Posts by Broooooose 15 publicly visible posts • joined 12 May 2016
A little late to the game, but for organisations that haven't moved into HCI yet (and there are loads of them) it's another option. Don't see anything particularly interesting, others have been providing some of these features for years. But I don't think this is about net new logos, it's about protecting the ONTAP install base and leveraging goodwill in the end users and channel.
Not the best analogy, but I see your point. I think the nuts and bolt of the article is that it will be harder for tech companies to build great cars, that it will be for auto companies to build great tech into already super cars. Now, that's not going to stop new entrants, but I don't see the bigger players dying away, as your analogy would suggest. I think there may be opportunities for these tech companies in specific verticals, geographies and use cases, which in turn, may very well translate back into very day consumer purchases once they get their heads round building vehicles and not writing code. Least not forget we already have Tesla doing quite well, but it's actually taken them quite a long time to get these. So new entry wont be easy. However, who's to say a tech giant wont buy a car company and integrate their solution? Gets them over a few hurdles ...
I think they have executed well, ie made the most from what they have. I don't think SpringPath was ever that exciting or revolutionary, but the ESG report serves them well. In truth, I've only ever seen HyperFlex in one account, and even then it was a test VDI environment for 100 users (an NHS CSU with budget spare at the end of the year). I come across a significant number of HCI opportunities every year and never see Cisco in them. It's nearly always Nutanix and increasingly VSAN (if you can call VSAN HCI?), as most accounts have a VMware vSphere implementation.
I must say that I have to disagree with you about HCI being a stupid marketing fad to sell SDS. If that is your true opinion, you're in for a shock over the next few months and years. As I see it, Cisco's HCI implementation is fairly rudimentry, no shocks. It ticks the basic boxes but no more. Look at companies like HyperGrid, and to a lesser extent Nutanix. They see HCI hardware unpinning a much more ubiquitous private/hybrid cloud strategy, an applications/ services drive strategy. They want to compete against the AWS and Azure's of this world. Self service provisioning, automation and orchestration, in an on-premise environment to enables better control. They are already one step ahead of Cisco and the simplicity with which they have delivered their solutions puts them ahead of the likes of VMware/IBM too. I see HCI taking large chunks out the traditional server+storage market. Whether, the start ups are successful in their own right or just get swallowed up, this is the way the market is moving. However, I guess there will always be a group of people who pine for LUNS and yearn for Fibre Channel, and, for a while yet, they'll have plenty to kit to fill their boots with.
"By the ability of amazon to do a route cause so quickly and go public with it"
If you're a CIO and the whole company is betting on your strategy and you choose to go with a provider who fails and it take them 3 months to figure out and report on that failure, then you're gonna be asked to move off it pretty quickly and your credibility goes down the swanny.
If AWS want to maintain their leadership and gain their customers trust, they have to be transparent and quick to resolve. And yes, it is impressive. But I don't think they get a choice.
Wouldn't surprise me if they are. Would they have something competitive? Possibly. Is there a gap in the market? Narrowing. SimpliVity partners may be looking for something new, that's similar in price/performance. The traditional storage players will also be operating in this market moving fwd. However, the cutting edge of the market is moving away from traditional, boxed based HCI. The clever stuff is now around orchestration, consumption. So they question is will they get to market in time with something sufficiently differentiated to make an impact?
We'll see a lot more of private cloud spend over the next few months and years because of a number of factors - better long term cost models, information security challenges which you outlined, control requirements and simply the fact that Dell, HPE, IBM, Oracle et al are not going to lie back and see their traditional business crumble (they have enough issues moving with the times with on-premise technology). Companies like HyperGrid (and Nutanix, poss VMware) are the ones to watch here in the short term, as they are deploying on-prem technology with cloud consumption & services models.
There are pros and cons to both solutions and it really depends on a clients existing infrastructure, financial position vs their medium/long term business & IT objectives. The article, while brief, tries to cover these challenges and whilst it cannot run into depth all the services that AWS offer, I felt that it was a fairly balanced piece.
What it doesn't cover, is the bit in between. Which has the potential to offer you the best of both worlds. The benefits of on-site infrastructure, with the value of cloud consumption models and services. These will be coming thick and fast over the next 12/24 months with companies like HyperGrid (with Nutanix soon to follow I'm sure) leading the way.
I have my ear to the ground on most things storage. Esp innovative start ups, it's my job. So when I only hear about only one UK install (and I've seen lots of Nimble, Tegile, Tintri, NexGen wins), and I'm obviously be happy to be corrected here - I'm sure there are more, please tell me there are more???!! - and it's gone hideously badly, you do have to wonder. Yes, evreyone has a bad day in the office, but it's usually a small majority of installs. Not the only install. Anyway, so when are all these big announcements then? Would be good to see something positive come out of their stable.
Instagram aren't going anywhere mate, they are already owned by Facebook, who paid a whopping $1B for it in 2012. They have 400 Million active members, 4x more than LinkedIn and are bigger than Twitter. And I guess printing letter heads isn't the biggest issue for an digital company in 2016 either.
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