On this episode of Deloitte’s On Cloud podcast, Tech Field Day founder Stephen Foskett discusses the origins of the Tech Field Day event series and how the event has evolved and adapted over time. We’re approaching our tenth anniversary, it’s a wonderful perspective on the history of the event.
StorPool’s Strategy Rose to the Cloud—and Beyond!
Before buzzwords like “cloud” and “software-defined storage” (SDS) became part of our everyday vocabulary, software developers like Boyan Ivanov, Chief Executive and Co-Founder of StorPool Storage, already were hard at work devising ways to build extremely fast, reliable, and scalable storage solutions for public and private use cases. While the solution may not have had a fancy moniker, Stephen Foskett looks at what StorPool presented at Storage Field Day and how it aims to re-energize block storage, combining high-end storage area network (SAN) technology through software and the performance of local solid-state drive (SSD) storage.
vSoccer at VMworld 2019
VMworld US without vSoccer? It almost happened! Luckily Jorge Torres heard the calls of the community and is organizing the iconic sporting event for VMworld US 2019. They’ll be playing at the Beach Chalet soccer fields in San Francisco. The Tech Field Day staff is proud to support this great community building event!
The Contention Window: S1E12 : TechFieldDay – Mobility Field Day 4 Preview
This episode of the Contention Window sees hosts Scott Lester and Tauni Odia talking with Mobility Field Day organizer Tom Hollingsworth and Tech Field Day founder Stephen Foskett. They’re talking about the upcoming Mobility Field Day event and the overall background of the event series.
I Met Stephen Foskett
In this post, Jim Palmer details his experience meeting Tech Field Day founder Stephen Foskett. Jim had previously attended Wireless Field Day last year, but got invited to Tech Field Day this year. Getting exposed to new technology and new people was a really unique opportunity and it was great to have Jim at the event. He even got Stephen to explain RAID storage to him!
What You See and What You Get When You Follow Me
As the founder and organizer-in-chief of Tech Field Day, Stephen Foskett wrote up a post explaining what you get when you follow him on social media. While Tech Field Day content will show up there, he goes through his thought process of what to share and how it is demarcated in the feed.
You’re Wrong About Data Protection Policy
This episode of the On-Premise IT Roundtable was recorded at Tech Field Day Extra at Dell Technologies and looks at data protection policies. The group discusses why you’re probably doing it wrong. Essentially business and compliance needs are not top of mind when these policies are established. They further discuss how vendor defaults and application owners add to the confusion.
Nyansa Wants to Be the IoT Sheriff
Nyansa returned to Networking Field Day with their presentation earlier this year. At the event, they showed their solution for how to handle the proliferation of IoT devices in the enterprise. In this post, Stephen Foskett looks at how they inventory the devices, verify connectivity and performance, characterize their behavior, detect and secure unusual actions, and verify that mitigations are working.
Liveblog: Intel Data-Centric Innovation Day 2019
Aside from organizing Tech Field Day Exclusive at Intel Data-Centric Innovation Day 2019, Stephen Foskett was also live blogging all the announcements from Intel. Be sure to check it out to get his thoughts on the 2nd generation Xeon Scalable processors, which now offer up to 56 cores in a single socket. There were also official releases for Optane DC, and the announcement of a whole new Intel FPGA family, Agilex. It was a packed presentation, so be sure to get caught up here.
Intel’s Crossover Point: A 3D Spork?
Stephen Foskett will definitely be watching what Intel is presenting at Tech Field Day Exclusive at Intel Data-Centric Innovation Day. In this post, he looks at the current state of Intel Optane. After a blunted debut in a SSD format, the new DIMM form factor comes closer to what the promise of 3D Xpoint was initially. But for Stephen, it still seems stuck in an uncanny valley in the current classical computing model between storage and memory.
Voices in Data Storage – Episode 9: A Conversation With Stephen Foskett
In this episode of Voices in Data Storage, Enrico Signoretti interviewed Tech Field Day founder Stephen Foskett. Enrico has now seen the event from both a presenting company side, and as a delegate. The two talk about current trends in storage and go into detail about the Tech Field Day event series.
Goodbye X-IO, Hello Axellio and Violin 2.0!
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.
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.
9 Years of Tech Field Days with Stephen Foskett
In a recent TotalPackets video, Tech Field Day founder Stephen Foskett was interviewed by Kori Younger. They discussed why Tech Field Day resonates with both presenting companies and the larger IT community of experts.
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.
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.
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.
