Data storage, data centers, and networking are changing enterprise architecture as we know it. The best way to stay current is to connect with technologists who know what they’re talking about.

As Twitter has become more ubiquitous, it’s become a little more difficult to discover which people really are worth your time. So it’s useful to consult a list of people whose knowledge, erudition, kick-ass attitude, and/or 140-character information density can help you do your job better – or at least with a smile on your face.

If you care about computer storage, cloud computing, and networking in general, I recommend you start to add to your Following list with two sets of Twitter accounts:

The pundits: Every tech community has its influencers: the names everyone seems to know, the analysts people trust, and the publications that everyone relies on for relevant news.

The pragmatists: While it’s useful to get the news and cogent analysis with a 30,000-foot view of the landscape, most of the time we want advice, commentary – and jokes! – from the people who face the same problems we do, every day.

For reasons of time and space (that is, mine), I’m splitting these into two posts. Here’s the short list of experts to add to your Twitter account. In a later post, I’ll share my extensive list of people with hands-on knowledge, how-to advice, and somewhat more snark.

@Chris_Mellor writes regularly for The Register (when he isn’t rock climbing). His Twitter feed largely points to tech news articles, many of them his own, without a lot of extra fluff.

SanDisk is making flash drives and cars for car industry – http://t.co/01YIAVqzjz — Chris_Mellor (@Chris_Mellor) February 2, 2015

With even high-capacity drives testing will take even longer. Is this test time extension with capacity uplift sustainable? — Chris_Mellor (@Chris_Mellor) January 26, 2015

@storageswiss is an analyst firm focused on the storage, cloud, and virtualization marketplaces. How much more relevant could it get? Its Twitter feed regularly links to useful, thought-provoking analysis, and sometimes news items.

Our most popular article last week was “The State of Deduplication in 2015” Read it here — http://t.co/RGJ2n1RMfk — storageswiss (@storageswiss) February 11, 2015

@storagemojo is an independent analyst, blogger, and consultant who pays attention to emerging technologies, products, and markets. (You might enjoy his article here on the Druva blog, The Next Decade in Storage.) On Twitter, he sticks to storage topics, rather than indulge in conversation on other worthy subjects, such as how beautiful it is in Sedona.

Best data on current disk drive reliability released by Backblaze. Mine on ZDNet. http://t.co/1TLzbPQDi0 — Robin Harris (@StorageMojo) February 4, 2015

Help StorageMojo find the EMC VMAX 20k’s lost petabytes! 5PB missing? Did the butler do it? http://t.co/Kb1AO9eO7A — Robin Harris (@StorageMojo) January 21, 2015

@StorageNews may not be especially personable – it’s the sort of publication Twitter account that stands in for an RSS feed – but it certainly publishes timely articles for enterprise storage professionals, including product reviews and tech analysis.

Carbonite Acquires MailStore for Email Archiving: In addition to email archives, Carbonite’s cloud backup plat… http://t.co/h5gGJlPOzb — Enterprise Storage (@storagenews) December 17, 2014

Preparing for Disaster… Recovery: Before you purchase a DR solution, you need to do some basic planning. http://t.co/NaQHdY3odn — Enterprise Storage (@storagenews) December 11, 2014

@esignoretti is an independent IT analyst and blogger at Juku.it who often posts about virtualization as well as storage. I like the personality he injects, offering opinions on tech news events and tweets about skiing with his kids.

Hitachi Data Systems to buy Pentaho for $500-$600M http://t.co/z31gMLfAUC < interesting move. — Enrico Signoretti (@esignoretti) February 11, 2015

more and more virtualization companies has this problems with lower/upper case logos. — Enrico Signoretti (@esignoretti) February 5, 2015

You’re probably aware of several of the “Fierce” publications. For sysadmins, storage professionals, and network admins, probably the most relevant is @FierceEntComm, which touches on anything to do with enterprise infrastructure: cloud computing, networks, data centers, and so on.

Are your light bulbs Wi-Fi-enabled? http://t.co/7o9D7u9JsY — FierceEntComm (@FierceEntComm) February 11, 2015

Spotlight: Cloud, BYOD, IoT, big data, social media driving UC http://t.co/fEgGHpJehf — FierceEntComm (@FierceEntComm) February 9, 2015

@jbuff works at global advisory firm ESG Global, primarily covering backup processes and technologies; he also has an active blog.

Great quote from today’s briefing — “Customers want to buy an outcome, not technologies” [NDA meeting,so no credit given] 🙂 — Jason Buffington (@Jbuff) February 3, 2015

@ashish_nadkarni works at IDC doing market intelligence on storage, cloud computing, and big data. Most of the time his tweets are focused on those topics, but his techie tangents are even more entertaining.

“Scientists in Finland discovered how to predict Northern Lights sightings” http://t.co/dtf64F591Z — Ashish Nadkarni (@ashish_nadkarni) February 1, 2015

Why QR codes are the blinking VCR clock of the 21st century http://t.co/zMJELnOXXS — Ashish Nadkarni (@ashish_nadkarni) February 1, 2015

@InfoStorOnline shares articles from its web publication, which promises “data storage news, reviews, and resources for IT storage professionals.” This Twitter feed rarely will make you say, “Wow,” but you’ll feel up-to-date with current events.

How Flash is Changing Data Storage: Smarter flash drives will make storage simpler, faster and cheaper. http://t.co/PfH1RudYsh — InfoStor.com (@InfoStorOnline) February 10, 2015

Boosting Backup Capacity with Virtual Servers: As many IT departments have seen, leverage virtual storage prov… http://t.co/U5gi5S5fMN — InfoStor.com (@InfoStorOnline) February 3, 2015

@DeepStorageNet says he’s been “beating storage tech into submission since 1987,” and I can personally assert its truth. Howard Marks and I have known each other (online, alas, not yet in person) since that era, and I’ve always found his observations to be worthy of attention. He also “engages with the audience,” by which I mean he actually holds a conversation with followers… or at least with me.

QOTD: If…latency is the human in front of the screen;…response times from your storage become pretty insignificant. @storagebod — Howard Marks (@DeepStorageNet) February 9, 2015

Should @SanDisk just buy @NetlistInc (Mkt Cap $57 million) to end the @Diablo_Tech UltraDIMM legal logjam? — Howard Marks (@DeepStorageNet) January 14, 2015

I’ve admired Simon Wardley since his OSCON presentation defining cloud computing, which made me laugh out loud several times (and not just at the ducks). I’ve been following @swardley ever since then because he’s authoritative, wise, thoughtful – and often very funny. If he and I are ever collocated again, I’m going to buy him a beer.

Depressed – ‘this mapping stuff is really advanced’ – http://t.co/mlNdxxyDEo – no, it’s not! This stuff ought to be basics. — swardley (@swardley) February 11, 2015

40,000 servers … sniff … seems barely worth mentioning by today’s standards of scale -> http://t.co/RA0xMKVubL — swardley (@swardley) February 10, 2015

@storageio is an independent IT advisory analyst and consultant on cloud, virtual data infrastructure, and VMware. Especially VMware.

Server and Storage I/O Benchmarking and Performance Resources http://t.co/9eggwEu7sY — Greg Schulz (@storageio) February 4, 2015

Microsoft Diskspd (Part II): Server Storage I/O Benchmark Tools http://t.co/zLoUtnfMMU — Greg Schulz (@storageio) February 1, 2015

@packetpushers has a regular data networking industry podcast, in which “real-life engineers and top guests discuss route, switch, security, wireless, DC + more.” This is not the most exciting or loquacious of Twitter accounts. It make just a few posts per day, and it’s essentially an RSS feed of recent podcasts and blog posts. But network admins are likely to find the information useful.

RT: Blogs: Use Rate-Limiting to Alleviate Link Saturation http://t.co/cEKQlvcpac — Packet Pushers (@packetpushers) February 8, 2015

Replay: PS Show 35 – OEM SFP and QSFP Modules – Do They Work ? http://t.co/S2SYwezG7k — Packet Pushers (@packetpushers) February 4, 2015

Well duh. Of course you want to follow @druvainc! How could you not?!

Whew. That’s a lot of high level expertise, and what the marketing folks like to call “thought leaders.” (I tend to call them, “The people who make the maps rather than follow them.”) In my follow-on post I’ll suggest more storage and networking divas, with a more practical, get-your-hands dirty slant. But feel free to add your own suggestions in the meantime!