For Keith Townsend, it doesn’t matter much if a solution is called HCI or CI. “At the end of the day, the label doesn’t matter. You can call a hotdog a sausage or a sandwich (Just as long as you don’t put ketchup on it).” In general, HCI’s promised simplifiation of IT operations works great for smaller teams, but breaks at scale. This becomes another management stack that adds to, not reduces, complexity. NetApp has an interesting approach by allowing IT to use existing SolidFire management tools on their HCI platform, thereby not introducing yet another management stack.
Storage is boring
After hearing from DellEMC on their XtremeIO and VMAX solutions at Tech Field Day, Keith discusses why storage is boring. Of course, for the enterprise, boring is not a bad thing.
Understandig CASB for SaaS Security
Tech Field Day delegates Keith Townsend and Sonia Cuff discuss he concept of cloud access security broker, or CASB. This is done in light of a presentation by Forcepoint at the event.
Solarwinds Orion Integration
At a recent Tech Field Day event, Keith Townsend was able to talk to Solarwinds Orion Product Manager Michael Yang about some of the integration points between their extensive portfolio of products.
Converged Infrastructure died a long time ago, right?
Should converged infrastructure have died a long time ago? Keith Townsend discusses on this CTO Advisor video, in light of the release of the Dell EMC VxBlock 1000. He argues that while CI might not be the hot new trend in IT, lots of customers still want and need it, especially in cases where applications aren’t certified to run on HCI. Keith is excited to hear more from Dell EMC on this at Tech Field Day next week.
Are network vendors ignoring serverless security?
The move of servers to the cloud has integrated more complexity to network security, as the assumptions of static rules based networking break down. Keith Townsend saw a presentation how network companies are addressing this from Juniper Networks. But this caused him to question if not enough attention is being paid to the emerging serverless market like AWS Lambda.
CTO Advisor 068: Commvault HyperScale
Recorded on the show floor at Commvault GO 2017, the CTO Advisor himself, Keith Townsend, spoke with Scott Lowe, Justin Warren, and Ray Lucchesi about the show. In this episode, they focus specifically on Commvault’s transition from a backup company to data management. Their recently released HyperScale solution is a venture into the secondary storage market.
Why Docker is finally embracing Kubernetes
At DockerCon Europe this year, Docker made a big splash by announcing support for the Kubernetes container orchestrator with Docker Enterprise Edition. Keith Townsend wrote up why the company is finally embracing its Swarm rival, and why it’s big news for the container company.
CTO Advisor 067: Should you worry about GDPR?
On this CTO Advisor podcast episode, Keith Townsend sat down with Justin Warren and CommVault’s Nigel Tazor to discuss GDPR. This new regulation can incur a penalty of up to 4% of organizational revenue for each violation. They discuss why compliance is more important than ever.
Should you worry about GDPR?
Keith Townsend sat down with Justin Warren and Commvault’s Nigel Tazor to discuss GDPR. This new regulation can incur a penalty of up to 4% of organizational revenue for each violation. They discuss why compliance is more important than ever.
Don’t call it back up
Keith Townsend posted his discussion with Justin Warren from Commvault GO 2017. They discuss how Commvault has successfully moved from being a backup company, and embraced data management.
On-premises Serverless with Docker via OpenFaaS
If you like Docker and serverless computing, OpenFaaS may be a project to watch. Keith Townsend got a look at the project at a Tech Field Day Extra presentation at DockerCon EU this year, and was impressed by the power and simplicity of it.
DockerCon 2017 EU – Docker integrates Kubernetes and Swarm
In this CTO Daily Dose video, Keith Townsend takes a look at the the big announcement from DockerCon Europe 2017, Docker Enterprise Edition bundling in Kubernetes. Keith got a deep dive into this while attending Tech Field Day Extra at DockerCon EU
Why Docker is finally embracing Kubernetes
Keith Townsend looks at the implications of one of the biggest announcements from DockerCon Europe 2017, the inclusion of Kubernetes with Docker Enterprise Edition. Since launching, Docker has been developer focused, but often lacked management tools to manage workloads at scale. As the industry has converged on Kubernetes as an orchestrator, Keith looks at how Docker can still differentiate by including in in Docker EE.
Understanding Serverless Computing
Serverless computing doesn’t mean there are no servers involved. Instead, as Keith Townsend explains in this post, it abstracts the infrastructure away from a developer, letting them focus on code not on what it will run on. He further explains how this leads to more efficient consumption of cloud resources, which are only used when a function is called.
Why the hybrid IT control plane is destined for the public cloud
Cloud growth is exploding, but analysts have shown that compared to a traditional data center, it can be much more expensive in the long haul. That’s why Keith Townsend things a hybrid IT approach will allow organizations to leverage the agility of the cloud without the cost associated with a complete migration. Keith takes a look at some SaaS-based data center control planes from Platform9, Skyport Systems, and HPE to compare their strategies for hybrid IT management.
Datacore Tech Field Day 15 Reap
The CTO Advisor, Keith Townsend, put together a full video recap series looking back at Tech Field Day presenters from last month. In his final video, he looks at DataCore Software, who debuted their MaxParallel for SQL Server at the event.
Riverbed Tech Field Day 15 Recap
In his video recaps of last month’s Tech Field Day, Keith Townsend looks at what Riverbed presented. He came away impressed by their solution to project VMs to remote sites.
Actifio Tech Field Day 15 Recap
For Keith Townsend, Actifio was a returning presenter to Tech Field Day, having first seen them in 2014 at Storage Field Day. In his video review, Keith looks at how the company has been successful in their data as a service business model.
Scale Computing Tech Field Day 15 Recap
The Tech Field Day delegates at last month’s event saw the benefits of nested virtualization courtesy of Scale Computing’s announced partnership with Google Cloud. This effectively allows them to offer DRaaS using Google’s backend. Keith Townsend gives his thoughts on it as part of his excellent video review of the event.