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.
Ixia Tech Field Day 15 Session Recap
The latest Tech Field Day saw a return of Ixia, who originally presented at Networking Field Day last November. Keith Townsend reviews what he saw in their presentation, essentially an authorized man-in-the-middle to capture traffic for analysis. Keith reviews how their SSL approach fits into the broader visibility landscape.
Skyport Tech Field Day 15 Recap – YouTube
As part of his video review of Tech Field Day from last month, the CTO Advisor Keith Townsend takes a look at Skyport Systems. Keith found it a very opinionated solution, taking a view that the cloud will be pervasive, leaving only the most mandatory elements in the datacenter. Their approach then is to provide a secure, cloud managed on-site infrastructure.
Cisco Tech Field Day 15 Session Recap
Keith Townsend put together a video series looking at the presenters from Tech Field Day last month. He gives his thoughts on the overall event, and dives into what he saw from Cisco, particularly their ACI solution.
Inefficiencies of large systems
Inspired by DataCore Software’s Tech Field Day presentation, Keith Townsend reflects on the inefficiencies of large organizations, using Microsoft as an example. Microsoft is filled with skilled engineers, but often can’t be responsive to customer requests for giant projects like SQL server. This is where DataCore can come in with their I/O filter, which provides parallel streams to the storage sub-system, ultimately giving applications more I/O bandwidth.
3 things infrastructure pros need to know about nested virtualization on Google Cloud
Keith Townsend reviews Google’s announce support for nested virtualization, which lets you run a hypervisor within a hypervisor. Keith outlines why this would be needed, and uses an example from Scale Computing running HC3 for disaster recovery inside Google Cloud as a use case. Keith saw this from Scale at Tech Field Day last week, be sure to check out the video of the announcement for more details.
Tech Field Day 15 Preview: Ixia
Keith Townsend gives a preview of what to expect from Ixia at Tech Field Day this week. The company has a wide portfolio, including Network Hardware Testing, Security and Network Visualization. Keith focuses on the last two in the preview, which are of vital importance to any modern enterprise. He isn’t overly familiar with Ixia’s offering, so he expects a deep dive during the presentation.
Techfield Day 15 Preview: DataCore
DataCore presents at their first Tech Field Day this week. Keith Townsend digs into their background a little bit to give some context prior to their presentation. The company offers a virtual SAN solution, and Keith wants to know how they will differentiate from competitors like vSAN, Nutanix and HPE SimpliVity. While the market may be crowded, Keith sees room for as long as a company can eke out more performance from the underlying storage. DataCore does this via parallel I/O, which has benefits for analytics workloads specifically.
Tech Field Day 15 Preview: Skyport Systems
Tech Field Day is coming up, and Keith Townsend previews Skyport Systems, a return presenter from Networking Field Day in 2016. The company offers of HCI solution on a zero-trust model, meaning the network, application, computing, and user layers share no level of trust between them. Skyport also offers a way to wrap existing applications to take advantage of the security features unique to their architecture. Keith is curious to learn more of how Skyport manages this disruptive change in infrastructure within organizations. Make sure to follow along on the live stream this week to learn more too!
Techfield Day 15 Preview: Actifio
The CTO Advisor himself, Keith Townsend, will be at Tech Field Day next week. He’s looking forward to getting an update from Actifio. Since he last saw them at Storage Field Day in 2014, the company has moved from what Keith calls a copy-data focus to secondary data. With the recent investment boom in the segment, Keith is interested to hear more about their updated strategy.
Tech Field Day 15 Preview: Scale Computing
Keith Townsend is looking forward to hearing from Scale Computing at next week’s Tech Field Day event. He was introduced to the company at Storage Field Day back in 2014, and the landscape for virtualization and HCI has changed substantially in the interim. Keith is interested to hear how the company plans to move into the larger enterprise market, a departure from their previous SMB market focus.
NVMe to enable truly composable infrastructure?
After seeing Kingston’s Tech Field Day Extra presentation from VMworld, Keith Townsend reconsiders composable infrastructure. Kingston presented that the reduced protocols required by NVMe vs SATA makes for a much more efficient model of this emerging computing infrastructure.
