Stephen Foskett breaks down a big acquisition in the storage market, the reborn Violin Systems acquiring X-IO. This gets complicated as Violin is buying X-IO’s legacy ISE storage line, while their edge Axellio product is being spun out into a new company. Stephen sees this as a win for both remaining companies.
NetApp: HCI Stands For “Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure”
Stephen Foskett wrote up his thoughts on NetApp’s HCI as he saw at Tech Field Day Extra at NetApp Insight 2018. Some may quibble if their architecture is “hyperconverged infrastructure”, but for NetApp, that’s beside the point. NetApp was focused on making a true hybrid cloud infrastructure, taking a more functionalist look at what HCI has to be. Stephen sees this as being what will allow NetApp to keep customers in the fold as they move to converged and cloud solutions.
NetApp’s Data Fabric Gets Real
At Tech Field Day Extra at NetApp Insight 2018, the delegates got to see NetApp’s vision of Data Fabric come a little bit more into reality. In this piece, Stephen Foskett outlines how the company has taken Data Fabric from more of a marketing formulation into a real set of data services, orchestration, and management solutions. This is all backed by their previous release of Cloud Volumes to make hybrid storage a reality for the unique swath of customers in NetApp’s customer base.
Jack Daniel and Tom Hollingsworth Discuss Community and Security
Be sure to checkout this conversation between security researcher Jack Daniel and our own Tom Hollingsworth. They discussed the importance and challenges of building communities within the security field. They also discussed the inaugural Security Field Day event coming up this December.
Smaller Conferences Can Have a Bigger Impact
After organizing a Tech Field Day Exclusive at Commvault GO 2018, Stephen Foskett wrote up a thoughtful piece about the power of smaller conferences. By having a more self-contained feel, Stephen frequently saw much more intimate connections being made between the company and attendees. This also allowed for more diverse viewpoints to be heard throughout the event.
Commvault “Thinks Different” About Data
Luigi Danakos was a delegate at Tech Field Day Exclusive at Commvault GO 2018. He got to see all the keynotes and announcements from the event, looking at how Commvault is moving the company into the broader world of data management. This includes a new focus on partner relationships and a vastly streamlined licensing model.
NetApp Provides Insights for Women in Tech
Ahead of NetApp Insight 2018, Rich Stroffolino previews what should be one of the more interesting session at the event, the Women In Technology Panel. Now in its sixth annual iteration, this session brings together women from NetApp and other prominent IT companies to discuss the topic.
NetApp Speaks Volumes
Rich Stroffolino looks forward to NetApp Insight, looking at how the company has continued their transition from a storage company to a data company. Part of this strategy comes from Cloud Volumes, and the newly announced NetApp Kubernetes Service.
Why Should You Be A Field Day Delegate?
What are the benefits of being a Tech Field Day delegate? Brandon Carroll wrote up a very thoughtful piece on the subject. While the event didn’t “make” his career, it did allow it to go to new heights, thanks to the networking and knowledge gained. Though Brandon is now on the vendor side of the aisle, it’s always great to hear the value that people get from coming to our events.
Commvault and Services
At Tech Field Day Exclusive at Commvault GO 2018, Stephen Foskett got to talk with Sabrinath Rao and David Ngo. They discussed some of the exciting new products from Commvault, including the company’s new as-a-Service offerings. These represent not just a simple change in payment, but rather give companies the cloud-native flexibility to consume Commvault data management on-demand.
Ookla Acquires Ekahau – The Future of Wi-Fi Design is Speedy!
Tom Hollingsworth examines the recent acquisition of Ekahau by Ookla. We last heard from Ekahau at Wireless Field Day 2, and Tom outlines how the companies platform and solutions have remained focused on helping wireless professionals do their job. From there, he looks at how Ookla can make use of the assets from the acquisition.
The Possibilities of Commvault GO
Rich Stroffolino gives a preview of what to expect from Commvault GO. The conference invites attendees to “Picture the Possibilities.” For Rich, what makes these kind of customer conferences important are the dozens of training sessions during the events, to turn those possibilities into reality.
Power to the Max
Arjan Timmerman reviews what he saw from Dell EMC at Storage Field Day this summer. They focused on their highly available tier zero PowerMax storage array. Arjan outlines that even though this product comes from a long lineage, it’s able to offer cutting edge performance.
NetApp Acquires StackPointCloud
Rich Stroffolino outlines how NetApp’s recent acquisition of StackPointCloud compliments what they presented at Cloud Field Day earlier this year. Their Cloud Volumes service now naturally rolls into a larger managed Kubernetes play.
ARM Servers and End Times | Gestalt IT Rundown: September 19, 2018
Rich Stroffolino and Tom Hollingsworth discuss the news coming out of Mobility Field Day last week on the latest Gestalt IT Rundown. This includes a look at what Arista Networks is doing with the assets from Mojo Networks, as well as NETSCOUT’s business divestment of their monitoring tools portfolio.
Cloud Storage – AWS, Azure, and Beyond
Ned Bellavance and Stephen Foskett break down the cloud storage options from AWS and Microsoft Azure. They then illustrate why the cacophony of choice from just those two providers make it almost impossible to do a true comparison of either performance or value. They see something like NetApp’s Cloud Volumes, which they saw at Cloud Field Day earlier this year, as a way to approach some consistency in the marketplace.
Multi-Cloud, DevOps, and Storage
From the presentation from NetApp at Cloud Field Day earlier this year, Ned Bellavance and Stephen Foskett wrote an in-depth article looking at the challenges of applying DevOps concepts to storage, especially in a multi-cloud environment. NetApp addressed this challenge with Cloud Volumes, which they see as providing the flexibility demanded by DevOps without sacrificing the functionality of robust data services.
Arista Is Finding Their Mojo In Wireless
Tom Hollingsworth writes about Arista Networks’ acquisition of Mojo Networks, a presenting sponsor at Mobility Field Day in 2017. Tom sees this acquisition as mutually beneficial as Mojo Networks gains the muscle they need to compete against Cisco and Aruba and Arista gains the wireless piece they needed to be super competitive in the campus connectivity market.
Arista Is Finding Their Mojo In Wireless
Tom Hollingsworth reports on the Arista Network’s acquisition of Mojo Networks. Mojo presented at Mobility Field Day 2 in July of 2017 about their products and innovating around security and software defined access points. This acquisition is looking to benefit both parties as well, as Mojo gains the muscle they need to compete against Cisco and Aruba and Arista gain the wireless piece they need to be competitive in the campus connectivity market.
3D XPoint Is At A Crossroads – Can Intel and Micron Deliver?
With the announcement that Intel and Micron are dissolving their partnership, Stephen Foskett says that their joint 3D XPoint technology is at a crossroads. So far 3D XPoint has been over-promised and underperforming, but Stephen says the product shows some promise in the enterprise, citing NetApp’s Storage Field Day 16 presentation and discussions at Dell Technologies World.