10 On Tech

There’s no doubt that computing is moving rapidly to the edge – this is the idea behind the Internet of Things, as well as increasing use of mobile and branch networks. One area you may not have thought of is the infrastructure necessary to run a live sports show. SD-WAN vendor Cradlepoint provides that infrastructure for Fox Sports. Cradlepoint CMO Todd Krautkremer discusses how his company does it, and the benefits of automated SD-WAN, in this episode of “10 on Tech” with ActualTech Media Partner James Green. Highlights of the show include: Defining SD-WAN; how it’s not a protocol, but instead an architectural shift Why the new networking paradigm is about defining outcomes, rather than dealing with the complexity of the underneath plumbing How Cradlepoint helped Fox Sports develop their “bring your own network” strategy, so they can control their infrastructure wherever they go The ways in which 5G networking is changing the game Resource links from the show: Cradlepoint -- https://cradlepoint

Keith Townsend is one of the most prominent members of the IT community, with a long and varied background spanning multiple years and many job roles. Having recently joined VMware, he’s now added “vendor employee” to his list of titles. In this episode of “10 on Tech,” ActualTech Media Partner James Green chats with Keith about IT careers. Keith also discusses VMware’s changing role in the cloud era, and the pros and cons of the various IT jobs he’s had. If you're thinking about IT as a career, or a job change within your IT career, this is a must-hear episode. Highlights of the show include: Possible IT career paths How he built his consultancy of CTO Advisor How and why he joined VMware Where VMware fits in the multi-cloud environment Advice for those considering a career move Resource links from the show: The CTO Advisor -- https://www.thectoadvisor.com/ VMware -- https://www.vmware.com Keith Townsend on Twitter -- @CTOAdvisor We hope you enjoy this episode; and don’t forget to subscribe

It’s what many admins would call Nirvana – the ability to automate your infrastructure to the point where you almost don’t have to touch it. Is it just a pipe dream? Ned Bellavance says No! In this episode of “10 on Tech,” ActualTech Media Partner James Green chats with Ned, the director of cloud solutions at Anexinet, about the rising popularity of infrastructure-as-code, and how it’s changing things in the data center. He also discusses Terraform, the tool he uses to make it happen, and some top use cases for infrastructure-as-code. Highlights of the show include: How infrastructure as code makes deployment more consistent across environments, and stabilizes your production processes The best environments for infrastructure-as-code Why Ned uses HashiCorp’s Terraform to automate his infrastructure A case study of using infrastructure-as-code to migrate a company from a traditional, virtual machine-based setup to Amazon Web Services (AWS) Resource links from the show: Ned’s Bellavance’s Pluralsig

Time was, the chief disasters that worried IT were natural disasters – things like fires, floods, earthquakes and tornados. In other words, you had to worry about your on-premises data center going down. But that’s changing, as more pieces of your data center move offsite. With Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) becoming more common, the ways you protect your data have to evolve. That’s especially true when it comes to the biggest IaaS provider of all, Amazon Web Services (AWS). The AWS public cloud and disaster recovery is the topic of this “10 on Tech” podcast, featuring Cloud Daddy CEO Joe Merces. He chats with ActualTech Media Partner James Green about the new ways you’re vulnerable in the cloud era, and how to keep yourself safe from these new threats. Highlights of the show include: The changing disaster recovery landscape How ransomware has forced new thinking about data protection Real-world examples of the frightening impact of ransomware What “security hygiene” is and why it’s crucial W

You’re probably used to the idea of hyperconvergence as it’s applied to storage, servers and networking. But you’re probably not aware that the principles of hyperconvergence can be applied to Kubernetes! This episode of “10 on Tech” teases out that concept. ActualTech Media’s James Green talks with Robin Systems CEO Premal Buch about “hyperconverged Kubernetes,” and how it can dramatically speed up your data operations. Highlights of the show include: The problems inherent in orchestrating Big Data operations from an infrastructure perspective The specific issues Robin Systems was founded to address What “hyperconverged Kubernetes” means, and how it can change your business The importance of multi-cloud, one-click application deployment Resource links from the show: Robin Systems - https://robin.io/ Hyperconverged Kubernetes - https://robin.io/product/hyper-converged-kubernetes/ Kubernetes Overview - https://kubernetes.io/ We hope you enjoy this episode; and don’t forget to subscribe to t

Hyperconverged infrastructure, also known as HCI, used to be thought of as appliances that basically brought together storage, compute and networking into a single box. But that definition, and the way of doing HCI in general, is changing. That’s the focus of this “10 on Tech” podcast, which features a discussion with Maxta Founder and CEO Yoram Novick. ActualTech Media’s James Green asks Yoram about the benefits of a software-only HCI solution, and why he thinks it’s the future of HCI. Hint: it can do a lot more than VDI. Highlights of the show include: How the field of hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) has changed over the last several years The reasons HCI is transitioning from appliances/integrated systems to best-of-breed components The ways in which HCI software changes IT economics How software-based HCI allows for greater choice in the data center for things like hardware, hypervisors, virtual machines and containers, etc. Common misconceptions about HCI Resource links from the show:

When you think of Cray and computing, images of gigantic supercomputers are likely to spring to mind. With good reason: Cray is all about extreme performance at extreme scale. On this week’s “10 on Tech” podcast, Cray discusses how storage is the key to what they do. Mark Wiertalla, Marketing Director at Cray Inc., talks with ActualTech Media Partner James Green about the special storage requirements necessary for high-performance computing. It’s a fascinating look at the world of HPC and how it’s changing computing. Highlights of the show include: The differences between enterprise storage and HPC storage How the idea of “scale” is different for enterprise virtualization needs vs. HPC needs Licensing considerations for massively scaling out all-flash storage arrays Why utilizing parallel file systems are a key for designing storage systems for HPC Resource links from the show: Cray Inc. -- https://www.cray.com/ Defining High Performance Computing -- https://insidehpc.com/hpc-basic-training/w

There are three critical pillars of data protection: backup, restore and disaster recovery. But when it comes to protecting your data in the cloud, advanced security countermeasures and infrastructure management become part of the holistic solution. That’s what Cloud Daddy CEO Joe Merces and ActualTech Media Partner James Green discuss in this “10 on Tech” podcast. Highlights of the show include: How Cloud Daddy provides a “single pane of glass” view of your infrastructure, eliminating the need to keep jumping back and forth between the Amazon Web Services (AWS) console The limitations of AWS when it comes to managing your applications and data, including security and configuration issues How the notions of backup and disaster recovery have evolved over the years with new threats like ransomware Cloud Daddy’s pricing tiers, including a BYOL – Bring Your Own License – option Resource links from the show: Cloud Daddy -- https://www.clouddaddy.com/ Cloud Daddy Pricing page -- https://www.clouddaddy.

“We can do for clusters what VMware did for servers.” It's a bold claim, but that’s what DriveScale aims for, and they’re our guest on this week’s episode of the “10 on Tech” podcast from ActualTech Media. DriveScale Founder and Chief Scientist Tom Lyon, along with CTO Brian Pawlowski, discuss why software composable infrastructure is the future of computing. They chat with ActualTech Media Partner James Green about the underlying principles of this cutting-edge technology and how their customers are making data centers more efficient and less costly. Interview highlights include: • A definition of software composable infrastructure • The ways software composable infrastructure is similar to virtualization – and how it differs • Why their solution is software-only • The limitations of traditional spinning disk storage • Why Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) is crucial in enabling their solution Resource links: • DriveScale - https://drivescale.com/ • DriveScale Solution Brief - https://drivescale.com/s

You need IT resilience: the ability to withstand outages and disruptions and keep IT services humming along. And the cloud helps immensely there. If you can figure it out, that is. In this new episode of the 10 on Tech podcast, James Green of ActualTechMedia interviews Rob Strechay of Zerto (@RealStrech) about ways to do that. It’s not as scary as you think it is – promise. In this interview, you’ll learn about: The challenges that enterprises face with IT resiliency and moving to hybrid cloud. The reasons companies are moving to public clouds like Amazon Web Service, Microsoft Azure and IBM Cloud. Why planned outages are as critical to account for as unplanned outages. How Zerto now provides failback from AWS, as well as to AWS. Zerto’s ability to provide application and data mobility back and forth between multiple clouds. Resource Links: Zerto — https://www.zerto.com/ Rob Strechay on Linkedin — https://www.linkedin.com/in/robstrechay We hope you listen and enjoy, and don’t forget to subscri

Every organization wants to leverage the value of their data. The question isn’t, “should we start getting a handle on this massive trove of information?”, but rather, “how do we even get started? It’s so complicated!” After all, there’s so much data locked away in so many locations and disparate systems. It’s enough to intimidate the most seasoned of admins. That’s what this new episode of the 10 on Tech podcast is all about. In it, Scott D. Lowe and David Davis of ActualTech Media interview Neil Barton (@neilrbarton) about WhereScape (@wherescape). WhereScape helps companies find all their data and learn how to get the most out of it, so they stop leaving money on the table. In this interview, you’ll learn about: Data lakes, data vaults and data warehousing, and the differences between them. WhereScape’s particular model, including the way in which it automates tedious, manual data processes. Benefits that WhereScape customers have gained with the service. WhereScape’s product lines, costs involve

In this new episode of the 10 on Tech podcast, James Green of ActualTech Media interviews E8 Storage Director of Technical Marketing Julie Herd about E8 Storage, and how NVMe is disrupting the storage industry. NVMe isn’t exactly new to the market, but many still know very little or nothing about it. But if you have apps or workloads that need maximum performance at the lowest latency, you need to know about this technology. Highlights of the interview: What NVMe is, and how it works How NVMe differs from SAS and SATA E8 Storage’s new approach to unlocking the power of NVMe Procurement and deployment options for E8 Storage Architecture concerns, including latency and replication How E8 Storage set a record for sub-millisecond response time Resource Links: E8 Storage: https://e8storage.com/ NVMe.org – For more information about the specification The report showing E8 Storage’s record-breaking performance: http://www.spec.org/sfs2014/results/res2018q1/sfs2014-20171221-00030.html Register for th

In this new episode of the 10 on Tech podcast, David Davis and James Green of ActualTech Media interview Alex Chircop (@chira001) of StorageOS (@Storage_OS) about the adoption of container storage. In this interview, you’ll learn about: Why container storage is important in the industry today How the standardization around Kubernetes drives the adoption of container storage. The use case transformations companies have seen when using container storage. Resource Links: StorageOS Beta Program — https://my.storageos.com/register The Kubernetes Book By Nigel Poulton — https://www.amazon.com/Kubernetes-Book-Nigel-Poulton/dp/1521823634 MiniKube — https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/tools/install-minikube/ We hope you listen and enjoy, and don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Google Play, or Stitcher!

In this new episode of the 10 on Tech podcast, James Green and Scott D. Lowe of ActualTech Media interview Cory Stuart of Argonne National Laboratory about data storage for the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program. Cory has some very unique challenges with his data center deployments, and found a solution in Nexsan Unity™ systems. In this interview, Scott and James dig in to some of the finer points of managing data at the edge. In this interview, you’ll hear: A fun overview of the locations of the the laboratory’s data centers and the particulars of these crazy environments How Cory and his team leveraged Nexsan storage to deploy a stable storage solution in a small amount of space that is also capable of tolerating these harsh conditions Challenges Cory still deals with such as bandwidth in the global context Resource Links: Argonne National Laboratory — http://www.anl.gov/ Nexsan Unity Systems - https://www.nexsan.com/products/unified-storage-unity/ Press release about this deployment -

In this new episode of the 10 on Tech podcast, James Green and Scott Lowe of ActualTech Media interview VP of IoT Strategies and Business development at Cradlepoint, Ken Hosac (@KenHosac) about Cradlepoint and their 2018 State of IoT Report that they did in conjunction with Spiceworks. In this interview, you’ll learn about: Pushback received from IT concerning security and bandwidth when implementing IoT Specific use case examples where IoT is being leveraged and implemented The importance of network segregation as a part of an IoT strategy for an organization Resource Links: Cradlepoint — https://cradlepoint.com/ 2018 State of IoT Report — https://cradlepoint.com/white-paper/state-iot-2018 Cradlepoint NetCloud — https://cradlepoint.com/cradlepoint-netcloud

In this new episode of the 10 on Tech podcast, David Davis and James Green of ActualTech Media interview Charles Foley (@CFoleytkd) of Talon about modern challenges with storage, especially when it's geographically dispersed. In this interview, you’ll learn about: - Talon storage technology and how they create global storage fabrics - Problems Talon is solving in the storage today and the types of businesses they serve - How Talon FAST can complement the Azure Cloud while delivering high performance file sharing at geographically dispersed locations Resource Links: - Talon Blog – talonstorage.com/blog - Talon FAST Software – talonstorage.com/products/fast-enterprise-edition

In this new episode of the 10 on Tech podcast, James Green and Scott Lowe of ActualTech Media interview Field CTO at Tintri, Kris Boyd (@Tintri), about SEGA and Storage. In this interview, you’ll learn about: - How Tintri helped SEGA Games solve their virtual machine storage problems. - How the Tintri platform has changed the overall business for SEGA. - The renewed simplicity of VM storage provided by Tintri technology. Resource Links: Tintri — https://www.tintri.com/ SEGA Games — http://www.sega.com/ Kris Boyd on Twitter — https://twitter.com/virtualboyd

In this new episode of the 10 on Tech podcast, James Green and David Davis from ActualTech Media interviewed Patrick Sullivan from 2600Hz. In this interview, you’ll hear from our guest about: - How the UC and VoIP landscape is changing - How 2600Hz is using their open source platform to distrupt this industry - Why UCaaS may be a more approachable option than many of the previously existing options

In this new episode of the 10 on Tech podcast, James Green from ActualTech Media interviewed Eric Wright from Turbonomic. In this interview, you’ll hear from our guest about: - The Theory of Constraints as applied to IT - The tools that organizations are using to remove bottlenecks today - What’s new and exciting at Turbonomic in the latest software release

In this new episode of the 10 on Tech podcast, James Green from ActualTech Media interviewed John Heiderscheidt from MDI Access. In this interview, you’ll hear from our guest about: - The state of building data centers today - Who is building data centers today and how the game is changing - How the notion of “cloud” is impacting the data center market You’ll also benefit from: - John’s recommendations on books and learning tools - Career planning advice from John - John’s #1 tip for professional success Note: John referred to the DRT purchase of Cyrus One early in the interview. He let me know after the recording that he misspoke; DRT bought DuPont Fabros, not Cyrus One.