Tech Field Day Coverage
Our delegate panel includes independent writers and thought leaders, and we collect their coverage of the event, Tech Field Day presentations, and sponsoring companies here.
Silver Peak is Serious about SD-WAN
Silver Peak’s presentation at Networking Field Day last month got Pete Welcher thinking. He thinks the company made a well timed jump from WAN appliances to SD-WAN, with their Unity EdgeConnect being their unified SD-WAN offering. Their presentation made the case for replacing traditional WAN routers with SD-WAN devices. Pete looks at some of the technical benefits and drawbacks to that approach.
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Silver Peak is Serious about SD-WAN
Meet the Security Field Day Delegates: Paul Snyder
In preparation for their presentation at Security Field Day next week, Aruba’s Jamie Easley wrote up a post to get to know one of the delegates for the event, Paul Snyder. They discussed how Paul got into IT security, what the industry can do to attract more security professionals, and what are some of the overlooked security issues in modern enterprises.
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Meet the Security Field Day Delegates: Paul Snyder
BiB 063: Can An SD-WAN Device Replace A WAN Router?
On this episode of Briefings in Brief, Ethan Banks looks at what Silver Peak presented at Networking Field Day last month. The SD-WAN company focused their Field Day presentation on how their solutions can be replacements for conventional WAN routers. Ethan looks at if WAN routers are the ancient devices Silver Peak presented, and if an SD-WAN device is a suitable replacement.
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BiB 063: Can An SD-WAN Device Replace A WAN Router?
MPLS for the masses: The need for simplicity and standardization, at least in networking (The wheel has already been invented)
Nicola Modena found a kindred spirit when he heard Apstra present at Networking Field Day last month. Both share an appreciation for removing the superfluous and using the right tools and in the right way. Their Apstra Operating System was made to create and manage multivendor Clos IP Fabrics. As part of this, Apstra included a number of standard configuration models that fit within this ethos. After talking to Apstra, while their customers are at liberty to modify these configuration, the vast majority leave them in their essential state.
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NetApp Data Fabric: A la Hybrid Cloud! – An update from NetApp Insight 2018
Chan Ekanayake attending Tech Field Day Extra at NetApp Insight 2018, and in this post shares his thoughts on NetApp’s announcements around Data Fabric. At Insight, the company showed how Data Fabric is moving beyond simply being a hybrid cloud solution. Now Data Fabric can provide data portibility across across Edge to Core to Cloud platforms. NetApp also extended the data services available to Data Fabric solutions. Chan thinks the strategy for NetApp is sound, the devil will be in continuing to execute. But he sees NetApp’s willingness to invest and differentiate with software will only serve to their advantage going forward.
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NetApp Data Fabric: A la Hybrid Cloud! – An update from NetApp Insight 2018
BiB 062: Globally Scalable Microsegmentation With Illumio
Ethan Banks posted a recent Briefings in Brief episode discussing what was presented by Illumio at Networking Field Day last month. This marked Illumio’s return to the event, and they used their presentation to highlight their Policy Compute Engine Supercluster. This provides a a cluster of Policy Compute Engines, which can be used for massive scale that would otherwise choke a single controller. Ethan was impressed the company did a live demo showing the Supercluster in action with 225K workloads across three AWS regions. Make sure you check out their demo yourself with our full video coverage.
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BiB 062: Globally Scalable Microsegmentation With Illumio
Illumio PCE Supercluster Launch: Behind the Scenes
Illumio returned to Networking Field Day earlier this week, with the launch of PCE Supercluster, providing centralized policy management and global application visibility at scale. In this video, the team takes a look at what went into planning that announcement, including organizing a quarter million workloads demo.
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Illumio PCE Supercluster Launch: Behind the Scenes
BiB 061: Understanding DriveScale Composer Architecture
The Briefing in Brief podcast from Packet Pushers is a great way to stay up to date on the latest company-specific news in a really concise package. In this edition, Ethan Banks looks at what DriveScale presented about at Tech Field Day, specifically the DriveScale Composer. This allows organizations to compose any compute to any disk or flash, in a scalable way. This is all RESTful API driven, allowing you to compose your infrastructure, but stopping short of being an application orchestrator. All of this with full multi-tenant support, and designed to insure data integrity in the event of an outage.
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BiB 061: Understanding DriveScale Composer Architecture
BlueCat: DNS, DDI + Visibility and Workflow Automation
In this post, Pete Welcher continues his excellent look at the presenters from Networking Field Day earlier this month. Looking at BlueCat Networks, he thought they made an interesting case for their managed DNS and IPAM address management solution. Though DNS and DDI can be seen as somewhat commodified, BlueCat argued that DNS provides network visibility, while DDI can serve as a single source of truth. Both are seen as vital for business workflow automation.
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BlueCat: DNS, DDI + Visibility and Workflow Automation
Meet the Security Field Day Delegates: Ethan Banks
Ahead of their presentation at Security Field Day in December, Aruba’s Jamie Easley sat down for an interview with delegate Ethan Banks. Ethan is no stranger to the Field Day event series, but we’re excited to have him along for our inaugural Security Field Day. In the interview, they discuss what is new with Packet Pushers, the role of AI in security, and favorite memes.
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Meet the Security Field Day Delegates: Ethan Banks
The Need for Security Field Day
The Tech Field Day event series has always tried to present a comprehensive view of enterprise IT. Our more specialized Field Day events were created to provider a deeper dive into the most important areas. We started with IT mainstays like storage and networking, but in recent years have added cloud and mobility-focused events to the calendar as those have become vital to modern IT. In 2018, we’re launching Security Field Day. Tom Hollingsworth makes the case why this has never been more vital in this post.
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The Need for Security Field Day
Oracle Cloud with SLA?
Yusuf Emre Özensoy attended Tech Field Day earlier this year, his first time as a delegate at the event. He got to see a great presentation from Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, who made a great case why the industry needs another cloud provider. Oracle Cloud differentiates itself by offering a large number of bare metal cloud instances as well as integration of the K8S engine for containers.
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Illumio: Micro-Segmentation via the Endpoint
Pete Welcher has seen a number of Networking Field Day presentations. That;s why it’s impressive when he says that Illumio’s recent presentation may have had one the best demos the event has ever seen! They showed how their newly announced PCE SuperCluster can provide automated leveraging of endpoints, rather than dedicated firewalls, to provide uniform micro-segmentation onsite or in the cloud. Make sure to watch the demo for yourself with our comprehensive event video coverage.
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Illumio: Micro-Segmentation via the Endpoint
micro-segmentation at scale
Illumio made their return to Networking Field Day earlier this month, and Marina Ferreira was there to take in the presentation. The company took the event to launch their PCE Supercluster enhancement to their Adaptive Security Platform (ASP) solution, which will allow for a federated multi-region micro-segmentation architecture with centralized policy management and global visibility at scale. Marina was fascinated at some of the development potential their platform could enable for advanced analytics.
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Network Automation and Monitoring with Apstra AOS
Jed Casey attended his first Networking Field Day event earlier this month. He got to hear from a variety of prominent networking companies, and in this post, he highlights what he saw from Apstra. Their AOS has been an early innovating in the intent-based networking space. During this presentation, they discussed bringing intent to automation and monitoring.
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Network Automation and Monitoring with Apstra AOS
BiB 060: Focus On Your Data & Not Where It’s Stored With HammerSpace
This episode of the Briefings in Brief podcast looks at what Hammerspace presented at Tech Field Day earlier this year. Ethan Banks was there as a delegate, and saw the company come out of stealth. They provide a solution that creates a single namespace of data regardless of where it is stored, making it a true data-as-a-service offering.
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BiB 060: Focus On Your Data & Not Where It's Stored With HammerSpace
BiB 059: Recover From Cyber Attacks & Ransomware With Dell EMC
In this latest installment of the Briefings in Brief podcast, Ethan Banks runs down what he heard from Dell EMC at their latest Tech Field Day presentation. They focused on their Cyber Recovery 18.1, which is designed specifically to meet the needs of recovering for a cyber attack. This is designed to allow for speedier recovery of massive datasets and maintain operations better than traditional backup and recovery or DR.
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BiB 059: Recover From Cyber Attacks & Ransomware With Dell EMC
Netscout, Smart Network Analytics
Rita Younger hadn’t used Netscout’s solutions much since the 90s, but got reacquainted with the company after hearing a presentation from them at Tech Field Day Extra at VMworld US 2018. What she saw was a company that has evolved with the network analytics movement, providing a single tool to provide visibility into complex hybrid, multi-cloud environment.
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Netscout, Smart Network Analytics
ClearSky Data Raises $20 Million To Fuel Expansion
Justin Warren first got to hear from ClearSky Data at Tech Field Day Extra at VMworld 2015. Since then the company has continued to grow, and Justin now breaks down the closing of a successful $20 million funding round, as well as a partnership with Equinix. Justin thinks the partnership and funds should help to expand the company’s Storage-as-a-Service west of Chicago in the near future.
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ClearSky Data Raises $20 Million To Fuel Expansion
The Glue that brings the Intent together!
While Apstra is no stranger to Networking Field Day, Al Rasheed got to hear them for the first time as a delegate at the event earlier this month. He digs into their presentation, and how the company’s AOS isn’t just about using Intent for Day 1 operation, but how the company has innovated around bringing intent to automation and analytics.
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