Building a Hyperconverged Infrastructure in the Data Center

What is hyperconverged technology? It creates a software-centric data center that combines computing, networking and storage all together in a purpose-built appliance to provide IT teams with speed, ease-of-use and agility in the marketplace. CDW's Tom Hudson shares an overview of the technology and explains how it can benefit your business.

Spotlight

Databricks

Databricks’ mission is to accelerate innovation for its customers by unifying Data Science, Engineering and Business. Founded by the team who created Apache Spark™, Databricks provides a Unified Analytics Platform for data science teams to collaborate with data engineering and lines of business to build data products. Users achieve faster time-to-value with Databricks by creating analytic workflows that go from ETL and interactive exploration to production. The company also makes it easier for its users to focus on their data by providing a fully managed, scalable, and secure cloud infrastructure that reduces operational complexity and total cost of ownership. Databricks, venture-backed by Andreessen Horowitz, NEA and Battery Ventures, among others, has a global customer base that includes Salesforce, Viacom, Shell and HP.

OTHER ARTICLES
Hyper-Converged Infrastructure

Network Security: The Safety Net in the Digital World

Article | July 13, 2023

Every business or organization has spent a lot of time and energy building its network infrastructure. The right resources have taken countless hours to establish, ensuring that their network offers connectivity, operation, management, and communication. Their complex hardware, software, service architecture, and strategies are all working for optimum and dependable use. Setting up a security strategy for your network requires ongoing, consistent work. Therefore, the first step in implementing a security technique is to do so. The underlying architecture of your network should consider a range of implementation, upkeep, and continuous active procedures. Network infrastructure security requires a comprehensive strategy that includes best practices and continuing procedures to guarantee that the underlying infrastructure is always safe. A company's choice of security measures is determined by: Appropriate legal requirements Rules unique to the industry The specific network and security needs Security for network infrastructure has numerous significant advantages. For example, a business or institution can cut expenses, boost output, secure internal communications, and guarantee the security of sensitive data. Hardware, software, and services are vital, but they could all have flaws that unintentional or intentional acts could take advantage of. Security for network infrastructure is intended to provide sophisticated, comprehensive resources for defense against internal and external threats. Infrastructures are susceptible to assaults like denial-of-service, ransomware, spam, and illegal access. Implementing and maintaining a workable security plan for your network architecture can be challenging and time-consuming. Experts can help with this crucial and continuous process. A robust infrastructure lowers operational costs, boosts output, and protects sensitive data from hackers. While no security measure will be able to prevent all attack attempts, network infrastructure security can help you lessen the effects of a cyberattack and guarantee that your business is back up and running as soon as feasible.

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Hyper-Converged Infrastructure

WIRELESS DATA CENTERS AND CLOUD COMPUTING

Article | October 3, 2023

One of the most exciting areas of Vubiq Network’s innovative millimeter wave technology is in the application of ultra high-speed, short-range communications as applied to solving the scaling constraints and costs for internal data center connectivity and switching. Today’s limits of cabled and centralized switching architectures are eliminated by leveraging the wide bandwidths of the millimeter wave spectrum for the high-density communications requirements inside the modern data center. Our patented technology has the ability to provide more than one terabit per second of wireless uplink capacity from a single server rack through an innovative approach to create a millimeter wave massive mesh network. The elimination of all inter-rack cabling – as well as the elimination of all aggregation and core switches – is combined with higher throughput, lower latency, lower power, higher reliability, and lower cost by using millimeter wave wireless connectivity.

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Hyper-Converged Infrastructure, Application Infrastructure

COVID-19 and the IT sector: Challenges and Opportunities

Article | July 19, 2023

The year of the pandemic – that is how many of us will remember 2020 for generations to come. Challenging circumstances brought by the sudden and devastating spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) has made us witness the world making quick changes to remote working, businesses struggling to survive, the distress of social distancing rules, the emotional rollercoaster for people isolating, an overall crisis for health systems and the economy of countries, no matter where you were in the world. When reflecting on what it has meant so far, however, we must realise that it’s not all doom and gloom. As Albert Einstein once said, “in the midst of every crisis lied a great opportunity”. The crisis has prompted companies to reinvent and accelerate digital plans, to adopt new technologies and sales models in order to adapt and survive – and for Managed Service Providers (MSPs) to step up to support businesses and employees in every way possible. On the other hand, let’s also not forget what the changes have meant for the health of our ecosystems. With industries across varied sectors forced to work remotely and shut down operations, the changes have led to benefits for the environment – and we could argue that such break was something that our planet was desperately in need of. Even now, as we start to see our way out of this situation, it’s hard to believe how it all happened. For most countries, it was a similar case: we were hearing news about a new virus spreading in China; and before we knew more about it, the virus arrived in our own territories. It seemed unlikely, and yet, a few days later, the virus was quickly spreading, and lockdown restrictions came into effect for almost every nation in the globe. Millions of workers around the world had to leave the office and make a quick switch to remote working, without much notice at all. In the initial stages of lockdown, MSPs had to work around the clock to help customers that weren’t ready for flexible working, to enable people to work from home. As every other industry and business type, MSPs also encountered challenges. Not being able to help a client on-site can sometimes significantly affect the speed of project delivery. So, adjustments had to be made, wherever possible, to deliver services remotely, as quickly and seamlessly as possible. “We are all in this together” is a phrase that became widespread in the UK. IT professionals, like many other sectors, had to support each other, and they have been working together as a community, to assist clients, businesses, and the wider public, since working from home was suddenly imposed for the vast majority. In the technology space, there is a lot of knowledge to share and to work with, which has led to many tech leaders and companies offering free advice, webinars and other tools to help with the struggles that have risen in the midst of the pandemic. Shifting priorities based on customer needs In the initial stages of the pandemic, MSPs played a critical role providing small and medium sized businesses with the tools and the IT infrastructure to keep their business running. Enabling office-based workers to continue their work from home was only the first step, however. The sudden shift to remote working has required new tools and exposed new security vulnerabilities. All around the world, we saw an increasing number of cyber-attacks and threats taking place. Remote working means many people were using personal computers for work and business purposes, and so, products that are designed to keep personal computers protected became essential. MSPs have also focused on increasing security measures for protecting password and identities for customers. Passwords on their own are not secure enough and can be easily compromised, so it has been a case of quickly deploying password management and Multi-factor Authentication (MFA), also known as two-factor authentication (2FA). MFA immediately increases security and ensures that clients’ accounts are significantly less likely to be compromised. In a few simple steps, IT providers can deploy MFA to help protect an organisation against breaches due to lost or stolen credentials. Beyond helping employees to work from home securely, MSPs have assisted companies in implementing cloud-based applications, and managing access and restrictions to certain applications, especially for furloughed staff. Embracing opportunities in the post-pandemic landscape The spread of Covid-19 has made remote working the new norm, but how likely is this to become a permanent thing? Many employers and workers have started to believe that working from home will become more and more common for employees, even after the threat of the virus is gone. It’s difficult to know what the final picture will be, but it’s remains a fact that, as offices gradually re-open after lockdown, employers are increasingly looking at new ways of flexible working. Many organisations that have been forced to work from home have been functioning remotely with little to no issue, so it stands to reason that the future of work will become more flexible. Video-calls, online training sessions, webinars, online meetings, it all sounds too familiar now, doesn’t it? Remote working was already popular, though for a long time it wasn’t much more than a much-appreciated working benefit offered by employers, as part of the ‘job perks’ package. The pandemic only accelerated the need for remote working capabilities, and now telecommuting seems to be taking over as the new norm. The IT landscape has mutated, and quite possibly it has changed for good. Technology leaders will have to continue to listen to the evolving needs and demands of the users and the markets in which they operate. For MSPs, it means the crisis is bringing opportunities to provide value to clients seeking support for enhanced mobility and flexible working. Now that work-from-home setups are in place, there’s room for improving remote access solutions and security measures. Cloud migrations, which are expected to increase after the pandemic, present an opportunity for remote employees to improve collaboration and business resiliency. There will be a push towards more robust cloud-based solutions, and these migrations are likely to become one of the top opportunities for the months to come to drive revenue for MSPs, as well as VoIP solutions, business continuity and hardware sales. The pandemic seems to have accelerated the demand for cloud services and security solutions. MSPs will play an important role in finding the best solutions for every business type, to enable them to work more flexibly and effectively. IT providers will be increasingly tasked with the job of securing devices and protecting employees as they work remotely, especially for SMBs.

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IT Systems Management

Why are Investments in Network Monitoring Necessary for Businesses?

Article | July 27, 2022

Businesses are depending more and more on information technology to accomplish daily objectives. The viability and profitability of a firm are directly impacted by the necessity of putting the appropriate technological processes in place. The misunderstanding that "the Internet is down" is often associated with poor internet connectivity shows how crucial network maintenance is since troubleshooting should always begin and conclude with a network expert. In actuality, though, that employee will spend time out of their day to "repair the Internet," and the money spent on that time is the result of the company's failure to implement a dependable network monitoring system. The direct financial loss increases with network unreliability. Because expanding wide area network (WAN) infrastructure and cloud networking have now become a significant component of today's enterprise computing, networks have grown much more virtualized and are no longer restricted to either physical location or hardware. While networks themselves are evolving, there is a growing need for IT network management. As organizations modernize their IT infrastructure, they should think about purchasing a network management system for several reasons. Creating More Effective, Less Redundant Systems Every network has to deal with data transfer through significant hubs and the flow of information. In order to avoid slowing down data transfer, not using up more IP addresses in a network scheme than necessary, and avoiding dead loops, networking engineers have had to carefully route networking equipment to end devices over the years. An effective IT management solution can analyze how your network is operating and provide immediate insights into the types of changes you need to make to cut down on redundancy and improve workflow. More productivity and less time spent troubleshooting delayed data transfers result from increased efficiency. Increasing Firewall Defense Given that more apps are being utilized for internal and external massive data transfers, every network must have adequate firewalls and access control setup. In addition to screen sharing and remote desktop services, more companies require team meeting software with live video conferencing choices. Programs with these features can be highly vulnerable to hackers and other vulnerabilities; thus, it's crucial that firewalls stop attackers from utilizing the software to access restricted sections of corporate networks. Your network management tools can set up your firewalls and guarantee that only secure network connections and programs are used in critical parts of your system. The bottom line is that your company network will constantly require security and development, and your underlying network must be quick and dependable to satisfy demands for both workplace productivity and customer experience. Which IT network management system, nevertheless, is best for your company? Effectiveness doesn't require a lot of complexity, and if it works with well-known network providers, there's a good chance the cost will be justified. Rock-solid security will be the most crucial factor, but you should also search for a system that can operate on physical, cloud, and hybrid infrastructure.

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Spotlight

Databricks

Databricks’ mission is to accelerate innovation for its customers by unifying Data Science, Engineering and Business. Founded by the team who created Apache Spark™, Databricks provides a Unified Analytics Platform for data science teams to collaborate with data engineering and lines of business to build data products. Users achieve faster time-to-value with Databricks by creating analytic workflows that go from ETL and interactive exploration to production. The company also makes it easier for its users to focus on their data by providing a fully managed, scalable, and secure cloud infrastructure that reduces operational complexity and total cost of ownership. Databricks, venture-backed by Andreessen Horowitz, NEA and Battery Ventures, among others, has a global customer base that includes Salesforce, Viacom, Shell and HP.

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Hyper-Converged Infrastructure, Application Infrastructure

Nutanix Accelerates Kubernetes Adoption in the Enterprise

Nutanix | October 27, 2022

Nutanix , a leader in hybrid multicloud computing, today announced new features in its Cloud Platform to accelerate the adoption of Kubernetes running both at scale and cost-effectively. The company announced broad support for leading Kubernetes container platforms, built-in infrastructure as code capabilities, and enhanced data services for modern applications. These new features allow DevOps teams to accelerate application delivery with the performance, governance, and flexibility of the Nutanix Cloud Platform while allowing customers to maintain control of their IT operating costs. “Kubernetes deployments are inherently dynamic and challenging to manage at scale. “Running Kubernetes container platforms cost-effectively at large scale requires developer-ready infrastructure that seamlessly adapts to changing requirements. Our expertise in simplifying infrastructure management while optimizing resources—both on-premises and in the public cloud—is now being applied to help enterprises adopt Kubernetes more quickly. The Nutanix Cloud Platform now supports a broad choice of Kubernetes container platforms, provides integrated data services for modern applications, and enables developers to provision Infrastructure as Code.” Thomas Cornely, SVP, Product Management, Nutanix According to Gartner, by 2027, 25% of all enterprise applications will run in containers, an increase from fewer than 10% in 20211. This is a significant challenge for many given most Kubernetes solutions are not meant to support enterprise scale, even less can do so in a manner that is cost effective. The Nutanix Cloud Platform enables enterprises to run Kubernetes in a software-defined infrastructure environment that can linearly scale. Additionally, whether running Kubernetes on-premises or in the public cloud, Nutanix delivers a cost-effective solution that can help lower total cost of ownership by up to 53% when compared to other native cloud deployment solutions. New capabilities, including broad support for leading Kubernetes container platforms, built-in infrastructure as code capabilities, and enhanced data services, make Nutanix an even stronger proposition for enterprises looking to deploy Kubernetes at scale. Specifically, new enhancements include: Broad Kubernetes Ecosystem: The Nutanix Cloud Platform, with the built-in AHV hypervisor, now supports most leading Kubernetes container platforms with the addition of Amazon EKS-A. This builds on a large ecosystem including Red Hat OpenShift, SUSE Rancher, as well as Google Anthos, and Microsoft Azure Arc for edge deployments, along with the native Nutanix Kubernetes, Nutanix Kubernetes Engine (NKE). Built-In Infrastructure as Code Operating Model: Nutanix also announced an updated API family along with its SDKs in Java, JS, Go and Python, currently under development. This will enable automation at scale and consistent operations regardless of location—in the datacenter, on the public cloud, or at edge—both of key importance to enterprises. Additionally, when combined with Red Hat Ansible Certified Content or the Nutanix Terraform provider, a DevOps methodology can be brought to infrastructure through automation leveraging Infrastructure as Code. Strengthened Data Services for Modern Applications: Nutanix Cloud Platform’s web-scale architecture enables customers to start small and scale to multi-PB sized deployments as application needs grow. It is the only platform to unify delivery of integrated data services with file, object, and now adding database services on the same platform for Kubernetes-based applications. Today Nutanix launched Nutanix Database Service Operator for Kubernetes, which enables developers to quickly and easily provision and attach databases to their application stacks directly from development environments. The open source operator is available via artifacthub.io as well as by direct download at GitHub. Additionally, Nutanix Objects now supports a reference implementation of Container Object Storage Interface (COSI) for ease of orchestration and self-service provisioning. It also adds support for observability using Prometheus. Lastly, Objects is now validated with modern analytics applications including Presto, Dremio, and Vertica, along with Confluent Kafka to efficiently enable large-scale data pipelines often used in real-time streaming applications. These new features build on the Nutanix Cloud Platform’s ability to handle the dynamic demands of Kubernetes applications at scale. With the Nutanix hyperconverged infrastructure, performance and capacity scale linearly, resilience is delivered from the ground up with self-healing nodes, and persistent storage is natively integrated. Additionally, the Nutanix Cloud Platform can help deliver cost efficiencies by eliminating unused compute and storage resources. For customers looking at cloud integrations, the same Nutanix value is delivered across hybrid multicloud endpoints with full license portability across edge, datacenter, service provider, and hyperscaler points of presence. “When we decided to bring the core platform for our solutions in-house, we decided to take a modular containerized approach to give us the desired flexibility and simplify management by maintaining customization as configurations,” said Larry McClanahan, Chief Product Officer, Nymbus. “Our partnership with Red Hat and Nutanix gives us the flexibility to innovate, the speed to get to market fast, and the tremendous scalability to support ongoing growth. We’re thrilled that we can better help our customers succeed in the digital banking market with unique solutions.” "Container development platforms promise faster application development speed, but will only be deployed by organizations who can maintain compliance, day 2 operations, and cost management control at scale,” said Paul Nashawaty, Senior Analyst at ESG. “Nutanix offers a compelling path to speed the deployment of modern applications at scale and in a cost-effective manner, with full choice of Kubernetes container development environments and cloud endpoints." About Nutanix Nutanix is a global leader in cloud software and a pioneer in hyperconverged infrastructure solutions, making clouds invisible, freeing customers to focus on their business outcomes. Organizations around the world use Nutanix software to leverage a single platform to manage any app at any location for their hybrid multicloud environments.

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Application Infrastructure, IT Systems Management

Scale Computing Tops CRN’s 2022 Annual Report Card for Edge Computing and Converged/Hyperconverged Infrastructure

Scale Computing | August 23, 2022

Scale Computing, a market leader in edge computing, virtualization, and hyperconverged solutions, today announced that CRN®, a brand of The Channel Company, has named it a winner of the 2022 CRN Annual Report (ARC) Awards in both the Edge Computing category and the Converged/Hyperconverged Infrastructure category. This is the fourth consecutive year Scale Computing has been recognized as a CRN ARC Award winner, and the company once again swept all of the subcategories including Product Innovation, Support, Partnership, and Managed & Cloud Services in both Edge Computing and Converged/Hyperconverged Infrastructure. The company also announced a “save the date” for the 2023 Scale Computing Platform Partner Summit, February 15-16 in Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to download the dates to your Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar, or iCal. With a 37-year history, CRN’s ARC Awards recognize best-in-class vendors that are devoted to boosting IT channel growth through innovation in technology and partner strategy. Through the ARC Awards — known as one of the most prestigious honors in the IT industry — solution providers offer key feedback that commends technology manufacturers for designing channel-friendly product offerings, developing strong partner programs, and building long-term successful relationships with solution providers. “This recognition represents the ‘Voice of the Partner’ and we are very proud to be named the leader in both Edge Computing and Converged/Hyperconverged Infrastructure. “This year is particularly meaningful as vendor survey participation was mandatory, ranking us number one above all of our competition. When we founded Scale Computing, we set out to create a company that would be the best vendor our customers and partners would ever work with. Sweeping all subcategories over our competitors for years in-a-row proves we are delivering on that promise.” Jeff Ready, CEO and co-founder, Scale Computing Scale Computing Platform brings simplicity, high availability, and scalability together, replacing the existing infrastructure and running applications in a single, easy-to-manage platform. Bringing faster time to value than competing solutions, SC//Platform enables organizations to run applications in a unified environment that scales from 1 to 50,000 servers. Regardless of hardware requirements, the same innovative software and simple user interface provides the power to run infrastructure efficiently at the edge, in the distributed enterprise, and in the data center. The ARC Awards are based on an invitation-only research survey conducted by The Channel Company. Responses from 3,000 solution providers across North America were evaluated in this year’s survey, rating 82 vendor partners across four criteria: product innovation, support, partnership, and managed cloud services. Scores were awarded in 25 major product categories in technology areas that are critical to channel partner success. “It’s our pleasure to honor vendors that consistently deliver top-performing products and services to establish and foster successful channel partner relationships,” said Blaine Raddon, CEO, The Channel Company. “In addition to highlighting our winners, CRN’s Annual Report Card Awards provide vendors with actionable feedback and insight into their current standing with partners that can be incorporated into their channel strategies in the future. We look forward to offering our congratulations to all the award recipients at XChange 2022 in August.” Winners will be featured throughout The Channel Company’s XChange 2022 conference, taking place August 21-23 in Denver, CO. Coverage of the CRN 2022 ARC results can be found online at www.CRN.com/ARC and will be featured in the October 2022 issue of CRN Magazine. About Scale Computing Scale Computing is a leader in edge computing, virtualization, and hyperconverged solutions. Using patented HyperCore™ technology, Scale Computing Platform automatically identifies, mitigates, and corrects infrastructure problems in real-time, enabling applications to achieve maximum uptime, even when local IT resources and staff are scarce. Edge Computing is the fastest growing area of IT infrastructure, and industry analysts have named Scale Computing an outperformer and leader in the space, including being named the #1 edge computing vendor by CRN. Scale Computing’s products are sold by thousands of value-added resellers, integrators, and service providers worldwide. When ease-of-use, high availability, and TCO matter, Scale Computing Platform is the ideal infrastructure platform. About The Channel Company The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers and end users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequalled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace.

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Hyper-Converged Infrastructure

Sunlight.io launches first hyperconverged stack supporting the NVIDIA Jetson-based Lenovo ThinkEdge SE70 to make edge AI deployable at scale

Sunlight | June 30, 2022

Sunlight.io, the edge infrastructure company, today announced support for the NVIDIA Jetson™ edge AI platform, and the Lenovo SE70, with the launch of its beta program — ‘Project Rosie.’ Sunlight NexVisor is the first full hyperconverged stack to support the Arm-CPU-based NVIDIA Jetson. Sunlight NexVisor coupled with the Lenovo SE70 makes it easy to deploy AI applications anywhere at the edge. Application developers can be the first to access the technology and test their AI applications by applying here. AI is a ‘killer application’ at the edge where it is bringing real-time “insight to action” across a wide range of use cases. For example, computer vision — combining cameras, video streaming and analytics — is being implemented at drive-thrus nationwide for faster and more personalized food ordering; on manufacturing production lines to instantly identify and remove faulty items; and across smart cities to enhance population and crowd security. These sorts of AI applications need high levels of processing power with low latency and reliable networking in order to give real-time results. Enterprises want to replicate the simplicity of the hyperconverged infrastructure they enjoy in their core data centers for their edge AI applications. However, datacenter HCI isn’t able to run in the constrained environments that exist at the edge due to their large RAM and CPU overhead and lack of edge management capabilities. This makes edge deployments extremely resource intensive to manage and hard to scale. Sunlight NexVisor is the only hyperconverged stack that is able to run on both x86 and Arm architectures and with a tiny footprint suitable for constrained edge environments. It includes centralized management and application deployment capabilities. NVIDIA Jetson is the world's leading platform for AI at the edge. NVIDIA Jetson modules are small form-factor, high-performance computers containing an Arm processor and GPU. The combination of Sunlight NexVisor and the NVIDIA Jetson-powered Lenovo ThinkEdge SE70 makes it possible to run demanding edge AI applications in harsh environments that span hundreds or thousands of sites with easy single-pane-of-glass management, low TCO and tiny power and space requirements. Sunlight is a member of NVIDIA Inception, a global program designed to nurture cutting-edge startups. Scott Tease, Lenovo’s VP for HPC and AI said, "Our customers realize the advantages of edge AI and deploying solutions closer to the point of data capture to run real-time inferencing. That is why we are so excited to be partnering up with Sunlight as they support our edge portfolio to significantly improve the efficiency and economics of AI deployments for customers worldwide." “We are excited to launch this exclusive beta program for users who need to run efficient, manageable AI out where the data is generated — at the edge. “Sunlight already offers full support for the Lenovo ThinkEdge and ThinkSystem range, including the Intel-based SE30, SE50, SE350 and SE450. Together, we’ve been able to produce a truly industry-first solution by combining Sunlight’s turn-key, edge-as-a-service offering with Lenovo’s leading AI edge platform powered by NVIDIA Jetson. Sunlight was born out of a collaboration with Arm back in 2013 to build a lightweight hypervisor, and we’re seeing huge demand for the use of Arm-based servers at the edge due to their performance and power-efficiency.” Julian Chesterfield, Founder and CEO of Sunlight About Sunlight The Sunlight Edge is a reliable, secure, zero-touch and economic infrastructure that helps turn your critical edge data into real-time insight and action across your retail stores, manufacturing lines and smart cities. Sunlight makes running and managing applications and infrastructure at the edge as easy as in the cloud. Sunlight works with efficient, ruggedized edge hardware — so you can consolidate all of your in-location edge applications with full isolation, security and high availability.

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Hyper-Converged Infrastructure, Application Infrastructure

Nutanix Accelerates Kubernetes Adoption in the Enterprise

Nutanix | October 27, 2022

Nutanix , a leader in hybrid multicloud computing, today announced new features in its Cloud Platform to accelerate the adoption of Kubernetes running both at scale and cost-effectively. The company announced broad support for leading Kubernetes container platforms, built-in infrastructure as code capabilities, and enhanced data services for modern applications. These new features allow DevOps teams to accelerate application delivery with the performance, governance, and flexibility of the Nutanix Cloud Platform while allowing customers to maintain control of their IT operating costs. “Kubernetes deployments are inherently dynamic and challenging to manage at scale. “Running Kubernetes container platforms cost-effectively at large scale requires developer-ready infrastructure that seamlessly adapts to changing requirements. Our expertise in simplifying infrastructure management while optimizing resources—both on-premises and in the public cloud—is now being applied to help enterprises adopt Kubernetes more quickly. The Nutanix Cloud Platform now supports a broad choice of Kubernetes container platforms, provides integrated data services for modern applications, and enables developers to provision Infrastructure as Code.” Thomas Cornely, SVP, Product Management, Nutanix According to Gartner, by 2027, 25% of all enterprise applications will run in containers, an increase from fewer than 10% in 20211. This is a significant challenge for many given most Kubernetes solutions are not meant to support enterprise scale, even less can do so in a manner that is cost effective. The Nutanix Cloud Platform enables enterprises to run Kubernetes in a software-defined infrastructure environment that can linearly scale. Additionally, whether running Kubernetes on-premises or in the public cloud, Nutanix delivers a cost-effective solution that can help lower total cost of ownership by up to 53% when compared to other native cloud deployment solutions. New capabilities, including broad support for leading Kubernetes container platforms, built-in infrastructure as code capabilities, and enhanced data services, make Nutanix an even stronger proposition for enterprises looking to deploy Kubernetes at scale. Specifically, new enhancements include: Broad Kubernetes Ecosystem: The Nutanix Cloud Platform, with the built-in AHV hypervisor, now supports most leading Kubernetes container platforms with the addition of Amazon EKS-A. This builds on a large ecosystem including Red Hat OpenShift, SUSE Rancher, as well as Google Anthos, and Microsoft Azure Arc for edge deployments, along with the native Nutanix Kubernetes, Nutanix Kubernetes Engine (NKE). Built-In Infrastructure as Code Operating Model: Nutanix also announced an updated API family along with its SDKs in Java, JS, Go and Python, currently under development. This will enable automation at scale and consistent operations regardless of location—in the datacenter, on the public cloud, or at edge—both of key importance to enterprises. Additionally, when combined with Red Hat Ansible Certified Content or the Nutanix Terraform provider, a DevOps methodology can be brought to infrastructure through automation leveraging Infrastructure as Code. Strengthened Data Services for Modern Applications: Nutanix Cloud Platform’s web-scale architecture enables customers to start small and scale to multi-PB sized deployments as application needs grow. It is the only platform to unify delivery of integrated data services with file, object, and now adding database services on the same platform for Kubernetes-based applications. Today Nutanix launched Nutanix Database Service Operator for Kubernetes, which enables developers to quickly and easily provision and attach databases to their application stacks directly from development environments. The open source operator is available via artifacthub.io as well as by direct download at GitHub. Additionally, Nutanix Objects now supports a reference implementation of Container Object Storage Interface (COSI) for ease of orchestration and self-service provisioning. It also adds support for observability using Prometheus. Lastly, Objects is now validated with modern analytics applications including Presto, Dremio, and Vertica, along with Confluent Kafka to efficiently enable large-scale data pipelines often used in real-time streaming applications. These new features build on the Nutanix Cloud Platform’s ability to handle the dynamic demands of Kubernetes applications at scale. With the Nutanix hyperconverged infrastructure, performance and capacity scale linearly, resilience is delivered from the ground up with self-healing nodes, and persistent storage is natively integrated. Additionally, the Nutanix Cloud Platform can help deliver cost efficiencies by eliminating unused compute and storage resources. For customers looking at cloud integrations, the same Nutanix value is delivered across hybrid multicloud endpoints with full license portability across edge, datacenter, service provider, and hyperscaler points of presence. “When we decided to bring the core platform for our solutions in-house, we decided to take a modular containerized approach to give us the desired flexibility and simplify management by maintaining customization as configurations,” said Larry McClanahan, Chief Product Officer, Nymbus. “Our partnership with Red Hat and Nutanix gives us the flexibility to innovate, the speed to get to market fast, and the tremendous scalability to support ongoing growth. We’re thrilled that we can better help our customers succeed in the digital banking market with unique solutions.” "Container development platforms promise faster application development speed, but will only be deployed by organizations who can maintain compliance, day 2 operations, and cost management control at scale,” said Paul Nashawaty, Senior Analyst at ESG. “Nutanix offers a compelling path to speed the deployment of modern applications at scale and in a cost-effective manner, with full choice of Kubernetes container development environments and cloud endpoints." About Nutanix Nutanix is a global leader in cloud software and a pioneer in hyperconverged infrastructure solutions, making clouds invisible, freeing customers to focus on their business outcomes. Organizations around the world use Nutanix software to leverage a single platform to manage any app at any location for their hybrid multicloud environments.

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Application Infrastructure, IT Systems Management

Scale Computing Tops CRN’s 2022 Annual Report Card for Edge Computing and Converged/Hyperconverged Infrastructure

Scale Computing | August 23, 2022

Scale Computing, a market leader in edge computing, virtualization, and hyperconverged solutions, today announced that CRN®, a brand of The Channel Company, has named it a winner of the 2022 CRN Annual Report (ARC) Awards in both the Edge Computing category and the Converged/Hyperconverged Infrastructure category. This is the fourth consecutive year Scale Computing has been recognized as a CRN ARC Award winner, and the company once again swept all of the subcategories including Product Innovation, Support, Partnership, and Managed & Cloud Services in both Edge Computing and Converged/Hyperconverged Infrastructure. The company also announced a “save the date” for the 2023 Scale Computing Platform Partner Summit, February 15-16 in Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to download the dates to your Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar, or iCal. With a 37-year history, CRN’s ARC Awards recognize best-in-class vendors that are devoted to boosting IT channel growth through innovation in technology and partner strategy. Through the ARC Awards — known as one of the most prestigious honors in the IT industry — solution providers offer key feedback that commends technology manufacturers for designing channel-friendly product offerings, developing strong partner programs, and building long-term successful relationships with solution providers. “This recognition represents the ‘Voice of the Partner’ and we are very proud to be named the leader in both Edge Computing and Converged/Hyperconverged Infrastructure. “This year is particularly meaningful as vendor survey participation was mandatory, ranking us number one above all of our competition. When we founded Scale Computing, we set out to create a company that would be the best vendor our customers and partners would ever work with. Sweeping all subcategories over our competitors for years in-a-row proves we are delivering on that promise.” Jeff Ready, CEO and co-founder, Scale Computing Scale Computing Platform brings simplicity, high availability, and scalability together, replacing the existing infrastructure and running applications in a single, easy-to-manage platform. Bringing faster time to value than competing solutions, SC//Platform enables organizations to run applications in a unified environment that scales from 1 to 50,000 servers. Regardless of hardware requirements, the same innovative software and simple user interface provides the power to run infrastructure efficiently at the edge, in the distributed enterprise, and in the data center. The ARC Awards are based on an invitation-only research survey conducted by The Channel Company. Responses from 3,000 solution providers across North America were evaluated in this year’s survey, rating 82 vendor partners across four criteria: product innovation, support, partnership, and managed cloud services. Scores were awarded in 25 major product categories in technology areas that are critical to channel partner success. “It’s our pleasure to honor vendors that consistently deliver top-performing products and services to establish and foster successful channel partner relationships,” said Blaine Raddon, CEO, The Channel Company. “In addition to highlighting our winners, CRN’s Annual Report Card Awards provide vendors with actionable feedback and insight into their current standing with partners that can be incorporated into their channel strategies in the future. We look forward to offering our congratulations to all the award recipients at XChange 2022 in August.” Winners will be featured throughout The Channel Company’s XChange 2022 conference, taking place August 21-23 in Denver, CO. Coverage of the CRN 2022 ARC results can be found online at www.CRN.com/ARC and will be featured in the October 2022 issue of CRN Magazine. About Scale Computing Scale Computing is a leader in edge computing, virtualization, and hyperconverged solutions. Using patented HyperCore™ technology, Scale Computing Platform automatically identifies, mitigates, and corrects infrastructure problems in real-time, enabling applications to achieve maximum uptime, even when local IT resources and staff are scarce. Edge Computing is the fastest growing area of IT infrastructure, and industry analysts have named Scale Computing an outperformer and leader in the space, including being named the #1 edge computing vendor by CRN. Scale Computing’s products are sold by thousands of value-added resellers, integrators, and service providers worldwide. When ease-of-use, high availability, and TCO matter, Scale Computing Platform is the ideal infrastructure platform. About The Channel Company The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers and end users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequalled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace.

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Hyper-Converged Infrastructure

Sunlight.io launches first hyperconverged stack supporting the NVIDIA Jetson-based Lenovo ThinkEdge SE70 to make edge AI deployable at scale

Sunlight | June 30, 2022

Sunlight.io, the edge infrastructure company, today announced support for the NVIDIA Jetson™ edge AI platform, and the Lenovo SE70, with the launch of its beta program — ‘Project Rosie.’ Sunlight NexVisor is the first full hyperconverged stack to support the Arm-CPU-based NVIDIA Jetson. Sunlight NexVisor coupled with the Lenovo SE70 makes it easy to deploy AI applications anywhere at the edge. Application developers can be the first to access the technology and test their AI applications by applying here. AI is a ‘killer application’ at the edge where it is bringing real-time “insight to action” across a wide range of use cases. For example, computer vision — combining cameras, video streaming and analytics — is being implemented at drive-thrus nationwide for faster and more personalized food ordering; on manufacturing production lines to instantly identify and remove faulty items; and across smart cities to enhance population and crowd security. These sorts of AI applications need high levels of processing power with low latency and reliable networking in order to give real-time results. Enterprises want to replicate the simplicity of the hyperconverged infrastructure they enjoy in their core data centers for their edge AI applications. However, datacenter HCI isn’t able to run in the constrained environments that exist at the edge due to their large RAM and CPU overhead and lack of edge management capabilities. This makes edge deployments extremely resource intensive to manage and hard to scale. Sunlight NexVisor is the only hyperconverged stack that is able to run on both x86 and Arm architectures and with a tiny footprint suitable for constrained edge environments. It includes centralized management and application deployment capabilities. NVIDIA Jetson is the world's leading platform for AI at the edge. NVIDIA Jetson modules are small form-factor, high-performance computers containing an Arm processor and GPU. The combination of Sunlight NexVisor and the NVIDIA Jetson-powered Lenovo ThinkEdge SE70 makes it possible to run demanding edge AI applications in harsh environments that span hundreds or thousands of sites with easy single-pane-of-glass management, low TCO and tiny power and space requirements. Sunlight is a member of NVIDIA Inception, a global program designed to nurture cutting-edge startups. Scott Tease, Lenovo’s VP for HPC and AI said, "Our customers realize the advantages of edge AI and deploying solutions closer to the point of data capture to run real-time inferencing. That is why we are so excited to be partnering up with Sunlight as they support our edge portfolio to significantly improve the efficiency and economics of AI deployments for customers worldwide." “We are excited to launch this exclusive beta program for users who need to run efficient, manageable AI out where the data is generated — at the edge. “Sunlight already offers full support for the Lenovo ThinkEdge and ThinkSystem range, including the Intel-based SE30, SE50, SE350 and SE450. Together, we’ve been able to produce a truly industry-first solution by combining Sunlight’s turn-key, edge-as-a-service offering with Lenovo’s leading AI edge platform powered by NVIDIA Jetson. Sunlight was born out of a collaboration with Arm back in 2013 to build a lightweight hypervisor, and we’re seeing huge demand for the use of Arm-based servers at the edge due to their performance and power-efficiency.” Julian Chesterfield, Founder and CEO of Sunlight About Sunlight The Sunlight Edge is a reliable, secure, zero-touch and economic infrastructure that helps turn your critical edge data into real-time insight and action across your retail stores, manufacturing lines and smart cities. Sunlight makes running and managing applications and infrastructure at the edge as easy as in the cloud. Sunlight works with efficient, ruggedized edge hardware — so you can consolidate all of your in-location edge applications with full isolation, security and high availability.

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