Tracing the evolution of corporate infrastructure, Thomas LaRock spotlights how mainframes gave way to servers, which in turn embraced the transformational shifts to virtualization, then public clouds, and now the emergence of microservices and containers—yet through each phase, the underlying data centers and servers remained indispensable. Despite the allure of public cloud, private clouds persist, driven by factors like security, data sovereignty, performance, and the cost of potential repatriation, which keeps companies from going all-in on cloud solutions. Addressing the complexities of building private clouds, SoftIron unveils their HybridCloud offering—an “in-a-box” private data center solution that affirms its scalability, ease of integration with Azure and AWS, and potential as a maneuver away from challenging licensing models.
HyperCloud: Is This the Next Era of Private Cloud?
With the rise of hyperscalers and the challenges of cloud cost management, HyperCloud by SoftIron offers an intriguing solution, aiming to marry the agility of cloud computing with the control of on-premises infrastructure. In this LinkedIn Pulse article, Jon Myer discusses the HyperCloud ecosystem, which brings a cloud-like experience to private setups, seeking to address the complexity of traditional data centers with a flexible, scalable infrastructure. As someone fascinated by IT’s evolution, HyperCloud’s innovative approach and promise of operational ease and efficiency within a secure on-premises environment might very well define the next era of private cloud.
Introduction to NeuroBlade
At Cloud Field Day 19, NeuroBlade introduced their innovative SPU solution, which joins the ranks of xPUs designed to boost data processing beyond traditional CPU or GPU capabilities. Their SPU, a PCIe bus-inserted hardware accelerator, is integrated through the DAXL API and SDK, showing promise in Presto, with plans to expand to Spark and Clickhouse, touting substantial performance claims of a 30x improvement. NeuroBlade’s pitch is particularly compelling in the big data era, where their technology could drastically cut the number of servers needed for large workloads, signaling a potentially transformative impact on cost, space, and power efficiency in data analytics. Read more in this LinkedIn Pulse article by Camberley Bates of The Futurum Group.
Dell Brings Multicloud Storage to Cloud Field Day
Ken Nalbone’s LinkedIn article details Dell’s unveiling of their APEX Block Storage for Public Cloud at Cloud Field Day 19, a solution aimed at delivering cross-cloud consistent architecture, performance, and management to enterprise customers.
Stop Paying for Resources You Aren’t Using
In this LinkedIn Pulse article, Thomas LaRock advises against over-provisioning cloud resources, comparing it to a rule from a basketball camp: “Take all you can eat. But eat all that you take.” He highlights the common practice of requesting more resources than necessary, leading to wasted resources and higher costs. LaRock introduces Platform9’s Elastic Machine Pool (EMP) as a tool to identify and optimize inefficient Kubernetes deployments, potentially reducing costs by up to 50%. He suggests that managing cloud resources is more of an art than a science and recommends tools like EMP for effective cost optimization, particularly in Kubernetes deployments.
EKS Cost Optimization From Platform9
As Ken Nalbone writes, Platform9 has re-emerged at Cloud Field Day with significant updates to their product suite, emphasizing their commitment to democratizing cloud computing with a focus on private and edge clouds. Their new Elastic Machine Pool (EMP) solution caught the spotlight, tackling the persistent issue of Kubernetes cost optimization, contrasting typical FinOps strategies by targeting both cost-saving and compute optimization. Platform9’s proactive approach, exemplified by EMP’s ability to efficiently scale resources on AWS without disruptions, underscores a pragmatic recognition of the organizational challenges in application optimization and presents a tailored niche in the cloud management market.
Accelerating Data Analytics With Neuroblade
NeuroBlade is pushing forward with a novel contribution, the SPU or SQL Processing Unit, which Ned Bellavance learned about at Cloud Field Day. Addressing the data explosion and the limits of current processing hardware, NeuroBlade’s SPU aims to fill a gap neither CPUs nor GPUs can, providing significant performance improvements tailored to SQL queries. Targeting primarily bare-metal deployments, the SPU boasts a 30x performance increase over traditional hardware, potentially offering a transformative advancement in data analytics performance.
SoftIron: Bringing Private Cloud in a Box to the Enterprise
Following their recent press release, SoftIron made an impression on Ken Nalbone at Cloud Field Day 19 with their proprietary on-prem private cloud stack, boasting end-to-end control over a solution that is both software and hardware inclusive, often referred to as secure providence. Contrary to solutions pieced together with components from various suppliers, SoftIron’s HyperCloud presents a cloud-native infrastructure designed for easy deployment, management, and scale on premises. Differentiated by custom design and competitive prices despite utilizing third-party chips like AMD’s, SoftIron’s approach addresses the need for a unified, consumption-driven private cloud offering, representing a burgeoning alternative in the space traditionally occupied by giants like VMware.
Why Build a Storage Array in the Cloud?
In this LinkedIn Pulse article, Ned Bellavance discusses the challenges of multicloud environments and introduces Dell Technologies’ APEX Block Storage, a solution aiming to provide consistent, high-performance storage across various public cloud vendors and private data centers.
SoftIron HyperCloud Is True Private Cloud
Cloud repatriation is a hot topic, as Ned Bellavance discusses in this LinkedIn Pulse article. At Cloud Field Day 19, SoftIron’s HyperCloud offering emerged as a noteworthy solution, promising a cohesive private cloud experience with their own U.S. and Australia-manufactured hardware and tight integration of custom-built software. This ‘true’ private cloud solution differs from the piecemeal approach others take, aiming to provide an alternative pathway for those considering moving off VMware or repatriating workloads back from the public cloud.
An Introduction to NeuroBlade
Opening Cloud Field Day 19, Elad Sity, CEO and Founder of NeuroBlade, highlighted the company’s mission to revolutionize big data analytics through hardware acceleration. Boasting a team of over 120 employees and substantial funding, NeuroBlade is pioneering the SQL Processing Unit (SPU), which promises significant performance boosts for data queries at reduced costs. With strategic partnerships and clients like Meta, NeuroBlade is poised to redefine the trajectory of data analytics efficiency, although the extent of their collaboration with major cloud providers remains a question for Ken Nalbone.
Why Do We Use Networking Monitoring Devices?
Network performance monitoring has evolved from simple device status checks to a sophisticated analysis of end-user experience, as Darrell DeRosia explains the transformative impact of tools like Wyebot on network management. The ease of setup and insightful data visualization of Wyebot sensors offer network architects the ability to proactively fine-tune the network, addressing issues like varied DNS response times before users even notice. Wyebot’s Link Doctor feature exemplifies this proactive approach, enabling engineers to maintain network health discreetly and ensure that the “sound of silence” in communications channels signifies a well-functioning, user-centric network environment.
Cisco/Meraki – #MFD10
In this LinkedIn post, David Oliver discuss Mobility Field Day 10, where Cisco unveiled their latest innovations, notably the integration of wireless controllers with the Meraki dashboard, streamlining network monitoring and management. This update, particularly benefiting Cisco 9800 series controllers, enables easy onboarding and monitoring through Meraki’s cloud interface, leveraging existing DNA licenses without added costs. Cisco’s commitment to cloud solutions and simplification of network administration was clear, as they outlined the seamless process and potential future enhancements in monitoring and configuration capabilities.
Wyebot Presents at MFD10
Troy Martin provides a detailed overview of Wyebot’s performance during its recent Mobility Field Day presentation in this LinkedIn post. Martin highlights Wyebot’s improvements and new features, emphasizing the platform’s aim to become the standard for out-of-band WLAN environment monitoring. He commends its sensor capability, simple pricing model, and vendor-agnostic approach and suggests that its feature of capturing all of its own packet flows for analysis presents an impressive solution to emerging WiFi challenges.
Building AI Data Platforms With WEKA
Matyáš Prokop in his latest LinkedIn article highlights the importance of high-performance storage in the AI and Machine Learning (AI/ML) context, addressing the challenge of storage inadequacies that often hamper optimal operational performance. He spotlights the WEKA solution, an innovative approach that utilizes NVMe storage in various cloud environments to greatly improve I/O operations. Prokop underlines the cost-effectiveness, improved scalability, flexibility, and overall performance enhancement this solution offers, emphasizing the need for companies to reassess their storage solutions as AI/ML operations grow more complex.
You Can’t Secure What You Don’t Know About: APIs
In this LinkedIn post, Karen Lopez shares her conversation with NoName Security about the importance of API security. She explains that as APIs serve as the primary way of accessing data in present times, ensuring their security, especially considering technical debt, becomes crucial to avoiding data breaches. She urges organizations to consider solutions such as those offered by NoName Security, which include features to discover, classify, manage, and assess the vulnerabilities of APIs.
Cisco/Meraki Newly Unified Wireless Folks Talk at Mobility Field Day 10
Lee Badman dives into Cisco Networking’s recent discussion of wireless strategy developments at the Tech Field Day Mobility Field Day in San Jose in a new LinkedIn article. Taking note of the unification of Cisco and Meraki products, he shares his concerns as a long-term customer about preserving Meraki’s operationally reliable and bug-free aspect. He appeals to Cisco to leave any customer-facing issues behind as they advance, hoping for success in their transformation process.
Cisco Presents at MFD10
In this LinkedIn article, Troy Martin recounts Cisco’s presentation at the recent Mobility Field Day event. The tech giant showcased its commitment to delivering simplified outcomes for a diverse customer base with its three-pronged solution model: on-prem, cloud-enabled, and cloud-first. Cisco also highlighted the importance of enabling features such as 11r on networks for improved performance, and introduced two new APs, the CW9163E and CW9166D1, affirming its innovative strides in the tech field.
Cisco/Meraki Newly Unified Wireless Folks Talk at Mobility Field Day 10
In this LinkedIn article, Lee Badman discusses a recent conversation with the Cisco Meraki team about their newly unified wireless offerings. Emphasizing the nuanced changes and additions such as advanced features and dual 5 GHz functionality, Badman offers the updated Cisco Meraki’s solutions as a strong competitor in the wireless networking market. He appreciates the team’s focus on not just delivering features, but also simplifying complex workflows in the evolving field of wireless networking.
Taking Private Cloud to the Next Level
In this LinkedIn article, Keith Townsend discusses the potential of automating private data centers to a point where they are indistinguishable from the public cloud for consumers. Using Juniper Networks Apstra’s integration with Terraform as an example, he argues the need for advanced understanding and expertise in both data center networking and automation tools to create a smooth developer experience. Townsend commends the Juniper team on their aggressive and effective demo, while urging for more of such practical integrations in the industry.
