Tech Field Day

The Independent IT Influencer Event

  • Home
    • The Futurum Group
    • FAQ
    • Staff
  • Sponsors
    • Sponsor List
      • 2025 Sponsors
      • 2024 Sponsors
      • 2023 Sponsors
      • 2022 Sponsors
    • Sponsor Tech Field Day
    • Best of Tech Field Day
    • Results and Metrics
    • Preparing Your Presentation
      • Complete Presentation Guide
      • A Classic Tech Field Day Agenda
      • Field Day Room Setup
      • Presenting to Engineers
  • Delegates
    • Delegate List
      • 2025 Delegates
      • 2024 Delegates
      • 2023 Delegates
      • 2022 Delegates
      • 2021 Delegates
      • 2020 Delegates
      • 2019 Delegates
      • 2018 Delegates
    • Become a Field Day Delegate
    • What Delegates Should Know
  • Events
    • All Events
      • Upcoming
      • Past
    • Field Day
    • Field Day Extra
    • Field Day Exclusive
    • Field Day Experience
    • Field Day Live
    • Field Day Showcase
  • Topics
    • Tech Field Day
    • Cloud Field Day
    • Mobility Field Day
    • Networking Field Day
    • Security Field Day
    • Storage Field Day
  • News
    • Coverage
    • Event News
    • Podcast
  • When autocomplete results are available use up and down arrows to review and enter to go to the desired page. Touch device users, explore by touch or with swipe gestures.
You are here: Home / Appearances / Platform9 Presents at Cloud Field Day 19

Platform9 Presents at Cloud Field Day 19



Cloud Field Day 19

Madhura Maskasky and Peter Fray presented for Platform9 at Cloud Field Day 19

This Presentation date is January 31, 2024 at 13:00-14:30.

Presenters: Madhura Maskasky, Peter Fray

Platform9 is excited to showcase, at Cloud Field Day, our ground-breaking innovative product called Elastic Machine Pool (EMP) (https://elasticmachinepool.com). Our latest innovation doubles EKS efficiency and saves 50% or more on AWS costs. Designed for DevOps/FinOps teams, EMP dramatically improves your EKS cluster CPU and memory utilization – with zero app/pod disruptions and no changes required to your app resource configuration set by the developers. Check out the announcement blog by our CTO: https://platform9.com/blog/platform9s-elastic-machine-pool-the-most-cost-effective-compute-engine-for-eks/


Democratizing Cloud Computing with Platform9


Watch on YouTube
Watch on Vimeo

Madhura Maskasky, Co-Founder and VP of Product at Platform9 Systems, introduces Platform9, the main offerings of the company, and a discussion about the “cloud engine” which forms the unique IP that wraps around open-source software to simplify operations with “Always-On Assurance”. The session will further outline the proactive operations methodology, which includes Comprehensive Monitoring, Proactive Issue Identification, Automated Alerting and Ticket Generation, Enhanced System Reliability. The session will end with a review of how a full stack is deployed across 1000s of location in an automated and repeatable way.

The session covers an overview of Platform9, its mission to democratize cloud computing, and the unique services it offers to enterprises. Platform9’s approach involves using open-source software like Kubernetes, OpenStack, and other components, which are then packaged and deployed through a SaaS model. This is coupled with their “Always-On Assurance” guarantee, which ensures high operational efficiency and reliability for cloud infrastructures at scale.

The proactive operations methodology includes comprehensive monitoring, proactive issue identification, automated alerting, and ticket generation. This methodology is powered by a “hidden product” that operates 24/7, monitoring infrastructure, collecting metrics, and analyzing data to maintain a 99.9% SLA for enterprise customers.

During the session, Madhura explains how Platform9 manages customers’ infrastructure remotely, configuring hardware, installing operating systems, deploying Kubernetes or OpenStack, and providing a layer of PaaS services for applications. The discussion also touches on technical aspects such as the use of Prometheus for metrics, Loki and ELK for log aggregation, and Vault for secret management.

Questions from the audience address the intervals at which data is collected, the use of other tools like Splunk and Dynatrace, and the role of Platform9’s support team in application-level monitoring. It is clarified that while Platform9 is responsible for platform-level SLAs, customers can still use their own tools for application-level monitoring and can request access to Platform9’s collected data if needed.

The session concludes with Madhura mentioning some of Platform9’s customers, such as Juniper Networks, Rackspace, Cloudera, and SambaNova, and noting that they manage over 15,000 active nodes worldwide. An attendee inquires about HPE’s use of Platform9, and Madhura confirms that an HPE team uses their OpenStack product for DevTest private cloud purposes.

Personnel: Madhura Maskasky

Introduction to Platform9 Elastic Machine Pool


Watch on YouTube
Watch on Vimeo

In this presentation, Madhura Maskasky, the Co-Founder and VP of Product at Platform9 Systems, introduces their new product called Elastic Machine Pool (EMP). EMP aims to optimize compute utilization and reduce costs for Kubernetes in public clouds by at least 50%. EMP is unique in the market because it addresses the inefficiency of Kubernetes, which often uses only around 30% of its allocated resources.

EMP works by provisioning bare metal nodes and deploying optimized virtual machines on top of them, called elastic virtual machines (EVMs). A rebalancer component ensures even distribution of resources across the pool of bare metal nodes and can live-migrate VMs without disrupting applications. This allows for over-provisioning and better bin packing without compromising application SLAs.

The product targets DevOps, FinOps, and PlatformOps users and fits into the FinOps landscape by potentially reducing EKS costs significantly. EMP is complementary to other tools that provide cost visibility but differentiates itself by improving utilization and eliminating the need to constantly adjust app configurations for cost optimization.

EMP is licensed on a risk-reward model, charging a percentage of the actual savings it generates for customers. The discussion also covers the importance of feedback loops for engineers to understand resource usage better and the potential expansion of EMP to other clouds beyond AWS.

The presentation concludes with an emphasis on the significant potential cost savings that EMP can offer and its ability to operate seamlessly within existing Kubernetes clusters without requiring fundamental changes or app disruptions.

Personnel: Madhura Maskasky

Platform9 EMP Cost Analyzer and EKS Cluster Management Demo


Watch on YouTube
Watch on Vimeo

Platform9 Systems demonstrates Elastic Machine Pool (EMP) Cost Analyzer and their approach to managing Amazon EKS clusters. Peter Fray, Field CTO, and Madhura Maskasky, VP of Product, showcase how their tool can calculate potential savings for AWS EKS clusters by analyzing current costs and projecting savings and explain how EMP serves as an alternative to AWS Fargate by managing worker nodes and potentially reducing costs.

The demo includes the following:
1. An overview of the existing AWS environment with EC2 worker nodes.
2. A live demo of the EMP Cost Analyzer, projecting significant cost savings by running multiple EC2 instances on a single bare metal node.
3. A discussion on how EMP compares to AWS serverless offerings like Lambda and Fargate, emphasizing cost savings and management benefits.
4. An explanation of how to install the cost analyzer using a Helm chart and how it integrates with AWS.
5. A demonstration of how to create and manage EVM pools, configure overcommitment, and scale bare metal nodes according to workload demand.
6. An outline of the process for migrating from a traditional EKS cluster to one managed by EMP.
7. A discussion on the future expansion of EMP beyond AWS EKS to other Kubernetes offerings and possibly EC2.
8. A Q&A session addressing technical details, automation capabilities, and go-to-market strategies, including the AWS marketplace presence.

The demo illustrates the potential for significant cost savings and simplified cluster management for AWS EKS users through the use of Platform9’s EMP.

Personnel: Madhura Maskasky, Peter Fray


  • Bluesky
  • LinkedIn
  • Mastodon
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Event Calendar

  • May 28-May 29 — Security Field Day 13
  • Jun 4-Jun 5 — Cloud Field Day 23
  • Jun 10-Jun 11 — Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2025
  • Jul 9-Jul 10 — Networking Field Day 38
  • Jul 16-Jul 17 — Edge Field Day 4
  • Sep 10-Sep 11 — AI Infrastructure Field Day 3
  • Oct 29-Oct 30 — AI Field Day 7

Latest Links

  • Compliance Does Not Equal Security
  • Meraki Campus Gateway: Cloud-Managed Overlay for Complex Networks
  • Exploring the Future of Cybersecurity at Security Field Day 13
  • 5G Neutral Host: Solving Enterprise Cellular Coverage Gaps
  • Qlik Connect 2025: Answers For Agentic AI

Return to top of page

Copyright © 2025 · Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in