AI Demands a New Storage Architecture with Hammerspace
Mar 19, 2024
Hammerspace unveiled a new storage architecture called Hyperscale NAS that addresses the needs of AI and GPU computing. This episode of the On-Premise IT podcast, sponsored by Hammerspace, is focused on the extreme requirements of high-performance multi-node computing. Eric Bassier of Hammerspace joins Chris Grundemann, Frederic Van Haren, and Stephen Foskett to consider the characteristics that define this new storage architecture. Hammerspace leverages parallel NFS and flexible file layout (FlexFiles) within the NFS protocol to deliver unprecedented scalability and performance. AI training requires scalability, performance, and low latency but also flexible and robust data management, which makes Hyperscale NAS extremely attractive. Now that the Linux kernel includes NFS v4.2, the Hammerspace Hyperscale NAS system works out of the box with standards-based clients rather than requiring a proprietary client. Hammerspace is currently deployed in massive hyperscale datacenters and is used in some of the largest AI training scenarios.
Combining Simplicity with Speed, with the New Hammerspace Hyperscale NAS Architecture
Data is the new currency of the modern economy. It has opened huge opportunities to drive trailblazing technologies like AI and machine learning deep into businesses and industries. But as storage systems lay jammed with volumes of unstructured data, legacy solutions are under threat. Data overabundance can easily overwhelm and disrupt these known storage solutions, leaving organizations at risk of being outperformed by their rivals.
This episode of On-Premise IT Podcast brought to you by Hammerspace, explores the reasons why the new data cycle requires next-generation storage systems. Eric Bassier, Sr Director of Solution Marketing for Hammerspace, talks about a new NAS architecture that can accommodate all the data that’s heading enterprises’ way, and do it at the speed require for AI training.
A Change Is in Order
“AI is forcing a reckoning in the industry that’s probably long overdue, to change how data is used and preserved,” comments Bassier.
Bassier puts storage systems into two main categories – the traditional scale-out network-attached storage (NAS), a technology already well-known and widely deployed in organizations, and the relatively new HPC parallel file systems designed exclusively for HPC environments.
“The fact that the HPC file systems have never been widely deployed in the enterprise speaks to a gap there. They don’t have the right feature set, and are too difficult to maintain,” says Bassier.
This is also telling of an uncomfortable truth about NAS systems. “The fact that HPC file systems still exist so predominantly in HPC environments is an admission that scale-out NAS architectures don’t meet their performance demands.”
What fundamentally separates HPC and AI workloads from traditional workloads is the need for speed and performance. GPU farms for AI training require to access data concurrently at high speeds.
A Disruptive Hyperscale NAS Architecture
Hammerspace has a new architecture, the Hyperscale NAS, that supports colossal data capacity and performance demands of GPU farms.
“[ the architecture] largely came out of our work with one of the world’s largest hyperscalers for their large language model training environment. It is a new storage architecture that as more and more enterprises get into AI and drive forward their initiatives, this would be the best storage architecture for large language model training, generative AI training, and other forms of deep learning,” says Bassier.
The unnamed client has a thousand-node Hammerspace storage cluster deployed in their LLM training environment where more than 30,000 GPUs are at work across 4000 server nodes.
“The Hammerspace storage cluster is feeding those GPUs at an aggregate performance of around 100 Terabits per second. It’s 80 to 90% of line rate,” he says.
Performance aside, the reason why the client chose Hyperscale NAS for the job is its standards-based design. Hyperscale NAS is standards-based, meaning it can operate on any commercial off-the-shelf storage server, be it NAS, object or block. One of the major benefits of that is, by just sitting on top of the storage, Hyperscale NAS can accelerate the underlying system without needing a costly upgrade.
“The underpinnings of this architecture have been in Hammerspace since day one.” Bassier points to the origin of the name “Hammerspace” to underline this. A hammerspace, he explains, is an extradimensional space invisible to the eye. Characters in movies and cartoons often use it to store unusually large objects, which they summon in times of need making it looks like they are conjured out of thin air. Think of Hermione Granger’s beaded handbag in Harry Potter, or Mary Poppins’ carpet bag.
Chris Grundemann comments, “Hyperscale NAS appears at first blush to be a representation of that. There’s no proprietary client software needed. It just works as a NAS but in a really new way, to support these crazy GPU workloads in AI.”
So, why did Hammerspace wait so long to introduce it? “We are bringing it to market now because of everything we’ve learned, where we’ve now proven this architecture at hyperscale,” says Bassier.
The paradigm is fast evolving. HPC and AI/ML workloads are going to be pervasive across organizations, and they will need a new NAS architecture that provides both the performance of HPC file systems with the right feature set, and the standards-based simplicity of Network File System (NFS).
Tying Together the Best of Both Solutions
In a scale-out NAS architecture, data has to make multiple network hops between the client and server. The more the hops, the higher the latency of transmission. The Hyperscale NAS architecture opens a direct data path between the two points, reducing the number of transmissions and retransmissions. The result is lower latency and faster throughput.
Metadata is dealt out-of-band. “We offload a lot of the metadata operations to a separate path so we can streamline it.”
Hyperscale NAS detaches data from metadata, putting them into two separate planes – the data plane and the control plane. The metadata resides inside the metadata service nodes which are essentially queryable databases.
This ties into another key aspect of the Hyperscale NAS architecture that Bassier highlights. Oftentimes, file systems are trapped in the storage layer that makes data opaque to the users. This is a barrier to collaboration works.
Hammerspace lifts the file system out of the storage layer and creates a global parallel file system with a single global namespace. Datasets are assimilated from multiple sources across sites and storage silos, and deposited into this file system. With global data orchestration, transparency is ensured for all users.
“Even users that are remote or not co-located with the data are all presented the same files that they’re authorized to see.”
Hyperscale NAS leverages NFS v4.2 client, particularly its two optional capabilities – parallel NFS and FlexFiles. “Hammerspace is the first one to take advantage of those capabilities,” says Bassier.
If Hyperscale NAS sounds a lot like an HPC parallel file system to you, then it is worth nothing that there are significant differences. Where others solutions rely on proprietary file system clients or agents that sit on GPU servers to give them the intelligence, Hammerspace doesn’t, and works with all standards-based clients, he concludes.
No One Wants To Be A Network Engineer Any More
Mar 12, 2024
The job market is more competitive than ever but the desire to fill network engineering roles is lower than before. In this episode, Tom Hollingsworth is joined by Ryan Lambert, Dakota Snow, and David Varnum for an examination of why network design and implementation isn’t a hot career path. They look at the rise of cloud as a discipline as well as the reduction of complexity in modern roles with help from software an automation shifts. They also discuss how entry level professionals can adjust their thinking to take advantage of open roles on the market.
Real World AI Looks a Lot Different From the Movies
Mar 05, 2024
Most people envision AI as a cool and orderly datacenter activity, but this technology will soon be everywhere. This episode of the On-Premise IT podcast contrasts the AI-based greenhouses of Nature Fresh Farms, as presented by guest Keith Bradley at AI Field Day, with the massive GPU-bound infrastructure many people imagine. Allyson Klein, Frederic Van Haren, and Stephen Foskett attended AI Field Day and were intrigued by the ways AI can process data from cameras and other sensors in a greenhouse environment.
The development of AI networking is moving forward and Ethernet is taking a prime role in how workloads will communicate. In this episode, Tom Hollingsworth is joined by Drew Conry-Murray and Jordan Martin as well as J Metz, the chair of the Ultra Ethernet Consortium, to discuss the progress being made by the UEC to develop Ethernet to meet the needs of AI. They discuss the roadmap for adoption of technologies as well as the drivers for the additions to the protocol and how people can get involved.
Generative AI is Developing Applications
Feb 20, 2024
Generative AI is becoming a key tool for software developers, and businesses are embracing it as well. This episode of the On-Premise IT podcast brings Paul Nashawaty of The Futurum Group, data expert Karen Lopez, and Stephen Foskett together to discuss how AI is impacting application development. Generative AI is incredibly compelling, rapidly producing credible output. that it’s hard to put a stop to it. Rather than trying to stand in the way, companies are looking for better quality tools, with data privacy and compliance capabilities to fend off the negatives that can arise from AI-generated content. AI can also help with tasks like documentation and testing that are less popular and more problematic, and these can improve overall code quality as well.
Modern workloads are overloading hardware systems, and the CPUs in the market today aren’t up to the task. In this episode of On-Premise IT Podcast recorded on the premises of the Cloud Field Day event in California, host Stephen Foskett is joined by Thomas LaRock, Shala Warner, and Jim Czuprynski from the IT world, to talk about innovation in hardware. The discussion addresses the burning question of whether investing in more specialized hardware will solve the problem. Hear the panel explain how hardware innovation is intertwined with software innovation, and how the two components come together to power cutting-edge workloads.
The IT world is obsessed with AI but the desire to put AI into every product creates confusion and uncertainty. In this episode of the On-Premise Podcast, Tom Hollingsworth is joined by Zoë Rose and Dominik Pickhardt to discuss why everyone is so excited about AI. They also focus on issues with opaque algorithms and how AI can actually be useful in helping professionals with their daily work.
Platform Engineering Isn’t Just DevOps Renamed
Jan 30, 2024
Platform engineering has been happening for a long time, but today’s implication is quite different. This episode of the On-Premise IT podcast brings platform engineering expert Michael Levan, industry analyst Steven Dickens, and host Stephen Foskett to consider what platform engineering is today. Building a platform for self service in the cloud has more in common with product development than the platforms delivered historically by IT infrastructure teams. One of the drivers for the DevOps trend was the divergence of IT development and operations over the last few decades, but this was different in the mainframe world. In many ways, today’s platform engineering teams are more mature process-wise thanks to the demands of multi-tenant cloud applications.
The term “platform engineering” has exploded in IT. Explainers and articles are rife about platform engineering’s boundless implications. Some are defining it as a niche battle, others are calling it the DevOps killer, and some are projecting it as a million-dollar career. Whatever it is, findings show that it is at the peak of the hype cycle, and is settling into a new standard.
The answer lies somewhere in the middle. The proclivity to slap new labels on old things is not new in marketing. The hype about platform engineering is somewhat the same. “We’ve been doing platform engineering for a really long time. It just has a name and a focus point now, but it’s not something that just popped out of nowhere,” says Levan.
Dickens likens it to the role of Mainframe developers. “The Mainframe guys speak in different tongues and worship different gods than the distributed and cloud guys, but if you took away the nomenclatures and actually looked at the job, it would be the same functional work.”
What’s the Hype about?
So why it being loved to death now? Because platform engineering does what software delivery processes benefit from most. It drives standardization and automation.
In a way, platform engineering is like the Hibachi experience. At a traditional Hibachi-style Japanese place, diners select their choice of noodles, meat, broth, sauce and toppings from the counter. At the bar, the chefs wield their knives, chopping, grilling, and cooking the ingredients into a hearty bowl of goodness.
Platform engineers do the same thing for the development environment. Platform engineering is the methodology to bring disparate components together into a platform in a way that makes sense, ultimately elevating the developer’s experience. In doing so, it alleviates the challenge of having to constantly worry about the platform.
The modern stack that engineers interface with can be broadly divided into three categories – the platform, the capabilities and the UI. The approach abstracts away complexity at all three levels, making sure that platform users can access the self-service features more easily. Sounds a bit like DevOps, right?
Not a New Name for DevOps
Platform engineering in the cloud era is a community position, not a technical one, says Levan. It encourages the infrastructure team to step into the developers’ shoes for the first time, and see things their way. “Platform engineering has two primary goals – go into systems thinking about customer service, and have a product mindset. When you combine those two things, your job is literally to help people,” explains Levan.
This is where its likeness with DevOps can be seen. In the 2000s, companies did platform engineering the traditional way – the platform engineers tuned the platform, the developers built the applications. There was no real interaction or exchange between the two workgroups.
But as years passed and new technology approaches came about, thought leaders saw that there is merit in bringing the two departments closer together. In this new culture, platform engineers and developers are to function transparently to improve application delivery. They deduced that overlapping software development with not only infrastructure, but also operations and product management will mature the processes, greatly contributing to the organizational growth and success.
“Platform engineering is all about quality engineering. One of the big reasons why I became self-employed a couple of years ago was because I didn’t want to throw a duct tape in my environments anymore. I’m just really happy that the entire tech community is seeing the same thing now,” says Levan.
What is shaping the rising popularity of platform engineering is its maturity. At the core, today it is about creating order in chaos. Amid infinite workflows, tools and technologies, platform engineering fosters a consistent and standard environment that affords developers a predictable experience, and boosts productivity and efficiency, not only by freeing them to do their work, but by also eliminating errors and guesswork that frequently cause bottlenecks and delayed release cycles.
“Focusing on nonfunctional requirements, putting quality code into production and infrastructure mattering again is really key,” says Dickens.
Wrapping Up
As companies rethink their approach to software development, platform engineering shines the spotlight on ways CTOs can close gaps and build bridges between separate teams, and solve bigger problems and eventually achieve shorter time to market.
For more, be sure to give the podcast – Platform Engineering Isn’t Just DevOps Renamed – a listen.
Cloud Repatriation is Really Happening
Jan 23, 2024
Now that businesses have deployed modern applications in the cloud they are starting to ask whether it might be more attractive to run these on-premises. This episode of the On-Premise IT podcast features Jason Benedicic, Camberley Bates, and Ian Sanderson discussing the pros and cons of cloud repatriation with Stephen Foskett. A recent blog post by 37 Signals got the Tech Field Day delegates talking about the reality of running modern applications in enterprise-owned clouds, whether in the datacenter or co-located. Certainly the hardware and software are available to move applications on-prem, and some workloads may be better served this way. Most of the necessary components to run modern web applications are available on-prem, from Kubernetes to Postgres to Kafka, but these can prove difficult to manage, which is one of the things as-a-service customers are paying for. Looking back to the debut of OpenStack, enterprises have wanted to run applications in-house but they found it too difficult to manage. OpenShift is much more attractive thanks to the support and integration of the platform, but many customers have financial and administrative reasons for as-a-service deployment. It might not be a mass exodus, but there are plenty of examples of repatriation of modern applications.
Why Companies Are Moving Off of the Public Cloud
A new trend coming out of the enterprise IT industry is cloud repatriation. The chatter picked up when 37signals, a SaaS project management company, publicly announced that it saved $1 million by pulling apps away from public cloud. According to CTO, David Heinemeier Hansson, repatriation has shrunken the company’s cloud spend by 60%, and is projected to save an estimated $10 million over the next five years.
And theirs’ is not an isolated case. Skyrocketing costs of data and storage in the cloud have caused a lot of companies to pull away and migrate back to on premise datacenters in the last few years. Seagate has built its own platform to deploy web applications that runs in their private datacenter on owned hardware. More recently, LinkedIn has called off plans to move workloads from on-site to Azure Cloud.
So are companies really abandoning their cloud computing dreams and hauling wares back to where they started? At the recent On-Premise IT Podcast, host Stephen Foskett addressed this question that’s lately been the talk of Silicon Valley.
Public Cloud Offerings Come at a Premium
When considering relocating technology, the reasonings fall into two main buckets – cost and control. “As we went into 2024, a lot of very large enterprises are concerned about costs. So there is this ongoing effort for cost management, and what is happening is a recalculation or reevaluation of where the workloads are to be placed and why. That workload rationalization has been going on for some time,” notes Camberley Bates, VP Practice Lead at The Futurum Group.
Enterprises’ rationale behind migrating to cloud was to reduce OpEx. The cloud offered an attractive answer to the surging cost problem in on-premise datacenters. The promise however soured as companies started to struggle with cost blowouts. Despite adapting their operating principles and practices to rein in the spendings, an optimized cloud value has remained unrealized.
After expending a notably large amount of time and resources to get to cloud, when a company decides to withdraw, it reflects as poor planning. Much like in all financial decisions, the sunk-cost fallacy creeps in. And to keep the cloud obsession going, hyperscalers hook users in with free credits that give them a free pass to start down the road.
From Managed Cloud to a Private Infrastructure
Spurred by dependency fear and cost and ownership concerns, many big enterprises have started bringing selected applications on-site as part of their workload placement strategy.
“A few years ago, it was a cloud-first mentality which we’re moving away from today with the hybrid approach, but it’s a very interesting marketplace in terms of options of where you can repatriate to in terms of the software stack,” says Ian Sanderson, Product Manager.
One of the things that makes the argument of going back on-premises seem valid today is the evolution of datacenter computing. “Since the cloud came about, we’ve seen a lot of step change in on-premise compute. We have gone from average systems of 4 cores to up to systems with 64 cores. So you could pack a lot of compute into a small space at a small cost,” points out Jason Benedicic, independent consultant.
A growing technology ecosystem is making shifting applications possible. “There’s a lot more off-the-shelf products for running clouds. Kubernetes and containers have come a long way. So the skill ramp-up needed to build and run your own modern application stack is lessened – I don’t think it’s completely removed, it’s not as easy as virtualization is – but there’s a lower barrier to entry. There’s a cheaper, more dense hardware aspect and those come together to make repatriation a possibility,” he adds.
The Uncomfortable Truth
Although technological advances lend users freedom to place their workload anywhere that offers maximum cost, performance and security payoffs, lifting and shifting too has its trade-offs. The cloud has monopoly over a few things that enterprises can’t pass up on, especially with the wide-spread adoption of AI. For one, on-premise infrastructures can barely match the agility, speed and iteration of public cloud.
“If you run a startup business with a couple of DevOps engineers and a fairly small team, it is going to be a daunting proposition to run all of it yourself. It’s possible, but the question is, what are the hidden costs and where do they lie,” cautions Benedicic.
But, increasingly, data costs in the cloud are driving companies to rethink the strategy. “Talking about the issue of cost analysis, we’ve seen a decline in the cost of server instances. We have not seen that same kind of cost basis on the data side,” notes Bates.
An Emerging Ecosystem
Thankfully, modern containerized applications have some amount of portability built in. “With serverless stuff, there’s some level of interoperability but there are not a huge number of serverless platforms out there that are mainstream,” Benedicic says.
Companies like Red Hat and IBM have solutions that make quick work of installing on-prem environments. The rise of OpenShift has been game changing in the way people think about running private cloud. Red Hat OpenShift is an open-source container application platform. The on-premise PaaS flavor is self-managed and comes with on-prem support for maximum ease.
Red Hat is one of the companies that is building a full suite of tools that work together to make the transition easier. Things like deployment blueprints that serve as guides are extremely helpful to get users started.
Wrapping Up
Workload repatriation need not be a binary decision. In many big enterprises, cloud repatriation may have taken off, but it is not a quit-the-cloud movement that it has been made out to be. Amid an economic downturn, companies are trying to tighten their budget and deciding where a workload best resides is the cornerstone of that. A hybrid placement approach will ensure a more natural distribution of workloads across cloud and datacenters than we have seen before.
For more, be sure to check out the On-Premise IT Podcast episode – Cloud Repatriation Is Really Happening – to follow the discussion.
Ethernet Won’t Replace InfiniBand for AI Networking in 2024
Jan 16, 2024
InfiniBand is the king of AI networking today. Ethernet is making a big leap to take some of that market share but it’s not going to dethrone the incumbent any time soon. In this episode, join Jody Lemoine, David Peñaloza, and Chris Grundemann along with Tom Hollingsworth as they debate the merits of using Ethernet in place of InfiniBand. They discuss the paradigm shift as well as the suitability of the protocols to the workloads as well as how Ultra Ethernet is similar to another shift in converged protocols – Fibre Channel over Ethernet.
AI is going to accelerate development of malware everywhere from code to prompts for social engineering. But tools can be used for defense as well as offense. In this episode of the On-Premise IT Podcast, Tom Hollingsworth is joined by Girard Kavalines, Ziv Levy, and Matt Tyrer as they debate the impact that AI will have on malware development in 2024 and beyond. Hear how AI can drive automation on both sides of the security spectrum as well as how we can better prepare to face an onslaught of assisted attackers.
Your IT Security Policy Needs to Be Followed
Jan 02, 2024
IT security policies are aspirational goals because they have so many exceptions. The difference between being hacked and being safe could come down to one employee. In this episode, Tom Hollingsworth sits down with Jasper Bongertz and Brian Knudtson to talk about how security polices are inherently fragile and can cause people to have more faith in them than they should. Also discussed is how people are not always the problem in these situations and how companies can do a better job of crafting documents that reflect real-world applications of protection.
Users are always going to blame the connectivity medium for issues and we just have to accept it. In this episode, Sam Clements, Troy Martin, and Darrell DeRosia join Tom Hollingsworth to discuss why users are adamant that the wireless is the problem when it’s always something else. They discuss why IT professionals should focus less on blame shifting and more on creating an environment that provides resolution even if it’s not their problem. The episode wraps up with suggestions for professionals to create an environment better suited to meeting user expectations.
Automation is a very complicated subject that requires a lot of thought and planning before implementation. It’s not something that every organization needs to implement. In this episode, Tim Bertino, Jake Khuon, and Jordan Villarreal discuss the challenges inherent in automation of networks and systems. They also clarify the differences between scripting, orchestration, and real automation. In the end they give tips and questions to ask when you feel like it is time to start your journey toward automation.
WebAssembly Will Displace Containers For Web-Scale Applications
Dec 05, 2023
Containerization of applications is only a small step forward from virtualization, but WebAssembly promises a real revolution. This episode of the On-Premise IT podcast, recorded live at KubeCon 2023 in Chicago, features Nigel Poulton, Ned Bellavance, Justin Warren, and Stephen Foskett discussing the prospects for WebAssembly. WebAssembly (WASM) is lauded for its potential to be faster, smaller, and more secure than its predecessors. But skepticism surrounds its long-term adoption and development trajectory, with debates centering on whether WASM can achieve the transformative status that containers once held. While WASM applications are technically more portable, smaller, and quicker to start, adoption remains at an early stage, appealing more to developers than operations professionals.
Identity Management is Tweaking our Neuroses
Nov 28, 2023
The concept of identity management has become increasingly complex and challenging due to the purely digital nature of modern identity. This episode of the On-Premise IT podcast, recorded on-premises at ISS in Cleveland, features Bob Kalka of IBM, Leon Adato of Kentik, and Stephen Foskett discussing the various ways identity management tweaks our neuroses. As organizations grapple with this issue, they face the daunting task of merging elements such as identity, passkeys, passwords, and AI in a way that is seamless and less nerve-wracking.
Identity Management is Tweaking our Neuroses
The relevance of identity and self goes beyond what we normally comprehend in our routine lives. Within virtual spaces, identity management becomes even more important because it is disconnected from our physical experience. From the lens of the cybersecurity team, taking control of identity management presents unique challenges as they neither completely own the problem nor the solution. Legacy systems and constantly shifting tools create further hurdles in the management of identity and access permissions, often making it appear more like security theatre.
However, the necessity to ward off unauthorized access necessitates an efficient system of identity management. Many are suggesting that AI can break through these challenges. In particular, AI aids in the detection of identity-related threats by analyzing behavioral patterns. As a result, it helps to deal with the attendant neuroses related to identity management found in many digital users.
The concept of identity management is increasingly being viewed as a fabric of relationships rather than a singular goal. The identity fabric acknowledges the realities of a hybrid world where managing identity across multiple identity providers and directories is an essential function. Passwordless authentication, a user-friendly concept leveraging passkeys, has recently emerged as a popular solution. But the process of identity management does not halt with user access. The backend still necessitates managing identities in multiple locations. Responding to this need, the concept of identity orchestration has emerged as a novel approach in managing identity in varied environments. Taking ownership and addressing these challenges proactively is an essential step in effectively managing identity.
The complexity of digital identity management underlines the necessity for organizations to accept the reality of these management hurdles. Leveraging advancements such as AI to shed light on the issue in a more comprehensive manner is a critical stride towards finding more effective solutions. Recognizing and understanding the shortcomings of these systems is vital in this journey, just as it is crucial to appreciate the potential of AI in steering breakthroughs in the digital identity management space.
As ransomware continues to pose a significant threat to enterprises, C-level executives must collaborate and communicate with IT. This episode of the On-Premise IT podcast, brought to you by Commvault and recorded live in New York at their Shift event, features Thomas Bryant of Commvault along with Gina Rosenthal, Eric Wright, and Stephen Foskett. The discussion focused on the crucial need to bridge departmental gaps so IT and executive management can work together. The panel also emphasized the need for openness about risks, lessons from past attacks and the role of government mandates.
Cybersecurity is a C-Suite Problem
Ransomware is increasingly becoming a significant issue demanding the attention of C-level executives. As discussed on the On-Premise IT podcast recorded live at Commvault Shift, tackling cyber risks is not just a technical challenge but also one of leadership and governance. Commvault’s focus on cyber resilience brought to light the crucial role of CEO, CIO, and board involvement in addressing such threats. With government mandates pushing for greater accountability within organizations, the responsibility for cybersecurity now extends far beyond the domain of IT and security teams.
A key aspect highlighted throughout the discussion was the importance of collaboration between different departments within an organization such as security, networking, and IT operations. This cross-functional collaboration is seen as a critical factor in addressing cyber threats effectively. To facilitate such collaboration, the democratization of information flow is needed. Breaking down departmental silos and fostering free-flowing communication can aid in the rapid identification, reporting, and addressing of potential threats.
The shifting paradigm within cybersecurity, from solely focusing on prevention to minimizing damage in case of an attack, also came under discussion. The panel recognized that with the evolution and complexity of cyber threats, a strategy focusing only on prevention may be inadequate in protecting assets. This understanding calls for the regular testing and practicing of incident response plans, critical for building “muscle memory” and reducing potential downtime and lost revenue from cyber attacks.
In discussing the SolarWinds case, where the CISO faced criminal prosecution after a cyberattack, the podcast panel underscored the importance of transparency and honesty in cybersecurity. This precedent sets an example for other organizations, emphasizing that surviving an attack should not be a source of shame, but instead, should be an opportunity to learn and enhance security measures. The critical role of government regulations, resulting fines, and the potential incentivization of good cybersecurity practices through monetary means were also discussed as drivers of better cybersecurity practices.
Finally, the panel discussed Commvault’s new platform, marrying expert knowledge with proactive measures such as ransomware assessments to aid organizations in enhancing their cybersecurity practices. This approach signifies the industry’s movement away from its “wizards” culture, acknowledging vulnerabilities, and working towards admitting and addressing challenges. In essence, the cybersecurity landscape is one of shared responsibility, transparency, proactive measures, government backing, and technological advancements.
Changing or upgrading hardware and software is a scary proposition on the best of days. In this episode, join Tom Hollingsworth along with Keith Parsons, Mike Bolitho, and Lee Badman as they talk about moving from one vendor to another. There is a lot of planning that goes into the decision to upgrade or replace something. It’s even more frightening when you’re removing one vendor’s equipment for another. Learn what to look for and how to make the transition as easy as possible.
Lee Badman is a longtime freelance writer and analyst as well as contributed to and written a number of wireless study guides. You can connect with Lee on LinkedIn or on X/Twitter and find his writings on his blog.
AI Won’t Fix Your Data Security Problems
Nov 07, 2023
Data security is a complicated subject and AI is not a magic solution to fix all of the problems you will face with it. In this episode, Tom Hollingsworth is joined by Richard Kenyan, Matt Tyrer, and Chris Hayner as they discuss how AI has changed the landscape of security. They discuss the challenges of finding the right AI models to replicate how your systems look and behave as well as where there are blind spots with respect to user behaviors. They all talk about the ways that attackers are starting to adjust their tactics to beat systems that can’t anticipate where the attacks will be coming from next.
Chris Hayner is a results-oriented IT professional with expertise in cloud, strategy, modernization, and IT security. You can connect with Chris on LinkedIn and on X/Twitter
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Edge is the Third Great Tech Revolution
Oct 31, 2023
Tech is a field full of revolutions and Edge is something special. In this episode of the On-Premise IT Podcast, Jim Czuprynski, Gina Rosenthal, and Brian Knudtson give their take on whether or not Edge is a fundamental shift in the status quo or mearly an evolution of other paradigm shifts like Cloud. The panel focuses on the way that Edge strategies are affecting the way we consume content and deploy applications as well as the impacts that Edge has on areas outside of technology.
Software licensing is making networking much more complex and causing networking professionals to be very confused about the state of their discipline. In this episode, Tom Hollingsworth is joined by Nick Buraglio and Lindsay Hill as they discuss the way that software defined networking (SDN) has changed the feature set of network hardware. Also discussed is the shift in focus to developer assets as well as how to recognize revenue from incremental feature additions as well as deployment of resources to appropriate functions in a network software development company.
Mind the Gap Between Hyperscale and Enterprise IT
Oct 17, 2023
Hyperscale-inspired technology is everywhere in enterprise IT, from Kubernetes to S3 to OCP, but these technologies may not be applicable. This episode of On-Premise IT features Cloud Field Day 18 delegates Allyson Klein, Eric Wright, and Nathan Bennett discussing the cloud gap with Stephen Foskett. Looking at AI, we see a very different deployment model in hyperscale cloud as opposed to enterprise cloud, with this gap in technology, implementation, and talent widening. One impact of the needs of hyperscalers is an increased focus on sustainability, specifically energy consumption. We should also consider how the hyperscale use case distorts the development of technology, which is obvious in CXL, GPUs, and networking technologies. Looking at Cloud Field Day, we see that many of these companies are attempting to bridge this gap, connecting hyperscale cloud technology to the enterprise. This is what makes the event so interesting!
Backing up data at the edge is fraught with challenges concerning the importance of the data and the limitations of the hardware at your disposal. In this episode of the On-Premise IT Podcast, Jody Lemoine, Ben Young, and Bart Heungens discuss how edge backup differs from traditional enterprise disaster recovery. They highlight the need to identify data retention requirements for edge systems as well as the pitfalls of using cloud solutions versus local options for disconnected devices or lackluster connectivity situations. The discussion wraps up with questions that operations teams should be asking to get in front of these challenges before disaster strikes.
Edge Innovation is Coming from All Directions
Oct 03, 2023
As we’ve discussed all season on Utilizing Edge, innovation is coming from all directions, including hardware, software, and applications. This special crossover episode of the On-Premise IT and Utilizing Tech podcasts features Edge Field Day delegates Brian Knudtson, Ned Bellavance, and Jody Lemoine discussing their perspectives about edge innovation with Stephen Foskett. The primary drivers at the edge are integration, efficiency, and connectivity, as well as the unique needs of the applications there. Starting with hardware, customers are headed in two directions, with more enterprise availability features deployed in some locations and less-capable hardware in others, both in terms of compute and networking. At the software level, most edge infrastructure is hyper-converged, meaning that multiple layers of the stack are integrated in software and managed as one. Although intended as an application platform, Kubernetes is being deployed as a packaging abstraction and distribution solution at the edge.
Although modern-day storage products let us do more with less, and is more capable than ever before, they are also way more complex, and often unintelligible to the masses. Recorded at the recent Storage Field Day event, in this On-Premise IT podcast, Stephen Foskett asks the attending luminaries from the storage industry to define storage in simple terms. With innovation piling high, storage, in the recent years, has slipped away from the grasps of IT professionals, causing add-on stress and pressure. Storage, as a disciple, has grown so vast, that it is only possible to either be a generalist and acquire a broad understanding, or a specialist with narrow focus in one thing. Listen to the discussion to learn how storage professionals working at the heart of IT view and interpret storage.
Primary Storage is Becoming Secondary Storage
Sep 19, 2023
The storage industry is increasingly focused on memory rather than traditional storage, and this reflects an architectural shift in the compute stack. This episode of On-Premise IT focuses on the new storage stack, which now includes memory, with Andy Banta, Jim Jones, Vuong Pham, and Stephen Foskett, all of whom are attending Storage Field Day 26 and SNIA’s Storage Developer Conference. The difference between memory and storage was historically based on the technology at hand, but these lines are blurring. The latest systems can address storage and memory in very similar ways, and can apply advanced data management techniques to memory as well as storage. NVMe, NAND flash, CXL, and persistent memory technologies are blurring the lines, and the latest developments in software, as highlighted at SNIA’s SDC, bring new capabilities. As memory becomes more like storage, what was once primary storage has a new job to perform further down in the hierarchy focused on data management, ransomware, and data protection.
Memory is Edging Out Primary Storage
As reflected in the Storage Field Day presentations and discussions, as well as topics at this year’s SNIA Storage Developer Conference, primary storage is increasingly adopting the traits of secondary storage. This is caused by advancements in memory technology which step into the shoes of primary storage, and a focus on secondary services from primary vendors.
Prior to Storage Field Day, Andy Banta, Jim Jones, Vuong Pham, and Stephen Foskett discussed this new storage methodology. The discussion centered around persistent memory and CXL, memory systems, memory layering, and the emerging difficulties with memory tiering. We all agreed that primary storage looks more and more like secondary, while memory near the CPU is gaining traction as “primary memory!”
Of course memory isn’t storage, so we have to consider data persistence. Despite the need for speedier data access, we will also always need persistence of stored data, and this must be more than traditional archiving. We must also consider cache coherence, since these systems will have multiple cache levels beyond L1, L2, and L3.
CXL (Compute Express Link) provides a path forward, since it will deliver system expansion and cache coherence, even though apprehensions about coherency and processor contention (components of the forthcoming CXL 3.0) have surfaced. Despite these concerns, the protocol’s widespread adoption demonstrates its momentum and potential for radical IT infrastructure transformation.
The radical rearrangement of memory and storage, the mounting significance of tiered memory, and the incorporation of breakthrough tools like CXL signal a paradigm shift in understanding primary and secondary storage. Shaping the future of the IT stack, they are ushering in a new era that both challenges and excites the industry.
AI Infrastructure Disrupts Enterprise IT with Justin Emerson from Pure Storage
Sep 12, 2023
As enterprises try to deploy infrastructure to support AI applications they generally discover that the demands of this application can disrupt their architecture plans. This episode of On-Premise IT, sponsored by Pure Storage, discusses the disruptive impact of AI on the enterprise with Justin Emerson, Allyson Klein, Keith Townsend, and Stephen Foskett. Heavy duty AI processing requires specialized hardware that more resembles High-Performance Computing (HPC) than conventional enterprise IT architecture. But as more enterprise applications leverage accelerators like GPUs and DPUs, and become more disaggregated, AI starts to make more sense. Power is one key consideration, since companies are more aware of sustainability and are impacted by limited power availability in the datacenter, and efficient external storage can be a real benefit here. This is still general-purpose infrastructure but it increasingly incorporates accelerators to improve power efficiency. One issue for general purpose infrastructure is the concern over security, and enterprise AI applications will certainly benefit from broad access to a variety of enterprise data. Enterprise use of AI will require a new data infrastructure that supports the demands of AI applications but also enables data sharing and integration with AI applications.
Once Again, Snapshots Are Not Backups
Sep 05, 2023
Snapshots are still not backups but the nature of data storage means care must be taken to determine data retention requirements. In this episode of the On-Premise IT Podcast, Brian Knudtson, Matt Tyrer, and Richard Kenyan discuss the nature of data protection and recovery point objectives. The rapid pace of cloud storage growth as well as the shift toward using microservices and serverless computing have added additional challenges to the definition of data that needs to be backed up. In addition, the terminology changes with major companies in the space have created confusion in features.
Firewalls Need to Evolve with Fortinet
Aug 29, 2023
Security is an ever-changing technology that requires constant vigilance. Traditional models face challenges in a modern world where bad actors have better tools and methods for avoiding detection. If security teams want to stay on top of threats today they need to be sure they’re using the latest solutions to address these challenges.
In this episode, sponsored by Fortinet, Chris Grundemann, Michael Levan, and special guest Nirav Shah discuss the need for updated solutions and how Fortinet is changing the game with their Hybrid Mesh Firewall platform.
VMware Should Focus on the Hypervisor and Networking
Aug 22, 2023
As we head into VMware Explore US 2023, we are forced to consider the company’s strategy once again. Wouldn’t it be better if VMware focused on the hypervisor and networking rather than continually exploring new products and markets? That’s the question posed by Stephen Foskett to Allyson Klein, Andy Banta, and Matt Tyrer in this episode of the On-Premise IT podcast. Focus isn’t a bad strategy, especially given the slow pace of development for cloud-native applications in the enterprise. And VMware’s involvement in edge computing is an enticing new market for their core technologies. But not everyone is convinced that this is the right move!
In this episode of the On-Premise IT podcast, Stephen Foskett poses the question of focus and strategy for VMware. Allyson Klein, Andy Banta, and Matt Tyrer acknowledged the significance of VMware in the enterprise and the value of their core products, with Banta pointing out the value of moving a running Virtual Machine (VM) from one place to another, memory over-provisioning, and its capability in effectively utilizing multi-core processors. The discussion emphasizes VMware’s relevance for enterprises preferring to run their applications in a modern data center.
However, the panel expressed skepticism about VMware’s decision to diversify its focus. VMware initially gained traction by encouraging collaboration among networking, storage, and processor vendors, providing an integral platform that unified these varied technologies. But its decision to compete with these firms by branching out beyond its core competencies has raised concerns among panelists.
The panelists’ apprehension was also influenced by emerging technology trends, particularly the rise of edge development and container use. The panelists saw VMware as playing a potentially critical role in edge environments, given its established ties with enterprise IT. They anticipated VMware’s strategies for hypervisor control in multi-cloud to multi-edge settings responding to interoperability challenges.
The upcoming VMware Explore event in Las Vegas is highly anticipated by the panelists, as they look forward to insights about the company’s vision and imminent innovations. Especially significant is the fact that this event comes as the company nears takeover by Broadcom. VMware’s steps in leveraging enterprise data center applications beyond data center boundaries, suggesting its involvement in edge compute and storage, will be closely watched.
Low Code and No Code Aren’t The Magic Solution
Aug 15, 2023
Low Code and No Code automation solutions have been gaining significant popularity. Organizations are embracing them to kickstart or continue automation projects. But are they the right fit for every company? There are considerations to discuss and sizing issues that need to be addressed. You also need to understand the potential impact of having a team dedicated to a solution and not a methodology.
In this episode, Carl Fugate, John Osmon, and Girard Kavelines discuss where Low Code and No Code make sense and where you should consider using a different tool.
Startups are Tech Trailblazers for the Giants
Aug 08, 2023
As tech giants struggle to adapt to changing business conditions, startups are quick to blaze new trails. This episode of On-Premise IT, hosted by Stephen Foskett and featuring Rose Ross, Tim Crawford, and Justin Warren, compares the tech world to an environment where small, innovative startups are advancing while larger, traditional companies fight to keep their market dominance. Companies can only flourish if they are able to understand the evolving needs of the industry, while startups can close the gap in markets they overlook. When it comes to IT products, CIOs are no longer the primary customer, necessitating a better understanding of who the target audience is and how to communicate effectively with them.
In the fast-paced world of information technology, where the landscape is constantly evolving, small startups have emerged as the tech trailblazers, driving progress and revolutionizing the industry. The significance of these small ventures making their way in the tech world is the focus of The On-Premise IT Podcast hosted by Stephen Foskett. Joined by Rose Ross, Justin Warren, and Tim Crawford, the panel delves into the challenges faced by established companies in adapting to change and the opportunities that arise for startups to innovate.
Large, traditional companies often struggle to adapt to the rapid evolution of the tech industry, leaving them ill-prepared to meet the changing needs of consumers. On the other hand, startups thrive by identifying gaps in the market and overlooked opportunities that incumbents might have missed. This ability to innovate and offer solutions tailored to emerging customer expectations becomes the driving force behind the success of small startups.
One critical aspect that differentiates startups from established companies is their approach to understanding the customer. While larger companies may struggle to decipher the true needs of their customers, startups have the advantage of being closer to their target audience, enabling them to create products that directly address specific pain points. However, the panel notes that as startups innovate, their target audience may shift, necessitating a refined understanding of who to target and how to communicate effectively.
Startups tend to be trailblazers, envisioning and creating solutions for future problems rather than focusing solely on current issues. This forward-looking approach allows them to carve out unique spaces in the market. However, it is crucial for startups to ensure that the solutions they develop genuinely add value and fulfill the customer’s needs. Startups must avoid the trap of solving problems that may not require immediate solutions or deliver tangible benefits to their customers.
The shift towards software-dominated solutions and the leverage of open-source and cloud components have significantly reduced entry barriers for startups. Software development has become more accessible compared to hardware development, allowing startups to explore innovative ideas without significant upfront costs. Additionally, the industry’s focus on interoperability and flexibility opens doors for new companies to challenge established processes and bring fresh perspectives to existing solutions.
While startups have an advantage in being customer-centric, the panel raises concerns about the current investment model’s impact on technology innovation. Venture capitalists may prioritize investor interests over customer needs, potentially hindering genuine innovation. The Tech Trailblazers Awards recognize companies that innovate and bring value to customers, irrespective of VC funding, encouraging startups to focus on solving real-world problems.
The panel speculates on the possibility of increased collaboration among startups, where smaller ventures unite to create something more substantial collectively. This shift could redefine the perception that joint ventures are exclusively for large companies, creating new avenues for small startups to scale their impact.
Small startups have become the driving force behind the transformation and evolution of the technology industry. Their ability to innovate, understand their customers, and adapt to changing market trends sets them apart from established incumbents. As the industry continues to evolve, startups have the unique opportunity to carve out their niche and lead the way for established companies to follow suit. The podcast sheds light on the importance of nurturing the startup ecosystem, reevaluating investment models, and embracing collaborative efforts to pave the way for a thriving tech industry driven by innovation and customer-centricity.
One of the most attractive use cases for VMware was disaster recovery, and the availability of cloud infrastructure enhances this use case. That’s the topic of this episode of the On-Premise IT podcast, sponsored by Pure Storage. Cody Hosterman, Calvin Hendryx-Parker, Ned Bellavance, and Stephen Foskett discuss the use case for disaster recovery in the cloud. Although each cloud platform has different virtual machine capabilities, most now have a storage platform like Pure Storage Cloud Block Store, which is available in AWS and Azure. In addition to the pay-as-you-go aspect, the consistency of operations when using a compatible storage solution between the datacenter and the cloud is extremely compelling. Once data is in the cloud it opens the door to cloud-native applications and modernizing the enterprise as a whole.
Network-as-a-Service is the End of Network Engineering Roles
Jul 25, 2023
Network-as-a-Service is a new concept. Or is it? The ideas behind having someone else working on your network infrastructure are as old as the industry. With the advent of public cloud becoming the dominant form of IT consumption the industry is taking a second look at NaaS. In this podcast episode Drew Conry-Murray, Mohammad Ali, and Pat Allen discuss the definition of Network-as-a-Service, the various different kinds of adoption models that NaaS can take, and how enterprises small and large can find benefits.
The importance of testing cannot be understated. Network testing is more than just working bandwidth or certifying network components. Applications play an important role in determining how networks should operate. So too does the role of components integrated with each other at the unit and system level.
The sponsor of this episode, Keysight, brings a wealth of knowledge to the discussion borne from years of experience in the networking testing space. Learn how Keysight uses that knowledge and experience to the modern world of high speed Ethernet and the needs of companies deploying it at scale.
Modern information security teams have a need for visibility to ensure user safety. Traffic flows and patterns are analyzed for anomalies and polices are put in place to ensure everyone is secure. However, protecting the data that you’ve collected is an even bigger task. Organizations need to ensure users have their identities and patterns hidden away from those that might use them for nefarious purposes. In this episode of the On-Premise IT Podcast, Roy Chua, Karen Lopez, and Alex Neihaus join Tom Hollingsworth to debate the need for organizations to secure their enterprise but also keep user data private and why the gap between the two aims is easy to lose sight of while making business policy.
In this age of software, cloud, and platforms, custom hardware seems to be a lost art. In this episode of the On-Premise IT podcast, Joep Piscaer, Max Mortillaro, Steve McDowell, and Stephen Foskett consider whether hardware really matters anymore. Given that developers generally prioritize higher-level abstractions and platforms, they often ignoring the importance of hardware. But we can argue that optimizing hardware is crucial for efficiency, sustainability, and cost-effectiveness. The importance of hardware is dependent on the specific use case or context. And developers should be educated about the impact of their hardware choices. The possibility of regulations being introduced to enforce efficiency and optimize hardware usage should also be considered.
The panelists debated whether hardware is truly relevant in today’s IT landscape. It was observed that developers often focus on higher-level abstractions and platforms, caring less about the underlying hardware. However, some panelists emphasized the importance of hardware optimization, highlighting its impact on efficiency, sustainability, and cost-effectiveness. The role of hardware was seen as varying depending on the specific use case or context. While developers may not prioritize hardware, it was argued that they should be educated about its significance to make more informed decisions and consider aspects like energy efficiency.
Looking towards the future, the panelists speculated that hardware optimization could become increasingly important, especially for product vendors operating in an abstracted software-defined world. As software becomes more efficient and abstracted from hardware, there is an opportunity for vendors to differentiate themselves by offering optimized hardware solutions. They also discussed the possibility of regulations being implemented to enforce efficiency and encourage hardware optimization. This could be accomplished through measures such as introducing taxes or incentives based on hardware usage.
In conclusion, the panelists agreed that while developers may not prioritize hardware, its relevance is still important for efficiency, sustainability, and cost-effectiveness. The need for hardware optimization may vary depending on the use case or context. However, there was consensus on the importance of educating developers about the impact of their hardware choices. The conversation also touched on the possibility of regulations being introduced to enforce efficiency and optimize hardware usage. For further discussion on this topic, the panelists shared their contact information, making it easier for listeners to engage with them.
Silos Are Sabotaging Your Security Strategy
Jun 27, 2023
IT is full of siloes. They help ensure that experts are working on the areas they are best suited for. However, siloes are a problem for security teams. When you need information and visibility the walls insulating your other teams become a barrier. How can we address this in the security space? And what does the CIO need to know to make everyone more effective? In this episode, join Alex Neihaus, Karen Lopez, and Bruno Wollmann as we explore the impact that siloes have on our security strategy.
This episode of the On-Premise IT Podcast focuses on the challenges posed by the siloed nature of enterprise IT departments, which often hinder effective security practices. This fragmentation within organizations makes it particularly difficult to implement cohesive security measures that cover all aspects of an enterprise’s infrastructure and systems.
While enterprise IT departments are often divided into separate teams, attackers do not limit their efforts to specific silos. They exploit vulnerabilities across the entire system, necessitating holistic security measures. Recognizing this, organizations must strive to break down silos and develop cross-silo solutions to effectively protect against cyber threats.
In the realm of data security, internal threats are just as significant as external ones. Malicious actors within an organization can cause significant harm to data integrity and confidentiality. Hence, it is crucial to address internal security risks alongside external threats. This requires collaboration and cooperation between different teams, which can be challenging due to conflicting priorities and differing perspectives.
The implementation of cross-silo security solutions can sometimes lead to disagreements between teams. IT and security teams may have different approaches, preferences, or priorities, causing friction and delays in the decision-making process. However, when security and IT teams share common goals, trust can be built, leading to increased collaboration and more effective security strategies.
While security policies are essential for safeguarding organizations, they can be poorly implemented in technology, resulting in tension between IT and security teams. In some cases, security measures can impede the smooth operation of systems or restrict the flexibility required by IT teams. Striking a balance between robust security and operational efficiency is crucial for ensuring the overall success of an organization’s security efforts.
To achieve optimal security, it is necessary to maintain awareness of security issues. However, information overload can sometimes lead to a lack of understanding of the underlying technology. It is important to strike a balance between staying informed about security threats and vulnerabilities while ensuring that IT professionals possess a deep understanding of the technologies they work with. This helps bridge the gap between security and IT teams and facilitates effective collaboration in implementing security measures.
To address the challenges posed by siloed IT departments and enhance security, organizations should consider adopting a more balanced approach. This entails breaking down silos through education, support, and increased visibility into business needs. Additionally, job descriptions within IT departments should evolve to reflect the importance of cross-functional expertise, encouraging the cultivation of generalists who possess knowledge in networking, database management, and application development. By fostering collaboration and eliminating silos, organizations can achieve a more robust and comprehensive security posture that aligns with business objectives.
Constant Rebranding is Ruining Your Sales Cycle
Jun 20, 2023
You may be intimately familiar with brands and their products for some lines but not everything is iconic. Companies rebrand products all the time in order to get rid of per performers or try to increase sales. In the world of enterprise IT does that mean it’s more difficult to figure out what you’ve bought? Or how best to support it? In this episode of the On-Premise IT Podcast, Zoe Rose, Eric Steward, and Josh Warcop discuss the challenges faced in constant rebranding and how your efforts to put on a fresh face may lead to hard feelings.
In this episode of the On-Premise IT Podcast, the panel discusses the negative impact of constant rebranding in the IT industry. They highlight how the confusion caused by changing product names and lack of documentation creates challenges for users and customers. The panelists share their experiences with Cisco’s security products and the difficulty of identifying and understanding the specific functionalities of each product. They also discuss the frustration of dealing with outdated domains and the need to constantly relearn and adapt to new product names.
The conversation then shifts to the importance of market education and how the constant rebranding hinders the sales cycle. The panelists express concerns about not having enough time to learn about the products they are working with or supporting, which affects their ability to provide effective sales solutions. They emphasize the need for clear documentation and product comparisons to help users make informed purchasing decisions.
The panelists acknowledge the challenges of maintaining consistent branding and the potential confusion it can create. They mention examples like Cisco Catalyst switches, which can refer to access points or routers, and Apple’s macOS versions, which have undergone multiple name changes. While consistency can be beneficial, it can also lead to problems when expectations are not met. They discuss the balance between leveraging existing brand reputation and avoiding negative associations or becoming synonymous with subpar products.
The panel also explores the concept of genericized trademarks, where a brand name becomes synonymous with a specific product category. They highlight Palo Alto’s success in becoming synonymous with application-level firewalls and how this can both benefit and harm a company’s reputation. Finally, they discuss the challenge of leveraging acquired brands like Meraki to reshape perception and whether it’s a positive move for a company like Cisco. They debate the trade-offs between simplicity and the loss of complexity, emphasizing the importance of understanding the target market’s needs and skill levels.
Overall, the panel agrees that constant rebranding can have a detrimental effect on sales cycles and customer perception. They stress the significance of clear documentation, market education, and finding a balance between consistency and adaptability in branding strategies.
Machine Learning is Best Suited for Security
Jun 13, 2023
Although artificial intelligence, specifically machine learning and large language models, is in the news, it isn’t very useful in enterprise IT. In this episode of the On-Premise IT podcast, Karen Lopez, W. Curtis Preston, Michael Levan, and Stephen Foskett discuss the use case for AI in security. The panel acknowledges that machine learning can be beneficial in identifying anomalies and patterns that humans may overlook. It can assist in generating policies, templates, and rule sets, as well as providing best practices based on aggregated data. However, they also express concerns about the responsible use of AI and the need for training models on specific environments to ensure effectiveness. They highlight the importance of having the right data sets and the challenges of dealing with the black box nature of machine learning. Despite potential exploits and limitations, they agree that AI is currently the best tool available for detecting and addressing security threats, such as data exfiltration and unauthorized access.
In this episode of the On-Premise IT podcast the discussion focuses on the use of AI in enterprise security. They emphasize the potential benefits of AI, particularly machine learning and large language models, in identifying anomalies and patterns that might go unnoticed by human analysts. By leveraging AI, organizations can generate policies, templates, and rule sets that enhance security measures. Furthermore, AI can provide valuable insights and best practices based on aggregated data, assisting security teams in making informed decisions and strengthening their defenses.
Despite these advantages, the panel also raises concerns about the responsible use of AI in security. They emphasize the necessity of training models on specific environments and datasets to ensure the accuracy and effectiveness of AI systems. Without proper training, AI algorithms might produce false positives or negatives, leading to inadequate security measures or unnecessary alarm. This highlights the importance of utilizing relevant and high-quality data sets to achieve optimal results.
Another challenge discussed in the podcast is the “black box” nature of machine learning models. While AI algorithms can detect and flag suspicious activities, it can be challenging for human operators to comprehend and interpret the reasoning behind those decisions. The lack of transparency poses difficulties in understanding the rationale of AI systems, potentially impeding the ability to trust and effectively utilize them for security purposes.
In spite of these challenges, the panel unanimously agrees that AI, at present, is the most powerful tool available for detecting and addressing security threats. It can effectively identify data exfiltration attempts, unauthorized access, and other malicious activities. The panel members emphasize the importance of continuously refining and enhancing AI models to adapt to evolving threats and changing attack techniques.
Overall, the discussion offers a balanced view of the use of AI in security. While acknowledging the potential advantages of AI in augmenting human capabilities, the panel highlights the need for responsible implementation, proper training, and ongoing refinement of AI systems. By leveraging the power of AI and combining it with human expertise, organizations can bolster their security defenses and effectively combat sophisticated threats.
Can a remote predictive wireless survey achieve the same results as something on-site? Can the current generation of modeling give you the assurances that your design is going to work? And does the coming future of AI-driven development offer any additional capabilities that we don’t see today? In this episode of the On-Premise IT Podcast, Kerry Kulp, Peter Mackenzie, and Mohammad Ali discuss the trends of predictive surveys and how we can improve overall design satisfaction.
Cloud Workload Repatriation is a Real Problem
May 30, 2023
Enterprise IT is constantly oscillating between centralized and distributed, and we’re currently in a period of repatriation of workloads from the cloud. This episode of the On-Premise IT podcast features three delegates from Cloud Field Day 17, Joey D’Andoni, Eric Wright, and Jason Benecicic, discussing the reality of repatriation of cloud applications with Stephen Foskett of Gestalt IT. Pundits constantly tout the money they save by repatriating from public cloud, but this might not be the best choice especially for smaller organizations. The only way to ensure functionality between on-prem, hybrid, and public cloud is to use them and use each where it is the best solution. Repatriation is especially challenging for today’s SaaS-oriented businesses, since most of these solutions can’t be run on-prem. But even workloads that can be run outside the cloud will likely require re-architecting to run locally. Yet many companies are developing software to ease the transition to and from the cloud, and these make it much easier to repatriate.
Finding the Cloud’s Sweet Spot: Navigating Workload Challenges and Unleashing the Power of Hybrid Solutions
Enterprise technology has witnessed a pendulum swing between centralized and distributed models, with the cloud representing a distributed approach. However, challenges persist in determining the suitability of cloud for different workloads, considering factors like performance and cost profiles. This has prompted a reevaluation of the cloud’s effectiveness for certain applications.
Early cloud adopters often faced the realization that their expectations of cost savings and architectural understanding were not always met. This led to a shift back to on-premises environments. However, technological advancements have reignited the assessment of the cloud’s true cost-effectiveness, highlighting the ongoing challenge of predictability that software solutions have yet to fully address.
The initial allure of cloud services was driven by the expertise and offerings of major providers like AWS and Microsoft, which catered to specific purposes and modern workloads that organizations couldn’t handle internally. Over time, hardware advancements and distributed skill sets made running workloads in the cloud more manageable. However, challenges arise when evaluating the benefits of on-premises solutions, particularly for technology-focused organizations with substantial investments and engineering staff.
The polarized narrative of being exclusively “all-in” or “all-out” of the cloud fails to recognize the value of hybrid models and the nuanced decision-making required for different workloads and architectures. It is crucial to move beyond trends and focus on evaluating applications and workloads based on their specific needs, using sensible and proven approaches.
The cloud offers flexibility, burst capacity, and programmable workload deployment, making it suitable for certain tasks. Instead of abandoning the cloud solely based on cost considerations, organizations can adopt a hybrid approach, strategically choosing which workloads are best suited for on-premises environments and which benefit from the cloud’s capabilities.
To optimize cloud adoption, organizations must continuously evaluate their strategies, leveraging tools and evaluating cost models to determine which workloads may be better suited for on-premises environments. Challenges related to storage performance, costs, and capturing accurate metrics must be addressed to ensure cost-efficiency and predictable outcomes.
The perception of the cloud as “broken” often stems from human decisions and reluctance to deviate from established practices. Embracing advancements in self-service, automated provisioning, and comprehensive analytics can help organizations overcome these challenges and fully leverage the benefits of the cloud.
As organizations continuously revisit their cloud strategies, the focus should remain on evaluating specific workload needs, leveraging the strengths of the cloud, and incorporating practical solutions. The industry must prioritize teaching the new generation of technologists the nuances of selecting the right tools for the job, ensuring that cloud adoption decisions align with business objectives and generate significant returns.
Finding the right balance between on-premises and cloud-based solutions remains a critical task for enterprises. It requires a nuanced approach, considering workload requirements, cost-effectiveness, performance, and scalability. By embracing hybrid models, leveraging cloud strengths, and making informed decisions, organizations can navigate the complexities of cloud adoption and unlock the full potential of modern enterprise technology.
QLC SSDs Are Ready for Mainstream with Solidigm
May 23, 2023
As NAND flash memory technology has evolved, MLC, TLC, and QLC has been perceived to compromise both reliability and performance. In this episode of the On-Premise IT podcast, we confront the reality of Quad-Level Cell (QLC) SSDs, shedding light on their capabilities and suitability for today’s workloads. Roger Corell of Solidigm, who sponsored this episode, discuss QLC SSD with Karen Lopez, Alastair Cooke, and Stephen Foskett. The industry is increasingly embracing the benefits of QLC SSDs for mainstream workloads, and this discussion debunks common misconceptions, emphasizing the equivalent reliability, performance, and quality of QLC, TLC, and MLC SSDs. With the shifting landscape of read-intensive workloads and the growing data demands, QLC SSDs offer an efficient and cost-effective solution for mainstream applications.
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The Rise of QLC SSDs for Mainstream Workloads
As technology evolves, there are often trade-offs between reliability, performance, and capacity. This has been especially true in the world of NAND flash memory, where multi-level cell (MLC) technology has long been perceived to compromise both reliability and performance. However, in this episode of the On-Premise IT podcast, sponsored by Solidigm, industry experts confront the reality of Quad-Level Cell (QLC) SSDs, shedding light on their capabilities and suitability for today’s workloads. Roger Corell of Solidigm is joined by Karen Lopez, Alastair Cooke, and Stephen Foskett, in a discussion of the advantages of QLC SSDs.
In recent years, workloads have shifted towards being more read-intensive, aligning perfectly with the capabilities of QLC flash technology. Solidigm’s fourth-generation QLC SSD drives are a testament to this evolution, delivering impressive capacities of up to 32 TB, a wide range of high-density form factors, and cost-effectiveness tailored for mainstream workloads. These SSDs have even made their way into new form factors like EDSFF E3, offering improved cooling and density for applications beyond traditional data centers and the cloud.
One of the persistent misconceptions surrounding QLC SSDs is the belief that increased bit per cell density significantly impacts read performance. However, the latest generation of QLC products provide equivalent read performance to TLC SSDs, effectively debunking this perception. Users can expect reliable and fast read speeds, enabling efficient data access and retrieval.
Another concern often raised is the potential compromise of write performance in QLC SSDs. However, Solidigm’s latest QLC drives offer write performance that is within 20-67% of certain TLC SSDs, making them highly suitable for mainstream and read-intensive workloads. Furthermore, these drives boast impressive endurance with 3,000 program/erase (PE) cycles, ensuring their reliability and longevity even under demanding usage scenarios.
Contrary to the belief that QLC compromises reliability and performance, Solidigm emphasizes that QLC, TLC, and MLC SSDs all offer equivalent quality and reliability in terms of drive reliability and data integrity. By optimizing technology for specific use cases, any expected differences can be effectively alleviated, providing peace of mind for organizations adopting QLC SSDs.
The need to efficiently store and access vast amounts of data is on the rise. With read-intensive workloads becoming more prevalent and the ever-increasing size of AI models and HD movies, QLC SSDs prove to be an ideal solution for mainstream and read-intensive workloads. These drives can handle the demands of data-intensive applications, providing the required speed and capacity while maintaining cost-effectiveness.
The discussion also highlights the value and extended lifespan of solid-state storage. Retired systems often have significant life left in them, demonstrating that the limited write cycles of NAND flash isn’t usually a restriction. It is likely that QLC SSDs will similarly outlast the servers in which they are used.
As the perception-reality gap narrows, the industry is increasingly embracing the benefits of QLC SSDs for mainstream workloads. The panel’s insights debunk common misconceptions, emphasizing the equivalent reliability, performance, and quality of QLC SSDs. With the shifting landscape of read-intensive workloads and the growing data demands, QLC SSDs offer an efficient and cost-effective solution for organizations across various sectors, empowering them to unlock the full potential of their data-driven initiatives.
We Gave Away Too Much To Get Wi-Fi 6E
May 16, 2023
The industry is excited to implement Wi-Fi 6E with all the new devices coming out. Even with regulatory challenges the world is ready for faster connectivity and more reliable signal. But those same regulatory challenges are just part of the myriad of issues. Standards bodies, marketing teams, and even users themselves are asking why it’s taking so long to implement Wi-Fi 6E even after it has been brought to market faster than any Wi-Fi standard in the past. Is that because we gave up too many things to get it here? In this episode, Tom Hollingsworth talks to Sam Clements, Avril Salter, and Mario Gingras to find out whether Wi-Fi 6E got here so fast because we left so much of it behind.
Don’t Just Store Your Data, Make It Useful with Hammerspace Orchestration
May 09, 2023
There is a wide gap between storing data and making it useful, and it is getting worse with the growing volume of unstructured data. In this episode of On-Premise IT Podcast presented to you by Hammerspace, delegates Justin Warren and Chris Evans get together with Hammerspace’s Head of Global Marketing, Molly Presley, to drill into the pains of managing unstructured data, and learn how Hammperspace addresses them with data orchestration. Data orchestration takes the one-dimensional approach of storing data, to the next level that is cleaning, organizing, enriching and making data accessible across systems. It makes it possible to move large volumes of data across distances. Not bound by any one data or infrastructure type, data orchestration helps businesses handle new kinds of complex data and keep up with their changing uses.
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Key Points
Data orchestration involves the movement and utilization of data regardless of its location or format. The challenges posed by unstructured data and the rise of edge computing have emphasized the need for efficient data orchestration solutions. Over the past two decades, the transition has shifted from structured to unstructured data, requiring complex workflows and interconnections between different data types. Unstructured data, such as genomics data, microscopy data, and multimedia data, necessitates effective data orchestration for proper management and utilization.
Technology advancements have enabled the decoupling of metadata from individual storage systems, allowing for distributed orchestration and flexibility in leveraging unstructured data. The focus is now on leveraging technology to enable desired actions with data, rather than being constrained by traditional tools. The shift towards NoSQL databases and data lakes reflects the need to make both structured and unstructured data useful and break free from tool limitations. Efficient data orchestration enhances workflows by facilitating data transformations, metadata application, collaboration, archival, retrieval, and interaction, while allowing for flexibility in storage systems and applications.
Data orchestration removes friction and simplifies access to data by eliminating the need to remember specific storage systems or locations. It empowers users to repurpose or modify data efficiently. By separating the storage system from data management, a more flexible approach is achieved, where storage focuses on security, performance, and accessibility, while data policies and actions can be layered on top for effective organization and utilization. Skilled professionals, often referred to as data architects or librarians, play a vital role in managing and organizing information across different storage systems.
The longevity of data is an important consideration, as it often outlasts storage systems and applications. Automation plays a crucial role in ensuring data remains accessible even when the original creators are no longer present. Curation, similar to the role of librarians curating books, is essential for data management. Data curators ensure data quality, facilitate migration between mediums, and appropriately dispose of unnecessary or sensitive information. Frictionless access to data is critical, as its value diminishes when it cannot be easily accessed and utilized. Data management and data orchestration are interconnected, with orchestration facilitating the movement and presentation of data to applications and users while adhering to front-end and back-end policies. The complexity and volume of data necessitate a robust orchestration model to unlock its true value, and advancements in AI engines and commercial products are emerging to meet the evolving needs of data businesses.
Private 5G Can’t Be Simplified For Enterprises
May 02, 2023
Private 5G is coming to the enterprise near you. Deploying this hot new wireless and mobility technology is a great way to overcome challenges with Wi-Fi and allow IoT devices to be provisioned quickly in remote locations. But with new technologies come new complexity. Can Wi-Fi engineers figure out how to make these two solutions co-exist? And does the complexity of 5G radio technology mean we have to choose between one or the other? In this episode, Avril Salter, Troy Martin, and Keith Parsons discuss the complexity of Private 5G and whether or not it can be simplified for the enterprise.
Although the Utilizing Edge podcast dives deep into the topic of edge computing, it’s worth considering the topic from other perspectives. This episode of the On-Premise IT podcast features Andy Banta, Jim Jones, and Gina Rosenthal discussing the reality of edge with Stephen Foskett, host of Utilizing Edge. After a quick consideration of the various devices that could be considered edge, from mobile phones to 5G base stations to software to Intel NUCs, we discuss the requirements and demands of edge computing. But there are many similarities with datacenter and cloud, including virtual machines and containers, Kubernetes and firewalls, hyper-converged infrastructure and SD-WAN.
The term “lock in” gets thrown around a lot in IT. It’s the reason why we spend so much time engineering solutions that don’t make us dependent on technologies. But does it really matter in the long run? Is the treatment for lock in really better in the end? Does it matter if it’s in the enterprise or in the cloud? And are we finding ourselves locked in slowly or all at once? In this episode of the On-Premise IT Podcast, Jody Lemoine, Snehal Patel, and Steve Puluka join Tom Hollingsworth to discuss the pros and cons of lock in and how it might not be as bad as you’re imagining.
Every piece of software has an API now. If you want to interact with the program you’re going to need to write a program of your own. Are you ready to learn? Should companies still be expected to have a CLI available for the non-programmers? And does the ease of accessing a published API create more problems than it solves? In this episode of the On-Premise IT Podcast, Tom Hollingsworth, Jody Lemoine, and Steve Puluka discuss the advantages and disadvantages of having easy access to everything at your fingertips via the API.
Databases and Storage Systems Are Converging
Apr 04, 2023
Storage systems and databases are becoming increasingly alike. In this episode of On-Premise IT Podcast recorded at the recent Storage Field Day event in California, delegates – Glenn Dekhayser, Jim Czuprynski and Denny Cherry, join host Stephen Foskett, to chew over this. In what ways are storage platforms and databases alike? Are they only different in the way they store data, or is the distinction purely based on the IT personas using them? Watch the panel explore the ins and outs of modern arrays and databases, and dissect into why, despite their likeness, the two exist side by side. Learn how databases and storage platforms treat data differently. Hear them list down the properties that separate the two.
Enterprises Need Security Specialists to Succeed with Fortinet
Mar 28, 2023
The prevailing cybersecurity skills shortage has impacted security teams around the world and their ability to protect against today’s threats. As decision makers analyze the potential remedies to this issue, how should they proceed? Is automation the answer? Should you be investing in cybersecurity training programs to advance your employees’ skills and expertise? Should you look at bringing in third party experts to help you close the gap? Or is it a combination of all three?
In this episode, brought to you by Fortinet, Melissa Palmer, Chris Grundemann, and Karin Shopen of Fortinet dive into the state of the modern enterprise and cybersecurity skills, and the solutions that can help security teams combat the talent shortage in the short and long term.
Fortinet Panelist:
Karin Shopen, Vice President of Cybersecurity Solutions and Services at Fortinet. You can connect with Karin on LinkedIn. Learn more about how Fortinet’s SOC-as-a-Service and Cybersecurity Assessments and Readiness Services can help combat the challenges of the skills gap and better protect against cyber threats. In addition, find out how the Fortinet Training Institute can help security professionals advance their skills and help organizations build the cyber workforce of tomorrow.
Ever since IBM introduced external storage in the mainframe age the concept of big storage keeps changing. This special episode of the On-Premise IT podcast includes Storage Field Day 25 delegates Ray Lucchesi, Andy Banta, and Rohan Puri considering the current state of enterprise storage, from the datacenter to the cloud. Although every device and computer has storage of one sort or another, the market still has a tremendous appetite for dedicated storage hardware, software, and services. Storage for different use cases can be wildly different as well, from IoT and edge to machine learning and analytics to databases to the cloud, and each of these have different solutions. But it’s all big storage, and big storage will continue to grow and diversify.
IP Address Management in a Modern Dynamic Network
Mar 14, 2023
IP address management in the era of IoT and BYOD is a total torment, especially for growing organizations. In this episode of On-Premise IT Podcast, recorded at Tech Field Day event in California, delegates Aaron Conaway, Jeffrey Powers and Michael Davis take the lid off the pain points of managing DNS and DHCP in large networks. Learn about the current methods of network administrators, and know why they are inefficient at best, and messy at worst. Hear the experts give their verdict on what could be the most elegant solution for administrators.
The IT Industry Is Doing Better Than It Seems
Mar 07, 2023
There’s a lot of bad news coming out of the IT industry, especially large service providers and suppliers, but overall things aren’t as bad as it sounds. This episode of On-Premise IT features Andy Banta, Nico Stein, and Geoff Burke, who will be attending Tech Field Day this week, discussing the state of the industry with Stephen Foskett. Many tech companies, especially hyperscalers and online services, over-hired, and over-purchased, during the pandemic and have handled the resulting pull-back and layoffs particularly poorly. But supply chain constraints are normalizing and companies outside Silicon Valley are purchasing and hiring again, and this can help offset these losses. Leading-edge startups and new technologies continue to see investment and uptake, and these are the companies that will lead the industry out of this tech recession.
Is Encrypted Traffic Monitoring Worth It?
Feb 28, 2023
In the race to make our users safer, have we reduced our visibility? Encrypting traffic with TLS everywhere means that our users can use online banking and protect their privacy without worry of theft or eavesdropping. However those same protections also obfuscate malicious traffic and keep our security personnel from finding attackers. Should we implement newer methods of analyzing encrypted traffic? Is it reliable? Or are we just guessing? In this episode, Tom Hollingsworth, Jasper Bongertz, and Dominik Pickhardt discussed whether or not encrypted traffic monitoring is really worth it.
Even though most of the technologies and infrastructure elements are the same, the nature of edge comping is entirely different. This episode of On-Premise IT features Edge Field Day delegates Enrico Signoretti, Allyson Klein, and Alastair Cooke discussing these differences with Stephen Foskett. Many edge environments look a lot like the datacenter, with servers, switches, storage, virtualization, and more. Other environments resemble clouds, with Kubernetes, hyper-converged, and containerization. All of these technologies are being deployed in a different way, and they are transformed by being adapted to use at remote locations.
Uniqueness is the enemy of consistency. We spend our time building custom environments and then find our efforts to automate them fail. In this episode of the On-Premise IT Podcast, John Kilpatrick, Jody Lemoine, and Vince Schuele highlight all the reasons why we’ve spent our careers tailoring the needs of the infrastructure to the workload. They also discuss why it’s important to understand how things need to be accomplished and how automation and orchestration systems need to be tuned to work with our design philosophies. Learn why you shouldn’t build snowflakes but also how to avoid being buried under a blizzard of design decisions.
XDR is the latest exciting solution that will fix all of your security woes. It will break down siloes in your organization and reduce response time to intrusions. But is it a tool that only the security team can use? Or is it something that requires buy-in from the whole organization? In this episode, Tom Hollingsworth, Zoë Rose, and Dominik Pickhardt discuss XDR and how it can be leveraged by the entire organization to help secure your assets and users.
Storage as a Service is More Than Financial Engineering with Pure Storage
Jan 31, 2023
Although the move from capital to operational expenses is important, many organizations expect more than financial engineering from their storage as a service. This episode, sponsored by Pure Storage, is a discussion of the various ways storage can be delivered and consumed as a service. Taruna Gandhi of Pure Storage discusses this premise with Chris Grundemann, Max Mortillaro, and Stephen Foskett. First we tackle the question of capital versus operational expenses and alignment of business and IT. Next we consider whether companies need ownership of storage or just access to appropriate capacity. Finally we discuss the creation of a true managed service and the transition to the cloud.
It’s Time to Repatriate Applications from the Cloud
Jan 24, 2023
Although the definition of hybrid cloud is loose, it’s inescapable that organizations are getting smarter about locating applications on-premises as well. In this episode of the On-Premise IT podcast, Michael Levan and Jon Myer join Stephen Foskett to discuss on-premises IT. It can seem that this discussion is driven by cost, but companies are actually getting a lot smarter and considering how to make the best use of resources in any location. In addition to on-prem versions of cloud platforms, OpenStack is still being deployed and OpenShift allows transparent location of applications. For Kubernetes applications, Rancher, Portainer, Lens, Arc, Anthos, and more. Cloud Field Day includes presentations from SoloIO, Forward Networks, and Fortinet, and all of these are important solutions for modern cloud as well. Cloud technology is a breath of fresh air for the datacenter and the people who work in modern IT, as applications are repatriated to the modern hybrid cloud.
Enterprise IT Doesn’t Care About A Recession
Jan 17, 2023
Is enterprise IT capable of weathering a recession better than any other area of business? The vendors of the technology would have you believe that they’re not going to be affected by a coming slowdown in purchasing. The analysts say that there is trouble brewing on the horizon. What is it about infrastructure that makes it more likely to be a safe bet? In this episode, Tim Bertino, Ethan Banks, and Tom Hollingsworth discuss the various ways that investing in tech helps grow business but also the potential pitfalls of companies that think they’re bigger than the economic indicators.
Hybrid Cloud is Evolving Into the Multicloud with NetApp
Jan 10, 2023
The whole concept of the cloud is evolving, from traditional datacenter to cloud-native applications to the next generation of hybrid cloud. This episode of On-Premise IT, sponsored by NetApp, features Arjan Timmerman, Vuong Pham, Stephen Foskett, and Phoebe Goh discussing the evolved cloud. Data gravity and sovereignty is leading enterprises to reconsider the platforms chosen to host their applications. Although terms like hybrid cloud, private cloud, and multicloud are changing, customers care more about functionality and practical applications. Data must be made available both inside and outside the datacenter but it must be managed and protected in these locations and comply with regulations and industry best practices. Businesses are increasingly using multiple cloud services as well, from public IaaS to their own datacenter Kubernetes environment. This makes it especially difficult when considering data services and tools since they must support a wide variety of platforms.
Flash Memory Won’t Replace Disk Drives, Let Alone Tape
Jan 03, 2023
Flash maybe the shiny new toy that enterprises are beguiled with, but it’d be wrong to prophesy that flash would put older technologies like disk and tape out of business. In this episode of On-Premise IT Podcast, host Stephen Foskett talks with guests from the IT world – Jim Czuprynski, Richard Kenyan, and Ray Lucchesi about the growing prominence of solid state drives and what it means for disk and tape. Learn how the older storage media are keeping pace with the meteoric rise of flash, and if there will come a time when these older options will fall out of favor.
Edge computing is getting more real every day. What emerged as a viable architecture to support distributed computing has now taken center stage. So, as it stands now, how do we define edge? What technologies make up the edge in 2022? Is it truly coming together as a computer paradigm or is it just another term that came out of the marketing mill to disappear tomorrow or be used for something else?
Filmed in Santa Clara, California, in this On-Premise IT Podcast, Stephen Foskett, and Tech Field Day delegates Voung Pham, Sr Solutions Architect, Ken Nalbone, Solutions Architect and Joey D-Antoni, Principal Consultant, answer all these intriguing questions about the edge making the concept hopefully a little bit clearer.
Wireless is the new edge. Almost every client out there, whether a laptop or phone or IoT sensor, uses Wi-Fi to connect to the network. What happens when security gets in the way? How can we keep our devices safe but ensure that users or headless systems are capable of connecting without issue? How should our security team be involved in the discussion? Do you agree that Security Isn’t The Wi-Fi’s Fault?
Enterprises Should Be Looking for CloudOps Devs
Dec 06, 2022
A major hurdle in the path to deploying cloud-based technologies is skill shortage. It’s a crisis many organizations are struggling with, and it is slackening their cloud progress. The story behind this makes perfect sense. Modern CloudOps isn’t the same as it was in the starting. With the advent of hyperconnectivity, cloud computing is about adopting rapidly to new technologies. That demands high levels of cloud computing skills. The reason that is in short supply is because cloud professionals are on a steep learning curve. They are upskilling as the industry is evolving. This gap can potentially put a pause on enterprises’ digital transformation projects.
In this On-Premise IT podcast recorded at the recent Cloud Field Day event in Silicon Valley, IT experts Gina Rosenthal, Phoummala Schmitt and Becky Elliott put a finger on what precisely entails CloudOps and what skills enterprises should be looking for.
The Initial Journey to the Cloud is Over with NetApp
Nov 29, 2022
After nearly two decades since the first use of cloud computing in modern IT, organizations have completed the first phase of their journey into cloud, and now, the next stage of the transition begins. In this episode of On-Premise IT podcast, brought to you by NetApp, host Stephen Foskett and panelists, Joey D’Antoni and Max Mortillaro, and Jeff Baxter from NetApp, discuss the unfolding of the cloud transition. Although the migration to cloud part is over for the most part, the journey hasn’t been the same for every company. Not every organization’s itenerary was packing and leaving for the cloud. There are organizations that consciously chose to leave a section of their workloads on-premises, or maybe even move things back on-premises after running them on public cloud because that made the most sense. But whatever curve organizations followed, it appears that they have worked out what and whether to migrate to cloud, a decision that was shrouded in ambiguity in the early stages.
It’s Too Hard to Collaborate in Automation
Nov 22, 2022
Ineffective collaboration between teams in automation leads to lack of clarity that translates to pointlessly doing the same work over and over again. In this episode of On-Premise IT Podcast, presented by RackN, host Stephen Foskett delves into this problem with Calvin Hendryx-Parker, Keith Townsend, and Rob Hirschfeld, Founder and CEO at RackN to discuss ways in which the walls between teams can be knocked down. RackN sees reusable automation as the way to reduce toil and improve communication. RackN builds automation workflows that are universally usable across teams, so that every time a new feature is added, or a bug is fixed, it is accessible to all teams. Listen to this podcast to learn how collaborative automation saves time and effort, and how RackN achieves it with IaC automation.
Hybrid Work has Vastly Increased the Enterprise Threat Surface
Nov 15, 2022
The threat surface of our enterprise has increased dramatically because our enterprise now includes remote workers. In this episode of the On-Premise IT podcast, Jasper Bongertz, Jon Myer, and Evan Mintzer discuss the ways in which our organizations face increased challenges with securing workers that are outside our enterprise defenses. Find out how organizations are trying to solve issues with personal devices as well as home internet traffic filtering. Hear how professionals are using tools more effectively to prevent attacks and reduce dwell time for potential threats.
Security has to be Integrated into the Entire IT Stack
Nov 08, 2022
Modern storage systems increasingly have data security capabilities, but these need to be part of a complete security solution to be effective. This episode of the On-Premise IT podcast, sponsored by Dell Technologies, takes on the premise that security must be integrated throughout the entire IT stack to be effective. Join Stephen Foskett of Gestalt IT, Pete Gerr of Dell Technologies, Enrico Signoretti, and Girard Kavelines as they consider the state of the art in security. No matter what security capabilities a system has, they won’t protect the business unless they are integrated with applications and the end user workflow.
Although object storage goes back decades in the enterprise datacenter, it’s nowhere near as dominant as it is in the cloud. That’s the question Stephen Foskett puts to some of the Storage Field Day delegates in this episode of the On-Premise IT podcast. Glenn Dekhayser suggests that AWS S3 has created a data gravity well that is turning into a data singularity for object storage in the cloud, and this might drive adoption of this technology in enterprise. Richard Kenyan came into storage later and saw much greater adoption of enterprise object storage, so maybe we’re just overlooking it? Jim Czuprynski comes from a DBA background so he always thinks of storage as objects, and suggests that databases are the logical future for storage. What is an object store really? Is it a database? Is it about the metadata and structure? Or is it defined by being application-integrated? All of these questions cloud the market, leaving us to overlook the vast world of enterprise object storage.
Subscription Services are Strangling Enterprise IT
Oct 25, 2022
Subscriptions have moved up from meal kits and streaming services to all of technology. In just a few short years, enterprise IT has transitioned into a service-focused industry that makes a lion’s share of its revenue from subscription services. The subscription model instantly got a wild reception because now you can subscribe to anything you want. But on the flip side, now you will never own anything. The subscription economy has been on the rise for a while now and many would argue its merits, but speaking specifically of IT, this everything-as-a-service also has a darker side that is still largely undiscovered.
That is the premise of today’s discussion. In this On-Premise IT podcast, Stephen Foskett and our panel of delegates from the IT world, Andy Banta, Vuong Pham and Pete Robertson, take the subscription revolution, one of IT’s biggest business trends and distill it to reveal the less-exciting side of it.
The Future of Datacenter is Serverless
Oct 18, 2022
Despite all the hardware and software changes that have come to the datacenter, the server has remained the primary unit. But new technologies, from CXL and silicon photonics to virtualization and containers, is challenging the entire concept of a server. In this episode, Craig Rodgers, Chris Reed, and Chris Hayner join Stephen Foskett to consider the end of the server itself. The first step in this evolution was the move to external storage, followed by blade servers, and now complete disaggregation and composability. On the contrary, a virtual machine or container can already be seen to be a logical server, while microservices and webscale eliminates the very idea of a server. Are we building a new mainframe or rack-sized servers? Will people really adopt this concept or is it completely the wrong direction?
Network Access Can’t Be Controlled From The Edge
Oct 11, 2022
The network has moved from the edge to the core and on to the cloud. We have added intelligence throughout and tried to make things easier for professionals to manage. However there are still areas that need improvement. As we increase the ways we can extend our network we need to ask ourselves if we should. The best example is the network edge. In this podcast we discuss the idea that Network Access Can’t Be Controlled From The Edge.
The world of wireless is advancing quickly and new protocols and hardware are coming into the market. Manufacturers are pushing the latest and greatest technologies around Wi-Fi 6E. Are you ready to embrace it? Should you be looking at it today? Or is this more of something to adopt later? In this episode we debate the premise that You Don’t Need Wi-Fi 6E Today.
It’s The End of VMworld as We Know IT
Sep 27, 2022
To the IT community, the VMworld is an Ops conference like no other. But things are about to change. The in-person VMworld events stopped with the pandemic back in 2019. Now VMware is back with another conference, but it’s not quite the same as VMworld. A lot has changed in this time. VMware was acquired by Broadcom for one. And on the heels of that, VMworld became VMware Explore. Is it just post-merger rebranding, or is this the end of VMworld as we know it?
Recorded at VMware Explore 2022 US in San Francisco, this podcast explores the question that the entire IT community is scratching its head about. Brian Knudtson, Gina Rosenthal and Alastair Cooke join Stephen Foskett in this discussion that tries to define the ways in which VMworld has changed and what to expect from the future VMware Explore conferences.
IT Infrastructure Companies Don’t Understand Developers
Sep 20, 2022
Enterprise IT companies are fixated on developers as a new market for IT infrastructure products, but it seems like they don’t even know what the term means. This episode of the On-Premise IT podcast brings Joep Piscaer, Nathan Bennett, and Calvin Hendryx-Parker together with Stephen Foskett to talk about the new world of developer-focused enterprise tech.
Storage Admins Aren’t Ready for Infrastructure as Code
Sep 13, 2022
Storage has historically not been compatible with modern infrastructure as code concepts, so today’s administrators probably aren’t ready for this change. In this episode of the On-Premise IT podcast, sponsored by Pure Storage, Larry Smith and Jim Czuprynski discuss the evolution of storage with Anthony Lai-Ferrario of Pure Storage and Stephen Foskett of Gestalt IT. Moving storage forward requires process and organizational changes as well as the application of new technologies. But of course an evolution to storage as code also requires technical changes like the creation of complete APIs and integration with modern frameworks. What can today’s storage admins do to get ready? Start looking at storage as a service to be provisioned and matched to an SLA, embrace public cloud concepts and technologies, and try to script and automate every component of the infrastructure stack. Anthony recommends starting with the interfaces supported by your storage solution, then pick a tool that allows you to start working, and finally put scripts and tools into version control. This helps bridge the gap between manual configuration and infrastructure as code.
In the modern world of enterprise IT it’s important to keep an eye on your systems. But the amount of data that is being generated makes it very difficult to know what’s happening and how to fix issues. Companies are touting the latest advances in ML and AI to help solve the issue but does Observability Need to be Smarter?
Real Cloud Hybrid Storage Doesn’t Exist
Aug 30, 2022
There is a long-standing dream of hybrid cloud that combines the best of datacenter and cloud architecture, but does this exist for storage? In this episode of the On-Premise IT podcast, Enrico Signoretti and Chris Evans join Molly Presley of Hammerspace and Stephen Foskett of Gestalt IT to discuss the reality of hybrid cloud storage. Like a hybrid car, the dream of hybrid cloud is to bring the best of two different infrastructure approaches together in a truly unified fashion. But most hybrid cloud solutions fail deliver on this promise in terms of technology, protocols, management, security, and usability. Can a true hybrid cloud storage solution exist? And what will it take to bring this to market? Hammerspace is creating a global data environment rather than simply hybrid cloud storage, with the goal of enabling IT to manage data while users simply access a single namespace.
VXLAN changed the way we use layer 2 networking in the data center and solved a lot of our multitenancy problems. Today it’s inexorably linked with EVPN. Do you need to use VXLAN with EVPN? Are there alternatives? And how does the cloud change the conversation? In this episode, we discuss the pros and cons behind how EVPN Doesn’t Need VXLAN.
Service Providers Lead the Way in Automation
Aug 09, 2022
The modern enterprise network is excited by the prospect of network automation. But is automation a new idea? Or is the enterprise finally catching up to where other disciplines have been all along? In this episode featuring delegates from Networking Field Day: Service Provider, we discuss how Service Providers Lead the Way in Automation.
The world is more wireless now than ever. No matter where you go you’ll find some form of wireless connectivity. But what about those applications that need to be more reliable? What about those places where you need it to work no matter what? Is wireless reliable enough? Or is wireless not mission critical?
What really is multi-cloud and why does it keep coming up so often in the context of enterprise cloud computing models? If you know anything about cloud computing, you’d know that the hottest thing in the cloud domain right now is multi-cloud – a model companies are incrementally adopting to keep their applications and services distributed across public and private clouds, and now edge cloud platforms. Seeing that that’s the status quo for a majority of the enterprises in cloud, the big question is – is multi-cloud inevitable? Are companies that have not embraced it yet also headed in that same direction? Are all vendors in the future going to have a cross-cloud service portfolio to support the multi-cloud movement? Or is it just another trend that’s having its 15 minutes of fame? On this episode of the On-Premise IT Podcast, Stephen Foskett is joined by a panel of delegates who drills into these questions to bring clarity to the topic of multi-cloud and what the future looks like for this model.
You’re Using the Word Site Survey Wrong
Jul 12, 2022
In wireless we talk about doing site surveys but do we actually know what that means? Are we even talking about the same thing when we mention in as part of a pre-sea engagement or post-sales validation? And who should be doing it? In this episode, our group of wireless experts discuss the premise and whatever or not we are Using the Words Site Survey Wrong.
The Future of Storage Isn’t Purely Hardware or Software
Jul 05, 2022
The development of enterprise storage has historically oscillated between a focus on special-purpose hardware and optimized software. In this episode, brought to you by Pure Storage, Justin Emerson, Justin Warren, and Marc Staimer join Stephen Foskett to discuss this push and pull. Modern storage systems are extremely complicated, with layers of virtualization, different protocols, intelligence, tiered media, and scalability. All of this complexity makes the design of a storage system more difficult, so a company like Pure that can control the entire stack is able to deliver a more efficient system.
Is AI Supplementing Our Skills or Deskilling Us?
Jul 01, 2022
Can you imagine a world without AI? It’s a bit too late for that because in a short time AI has become an inseparable part of our lives. Imagine typing without the autocorrect feature or building a playlist without recommendations. AI has undeniably made our lives easier in a lot of ways, but there’s a debate forming around it. By saving us the trouble of doing certain things, is AI ultimately deskilling us? Is it robbing us of our natural ability to do the mundane things like learning how to spell a word? Some would argue that it is saving us time and bandwidth doing the routine things that take little imagination or intelligence for us so that we can focus on more important and pressing matters? In this episode of On-Premise IT podcast, Stephen Foskett is joined by a panel of industry experts who dissect this premise in search of a black and white answer.
Consistent Security is Very Difficult
Jun 28, 2022
Security is a hard job. We spend our time analyzing our environment and building controls to keep our users and their data safe. As hard as security can feel it’s even harder to apply consistently. Attackers only have to get lucky once. Is your company using security in a reactionary mode? Or are they planning ahead with policies and platforms designed to prevent exposure? In this episode, sponsored by Fortinet, we discuss why Consistent Security is Hard.
The more advanced a technology becomes, the more complex it appears. Is that always the case? Or is the complexity in networking coming from something besides the technology itself? Are there reasons why networking gets more and more complex as the years go by? Are we just doing this to ourselves? Is Networking Too Complex?
Pretty much every application today has an API and scales out using modern infrastructure approaches, but is it a cloud? That’s the question we put to the panel of podcast guests today, as we look forward to Cloud Field Day 14 in June 2022. Certainly APIs are important to cloud applications, but it takes more than an API to be a cloud. The cloud operating model, and as-a-service financial models, are just as important, as are automated provisioning and scaling and hands-off management. All of these things existed historically in enterprise IT but never came together the way they do with today’s cloud services, and this is what makes them unique.
You may have engineering talent on staff but how full are they? Because you must have a full stack engineer, or you’ll never get anything accomplished. What is a full stack engineer? Why are they so in-demand? And why are there no full stack lawyers? Or full stack doctors? In this episode, we discuss whether or not Full Stack Engineering is a Joke.
Enterprise IT has endured a significant number of changes in the past few years. The rise of the cloud coupled with a global pandemic forcing users to work remotely has made stakeholders ask about the need to replace hardware for a location that doesn’t see much traffic. Coupled with the desire of hardware vendors to move to a subscription model, it’s time to ask Does Enterprise IT Matter Anymore?
Sometimes the Best Storage is No Storage
Jun 07, 2022
The line between storage and memory is blurring thanks to Intel Optane technology, and systems equipped with this might not need storage at all. Join Dr. Jawad Khan of Intel as he discusses a real-world system that was able to outperform a high-end solution at a tenth the cost thanks to Intel Optane technology. Justin Warren and Frederic Van Haren join Stephen Foskett to discuss the implications of a system that can keep an entire big data graph in persistent memory and thus does not need as much memory or high-performance storage. Dr. Khan uses Intel’s winning entry at the recent NeurIPS Conference Big ANN Challenge competition as an example, in which the Intel offering returned 4x better CAPEX and OPEX than alternatives.
Companies are reinventing things all the time in IT. In their own fields, when venturing out to new ones, it seems that every company is trying to do things their own unique way, albeit trying to bring something new and incredible to the market, but there is a fallacy to this approach that’s foiling their good intentions. Enterprise IT companies don’t seem to communicate much amongst themselves and that is causing them to repeat each other’s mistakes, develop partial solutions to full size problems, and as secure as they’re in their own silos, wouldn’t it be great if they came together and talked to each other, share their decades of experience, talk technologies, exchange their thoughts and help clear the doubts of one another? As we enter a new era of enterprise IT, it may be time to end this disengagement and communicate more, for the good of their own business and cater better to the customers they’re serving.
People Don’t Realize How Insecure Their Storage Is
May 24, 2022
Most people assume that storage systems are secure, but security is not necessarily part of the design for most storage systems. In this episode, sponsored by RackTop Systems, Marc Staimer and Arjan Timmerman are joined by Eric Bednash and David Hughes of RackTop to discuss the real state of storage security. Although cybersecurity professionals have processes and directives in place in many spots within modern IT infrastructure, most do not have robust security practices within the domain of storage. RackTop sees this as a “doors and windows” problem, with a misplaced sense of perimeter security that does not match modern architecture. How do we secure storage in modern environments? The key to the RackTop solution is to monitor the behavior of storage access and use this to infer their motives and act to intervene. The system then acts based on policy to set up an active defense of the data accessed through the RackTop system.
Given the announcements of just about every company in the industry, it appears that AI requires specialized storage to function. In this special episode, recorded prior to AI Field Day, Andy Banta and Karen Lopez join Stephen Foskett to discuss the relationship between storage, data, and AI. We’ve seen lots of companies, including AI Field Day presenters DDN, NetApp, and WEKA, selling their high-performance distributed storage solutions for AI workloads. But is this just the nature of modern storage or is it truly linked to AI systems? It seems that much of this depends on the specifics of the AI application, whether it is used for training, the size and nature of the data set, and the specific use case. We should also consider what we mean by AI. Is it image recognition, autonomous driving, or a massive data set like GPT-3 or DALL-E? Just as with all such architecture questions, the answer is it depends on the specific use case.
The technology behind VPNs is venerable. Heavy clients that create client networking issues coupled with key exchanges makes users want to throw their hands up in dismay. Applications have integrated security features and moved to the cloud to provide centralized access. Are VPNs even worth it any more? In this episode, brought you by Keeper Security, we debate the premise that VPNs Aren’t Required Anymore.
Developer Advocacy Isn’t Exactly What We Think It Will Be
May 03, 2022
Many companies are trying to leverage DevOps to sell products through developer advocacy, but does it actually work? Just having open source or sharing code on GitHub doesn’t guarantee that a company will get quality engagement, let alone testing or adoption. In fact, a developer focus can be counter-productive if a company wants to become a strategic partner to other companies. Open source works great to spread and develop software, but self-centered developer-focused marketing isn’t the same thing. Is it true engagement or is it a one-sided effort to attract customers and leverage free talent? If companies focus on real developer engagement, advocacy will take care of itself.
Do Enterprises Need Private Cellular?
Apr 19, 2022
Wireless is the new normal for endpoint connectivity. But does it solve all the problems we have with connecting lots of devices over a wide area? Are there places where Wi-Fi doesn’t work as well as other technologies? With the rise of private cellular deployment options IT departments are asking whether or not they should be considering alternatives to traditional Wi-Fi. In this episode, a panel of experts answers the question Do Enterprises Need Private Cellular?
Too Much Security is Just as Bad as No Security
Apr 05, 2022
We all know how dangerous it is to have no security around your important IT assets. We need to keep the users safe and the infrastructure secure. What happens when we go overboard and implement too many polices and tools to protect things? Are we really helping the situation? Or are we just making it worse for everyone, including the people that rely on us to get their work done? In this episode, our panel of security experts discuss whether or not Too Much Security is Just as Bad as No Security.
In 2022, Ransomware Attacks Will Dissipate
Mar 22, 2022
We’ve seen the peak of ransomware attacks in 2021. More and more attackers have started going after critical targets and trying to extort money from their victims. In 2022, will this continue? Or will the responses to the threat landscape have an impact? In this episode, the premise is that in 2022, Ransomware Attacks Will Dissipate.
Storage is not secure, period. Storage has security weaknesses that can open doors to attackers to easily hack into sensitive data stores, and this is not news. Security vulnerabilities in storage have existed for years, but not much has been done about it. Today, on the face of rising ransomware attacks, when data security is supremely important, storage is still the weakest link in security. In this On-Premise IT Roundtable Podcast, Stephen Foskett and his guests discuss this situation to find a strategic solution to poor security in storage.
Firewalls Don’t Seem To Belong Everywhere
Mar 15, 2022
The typical approach to security is to just put some firewalls in place and create a perimeter, right? While that might work well in very specific enterprise settings reality is more nuanced, especially in a service provider. In this episode we discuss why Firewalls Don’t Seem to Belong Everywhere.
Next-Generation Storage is Not Storage Anymore
Mar 08, 2022
Looking at the new companies in enterprise storage, it’s obvious that storage just isn’t storage anymore. Even more traditional storage vendors are adding software as a service and data services, and these are major selling points rather than the ability to store data. At Storage Field Day in March 2022, none of the companies is presenting block and file storage, SAN or NAS, or any of the other traditional storage technologies. Is the storage array “a solved problem” or are we just looking at the new application-centric market? Pure Storage is perhaps the most traditional storage company presenting this week, but they’re coming to talk about Pure1 and storage as a service. The same is true of companies like Hammerspace and SIOS that are focused on data distribution and availability. VAST Data, RackTop Systems, Fungible, and MinIO are developing storage solutions but they are aimed at special use cases, like data analytics, security, high-performance, and cloud. Then there’s Intel, who is coming to Storage Field Day to give an update on their Optane technology, which promises to fundamentally change the entire storage paradigm. Clearly, next-generation storage isn’t storage anymore, it’s something altogether new and different!
Reactive Security Controls Are Not Enough
Mar 01, 2022
The modern world of security is transforming quickly. Attackers are leveraging new tools and new ways to invade systems and capture data or demand ransoms. The traditional method of securing your enterprise isn’t enough any more. If you’re thinking in a reactive way you’re falling behind and may never catch up. In this episode we discuss all the ways that Reactive Security Controls are Not Enough.
You’ve probably heard of Web3 but how do we actually define it? We know that it has something to do with connecting the web to a blockchain but the true definition of Web3 is unclear. We can all agree that there are exciting aspects of Web3 but why are we doing this? We can already do a lot of things without Web3, from online banking to distributed applications. Do we really need a blockchain? Is being used for what it was intended for? In this episode we take on the premise that Web3 is bunk.
The Hypercloud is More Important Than the Cloud
Feb 15, 2022
As public cloud becomes more popular and competitive, developers are adopting cross-cloud platforms that can be thought of as a hypercloud. One driver for this is high availability, but many platform decisions are driven by a desire for more advanced features. Still, we must be aware of data gravity and the complexity involved with these platforms. Kubernetes is the ultimate example of a hypercloud platform, but many vendors are producing compelling tools that sit above the cloud and replace the proprietary offerings of public cloud providers. Is it time for the hypercloud? Is the traditional cloud dead?
Companies Mentioned: Red Hat OpenShift, Kasten by Veeam, NetApp, Pure Storage, IBM cloud satellite, VMware
How many times have we heard of an exciting new advance in enterprise IT that is poised to revolutionize the way we do things only to see it fizzle out? Perhaps it’s bad business practice but what about those that were acquired by bigger companies and disappear? Is it a bit of bad luck? Or is it something more sinister? In this episode we explore the idea that Disruptive Technologies Get Buried.
2022 Will Be the Same For Technology As 2021
Jan 11, 2022
Have you ever watched a movie sequel that felt just like the previous one but with slightly newer references? That’s how 2021 felt compared to 2020. In 2022, will we see the technology landscape shift dramatically? Or will it feel like the past twelve months but with faster speeds and lower costs? Join a group of forward-looking thinkers on this episode as we decide whether or not 2022 will be the same year for technology as 2021 or not.
Can Disaggregation Solve Lock-In Problems?
Dec 21, 2021
Disaggregation is the future of networking. Decoupling the operating system and software from the hardware will give us the freedom to build the networks we’ve always wanted to use without the restrictions of bundling bad parts together. But does this freedom really exist? Are we going to have the future we’ve always dreamed of? Or does disaggregation lead to other lock-in problems? Join us for this episode of the On-Premise IT Roundtable where we discuss the advantages and issues with network disaggregation.
A Service Provider Network is Not Your Enterprise Network
Dec 07, 2021
Networking is networking, right? It’s all the same routers and switches that move packets between locations. How different can they really be? Join Tom Hollingsworth as he brings on a panel of service provider networking experts to dissect the differences between the traditional enterprise network and a service provider or transit network. What are the ultimate goals of your infrastructure? And who is the customer? When you finish listening to the episode, will you agree that A Service Provider Network is Not Your Enterprise Network?
You’re Not Ready to Deal with Unstructured Data
Nov 30, 2021
Unstructured data is varied in nature and continues to grow, especially in our new world of telematics, multimedia, and AI. In this sponsored episode, Amy Fowler of Pure Storage joins Gina Rosenthal, Enrico Signoretti, and Stephen Foskett to discuss the challenge of dealing with unstructured data. With IDC estimating that 85% of user data will be unstructured, the challenge isn’t to provide structure but to develop solutions that can handle data as it is. Today’s object storage systems offer extreme scalability, high performance, cost-effective, and offer API-based integration with applications to offer a world of possibilities for analytics and insights. This is an area where developments in data storage systems can help improve business outcomes and potentially benefit the world at large.
When designing Wi-Fi networks, there are a number of buttons that you can push to help make the perfect setup to maximize coverage and throughput. Depending on the application you use to do the work you may find some buttons easier to use than others. However, the most popular value to change seems to be the data rate. Is this a good idea? Or are you just setting yourself up for failure? In this episode, will we find out that Data Rates Don’t Change Cell Size?
Containers were supposed to be lightweight and stateless, unlike the heavy virtual machines that dominate today’s datacenter. In this first on-premises episode in two years, Stephen Foskett puts the question of heavy containers to Ned Bellavance, Nico Stein, and Nathan Bennett. Containers were intended to abstract system services rather than hardware like virtualization, and this results in their light and stateless nature. But this is a result rather than a necessary quality of containers, and companies are increasingly deploying heavy containers with multiple application components and data. As microservices applications rise, so do container management systems, and these are increasingly including light, heavy, and system service containers for networking and storage. Should heavy containers exist?
The Cloud Is Finally Ready For the Enterprise
Oct 26, 2021
The question of cloud readiness has plagued the enterprise for a decade, but we have finally gotten to the point that enterprise IT is coming to the public cloud. Some of the drivers for cloud adoption include the pandemic and work-from-anywhere as well as the current shortage of chips and equipment. But there is a pull for cloud as well, now that applications have evolved to the point that they work better in the cloud enterprises are making the switch. Applications like collaboration and email belong outside the firewall, and cause more trouble than they’re worth inside the datacenter. Enterprises today have a difficult decision to make on a per-application business: Does this belong in the datacenter? Hybrid cloud? Public cloud? Software as a service? And there are many considerations to make, from security to ownership to cost.
Join us on November 3–5, 2021 for another exciting Cloud Field Day event, where you can learn more about the premise of this episode. Also, follow us on Twitter! AND SUBSCRIBE to our newsletter for more great coverage right in your inbox.
Data Protection Software Doesn’t Solve Ransomware Issues
Oct 12, 2021
The rise of massive ransomware outbreaks has led to a number of strategy changes, including the pivot of disaster recovery and business continuity companies into marketing their solutions as an effective way to stop ransomware. But are these products really going to solve the issue? Or just treat the symptoms of the wider problem?
Join us on October 20–22, 2021 for another exciting Security Field Day event, where you can learn more about the premise of this episode. Also, follow us on Twitter! AND SUBSCRIBE to our newsletter for more great coverage right in your inbox.
You Need To Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone If You Want To Learn
Sep 28, 2021
Techies are inherently curious, and magic happens when they step outside their area of expertise and really dig into something new. That’s what we’re talking about this week on the On-Premise IT Roundtable with a set of delegates from Tech Field Day 24. We’re mixing disciplines and breaking down the walls between industry verticals and learning about everything from IoT to storage to container management to smart networking. When we see things we don’t know, we can spot novel approaches and try to bring them to our own realm.
Will Working From Anywhere Destroy Enterprise IT?
Sep 14, 2021
With a hybrid work model now a reality for a growing number of enterprise employees, IT departments are now rethinking the way they deploy their resources. One of the big questions is what happens during the next upgrade cycle. Are IT budgets going to be cut? Do we need full-featured devices in an office no one is going to visit? Should that spending be shifted to the end users or to cloud services? Will working from anywhere be the end of enterprise IT?
Be sure to check out Networking Field Day, which airs September 14-16th, 2021. Also, follow us on Twitter! AND SUBSCRIBE to our newsletter for more great coverage right in your inbox.
Service Mesh Is a Use in Search of a Problem
Sep 07, 2021
Today, it seems like every cloud vendor is pitching a service mesh, but is this really necessary? In this episode, Calvin Hendryx-Parker, Ned Bellavance, and Jason Benedicic join Stephen Foskett to discuss the value of a service mesh to modern application stacks. In theory, a service mesh facilitates communication between services and microservices in modern applications. It also provides a data and management plane to today’s scalable applications and can improve security and flexibility. But a service mesh is built of proxies, and this adds multiple layers of complexity to already-complex containerized application platforms. Before companies deploy a service mesh, they should consider whether the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.
The history of information technology is bound up with hype. In this discussion, Tech Field Day 24 delegates Paul Stringfellow, Robert Novak, and Craig Rodgers discuss the endless parade of hype with Stephen Foskett. Whether it’s 5G or edge or disaggregated infrastructure or the cloud, every technology goes through a wave of hype before it becomes reality. How can we tell what a technology will really deliver and what’s just marketing talk? The famous Gartner Hype Cycle is more about marketing than the reality of technology adoption, and a product can be good or bad regardless of the amount of hype surrounding it. That’s one thing the delegates are watching for during the Field Day events! Amazingly, hype can even be productive in pushing change and adoption of new concepts, and even product development to meet these inflated expectations.
Be sure to join us for Tech Field Day September 1st & 2nd, 2021! Follow us on Twitter! AND SUBSCRIBE to our newsletter for more great coverage right in your inbox.
When is it Time to Scrap Everything in Storage and Start Over?
Aug 17, 2021
In today’s ever-shifting enterprise IT landscape, when is the right time to completely respec your storage setup? Should you tear it all down and start over? Should you learn from the past and keep some of the old ways?
When it comes to innovating storage practices in a changing world, there are a lot of opinions on how to do it. Join host Stephen Foskett and his round table of esteemed guests from around the storage industry as they discuss these questions and more.
It’s Time to Embrace the Bottlenecks in Storage
Aug 03, 2021
Storage administration has always been about fighting bottlenecks, but today’s architecture means it’s time to embrace them instead. In this episode, our panel discusses the premise that it’s most important to match bottlenecks to the position in the infrastructure stack and application. One reason for this is the amazing bandwidth and low latency we have, thanks to Optane PMEM, NVMe, flash, and other technologies, but another is the emergence of new technologies that enable disaggregated architecture, moving storage closer to the application.
Technical Debt Will Bankrupt Your Modern Apps
Jul 27, 2021
Traditional IT architecture is a poor fit for modern applications and holds us all back. So-called technical debt can pile up, forcing companies to spend time and money supporting legacy infrastructure for the sake of keeping it running rather than moving the company forward. In this special episode of the On-Premise IT Roundtable podcast, sponsored by Pure Storage, we discuss the modern application stack and how technologies like object storage and Kubernetes are allowing companies to break free from their technical debt once and for all.
High Availability Is the Worst Reason to Go Multi-Cloud
Jul 20, 2021
Multi-cloud has quickly become a buzzword in the enterprise IT industry, but as organizations start to adopt multi-cloud strategies, their reasoning behind the switch may not justify the act itself. Although a multi-cloud approach can increase an organization’s availability, that alone doesn’t warrant introducing the complexity and costs that come with multi-cloud. Listen to this episode of the On-Premise IT Roundtable Podcast to hear how host Tom Hollingsworth and our esteemed guests unpack the concept of multi-cloud and uncover more impactful reasons than just high availability to consider adopting multi-cloud.
Is Enterprise Wireless the Key to Bringing Workers Back to the Office?
Jul 06, 2021
The world is starting to recover from the pandemic. People are starting to ask if it’s time to return to the office. And more than a few aren’t ready to go back. At the same time, employers are trying to find a way to get people back, and they’re asking questions about the infrastructure. Could new fast wireless access points be the tipping point? In this episode, we discuss whether or not new wireless networks are enough to bring workers back to the office.
Be sure to join us for Mobility Field Day July 14–16, 2021! Follow us on Twitter! AND SUBSCRIBE to our newsletter for more great coverage right in your inbox.
Cloud is the way that we consume our media, content, and even perform our jobs. We rely on it daily to live our lives. And cloud relies on services to ensure prompt delivery and reliable service. We know networking and storage are critical. What about the other services that we don’t always see? In this episode, we explore the importance of DNS to the way modern cloud operates and decide whether or not DNS is critical for the operation of modern cloud. Special thanks to BlueCat Networks for their partnership with this episode.
Enterprise IT Has Transformed Public Cloud
Jun 22, 2021
Cloud computing has transformed enterprise IT, but it is perhaps less obvious how traditional concepts like data protection and high availability have infiltrated the public cloud. In this episode, Cloud Field Day 11 delegates Max Mortillaro, Adam Post, and Thom Greene join Stephen Foskett to discuss the many ways that cloud computing has adapted to the demands of the enterprise. This has been called “inside-out” computing, since it takes the things that have been run inside the datacenter out to the public cloud, as opposed to the “outside-in” approach, which brings concepts like Kubernetes and DevOps to the enterprise.
Be sure to join us for Cloud Field Day June 23-25, 2021! Follow us on Twitter! AND SUBSCRIBE to our newsletter for more great coverage right in your inbox.
Humans Aren’t Smart Enough to Manage Storage
Jun 15, 2021
With so much data at the average organization’s disposal, the task of storing it all — and storing it in an effective manner — seems to be quickly becoming more than humans can handle on their own. In this episode of the On-Premise IT Roundtable podcast, sponsored by Pure Storage, host Stephen Foskett is joined by Pure’s Prakash Darji, as well as IT luminaries, Gina Rosenthal and Chris Grundemann, to discuss how IT organizations can smartly manage their storage. SPOILER ALERT: it looks like it’s time to let machines like Pure Storage’s FlashBlade do the storage management work for us.
Composable Infrastructure Will Save the Data Center From the Cloud
Jun 08, 2021
With the rise of Kubernetes and other completely cloud-based deployments, on-premises data centers seem to be on the way out to make way for the scalability and dynamism of the cloud. Innovations in data center and AI composability showcased by Xilinx and Micron at the last Tech Field Day event as well as those displayed by Liqid at the recent AI Field Day event, however, might say otherwise. By defining infrastructure operations through software — much like how the cloud does — and building it on top of faster, more capable hardware, data centers can act at the speed of business, saving them from being outdated and outmatched by cloud-based infrastructure.
We Have Reached the End of the SSD Era
Jun 01, 2021
The enterprise storage industry has passed from the hard disk era through hybrid to all-flash, but what comes next? In this sponsored episode, Moshe Twitto of Pliops joins Enrico Signoretti, Chris Evans, and Stephen Foskett to discuss the end of the SSD era. Considering the durability issues of NAND flash, the limited value add of most SSDs, and the emergence of disaggregated infrastructure, the industry is on the cusp of a radical transformation. While disks and flash SSDs will still exist, these will have less relevance architecturally as intelligence moves closer to the storage media. The next architectural step is to develop flexible solid state key-value store devices rather than continuing with block storage.
AI-powered applications are rolling out everywhere, but enterprises are really not ready for this shift. From lack of infrastructure to power training and inferencing, to a skills gap to manage data and AI, to a lack of readiness to deal with diversity and ethics, there are many holes in enterprise IT. Engineering teams tend to approach all applications from a technical perspective, but AI brings more to the table, demanding a deeper knowledge of bias and legalities than most other applications.
Be sure to join us for AI Field Day May 27-28, 2021! Follow us on Twitter! AND SUBSCRIBE to our newsletter for more great coverage right in your inbox.
Traditional Network Monitoring Tools Can’t Keep Up With Modern Environments
May 11, 2021
The enterprise network is full of data. We’ve spent the past decade trying to learn how to unlock those secrets. However, the recent shift away from on-premises networks to cloud-focused solutions means much of the progress we’ve made obsolete. We live in a world of telemetry and analytics and data lakes, not SNMP and simple measurements. In this episode, brought to you by Cisco, we take on the premise that traditional network monitoring tools can’t keep up with modern networks.
Are Our Networks Just Becoming Cloud Service Providers?
May 04, 2021
We spent hours and hours, dollars and dollars to create state-of-the-art networks, ensuring that all the computers in our companies could talk to each other. Now, it seems like nobody uses them… unless they’re accessing their cloud-based Infrastructure-as-a-Service platforms. Have networks just become on-ramps to the internet interstate? As we ramp up for Networking Field Day 25, Tom and Co. dive into the topic of on-premises networks and their function in this cloud age on this episode of the On-Premise IT Roundtable Podcast.
Multicloud Is the True Driver of SASE and SD-WAN Adoption
Apr 27, 2021
SD-WAN has been the truest example of implementing software-defined networking in the last decade. With the rise of SASE, we’re seeing the integration of software-defined security as well. SD-WAN helped us tie our branch offices together in ways we never thought possible. But the environment of 2020 and beyond doesn’t look like a traditional office any longer. Workers are leveraging the cloud more and more. Does that mean that SD-WAN and SASE adoption have slowed down? Not at all! So what gives? In this episode brought to you by Cisco, we explore the idea that Multicloud Networking is the True Driver for SD-WAN and SASE Adoption.
Is It the End of the Server as We Know It?
Apr 13, 2021
Dynamic. Extensible. Scalable. These are just some of the key traits today’s companies need from their infrastructure, and frankly, it seems like the server as it has been known is not built to the same specifications. Add on top of that the upcoming announcements by Micron and Xilinx, covered in the next Tech Field Day event at the end of April, and it’s apparent that major changes are in store for servers. Check out this episode of the On-Premise IT Roundtable to hear how these changes are affecting server infrastructure and, ultimately, answer the question: is it the end of the server as we know it?
Wi-Fi networking is the way we do business today in the enterprise. Our workstations, printers, and mobile devices are all connected with the technology to allow us to roam around without wires. But what about 5G? The newest generation of mobile broadband technology is rapidly being deployed and adopted. Recent rule changes with the FCC have enabled providers to offer a private version of LTE and soon 5G to change the way we offer services to our users. But is it enough to topple the dominance of Wi-Fi in the enterprise? In this episode, we explore whether or not Private LTE will displace Wi-Fi.
Do We Need To Toss Out Hacked Software?
Mar 23, 2021
Modern software is not invulnerable. We constantly find ourselves under attack from a variety of angles trying to sneak in to steal information or cause harm. We can recover from these hacks, but what happens to the software that was violated? Do we need to patch it? Or do we rip it out and replace it with something else? In this episode, we ask if we need to toss out hacked software.
Is Security Just A Bunch of Products?
Mar 16, 2021
Security is a lot of things. It’s the way we protect ourselves and our information. It’s a process and a need. But can we boil it all down to some product? Are we able to just say that we can order some software and a piece of hardware to run it on and we’re protected? Does the Security Check Box Product list really keep us safe? Or is there more to it? In this episode, we discuss whether or not Security Is Just A Bunch Of Products.
Pure Storage Spotlight: Does Kubernetes Even Need Storage?
In this sponsored episode by Pure Storage, we’re discussing Kubernetes and storage. Specifically, we’re questioning whether Kubernetes even needs persistent storage or if it’s just about the data being kept in containers. With modern applications moving beyond our traditional ideas of what storage should look like, what does that mean for the cloud and new technologies. Join us as we figure out where storage is headed from here.
With the recent departure of Pat Gelsinger and other executives, VMware finds itself in uncertain times. Rumors have swirled for months about plans to spin it out, leverage the stock to take parent Dell public again, or even purchase the stake outright and make them a part of the organization proper. With deadlines looming later this year, what happens to the tech titan when time’s up? Join us on this episode of the roundtable as we try to determine the fate of VMware.
XDR Isn’t Enough for Your Security Needs
Feb 23, 2021
Cisco Spotlight: Is XDR Enough for Your Security Needs?
What is XDR exactly? Is it a specific tool? Is it a term that encompasses the entirety of security? Or is it just a buzzword that sells more security devices? How can XDR help you understand the forces at play in your enterprise? Can XDR offer you the capabilities to enhance your security and make it easier for your operations staff to keep everyone safe?
Join us in this episode of the On-Premise IT Roundtable Podcast, sponsored by Cisco, as we try to find out if it’s true that XDR Isn’t Enough For Your Security Needs.
For more information on Cisco’s solution, check out Cisco SecureX!
Metadata is not data… or is it? Should it be treated and protected like data? For example, using metadata, phone providers may not know the content of your conversation, but they can certainly tell who you called and when. This raises the issue of security and how bad actors could use metadata to their advantage.
In this episode, we tackle the metadata vs data debate and discuss the distinction between these categories of information.
The world of networking and security are being wrapped up together with the advent of Secure Access Service Edge, or SASE.
Is this a new technology that is going to revolutionize secure connectivity for businesses and users? Or is it a new coat of paint on an existing product line? In this episode, we try to figure out if SASE is just a marketing term or if there’s something really there.
On February 15, Bob Swan is stepping down from Intel as the CEO, and Pat Gelsinger will take his place.
The former CTO steps into a company embattled by competitors and the loss of large customers. Gelsinger has the leadership skills and the perspective to lead the CPU giant but does he have the time to make the changes that it will take to ward off the challenges?
In this episode, we debate the premise that Pat Gelsinger is going to save Intel.
Guests
Stephen Foskett Tim Crawford Gina Rosenthal Matt Bryson
Docker Only Cares About Developers Now
Jan 26, 2021
What direction is Docker going in now? Does it really only care about developers now?
There are over 10 million people out there in the world using Docker, a huge and fantastic community that has had had a lot of vendors involved.
About a year ago, Docker reached a realization; the company had become two companies combined. One focuses on production orchestration, selling to ops in a top-down model, and the other is developer-focused.
So what next?
Find out exactly what happened and if Docker is really just focused on developers now as Donnie Berkholz, VP of Product, Docker walks us through Docker in 2021.
Panelists
Calvin Hendryx-Parker Donnie Berkholz, Docker Larry Smith
Is Storageless Storage Just Someone Else’s Storage?
Jan 19, 2021
Storageless storage? What, in the name of oxymorons does that mean?
This new buzzphrase has hit the storage world and we need to figure out what it means, and whether this will be the next storage revolution. Storage companies do need to find a way to abstract the complexity that comes with storage and find new ways of delivering their services and platforms. Perhaps this is it.
This immediate need for storage simplification is driven primarily by the technology evolution that COVID-19 and remote work has forced on the tech industry. Many companies can no longer afford to wait and see on their storage, nor can they afford to cobble together something in the hope that it will work ‘for now’.
Storageless storage aims to reduce operational complexity, shrink operational expenditure, and provide a simpler, managed service that requires less in-house expertise – just like the cloud promised (and delivered on) all those years ago. However, there are a lot of questions that need to be asked around how it is going to work, what it actually means, and the compliance issues that may arise with utilizing remote storage.
Our Storage Field Day 21, will nail this topic (and more) down, answer your questions, and figure out exactly what storageless storage is from the companies that are driving this new platform.
Stephen Foskett, Publisher of Gestalt IT and Organizer of Tech Field Day. Find Stephen’s writing at GestaltIT.com and on Twitter at @SFoskett Date: 1/5/2021
Could anyone say they got their predictions mostly right in 2020? Even a little bit?
As we begin 2021, we take a moment to realize that no matter how straightforward things might seem right now, there is always something coming at us that could upset every potential idea we have.
Join a group of the brightest minds in the enterprise IT community to look at some of the trends and drivers that will shape the year to come.
Ask yourself, do predictions even matter in 2021? Or will this be the year when everyone gets it all right?
Participant
Keith Townsend Ned Bellavance Tim Crawford Stephen Foskett
Bug Bounty Programs are Just Legalized Bribery
Dec 15, 2020
Finding bugs in software isn’t new. Finding security bugs is just as old. Even the process of selling them to nefarious operators has history.
The rise of bug bounty programs is changing the economics of disclosure and patching, however. We’ve entered a new era of people trying to get top dollar for their investigations. The morality around it all is troubling.
In this episode, find out if bug bounty programs are just legalized bribery.
Bug bounty programs are legalized bribery. Or are they? Catch this podcast to learn more.
On-Premises for today’s roundtable:
Name
Jens Soeldner Pieter-Jan Nefkens Christopher Kusek
Traditional Security Models Don’t Work From Just Anywhere
Dec 08, 2020
As workers transition into the new state of working from their home office, what does that mean for our existing security technologies?
How does the enterprise model of firewalls and appliances work when no one is in the corporate offices? Does the cloud hold the key to our salvation? Or is this problem too much to deal with in a pandemic?
Join the community experts and a guest from VMware as we look at how traditional security models need to be tweaked to work from where we work now.
On-Premises for today’s roundtable:
Name
Rohan Naggi (VMware SME) Chris Grundemann Jason Benedicic
Docker has recently announced that they will rate limit image pulls from Docker Hub. These images are critical to modern infrastructure and have become critical to modern cloud infrastructure.
Just about every Kubernetes environment pulls dozens of images from Docker Hub, and even if this move doesn’t cause issues immediately it sends a message that the community needs to find another place to store images.
Maybe it’s a positive for the community to find another image repository. Maybe this will help Docker become a more supportable business within Mirantis in the future, but it does disrupt the cloud ecosystem. The big winner might be Microsoft, which could easily replace Docker Hub with GitHub and their other offerings, or it could be Amazon, Google, or even Red Hat.
Docker has reached out after listening to our podcast with the following clarifications and corrections that are important. Here are the facts from Docker:
In November 2019, Mirantis acquired the Docker Enterprise business only. Docker itself refocused back on developers, and Docker Hub and Docker Desktop remained with the company. As such, Mirantis is not involved nor making any decisions regarding the direction of Docker Hub or Docker itself – they only acquired Docker Enterprise.
Docker remains committed to supporting and growing the Open Source ecosystem. In fact, we published this blog post announcing the launch of a special program to expand our support for Open Source projects that use Docker. Eligible projects that meet the program’s requirements (i.e., they must be open source and non-commercial) can request to have their respective OSS namespaces whitelisted and see their data-storage and data-egress restrictions lifted. More than 80 non-profit organizations have joined the program.
The rate limiting only impacts a very small percentage of unauthenticated users. Based on these limits, we expected only 1.5% of daily unique IP addresses to be included — roughly 40,000 IPs in total, out of more than 2 million IPs that pull from Docker Hub every day. The other 98.5% of IPs using Docker Hub can carry on unaffected — or more likely, receive improved performance as the heaviest users decreased. More in this blog post and this one.
On Premis for Today’s Roundtable
Name
Joep Piscaer Larry Smith Calvin Hendryx-Parker Enrico Signoretti Moderator: Stephen Foskett
You Need Cloud Gateways to Transition to the Cloud
Nov 24, 2020
The world of the cloud is not your traditional enterprise IT space. The requirements are different for the way we access data and services. The tools we use to facilitate that also need to change.
Is there a perfect mix of on-premises hardware and cloud software that will enable our digital transformation to the cloud? In this episode, we will see if you need cloud gateways to transition to the cloud.
On-Premises for today’s roundtable:
Name
Craig Connors Paul Stringfellow Greg Stuart Moderator: Tom Hollingsworth
There’s Still No Viable Open Source Business Model
Nov 17, 2020
Over the last 30 years, we’ve seen the rise of open source software and companies trying to make money out of it. But what’s the business model for open source software? How can an open source project become your full-time job and how can you make money at it? There’s a related question for the consumers of open source software, who want technical support and want to incentivize the development of new capabilities. One would think that a viable business model would be developed over the decades, but has it?
On-Premises for today’s roundtable:
Name
Alex Ellis Larry Smith Calvin Hendryx-Parker Ather Beg Joep Piscaer Host: Stephen Foskett
Solving Networking From Home Challenges
Nov 10, 2020
VMware Spotlight Podcast
VMware Work From Anywhere Spotlight Podcast: The pandemic has created challenges for professionals working from home, not the least of which is networking. With so much technology focused on the enterprise the new branch seems to be neglected. In this episode, we speak with experts from the community and from VMware about how SD-WAN can play a key role in helping workers at home utilize their bandwidth and provide resilience in commodity connections.
Governments Trying to Disrupt Botnets is a Bad Idea
Nov 03, 2020
The Premise: Are Governments Disrupting Botnets a Bad Idea?
Botnets are becoming a huge part of Internet attack methods and data collection tools. The idea that thousands of machines can be used to create DDoS attacks or even impact legitimate services cannot be underestimated. But how much of a role should the government play in disrupting them? Is it right for your government to play such a big role in security? In this episode, we explore the idea that governments trying to disrupt botnets is a bad idea.
Although it is elastic, agile, and simple, enterprises have faced many challenges using cloud storage. It’s difficult to manage the cost of cloud storage, since it’s so easy to set up and run. And not all applications are able to access cloud storage directly, so gateways and translation layers are needed. There are so many options now, it can be a challenge even to understand them let alone use them properly. The focus should be on selecting and managing the right type of storage for the job, not simply moving data to the cloud.
Enterprise Networking Has No Need for IPv6 – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Oct 20, 2020
The Premise: Does enterprise networking need IPv6?
Enterprise networks have been on the verge of address exhaustion for years. The promise that was once the utopia of unlimited address space with IPv6 has seemed to disappear with barely a whimper. Our networks seem to be running just fine on IPv4 for the foreseeable future. In this episode, we discuss whether or not enterprise networking needs IPv6.
Object Storage is the Future of Primary Storage
Oct 13, 2020
PURE STORAGE SPOTLIGHT PODCAST featuring Rajiev Rajavasireddy, Vice President Of Product Management.
The Premise: Is object storage the future of primary storage?
On-premises object storage has traditionally been associated with archive data. Scale and density were important, but the performance was not a major consideration. Fast object storage was an oxymoron. That paradigm is changing. DevOps teams across enterprises are now building container-based applications leveraging S3. High-performance applications are being designed to bring the capabilities and benefits of S3 and cloud-optimized architectures to on-premises environments. Vertica in Eon mode and Splunk SmartStore are a couple of examples highlighting this trend. Will this trend become more prevalent? Will a majority of new high-performance applications be designed with object storage? Will object storage become the future of primary storage? Tune in to this podcast to find out.
Companies are Not Inherently Good or Evil
Oct 06, 2020
The Premise: Are companies inherently good or evil?
We all have the idea that there are companies that are good and companies that are bad. Some do kind things for their communities and others seek to take as much as possible. But are the companies really at fault here? Or is this behavior being driven by people behind the scenes? In this episode, we set out to prove that companies aren’t inherently bad but people can be.
Working From Home Isn’t All That Great
Sep 22, 2020
The Premise: Is working from home all that it’s cracked up to be?
The current state of the world has forced us all to work from home. It’s what we’ve always wanted, right? Freedom to hang out in our PJs all day and no travel to the office. Yet, the reality of working from home is less appealing when you get into the details. For many, working from home isn’t all that great. In this podcast, we’ll explain why and try and find some solutions to the issue.
NGINX Spotlight: We live in an increasingly interconnected world that hinges on responsive APIs. It is becoming a standard way for us to interface not only with software, but with devices that run that software. We are trying to do magical things with APIs now, yet not all APIs are created equal. As we develop more and more around APIs and their ability to be accessed, we’re finding some limitations, which means we have to develop new thoughts and new ways of handling things. One of the latest is real-time API, which can process an API call end-to-end in under 30 milliseconds. Sound too good to be true? Sound too good to be true? Our panel will dig in to find out the answer to this question: Are all APIs created equal?
Facts are facts, but that doesn’t mean that your data is telling you the whole story. Data experts know that biases crop up any time we look at data, and this cannot be avoided. That’s why we need to be sensitive to these biases when making judgments and when planning data collection exercises. We apply these concepts to everything from sales metrics to the COVID pandemic to government surveillance. This episode reunites our social justice panel, including Leon Adato, Josh Fidel, Karen Lopez, and Phoummala Schmitt, with moderator Stephen Foskett.
You Should Roll Your Own Whitebox Storage
Aug 25, 2020
The Premise: Should you roll your own storage system?
As enterprise storage moves to commodity hardware and software, has the time come for businesses to consider building their own storage systems? In this podcast, we discuss the pros and cons of packaged enterprise storage solutions and consider how the market is changing. Many modern storage solutions, from VMware vSAN to cloud storage, are based on commodity hardware. And there are many instances where a production storage environment uses self-configured software too. But we still recommend sticking with a supported storage solution.
Wi-Fi Isn’t Always the Best Wireless Solution – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Aug 11, 2020
The Premise: Is Wi-Fi the Best Wireless Solution?
In a highly-connected world, we rely on our technology to stay online at all times. Almost everything uses wireless today, right? But what kind of wireless does it use? You might be tempted to say Wi-Fi, but as it turns out, WI-Fi isn’t always the best wireless solution for your needs.
IoT Doesn’t Need Wi-Fi 6E – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Jul 28, 2020
The Premise: Does IoT Need Wi-Fi 6E?
The standards for faster wireless communications are being adopted much more quickly. We have faster speeds and different spectrum allocations to work with. However, the largest consumers of the wireless space in the coming years are the ones that won’t be able to use those faster new speeds without a radical shift in direction. IoT devices use slower, older, cheaper radios. So, the premise of this episode is that IoT Doesn’t Need Wi-Fi 6E.
Disaggregated Architecture Runs Best with Enterprise Hybrid Cloud
Jul 21, 2020
The Premise: Does disaggregated architecture run best with enterprise hybrid cloud?
Pure Storage Spotlight In this episode, we are taking on enterprise cloud architecture, and specifically, the move towards disaggregated infrastructure. As enterprises move towards cloud architecture, a lot of companies are jumping in. Software solutions like VMware Cloud Foundation, for instance, drive the ability of enterprises to build a hybrid cloud. But there has been a lot of talk about architecture as well. The industry has seen a lot of changes in the last several years. There was a move towards converged, then hyperconverged, and now disaggregated architecture offers benefits for an optimized hybrid cloud (for example, Pure Storage and Cisco’s FlashStack). Is disaggregated the right move?
A Single Source of Truth Can Bring Justice to the World
Jul 14, 2020
The Premise: Could a single source of truth help bring justice to the world?
Continuing our effort to reconcile the perspective of enterprise IT nerds with the social upheaval happening all around us, the On-Premise IT Roundtable Podcast guests discuss the concept of a single source of truth. In IT analytics, we believe that one system or application has “truth” even if others disagree. Is this true of the wider world as well? What is the difference between data, fact, and truth and how can we leverage this concept to bring justice to the world?
IT Observability Principles Can Help Bring Justice to the World
Jul 07, 2020
The Premise: Could IT observability principles help bring justice to the world?
Technical people love clarity, facts, transparency, and data, but the world outside the datacenter is anything but. How can we in tech apply ourselves and our experience to promote justice and transparency in the real world? Why don’t governments, media, and the population at large know the facts about crises like the Coronavirus pandemic and the racial justice issues that are shaking the United States and the world? And what can we do to help improve the situation?
AI Can’t Do Much for WiFi – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Jun 30, 2020
The Premise: Does artificial intelligence do anything for WiFi?
Today’s world is driven by software. Applications rule the tech space and they are increasingly relying on machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) to make better, faster decisions. But there are some technologies that don’t really take full advantage of AI. Can an algorithm replace a person troubleshooting? Is something at is as much art as science able to leverage the power of a computer to get the job done? Is it true that AI can’t do much for Wi-Fi?
Orchestration is the Reason Enterprises Haven’t Adopted Containers – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Jun 23, 2020
The Premise: Orchestration is the reason enterprises haven’t adopted containers.
Pure Storage Spotlight Orchestration is almost synonymous with containers nowadays. One popular opinion is that maybe the reason enterprises haven’t adopted containers quickly is that people are hungry for a way to orchestrate containers that fits into their overall environment. Is this the reason why containers have yet to be widely adopted? Follow this discussion, featuring Jon Owings – Principal Solution Architect at Pure Storage and Cormac Hogan – Director and Chief Technologist at VMware, and decide for yourself.
Encryption is Ruining Network Security – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Jun 16, 2020
The Premise: There used to be a time when the Internet was free, wild, and nothing was encrypted. With the advent of things like SSL and TLS, some network analytics and security folks are wondering: is encryption ruining security?
The world is encrypted today. Our traffic is being protected from beginning to end so our identities and data are safe. But how safe are we in reality? What about the traffic that we want to see? How can we protect against threats when everything is using TLS to hide from our tools? Is there a solution to figuring out how to see the unseen?
Anomaly Detection is the Only Good ML in the Enterprise – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Jun 02, 2020
The Premise: There are a bunch of new AI/ML startups, and we hear about the latest advances and interesting concepts, but it tends to fall down when it comes to implementation. Is there any good use for AI in the enterprise?
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are extending the capabilities of our technology at a rapid pace. Or so we have been led to believe. But what is ML really giving us? What good is it to our enterprise? Is there a use case that shines above all others? Or is it just marketing fluff? This episode of the On-Premise IT Roundtable discusses how Anomaly Detection is the only good use of ML in the Enterprise.
vSphere 7 Means NVMe-oF is Ready for Prime Time – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
May 26, 2020
The Premise: With the release of vSphere 7, there are some new storage features and interoperability, but is NVMe-oF ready for prime time?
Pure Storage Spotlight Those of us who have been following storage and server architecture are pretty excited about NVMe and various things over fabrics. So far, it’s been a challenge to bring NVMe-oF into the enterprise datacenter. Does the release of vSphere 7 mean that this technology is finally ready for prime time? Follow the discussion and decide for yourself.
Virtual Events Are Good Enough – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
May 19, 2020
The Premise: As the world has changed, we’ve started to see virtual events become the norm. But are virtual events just as good as in-person events?
Lots of us are experiencing the joy of working from home right now and many people are also experiencing the fun of virtual events. How are these events working?
Results from a quick non-official poll: “I am never leaving my house again!” “I despise virtual conferences.” “An in-person interaction can’t bring more to the table than my computer screen and I can bring (to the kitchen table).” “Events are a thing of the past and are being replaced with the almighty virtual option.”
Who’s right? Join us as we’ll discuss the various ways in which we can weigh a virtual vs in-person event, and why there are some things that just can’t be replaced.
IT Isn’t Really “That” Broken – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
May 12, 2020
The Premise: With the number of computer performance issues reported by consumers each day, one begins to wonder is IT really broken?
Computers never work. I can’t check my email. The Internet is always slow. No matter what I’m doing it seems like Information Technology is never the way I want it. Everything is completely broken. Or is it? Join us as we’ll discuss the various ways in which IT can be operating properly but still not as users want and why there is a huge difference between slow and broken.
Feature-Based Licensing for Infrastructure is a Good Thing
May 05, 2020
The Premise: Software companies have found a way to offset development costs, but is charging customers for features a good thing?
Modern technology has focused on delivering value. The current shift away from hardware to software means that companies need to recognize how they deliver that value. In order to ensure they are responding to their customers’ needs in the best possible way, they need to charge appropriately for the features that are being used. So, we ask the panel today, if feature-based licensing for infrastructure a good thing?
Enterprise AI is a Bunch of BS – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Apr 28, 2020
The Premise: There is so much talk about artificial intelligence and machine learning from many enterprise IT companies lately, and the general feeling is that a lot of it is just BS.
Enterprise AI seems to be a buzzword we are having trouble escaping. Is it following us, or just getting smart enough to know the paths we tread to shake it? The roundtable faces this pursuer and decides if we should take away its boastful title, call it something else, or if we have crossed the threshold far enough for it to lay claim to its moniker. Is Enterprise AI a bunch of BS? Follow the discussion and decide for yourself.
COVID-19 Is A Security Disaster – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Apr 21, 2020
The Premise: With more people working from home, organizations need to focus on both security and humanity during this COVID-19 pandemic.
Security will always be a bit of a treadmill that organizations need to keep moving on. But that treadmill got kicked into overdrive as a result of COVID-19. Organizations that seemingly had well-implemented security policies in place now have to account for everyone working from home. This changes the threat surface from devices used, to how traffic is routed, and often new services being brought online. So will COVID-19 be remembered as a security nightmare? The roundtable discusses the implications and why companies need to be focused on the humanity in their midst in order to stay secure.
Physical Distancing Isn’t Possible for IT Support – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Apr 07, 2020
The Premise: The demands of IT support make physical distancing not practical in all situations.
With many people working from home as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, IT is faced with challenges of how it can fulfill its support mission while maintaining a safe physical distance. Certainly the proliferation of cloud services has changed the landscape considerably for a lot of organizations, removing some of the infrastructure that would otherwise need to be maintained by the organization. But cloud data centers, automated though they may largely be, still require physical footprints, and other support becomes much harder, if not impossible, when maintaining pandemic distancing. In this episode, the roundtable discusses how they’ve changed their IT support as a result of the pandemic, if it’s possible to maintain distances while still providing effective IT, and what support challenges lay ahead as week of self-isolation turn into months.
Commodity Broadband is Inferior to MPLS – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Mar 24, 2020
By now, we’re all familiar with software-defined wide area network or SD-WAN. SD-WAN enables the use of multiple circuit types, including both MPLS and commodity broadband. Everyone knows how reliable MPLS can be. Can broadband reach that level of assurance? Given the history of using the technology with enterprise networks, our panel of experts debates the premise that commodity broadband is inferior to MPLS.
Backup is a Security Hole – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Mar 10, 2020
Backing up data is standard practice and one that both companies and individuals take part in regularly. Having your data at your fingertips to be able to restore any potential loss and keep your forward movement is a must in all of our quick moving industries. How do you make sure that your backup protocols are taking into account proper security measures? How do you know if encryption is taking place? Is malware slipping into your snapshots and being replicated? Do your backups include data access that you shouldn’t have? With every copy of your data being a potential security risk, the question we tackle in this conversation at the On-Premise IT Roundtable is: Is backup a security hole?
Single Pane of Glass is a Myth – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Feb 25, 2020
The Premise: Single Pane of Glass is a Myth
If you use network monitoring software or SIMS, you’re probably used to having a ton of browser windows open at any given time because there are many aspects to the tools you need to get info from. Looking over your shoulder, a team member might tell you that they have the solution to the “many open browser” issue, and it’s four magical words: Single Pane of Glass. From a user’s perspective, it can be argued that single pane of glass doesn’t exist at all, and vendors who push this idea are never looking beyond their product. When users look at heterogeneous networks, there may be a single pane of glass for this and a single pane of glass for that, which ends up being 25+ panes of glass and not really solving anyone’s problems. So how do we reconcile this chasm between the user and vendor perspectives? The question we tackle in this On-Premise IT Roundtable is: Is there such a thing as an all-in-one solution or is “single pane of glass” simply a myth?
Is Backup Dead? – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Feb 11, 2020
The Premise: Is Backup Dead?
Data protection used to be pretty straightforward. In recent years, there have been a number of changes in enterprise backup. It’s not necessarily that backup has changed, but systems and people have changed. In fact, many small and medium-sized businesses don’t even have servers anymore. Now, we have different applications and different infrastructure, and we have to adjust our processes to accommodate new systems. In this episode, we’re talking about backup… specifically, the death of backup. If backup has no business value, is out of touch with the times, or doesn’t exist anymore altogether, then what does data protection and recovery look like today? The question we tackle in this On-Premise IT Roundtable is: Is backup dead?
Hadoop is Dead – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Feb 05, 2020
The Premise: Hadoop is Dead.
Big data is on everyone’s mind across IT, and the storage industry is no exception. For a while, Hadoop seemed ready to conquer the world with its promise of reliable, scalable, distributed computing. However the tide has seemingly turned away from the once ubiquitous yellow pachyderm. Big data is very much alive, but the roundtable discusses if the complexities inherent in the Hadoop stack mean it’s fated for an untimely demise. Or will the still increasing investments in Hadoop by some customers keep it in the big data discussion for some time to come? And if Hadoop really is dead, are there any pieces that can find some new life in IT? Find out in this episode.
This episode is sponsored by Pure Storage. Click here for more information.
Toxic People Are Unavoidable in IT- The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Jan 28, 2020
The Premise: Working with toxic individuals in unavoidable in IT.
In this roundtable, Tom Hollingsworth discusses whether it’s fundamentally unavoidable to work with toxic people in IT. First the panelists define what we mean by toxic in an IT context. Then they dig into why IT seems to have its fair share of people with toxic characteristics, and why the focus should be on the relationship between individuals, rather than singling out one party as being the problem. From there, they dig into how to work with such people, when too much is enough, and how to perhaps avoid falling into the trap of toxicity yourself.
Wi-Fi Monetization is Bad – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Jan 14, 2020
The Premise: Wi-Fi monetization is bad, it should be free, frictionless, and fast.
In this roundtable, Tom Hollingsworth leads a discussion about the premise that Wi-Fi monetization is bad. Some would argue that it’s evil. If venues and businesses want to offer Wi-Fi, it should be treated the same way other utilities are. These all require a degree of expense to the business, but aren’t added on as charges to customers. Keith Parsons uses the free, frictionless, and fast standard. Does that mean that everyone should offer free Wi-Fi all the time? And how does that fit into an organizations larger IT policy framework. The roundtable makes the case and digs into the details in this episode.
IT Certifications Are More Valuable Than A College Degree – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Dec 24, 2019
The Premise: IT Certifications are more valuable than a college degree.
Odds are that if you’ve been in IT for a while, you’ve been asked how many certifications you have. There’s no doubt that these are valuable. Yet many IT pros still feel that they need a college degree to hang on the wall. The roundtable discusses if this is a legacy of times gone by, or if a college degree still holds a more important place than certifications. The panel includes a wide range of experiences, with IT careers build with and without degrees, as well as someone currently in college pursuing an IT career. It’s a great conversation!
The Promise of the Cloud Cannot Be Achieved – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Dec 17, 2019
The Premise: The Promise of the Cloud Cannot Be Achieved.
We know that The Cloud is a real thing. But of the many things called The Cloud, each of them is remarkably different. Features, capabilities, functions vary wildly between them. Every organization is scrambling to figure out how to use the cloud, but is the promise of the cloud simply unachievable? Does the pursuit of multi-cloud mean that organizations must ignore whatever makes a cloud special, and turn it into simply someone else’s infrastructure? The roundtable discusses in this episode.
This episode is sponsored by NetApp. Click here for more information.
Digital Transformation is a Myth – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Dec 04, 2019
The Premise: Digital transformation is a myth.
There’s a lot of talk about digital transformation, but are organizations actually achieving that, or are they simply changing IT practices to keep up with changing infrastructure. Should we even view digital transformation into a means in and of itself. And can non-digital companies actually transform, or are industries just going to replace obsolete players over time? In this episode, the roundtable discusses a lot of the nuance often lost in grand visions of digital transformation.
BONUS: The Origins of Tech Field Day – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Nov 22, 2019
In this bonus episode, we’re joining Stephen Foskett as he talks with some of the original delegates and inspirations for the Tech Field Day event series. They discuss the event that gave Stephen the initial idea, a fortuitous plane ride, how the first Tech Field Day event went, where the idea for the live stream started and more. It’s a great conversation and we couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the event.
Simplification Adds Risk – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Nov 19, 2019
The Premise: Simplification inherently adds risk to an IT system.
Simplification may sound great and improve efficiency, but it always with it an increase in risk. This is because by abstracting away the complexity, you’re also hiding potential faults in the system. The roundtable discusses if this is true, and if there’s a way to lose some of the geek knobs without creating a risky environment.
The Administrative Hurdle of IPv6 – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Nov 05, 2019
The Premise: The biggest hurdle to IPv6 adoption is administrative.
IPv6 is the next big thing in networking, it’s going to solve all of our network addressing issues. At least, that’s what it’s been promising for the last two decades. So why hasn’t it lived up to the hype? The roundtable discusses the idea that administration is the biggest holdup to overall IPv6 adoption. Be sure to listen to figure out how we can get the the bright, shiny, happy place that is IPv6.
Storage: You Gotta Keep ’em Separated – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Oct 22, 2019
The Premise: You should never put primary and secondary storage on the same system.
It’s almost canonical wisdom is storage that you shouldn’t put primary and secondary storage on the same storage system. Doing otherwise is just asking or trouble. But given the rapidly changing IT landscape and the emergence of the cloud, is that really true anymore? The roundtable breaks it down in this spirited discussion.
Learning Kubernetes is a Waste of Time – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Oct 08, 2019
The Premise: With the advent of managed services, learning Kubernetes is a waste of time.
On this episode, our roundtable discusses the premise that learning Kubernetes is a waste of time. With so many managed Kubernetes service available, actually learning the ins and outs of the obtuse orchestrator isn’t necessary for the vast majority of organizations. They discuss the actual business value of managing Kubernetes, compare it to learning vSphere, and discuss what organizations should be investing time in.
Security Can’t Keep Up – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Sep 24, 2019
The Premise: In recent years, the velocity and sophistication of malicious hacks have accelerated beyond the capability for modern IT security to keep up.
You don’t have to follow the news very closely to find evidence of large scale security breaches. The sophistication, breadth, and sheer velocity of malicious hacks have reached a point that IT security simply can’t keep up like it used to. The roundtable debates this subject, if the situation is truly hopeless, and how organizations can take a modern approach to IT security.
The Cloud Should Adapt to the Enterprise – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Sep 10, 2019
The Premise: Public cloud providers should adapt to the needs of the enterprise, not the other way around.
It would be great if all our applications were cloud native to get the best cost, resilency, and architecture overall. But enterprises don’t move that quickly. The cloud should offer services that work for existing applications that organizations want to get out of the data center but aren’t going to refactor any time soon. The roundtable discusses the merits and why this isn’t happening right now.
Redesigning is Useless in Wireless – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Aug 27, 2019
The Premise: When it comes to wireless, redesigns are useless.
Redesigns in wireless are done more for compulsive than technical need. When a new access point comes out, the entire wireless network doesn’t need a redesign, other than to satisfy the need to tinker for those managing them. We discuss if and when a redesign is actually needed, why you need to consider what’s driving your wireless refresh in the decision, and how to put a monetary value on defining a “pointless” redesign.
SaaS Backup Isn’t My Problem – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Aug 13, 2019
The Premise: Backing up SaaS apps isn’t my problem, the cloud provider should handle it.
We all know how traditional backup work, but SaaS is different. Since the software comes as a service, backup is just one of those services, right? The roundtable discusses this idea. Do current SaaS offering really provide backup? If they don’t, should that even be their responsibility? And should you always want to be doing your own backup anyway? This was a really great discussion to get you thinking on the topic.
The Traditional Office is Dying – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Jul 09, 2019
The Premise: The traditional office will be dead in the next 5-10 years.
The traditional office is dying. Since the rise of telecommuting in the 90s, less and less people need to be in the office. With open offices killing productivity, in the near term, we’re going to see the traditional office become extinct. The roundtable debates how true this is, and what makes it worth it for a lot of organizations to still keep the office lights on.
VARs are Useless – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Jun 25, 2019
The Premise: VARs are useless.
Value-added resellers (VARs) are often characterized as useless, adding a needless cost for something that should be sold direct to customers. In this On-Premise IT Roundtable, the panel discusses where the value actually gets added and what benefits VARs can still provide. It was an interesting discussion with a lot of different perspectives.
IoT Is Making Society Less Secure – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Jun 11, 2019
The Premise: By proliferating the number of devices on our networks, IoT is making our society less secure.
On this episode, the roundtable discusses if IoT is making us less secure overall. They get into a discussion of what kind of attack surfaces IoT presents, whether these device impact privacy more than security, and why current IoT is based on a “no support” model.
Multi-Cloud Is A Fad – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
May 28, 2019
The Premise: The push for multi-cloud is driven by vendors and analysts, not by an actual IT need.
On this episode, the roundtable discusses if the framing of multi-cloud as an inevitable IT outcome is really accurate. Is multi-cloud just something being pushed by analysts and vendors with solutions to sell? If so, will it ultimately be a fad? They further discuss what they mean when they say multi-cloud, which further clarifies the premise.
You’re Wrong About Data Protection Policy – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
May 14, 2019
The Premise: Data protection policy isn’t defined by business need or IT capability, rather than an inherited set of traditions and superstitions.
On this episode, the roundtable discusses data protection policy. The premise is that most organizations are doing this wrong. There’s a fundamental misalignment between what IT thinks it needs to be doing and what the business needs for operations and compliance. They discuss who needs to be taking ownership of these policies, how storage vendors are partially responsible, and how to move forward.
Bringing Yourself to Work – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Apr 30, 2019
The Premise: There’s value to the business in bringing your personal interests to work in IT.
Today’s show discusses when you can bring your personal life into IT. We discuss if doing so is just a way to reduce burnout, or if there is legitimate business value to be found. We touch on how to approach supposed “third rail” topics and more.
The Cloud is Going to Disappear – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Apr 16, 2019
The Premise: People don’t want cloud, they want what it does.
Today’s episode considers if people want cloud, or what the cloud actually does. In this case, we’re looking at if a focus on providing services will eventually make the cloud irrelevant, since people don’t really care about it. Or have the cloud providers created sufficient value-add services to solve business problems that make the cloud itself relevant, not just API-driven functions.
Network Analytics Is Too Expensive – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Apr 02, 2019
The Premise: Network analytics is too expensive for the modern enterprise.
Thanks to the growth of software-defined networking, a lot of network information that used to be unknown, is now known. But in order to get that information out of the network, you have to spend a lot of money on specialized hardware, software, and talent to program it all. Is it beyond the reach of most enterprises? Or is the cost of not knowing always greater? The roundtable discusses.
Microsoft Is Done With Windows – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Mar 19, 2019
The Premise: With the current corporate vision, Microsoft is done with Windows.
Declaring the Death of Windows is always a great way to drum up some clicks. But today, the roundtable discusses whether Windows is just kind of beside the point for a modern Microsoft. The debate whether this means the end of Windows, the end of the beginning of the end of Windows, or just that Windows’ role in Microsoft will fundamentally change.
Change Your Password All The Time – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Mar 05, 2019
The Premise: The best way to keep passwords secure is to change them all the time.
Changing your passwords frequently is the best way to keep accounts secure, right? Or does frequently changing passwords cause users to lean on easily predictable patterns that ultimately make things less secure? The roundtable discusses what the best approach is, whether two-factor authentication changes your approach, and what changes when considering personal vs organizational passwords.
The Storage Array is Dead – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Feb 19, 2019
The Premise: The storage array is dead, dead as a doornail.
The monolithic storage array used to be the standard of storage, but it’s time has come and gone… or has it? The roundtable discusses what specifically we mean when we talk about storage arrays, why they are increasingly irrelevant, and if their decline is permanent, or a temporary reaction to recent IT trends.
You Need Sensors for Analytics – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Feb 05, 2019
The Premise: In order to be an effective analytics company, you need a sensor.
Tom Hollingsworth leads a discussion around how important sensors are for analytics and data. Is network monitoring enough? What about something in software? Or is the added expense of a dedicated out-of-band physical sensor the price you have to pay? The roundtable is pretty evenly split on the subject, and discusses where each approach works best.
5G will Replace Traditional Networks – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Jan 22, 2019
The Premise: 5G is set to replace traditional networking.
In this episode, the roundtable discusses what impact 5G will have on traditional networking. They dig into why wireless is a more finite resource than wired networking, the difficulty of service degradation, and how to justify rolling out 5G for fixed end points.
Composable Infrastructure is Just Blade Server 2.0 – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Jan 08, 2019
Premise: Composable Infrastructure is just another iteration on blade servers.
Stephen Foskett leads a discussion about how big of a change composable infrastructure is from the tried and true blade server.
CI sounds like a great idea. It offers infrastructure that’s dynamic, reconfigurable by software, and has full API integration. The roundtable discusses a little history of the ideas behind composable infrastructure, and how CI can develop into something truly unique.
You Shouldn’t Run Your Own Website – On-Premise IT Roundtable
Dec 04, 2018
Stephen Foskett and the Roundtable discuss whether or not you should be running your own website. They weigh the pros and cons of each path and delve into the specifics.
It Doesn’t Matter Where Your Data is Stored – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Oct 02, 2018
The Premise: In our automated and disaggregated world, it doesn’t matter where your data is stored.
The roundtable discusses if data locality is important to storage administrators anymore. They discuss why it might matter for technological, regulatory, and organizational needs, and how those needs have changed over time.
Enjoy this bonus IT Origins interview in the feed this week, we spoke with Senior Cloud Ops Advocate, podcaster, and oenophile, Phoummala Schmitt. We discuss how she came into an IT career from the fashion industry, why we’re already living in a multi-cloud world, and when high availability in the cloud goes beyond a SLA.
Networking Disaggregation Isn’t Ready – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Sep 18, 2018
The Premise: Networking disaggregation is not ready for the enterprise.
The panel discusses where networking disaggregation is relevant in today’s IT. Is it limited to just the largest organizations, or can even small IT teams enjoy its benefits? Or is scale less important than how an organization values the network itself?
For this bonus podcast episode, we had the privilege to speak to Dremio CEO Tomer Shiran. We discussed how he got his start in IT, compare the tech scenes between Israel and Silicon Valley, and look at the value of over delivering in your career. They also discuss the importance of coffee in being an entrepreneur. It was a great discussion, enjoy!
This podcast is sponsored by SolarWinds. Be sure to check out their new Tech Publication, Orange Matter, to learn more about the other SolarWinds Head Geeks.
Leon Adato is a Head Geek at SolarWinds.
This week on the podcast, we have an interview with SolarWinds Head Geek Leon Adato, recorded on-premises from our lovely Hudson, Ohio offices. We discussed how Leon went from Theater major to working in tech education, what exactly a head geek does, and finishes with some great career advice.
A full transcript of the interview is available here.
Table of Contents
0-0:40: Host intro 0:40 – 10:10: IT Origins Story 10:10 – 12:25: What is a Head Geek? 12:25 – 15:24: When Did Single Pane of Glass Enter the IT Lexicon 15:24 – 22:58: Biggest Change Since You Started Your Career 22:58 – 27:05: Current Worst Trend in IT 27:05 – 32:45: Current Best Trend in IT 32:45 – 38:57: Where is IT Going in the Next 3-5 years? 38:57 – 44:23: Book Recommendations:
44:23 – 46:43: First Computer You Owned 46:43 – 48:06: What Do You Do When You’re Not Working in IT? 48:06 – 50:03: How Do You CXaffeine? 50:03 – 50:40: Who Do You Want to See on IT Origins? 50:40: Career Advice
IT Burnout is Inevitable – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Jun 26, 2018
Premise: IT burnout is simply unavoidable. It’s a part of the gig.
The discussion: Is burnout an inevitable part of IT? Is it part of the way IT roles are created? Maybe it says something about the types of people attracted to IT. Or maybe it has something to do with the incentives that causes work to become burnout. Our roundtable discusses why they’ve seen burnout happen and how they cope with IT stress to avoid or mitigate it.
Revisited: Security is a Dumpster Fire – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Jun 12, 2018
With Cisco Live US happening this week in Orlando, we decided to share a throwback episode featuring Rob Rodgers and Mils Swart of Skyport Systems. Skyport was recently acquired by Cisco in February. It’ll be interesting to see how Cisco uses this talent to address the security concerns raised in this episode.
This week on IT Origins, we had a conversation with Ted Dunning, Apache Software Foundation board member, and the Chief Application Architect at MapR. We discussed Ted’s introduction to IT, his early involvement with the open source software community, and how AI advances quickly go from aspirational to blasé. We were also fortunate to have Ted’s colleague and co-author Ellen Friedman join in on the second half of the interview. Both were able to give some great career advice about how to stay relevant in rapidly evolving fields.
Books mentioned in the interview by Ted Dunning and Ellen Friedman:
Enterprise AI Is Just a Buzzword – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
May 29, 2018
The Premise: Enterprise AI is a buzzword slapped onto products and services without any technical merit.
Let’s face it, AI gets thrown around a lot in the enterprise these days. It often gets conflated with Machine Learning, Deep Learning, and neural networks. But does the term actually mean anything? Are there solutions out there that actually qualify as AI? The roundtable debates.
This week on IT Origins, we had the privilege speak to Patric Palm, the Co-Founder and CEO of Favro. We discussed how he started the company, his previous startup efforts, the importance of adaptability, and his background in organization and process.
Automation Will Kill Engineering Jobs – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
May 15, 2018
The Premise: The efficiencies of network engineering will decimate engineering jobs.
The panel debates if this is true. They look at if this will happen across the board, if engineers will just become programmers going forward, or if automation will actually benefit network engineers down the road. And if automation does eliminate all these jobs, does it then become a pernicious form of support lock-in?
All Your Networking Are Belong to NFV | The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Apr 24, 2018
On this episode, we’re discussing Network Functions Virtualization, aka NFV. The roundtable discusses what exactly NFV is, how it differs from SDN, and if it’s going to eat all specialized networking hardware. The discussion then turns into how changes in network design principles als make NFV even more viable in the enterprise.
An episode so nice, we share it twice. Throwing in a bonus episode to the feed. Had a great conversation with Karen Lopez for IT Origins. If you haven’t already, be sure to listen to her appearance on the podcast with What is Big Data?
Karen Lopez is a Senior Project Manager and Data Architect.
I had the privilege to talk to Data Architect Karen Lopez for this week’s IT Origins interview. We discuss how data hasn’t changed all that much since she started her career, but our ways of relating to it have. We also discussed the best and worst IT trends, got some book recommendations for the world, and walked away with some career advice.
You Should Care Where SaaS Lives | On-Premise IT Roundtable
Apr 10, 2018
On this roundtable, we’re getting cloudy. The panelists discuss why it matters where your SaaS apps live, and not just depend on an SLA. This can impact not just business continuity and customer experience, but security and compliance as well.
I had the privilege to talk to Zachary Smith from Packet in our most recent IT Origins interview. We discussed how he went from majoring in the double bass at Juilliard to becoming an IT entrepreneur. We also discussed his two months in the Boy Scouts, the hip Australian coffee, and the benefits of innovating on the software layer.
Your Notifications Stink! The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Mar 27, 2018
Let’s face it, your alerts stink. If you’re finding lifehacks to deal with the amount of notifications you’re receiving, you’ve already lost the battle. On this episode of the podcast, the roundtable discusses why we’re drowning in notifications, how to better approach it, and why can’t we actually get actionable alerts.
Painful IT Language – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Mar 13, 2018
The podcast that inspired it all! Today we’re sharing the pilot episode of the On-Premise IT Roundtable, looking at terrible IT language. Does the name of our podcast drive you nuts? Do you cringe when someone asks you to “double-click” in conversation? Do you have opinions on how to pronounce BPDU? This is the episode for you.
Enjoy this bonus IT Origins interview episode. Our regularly schedule podcast will post March 13, 2018.
Dong Ngo is an IT consultant and writer at Dong Knows Tech. From 1999 through 2017, he was an Editor at CNET.com, covering the storage and networking beats.
This interview provided some fascinating perspective into what we assume is significant technology. Dong shares his journey from a small village in Vietnam to moving to San Francisco in the 1990s. After listening to his interview, be sure to check out this 2011 piece from Dong about revisiting his hometown.
Words Don’t Mean Things After All! The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Feb 27, 2018
Do words mean things? It depends on who you ask. Often the more technically minded IT folks like hard and fast definitions, while marketing tends to lend to a more “generous” interpretation of words. Do we need to rigidly enforce definitions, or are we resigned to an infinite regress into mutual unintelligibility? We’re no stranger to this debate on Gestalt IT, but the panel sheds new light and perspective on this often frustrating premise.
The IT Differentiation Dilemma – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Feb 13, 2018
We dug back in the On-Premise IT Roundtable archives to bring you an episode originally recorded in 2016, but incredibly prescient today. The roundtable discusses how IT companies can differentiate in an age of increasing commoditization. They look at examples like DSSD, Kaminario, and SimpliVity as ways to differentiate hardware, albeit at a considerable expense of time and resources. They then turn to software, and discuss the wave of SDS products that turned out to be features. The discussion is fascinating because many of the trends identified in this discussion have now played out in one form or another.
I had the privilege to talk to Matt Leib about how he got his start in IT, how the industry has changed since his Radio Shack days, and why the hybrid cloud is here to stay. It was a great conversation, enjoy the audio!
Licensing Models Matter- The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Jan 16, 2018
The On-Premise IT Roundtable has a bold premise for this episode: enterprise licensing models are interesting! The panel discusses why understanding licensing is vital for a modern data center as we move from CapEx to OpEx models.
BONUS Interview Episode: Allison Sheridan – IT Origins
Jan 04, 2018
Since we recorded this great interview for IT Origins, we’re including it in the On-Premise IT Roundtable feed.
Allison Sheridan is perhaps best known for Podfeet Podcasts, Technology Geek Podcasts with an EVER so Slight Apple Bias. Since 2005 her NosillaCast podcast has come out weekly without fail.
Outside of her extensive podcasting career, Allison also has decades of experience in IT. In this IT Origins interview, we discuss her move from mechanical engineering to IT, the gradual departmentalization of IT throughout her career, what is IT’s role in business, and the liberating definition of waste.
Plus, make sure to catch your humble interviewer give one of the most awkward definitions of DevOps!
Intent-Based Networking Isn’t Just SDN – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Jan 02, 2018
Intent-based networking is the new hotness, but what does it actually mean? In this episode, the panel discusses how it differs from older SDN ideas. IBN integrates an abstraction layer and orchestration into a system that identifies a single source of truth that isn’t the network itself.
2017 was the Year of… – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Dec 19, 2017
On today’s show, each of our roundtable panelists chose what was the hot ticket item of 2017. Tune in to hear their arguments why 2017 was the year of SD-WAN, HCI, Net Neutrality, or Data Management!
Failed Startups – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Dec 05, 2017
On this episode, host Stephen Foskett talks with Mark May, Howard Marks, and Keith Townsend about what makes a failed startup. Are some concepts simply too early, or are there ideas whose time simply never arrives? They look at specific examples like Auspex Systems and Coho Data.
All Storage Should Scale-Out – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Nov 21, 2017
Scale-out storage is great, but does it apply to all enterprise storage needs? The roundtable discusses the premise that all storage should be scale-out.
The CLI is Dead – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Nov 07, 2017
The roundtable discusses the premise that the CLI is dead, or at least terminally ill. They look at why this is the prevailing narrative in networking and the greater IT landscape. Is the death of the CLI a forgone conclusion, or merely a framing device for moving to better processes in IT?
Security is a Dumpster Fire – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Oct 24, 2017
Security is a dumpster fire, or is it somehow worse? Our esteemed guests discuss whether it’s actually many dumpster fires or some other form of refuse conflagration. It’s an invaluable and inflammable discussion.
Technical Debt Really Isn’t All That Bad – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Oct 10, 2017
In this episode, the roundtable discusses the idea of technical debt. They look into why technical debt occurs, why it isn’t always a bad thing, and how to possibly optimize for when to incur it.
What Is Automation? The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Sep 26, 2017
On this episode, we’ll be talking about a hot topic in the networking space, automation. The panel discusses why organizations see automation as prohibitively complex, what exactly they mean by automation, and why it isn’t coming for their jobs.
Managed Services from the 90s to Now – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Sep 12, 2017
On this episode, we take a look at how managed services have changed from the 90s to today. Why was something so essential and pervasive in IT today so hard to do a few decades ago? The panel has a wealth of industry experience from back then, and they share their stories from being on the front lines.
Cloud Lock-In: The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Aug 29, 2017
Cloud lock-in, sounds bad right? Well on this episode, the roundtable takes a detailed look at the actual impact of lock-in with public and private cloud providers. They look at how this impacts business agility, innovation, and overall company strategy.
Cloud is More Than a Data Center: The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Aug 15, 2017
With all the hyperbolic claims of what the cloud can do for IT, what the cloud actually means gets lost in the process. The roundtable looks at what cloud actually means in the modern enterprise. This includes the changes in workflows that need to happen to successfully migrate to the cloud. They go on to frame the cloud’s influences historically within other industries.
IoT Abandonware: The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Aug 01, 2017
The Internet of Things is already proliferating a number of connected devices into our lives. But as these devices increasingly become abandoned, they turn into security liabilities. The panel discusses the causes, implications, and solutions for IoT Abandonware.
The Brave New World of NVMe: The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Jul 18, 2017
The roundtable discusses how NVMe is impacting the storage industry. Is this just an iteration on what we’ve already seen with flash, or does it represent a sea change that will fundamentally change IT?
Is Kubernetes a Flash in the Pan? The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Jul 03, 2017
Is Kubernetes simply benefiting from the first mover advantage, or does it have the force to stay the dominant container orchestrator in the enterprise for years to come? The roundtable discusses.
Managing Your IT Career – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Jun 20, 2017
IT professionals spend years learning how to manage the complex infrastructure that organizations depend on. But they often spend far less time thinking about how to manage their careers. The roundtable takes on this topic, looking into dealing with imposter syndrome, knowing your own worth, and how to navigate these potentially problematic waters.
Caching vs Tiering – The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Jun 06, 2017
Caching and tiering have been abused by marketing in enterprise IT, often used interchangeably, or simply when not applicable. Luckily, we’ve got a table, it’s round, and surrounded by storage experts. They’ll explain the technical differences between caching and tiering, how to identify which is being used, and what are the performance implications of each.
What is Big Data? The On-Premise IT Roundtable
May 23, 2017
To be clear, the answer to “what is big data?” isn’t the On-Premise IT Roundtable. Nevertheless, our panelists discuss what exactly they mean when they use the term, why it’s the new hotness, and how they’ve seen it impact organizations.
Intel and Network Functions Virtualization: The On-Premise IT Roundtable
May 09, 2017
Intel isn’t known as a networking company, but they think they have a play in the network functions virtualization market. The round table discusses what future Intel has in the space, and how they compete with more historic players in the market.
Virtualization and Containers: The On-Premise IT Roundtable 4
May 05, 2017
In the light of the vSphere 6.5 release, moderator Stephen Foskett asks the roundtable about the impact of VMware integrated containers. This runs on Photon OS , a lightweight Linux distribution that runs a single container. What is the impact of this integration, in terms of security, training, and administration? And more importantly, does the industry need vSphere butting into the container space?
Locations and Beacons: The On-Premise IT Roundtable 3
May 04, 2017
On tap for today’s roundtable, the panel discusses the state of locations and beacons. Moderator Stephen Foskett asks the panel to consider how location services factor into the greater enterprise mobility landscape. This goes from using beacons to give turn-by-turn navigation indoors to using location to cue print jobs. Often the backend of these application has been available for a while, but now new use cases are emerging.
Is DevOps a Disaster? The On-Premise IT Roundtable 2
May 03, 2017
Moderator Stephen Foskett poses a completely non-controversial question: is DevOps a load of crap? Does DevOps just turn into NoOps? What are these darn kids doing with our infrastructure? The roundtable debates all these questions and more.
Welcome to the inaugural On-Premise IT Roundtable podcast! This episode, we’ve gathered our esteemed panel to discuss software-defined wide area networking, SD-WAN. In this emerging market, how do you compare the various offerings in the space? Is the market bound for consolidation, or will it remain full of vibrant competition? And how does the ease of use of SD-WAN impact the market for network professionals?