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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Better Switch(es) to Fight

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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The Dell Alternative to Cloud

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

Saving Money in EKS Is a Good Start

Cloud elasticity, allowing for scaling out and in, can lead to cost inefficiency when resources remain underutilized, a situation exacerbated in Kubernetes environments with studies citing overprovisioning as a significant issue. Ned Bellavance discusses Platform9’s Elastic Machine Pool (EMP), which seeks to address excessive resource allocation in EKS by optimizing node placement and memory on AWS EC2 instances, potentially leading to substantial cost savings. However, while EMP is a clever intermediary fix, the underlying challenge of workload right-sizing and application team behavior remains, signifying the need for a more profound, long-term solution.

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Saving Money in EKS Is a Good Start

Platform Engineering & FinOps Converge

Platform9 stands at the forefront of innovative Kubernetes management, blending platform engineering expertise with FinOps principles to tackle over-provisioning and optimize resource allocation. Their Managed Kubernetes service revolutionizes deployment and operational management, enhancing both operational efficiency and financial optimization for enterprises. With the introduction of Elastic Machine Pool—targeting AWS EKS clusters—Platform9 commitments to substantial cost savings and improved compute utilization, evidencing a future where technical prowess meets financial prudence in cloud infrastructure management. Read more in this analyst note from The Futurum Group by Steven Dickens and Camberley Bates.

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Platform Engineering & FinOps Converge

Doing Data Analytics Acceleration in Hardware With NeuroBlade

NeuroBlade sets its sights on becoming the NVIDIA of Data, showcasing its commitment to hardware-based solutions with its SQL Processing Unit (SPU) at Cloud Field Day. In this LinkedIn Pulse article, Joep Piscaer takes a look at the SPU, which is engineered to overcome the limitations of general-purpose CPUs and GPUs in data analytics by offering 30x acceleration at a fraction of the cost and power consumption, without the need to rewrite SQL queries. While NeuroBlade has already made strides with hyper-scale clients and OEM integrations, like with Dell, the potential for broader market reach through collaborations with cloud-based data analytics services remains an exciting prospect for the future.

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Doing Data Analytics Acceleration in Hardware With NeuroBlade

Excitement Abounds at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live EMEA 2024

Tech Field Day is ready to bring more insightful content at Cisco Live EMEA 2024 in Amsterdam, making an early impact with a schedule full of authoritative presentations from Cisco, IP Fabric, and NetBox Labs. The event kicks off with Cisco Enterprise Networking, including Meraki, followed by the Mass Scale Infrastructure team with intriguing new developments. Tune in for the live streams, join engaging security and networking discussions, and for those not in Europe, replays will be available on the Tech Field Day YouTube channel, ensuring no one misses out on this must-attend tech gathering.

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Excitement Abounds at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live EMEA 2024

Behold, the SQL Processing Unit (SPU)

The NeuroBlade SPU is a groundbreaking piece of hardware designed to plug directly into servers, offering a 30x improvement in processing analytical queries, which Thomas LaRock thinks could be a game-changer for data-intensive companies. As generative AI and Large Language Models democratize data access, NeuroBlade comes at a critical juncture, addressing the impending surge in data processing demands with minimal impact on current infrastructure and methods. With the potential to massively reduce hardware needs and carbon footprint, this innovative solution is poised to be a coveted asset, not just for individual enterprises but also potentially for major cloud service providers as they navigate the explosion of data in the coming years.

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Behold, the SQL Processing Unit (SPU)

At the APEX: Dell’s Vision for Multi-Cloud Platform Storage and Configuration

Navigating the complexities of managing a modern multi-cloud environment is a formidable challenge, demanding meticulous oversight of components and rigorous lifecycle management to maintain cluster health. Dell’s APEX Cloud Platform (ACP) positions itself as a unified management solution for disparate cloud infrastructures, focusing on ease of deployment in both OpenShift and Azure environments, and promoting the synergy of their hardware with APEX Cloud Storage. In this LinkedIn Pulse article, Jim Czuprynski discusses his opinion on the APEX offering.

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At the APEX: Dell's Vision for Multi-Cloud Platform Storage and Configuration