Runaway K8 Clusters, Meet Your Match: Platform9’s Elastic Machine Pool (EMP)
Although Jim Czuprynski prefers monolithic architectures like Oracle’s Exadata, as an experienced Oracle DBA he recognizes the common issue of memory over-allocation in containerized environments, driven by the containerization trend. Platform9’s EMP toolset was presented as a solution which introduces an alternative virtualization layer, streamlining resource usage and potentially curbing the over-provisioning habits of Kubernetes engineers. With a focus on enhanced performance and cost efficiency, EMP’s potential to optimize Kubernetes configurations was highlighted at Cloud Field Day, a novel approach eagerly eyed by those in cloud resource management.
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Runaway K8 Clusters, Meet Your Match: Platform9's Elastic Machine Pool (EMP)
SoftIron’s Breakthrough in Private Cloud Technology Was on Display at Cloud Field Day 19
The Chaos Lever podcast takes on Cloud Field Day 19, with a focus on SoftIron, offering custom hardware and software integrations to construct resilient private cloud environments, providing an alternative perspective on the historical progression of IT infrastructure. Their commitment to private clouds is reflected in meticulously developed solutions, tailored for demanding scalability and flexibility, encompassing networking, compute, and storage. Listen in as delegate Ned Bellavance and Chris Hayner consider this product and the rest of the Cloud Field Day news!
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SoftIron's Breakthrough in Private Cloud Technology Was on Display at Cloud Field Day 19
The Game-Changer in Cloud Networking: My Take on Broadcom’s Trident5-X12 Chip
Returning to her roots at Cloud Field Day 19, Shala Warner was intrigued by Broadcom’s Trident5-X12 chip, which appeals to her passion for networking with the expansive possibilities of the cloud. This powerhouse chip not only promises to push the boundaries for AI/ML data processing but hints at a security-first future, setting the stage for a new era where Cloud Operators and CDNs unite to fortify against DDoS threats. As a DevOps advocate, Shala envisions this kind of innovation driving a unified approach in both hardware and software realms, fostering collaborative and resilient cloud ecosystems. Read more in this DEV Community article!
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The Game-Changer in Cloud Networking: My Take on Broadcom's Trident5-X12 Chip
Winning the Private (Cloud) War: SoftIron’s Hyperscaled Solutions
Jim Czuprynski reacts to SoftIron’s presentation at Cloud Field Day. They presented a private cloud vision that readily adapts to the challenges of interconnectivity, scalability, and disaster resilience, necessities underscored by recent calamitous events. SoftIron’s tailored solutions, capable of delivering up to 16PB clusters, show their commitment to meeting the elastic computing needs of diverse, growth-oriented IT infrastructures. Read more in this LinkedIn Pulse article!
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Winning the Private (Cloud) War: SoftIron's Hyperscaled Solutions
Achieving Operational Excellence in Hybrid Multi-Cloud With the Dell APEX Cloud Platform Family
In this article, Sulagna Saha reviews the Dell APEX Cloud Platforms, a solution engineered to expand and improve the multi-cloud experience. The APEX Cloud Platform family provides a complete set of solutions to help operate effortlessly in the dispersed world of hybrid multi-cloud. The platform aims to unify cloud and on-premise environments, ensuring operational consistency and efficiency, co-engineered in collaboration with trusted partners like Microsoft, Red Hat, and VMware. The platform promises to streamline the adoption of multi-cloud operations, integrating storage, computing, and familiar management tools within a scalable architecture, bolstered by Dell’s commitment to continuous innovation and security. To delve deeper into the operational excellence enabled by Dell’s APEX Cloud Platform family, read this review by Sulagna Saha or watch their videos from Cloud Field Day!
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Achieving Operational Excellence in Hybrid Multi-Cloud With the Dell APEX Cloud Platform Family
Cloud to Ground Deployment Magic
Dell Technologies introduced the concept of “Cloud to ground” at Cloud Field Day 19, reflecting the growing interest in cloud repatriation and the desire to bring cloud-like operations to on-premises datacenters. Their APEX Cloud Platform aims to simplify this transition, providing a management solution that integrates with existing tools like Azure console and OpenShift Advanced Cluster Management to automate and manage Cloud OS deployments on Dell hardware. While this innovation aids in the automation and management of on-prem hardware, Ned Bellavance notes that it’s not a full public cloud experience nor a private or multicloud management plane, but rather a significant step towards simplifying hybrid cloud environments for Dell users.
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Cloud to Ground Deployment Magic
Hardware Vendors Are Providing Better Network Monitoring Than Most Software Vendors
As Thomas LaRock wrote about earlier, 70% of enterprises use private clouds, including those with public-facing websites, pointing out the implicit challenge these companies face in securing their networks against DDoS attacks. Broadcom is innovating in this space with their Trident5-X12 chip featuring the NetGNT engine, which offers real-time traffic analysis and anomaly detection to bolster network security measures. However, despite the advancement in hardware-based security solutions, the onus remains on customers to develop and train the neural network models needed to identify and categorize threats—a task that requires specialized skills.
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Hardware Vendors Are Providing Better Network Monitoring Than Most Software Vendors
CFD19 – Get Dollars Back in Your Pocket With EKS Optimisation
With many Kubernetes clusters running at utilization levels of 30% or less, Platform9 emerges as a cost-saving champion, offering strategies to improve efficiency and reduce wastage in EKS clusters. Platform9’s mission to democratize cloud computing was highlighted at Cloud Field Day 19, where Matt Allford learned about their new Elastic Machine Pool (EMP) offering, a tool designed to optimize compute utilization and potentially halve cloud costs. EMP offers seamless integration with EKS, promising minimal disruption, while Platform9’s business model aligns their profits with customer savings, creating a shared incentive to reduce cloud spend effectively.
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CFD19 - Get Dollars Back in Your Pocket With EKS Optimisation
Better Switch(es) to Fight
Cloud Field Day 19 concluded with Broadcom, as Jim Czuprynski writes in this LinkedIn Pulse article, turning the often-overlooked networking components into a topic of significant impact for cloud infrastructure. Broadcom’s Trident5-X12 chip features smart built-in capabilities to scrutinize every network packet, potentially catching and blocking suspicious traffic such as DDOS attacks in real-time. This technology underscores the importance of robust network security measures, requiring system administrators to be proactive in training and adapting to emergent threat patterns, reinforcing our defense against sophisticated cyber threats.
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Dell – Streamlining Cloud – On and Off Premises
Camberley Bates’ LinkedIn Pulse article examines Dell’s latest solutions—APEX Storage for Public Cloud and APEX Cloud Platform—introduced at DTW 2023 and further elaborated during Tech Field Day. These offerings aim to enhance cloud management both on and off-premises, with the SDS-based APEX Storage designed for scalability in AWS, Azure, and eventually GCP, complemented by the APEX Navigator for comprehensive management. The article also highlights APEX Cloud Platforms’ on-premises integrations for OpenShift, AzureStack HCI, and VMware Tanzu that simplify deployment and lifecycle management.
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Dell - Streamlining Cloud - On and Off Premises
Qumran3D, Broadcom’s New Single-Chip 25.6T Router for Cloud to Core Applications
In this article, Sulagna Saha reviews the new Qumran3D, a single-chip router from Broadcom that combines the power and functions of multiple routing solutions into one device. Designed to address key needs for bandwidth, low power consumption, and security, Qumran3D stands out with its 25.6 Tb/s capacity, integrated design, and enhanced security features like on-chip encryption. With its revolutionary single-chip architecture, Qumran3D promises to significantly reduce energy consumption and physical space requirements, positioning itself as a pivotal hardware innovation for core to cloud applications. Read about it at Gestalt IT or watch Broadcom’s presentation of Qumran3D from our recent Cloud Field Day event.
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Qumran3D, Broadcom’s New Single-Chip 25.6T Router for Cloud to Core Applications
Multi-Cloud: Because Life Isn’t Painful Enough
Thomas LaRock’s LinkedIn Pulse article wittily addresses the complexities of multi-cloud management and introduces Dell’s APEX Cloud Platform with APEX Block Storage, focusing on how it can ease the burdens of handling high-performance workloads across different cloud providers, despite the potentially higher costs associated with enterprise-level storage solutions and multi-cloud management tools like APEX Navigator.
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Multi-Cloud: Because Life Isn't Painful Enough
When CPUs/GPUs Are Not Enough: NeuroBlade’s SPU
Drawing from experience with high-performance Exadata DBMs, Jim Czuprynski considers the challenges in running complex analytic or ML workloads in containerized databases like Apache Spark. NeuroBlade has stepped in with a potential solution for these scalability issues in massive, containerized environments by introducing the SQL Processing Unit (SPU), designed to offload and accelerate these demanding tasks. Touted to boost analytical performance by up to 10x, the SPU exemplifies hardware innovation tailored for the needs of private cloud computing, heralding a promising future for data-intensive workloads.
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When CPUs/GPUs Are Not Enough: NeuroBlade's SPU
CFD19 – Accelerating Data Analytics With NeuroBlade
Kicking off Cloud Field Day 19, NeuroBlade made a strong impression on Matt Allford, touting their ambition to become “the NVIDIA of Data Analytics” since their inception in 2018. With hefty funding and a growing team, NeuroBlade’s SQL Processing Unit (SPU) addresses the scaling challenges posed by the exponential growth of data, promising a hardware solution tightly integrated within analytics ecosystems like Spark and Presto. The session not only showcased NeuroBlade’s potential to enhance performance in data-rich environments, but also sparked a lively discussion on the broader implications for both on-premise and cloud-based data analytics infrastructures.
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CFD19 - Accelerating Data Analytics With NeuroBlade
A True Private Cloud With SoftIron
While the cloud has its advantages, the notion of on-premises infrastructure regaining its appeal cannot be ignored, as SoftIron emphasizes at Cloud Field Day 19 with their HyperCloud solution. SoftIron’s product promises a true private cloud experience with a focus on simplification and fully integrated hardware and software, designed and manufactured in-house, catering especially to heavily regulated sectors. If you’re evaluating a transition to or revitalization of your on-premises environment, HyperCloud might just offer that seamless, tear-free operability and management you’ve been seeking, melding the advantages of both on-prem and public cloud paradigms. Read more in this article by Field Day delegate Matt Allford.
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A True Private Cloud With SoftIron
Kubernetes With Platform9’s Elastic Machine Pool
Platform9’s Elastic Machine Pool (EMP) for AWS addresses the critical issue of EKS cluster underutilization, offering Kubernetes operations enhanced efficiency and cost-effectiveness. By dynamically rebalancing resources and leveraging advanced virtualization, EMP can potentially cut AWS costs in half for EKS users, presenting a considerable advantage for both DevOps and #FinOps teams. Beyond the cost benefits, EMP’s intelligent resource management promotes operational efficiency, allowing teams to devote more time to innovation instead of the manual oversight of cloud resources, according to Jon Myer.
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Kubernetes With Platform9's Elastic Machine Pool
The Dell Alternative to Cloud
In this LinkedIn Pulse article, Joep Piscaer analyzes Dell Technologies’ multifaceted approach to multi-cloud, which includes APEX Block Storage—a software-defined, mature storage solution that extends on-prem software to cloud providers, boosting performance and resilience—and the APEX Cloud Platform, a standardized on-prem hardware and software package that integrates cloud features and operations into Dell’s ecosystem. Piscaer commends Dell’s strategy of not directly competing with cloud service giants but rather expanding its ecosystem within the cloud and enriching the on-premises infrastructure with cloud-like functionalities, providing significant value to its existing customer base.
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Catalyst 9300-M: Power Meets Simplicity!
The recent fusion of Cisco’s Catalyst and Meraki technologies caught the eye of Girard Kavelines, with the launch of the Catalyst 9300-M series switches presented at Cisco Live EMEA—a hybrid that combines the robust Catalyst hardware and the simplicity of Meraki’s cloud-managed dashboard. This range stands out with its impressive features such as up to 90W of PoE per port, 1T StackWise capabilities, and zero-touch provisioning, all integrated seamlessly into the Meraki interface for unparalleled power and user-friendly operation. With Cisco Meraki’s commitment to innovation and cloud integration, the new series not only streamlines network management but also sets a new standard for engineering excellence in the cloud era, available to order beginning February 13th.
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Catalyst 9300-M: Power Meets Simplicity!
SoftIron – A HyperCloud That Is Not Your Typical HCI
Camberley Bates describes SoftIron’s distinctive approach within the Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure market, highlighting its appeal to sectors with zero-trust and high-security requirements. SoftIron stands out by manufacturing its own hardware for compute, network, and storage in the US and Australia, with a software foundation geared towards high-security standards. Their systems can scale significantly beyond the usual limitations of HCI, supporting large clusters with high performance, even in HPC or image processing contexts. The article notes SoftIron’s unique architecture, including a stateless device setup and control plane integration in top of rack networking nodes, and mentions the intention to further investigate their data management and system interface.
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SoftIron - A HyperCloud That Is Not Your Typical HCI
Auto-Optimizing EKS Utilization With New Elastic Machine Pool From Platform9
Platform9’s Elastic Machine Pool (EMP) is an innovative response to the costly challenges of over-provisioning in the cloud, introduced at the Cloud Field Day event to enhance EKS deployment efficiency. EMP expertly tackles the pervasive issue of low utilization rates in Kubernetes environments, promising to virtually halve EKS costs while maintaining application SLAs by optimizing EKS cluster utilization via an intelligent, hands-off approach. Platform9’s solution signifies a major step towards cost-effective cloud management, ensuring resource optimization without compromising on performance, with aspirations to extend this savvy tool beyond AWS EKS, offering broad appeal to enterprises looking to streamline their cloud operations.
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Auto-Optimizing EKS Utilization With New Elastic Machine Pool From Platform9
