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.
NetApp Still Figuring Out How To Cloud
Justin Warren reflects on NetApp’s Cloud Field Day presentation, writing that they are looking to reinvent themselves as the industry moves towards the cloud. NetApp acknowledges that their old business ventures are just not where growth is and are moving towards a more service oriented business with higher margins. What worries Justin, however, is that NetApp’s products are just not compelling anymore.
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NetApp Still Figuring Out How To Cloud
It’s Probably Not The Wi-Fi
After Mobility Field Day, Tom Hollingsworth has one important takeaway, “it’s Not The Wi-Fi.” So often problems are blamed on the wireless network or firewall, etc. when that actually was not the case. Tom argues that the solution to this issue is accelerating the time to diagnose and resolve by involving professionals that manage systems that are actually down and telling users to make sure it is actually a wireless issue before proclaiming that its the wireless.
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Understanding HPE Nimble Storage’s Cloud Volumes
Ethan Banks writes about HPE Nimble Storage’s Cloud Volumes, which they presented about at Cloud Field Day. Cloud Volumes are a cloud storage product focused on helping enterprises move their business applications to the cloud. Ethan sees the idea behind Cloud Volumes, but worries that it is a short-term product filling a gap that enterprises will eventually be able to bridge themselves, and therefore will not be particularly profitable for HPE.
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Understanding HPE Nimble Storage's Cloud Volumes
NetApp and Rubrik, a David and Goliath situation? Part One
Ben Kepes writes about the differences he saw between NetApp and Rubrik at Cloud Field Day. Ben notes that NetApp has long had financial pressure not to innovate, even if that innovation helps NetApp ensure its long term survival. Now, however, with their acquisition of SolidFire and their appointment of Mark Bregman as CTO, Ben sees NetApp as moving towards a focus on innovation. This is a move in the right direction, but NetApp still might be falling behind its innovative competitors.
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NetApp and Rubrik, a David and Goliath situation? Part One
NetApp at Cloud Field Day
Theresa Miller was thoroughly impressed by the NetApp team and their passion for technology at Cloud Field Day. She points out that NetApp has long been a storage giant, but this passion for technology makes it clear that they plan to be a player in the growing cloud market. They already manage over 240 petabytes of cloud data today, along with offering tools like AltaVault, NetApp CloudSync, and ONTAP, so Theresa is anticipating good things to come in NetApp’s future.
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Mist Systems is the Cloud WLAN Vendor With a (not so) Secret Weapon
Lee Badman says there is more than meets the eyes from Mist Systems after their Mobility Field Day presentation. Here he is referring to their Virtual Bluetooth Beacons (vBLE), which “open up endless possibilities once you realize the limitless business cases.” Lee is unsure about Mist’s future in general, but he is sure that their vBLE is a really interesting and unique technology that does have a future.
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Mist Systems is the Cloud WLAN Vendor With a (not so) Secret Weapon
IP Infusion powering the world from behind the scenes
After Networking Field Day, Tony Mattke says that IP Infusion powers the world from behind the scenes. Their ZebOS powers everything from F5 LTM’s and Citrix Netscaler’s to Plexxi, SK Telecom, and Huawei networking products. Today IP Infusion is selling two variants of ZebOS to OEMs, OcNOS and VirNOS, both for unique purposes. Tony was interested to learn more about IP Infusion and what they have been doing behind the scenes.
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IP Infusion powering the world from behind the scenes
Mojo Networks: Driving Value With Open Hardware Standards
Jake Snyder sees Mojo Networks going in the right direction with their open hardware approach at their Mobility Field Day presentation, saying, “wireless access is not enough. You have to do more to show value.” He was impressed by CEO Rick Wilmer’s opening presentation, setting the stage for Mojo to show the ways in which they differentiate themselves with their cloud management, machine learning and wireless security.
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Mojo Networks: Driving Value With Open Hardware Standards
Mojo Networks Touts Lower Networking Costs, No More Vendor Lock-In at Mobility Field Day 2
Lee Badman highlights Mojo Network’s CEO Rick Wilmer’s presentation at Mobility Field Day. He says, “Wilmer paints a vision of commodity-priced access points being cloud managed in an open source framework where innovation is driven by the greater technical community instead of any single vendor’s skewed view of the feature world.” Lee applauds Mojo for taking a truly interesting and unique path and hopes they will find the allies they need to continue this vision.
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Mojo Networks Touts Lower Networking Costs, No More Vendor Lock-In at Mobility Field Day 2
Step by Step – VMware Virtual Network Assessment NSX Free
Writing in Czech, Karel Novak gives a step by step guide to using NSX Assessment to audit virtual network environments. This was prompted by VMware NSX’s presentation at Networking Field Day. Karel very clearly explains the process of setting up and using NSX with accompanying images for each step.
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Step by Step – VMware Virtual Network Assessment NSX Free
Disclosure: Pure Storage Accelerate 2017
In his typical humorous fashion, Justin Warren discloses absolutely everything about his Storage Field Day Exclusive experience at Pure Accelerate. From flights and accommodation to food and drink, Justin tells every detail, including all the swag he received.
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Disclosure: Pure Storage Accelerate 2017
HPE Built Another Cloud – Storage This Time
Eric Shanks gives the pros and cons of HPE’s Nimble Cloud Volumes presented at Cloud Field Day. He is optimistic that this will be familiar to many data center administrators, but worried about the lack of APIs and availability given there are only two Nimble Cloud Volumes data centers. Either way, Eric is interested that HPE has taken this approach and expects them to do well with this product in the short run.
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HPE Built Another Cloud - Storage This Time
Cisco’s SD-Access: All The Pieces
Drew Conry-Murray gives his thoughts on Cisco’s SD-Access. SD-Access is designed to automate common networking tasks in a campus network and is an ambitious project, but Drew is optimistic. Here, he discusses the supported hardware, the new dashboard DNA Center, as well as three additional pieces: APIC-EM, the Identity Services Engine (ISE), and the Network Data Platform.
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Cisco’s SD-Access: All The Pieces
The commercial benefits of saying it clearly…
After Cloud Field Day, Ben Kepes argues that companies need to clearly articulate what they do. He says that too often, useful and innovative products are overlooked because their creators cannot clearly explain their purpose. This means that the wrong products are getting commercial success. He concludes by saying, “if you can’t articulate what you do in a way that a 50-year old steelworker from the Midwest can understand, best you rethink what you’re doing.”
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The commercial benefits of saying it clearly...
What’s Worth Interrupting Shark week? CFD2
Eric Shanks comically reflects on his time at Cloud Field Day, claiming that the trip was worth missing Shark Week. He talks about how Field Day events work and his experience, but also about the real value of these events. Outside of sessions, he finds talking to the other delegates who have different skill sets and are from different places to be the most rewarding part of Field Day events.
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What's Worth Interrupting Shark week? CFD2
VMware NSX is something something awesome
Returning from Networking Field Day, Tony Mattke talks VMware NSX, focusing on the very interesting concept of Micro-Segmentation that NSX enables. He also highlights NSX’s ability to fully virtualize the network inside of VMware’s virtual compute infrastructure. Tony is very excited about the NSX, but he has his concerns and concludes by asking for a deeper dive into what happens when the firewall is flooded with traffic.
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VMware NSX is something something awesome
Cohesity FlashProtect – a look into Pure Storage and Cohesity Integration
After Tech Field Day Exclusive at Pure Accelerate, Max Mortillaro talks about the collaboration between Pure Storage and Cohesity saying it “is not only logical, but also important for both companies.” The addition of Cohesity as a secondary storage and data protection solution allows for a deep integration with Pure Storage snapshotting capabilities. Max says that this will provide an advantage to both parties, helping them extend their respective ecosystems and expand their market share.
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Cohesity FlashProtect - a look into Pure Storage and Cohesity Integration
PRTG Monitoring Software Now Available in Cloud Version
Ivan Pepelnjak says that one of the most interesting presentations during Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live Berlin was from Paessler. Paessler is developing a little known monitoring software called PRTG which they will offer as a SaaS service running in Amazon cloud. Ivan completely agrees with this decision by Paessler and recommends their cloud service as an alternate network monitoring and management tool.
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PRTG Monitoring Software Now Available in Cloud Version
Surprise! Facebook Shares Dramatically Improve Reach, Clicks, and Views
Stephen Foskett discusses the hard numbers of Facebook shares and how they affect viewership. Using 29 full Tech Field Day presentations with varying number of shares, he proves that there is a direct correlation between shares and people reached and views concluding that “a single share will likely double the views for a Live video post.”
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Surprise! Facebook Shares Dramatically Improve Reach, Clicks, and Views
The concept of “Scale In” for high volume data
Returning from Storage Field Day, Mike Preston talks about “scaling in” as opposed to out or up in relation to X-IO Storage’s new product, Axellio. He says, “Axellio is basically an OEM box… targeted at companies and enterprises that need a mass amount of computing and storage performance requirements in order to solve specific problems.” Mike believe that X-IO are on to something, but are still learning exactly how to bring this product to the market.
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