10 On Tech

It’s the nightmare scenario for every admin: the CEO has deleted an email related to a multi-million dollar project, and needs it back. The hitch: he deleted it 34 days ago, and your Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider only provides 30 days’ worth of backups. Uh oh. This is an issue that organizations using SaaS applications need to consider, and far too few of them do. That’s why Dan Timko, Chief Strategy Officer, J2 Global, is chatting with ActualTech Media Partner James Green on this edition of “10 on Tech.” They dive into the hidden issues with SaaS backup, and why it’s imperative that you understand what your provider is responsible for, and what you’re responsible for. It may open your eyes. Highlights of the show include: How backup has changed in the SaaS era Why companies often pay less attention to backups for SaaS applications The options you have for SaaS backup The things you must find out from your SaaS backup provider Expense vs. company impact of SaaS backup  Resource links f

Thanks to regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), organizations are more aware than ever of the need to protect the privacy of customer data. And the GDPR is just the beginning: the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) goes into effect Jan. 1, 2020. The problem is that knowing where your customer data even exists is becoming harder in the cloud era. XMedius, which specializes in helping keep communications safe (and compliant), talks about this burgeoning field on this edition of “10 on Tech.” XMedius’s Sébastien Boire-Lavigne, executive vice president and general manager, data solutions, dishes on the regulatory wave with ActualTech Media Partner James Green. They discuss the enormous complexities involved in tracking this data and keeping it secure, which helps ensure that you don’t end up on the wrong side of the regulations. Highlights of the show include: Why the cloud became the big game-changer for data sovereignty A breakdown of CCPA requirements How CCPA differs fr

Data center storage is evolving constantly, and one of the most crucial areas is in lower latency. Latency, after all, impacts everything in your operations. And cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) demand the lowest latency possible. Delivering that low latency can’t happen until system bottlenecks are removed, whether they’re existing, older storage, the CPU or some other reason. And Excelero specializes in that removal. In this episode of “10 on Tech,” Sven Breuner, Field CTO at Excelero, speaks with ActualTech Media Partner James Green about how Excelero takes advantage of super low-latency Non-Volatile Memory express (NVMe) drives to provide the minimal latency needed for the most demanding applications and uses you have. Highlights of the show include: The move toward using GPUs instead of CPUs for low-latency scenarios Why CPUs don’t scale properly NVMe devices provide more performance and parallelism The difficulty of scaling AI workloads to

If you’re like most companies, you’re leaving the wrong data on the wrong storage. Data that isn’t touched often—like Joe’s cat pictures—doesn't need to be stored on expensive primary storage. But moving that data to much less costly secondary storage is a huge challenge: for both admins who have to move it, and end users who face confusing interfaces. Answering that challenge with a brand-new product is the focus of this episode of “10 on Tech,” featuring Spectra Logic’s David Feller, VP of Product Management and Solutions Engineering. He provides an overview of Spectra Logic’s StorCycle storage management software to ActualTech Media Partner James Green. Feller breaks down how StorCycle automatically identifies inactive data that takes up valuable space on primary storage, and moves it to a cheaper level called the Perpetual Storage Tier, keeping it accessible to users all the while. It's an episode you won't want to miss. Highlights of the show include: The explosive growth of data, that shows no sig

You may think of the public cloud as an “easy” button, something that takes the pain out of application development, for example. The reality is that it can make things harder—much harder. That was the experience of Anurag Goel, Founder/CEO of Render, a unified cloud platform for building and running applications and websites. Goel found that it took so many steps to get anything done on Amazon Web Services (AWS) that he was wasting time learning things like Kubernetes and Terraform and building continuous integration/continuous delivery pipelines, instead of building stuff. Goel chats with the idea behind Render with ActualTech Media Partner James Green on this episode of “10 on Tech.” He sums up his company’s mission like this: “We automate all of the stuff you have to do manually on AWS.” It’s a fascinating look into the power of automation in a way you may not have thought of. Highlights of the show include: How Render got its start The challenges developers and DevOps teams face with keeping infr

Enterprise-level, fully-managed Storage-as-a-Service (STaaS): Is it a thing? Should it be a thing? And why would you outsource something as important as storage? Zadara says there are good reasons to do just that, leveraging the power of cloud computing without losing the speed and latency benefits of on-premises storage. That’s the subject of this episode of “10 on Tech.” Zadara’s Gregory Newman, VP Marketing, and Marc Leavitt, Senior Director of Product Marketing, talk with ActualTech Media Partner James Green about the growing use of STaaS on an enterprise scale, including NVMe. Highlights of the show include: How Zadara got its start Traditional limitations of public cloud environments NVMe as a service The major concerns about storage-as-a-service (STaaS) Zadara’s hybrid offering Storage in multi-cloud environments Resource links from the show: Zadara homepage -- https://www.zadara.com/ Zadara free trial -- https://www.zadara.com/freetrial/ Zadara case studies -- https://www.zadara.com

The public cloud, contrary to perception, doesn’t make management easier; in most cases, it’s just the opposite, according to Wally McDermid, VP Cloud Business Development for Scality. And when it comes to multi-cloud scenarios, things just get hairier. Wally discusses these difficulties with ActualTech Media Partner James Green in this episode of “10 on Tech.” It includes these key features needed in a proper multi-cloud management tool: Small number of APIs Data stored in an open, readable format Deployment flexibility, both on-premises and in the cloud An open source version available, to avoid lock-in Wally also details some of Scality’s success stories and how they’ve saved customers both grief and money. Highlights of the show include: Why data is the most challenging part of multi-cloud management Applications don’t change often, but data does—and quickly The growing problem of government regulations Why fewer APIs are better How customers are using Scality to manage their clouds

Perception and use of the major public clouds has undergone a shift as it has become more of a baseline technology for companies. As Kelly Goolsby says, businesses have come to understand that it’s no longer about the “cool” stuff cloud can do for you, but meeting business requirements. Goolsby, Director of Solution Architecture at Liquid Web, chats with ActualTech Media Partner James Green about the current state of the public cloud. They touch on multiple topics, including the feature escalation that the “big dogs” are engaging in, the importance of understanding workload needs in the cloud, and more. Highlights of the show include: The changing nature of how businesses view the public cloud The “feature war” that the public cloud leaders are engaged in The potential drawbacks of the plethora of new features The continuing issue of disaster recovery The ongoing problem of security Resource links from the show: Liquid Web -- https://www.liquidweb.com/ Liquid Web blog -- https://www.liquidweb.

Most companies are great at creating data—it’s why the industry’s drowning in data lakes. But for most, they’re not nearly as good at knowing important details about that data. Without that information—being “blind” to your data’s characteristics—you’re put at a competitive disadvantage. That idea of “data blindness” is the subject of this episode of “10 on Tech.” Molly Presley, Global Product Marketing Director, Qumulo, chats with ActualTech Media Partner James Green about what it means to be blind, in the context of data. As Presley explains, although you have tons of data, you don’t know who’s created it, which data is the most useful to keep as storage fills up, which data should be tiered—and into which tier it should go—and so on. The situation has created huge challenges for IT admins to get access to the data and create value from it. Find out how Qumulo’s accepted that challenge. Show highlights include: Why “data blindness” hurts business Why Qumulo interviewed 1,000 customers before they ev

So, you’ve got lots of data, and it’s stored here, there, and everywhere. How do you manage it all? And beyond that, how do you put it to use in your environment, to do business-enhancing things like artificial intelligence and machine learning? That’s what this episode of “10 on Tech” is about. ActualTech Media Partner James Green talks with Alluxio CEO Steven Mih about the growing problem of data being scattered all over, and the challenges that creates for data scientists and companies wanting to harness it. Alluxio specializes in collecting that data and acting as the go-between between between it and the apps that work on it, like Apache Spark, Presto and Tensorflow. Mih also talks about how his company simplifies your data operations. Highlights of the show include: The sources of the data explosion What extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) is, and why it’s becoming outmoded How data orchestration has improved on ETL The problem of dealing with multiple copies of data What Alluxio

The reality is that every business knows it needs to do more with its data. The problem is that this reality bumps into another reality, especially for smaller companies—the lack of resources to implement full data infrastructure. Automation to the rescue! Offloading this chore can enable organizations of all sizes to build data structures that will help their bottom line. One of the vendors that can do that is WhereScape, and its CTO, Neil Barton, is the guest on this edition of “10 on Tech.” Neil chats with ActualTech Media Partner James Green about how to implement a strategy to build things like data warehouses and data marts by letting someone else do the heavy lifting. Even if you’re a small company, this is within your reach. Listen in to learn how. Highlights of the show include: The critical importance of automation for getting a handle on data How the cloud enables data warehousing on a small scale that wasn’t feasible before The WhereScape value proposition of automating the full lifecycl

Artificial intelligence (AI) as applied to helping manage your IT infrastructure may still feel like a long way off. But it isn’t. This concept, called “AIOps,” is here now and available to organizations. One leading vendor in the space, Dynatrace, is using its AI engine, called “Davis,” to help automate infrastructure, including finding problems before they impact your operations. Dave Anderson, Dynatrace’s SVP, Marketing, discusses Davis and AIOps in general with ActualTech Media Partner James Green. If you’re tired of the 3 a.m. wake-up alert that something’s gone wrong with your data center, this is a show you shouldn’t miss. Highlights of the show include: Defining AIOps Top AIOps benefits Dynatrace’s AI history Answering AI skeptics How Dynatrace’s AI engine, Davis, works Resource links from the show: Dynatrace -- https://www.dynatrace.com/ Davis Assistant -- https://www.dynatrace.com/platform/aiops/davis-assistant/ Dynatrace free trial -- https://www.dynatrace.com/trial/?vehicle_name=h

“This notion that address and port mean something is long since over.” That provocative statement about network security comes from Peter Smith, founder/CEO of Edgewise, as he spoke with ActualTech Media Partner James Green about Zero Trust on this episode of “10 on Tech.” Peter’s talking about the new software-defined era of computing that uses dynamically-assigned addresses and ports, which are constantly changing. Securing this shifting network environment almost demands a Zero Trust mindset. On this episode, James and Peter dive into the deep end of the Zero Trust pool, unpacking what it really means and how to finally get there. Highlights of the show include: The background behind the “Zero Trust” concept Why using software and identity is the best way to secure networks How to find a piece of software’s “digital fingerprint,” and what it means for security How “adaptive segments” help security The way in which Edgewise uses “auto segmentation” to help scale its solution Resource links fro

Dremio Founder and CEO Tomer Shiran calls his company a “cloud data lake engine.” It sounds very sophisticated—but what does that really mean? Basically, it means that his company will connect all your data, whether it’s in Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, or on-premises (or some combination of all of those), and add services that allow you to leverage it for maximum benefit. Sound cool? It is. Tomer discusses the increasingly-important field of Data-as-a-Service with ActualTech Media Partner James Green in this edition of “10 on Tech.” If you’ve got data scattered all over the place, but don’t know how to get to it or how to make it work to help your bottom line, this is one you can’t miss. Highlights of the show include: How the usage of data has evolved over the years Data silos and the current landscape of data fragmentation How the cloud has revolutionized the ability to manage and process data The challenges of moving data to the cloud How Dremio helped Royal Caribbean Cruises l

The concept of “zero trust” is becoming the standard security model in the industry, and that’s a great thing. But zero trust also comes with its own set of challenges; one of the biggest is scaling, especially when the environment extends beyond the on-premises boundaries of the traditional data center. Security vendor Aporeto has an answer to that challenge, and CMO Gregg Holzrichter discusses it with ActualTech Media Partners James Green and Scott Lowe on this special “Live from VMworld” edition of “10 on Tech.” Aporeto enables distributed security policies across virtual machines, containers, and more, and works in multi-cluster, multi-cloud scenarios. If you’re concerned about your application security in the cloud, this episode is for you. Highlights of the show include: How VMware’s announcements around Kubernetes and containers at VMworld 2019 will affect security How the paradigm for authentication and access control has evolved over the years, especially with the shift away from on-premises

There are plenty of people who believe that the public cloud somehow confers availability to applications by its very nature. But that’s a myth—and a potentially dangerous one as well, because you may find out, via a call from the boss, that the mission-critical app you’re hosting on Amazon Web Services isn’t as, uh, resilient as you thought. The reality is that app availability in the cloud, and especially high availability, has to be carefully researched and planned for. It has to be strictly implemented, too, and then monitored. Just being “in the cloud,” in other words, isn’t a silver bullet for making sure your app stays online. Jerry Melnick, President and CEO of SIOS, understands this reality. On this episode of “10 on Tech,” he chats with ActualTech Media Partner James Green about how to get true high availability for apps in the cloud via clustering. Highlights of the show include: What application “high availability” actually means How the idea of high availability has changed over the years

When you’re using Office 365, do you believe that Microsoft is taking care of the backups of that crucial information? If so, you’re living under a dangerous delusion. That’s because Microsoft takes care of its own infrastructure. When it comes to your data sitting on their infrastructure, you’re mostly on your own. Your email, your data in SharePoint or Microsoft Teams or other Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offerings may be at risk. So how do you protect those assets? That’s the subject of this episode of “10 on Tech.” ActualTech Media Partner James Green interviews Dave LeClair, Sr. Director, Product Management at Continuum, about the importance of properly protecting that precious data. Highlights of the show include: Why the things you think are being backed up probably aren’t The range of things that need to be backed up vs. what actually is backed up What types of data Office 365 doesn’t back up The importance of streamlining the SaaS backup management process What Continuum does, and how i

In the Internet age, an old saying goes that it’s best to be there first. And there’s truth in that, too. When it comes to public cloud computing, Amazon was first, and they’re a clear No. 1 in the space. Sometimes it’s hard to be in third place, like Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is, behind Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure. On the other hand, Google is a huge company with lots of resources, and they’re committed to challenging those two cloud titans. Can Google win? It depends on what they have to offer, and that’s the subject of this episode of “10 on Tech.” ActualTech Media Partner James Green interviews author and technologist Dan Sullivan, and they discuss GCP’s past, present, and future possibilities. Highlights of the show include: Why GCP holds third place among public cloud platforms The advantages GCP has as a platform What Google Anthos is, and why it’s important Whether or not GCP is the best fit for Kubernetes, since Google created it Great resources to learn more about G

More and more companies are going multicloud; that is, they’re not standardizing on one platform like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform or Microsoft Azure. They’re picking and choosing multiple providers in an a la carte fashion. While this is a good thing, it also comes with big challenges. Perhaps the biggest of all is complexity. And when it comes to backing up data on those platforms, things can really get tricky. HYCU VP of Products Subbiah Sundaram agrees, and chats with ActualTech Media Partner James Green about the issues arising from the trend toward multicloud usage. One of Sundaram’s main points is that backup should never feel like it’s bolted onto a platform; instead it should be integrated, a service provided by the platform. They also discuss the importance of a single console to simplify management in a mutlicloud setting, and other related topics. Highlights of the show include: Selecting tools that integrate with multi-cloud environments The importance of matching your tool