Tech Interviews

One of my favourite phrases is that "those who make the most of their data, will be the success stories of the future" and I think that is echoed by our obsession with data as a new all-powerful resource for us to mine and exploit.

But, it's not quite that straightforward is it? There is no getting away from the importance of security and privacy when it comes to our data. Be that keeping it from unwarranted access, data leakage or maintaining compliance with ever increasing regulatory requirements, maintaining our data in a secure environment is a primary concern.

That is the focus of this weeks show, as I'm joined by Val Bercovici, a well-respected technology leader, who is today working on a new project with his start-up company Pencildata, a company who's mission it is to try to address this very challenge.

In a fascinating chat with Val, we explore the growing tension between getting value from data while maintaining its security. We examine some of the interesting problems that come with A.I. systems, how do you address the "cold start" problem? or ensure that your A.I. systems have a wider range of data, beyond academic and publicly available data sets to learn from?

We discuss why organisations find it hard to unlock the value of their data and effectively share it, not only with 3rd party providers but even with others inside their organisations.

We wrap up by looking at how to change this, how do we give an organisation the ability to maintain control of their data regardless of where it is shared and crucially the ability to change their minds, so when they no longer want to share that data they can withdraw authorisation, regardless of where that data resides. We also look at the importance of an immutable audit trail so that you always know who, where and how your data is used.

I hope you enjoyed this show and discussion of the fascinating topic.

For full show notes visit :- https://wp.me/p4IvtA-1xk

There is no doubt for many 2018 will be the year of data privacy, driven, in no small part, by the impending EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

In my opinion GDPR has many positives elements to it, it's the opportunity for businesses to look at how they manage, secure and retain the privacy of data across their organisations and for too many of us, this is something that's long overdue.

GDPR (and other regulations) however are not just a good idea, they are something that we need to comply with and May 25th 2018 is the date when GDPR becomes enforceable.

With that in mind, what are some of the changes that we should expect? what things are no longer going to acceptable practice? and what are the things really that we should have in place by that date?

This week we look at exactly that topic as I'm joined by data privacy expert and attorney Sheila FitzPatrick, founder of FitzPatrick and Associates and a globally recognised data privacy expert with over 35 years' experience in the data privacy field.

Who better then to ask and get some advice from on some of the pitfalls and common misconceptions of data privacy and, when it comes to GDPR,  what are some of the basics that we really need to have in place by May 25th 2018.

During this episode we discuss a range of issues, we look at where we should start and why that place really shouldn't be technology, Sheila also touches on why it's important to be weary of "GDPR" experts selling you their compliance technology.

We discuss some of the common misconceptions and mistakes that organisations are making in their business compliance work and how this often leads to companies spending a lot of money unnecessarily, we also look at why focusing on GDPR alone can be a big problem in itself.

We explore where to start on your compliance journey by understanding your current policies and procedures and what they are based upon and the importance of GAP analysis, so you can understand what work is needed to meet the requirements of GDPR.

To wrap up we look at the things organisations are currently doing with their data that come May 26th 2018 will no longer be acceptable.

Lastly, I ask Sheila whether she has advice for those that think GDPR won't affect them and she does!

Sheila, as always, shares some great insights into the world of data privacy and compliance and does so with her usual enthusiasm for the topic

Enjoy the show.

For full show notes :- https://wp.me/p4IvtA-1xf

It’s the kind of thing us podcasters like to do this time of year, we like to take a bit of a retrospective view of the previous year as well as a look forward to the new, so not wanting to miss a trick on the Tech Interviews podcast, that’s exactly what we do in this episode.

To help me to look forward and look back at the tech industry I’m joined by Analyst Chris Evans.

We take a look at a whole range of topics, we discuss how a move to a more software defined future has not stopped the re-emergence of the importance of hardware.

We also explore some thoughts around the development of hybrid cloud as more businesses look at how the data they hold on the edge of the cloud can take advantage of cloud compute that is within it.

We also ask why some of the tech we expected to see progress in 2017, didn't.

Of course we also look forward and ask whether 2018 will be the year for NVMe? How we expect to see the continued growth of scale out file storage and of course no look at 2018 would be complete without a chat about GDPR.

Enjoy the show.

Show notes are here :- https://wp.me/p4IvtA-1x9

As we become more data-driven in our organisations and ever more used to the way big public cloud providers deliver our services, it is putting more pressure on internal IT to deliver infrastructure that provides this data focussed, cloud like experience, but where do you start in designing this next-generation of datacentre.

That's the subject of this week's podcast, the last of the shows recorded at NetApp Insight in Berlin, where I catch up with two members of a fascinating panel discussion I attended at the event, Ruairi McBride and Jason Benedicic, they were part of a panel hosted by the NetApp A-Team which consisted of people who were not theorists but had practical experience of deploying next-generation technologies and working practices and as I know many listeners to this show are involved in developing their own next-generation strategy, I thought it would make an interesting episode.

We cover a range of topics and begin by looking to define what we mean by next-gen the types of technology and methodologies involved.

We discuss what is driving the move to next-generation datacentres and how businesses who wish to maintain a competitive edge and improve the service to their customers need to look at this next generation approach.

We wrap up by looking at how next-gen datacenters are not about technology alone and is as much about philosophy and working practice, while Jason and Ruairi share ideas about the type of building blocks you need and the help and support that the technology community can bring as you look to deliver a next-generation strategy to your organisation.

This is the last show of 2017, for all who have listened this year, thanks for your support and Tech Interviews will be back in the new year with a whole host of new interviews exploring a range of technology topics.

To make sure you catch next years shows then why not subscribe in all of the usual places.

For all of you who have enjoyed the show in 2017 – thanks for listening.

For full show notes :- https://wp.me/p4IvtA-1wX

There is no doubt that the amount of data we have, manage, control and analyse continues to grow ever more rapidly and increasingly this is unstructured data, documents, images, engineering drawings, data that often needs to be stored in one place and be easily accessible.

However, this presents problems, how do you get all of this data in one place when it's not just TB's it 100's of TB's and made up of billions of files that need to be accessed quickly, how on earth do you build that kind of capacity and deliver the performance you need?

Well, scale-out NAS may be the answer, in a world where we have these ever growing massive unstructured data repositories scaling out our NAS services makes perfect sense, delivering not only massive capacity but also taking advantage of scaled-out compute to give us the ability to process the billions of transactions that come with a huge repository.

So for Episode 50 of the Tech Interviews podcast, it seemed apt to celebrate the big five-oh talking about big data storage.

To discuss this evolution of NAS storage I'm joined by a returning guest, Justin Parisi to discuss NetApp's approach to this challenge, FlexGroups.

We discuss what a FlexGroup is and why you may want to use them and how it's about more than just capacity, as we discuss the performance benefits of spreading our single storage volume across multiple controllers.

We explore the importance of simplification, and how NetApp has made sure that the complexity of scale-out NAS is hidden away from the user by presenting a simple, intuitive and quick to deploy technology that allows users to have the capacity without the need to rearchitect or relearn their existing solutions.

FlexGroups is a really smart technology designed to simply address this ever-growing capacity and performance problem encountered by our traditional approach to file services and if you are looking at scale-out NAS and file services, it's a technology well worth reviewing.

Next week It's the last show of the year as I'm joined by Jason Benedicic and Ruairi Mcbride to discuss the future of datacentre architecture as we talk next gen technologies.

To catch that show why not subscribe in any of the usual podcast places.

Hope you enjoyed Episode 50 – here's to the next 50!

Thanks for listening.

For full show notes - https://wp.me/p4IvtA-1wP

The IT industry is full of new trends, some you get, some you don't, one such trend, that until recently I didn't really get, was Hyper-Converged, why have I not gotten onboard?

A good test with any new technology is does it solve a problem or improve the way I currently do things? Up to now with Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) I'm not sure it really does, is it helping me build a more automated, flexible, agile IT infrastructure? Is it helping me build a hybrid environment? Is it automating my IT environment so that my business gets the agility it wants? Not sure.

What HCI does do well is simplify your hardware infrastructure, takes something that may have been installed in a full rack and squeezes it down into 2 or 4U in a single chassis, but is that enough? Not really.

What's changed my view? The starting point is nothing to do with changes to the HCI hardware model or addition of some great new feature, it's actually and maybe not surprisingly driven by software, look at what Microsoft and VMware are doing for example, VMware is delivering an increasingly more software-defined infrastructure with every incremental release of their virtualisation stack and Microsoft with Azurestack looking to bring Azure like functionality into your on-prem datacentre.

This simplification of the software stack is now starting to drive the need for a hardware stack that matches this simplification and can take advantage of these software-defined infrastructure solutions.

It is this changing environment that is the focus of this latest podcast.

At the recent NetApp Insight conference, I met with Troy Mangum who shared some research he's been working on reviewing the HCI market, how it stands today and the changes HCI  vendors need to make to ensure they build on the early success of first-generation solutions to take advantage of these software-defined infrastructure stacks.

We explore a range of discussion points from the research, we look at the drivers behind the adoption of HCI, the need for simplification and easier consumption of IT resources. We also discuss how the current technical design of HCI hardware architectures may limit their ability to grow in the way we need them to.

We discuss the risk of silo's and explore HCI tax, before then looking at the future how architectural changes are driving a new breed of HCI allowing a more flexible deployment model, decoupling the component parts so HCI can scale capacity and compute separately, which then begs the question, is this new breed of HCI really HCI at all and does it really matter? And of course, we look at NetApp's entry into this market.

Enjoy the show.

Full show notes are here :- https://wp.me/p4IvtA-1wJ

I've discussed in a number of blog posts, as well as previous episodes of Tech Interviews, the importance of building a data strategy.

The term "Data Fabric" is an increasingly common way of describing such a strategy, this was something I first heard 3 years ago at NetApp's annual technical conference Insight as they introduced their first ideas for building a strategy that would start to move them from a storage company to a data management company.

When NetApp first discussed this three years ago, they were a very different company, accused of living in the past, a traditional storage dinosaur with no place in this modern world.

But NetApp has changed, today they are moving headlong into a data management future.

Surely then, as NetApp continue to change, their beloved ONTAP operating system can't still play a key part in building a data fabric.

Nothing could be further from the truth, and that is the focus of this episode, as I'm joined by Justin Parisi, Senior Technical Marketing Engineer at NetApp and the host of NetApp's Tech ONTAP podcast.

In this episode, we explore why ONTAP is anything but a legacy bit of technology and how not only is it still relevant, it is right at the core of NetApp's data fabric future.

We discuss how as a piece of software ONTAP provides the flexibility and versatility are crucial in a modern data strategy, doing so much more than storing data by providing services such as protection, security, efficiency and performance.

We wrap up looking at some of the features in the latest version of ONTAP and how continuous improvements ensure ONTAP remains at the heart of NetApp's data fabric strategy and can play a part in yours.

Next week we look at the development of the hyper-converged market, where it is today and how it needs to change, as I discuss some interesting HCI research with Troy Mangum.

To catch that episode why not subscribe, you'll find Tech Interviews in all the usual podcast places.

Full show notes are here :- https://wp.me/p4IvtA-1wD

One of the main components of any tech conference is the keynote sessions, these are the sessions that share the vision, set the context for the show and a good keynote is a vital part of creating the right atmosphere for those attending.

What I wanted to do with these special shows was to try and grab some of the immediate reaction from those attending the events and the keynote presentations that come with them.

Our first set of keynote reviews come from NetApp Insight 2017 in Berlin, getting the very latest in the data management field.

As we come toward the end of the conference, day three provided us with the final general sessions including a fascinating insight into rocket science as Adam Steltzner, part of the Mars Rover landing team, shared the part data played in their work.

Joining me in this final review from Insight is Jon Woan (@jonwoan) and Mick Kehoe (@mickehoe) providing their views on this session and as it was the final day, they also share their thoughts on what they'd heard throughout the conference, how it met their expectations and where NetApp covering the kind of things that they felt relevant.

Enjoy this last review from NetApp Insight and look out for upcoming reviews from other tech conferences in the future, as well as new episodes of Tech Interviews.

One of the main components of any tech conference is the keynote sessions, these are the sessions that share the vision, set the context for the show and a good keynote is a vital part of creating the right atmosphere for those attending.

What I wanted to do with these special shows was to try and grab some of the immediate reaction from those attending the events and the keynote presentations that come with them.

Our first set of keynote reviews come from NetApp Insight 2017 in Berlin, getting the very latest in the data management field.

We heard views about Monday's keynote yesterday (you can find that here Tech Interviews the Keynote Round Up – NetApp Insight 2017 Day One) What did Day two have for us?

This time I'm joined by Scott Gelb (@scottygelb) and Adam Bergh (@ajbergh) to get their views as we discuss the announcements of new platforms such as HCI and the fascinating move to cloud services including a unique arrangement with Microsoft Azure.

Enjoy and look out for day twos Keynote roundup.

One of the main components of any tech conference is the keynote sessions, these are the sessions that share the vision, set the context for the show and a good keynote is a vital part of creating the right atmosphere for those attending.

What I wanted to do with these special shows was to try and grab some of the immediate reaction from those attending the events and the keynote presentations that come with them.

For these first shows, I'm at NetApp's Insight conference in Berlin, where we expect four days full of the latest in what the data management industry are doing and hearing how data continues to be a focus for transformation for many of us.

With that in mind, what did Monday's keynote session deliver?

To find out, straight from the keynote I caught up with Jason Benedicic (@jabenedicic), Atanas Prezhdarov (@prezblahblah) and Mark Carlton (@mcarlton1983) to get their views on the key messages from the keynote and what they expected from the rest of the event.

Enjoy and look out for day twos Keynote roundup.