In this latest blog post from Keith Townsend, he focuses on AWS FSx for ONTAP that was announced by NetApp’s partner, AWS, at this past Cloud Field Day. Check out the difference between Cloud Adjacency and Native Cloud services and what to consider based on each approach.
Hybrid Infrastructure Is an Operating Model
VMware presented at this past Cloud Field Day! In Keith Townsend’s post, he discusses how VMware is on a corporate-wide mission to evangelize its cloud capabilities beyond VMware cloud solutions. Check out his thoughts on cloud adjacency here!
Infrastructure as Code Is … Code
Keith Townsend, a Field Day delegate, attended this past Cloud Field in San Jose, California, where he got to meet up with an old friend from RackN! RackN discussed the advantages of immutable artifacts to automate the infrastructure as a code pipeline. Keith found this presentation to be very impactful, check out his thoughts and most recent podcast here!
Solving the Cloud Skills Shortage
Why has AWS partnered with NetApp to deliver AWS FSx ONTAP? This same question popped into Keith Townsend’s head at this past Cloud Field, where he attended as a delegate. Take a look at Keith’s thoughts on this partnership and what solutions have been created because of it.
The Future of the Data Center Control Plane Is in the Public Cloud
Keith Townsend, a Field Day delegate, attended this past Cloud Field Day, where Pure Storage presented on a solution for managing their FlashArray Storage system. Check out Keith’s thoughts, here on YouTube, about how this is the future of all data center management!
Juniper Powered by MIST AI – This Stuff Is Hard
This post by Keith Townsend of the CTO Advisor blog is the first in a series called “This Stuff is Hard,” translating vendor messages taken from analyst briefings into a format that’s easily understandable by business decision makers. The post specifically hones in on Juniper Networks’ presentation from the first AI Field Day Event regarding their Mist AI solution. Read on to see how Townshend describes AIOps from Juniper, and be sure to watch the original AI Field Day presentation for context.
118: GreyBeards Talks Cloud-Native Object Storage With Greg DiFraia, Scality and Stephen Bacon, HPE
In one of the latest GreyBeards On Storage Podcasts, Ray Lucchesi and Keith Townsend talk with HPE’s Stephen Bacon and Scality’s Greg DiFraia to talk about their joint partnership to release ARTESCA: a new cloud native object storage solution. The Scality-HPE solution ARTESCA was announced at a Tech Field Day Exclusive event last month where Ray was a delegate. On the podcast they discuss the direction of the IT world, edge solutions, and of course ARTESCA! Head over to the GreyBeards On Storage page to listen to the full, enlightening conversation
CTOA Briefing – Storpool
The software-defined storage company, StorPool, presented at Cloud Field Day in November. Keith Townsend had the opportunity to speak with StorPool CEO Boyan Ivanov in this CTOA Briefing to discover what makes this special company profitable. For the full conversation, watch the video on TheCTOAdvisor.com!
NetApp Data Science Toolkit
NetApp presented at Storage Field Day in January and demonstrated its NetApp Data Science Toolkit. In this CTOA Briefing, Keith Townsend had the opportunity to speak with NetApp to discuss its Data Science Toolkit, which is designed to reduce friction between data science teams and IT infrastructure teams. To watch the full discussion in its raw unedited form, check out The CTO Advisor on YouTube!
Will the DPU Kill the Storage Array?
“Will the DPU kill the Storage Array?” This is what Storage Field Day delegate Keith Townsend is wondering today. Keith had the chance to see Nebulon present at their first Storage Field Day, and as a result says we shouldn’t be abandoning the storage array just yet. Keith thinks that Nebulon has a really unique offering and can help give us another look at distributed storage services. Check out Keith’s blog to hear some of his thoughts on Nebulon and the future of the storage array.
Cloud Application Mobility – The Hard Way
Moving applications from on-premises to the cloud isn’t easy, but at this point the challenges around it are generally understood. But in this post, Keith Townsend looks at the less looked at reverse of that process, moving a cloud application to on-prem. He found that Veeam showed off a perfect solution for this recently at Cloud Field Day. Using their Veeam for AWS solution, Keith was able to pull down an EC2 backup instance image after about 8-hours of work installing the solutions, backing up, and restoring the image, ultimately getting the workload back on-prem. This isn’t end of the process for Keith, but he found Veeam uniquely offered the capability in the first place.
HPE vs Dell Cloud Stories – Who’s Winning?
Keith Townsend knows everyone love a hot take. So in this video, looking at HPE vs Dell Cloud Stories. Keith got to hear from Dell recently at Tech Field Day Presents Dell Technologies: Power Up the Portfolio and found the breadth of the portfolio was definitely impressive. Keith sees them having a lot of interesting possibilities in the cloud as they continue to refine their messaging and roadmap.
Dell EMC PowerStore: TFDx Quick Take
Keith Townsend is reflecting back on what he saw at Tech Field Day Presents Dell Technologies: Power Up the Portfolio in this video. This quick take on the Dell EMC PowerStore considers the hybrid device that converges a Mid-range (SMB) storage array with a VMware Cluster. For Keith, this might be a new category for storage, and a really important move for Dell EMC. Be sure to check out the full videos from the event for all the details.
OpenShift TFDx Hot Take – What’s the Tipping Point for K8s?
To date, Keith Townsend hasn’t felt comfortable recommending OpenShift and Kubernetes to the typical enterprise he consults with. He got to get extensive time with the OpenShift team during our recent Tech Field Day Virtual with Red Hat, and finally got the firm response that he wanted the OpenShift is a PaaS solution in addition to a managed Kubernetes offering. Keith is still a Kubernetes skeptic, he still hasn’t heard the problem that Kubernetes has uniquely solved. But the clarification about OpenShift was well worth it for Keith.
vSphere 7 and Kubernetes – Should Customers Wait?
On this video from Keith Townsend, he talks with CTO Dose co-host Joep Piscaer about vSphere 7 and his impressions of the Kubernetes integration. Project Tanzu Grid is the updated branding for Project Pacific. They break down if VMware’s initial release lived up to the not inconsiderable hype. They also discuss if customers should be quick to latch onto Tanzu, or wait for further development. Watch as Keith and Joep recap their impressions from VMware’s Tech Field Day presentation.
vSphere 7 and Kubernetes – CTO Advisor Episode 118
In this CTO Dose Keith Townsend is joined by co-host Joep Piscaer to discuss vSphere 7 and his impressions of the Kubernetes integration, something Keith got to hear about in depth at Tech Field day . They discussed Project Tanzu Grid as the updated branding for Project Pacific, VMware’s effort to integrate Kubernetes into vSphere. They look at if VMware’s initial release lived up to the hype, and whether customers should adopt it right away, or wait for further development.
Hot Take Zerto 8.0 Tech Field Day 21
Keith Townsend recently made a video looking at what Zerto presented at Tech Field Day. In it, he focuses on how Zerto can help solve a common anxiety when testing disaster recovery, contaminating production data with DR and then having to roll back. Their platform introduces a logging feature, which replicates the whole VM state. With the configuration tools built into the feature, it makes it really powerful to keep the application state consistent. This logging feature also allows for the logs to provide extremely granular visibility for data protection. Be sure to check out Keith’s video to get his full hot take, then dive into their presentation video.
Google Cloud VMware Engine – Hot Take
The former CloudSimple team presented at Tech Field Day 21 on the recently rebranded Google Cloud VMware Engine (GVE). What is it? How is it different than VMware Cloud on AWS? What are the advantages and disadvantages? Keith Townsend got to learn all about it during our recent virtual Tech Field Day event. While not going into competitive solutions specifically, they did outline how GVE differentiates in the landscape. This takes the VMware Cloud Foundation based, which allows any cloud provider to take any VMware components to offer a managed VCS service. Google of course offers their considerable scale on top of this. Keith breaks down how this compares to the other major public clouds.
vSphere Kubernetes Hot Take
Keith Townsend got to hear from VMware at Tech Field Day, where they packed a lot of information into a four hour session. Part of the presentation that surprised him was the Kubernetes integration into vSphere. This didn’t take the approach that Keith had thought when it was originally announced. Instead it comes as an extension of VMware Cloud Foundation, providing the ability to run a SDDC reference design across any environment. His biggest question with this is using VSAN as the management platform for Kubernetes. It’s an intriguing breakdown of the presentation, and Keith can’t wait to get some more focused deep dive sessions from VMware soon.
Dell Technologies PowerOne – Dell’s Private Cloud?
In this sponsored episode of the CTO Advisor podcast, host Keith Townsend talks with Dell EMC’s Conor Duffy, David Iovino, and Justin Jones. In the episode, they discuss the company’s PowerOne converged infrastructure, which was announced late last year. The company recently went into detail on this at Storage Field Day. They discuss where CI approaches fit in an IT landscape dominated by cloud and HCI, and Dell lays out how their investments in automation make PowerOne stand out. Keith wasn’t at the event, but got caught up on it with our comprehensive video coverage. After you listen to the episode, be sure to check out the video for yourself.