Remembering Claus

01 Aug 2012

Jessica Twentyman pays tribute to IT analyst Claus Egge, who died last week.

“Just call Claus.” It was practically a catchphrase in theComputer Business Reviewoffice, back in the mid-1990s. As a junior writer on the magazine, I often found myself struggling to understand the machinations of the computer storage industry.

The advice from colleagues was always the same: “Just call Claus.”

For the best part of two decades, Claus Egge, formerly of IDC and more recently at Rainmaker Files, was my ‘go-to guy’ for insight and advice about the storage market. He played that role for many others, too: end users, storage vendors, other IT analysts, other journalists. He was a popular speaker at IP EXPO and a regular contributor this site. In Claus’s Twitter profile, he describes himself as “a perpetual student of things being stored, retrieved and protected”, but for many, he was a great teacher, too.

Claus died last week. At 54 years old, his death came way too soon. Online tributes have praised his keen analytical mind, his patience, his modesty, his quiet charm. Others have remembered his fondness for jazz and real ale. My former colleague Graeme Burton, now atComputing, says of him, “Claus really stood out as a person and as an analyst. He was always there with a well-informed opinion and friendly guidance – both on storage and on beer.” He was, as a fellow analyst has put it, “one of the industry’s nicest guys”.

 

From his colleagues and friends at Rainmaker Files, Martin Hingley and Puni Rajah, comes this: “Claus was a friend, business partner and colleague. He was clear thinking, considered, funny, humble and so knowledgeable. His passing is a great loss to our industry.”

As for me, I will always remember how, in his quiet way, he often made me smile, and sometimes laugh out loud. A few days before he died, he tweeted me, in response to something I had said about London 2012:

@jtwentyman Sshhh. (We are not allowed to refer to the word o l y m p i c s unless being a sponsor)

So funny, so Claus. He would, I think, be disconcerted (but secretly delighted) by the warmth and affection with which he is remembered. But those of us who spent time with him know that we have lost one of the good guys.