We all want to pay attention to people with technical expertise. Call ‘em “influencers,” “rock star techies,” or just plain “people who know what they’re talking about.” If your job requires you to know what’s happening in storage, networking in the cloud or data center, or any other system administrative task — such as staying sane in a user community with a high WTF quotient — you should follow these people on Twitter.

A while back, in 14 Storage and Networking Pundits to Follow on Twitter, I told you about the industry authorities whose Twitter feeds are worth your time. I promised to follow up with my recommendations for the pragmatists: people who face the same problems we do, every day.

I’ve long been in favor of paying attention to the other people in one’s field. They’re in-tune with industry news; they face the same problems you do; they tell in-jokes that make you laugh.

The only question is: How do you find people whose Twitter feed is valuable? Because if Twitter bores you, you’re following the wrong people.

When I co-wrote The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Twitter Marketing way back in 2011, I could advise readers to start their “whom to follow” list with a few big names in their profession, and follow whomever those people followed. That method still works, but it can be tedious.

Plus, many of us have more than one interest, so your search for the Best Storage Folks is bound to be distracted by their distractions. For instance, if you follow me on Twitter, in addition to me inundating you with tech geekiness (I do my best…), you have to suffer through cat shenanigans, baseball fandom (Go DBacks!), and the occasional quilting photo. Not that I imagine this is a hardship, but off-topic tweets annoy some people.

So it’s still a useful exercise to share with you some of the people whose Twitter feeds I find enlightening, useful, or make me say Hmmmmm.

@scott_lowe is an IT pro specializing in virtualization, networking, open source, and cloud computing who also blogs irregularly. While he works for a leading virtualization vendor, there’s no question that the opinions are his own.

RT @mbushong: @scott_lowe What if the feature is “frustrate customer”? #MindBlown < In that case, this vendor is doing an OUTSTANDING job. — Scott S. Lowe (@scott_lowe) February 4, 2015

Containers (and @docker) on Windows gets closer and more real. Would still love to see the technical details: http://t.co/8S6wFGJ09E — Scott S. Lowe (@scott_lowe) April 8, 2015

@jtroyer posts about all things storage and virtualization – with a wry sense of humor about human interactions. He’s also involved with the @TechReckoning mailing list and the @Geek_Whisperers podcast.

Is it crap all over OpenStack week? Why did nobody tell me? — John Mark Troyer (@jtroyer) April 7, 2015

Thanks for the fun discussion on Devs vs IT (aka Infrastruture/Ops) today. Storify here: https://t.co/62C3vsOkNi — John Mark Troyer (@jtroyer) April 3, 2015

If your interest in networks and the cloud skews towards the human-flavor, you’ll want to pay attention to the (very popular) @etherealmind. A representative sentiment: “Thinking about how you advise companies to buy other technology companies again. Key issue ‘define value when only asset is some software.’”

Blog post: Blessay: My New Criteria for Network Design and Architecture http://t.co/xmTnq2X41j pic.twitter.com/8yoQaTOHyr — EtherealMind (@etherealmind) April 10, 2015

In 5 Briefings from networking software startups, avg time from start to first shipping product is _13 months_. Think about that. — EtherealMind (@etherealmind) April 9, 2015

Network engineer @packetlife says he’s also an independent blogger, but the PacketLife website is better viewed as an educational resource list for any networking engineer. His Twitter stream is plenty entertaining. Don’t miss it.

Why did the Juniper tech get dumped by his girlfriend when he wrote an invalid configuration? He couldn’t commit. #YouChoseToFollowMe — Jeremy Stretch (@packetlife) April 3, 2015

Maintenance notification madlibs! I need a time, and adjective, and a network node. — Jeremy Stretch (@packetlife) January 30, 2015

“Just another engineer in the trenches,” @amyengineer manages to make me giggle and say, “Oh, that’s useful to know…” – at the same time. She also retweets geeky amusements, which makes following Amy like going to a party with a friend who knows all the cool people you wanted to meet.

They say you should face your demons, so here’s my attempt to help: Voice basics -Troubleshooting failed outbound fax http://t.co/b0hV8z0Aps — Amy Renee (@amyengineer) April 10, 2015

“To ensure quality service, please abandon hope & know we really aren’t even going to pretend to try” -rough but often accurate translation. — Amy Renee (@amyengineer) April 9, 2015

“Come for the networking. Stay for the snark,” writes @networkingnerd on his blog. Yeah, that about sums it up. He doesn’t post all that often, but it’s worth it when he does.

I was chastised this morning for putting a slash through my zeros. By a high school kid. Just you wait, youngling. — Tom Hollingsworth (@networkingnerd) April 11, 2015

I think @ChrisWahl nailed it here. @VMware‘s cert process is obtuse, expensive, and needs a massive overhaul. http://t.co/p71DIHqCHR — Tom Hollingsworth (@networkingnerd) February 4, 2015

CCIE @BobMcCouch works for a reseller and system integrator specializing in virtualization, storage, and backup. In his Herding Packets blog, he writes about everything from noise levels in data centers to managing the network as a fabric. His Twitter feed is a bit more wide-ranging.

Me to son: “Hey, thanks for experimenting with the @Arduino with me.” 7 yo Son: “Can we do it again soon?” #MakingEngineers — Bob McCouch (@BobMcCouch) April 5, 2015

@netmanchris doesn’t have many followers yet, but Oh My he deserves more. Do your part to fix that. He’s a self-described “networking professional with a passion for network management, SDN, and anything that makes [a] network administrator’s day.” He’s far more than that: a wry observer of geek life.

I’ve been able to get by for 6 months without installing Java. Today – I feel dirty. — Chris young (@netmanchris) April 11, 2015

Wow. My journey in coding can be summarized as “Wow. I was really doing this a stupid way last week….” — Chris young (@netmanchris) February 5, 2015

Some people are worth following because they do a great job of retweeting people whom you want to discover. It’s like visiting a friend who has a CD collection of music you hadn’t heard yet, and are surprised you never heard of before now. I’d put “storage geek” @rogerluethy in that category.

Which is not to say he lacks worthwhile information of his own…! He doesn’t share much of his own personality, but his random tweets usually lead to an article that’ll interest you.

Ethernet over Fibre Channel http://t.co/8cwpGQR29l — Roger Luethy (@rogerluethy) April 1, 2015

Thinking different about storage http://t.co/tLGRwqJCsO — Roger Luethy (@rogerluethy) April 8, 2015

I would be remiss if I did not remind you to follow @druvainc. How else would you keep up with cool stuff, such as the articles we post here?

Whom would you add? With your suggestions, this article can become an even better resource.

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