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.

I Need Something Like Komprise For My Garage

At Storage Field Day, Dan Frith heard from Komprise, and how they are helping organizations manage the deluge of unstructured data. Using advanced policy-based management, Komprise is able to identify cold data and redirect it before it hit advanced data workflows or data protection schemes best used for hot data. Dan just wishes now he had something similar to deal with his storage problems in his garage at home.

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I Need Something Like Komprise For My Garage

Screaming IOP performance with StarWind’s new NVMeoF software & Optane SSDs

It’s pretty impressive when a Storage Field Day presentation can get Ray Lucchesi thinking about building a super computer. But that’s just what happened after seeing the impressive performance from StarWind NVMeoF initiator on CentOS and Windows Server. Using just 2-core in a Hyper-V environment, StarWind was able to achieve bare metal storage performance on Optane, getting ~551K 4K random write IOP performance at the 0.6msec RT and 2.26 GB/sec level. Not surprising that Ray called StarWind an “amazing company.”

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Screaming IOP performance with StarWind's new NVMeoF software & Optane SSDs

The Possibilities of Commvault GO

Rich Stroffolino gives a preview of what to expect from Commvault GO. The conference invites attendees to “Picture the Possibilities.” For Rich, what makes these kind of customer conferences important are the dozens of training sessions during the events, to turn those possibilities into reality.

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The Possibilities of Commvault GO

The era of composable storage infrastructures is coming

After seeing StarWind present on their NVMe-oF solutions, Enrico Signoretti thinks that it’s time to declare the SAN officially dead. The ability of NVMe-oF to access remote storage the same way as local storage opens the door to borrowing storage resources from other servers across the datacenter and building your virtual storage array. For Enrico, what StarWind presented is the start of the age of Composable Storage Infrastructure.

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The era of composable storage infrastructures is coming

Meraki’s LittleTable Isn’t So Little Anymore

Jennifer Huber heard from Cisco’s Meraki team at Mobility Field Day earlier this month. She was impressed with the responsiveness of their Wireless Heath dashboard. This allows her to view the massive LittleTable database and evaluate which client devices are behaving badly.

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Meraki's LittleTable Isn't So Little Anymore

If Cisco Could Lower Their Marketing Hype, We Might Actually Be Able to Get to the Substance

Lee Badman wrote up about one of the major benefits of a Mobility Field Day presentation, cutting through marketing hype, and learning about the tech that matters to him as a potential customer. Lee recently had a bad experience watching recent Cisco ads, but seeing them present at Mobility Field Day earlier this year, he found their Cisco Analytics and Assurance presentation “mind-opening.”

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If Cisco Could Lower Their Marketing Hype, We Might Actually Be Able to Get to the Substance

Moms Love Mist

Mist Systems returned to Mobility Field Day earlier this month, and definitely impressed Mitch Dickey. But what really stood out to him was how relatable what they were presenting was to a non-tech audience. Mitch thinks this will be a major boon as they approach customers.

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Moms Love Mist

Komprise Systems Overview from #SFD17

At Storage Field Day last week, Aaron Strong and the other delegates got a deep dive from Komprise. In this piece, he gives an overview of what he saw. For Aaron, Komprise’s solution reminded him of Windows Quota “on steroids.” It allows you to get a handle on your unstructured data, and move it safely and economically.

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Komprise Systems Overview from #SFD17

Watch Mobility Field Day On-Demand!

If you missed any of Aruba’s presentation from Mobility Field Day earlier this month, never fear! We’ve got the full presentation video posted for your enjoyment. They touched upon their latest advances with 802.11ax, a sneak peak at the AP287, and their role in the new WPA3 standard.

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Watch Mobility Field Day On-Demand!

Nyansa; A Clearer Picture From a Data Gathering Powerhouse

Mitch Dickey looks at what Nyansa presented at Mobility Field Day earlier this month. The company provides an analytics platform that “delivers a crazy amount of data and insight into your network.” Mitch looks into how the company presents and makes sense of all the data they collect, how they approach putting agents on client devices, and how they handle IoT devices. Overall, Mitch thinks they can be a player in the analytics market, provided the company molds how they present the data collected to their clients, and not overwhelm them with noise.

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Nyansa; A Clearer Picture From a Data Gathering Powerhouse

Secondary storage is the new primary

Enrico Signoretti sees IT as a whole suddenly recognizing the importance of secondary storage in their environment. As primary storage, centered around structured data, has largely become commidified, having high capacity but low quality object stores for secondary storage is becoming inadequate. This is especially true given the growth rate of unstructured data, which become even more of a problem as regulatory requirements increase. Enrico things a company like Komprise, which he saw at Storage Field Day last week, is the result of recognizing the importance of secondary storage. Komprise uses both analytics and user generated policy to do stretegic data planning, manage migration, move data to cheaper storage tiers when appropriate, and more.

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Secondary storage is the new primary

Mist Unveils AI-Driven Wi-Fi

In this post, Rowell Dionicio looks at the WiFI advances shown by Mist Systems at Mobility Field Day earlier this month. The company offers a cloud-managed WiFI service with a constant stream of updates, bug fixes, and new features through their dashboard at scale via microservices. He also got to see Marvis, Mist’s AI-driven Virtual Network Assistant. This can be used with troubleshooting, including being smart enough to open tickets with Mist automatically.

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Mist Unveils AI-Driven Wi-Fi

CTS 139: Aruba Networks Demos OWE at MFD3

On this episode of the Clear to Send podcast, Rowell Dionicio discusses what he saw from Aruba at Mobility Field Day earlier this month. Specifically, the company demoed an improvement to unsecured wireless networks, called Opportunistic Wireless Encryption. This would enable users to connect without a password, but not allow any other connected users to see that traffic. Although not a mandatory part of the WPA3 specification, Aruba think OWE will be vital in securing the unsecured.

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CTS 139: Aruba Networks Demos OWE at MFD3

Solving 802.11ad challenges

In this post, Amy Arnold look at how the Aruba AP-387 point to point unit overcomes some of the challenges traditionally associated with 802.11ad. At Mobility Field Day earlier this month, Aruba showed how the AP uses both 60Hz and 5GHz radios, and aggregates the throughput in the AP. This combined with self aligning properties on the 60Hz radio combines to bring vastly improved consistency.

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Solving 802.11ad challenges

Copy Data Management has a new player

Matt Leib got to get an inside look at Dell EMC’s new IDPA and DPS offerings. This opportunity gave deep insight into the Data Protection Appliance market, making it all that more interesting. Matt found his Tech Field Day delegate experience to be vital in cutting through company FUD. Even after all that, he still found what Dell EMC is doing to be impressive.

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Copy Data Management has a new player

AirCheck G2 gets a v3

Sam Clements got a deep dive into the new v3 firmware for NETSCOUT’s AirCheck G2 at Mobility Field Day earlier this month. The update adds a number of important features, including improved packet capture, Live-Link improvements to reduce dependence on Windows-only apps, and the ability to do over the air updates. For Sam, this makes already valuable AirCheck G2 even better.

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AirCheck G2 gets a v3

Tech Stand UP Episode 8 – SFD17 – Initial Thoughts on Komprise Podcast

On the latest Tech Stand UP episode, Luigi Danakos, Aaron Strong, and Joe Houghes discuss what they saw from Komprise at Storage Field Day last week. They discuss how Komprise’s Observer can be a tool to help users and businesses stay in compliance in a post-GDPR world.

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Tech Stand UP Episode 8 - SFD17 - Initial Thoughts on Komprise Podcast

MFD3 – Link-Live Updates

For Jonathan Davis, one of the highlights of NETSCOUT’s presentation at Mobility Field Day was seeing updates on Live-Link in their latest device firmware. These updates to the LinkRunner G2 and AirCheck G2 now allow the devices to be updated without the need of a Windows POC. For Jonathan, this is a welcome shift, and part of these devices becoming much more useful after the latest firmware.

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MFD3 – Link-Live Updates

Clarity and Confusion- Fortinet and Arista at Mobility Field Day 3

For Lee Badman, seeing Fortinet at Mobility Field Day was an eye opening experience. He’d known of the company for some time, but had them pigeon holded as a security device company. While the company bundles their solutions under security banner, Lee found their solutions offer be well rounded. This baked-in approach contrasted with Arista Networks. For Lee, their presentation on the wireless assets from their recent Mojo Networks acquisition still needed some work to tell a complete story.

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Clarity and Confusion- Fortinet and Arista at Mobility Field Day 3

Storage Field Day 17 – (Fairly) Full Disclosure

Having Dan Frith along as a delegate for a Field Day event means two things. He’s written a steady stream of posts giving detailed and insightful looks at the presenting companies. But he’s also written his regular disclosure/event journal about things he did outside of the event presentation themselves. We’ve come to expect this kind of rigor from Mr. Frith. He does not disappoint here.

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Storage Field Day 17 – (Fairly) Full Disclosure