Hyperconvergence and Kubernetes – Gigaom

At Cloud Field Day this summer, delegate Enrico Signoretti had the chance to see Diamanti present on their storage architecture and how it incorporates hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI). In the past, HCI has largely been utilized for virtualized infrastructures, but is now being effectively applied for Kubernetes. Enrico was impressed with Diamanti’s implementation and writes that more tech companies should take a page from their unique approach to utilizing HCI for Kubernetes. Check out Enrico’s article and Diamanti’s presentations from Cloud Field Day on our website!


Is Scale-Out File Storage the New Black?

Enrico Signoretti, a delegate at Storage Field Day earlier this year, writes that VAST Data is a startup that is utilizing unique storage architecture to create an improved and impressively effective product. By implementing Intel Optane and QLC-NAND into their system, they are able to reach impressive levels in terms of both performance and value. Because of this, VAST is able to offer their customers a solution that is effective and doesn’t break the bank. Enrico had the chance to see VAST Data present on their storage architecture at Storage Field Day. Be sure to check out the videos of their presentations on our website!


An Intriguing Approach to Modern Data Center Infrastructure

Enrico Signoretti attended Storage Field Day in August and had the chance to see Nebulon present on their Cloud-Defined Storage solution. Enrico writes about composable storage and shares that the concepts Nebulon is adapting are powerful and have the chance to make a significant impact. Enrico is intrigued at their potential and looking forward to seeing where Nebulon and their innovative technologies go in the future. Be sure to check out Enrico’s post and Nebulon’s presentations at Storage Field Day on our website!


Voices in Innovation – Enrico Signoretti Explores the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Online Events

In the latest episode of GigaOm: Voices in Innovation, Enrico Signoretti explores the successes and challenges around the transition to online events since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Stephen Foskett (founder of Tech Field Day) & Ben Freedman (owner of Prime Image Media) join the podcast to talk through what they have found helpful to overcome the hurdles of implementing online events, including how they successfully transitioned Tech Field Day to an all virtual environment.


Red Hat OpenShift

Enrico Signoretti joined us as a delegate for our Tech Field Day Virtual with Red Hat event. For Enrico, rnterprises are quickly moving from an initial evaluation and exploration phase to extensive adoption of containers and microservices for all new applications under development. At the event, he saw how Red Hat is now uniquely positioned to bridge the gap between a rock-solid, open-source foundation already adopted by many enterprises across the world and the innovation introduced by containers and Kubernetes. All of this while mitigating the risk associated with the immaturity of the nascent Kubernetes platform. Be sure to check out his Executive Summary on OpenShift that includes a lot of what was presented at the event.


VMware Tanzu Portfolio

This report from Enrico Signoretti looks at VMware’s strategy with Tanzu. This brand represents VMware’s embrace of the Kubernetes ecosystem with a broad product portfolio encompassing core infrastructure as well as multi-cloud solutions. For Enrico, he sees VMware’s effort to build a foundation for mixed environments of virtualized and containerized applications in a multi-cloud scenario appealing to enterprises that are moving quickly to engage hybrid cloud infrastructures. Enrico got a deep dive on Tanzu at Cloud Field Day, so be sure to dig into the video after reading his report.


Voices in Data Storage – Episode 39: A Conversation With Russell Reeder

On this episode of Voices in Data Storage, the inimitable Enrico Signoretti spoke with Russell Reeder. They discuss Infrascale’s presentation at Storage Field Day, and the state of the storage industry at large. Be sure to subscribe to his feed, and check out the full video presentation from Storage Field Day!


VDI as a Service Is Better Than VDI

One of the most familiar in-jokes among IT folks is declaring a new year to be “the year of VDI.” This joke usually elicits a droll smile or perhaps a barely noticeable wince. The reason it persists year after year is that it speaks to a larger truth, while VDI always seems like it’s about to go from a niche solution to mass market, it always somehow stays in its place. Enrico Signoretti heard from VMware at Cloud Field Day recently, and while he doesn’t think it will ever be the year of VDI, he does think that the time for VDI as a service might be here. While expense will always be an issue with the technology, VMware showed that the security benefits and ease of deployment can more than prove its worth.


Marketplaces Are Changing the Way We Do Enterprise IT

Enrico Signoretti has been looking into the increasing importance of marketplaces for unstructured data management solutions. These allow IT to add functionalities to your infrastructure quickly, without having to go through a complex purchase, installation, and configuration process. Enrico got to see two examples of these at recent Field Day events. At Cloud Field Day, VMware showed off their marketplace for VMware Cloud on AWS, with another marketplace on display at Tech Field Day Virtual with Red Hat. With more mature technology, Enrico see marketplaces not just as the purview of cloud providers, but rather being extended to hybrid cloud platforms and eventually the private enterprise marketplace.


Voices in Data Storage – Episode 36: A Conversation With Anand Babu Periasamy and Jonathon Symonds on MinIO

On a recent Voices in Data Storage podcast episode, host Enrico Signoretti interviewed the CEO and co-founder of MinIO, AB Periasamy, as well as their CMO Jonathan Symonds. Enrico recently got to hear in-depth on their technology and solutions at Storage Field Day. In the interview they discuss how MinIO’s high-performance, software-defined, distributed object storage server and client fit into the overall storage market, as well as AB Periasamy’s history with open-source software.


Voices in Data Storage – Episode 35: A Conversation With Krishna Subramanian of Komprise

On a recent episode of Voices in Data Storage, Enrico Signoretti spoke with Komprise’s co-founder and COO Krishna Subramanian. Krishna has a extensive history working in IT, from being VP Marketing for Cloud Platforms at Citrix, to leading cloud computing strategy at Sun, and co-founding Kovair. Enrico was recently a delegate at Storage Field Day, where Komprise made a return as a presenter. Be sure to check out their full video to get up to date on their latest solutions.


Dell EMC PowerOne Is Next-Gen Converged Infrastructure

Enrico Signoretti saw two sessions from Dell EMC at Storage Field Day that really piqued his interest, touching on DevOps and infrastructure automation. Enrico was really surprised by their presentation on PowerOne, a next-generation converged infrastructure. He’s admittedly not a fan on converged infrastructure in general, but in Dell EMC’s PowerOne Controller, Enrico sees something that could be an automation hub for automating all the storage infrastructure, simplifying the configuration management of large scale infrastructures. This kind of potential really stood out during the presentation.


The Hard Disk Is Dead! (But Only in Your Datacenter)

It’s almost de rigueur these days to declare the spinning disk dead. In an age of plentiful cheap flash, the performance limitations and mechanical complexity of a traditional hard drive can make it seemingly hard to justify. But as Enrico Signoretti points out, it’s not that the disk will die. Rather after seeing Western Digital lay out their roadmap at Storage Field Day, the disk will increasingly not be for small enterprises anymore. Instead, much like what happened with tape, disk will serve a valuable need in storing the ever increasing amounts of data for hyperscalers. As a random access medium, dense disk storage is ideal for cold, but not frozen, data, where things like retrieval time still matter. Because of this, far from the death of the disk ,Enrico sees a long life ahead.


Tiers, Tiers, and More Storage Tiers

Enrico Signoretti is no stranger to Storage Field Day events. This gives him some helpful long term context to identify larger industry trends he sees playing out among otherwise unrelated presentations. At the most recent Storage Field Day, the importance of tiering across the storage industry came across loud and clear. From Tiger Technology demoing their simple, seamless and smart filter driver for Windows servers, to Komprise analyzing an organizations entire data domain to optimize data placement, to WekaIO using object storage in the back-end of their file system to store unused blocks, Enrico saw many examples of tiering being used to provide performance, capacity, and scalability at a reasonable price.


Voices in Data Storage- Episode 32: A Conversation With Veeam

In this episode of Voices in Data Storage, Enrico Signoretti speaks to two Senior Global Technologist from Veeam, Anthony Spiteri and Michael Cade about data protection across physical and virtual data storage in the age of ransomware. They also dig into some of their presentation from Tech Field Day last year, which dealt with data integration APIs. This was designed to be agnostic for their customers, without dictating what particular piece of software or hardware their customers must use. For Veeam, it’s always about flexibility of choice. Be sure to listen to the entire conversation in their podcast feed and check out Veeam’s Tech Field Day presentation video.


Storage Field Day 19 RoundUp

Storage Field Day is our first event of 2020, and we’ve got a packed roster of companies to present. It’s exciting to have a mix of familiar faces like NetApp and Dell EMC presenting with companies new to the event like Tiger Technology and Minio. Enrico Signoretti will be around the delegate table, asking questions and creating dialogue to help make Storage Field the unique event that it is. If that isn’t enough to get you excited, there is the always provocative “secret company” presenting at the event. Be sure to mark your calendar and unravel the mystery with us on the live stream.


NetApp Fabric Orchestrator, One More Step in the Right Direction

Enrico Signoretti has watched NetApp realize their Data Fabric strategy over the last few years, as the company shifted from traditional storage to hybrid cloud data management. He heard the company present on their Fabric Orchestrator at Tech Field Day, and this seems to be the next evolution of that vision, enabling seamless application and data mobility across on-premises and public cloud infrastructure.


The Importance of User Interfaces in IT Infrastructure Management

Enrico Signoretti looks at the importance of user interface in this piece, something that in an age dominated by automation and APIs is often forgotten. He looks at the different approaches to UI on display at a recent Tech Field Day event.


Edge Computing Is the New Black

Enrico Signoretti clearly see that the edge is increasingly important in IT, allowing for compute and data storage to be placed close to the edge of the network to improve response times. He sees SD-WAN, automation, and edge-designed hardware as the enables of the edge. At Tech Field Day, he heard how Riverbed and Scale Computing is innovating with these enabling technologies.


Two Different Approaches to Data Storage Analytics

In this post, Enrico Signoretti looks at different approaches to data storage analytics. This can have tremendous value for organizations of all sizes. Enrico specifically highlights the importance of ease of use and monitoring to get the most out of a solution. He thought Virtual Instruments excelled in that regard, based on their presentation at Tech Field Day Extra at VMworld US 2019.