Back in the Saddle

July was a busy month.  I took the first three weeks off and drove much of what’s left of the “mother road” on Historic Route 66.with the family, our Ford Expedition, and way too many nights in our 31’ travel trailer.  Great memories and stories for a lifetime out of that trip.  I was home long enough to unpack, do laundry, and repack for a great week in Chicago with the DevCentral team.  On Monday, we had a great time diving in to F5 technology goodness with the MVPs (and hoolio and Chris Miller!) at the Thinkubator.  It was a great meeting place with a rooftop deck accessible only by a spiral staircase.  The view of downtown was amazing:

It’s a good thing we all like each other ‘cause we spent the whole day together—three meals and some great content along the way. I particularly enjoyed the lightning talks from the MVPs, but the content from our product development/product management teams was great as well.  Tuesday, THE Colin Walker and I taught a “Short Course” (7 hours!) on iRules and had a great session.  The F5 Agility conference took place Wednesday and Thursday and the DevCentral booth was hopping with video interviews throughout.  Check out DCTV for a great variety of partner/MVP interviews.

Anyway, circling back to my title for this post: I’m back in the saddle, baby.  It’s a new week, a new month, and a new era for F5 with the announcement of BIG-IP v11. We here at DevCentral are getting the gears turning on all the content coming your way.  There will be plenty, as there is an astounding amount of innovation coming in this release.  I’m super excited, as are all the folks I’ve talked to that evaluated v11 during the beta windows.  Much to learn, much to do, so I’m signing off for now…