Everyone has a story to tell, and if you’re willing to listen, you just might learn something! The same is true when it comes to business associates; even companies ought to have a defining story. In addition to listening and watching, it’s also important to know the right questions to ask. Questions, context, and analysis turn information to data and transform data into a story. Stephen Foskett looks at how SolarWinds is working to connect these data dots into a story, based on what he saw at Tech Field Day.
Why You Should Consider Software-Defined Storage in Your Data Center
Datacenter architectures must meet the changing needs of many applications, while also supporting demanding workloads today. Datera’s design focuses on data movement, to allow flexibility for growth as requirements change. It uses commodity hardware and machine learning to create an optimal and cost-effective storage platform for the modern datacenter. Stephen Foskett breaks down their approach based on Datera’s presentations at Storage Field Day and Tech Field Day.
NetApp Active IQ Adds Machine Learning to Autosupport
Talking about Machine Learning at a Field Day event and there probably will be some calls of buzzword BINGO. But when a use of the technology actually stands out and impresses the delegates, it’s worth paying attention. That’s what Justin Warren is talking about in this piece about NetApp’s presentation. He breaks down what NetApp is doing with Active IQ. This essentially takes the 400 terabytes of telemetry data collected by the company, and applies sophisticated analysis to better help storage administrators. It might not offer the grandiose claims of other ML and AI technology, but for Justin, being a little humble means NetApp’s approach probably works a lot better.
Datera Shows the Value of Data in Use
Justin Warren saw something unique from Datera’s presentation at Tech Field Day last month. For him, it was particularly useful because it focused on the cost of change. Datera’s storage solution focused on lowering that cost of change, allowing for greater experimentation and innovation by organizations.
Monitoring Customer Data With Machine Learning
Justin Warren wrote up this piece looking at how IT companies are using machine learning to better monitor customer data. He specifically cites HPE’s InfoSight and NetApp’s Active IQ interesting examples, the latter of which he saw at Tech Field Day last month. He notes that collecting and processing information across customers allows Active IQ to notice systemic issues earlier.
NetApp Active IQ – A Logical Next Step in Maintenance
Nathaniel Avery wrote up his thoughts on NetApp’s Active IQ, something he saw quite a bit about at Tech Field Day earlier this month. This service offers configuration suggestions based on a massive dataset of anonymized data the company collects on deployments, which are then processed by machine learning algorithms to look for larger trends. Active IQ also lets customers compare configuration efficiencies with similar customers, which is key to making sure you’re getting the most for your money. Throwing around terms like ML made Nathaniel a little skeptical, but he came away impressed by the capabilities.
Vlog4 TFD
Keiran Shelden is back is balmy Australia and put together a vlog post reviewing what he saw from Tech Field Day earlier this month. He runs through a review of the event in general, and emphasizes the value in being able to have in-depth, direct, technical discussions with the presenting companies. This isn’t just a benefit to the delegates, but has meaningful value for the companies as well.
Datera and Modern Data Center
Marina Ferreira takes a look at the software-defined storage solution from Datera that was presented at Tech Field day earlier this month. What was interesting was the effort that Datera took in the presentation to show what their idea of a modern data center looked like. This was important to contextualize how Datera is serving this modern architecture.
SolarWinds Takes on Security
Security might not be top of mind when thinking of SolarWinds, but after seeing their presentation at Tech Field Day, Nathaniel Avery is starting to consider them in a new light. They demoed their SolarWinds Access Rights Manage for Microsoft Active Directory, trying to solve the classic problems of account and permission management. Combined with their large existing customer base, and their consistent UI across products, Nathaniel thinks they can make an aggressive move into the security market going forward.
Forget Day 0, Tell Me About Days 1-365!
Ken Nalbone wrote up an interesting post considering what he saw from VMware at Tech Field Day earlier this month. The company focused on how they can provide solutions for IT infrastructure beyond the travails of Day 0, into Day 1 and beyond. For Ken, this might not be the most exciting, but it’s probably more critical for organizations.
Disclosure: Tech Field Day 18
We were fortunate to have Justin Warren along as a delegate at Tech Field Day earlier this month. He got to hear from a great selection of prominent IT companies and newer startups, getting technical deep dives and engaging in thoughtful dialogue. Be sure to check out all the video from the event to stay up to date with the latest in enterprise IT.
Tech Field Day 18 – Day 2 With SolarWinds
Ed Horely has been writing up his impressions from his recent appearance at Tech Field Day. In this post, he’s focusing on what he saw from SolarWinds. This session focused on machine learning, anomaly detection, and Database Performance Analyzer. Ed particularly enjoyed hearing the company getting into the issues around giving digestible information to users when utilizing algorithmic predictive analysis.
SolarWinds – Moving Monitoring in the Right Direction
Nathaniel Avery got to hear from Solarwinds last week at Tech Field Day from the company’s home base of Austin. He got to see how the company’s IT portfolio has expanded, now encompassing over 50 products, including network management, systems management, database management, IT security, helpdesk, and DevOps. What he really enjoyed hearing was how Solarwinds put work into their product design to make moving within this massive product portfolio less daunting, like trying to match interfaces when possible. It’s that behind the scenes kind of conversation you can only get at a Tech Field Day event.
TechField Day 18 – Day 1 With Datera, NetApp and VMware
Ed Horley was one of the delegates that made his way down to Austin for Tech Field Day last week. The event had a full roster of prominent IT companies. In this post, Ed focuses on what he heard on day one of the event, with presentations from Datera, NetApp, and VMware. For him, the three companies showed varying approaches on how to differentiate their solutions based on how they are handling data analytics. These differences in approaches were illuminating in how each pitched their value to the delegates.
Tech Field Days
Marina Ferreira just attended her second Field Day event, heading out to Austin for Tech Field Day last week. While it could occasionally border on information overload, being around fellow smart, opinionated people in the Tech Field Day community more than compensated. Be sure to see all the same presentations she did by watching the comprehensive video coverage.
NetApp to Showcase Active IQ at Tech Field Day 18
NetApp was one of the presenters in Austin for Tech Field Day last week. In this post, Rip Wilson gives a preview of what was discussed at the event. The presentation focused on NetApp’s vision for data science, delving deep into their Active IQ intelligence platform. Be sure to catch the full video of their presentation for the full deep dive experience.
TFD18 Prep: VMware
Justin Warren is getting ready to head out to Tech Field Day in Austin later this week. Of course, he’s doing his homework before the presentations. In this piece, he’s looking at what to expect from VMware. They’ll be presenting on vSAN and particularly focusing on vSphere Health. As an Ops guy at heart with a long history with automation, there’s a lot to like with vSphere Health, even if its ideas aren’t exactly new. He’s interested to see how it handles being an advisory tool for automation versus something that remediates without constant interaction.
VMware vSAN – Join Us at Tech Field Day 18!
It’s always exciting to have a presentation from VMware at an event, and they’ll be presenting this week at Tech Field Day in Austin. In this post from John Nicholson, Sr. Technical Marketing Architect for vSAN, he previews the company’s presenters and what will be on the docket for discussion. Be sure to watch along on our live stream!
TFD18 Prep: Datera
Justin Warren did a full profile on Datera ahead of the company’s recent presentation at Tech Field Day in Austin. The company recently had a lot of corporate shakeup, bringing in a lot of new faces in the c-suite. This hasn’t stopped the company from impressive customer and revenue growth though. The company seems to have found a sweet spot as a software-defined storage as-a-service provider, serving customers with low-latency storage while offering stateful data portability not found on typical cloud offerings. We’re looking forward to see if Justin was just as impressed after their presentation.
TFD18 Prep: NetApp
Justin Warren wrote up a look at NetApp prior to their presentation at Tech Field Day in Austin last week. He outlines the moves NetApp has made to be relevant in the cloud, and why perhaps we’re still waiting to see revenues catch up to their technological change. That’s the context he had in mind ahead of their presentation at Tech Field Day. Be sure to watch their entire presentation on our full event video to judge for yourself.
