by Gary Sparks
The week began with tutorials by Paul Ernst ("Data Migration Facility and the Advanced Tape MSP") and Howard Mundy ("UNICOS File Management"). As with past CUG meetings, these tutorials are always well attended.
Tuesday featured a general session talk by Mick Dungworth (vice president of Worldwide Customer Service). Mick explained the new Worldwide Customer Service focus for the combined SGI/Cray Research company. He reviewed responsibilities and strategies of his organization and emphasized the commitment to continued excellent service for our Cray customers.
Also on Tuesday was a parallel session talk by Don Grooms on Cray's support for unattended operations. Don described standard features of current Cray products that support lights-out operation as well as possible future capabilities.
Mike Sand gave CRInform demos on Wednesday and Thursday. An important aspect of these demos is our ability to hear what the users would like to see in future versions of CRInform. CUG continues to be a primary source for CRInform requirements.
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Thursday was an extremely active day for service-related talks. I
started the day by giving a presentation on the implementation of
CRUISE, Cray's problem-tracking software, and Rich Franta followed
with a talk on "Distance Learning--Does it Work?"
Another highlight on Thursday was a talk by Steve Ursenbach (vice president of U.S. Field Service) on SGI/Cray Research service plans. As in Mick Dungworth's general session presentation, Steve also emphasized the commitment to Cray customers. In addition, Steve reviewed the new combined SGI/Cray Research service offerings.
Thursday also featured an infamous question-and-answer session moderated by Charlie Clark. Dave Thompson, Steve Johnson, Tom Boyle, Laura Mikrut, Dave Judd, and Doug Olson answered previously collected questions as well as questions from the floor. As usual, this session was well attended and continues to be one of the more popular parallel sessions.
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Of course, there were many other forms of participation by the Service
Division. There were many one-on-one conversations with customers
and active participation in the numerous Birds of a Feather (BOF)
sessions that arose during the conference.
Most would agree, the Charlotte conference was one of the most active meetings in years, and we continue to receive valuable input from CUG attendees.
