Twitter directories such as Twellow and the newer WeFollow from Digg founder Kevin Rose can go a long way toward helping you find Twitterers of interest. But when it comes down to compiling a really focused list, you have to get your hands dirty and plunge around through a bunch of individual Twitter accounts, too.
Enterprise IT pros, I've done the dirty work for you here and compiled if not the ultimate list of enterprise IT and network companies, at least a pretty good one of about 100 companies. (For those of you I accidentally missed, please make your presence known via the comments box or email me at bbrown@nww.com. You can follow me on Twitter here. Keep in mind, though, that I have tried to limit this list to companies providing IT/network products and services to enteprise IT customers, not to service providers or OEMs. Maybe that's a list for another time.)
Warning: The writers of these Twitter accounts aren't going to make you forget about John Updike any time soon. Many spit out exclamation points like baseball players spit out sunflower seeds. Disclaimers are common, press release headlines are the norm and many Twitter accounts look as if they're placeholders, while the companies figure out what to do with the dang things. Some companies are represented by a PR/marketing person rather than a more formal, logo-ed account. But all in all the Tweeter feeds can keep you up to date on announcements and what other customers or partners are thinking. And of course some companies, like Comcast and Dell, have been roundly lauded for their use of Twitter as a customer service tool.
Some companies, such as Cisco, have multiple "official" Twitter accounts, from generic corporate ones to more personalized ones updated by executives, such as CTO Padmasree Warrior and Doug Gourlay, VP of Cisco's Data Center Solutions Group.
There's also DigitalCribs, which looks at consumer uses of Cisco gear. (And of course Network World's own Cisco Subnet). It looks like some guy named Francisco grabbed the plain old Cisco Twitter URL.
I've roughly organized companies by category below (and where needed have included a brief description of the company and/or tossed in a sample Tweet for fun):
DATA CENTER/NETWORKING/WIRELESS/STORAGE/UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS
AMD: The processor company calls its Twitter feed: AMDUnprocessed
Avaya: DevConnect for developers and another feed for VoiceCon event watchers.
BlueArc: Network storage
Bluesocket: Enterprise mobility
Brocade: (well, their PR guy)
Cisco Systems: main news site (Also: CiscoDC Data Center solutions; Cisco IT Inside look at Cisco IT's case studies, best practices, and experiences; CiscoLive: June/July event in San Fran, 2009 that in addition to tech will feature the B-52s and other "totally rad" acts and Ciscotelepresence
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Main CA, Inc. Twitter, Mainframe
Good to see this compilation! Also wanted to add that while many of the CA Twitters are included above, the primary Twitter for CA, Inc. is missing:
@CAInc
Readers may also be interested in:
@CAMainframe
@CAInfraMan and
@CA_Deutschland
Main Red Hat
Agreed that this is a great compilation. Wanted to make sure you had the main Red Hat feed on your list:
@RedHatNews
Other feeds maintained by the company include:
@JBossNews
@RedHatGov
@RedHatEvents
@RedHatSummit
Cloud computing & data center tweets
There are a bunch of great folks to follow other than the official "handles" from the big companies, especially in the space I'm involved in: internal/private cloud computing and data center efficiency. The fun (and benefit) of Twitter is both the listening and then taking part in the conversation.
Some favorites of mine: @jamesurquhart (also a Cisco guy), @dexin (for news links from all over), @aneel (from IBM), @lmacvittie (from F5), @beaker (on cloud security).
And I'm @jayfry3 (from Cassatt, internal cloud software), if you're interested.
--jay
TippingPoint on Twitter
@tippingpoint1 includes news from TippingPoint, Zero Day Initiative advisories, DVLabs postings, and most recently, a play by play account of the Pwn2Own contest at CanSecWest last week.
Cisco for Service Providers on Twitter
@CiscoSP360 is focused on providing updates, news & trends as it relates to Service Providers.
Here are links to other related SP360 online communities:
> Cisco SP360 Blog - http://blogs.cisco.com/sp
> Cisco SP360 YouTube Channel - http://youtube.com/user/ciscosp360
> Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=8132918757&ref=ts
BreakingPoint (@breakingpoint)
Also wanted to add to the mix BreakingPoint, network equipment testing tools vendor.
http://www.twitter.com/breakingpoint
Thanks,
Kyle
BreakingPoint Systems
HP ProCurve Networking @ProCurve
While Shane runs the @ProCurvehelp twitter page, there is also another twitter page for news and product releases from HP ProCurve.. http://twitter.com/procurve
This is a great list! Thanks
This is a great list! Thanks for compiling. We have lots of specific Twitter accounts depending on the interest level for Cisco - For anyone who is interested, here is a comprehensive list from our chief blogger John Earnhardt:
http://blogs.cisco.com/news/comments/all_the_news_thats_fit_to_tweet_cisco/
- Deanna (@deanna24)
Cisco
Juniper Networks on Twitter
Other twitters to check out:
@JNetTawnee -- posts on everything Juniper, our J-Net Community Forums, and Social Media endeavors
@JUNOSJeff -- our go-to guy for JUNOS, a great add to keep up to date.
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