One Year in @ VMware – A Q&A With Myself

Matt Crape has been working at VMware for about a year. In this post, he reflects on how the opportunity came at him very quickly, and what he misses from working on the customer side. One of the things he misses are events like Tech Field Day. But as Matt says, without those events, he couldn’t be where he is today. We’re glad we could be part of Matt’s career journey!

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One Year In @ VMware - A Q&A With Myself

Software Defining Industrial and IoT Networks

The Internet of Things (IoT) often gets represented as consumer grade cameras, sensors, thermostats, and appliances. While this certainly is a notable portion of the IoT market, it neglects the more mission-critical side of IoT which has its roots firmly planted in the heart of industrial networking. In this post, Jordan Martin takes a look at the new products he saw at Tech Field Day Extra from Cisco Live US 2019 that focus specifically on those use cases.

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Software Defining Industrial and IoT Networks

Druva – Uber for Data Protection

Druva returned as a presenter with their most recent appearance at Tech Field Day last month. Liselotte Foverskov was a delegate at the event and got a full deep dive of their latest and greatest. This post looks at some of the benefits of the company SaaS data protection solution and how it can be useful to organizations today.

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Druva - Uber for Data Protection

Moving the Control Plane to Multi-Cloud With New vRealize Operations

Multi-cloud automation and orchestration is a daunting task, but Raff Poltronieri thinks VMware has an intriguing solution with vRealize Operations. While Raff wasn’t a delegate at the event, he followed along on the live stream remotely, and was able to get a lot out of the presentation. During the presentation, VMware reviewed their four tenants of self-driving operations, something they hope to implement in vRealize Operations. Raff digs into the specifics in this piece.

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Moving the control plane to multi-cloud with new vRealize Operations

Using Pipelines for Administrators in Code Stream

One of the great thingsabout Tech Field Day events is that they are live streamed with full video available soon after the presentation. This allows anyone to check out the technical content at their own convenience. That’s what Raff Poltronieri did with VMware’s Tech Field Day presentation last month. In this post, he digs into Code Stream, one of the components of VMware’s multi-cloud automation platform. Coding isn’t directly in Raff’s comfort zone, but he got a lot out of what this new solution is capable of from the presentation.

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Using Pipelines for Administrators in Code Stream

Tech Field Day 19 – Wrap-Up and Link-O-Rama

It’s always a pleasure when Dan Frith comes to a Field Day event. Not only does he provide great articles going into detail about the presentations, but he also highlight and signal boosts writings by the other delegates. In this post, he shares posts from his fellow delegates from his most recent Tech Field Day event. Be sure to check it out for a lot of great writing.

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Tech Field Day 19 – Wrap-Up And Link-O-Rama

Veeam and the Art of the Portable

For Paul Stringfellow, Veeam has always been a company that has a way of making things “just work”. This has continued as their products have embraced the cloud. At Cloud Field Day earlier this year, the company discussed how they are bringing portability and mobility to cloud workloads. This doesn’t just include technical considerations, but goes down to changing how they license it as well.

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Veeam and the art of the portable

Cisco AI Network Analytics – Filtering Out the Noise With Machine Learning

At Cisco Live 2019 in San Diego, JP Vasseur, PhD and Cisco Fellow, introduced Cisco’s machine learning platform, which will provide insight via DNA Center Assurance, into how a network is expected to be operating as a baseline, and provide relevant alerts based on real network data, leveraging a massive data lake, and Cisco’s proven expertise in networking. Rob Coote got a deep dive on the platform at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2019, and digs into it in this post.

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Cisco AI Network Analytics - Filtering Out the Noise with Machine Learning

The Briar Patch of Software Patches

Patching insecure software is usually the right answer, right? So why do we argue against it so much? Tom Hollingsworth discusses lessons learned from VMware’s recent Security Field Day presentation and how we could all be a bit better about patching if we just act like pirates.

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The Briar Patch of Software Patches

Modern Analytics Can Come From Anywhere

After seeing Cisco Meraki present at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2019, Aaron Conaway considers the possibilities of being able to integrate cameras with systems like badge readers. This would allow for really extraordinary things like sending the security team a video of a developer trying to get places he should be going. Or, perhaps, the camera can be smart enough to know that an event is happening and do something about it.What if we looked at security cameras in a completely different light? What if the camera becomes something else? Enter the Cisco Meraki Motion Search 2.0 software features for MV cameras. This package takes video to another level for the second-generation MV cameras.

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Modern Analytics Can Come from Anywhere

Cisco Defense Orchestrator

Cisco Defense Orchestrator (CDO) is a subscription-based SaaS offering that brings deployment and management of edge security policies on an array of devices under central control. Jody Lemoine  got a look at CDO at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live Us 2019. He takes an in-depth look in this piece.

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Cisco Defense Orchestrator

Automation Anywhere – the Bots Are Here to Help

Robotic Process Automation isn’t a topic we’ve seen a lot of at Tech Field Day in the past, which is why the presentation from Automation Anywhere really grabbed a lot of attention. Dan Frith digs into their presentation in this piece. While the topic might have been new to the delegates, Automation Anywhere has been at the game since 2003 and is well established in the space. For Dan, the exciting advantage of RPA is not that it can change how we work, but rather change what we can work on.

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Automation Anywhere – The Bots Are Here To Help

Cloudy With a Chance of APIs – Reflections From Tech Field Day 19

Tech Field Day is all about bringing together the different disciplines of the data center into a single event, bringing a diversity of views from both the presenting companies and invited delegates. Adam Fisher definitely go that experience at Tech Field Day last month. The event featured presentations from diverse topics as Robotic Process Automation to cloud visibility solutions. The unifying aspect of every company was the presence of some kind of public cloud integration into their solutions, and the availability of well documented APIs. It’s no surprise that these are dominant trends in IT, but surprising to see them on display from such a wide array of presenters.

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Cloudy with a chance of APIs – Reflections from Tech Field Day 19

VMware Cloud Automation Services: The Next Evolution in Multi-Cloud Automation

Wes Milliron attended his first Field Day event last month. It was great to see his write up of what VMware presented, which was featured on the last day of the event. They focused on their Cloud Automation Services Suite, which is a SaaS offering for multi-cloud management and automation. The tech definitely impressed the delegates. Wes liked that it allows VMware customers to embrace DevOps without locking them into specific tools. The videos from the presentation are definitely worth a watch.

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VMware Cloud Automation Services: The Next Evolution in Multi-Cloud Automation

Druva – in the Cloud, of the Cloud, Protecting the Cloud

Druva is no stranger to Field Day events, and Dan Frith got to hear an update about the company at Tech Field Day last month. The presentation began with an overview of data protection history and some of the historical challenges. It was interesting to see what all has been solved in that time. In this piece, Dan Frith was impressed with Druva’s focus. Rather than trying to be all things to all people, they focus on meeting customer requirements for data protection.

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Druva – In The Cloud, Of The Cloud, Protecting The Cloud

VMware vRealize – Operations Without Operators

At Tech Field Day, VMware presented on their four tenants for self-driving operations: Continuous Performance Optimization, Efficient Capacity Management, Intelligent Remediation, and Integrated Compliance. Dan Frith looks at how these elements are integrated into vRealize Operations. For him, it was eye opening to see the capabilities, and reinforced the point that the solution is so much more than a glorified dashboard.

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VMware vRealize – Operations Without Operators

The Development of DevNet’s Future

It may not have happened overnight, but Cisco has successfully developed a developer community around their SDN solutions with DevNet. Tom Hollingsworth attended some of the earliest session, and has been impressed with how it has grown. To really go to the next level, Tom things they need to aggressively pursue entry-level outreach, motivating everyone in the networking field to join them in the software-defined future.

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The Development of DevNet’s Future

NetApp Wants You to See the Whole Picture

Dan Frith is no stranger to Storage Field Day, but last month was the first time he attended a Tech Field Day event. Luckily there was a familiar face presenting at the event with NetApp. They presented on their Cloud Insights solution, which presenting into what turned into an overall theme of the event of management and monitoring. Dan was really intrigued by the ability of Cloud Insights to give a full picture of application services, with operating systems and underlying hardware.

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NetApp Wants You To See The Whole Picture

Cloud-Native Data Protection

In this post, Chris Evans looks at cloud-native data protection. He breaks down why it makes sense for an organization, what some of the potential challenges are, and takes time to define what a cloud native solution should actually look like. He also looks the companies offering solutions in the space, including what Druva showed at Cloud Field Day last year, and solutions presented at Storage Field Day by NetApp.

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Cloud-Native Data Protection

Taking the Pulse of the WLAN Industry: Mobility Field Day 4 Approaches

Mobility Field Day is coming up soon and we’re excited to have Lee Badman coming back as a delegate for the event. This will be his eleventh Field Day event, and as such, Lee has a lot of experience with it. In this post, he talk a little about what makes him come back to Field Day, what makes it unique, and what goes on after the cameras stop rolling.

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Taking the Pulse of the WLAN Industry: Mobility Field Day 4 Approaches