As companies are exposed to more and more attackers, they’re realizing that cyber resilience is increasingly important. On this episode of the Tech Field Day Podcast, presented by Commvault, Senior Director of Product and Ecosystem Strategy Michael Stempf joins Justin Warren, Karen Lopez, and Stephen Foskett to discuss the growing challenges companies face in today’s cybersecurity landscape. As more organizations transition to a cloud-first operation, they’re recognizing the heightened exposure of their data protection strategies to global compliance mandates like DORA and SCI. Adding to this complexity is the emerging threat of AI, raising important questions about how businesses can adapt and maintain resilience in the face of these evolving risks.
Arista Highlights the Power of AI
At AI Field Day 5, Arista Networks underscored the significant hurdles in deploying GPU clusters for AI training, highlighting issues like the immense power consumption driven by high data transfer demands ranging from 800Gb/s to 1.6 terabits for GPU communications. Arista suggested a shift towards energy-efficient linear pluggable optics to mitigate power consumption issues and discussed management of heat generation, noting the partial benefits of liquid cooling solutions but emphasizing that these do not fully address the broader environmental impacts. The company pointed out the urgent need for efficiency improvements in the computing industry to navigate upcoming operational and environmental challenges. Read more in this LinkedIn Pulse article by Justin Warren, who attended the Arista presentation at AI Field Day 5.
Keysight
Justin Warren comments on the Keysight Technologies presentation at AI Field Day 5. Coming from a legacy of innovation tracing back to HP/Agilent, and enhanced by acquiring Ixia, Keysight has unveiled a new AI data center test platform dedicated to benchmarking AI network performance and optimizing GPU clusters. This role is critical as it addresses reducing latency and optimizing expensive AI systems, especially during model training, with the capability to handle network troubleshooting at speeds up to 800 Gb/s. Read more in this LinkedIn Pulse article.
Cisco Says AI Networking Is Just Another Workload
During Cisco’s presentation at AI Field Day 5 the company positioned AI networking as a regular workload appearing in enterprise IT environments. The company highlighted the importance of a flexible network structure capable of handling varied workloads, leveraging their robust cloud networking foundation seen in products like UCS and Nexus to manage the demands of AI technologies. Despite the challenges associated with GPU clusters, Cisco remains optimistic about using its existing software-defined networking solutions to support AI applications, with the pragmatic adoption by early users shaping the future integration of AI in networking strategies. Read more in this LinkedIn Pulse article by Justin Warren.
AIFD5 Preview
Justin Warren shares his thoughts on this week’s AI Field Day event, highlighting the presentations by Elastic and VMware. Watch for more of Justin’s posts on PivotNine and LinkedIn.
AI Solves All Our Problems
Although AI can be quite useful, it seems that the promise of generative AI has lead to irrational exuberance on the topic. This episode of the Tech Field Day podcast, recorded ahead of AI Field Day, features Justin Warren, Alastair Cooke, Frederic van Haren, and Stephen Foskett considering the promises made about AI. Generative AI was so impressive that it escaped from the lab, being pushed into production before it was ready for use. We are still living with the repercussions of this decision on a daily basis, with AI assistants appearing everywhere. Many customers are already frustrated by these systems, leading to a rapid push-back against the universal use of LLM chatbots. One problem the widespread mis-use of AI has solved already is the search for a driver of computer hardware and software sales, though this already seems to be wearing off. But once we take stock of the huge variety of tools being created, it is likely that we will have many useful new technologies to apply.
Seeing Through Hybrid Multi-Cloud With Forward Networks
In this Tech Note article at Gestalt IT, Justin Warren discusses the challenges of securing cloud environments in the world of hybrid multi-cloud. He emphasizes that full visibility and understanding of network configurations are crucial for effective security. Forward Networks, known for network observability, offers a solution that simplifies the complex topology of cloud environments, provides consistent visibility across networks, and enables operators to ask the right security questions. Warren highlights the importance of combining existing techniques with new methods to navigate the diversity of environments and avoid overwhelming complexity. Read more in this article, which was sponsored by Forward Networks.
Death to Murder Mystery Marketing
In this article, Field Day delegates, Justin Warren, gives a few tips on how to be a successful Field Day presenter. Check out his thoughts here!
Apica for Complex Load Testing and Monitoring
Apica presented their application load and testing and monitoring tools at April’s Tech Field Day. Justin Warren, a Field Day delegate, talks about how this technology is something he wanted in the early 2,000 but wasn’t around yet, he is excited to try it out! Take a look at his thoughts here!
Nasuni’s Object File System Puzzles Me
In this blog, Justin Warren, a Field Day delegate, gives us some insight on Nasuni’s presentation from this past Tech Field Day. Check out his thoughts here!
Keysight CyPerf for Security Under Stress
Justin Warren attended this past Tech Field Day as a delegate and took a special interest in the presentation from Keysight. Keysight presented on CyPerf and how it can add security testing to your load testing. Check out Justin’s thoughts here!
Disclosure: #CFD13 Edition
Justin Warren’s latest blog talks about all the swag he got from this past Cloud Field Day in February. Check out all the goodies!
StormForge for Optimal Kubernetes
Justin Warren, a Field Day delegate, attended this past Cloud Field Day. In this post he discusses the presentation from StormForge and their latest Kubertenes and Optimize Pro approaches. Check out Justin’s thoughts here!
NetApp’s Ongoing Reinvention
Writing on his personal blog, Justin Warren, a Field Day delegate, discusses NetApp’s ongoing reinvention into a cloud services portfolio company. Check out Justin’s thoughts from NetApp’s presentation at this past Cloud Field Day.
Infrascale Recovery for SMBs
Infrascale continues to focus on SMBs with its portfolio of data protection products, and Justin Warren, a Field Day delegate, continues to be impressed by what they have to offer. At last year’s Storage Field Day, Infrascale mainly focused on Disaster Recovery. Justin was very intrigued by what they had to offer, look at his thoughts here!
CTERA Global File Sharing With Modern Security
CTERA is storage software for a global filesystem accessible from anywhere in your organization. Justin Warren, a Field Day delegate, discusses this multi-cloud but also private storage software that CTERA presented at Storage Field Day last year. Take a look at Justin’s thoughts here!
Tape Lives! At Fujifilm
Have you heard about FujiFilm’s new product, FujiFilm Object Archive? They presented this product at the latest Storage Field Day! Justin Warren, a Field Day delegate, explains that this is basically AWS Glacier but for inside your datacenter. Check out Justin’s thoughts on this S3 compatible API for accessing data that will integrate with anything else that speaks S3!
Disclosure: #XFD6 Edition
Justin Warren leaves us with his Security Field Day discloser post and includes the sponsor swag he received from last October. Check out what he received from all the presenting companies that participated with swag!
