Gestalt IT Tech Field Day – The Summary
The inaugural Gestalt IT Tech Field Day was a wonderful success! I had the privilege of being invited, and the list of storage (and virtualization) briefings were top-shelf, as befitted the standing, and knowledge, of the Tech Field Day delegates. From Day 0, it was good. The meetup at the hotel lobby, and dinner was nice, with it being good to see old friends, and meet new ones. Dinner was nice, and the haiku contest by Steven Foskett had everyone in knots trying to decipher it.
Tech Field Day, Day 1
For this day, the start was early.
MDS Micro
MDS Micro is the enterprise arm of SuperMicro. We had the opportunity to be briefed by MDS Micro Vice-President of Sales, Karriem Adams on their new QUADv, according to them, the world’s first and only mini blade with industry-leading power consumption.
The device is a beaut. From the specs:
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1) 4 nodes in one 2U chassis
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2) 4 sets of DP quad-core 64-bit Xeon processors
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3) 4 sets of 96 GB registered ECC SDRAM
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4) 4 sets of 3x3.5 hot-swappable drive bays
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5) 2 sets of redundant 1200W power supplies
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4 heavy-duty fans
The QUADv is every bit a revolutionary piece of hardware, and I look forward to taking it through our test regimen at LogikLabs.
SMB Impact: great, but only in the upper midmarket to top of this space.
Xsigo
One of the cool things about the MDS Micro QUADv was the use of a virtual connectivity appliance from Xsigo. Xsigo, pronounced ‘zee-go’, produces a namesake product that provides Virtual I/O. They (Xsigo) aim to solve the I/O issues facing data centers. Consequently, Xsigo supports virtually all the interconnect technologies in place, and are planning to support forthcoming technologies, mostly with just the snapping-in of a new I/O module.
SMB Impact: since the entry point for an Xsigo appliance would be somewhere from 10 to 14 servers, this is a solution for the upper midmarket.
VMWare
VMWare is a company that prior to the Tech Field Day, I had ambivalent feeling for. However, one thing I had been impressed with, was the passion of VMWare partners, certified professionals, and users. The opportunity to see if that passion emanated from VMWare staffers was one that I wanted to see, for it would serve as a barometer for two things:
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As a determinant of how much Microsoft has to do, in innovation, and artful marketing – sadly, both the Windows Vista ‘ Seinfeld’ ads, and the aborted Windows 7 ‘Family Guy’ ads come to mind – to overcome VMWare’s first-mover advantage; and
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To see if VMWare products should be added to the list of products I, and by proxy, Logikworx, should be looking at in order to deliver the best client computing environment for the 2011 timeframe, breaking our Microsoft-only solutions, and introducing homogeneity into our datacenter for the first time.
I am shocked to report that VMWare is more than the market and innovation leader in virtualization: they are fully engaged. With both partners and products, and they are aware of their place in time. Moreover, they are well aware of Social Media, and are trying to use that medium to advance their vision.
I have no doubt that if they continue of their current trajectory, not only would they continue to lead that space, but also I would be using their products. Barring, of course, a slam-dunk by Microsoft with the Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 product.
SMB Impact: Great, and maybe more.
3PAR
3PAR is a company focused on delivering management of storage for ‘cloud’ or virtualized computing environments.
At 3PAR, we were introduced to their InSpire Architecture, which brings together both hardware and software components including the purpose-built 3PAR InForm Operating System to deliver simplicity and efficiency by eliminating the price premiums and scaling complexities associated with monolithic and modular arrays. Start small and grow as you go—affordably and non-disruptively, and all within a single, dynamically tiered array. Basically, they are using proprietary software coupled with commodity hardware to bring new levels of performance to cloud storage.
SMB Impact: indirect, as they would probably deal with cloud providers or managed-services providers directly.
Symantec Storage
Formerly called Veritas, Symantec Storage, attempts to bring (hardware) vendor-agnostic storage management and thin storage to the storage area. According to Symantec Storage, “thin storage is write once, allocate forever”.
SMB Impact: While Symantec Storage Foundation Basic is aimed at the bottom of the market, it seems to me that the primary, secondary, and tertiary targets of their products are the upper ranks of computing.
After Hours: Computer History Museum
Dinner was held at the Computer History Museum. It was a nice meet-and-greet affair, with many vendors coming forth.
Tech Field Day, Day 2
Ocarina
Ocarina, in San Jose, is a company that provides data de-duplication appliances. At Ocarina, Gestalt IT Tech Field Day delegates were treated to an eye-opener on data and de-duplication. When Ocarina CTO Gow walked in with a (paper) notebook and started wiping off the whiteboard in order to brief us, we knew we were in for a treat. He didn’t disappoint.
He proceeded to lecture us – in a good way – about what data de-duplication was, and how Ocarina’s appliances and IP fitted into this. By the time he was done, you could see that their (Ocarina’s) mantra of helping you reclaim storage that you currently have, was imminently attainable. To a person, we loved the presentation, and that segued into the presentation by Nirvanix
SMB Impact: very good.
Nirvanix
Nirvanix is a cloud storage provider that delivers 100% uptime utilizing five (5) data centers across the world. Nirvanix owns its own storage infrastructure, and its data centers have achieved an alphabet soup’s worth of certifications, including SAS 70 Type II. Nirvanix offers offsite data protection, tiered storage, and distributed content and collaboration with the CloudNAS.
What is also remarkable is that the Nirvanix CloudNAS attempts to use all available bandwidth but chunking files into 10 MB pieces and filling the pipe with them. Better still, the CloudNAS does not throttle upload or download speeds.
SMB Impact: the CloudNAS has the potential to be the essential SMB business continuity tool. We shall investigate further.
Truth in IT
Curtis Preston, aka Mr. Backup, offered lunch, and took the opportunity to launch his new venture, Truth in IT. Truth in IT will attempt to take away the trepidation felt by the buying public about the biases of the IT consultants and other recommendation outlets. Using verified buyers, this pure B2B play will only let validated business users join that community. This is a needed service.
It goes without saying that we wish Curtis all the very best.
SMB Impact: Looming. A product like this would allow business buyers to second-guess the recommendations of their ‘computer guys’, and bring greater transparency into that B2B buying space.
Data Robotics
Data Robotics manufactures the Drobo, a line of NAS devices that have a very good mindshare even with the delegates of the Tech Field Day.
The devices are well built, and like my favorite SOHO routers, the CradlePoint series, do not come with a need to read a manual before installation. I am under NDA for some new product(s) we saw at the Tech Field Day. However, once the embargo is lifted, you would understand why I am looking seriously as this product.
SMB Impact: very great. Data Robotics has products that take care of all small businesses, from SOHO to upper midmarket. If you add the under-NDA products we were briefed on as well, you would have to agree that the company is going places.
After hours: Fry’s Electronics, San Jose
The trip to Fry’s Electronics was a relaxing point. I even had my hands full of toys for my kids until I remembered the toys would have necessitated my checking my baggage, something I didn’t want to.
Conclusions
The inaugural Gestalt IT Tech Field Day was a wonderful success! The vendors who presented were nice and welcoming, and all had a story to tell. As a group, we came away pleased with the vendors for taking the time, and also for sending technical people with a knowledge of their products, instead of drones that didn’t have a clue.
I would like to thank Gestalt IT for the opportunity, and I look forward to seeing their name in lights.
Rick Vanover has a disclosure page up. I agree with him.
Gestalt IT Tech Field Day delegates:
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