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Containers Hold an Agile Approach to Data Center Virtualization.

SHRUTI JAIN | December 13, 2016 | 138 views

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, container is a noun, and is defined as a receptacle for holding goods. Alternatively, it also means, a portable compartment in which freight is placed (as on a train or ship) for convenience of movement. In this blog, I’ll be talking about containers in the networking sense and the important role they play in virtualizing data center resources and computing capabilities. Today, data centers represent the digital foundation for delivering most IT services and providing storage, communications, and networking to the growing number of connected devices, users, and processes that we rely on in our personal and business lives. The increased focus on business agility and cost optimization has led to the rise and growth of cloud data centers. Virtualization is at the heart of the efficient and effective use of data center technology. There are various forms of virtualization, but containers offer a unique set of benefits for particular implementation types.

Spotlight

ForeScout Technologies Inc.

ForeScout is transforming security through visibility. We help make the invisible visible by providing Global 2000 enterprises and government agencies with agentless visibility and control of traditional and IoT devices the instant they connect to the network. Our technology integrates with disparate security tools to help organizations accelerate incident response, break down silos, automate workflows and optimize existing investments.

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APPLICATION INFRASTRUCTURE

Enhancing Rack-Level Security to Enable Rapid Innovation

Article | August 3, 2022

IT and data center administrators are under pressure to foster quicker innovation. For workers and customers to have access to digital experiences, more devices must be deployed, and larger enterprise-to-edge networks must be managed. The security of distributed networks has suffered as a result of this rapid growth, though. Some colocation providers can install custom locks for your cabinet if necessary due to the varying compliance standards and security needs for distinct applications. However, physical security measures are still of utmost importance because theft and social engineering can affect hardware as well as data. Risk Companies Face Remote IT work continue on the long run Attacking users is the easiest way into networks IT may be deploying devices with weak controls When determining whether rack-level security is required, there are essentially two critical criteria to take into account. The first is the level of sensitivity of the data stored, and the second is the importance of the equipment in a particular rack to the facility's continuing functioning. Due to the nature of the data being handled and kept, some processes will always have a higher risk profile than others. Conclusion Data centers must rely on a physically secure perimeter that can be trusted. Clients, in particular, require unwavering assurance that security can be put in place to limit user access and guarantee that safety regulations are followed. Rack-level security locks that ensure physical access limitations are crucial to maintaining data center space security. Compared to their mechanical predecessors, electronic rack locks or "smart locks" offer a much more comprehensive range of feature-rich capabilities.

Read More
APPLICATION INFRASTRUCTURE

Infrastructure Lifecycle Management Best Practices

Article | August 8, 2022

As your organization scales, inevitably, so too will its infrastructure needs. From physical spaces to personnel, devices to applications, physical security to cybersecurity – all these resources will continue to grow to meet the changing needs of your business operations. To manage your changing infrastructure throughout its entire lifecycle, your organization needs to implement a robust infrastructure lifecycle management program that’s designed to meet your particular business needs. In particular, IT asset lifecycle management (ITALM) is becoming increasingly important for organizations across industries. As threats to organizations’ cybersecurity become more sophisticated and successful cyberattacks become more common, your business needs (now, more than ever) to implement an infrastructure lifecycle management strategy that emphasizes the security of your IT infrastructure. In this article, we’ll explain why infrastructure management is important. Then we’ll outline steps your organization can take to design and implement a program and provide you with some of the most important infrastructure lifecycle management best practices for your business. What Is the Purpose of Infrastructure Lifecycle Management? No matter the size or industry of your organization, infrastructure lifecycle management is a critical process. The purpose of an infrastructure lifecycle management program is to protect your business and its infrastructure assets against risk. Today, protecting your organization and its customer data from malicious actors means taking a more active approach to cybersecurity. Simply put, recovering from a cyber attack is more difficult and expensive than protecting yourself from one. If 2020 and 2021 have taught us anything about cybersecurity, it’s that cybercrime is on the rise and it’s not slowing down anytime soon. As risks to cybersecurity continue to grow in number and in harm, infrastructure lifecycle management and IT asset management are becoming almost unavoidable. In addition to protecting your organization from potential cyberattacks, infrastructure lifecycle management makes for a more efficient enterprise, delivers a better end user experience for consumers, and identifies where your organization needs to expand its infrastructure. Some of the other benefits that come along with comprehensive infrastructure lifecycle management program include: More accurate planning; Centralized and cost-effective procurement; Streamlined provisioning of technology to users; More efficient maintenance; Secure and timely disposal. A robust infrastructure lifecycle management program helps your organization to keep track of all the assets running on (or attached to) your corporate networks. That allows you to catalog, identify and track these assets wherever they are, physically and digitally. While this might seem simple enough, infrastructure lifecycle management and particularly ITALM has become more complex as the diversity of IT assets has increased. Today organizations and their IT teams are responsible for managing hardware, software, cloud infrastructure, SaaS, and connected device or IoT assets. As the number of IT assets under management has soared for most organizations in the past decade, a comprehensive and holistic approach to infrastructure lifecycle management has never been more important. Generally speaking, there are four major stages of asset lifecycle management. Your organization’s infrastructure lifecycle management program should include specific policies and processes for each of the following steps: Planning. This is arguably the most important step for businesses and should be conducted prior to purchasing any assets. During this stage, you’ll need to identify what asset types are required and in what number; compile and verify the requirements for each asset; and evaluate those assets to make sure they meet your service needs. Acquisition and procurement. Use this stage to identify areas for purchase consolidation with the most cost-effective vendors, negotiate warranties and bulk purchases of SaaS and cloud infrastructure assets. This is where lack of insights into actual asset usage can potentially result in overpaying for assets that aren’t really necessary. For this reason, timely and accurate asset data is crucial for effective acquisition and procurement. Maintenance, upgrades and repair. All assets eventually require maintenance, upgrades and repairs. A holistic approach to infrastructure lifecycle management means tracking these needs and consolidating them into a single platform across all asset types. Disposal. An outdated or broken asset needs to be disposed of properly, especially if it contains sensitive information. For hardware, assets that are older than a few years are often obsolete, and assets that fall out of warranty are typically no longer worth maintaining. Disposal of cloud infrastructure assets is also critical because data stored in the cloud can stay there forever. Now that we’ve outlined the purpose and basic stages of infrastructure lifecycle management, it’s time to look at the steps your organization can take to implement it.

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IT SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT

The Drive with Direction: The Path of Enterprise IT Infrastructure

Article | July 14, 2022

Introduction It is hard to manage a modern firm without a convenient and adaptable IT infrastructure. When properly set up and networked, technology can improve back-office processes, increase efficiency, and simplify communication. IT infrastructure can be utilized to supply services or resources both within and outside of a company, as well as to its customers. IT infrastructure when adequately deployed aids organizations in achieving their objectives and increasing profits. IT infrastructure is made up of numerous components that must be integrated for your company's infrastructure to be coherent and functional. These components work in unison to guarantee that your systems and business as a whole run smoothly. Enterprise IT Infrastructure Trends Consumption-based pricing models are becoming more popular among enterprise purchasers, a trend that began with software and has now spread to hardware. This transition from capital to operational spending lowers risk, frees up capital, and improves flexibility. As a result, infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) revenues increased by 53% from 2015 to 2016, making them the fastest-growing cloud and infrastructure services segments. The transition to as-a-service models is significant given that a unit of computing or storage in the cloud can be quite cheaper in terms of the total cost of ownership than a unit on-premises. While businesses have been migrating their workloads to the public cloud for years, there has been a new shift among large corporations. Many companies, including Capital One, GE, Netflix, Time Inc., and others, have downsized or removed their private data centers in favor of shifting their operations to the cloud. Cybersecurity remains a high priority for the C-suite and the board of directors. Attacks are increasing in number and complexity across all industries, with 80% of technology executives indicating that their companies are unable to construct a robust response. Due to lack of cybersecurity experts, many companies can’t get the skills they need on the inside, so they have to use managed security services. Future of Enterprise IT Infrastructure Companies can adopt the 'As-a-Service' model to lower entry barriers and begin testing future innovations on the cloud's basis. Domain specialists in areas like healthcare and manufacturing may harness AI's potential to solve some of their businesses' most pressing problems. Whether in a single cloud or across several clouds, businesses want an architecture that can expand to support the rapid evolution of their apps and industry for decades. For enterprise-class visibility and control across all clouds, the architecture must provide a common control plane that supports native cloud Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) as well as enhanced networking and security features. Conclusion The scale of disruption in the IT infrastructure sector is unparalleled, presenting enormous opportunities and hazards for industry stakeholders and their customers. Technology infrastructure executives must restructure their portfolios and rethink their go-to-market strategies to drive growth. They should also invest in the foundational competencies required for long-term success, such as digitization, analytics, and agile development. Data center companies that can solve the industry's challenges, as well as service providers that can scale quickly without limits and provide intelligent outcome-based models. This helps their clients achieve their business objectives through a portfolio of 'As-a-Service' models, will have a bright future.

Read More
APPLICATION INFRASTRUCTURE

A Look at Trends in IT infrastructure and Operations for 2022

Article | May 9, 2022

We’re all hoping that 2022 will finally end the unprecedented challenges brought by the global pandemic and things will return to a new normalcy. For IT infrastructure and operations organizations, the rising trends that we are seeing today will likely continue, but there are still a few areas that will need special attention from IT leaders over the next 12 to 18 months. In no particular order, they include: The New Edge Edge computing is now at the forefront. Two primary factors that make it business-critical are the increased prevalence of remote and hybrid workplace models where employees will continue working remotely, either from home or a branch office, resulting in an increased adoption of cloud-based businesses and communications services. With the rising focus on remote and hybrid workplace cultures, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet have continued to expand their solutions and add new features. As people start moving back to office, they are likely to want the same experience they had from home. In a typical enterprise setup, branch office traffic is usually backhauled all the way to the data center. This architecture severely impacts the user experience, so enterprises will have to review their network architectures and come up with a roadmap to accommodate local egress between branch offices and headquarters. That’s where the edge can help, bringing it closer to the workforce. This also brings an opportunity to optimize costs by migrating from some of the expensive multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) or private circuits to relatively low-cost direct internet circuits, which is being addressed by the new secure access service edge (SASE) architecture that is being offered by many established vendors. I anticipate some components of SASE, specifically those related to software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN), local egress, and virtual private network (VPN), will drive a lot of conversation this year. Holistic Cloud Strategy Cloud adoption will continue to grow, and along with software as a service (SaaS), there will be renewed interest in infrastructure as a service (IaaS), albeit for specific workloads. For a medium-to-large-sized enterprise with a substantial development environment, it will still be cost-prohibitive to move everything to the cloud, so any cloud strategy would need to be holistic and forward-looking to maximize its business value. Another pandemic-induced shift is from using virtual machines (VMs) as a consumption unit of compute to containers as a consumption unit of software. For on-premises or private cloud deployment architectures that require sustainable management, organizations will have to orchestrate containers and deploy efficient container security and management tools. Automation Now that cloud adoption, migration, and edge computing architectures are becoming more prevalent, the legacy methods of infrastructure provisioning and management will not be scalable. By increasing infrastructure automation, enterprises can optimize costs and be more flexible and efficient—but only if they are successful at developing new skills. To achieve the goal of “infrastructure as a code” will require a shift in the perspective on infrastructure automation to one that focuses on developing and sustaining skills and roles that improve efficiency and agility across on-premises, cloud, and edge infrastructures. Defining the roles of designers and architects to support automation is essential to ensure that automation works as expected, avoids significant errors, and complements other technologies. AIOps (Artificial Intelligence for IT Operations) Alongside complementing automation trends, the implementation of AIOps to effectively automate IT operations processes such as event correlation, anomaly detection, and causality determination will also be important. AIOps will eliminate the data silos in IT by bringing all types of data under one roof so it can be used to execute machine learning (ML)-based methods to develop insights for responsive enhancements and corrections. AIOps can also help with probable cause analytics by focusing on the most likely source of a problem. The concept of site reliability engineering (SRE) is being increasingly adopted by SaaS providers and will gain importance in enterprise IT environments due to the trends listed above. AIOps is a key component that will enable site reliability engineers (SREs) to respond more quickly—and even proactively—by resolving issues without manual intervention. These focus areas are by no means an exhaustive list. There are a variety of trends that will be more prevalent in specific industry areas, but a common theme in the post-pandemic era is going to be superior delivery of IT services. That’s also at the heart of the Autonomous Digital Enterprise, a forward-focused business framework designed to help companies make technology investments for the future.

Read More
APPLICATION INFRASTRUCTURE

Why Should Your Business Utilize Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)?

Article | August 3, 2022

IT and data center administrators are under pressure to foster quicker innovation. For workers and customers to have access to digital experiences, more devices must be deployed, and larger enterprise-to-edge networks must be managed. The security of distributed networks has suffered as a result of this rapid growth, though. Some colocation providers can install custom locks for your cabinet if necessary due to the varying compliance standards and security needs for distinct applications. However, physical security measures are still of utmost importance because theft and social engineering can affect hardware as well as data. Risk Companies Face Remote IT work continue on the long run Attacking users is the easiest way into networks IT may be deploying devices with weak controls When determining whether rack-level security is required, there are essentially two critical criteria to take into account. The first is the level of sensitivity of the data stored, and the second is the importance of the equipment in a particular rack to the facility's continuing functioning. Due to the nature of the data being handled and kept, some processes will always have a higher risk profile than others. Conclusion Data centers must rely on a physically secure perimeter that can be trusted. Clients, in particular, require unwavering assurance that security can be put in place to limit user access and guarantee that safety regulations are followed. Rack-level security locks that ensure physical access limitations are crucial to maintaining data center space security. Compared to their mechanical predecessors, electronic rack locks or "smart locks" offer a much more comprehensive range of feature-rich capabilities.

Read More
APPLICATION INFRASTRUCTURE

All You Need to Know About IaaS Vs. PaaS Vs. SaaS

Article | August 8, 2022

As your organization scales, inevitably, so too will its infrastructure needs. From physical spaces to personnel, devices to applications, physical security to cybersecurity – all these resources will continue to grow to meet the changing needs of your business operations. To manage your changing infrastructure throughout its entire lifecycle, your organization needs to implement a robust infrastructure lifecycle management program that’s designed to meet your particular business needs. In particular, IT asset lifecycle management (ITALM) is becoming increasingly important for organizations across industries. As threats to organizations’ cybersecurity become more sophisticated and successful cyberattacks become more common, your business needs (now, more than ever) to implement an infrastructure lifecycle management strategy that emphasizes the security of your IT infrastructure. In this article, we’ll explain why infrastructure management is important. Then we’ll outline steps your organization can take to design and implement a program and provide you with some of the most important infrastructure lifecycle management best practices for your business. What Is the Purpose of Infrastructure Lifecycle Management? No matter the size or industry of your organization, infrastructure lifecycle management is a critical process. The purpose of an infrastructure lifecycle management program is to protect your business and its infrastructure assets against risk. Today, protecting your organization and its customer data from malicious actors means taking a more active approach to cybersecurity. Simply put, recovering from a cyber attack is more difficult and expensive than protecting yourself from one. If 2020 and 2021 have taught us anything about cybersecurity, it’s that cybercrime is on the rise and it’s not slowing down anytime soon. As risks to cybersecurity continue to grow in number and in harm, infrastructure lifecycle management and IT asset management are becoming almost unavoidable. In addition to protecting your organization from potential cyberattacks, infrastructure lifecycle management makes for a more efficient enterprise, delivers a better end user experience for consumers, and identifies where your organization needs to expand its infrastructure. Some of the other benefits that come along with comprehensive infrastructure lifecycle management program include: More accurate planning; Centralized and cost-effective procurement; Streamlined provisioning of technology to users; More efficient maintenance; Secure and timely disposal. A robust infrastructure lifecycle management program helps your organization to keep track of all the assets running on (or attached to) your corporate networks. That allows you to catalog, identify and track these assets wherever they are, physically and digitally. While this might seem simple enough, infrastructure lifecycle management and particularly ITALM has become more complex as the diversity of IT assets has increased. Today organizations and their IT teams are responsible for managing hardware, software, cloud infrastructure, SaaS, and connected device or IoT assets. As the number of IT assets under management has soared for most organizations in the past decade, a comprehensive and holistic approach to infrastructure lifecycle management has never been more important. Generally speaking, there are four major stages of asset lifecycle management. Your organization’s infrastructure lifecycle management program should include specific policies and processes for each of the following steps: Planning. This is arguably the most important step for businesses and should be conducted prior to purchasing any assets. During this stage, you’ll need to identify what asset types are required and in what number; compile and verify the requirements for each asset; and evaluate those assets to make sure they meet your service needs. Acquisition and procurement. Use this stage to identify areas for purchase consolidation with the most cost-effective vendors, negotiate warranties and bulk purchases of SaaS and cloud infrastructure assets. This is where lack of insights into actual asset usage can potentially result in overpaying for assets that aren’t really necessary. For this reason, timely and accurate asset data is crucial for effective acquisition and procurement. Maintenance, upgrades and repair. All assets eventually require maintenance, upgrades and repairs. A holistic approach to infrastructure lifecycle management means tracking these needs and consolidating them into a single platform across all asset types. Disposal. An outdated or broken asset needs to be disposed of properly, especially if it contains sensitive information. For hardware, assets that are older than a few years are often obsolete, and assets that fall out of warranty are typically no longer worth maintaining. Disposal of cloud infrastructure assets is also critical because data stored in the cloud can stay there forever. Now that we’ve outlined the purpose and basic stages of infrastructure lifecycle management, it’s time to look at the steps your organization can take to implement it.

Read More
IT SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT

Network Security: The Safety Net in the Digital World

Article | July 14, 2022

Introduction It is hard to manage a modern firm without a convenient and adaptable IT infrastructure. When properly set up and networked, technology can improve back-office processes, increase efficiency, and simplify communication. IT infrastructure can be utilized to supply services or resources both within and outside of a company, as well as to its customers. IT infrastructure when adequately deployed aids organizations in achieving their objectives and increasing profits. IT infrastructure is made up of numerous components that must be integrated for your company's infrastructure to be coherent and functional. These components work in unison to guarantee that your systems and business as a whole run smoothly. Enterprise IT Infrastructure Trends Consumption-based pricing models are becoming more popular among enterprise purchasers, a trend that began with software and has now spread to hardware. This transition from capital to operational spending lowers risk, frees up capital, and improves flexibility. As a result, infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) revenues increased by 53% from 2015 to 2016, making them the fastest-growing cloud and infrastructure services segments. The transition to as-a-service models is significant given that a unit of computing or storage in the cloud can be quite cheaper in terms of the total cost of ownership than a unit on-premises. While businesses have been migrating their workloads to the public cloud for years, there has been a new shift among large corporations. Many companies, including Capital One, GE, Netflix, Time Inc., and others, have downsized or removed their private data centers in favor of shifting their operations to the cloud. Cybersecurity remains a high priority for the C-suite and the board of directors. Attacks are increasing in number and complexity across all industries, with 80% of technology executives indicating that their companies are unable to construct a robust response. Due to lack of cybersecurity experts, many companies can’t get the skills they need on the inside, so they have to use managed security services. Future of Enterprise IT Infrastructure Companies can adopt the 'As-a-Service' model to lower entry barriers and begin testing future innovations on the cloud's basis. Domain specialists in areas like healthcare and manufacturing may harness AI's potential to solve some of their businesses' most pressing problems. Whether in a single cloud or across several clouds, businesses want an architecture that can expand to support the rapid evolution of their apps and industry for decades. For enterprise-class visibility and control across all clouds, the architecture must provide a common control plane that supports native cloud Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) as well as enhanced networking and security features. Conclusion The scale of disruption in the IT infrastructure sector is unparalleled, presenting enormous opportunities and hazards for industry stakeholders and their customers. Technology infrastructure executives must restructure their portfolios and rethink their go-to-market strategies to drive growth. They should also invest in the foundational competencies required for long-term success, such as digitization, analytics, and agile development. Data center companies that can solve the industry's challenges, as well as service providers that can scale quickly without limits and provide intelligent outcome-based models. This helps their clients achieve their business objectives through a portfolio of 'As-a-Service' models, will have a bright future.

Read More
APPLICATION INFRASTRUCTURE

A Look at Trends in IT infrastructure and Operations for 2022

Article | May 9, 2022

We’re all hoping that 2022 will finally end the unprecedented challenges brought by the global pandemic and things will return to a new normalcy. For IT infrastructure and operations organizations, the rising trends that we are seeing today will likely continue, but there are still a few areas that will need special attention from IT leaders over the next 12 to 18 months. In no particular order, they include: The New Edge Edge computing is now at the forefront. Two primary factors that make it business-critical are the increased prevalence of remote and hybrid workplace models where employees will continue working remotely, either from home or a branch office, resulting in an increased adoption of cloud-based businesses and communications services. With the rising focus on remote and hybrid workplace cultures, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet have continued to expand their solutions and add new features. As people start moving back to office, they are likely to want the same experience they had from home. In a typical enterprise setup, branch office traffic is usually backhauled all the way to the data center. This architecture severely impacts the user experience, so enterprises will have to review their network architectures and come up with a roadmap to accommodate local egress between branch offices and headquarters. That’s where the edge can help, bringing it closer to the workforce. This also brings an opportunity to optimize costs by migrating from some of the expensive multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) or private circuits to relatively low-cost direct internet circuits, which is being addressed by the new secure access service edge (SASE) architecture that is being offered by many established vendors. I anticipate some components of SASE, specifically those related to software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN), local egress, and virtual private network (VPN), will drive a lot of conversation this year. Holistic Cloud Strategy Cloud adoption will continue to grow, and along with software as a service (SaaS), there will be renewed interest in infrastructure as a service (IaaS), albeit for specific workloads. For a medium-to-large-sized enterprise with a substantial development environment, it will still be cost-prohibitive to move everything to the cloud, so any cloud strategy would need to be holistic and forward-looking to maximize its business value. Another pandemic-induced shift is from using virtual machines (VMs) as a consumption unit of compute to containers as a consumption unit of software. For on-premises or private cloud deployment architectures that require sustainable management, organizations will have to orchestrate containers and deploy efficient container security and management tools. Automation Now that cloud adoption, migration, and edge computing architectures are becoming more prevalent, the legacy methods of infrastructure provisioning and management will not be scalable. By increasing infrastructure automation, enterprises can optimize costs and be more flexible and efficient—but only if they are successful at developing new skills. To achieve the goal of “infrastructure as a code” will require a shift in the perspective on infrastructure automation to one that focuses on developing and sustaining skills and roles that improve efficiency and agility across on-premises, cloud, and edge infrastructures. Defining the roles of designers and architects to support automation is essential to ensure that automation works as expected, avoids significant errors, and complements other technologies. AIOps (Artificial Intelligence for IT Operations) Alongside complementing automation trends, the implementation of AIOps to effectively automate IT operations processes such as event correlation, anomaly detection, and causality determination will also be important. AIOps will eliminate the data silos in IT by bringing all types of data under one roof so it can be used to execute machine learning (ML)-based methods to develop insights for responsive enhancements and corrections. AIOps can also help with probable cause analytics by focusing on the most likely source of a problem. The concept of site reliability engineering (SRE) is being increasingly adopted by SaaS providers and will gain importance in enterprise IT environments due to the trends listed above. AIOps is a key component that will enable site reliability engineers (SREs) to respond more quickly—and even proactively—by resolving issues without manual intervention. These focus areas are by no means an exhaustive list. There are a variety of trends that will be more prevalent in specific industry areas, but a common theme in the post-pandemic era is going to be superior delivery of IT services. That’s also at the heart of the Autonomous Digital Enterprise, a forward-focused business framework designed to help companies make technology investments for the future.

Read More
MORE ARTICLES

Spotlight

ForeScout Technologies Inc.

ForeScout is transforming security through visibility. We help make the invisible visible by providing Global 2000 enterprises and government agencies with agentless visibility and control of traditional and IoT devices the instant they connect to the network. Our technology integrates with disparate security tools to help organizations accelerate incident response, break down silos, automate workflows and optimize existing investments.

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DATA STORAGE

Portworx by Pure Storage Recognized as the Leader in Kubernetes Storage for Three Consecutive Years by GigaOm

Pure Storage | August 08, 2022

Pure Storage® , the IT pioneer that delivers the world's most advanced data storage technology and services, today announced it was named the leader for the third consecutive year in the GigaOm Radar Report for Enterprise Kubernetes Storage, which analyzed enterprise storage systems with support for Kubernetes-based workloads, and its companion report for Cloud-Native Kubernetes Data Storage, which analyzed Kubernetes-native storage solutions built specifically to support stateful containers with scalable, distributed architectures. According to the GigaOm Radar Report for Cloud-Native Kubernetes Storage, Portworx® by Pure Storage "is one of the most advanced solutions for enterprise Kubernetes storage" and "remains the gold standard in cloud-native Kubernetes storage for the enterprise" as "a complete enterprise-grade solution with outstanding data management capabilities, unmatched deployment possibilities, and superior management features." Across criteria and evaluation metrics, Portworx was ranked by GigaOm as a "strong focus and perfect fit" in advanced data services, advanced CSI integration, deployment models, control plane architecture, developer experience, visibility and insights, as well as architecture, scalability, flexibility, manageability, and performance. Portworx continues to advance the innovation of its Kubernetes Data Platform to bring databases such as Kafka, Cassandra, and Postgres under one platform in the most simple and reliable manner with Portworx Data Services. The GigaOm Radar Report for Enterprise Kubernetes Storage claimed "the integration of Portworx Essentials on Pure Storage controller-based architectures significantly enhances data efficiency because users benefit from the data reduction capabilities offered by the storage arrays." The report also highlights that this powerful integration "allows organizations to seamlessly deploy cloud-native workloads on a proven Kubernetes storage solution, and as their needs grow, they can effortlessly migrate those workloads to the full Portworx solution if they decide to adopt it." Once again, Pure Storage received the highest scores among all market segments, deployment models, and evaluation metrics in the analysis. "For three consecutive years, we've been recognized as a Leader and Outperformer by GigaOm Radar. Customers running containers and databases at scale in production use Portworx to ensure highly reliable, available and secure Kubernetes data storage capabilities. I'm incredibly proud of our Portworx engineering team's recognition by GigaOm as we continue on our mission to help enterprises unleash the power of data." Murli Thirumale, VP, GM Cloud Native Business Unit, Pure Storage In addition to the GigaOm Radar Reports for Cloud-Native Kubernetes Data Storage and Enterprise Kubernetes Data Storage, Pure Storage has been consistently recognized as a leader across the other GigaOm reports for which it qualifies, including High-Performance Object Storage, Kubernetes Data Protection, and Enterprise General-Purpose Storage Systems. About Pure Storage Pure Storage uncomplicates data storage, forever. Pure Storage delivers a cloud experience that empowers every organization to get the most from their data while reducing the complexity and expense of managing the infrastructure behind it. Pure Storage's commitment to providing true storage as-a-service gives customers the agility to meet changing data needs at speed and scale, whether they are deploying traditional workloads, modern applications, containers, or more. Pure Storage believes it can make a significant impact in reducing data center emissions worldwide through its environmental sustainability efforts, including designing products and solutions that enable customers to reduce their carbon and energy footprint. And with a certified customer satisfaction score in the top one percent of B2B companies, Pure Storage's ever-expanding list of customers are among the happiest in the world.

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APPLICATION INFRASTRUCTURE

eStruxture Data Centers Signs Infrastructure Masons Climate Accord to Reduce Global Carbon Emissions

eStruxture | August 04, 2022

Today, eStruxture Data Centers, the largest Canadian cloud and carrier-neutral data center provider, is pleased to announce that it has signed the Infrastructure Masons Climate Accord (ICA), which unites over 70 companies to reduce carbon in digital infrastructure materials, products, and power. “At eStruxture, we are committed to designing and powering our data centers sustainably, and we are thrilled to be a part of this important initiative to promote global carbon accounting of digital infrastructure and work together with our industry peers towards a Net Zero future. Todd Coleman, President and CEO of eStruxture The ICA includes several large hyperscale companies, representing some of the largest digital infrastructure portfolios in the world, and over 40 colocation data center providers, product, service and investment firms. Together with these industry trailblazers, eStruxture will collaborate to adopt open standards, policies, and reporting around carbon reduction to drive industry accountability. “We established iMasons to unite the builders of the digital age,” said Dean Nelson, Chairman and Founder of Infrastructure Masons. “The ICA represents an unprecedented collaboration between leading digital infrastructure companies to accelerate our journey to carbon neutrality. Today, we are combining forces to compound the efforts of these firms to make meaningful and sustained progress toward that goal.” Sustainability is one of the core fundamentals that eStruxture was built upon and signing this accord is an important step on the company’s journey to reducing the environmental impact of the data center industry and building a better future. About Infrastructure Masons Infrastructure Masons (iMasons) is a non-profit, professional association of technology and business leaders who represent over $150Bn in infrastructure projects in over 130 countries. The organization is guided by an Advisory Council composed of global leaders who manage some of the largest digital infrastructure portfolios in the world. The iMasons vision is to Unite the Builders of the Digital Age by enabling our global membership to Connect, Grow, and Give Back. Members leave their companies at the door and connect as individuals. iMasons has four strategic industry priorities – increase Awareness, enhance Education opportunities, champion Diversity & Inclusion, and inspire Sustainability through deep member engagement. Visit the website at imasons.org or LinkedIn. About eStruxture eStruxture is the largest Canadian data center provider with locations in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary. Our solutions are designed to give you more: more locations, more capacity, more connections that enable you to run modern, demanding enterprise applications, and offer your business the control to rapidly scale in response to unpredictable changes in business processes.

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DATA STORAGE

SANBlaze Enters New Markets in the Storage Testing Industry

SANBlaze | August 01, 2022

SANBlaze Technology Inc., a leading worldwide provider of advanced storage test and validation technologies, today announced the expansion of its industry-first NVMe® over PCIe® 5.0 validation and compliance testing system from traditional SSD manufacturers to new markets comprised of data center storage and large cloud vendors. “Customer confidence has grown beyond our traditional walls of satisfying requirements from major SSD manufacturers to supporting large data centers and cloud storage organizations. “This evolution stems from our first-to-market leadership for early adoption and development of NVMe PCIe Gen5. Early availability was a critical factor in enabling our key strategic customers to meet their internal development schedules for Gen 5 SSD’s and FCS releases.” Rick Walsh, VP of Sales and Marketing “SANBlaze partnered with WD to get our Gen5 Validation infrastructure ready in time including SRIS/SRNS clocking features which helped to fast track our overall Gen5 bring up,” said Anuj Awasthi, Senior Director, System Design and Firmware Verification Engineering, Western Digital Corp. In addition to SSD manufacturers such as Western Digital, SANBlaze is onboarding new major cloud and data center storage providers as they recognize the capabilities and value of the Certified by SANBlaze test suites as a first-level SSD validation criterion. Certified by SANBlaze is an instant benchmarking tool that saves on CapEx overhead expenses for SSD compute applications. SANBlaze Suite of Products SANBlaze solutions include the SBExpress-RM5™ rackmount appliance, the SBExpress-DT5™ desktop appliance, and the industry benchmark SBExpress Certified by SANBlaze software, which provides over 900 ready-to-go tests and scripts. These latest PCIe 5.0 platforms provide broad test capabilities for development, QA, validation, and manufacturing teams in data centers large and small. SBExpress-RM5 The SBExpress-RM5 is a 16-bay enterprise-class NVMe test appliance supporting hot-plug and all link speeds up through PCIe 5.0. The system features a unique modular “riser” design that enables user-configurable variable slot support, as well as field-upgradable support for all PCIe 5.0 connector form factors, including U.2, M.2, EDSFF, and the new E3/EDSFF. The ability to margin and measure power, glitch signals, and test spread spectrum clocking (SSC) or conventional clocking in both common and SRIS/SRNS modes sets the SBExpress-RM5 apart from all others in the NVMe SSD testing space. Data integrity is verified with a comprehensive suite of read/write/compare tests, with exception cases such as power glitching while running IO, and built-in "Write Atomicity" testing as part of the Certified by SANBlaze test suite. Testing is accessible through a web interface to the appliance or via Python, XML and REST APIs, which come standard with the system. The SBExpress™ Gen5 software includes over nine-hundred test scripts to enable IOL testing in the customer’s lab, before undergoing official testing, as well as ZNS, VDM, and TCG Opal verification. SBExpress-DT5 The SBExpress-DT5 is the sixth-generation SBExpress system and is both evolutionary, growing from its successful family of predecessors, and revolutionary, with advanced test capabilities such as Vendor Defined Messaging (VDM) testing, MI (Management Interface) in-band, and SMBUS testing at 1MHz. All features of the enterprise test suite Certified by SANBlaze are supported by DT5 at PCIe 5.0 speed. SANBlaze at Flash Memory Summit Flash Memory Summit 2022 takes place August 2-4 at the Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara CA, USA. SANBlaze, a member of the Symbiosys Alliance, will be present in booth #219. The Symbiosys Alliance will be present in booth #119. About SANBlaze SANBlaze is a pioneer in storage testing and validation technologies. SANBlaze systems are deployed in the test and development labs of most major storage hardware and software vendors worldwide. SANBlaze is revolutionizing the NVMe Storage Area Network (SAN) and PCIe device qualification markets by offering NVMe testing end-to-end. We are first to market a solution that tests Native NVMe and NVMe over Fabrics (NVMe-oF™) for complete end-to-end testing of your entire system using single port or dual port drives. About the Symbiosys Alliance The Symbiosys Alliance is an I/O interconnect technology group chartered to create value for its membership and for their respective customers by strategically and collaboratively aligning member products and services to current and upcoming market opportunities. These synergized solutions can provide developers with the state-of-the-art resources they need to roll out highly competitive offerings efficiently and confidently to their respective marketplaces. The alliance addresses a range of verticals increasingly characterized by hyper-fast innovation cycles. These include semiconductors, data storage, IoT, cloud computing, consumer electronics, automotive, aerospace, medical, and more. Members leverage alliance partnerships to precisely anticipate and address these innovation cycles by delivering high-quality solutions that resonate with the latest technological advances.

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DATA STORAGE

Portworx by Pure Storage Recognized as the Leader in Kubernetes Storage for Three Consecutive Years by GigaOm

Pure Storage | August 08, 2022

Pure Storage® , the IT pioneer that delivers the world's most advanced data storage technology and services, today announced it was named the leader for the third consecutive year in the GigaOm Radar Report for Enterprise Kubernetes Storage, which analyzed enterprise storage systems with support for Kubernetes-based workloads, and its companion report for Cloud-Native Kubernetes Data Storage, which analyzed Kubernetes-native storage solutions built specifically to support stateful containers with scalable, distributed architectures. According to the GigaOm Radar Report for Cloud-Native Kubernetes Storage, Portworx® by Pure Storage "is one of the most advanced solutions for enterprise Kubernetes storage" and "remains the gold standard in cloud-native Kubernetes storage for the enterprise" as "a complete enterprise-grade solution with outstanding data management capabilities, unmatched deployment possibilities, and superior management features." Across criteria and evaluation metrics, Portworx was ranked by GigaOm as a "strong focus and perfect fit" in advanced data services, advanced CSI integration, deployment models, control plane architecture, developer experience, visibility and insights, as well as architecture, scalability, flexibility, manageability, and performance. Portworx continues to advance the innovation of its Kubernetes Data Platform to bring databases such as Kafka, Cassandra, and Postgres under one platform in the most simple and reliable manner with Portworx Data Services. The GigaOm Radar Report for Enterprise Kubernetes Storage claimed "the integration of Portworx Essentials on Pure Storage controller-based architectures significantly enhances data efficiency because users benefit from the data reduction capabilities offered by the storage arrays." The report also highlights that this powerful integration "allows organizations to seamlessly deploy cloud-native workloads on a proven Kubernetes storage solution, and as their needs grow, they can effortlessly migrate those workloads to the full Portworx solution if they decide to adopt it." Once again, Pure Storage received the highest scores among all market segments, deployment models, and evaluation metrics in the analysis. "For three consecutive years, we've been recognized as a Leader and Outperformer by GigaOm Radar. Customers running containers and databases at scale in production use Portworx to ensure highly reliable, available and secure Kubernetes data storage capabilities. I'm incredibly proud of our Portworx engineering team's recognition by GigaOm as we continue on our mission to help enterprises unleash the power of data." Murli Thirumale, VP, GM Cloud Native Business Unit, Pure Storage In addition to the GigaOm Radar Reports for Cloud-Native Kubernetes Data Storage and Enterprise Kubernetes Data Storage, Pure Storage has been consistently recognized as a leader across the other GigaOm reports for which it qualifies, including High-Performance Object Storage, Kubernetes Data Protection, and Enterprise General-Purpose Storage Systems. About Pure Storage Pure Storage uncomplicates data storage, forever. Pure Storage delivers a cloud experience that empowers every organization to get the most from their data while reducing the complexity and expense of managing the infrastructure behind it. Pure Storage's commitment to providing true storage as-a-service gives customers the agility to meet changing data needs at speed and scale, whether they are deploying traditional workloads, modern applications, containers, or more. Pure Storage believes it can make a significant impact in reducing data center emissions worldwide through its environmental sustainability efforts, including designing products and solutions that enable customers to reduce their carbon and energy footprint. And with a certified customer satisfaction score in the top one percent of B2B companies, Pure Storage's ever-expanding list of customers are among the happiest in the world.

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APPLICATION INFRASTRUCTURE

eStruxture Data Centers Signs Infrastructure Masons Climate Accord to Reduce Global Carbon Emissions

eStruxture | August 04, 2022

Today, eStruxture Data Centers, the largest Canadian cloud and carrier-neutral data center provider, is pleased to announce that it has signed the Infrastructure Masons Climate Accord (ICA), which unites over 70 companies to reduce carbon in digital infrastructure materials, products, and power. “At eStruxture, we are committed to designing and powering our data centers sustainably, and we are thrilled to be a part of this important initiative to promote global carbon accounting of digital infrastructure and work together with our industry peers towards a Net Zero future. Todd Coleman, President and CEO of eStruxture The ICA includes several large hyperscale companies, representing some of the largest digital infrastructure portfolios in the world, and over 40 colocation data center providers, product, service and investment firms. Together with these industry trailblazers, eStruxture will collaborate to adopt open standards, policies, and reporting around carbon reduction to drive industry accountability. “We established iMasons to unite the builders of the digital age,” said Dean Nelson, Chairman and Founder of Infrastructure Masons. “The ICA represents an unprecedented collaboration between leading digital infrastructure companies to accelerate our journey to carbon neutrality. Today, we are combining forces to compound the efforts of these firms to make meaningful and sustained progress toward that goal.” Sustainability is one of the core fundamentals that eStruxture was built upon and signing this accord is an important step on the company’s journey to reducing the environmental impact of the data center industry and building a better future. About Infrastructure Masons Infrastructure Masons (iMasons) is a non-profit, professional association of technology and business leaders who represent over $150Bn in infrastructure projects in over 130 countries. The organization is guided by an Advisory Council composed of global leaders who manage some of the largest digital infrastructure portfolios in the world. The iMasons vision is to Unite the Builders of the Digital Age by enabling our global membership to Connect, Grow, and Give Back. Members leave their companies at the door and connect as individuals. iMasons has four strategic industry priorities – increase Awareness, enhance Education opportunities, champion Diversity & Inclusion, and inspire Sustainability through deep member engagement. Visit the website at imasons.org or LinkedIn. About eStruxture eStruxture is the largest Canadian data center provider with locations in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary. Our solutions are designed to give you more: more locations, more capacity, more connections that enable you to run modern, demanding enterprise applications, and offer your business the control to rapidly scale in response to unpredictable changes in business processes.

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DATA STORAGE

SANBlaze Enters New Markets in the Storage Testing Industry

SANBlaze | August 01, 2022

SANBlaze Technology Inc., a leading worldwide provider of advanced storage test and validation technologies, today announced the expansion of its industry-first NVMe® over PCIe® 5.0 validation and compliance testing system from traditional SSD manufacturers to new markets comprised of data center storage and large cloud vendors. “Customer confidence has grown beyond our traditional walls of satisfying requirements from major SSD manufacturers to supporting large data centers and cloud storage organizations. “This evolution stems from our first-to-market leadership for early adoption and development of NVMe PCIe Gen5. Early availability was a critical factor in enabling our key strategic customers to meet their internal development schedules for Gen 5 SSD’s and FCS releases.” Rick Walsh, VP of Sales and Marketing “SANBlaze partnered with WD to get our Gen5 Validation infrastructure ready in time including SRIS/SRNS clocking features which helped to fast track our overall Gen5 bring up,” said Anuj Awasthi, Senior Director, System Design and Firmware Verification Engineering, Western Digital Corp. In addition to SSD manufacturers such as Western Digital, SANBlaze is onboarding new major cloud and data center storage providers as they recognize the capabilities and value of the Certified by SANBlaze test suites as a first-level SSD validation criterion. Certified by SANBlaze is an instant benchmarking tool that saves on CapEx overhead expenses for SSD compute applications. SANBlaze Suite of Products SANBlaze solutions include the SBExpress-RM5™ rackmount appliance, the SBExpress-DT5™ desktop appliance, and the industry benchmark SBExpress Certified by SANBlaze software, which provides over 900 ready-to-go tests and scripts. These latest PCIe 5.0 platforms provide broad test capabilities for development, QA, validation, and manufacturing teams in data centers large and small. SBExpress-RM5 The SBExpress-RM5 is a 16-bay enterprise-class NVMe test appliance supporting hot-plug and all link speeds up through PCIe 5.0. The system features a unique modular “riser” design that enables user-configurable variable slot support, as well as field-upgradable support for all PCIe 5.0 connector form factors, including U.2, M.2, EDSFF, and the new E3/EDSFF. The ability to margin and measure power, glitch signals, and test spread spectrum clocking (SSC) or conventional clocking in both common and SRIS/SRNS modes sets the SBExpress-RM5 apart from all others in the NVMe SSD testing space. Data integrity is verified with a comprehensive suite of read/write/compare tests, with exception cases such as power glitching while running IO, and built-in "Write Atomicity" testing as part of the Certified by SANBlaze test suite. Testing is accessible through a web interface to the appliance or via Python, XML and REST APIs, which come standard with the system. The SBExpress™ Gen5 software includes over nine-hundred test scripts to enable IOL testing in the customer’s lab, before undergoing official testing, as well as ZNS, VDM, and TCG Opal verification. SBExpress-DT5 The SBExpress-DT5 is the sixth-generation SBExpress system and is both evolutionary, growing from its successful family of predecessors, and revolutionary, with advanced test capabilities such as Vendor Defined Messaging (VDM) testing, MI (Management Interface) in-band, and SMBUS testing at 1MHz. All features of the enterprise test suite Certified by SANBlaze are supported by DT5 at PCIe 5.0 speed. SANBlaze at Flash Memory Summit Flash Memory Summit 2022 takes place August 2-4 at the Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara CA, USA. SANBlaze, a member of the Symbiosys Alliance, will be present in booth #219. The Symbiosys Alliance will be present in booth #119. About SANBlaze SANBlaze is a pioneer in storage testing and validation technologies. SANBlaze systems are deployed in the test and development labs of most major storage hardware and software vendors worldwide. SANBlaze is revolutionizing the NVMe Storage Area Network (SAN) and PCIe device qualification markets by offering NVMe testing end-to-end. We are first to market a solution that tests Native NVMe and NVMe over Fabrics (NVMe-oF™) for complete end-to-end testing of your entire system using single port or dual port drives. About the Symbiosys Alliance The Symbiosys Alliance is an I/O interconnect technology group chartered to create value for its membership and for their respective customers by strategically and collaboratively aligning member products and services to current and upcoming market opportunities. These synergized solutions can provide developers with the state-of-the-art resources they need to roll out highly competitive offerings efficiently and confidently to their respective marketplaces. The alliance addresses a range of verticals increasingly characterized by hyper-fast innovation cycles. These include semiconductors, data storage, IoT, cloud computing, consumer electronics, automotive, aerospace, medical, and more. Members leverage alliance partnerships to precisely anticipate and address these innovation cycles by delivering high-quality solutions that resonate with the latest technological advances.

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