decision Tree because it was so thought-provoking. Also, being aware of all the free tools that SolarWinds has is a great reminder. These tools are instrumental in our attack when we go to plan and execute. The discussion on the UnDPs, Transforms, Log Adjuster, and Hubble was very insightful.

Last but not least, being a part of the community who attended this year's SWUG in Austin—as the first SWUG event for the US post-COVID—drew people from all over: Florida, Seattle, Oregon, Wyoming… not just Texas. It was such a privilege to be there. The connections, camaraderie, and friendships established are the immeasurable parts of the event that last way beyond the week and extend the value beyond the immediate takeaways from the knowledge sharing.

Congratulations to all involved (including the SolarWinds Events Team) who put on a fantastic experience for those of us who attended. I very much look forward to the next one!