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.
Mako Networks – a World-Class PCI-Certified Network-As-A-Service Ecosystem
Mako Networks presented its own hardware and software as a service for retail edge at the recent Edge Field Day event, and this sponsored article by Ben Young dives deep into this concept. The company has made strides in the distributed retail enterprise business in North America and Europe, thanks to its all-in-one ecosystem. Mako technology is PCI-certified, making it a no-brainer choice for organizations that require ready compliance at the network layer, centralized management, and bulk configuration functionality.
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Mako Networks – a World-Class PCI-Certified Network-As-A-Service Ecosystem
Overcoming the Uncomfortable Aspects of Network Identity Management With Arista Networks’ CloudVision AGNI
Arista Networks presented its AI-driven NAC solution CloudVision AGNI at Mobility Field Day, hoping to achieve its potential for zero-trust security. AGNI expands Arista’s flagship CloudVision solution with features such as secure onboarding, dynamic access control, and AI-driven policy enforcement, among others. Built from scratch in the cloud, the solution embodies modern cloud-first principles, and it has a modern microservices architecture that delivers elastic scalability from tens to thousands of devices in a few clicks, self-service style onboarding for wireless with single sign-on (SSO), and reduced average deployment time from weeks to hours. Read more in this article by Sulagna Saha, and watch the entire presentation on the Tech Field Day website!
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Cisco Does the “AFC Side Step” With the CW9166D1
In this post, Troy Martin discusses the new Cisco CW9166D1 access point shown at Mobility Field Day. A redesign of the CW9166i front end, the CW9166D1 features an integrated directional antenna and some new tricks related to AFC. The integrated antenna enables directional focused antennas to be implemented without additional hardware costs. The CW9166D1 is capable of running in dual 5GHz mode and waiting to enable the 6GHz radio once client support reaches critical mass.
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Cisco Does the “AFC Side Step” With the CW9166D1
Edge Computing Architecture Fundamentals
At Edge Field Day 1, companies such as Scale Computing, Mako Networks, Avassa, Zededa, and Opengear presented their solutions for deploying applications to the edge. There has been no universal agreement on what the term “edge” means, but delegates concluded that organizations should consider deploying applications in a location where they can achieve peak optimization. The presenters focused on networking, out-of-band access, compute/storage, provisioning, observability, and orchestration, aspects, but stressed that there is no uniform approach given that the edge varies by context. Read on for Gina Rosenthal’s thoughts on EFD1 and edge computing!
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Edge Computing Architecture Fundamentals
Elevating the Zoom Experience With Juniper Networks’ Marvis
Juniper Networks has updated its AI assistant, Marvis, to include Zoom data and ChatGPT to improve its ability to respond to complex networking queries. Marvis combines AI, ML, and data science to expedite operations and optimize user experience. The AI-powered predictive observability offered by Marvis allows users to solve technical errors efficiently, as AI algorithms are trained on billions of datasets, enabling them to magnify nuances long before a problem becomes an anomaly that affects the user experience. Read about it at Gestalt IT or watch the demo on the website.
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Elevating the Zoom Experience With Juniper Networks’ Marvis
It’s Been a Year, Where Is Open Locate Now?
HPE Aruba Networking’s Open Locate offers a significant opportunity to leverage the potential of location services across industries and establish business insights. The tech uses remote GPS anchor points to improve the accuracy of location data, which will enable its use in critical areas such as worker safety, inventory management and asset tracking. However, the use and sharing of the data need to take into account privacy matters and consider carefully how to extract and transform the data to provide meaningful business value. Troy Martin, who attended Aruba Atmosphere in 2022 and 2023, considers the impact of Open Locate after a year.
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It’s Been a Year, Where Is Open Locate Now?
“So I Put the Directional Antenna IN the AP.”
Cisco’s Mobility Field Day 9 saw the unveiling of its 9166D1 directional antenna, which can substitute for traditional external antennas in almost any indoor application. The antenna design proves the company’s RF design skills, with additional features such as easier connectivity for Cat 6A patch cables. Fred Niehaus, TME at Cisco, highlighted the company’s 9166D1 as a simple, feasible solution for 6GHz and Wi-Fi 6 antennae, which eliminates the need for external antennae in most indoor applications and can be an affordable resource to resolve issues of connectivity, capacity and coverage. Read on for Field Day delegate John Kilpatrick’s thoughts on Cisco’s new access point design.
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“So I Put the Directional Antenna IN the AP.”
Cloud Field Day 17 Recap
Michael Levan gives an overview of Cloud Field Day 17, which included several innovative platforms useful for cloud computing and modernization. Platforms like HYCU, Morpheus Data, and RackN offer self-service and integration to aid in orchestration and provide better support. Zerto is a comprehensive VMware-based platform with backups based on detection and real-time alerting; Couchbase offers a vendor-agnostic NoSQL solution for cost optimization, and JetStream Software is an essential Disaster Recovery tool.
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JetStream Software at Cloud Field Day 17
In this article, Eric Wright reacts to the JetStream Software presentation from Cloud Field Day 17. JetStream Software showcased its disaster recovery (DR) solution for VMware, delivering a DBaaS platform that ensures extremely low recovery point objectives (RPO) and recovery time objectives (RTO). The architecture of the platform depends on JetStream Management Server appliance, IO filters, DR Replication Virtual Appliance, and object storage. Continuous failover facilitates near-zero RTO, whereas runbooks initiate recovery sequences scheduled on a manual, automated, or timely basis while allowing control to switch recovery site protection to an alternate site to minimize operational costs.
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JetStream Software at Cloud Field Day 17
Couchbase at Cloud Field Day 17
In this article, Eric Wright reacts to the Couchbase presentation from Cloud Field Day 17. Couchbase Capella is a promising database-as-a-service (DBaaS) platform for developers majorly focused on NoSQL. The platform targets performance and scalability needs while providing a flexible, unified and multi-tenant environment for all data services. Couchbase Capella is a cloud database platform for modern applications and showcases exceptional performance and functionality in a simple, fast, and affordable manner.
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Couchbase at Cloud Field Day 17
Zerto at Cloud Field Day 17
In this article, Eric Wright reacts to the Zerto presentation from Cloud Field Day 17. Zerto has launched version 10 of their platform which introduces several new features following their focus on ransomware resilience solutions. The product offers real-time discovery capabilities, a visualization tool named Zerto Analytics, a REST API documented with Swagger for interoperability, and a Vault to protect and store the company’s objects from ransomware threats, among many other functions. Zerto 10 is ideal for enterprises with significant VMware estates, as it tackles orchestration and automation to deliver self-service and manage hybrid clouds and modernize applications.
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Cloud NAC?
John Kilpatrick is skeptical of cloud NAC or “RADIUS in the cloud” solutions presented by Juniper and Arista at Mobility Field Day 9. These solutions aim to simplify RADIUS authentication, which has traditionally been complex. Kilpatrick wonders why anyone would adopt cloud NAC, as it involves placing a low-level resource farther from the user and reducing the control of platform dependencies, while also complicating learning and retaining one’s environment’s complexity.
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Fortinet Takes on Even Bigger Challenges With FortiAIOps V2.0
The world has moved on from training humans to code to teaching computers to do it themselves. Fortinet’s FortiAIOps v2.0 is a fine specimen of that. Powered by more advanced AI, the new version of FortiAIOps offers broad monitoring capabilities, deep analytics, and sophisticated troubleshooting tools. Read about it on Gestalt IT or watch the demo on the website.
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Fortinet Takes on Even Bigger Challenges With FortiAIOps V2.0
Excitement in the Air With Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2023
Tech Field Day Extra returns to Cisco Live US 2023, featuring presentations from Cisco as well as Opengear and BackBox, streaming live on June 6 and 7. Tuesday begins with Opengear, followed by Cisco Enterprise, ThousandEyes, and Security. Wednesday features a presentation from BackBox and more presentations Cisco focused on IoT, Cloud and Compute, and Secure Policy. Check out the live stream on LinkedIn and the Tech Field Day website!
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Excitement in the Air With Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2023
Morpheus Data at Cloud Field Day 17
In this article, Eric Wright reacts to the Morpheus Data presentation from Cloud Field Day 17. Morpheus Data is recognized as a leading platform for hybrid cloud management, proficient in the day-to-day orchestration the cloud for companies with VMware and public cloud IaaS infrastructure. The platform offers exceptional usability and operational simplicity to support developers, cloud administrators and operations teams with their distinct tasks and different environments, such as client/server, microservices-based applications on containerized environments. Morpheus Data focuses on lifecycle management, provides built-in templates and plugins and integrates monitoring tools to enable its clients to manage hybrid clouds and rebuild their applications in a cost-effective, efficient and secure way while enhancing agility with reduced cloud cost, rapid deployment, and faster provisioning.
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Morpheus Data at Cloud Field Day 17
RackN at Cloud Field Day 17
In this article, Eric Wright reacts to the RackN presentation from Cloud Field Day 17. RackN is a versatility platform with capabilities in distributed infrastructure orchestration, automation, and lifecycle. The company provides a solution for enterprise infrastructure management by focusing on resiliency and speed in operations that free up resources, reduce toil, and enable faster deployments. RackN leverages RackN Digital Rebar as a vendor-neutral infrastructure-as-code automation platform that enables IaC automation with reusable workflows and empowers developers to use their tool of choice, providing a highly reliable and consistent DevOps experience.
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HYCU and R-Cloud at Cloud Field Day 17
In this article, Eric Wright reacts to the HYCU presentation from Cloud Field Day 17. HYCU is aiming to tackle the significant risk and attack vectors present in an enterprise’s data protection. The explosion of data and increasing number of data-centric services being part of IT portfolios puts all data at risk for loss, data modifications, and ransomware. HYCU is leveraging its team’s diverse background and application-awareness approach to integrate partner products and apply data protection policies to simplify and optimize data protection across distribution systems and software as a service platforms. The company’s R-cloud platform further supports this effort by providing a low-code development structure for data protection solutions.
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HYCU and R-Cloud at Cloud Field Day 17
Defending Against the Widening Threat Landscape With Racktop BrickStor SP
Despite smaller businesses believing they are not significant targets for ransomware attacks, they are increasingly vulnerable with 62% of information security incidents targeting the top 2.1% of businesses, according to public records. RackTop’s BrickStor SP (Security Platform) provides easy and automatic cyberstorage solutions for SMBs and large organizations alike, not only encrypting data and creating a rolling snapshot of every file but also providing high-speed monitoring for unusual activity to detect data modifications such as those in ransomware attacks. BrickStor SP’s scalability makes it a fitting solution for any businesses, regardless of their size or net growth. This Gestalt IT Tech Note, sponsored by RackTop, gives Jody Lemoine’s perspective.
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Defending Against the Widening Threat Landscape With Racktop BrickStor SP
Active Defense Against Ransomware With RackTop Systems’ BrickStor SP
RackTop Systems’ BrickStor SP is an active cyberstorage solution safeguarding data assets against cybersecurity breaches. The software leverages a zero-trust architecture built on continuous validation before access grant. BrickStor SP’s data-centric zero-trust principle analyzes every user interaction for potential security alerts and provides real-time detection and quick response and recovery against threats such as insider theft and ransomware attacks through built-in encryption, policy-based key rotation and auditing, and user and entity behavior analysis. This article by Gerard Kavelines, sponsored by RackTop, explores BrickStor from the perspective of a network security expert.
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Active Defense Against Ransomware With RackTop Systems’ BrickStor SP
RackTop BrickStor – Protecting Data Against Ransomware
Data storage and security solutions provider, RackTop Systems, has introduced its BrickStor Security Platform (SP) that is designed to cover both insider and external threats to prevent ransomware attacks that have become prevalent in recent months. Karen Lopes explores their Data-Centric Zero Trust Policy approach in this sponsored article. It evaluates user behavior, account permissions, file activity, metadata about files and the user, and other features to protect unstructured data for SMB and NFS file shares, thereby enabling speedy detection and lock-out that saves money and time for the resumption of normal operations. The platform also identifies user behavior anomalies with User and Entity Behavior Analysis and, once detected, stops all access by that user that was the weak point.
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