Tag: DevOp

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Part V Dell Technology World 2018 Server Converged Announcement Details

Part V Dell Technology World 2018 Server Converged Announcement Details

Part V Dell Technology World 2018 Server Converged Announcement Details
This is Part V Dell Technology World 2018 Server Converged Announcement Details that is part of a five-post series (view part I here, part II here, part III here and part IV here). Last week (April 30-May 3) I traveled to Las Vegas Nevada (LAS) to attend Dell Technology World 2018 (e.g., DTW 2018) as a guest of Dell (that is a disclosure btw).

What was announced:

  • PowerEdge gen 14 four-socket rack mount servers
  • Preview of PowerMX Gen-Z enabled composable data infrastructure resources
  • Converged Infrastructure (CI) and Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) updates
  • Wyse 5070 Thin Client and other VDI related updates
  • VMware and NSX Cloud Updates

PowerEdge Servers Updates

PowerEdge servers enhanced with generation 14 technologies initially announced last May at Dell EMC World 2017, along with Intel July 2017 technology announcements. New PowerEdge R940xa and PowerEdge R840 are designed to support AI, ML, DL along with other analytics-related demanding workloads. In addition to new PowerEdge R940xa and PowerEdge R840 models, Dell Technologies also announced Dell Precision Optimizer 5.0 with enhanced ML algorithms to intelligently tune performance while boosting productive of Dell Precision workstations.

PowerEdge Rack Servers – New PowerEdge R940xa and R840 gen 14 servers. Dell announced two new four-socket servers that are part of the 14th generation of Dell PowerEdge server portfolio initially announced at Dell EMC World 2017 leveraging new Intel Xeon Scalable processors. These new four-socket servers support up to 112 combined cores (e.g., 4 x 28), along with 6TB of DDR4 memory as well as Non-Volatile DIMM (NVDIMM) options. Other standard features include NVMe drives for high performance, low-latency flash, and other emerging SSD or SCM media.

Dell PowerEdge R840

The Dell PowerEdge R840 2U rack server, features up to 26 2.5” HDD or SSD (24 in front, two in rear bays), of which up to 24 can be NVMe U.2 small form factor (SFF) drive form factor SSD devices. Other storage options include a mix of SAS/SATA HDDs and SSDs, as well as NVMe SSDs. Also supported are up to 48 DIMM DDR4 (RDIMM or LRDIMM up to 2666MT) slots, 12 of which can be for NVDIMMs enabling up to 6TB of memory.

Networking options for the R840 include 4 x 1 GbE, 4 x 10GbE, 2 x 10GbE + 2 x 1GbE, or 2 x 25GbE. Other options include support for two double wide graphics processing units (GPU) or two Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) for data-intensive computations. Other R840 features include integrated Intel ultra-path interconnect (UPI), smart adaptive cooling, secure instance erase of HDD and SSD devices, along with Dell OpenManager enterprise management software, as well as agent less iDRAC (Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller) for automated server management. View additional Dell PowerEdge R940xa speeds, feeds, slots and watts specifications here (PDF).

Dell PowerEdge R940xa

The Dell PowerEdge R940xa  rack server has the same CPU and memory configuration as the R840 however in a larger 4U package. The larger packaging of the R940xa enables 12 PCIe Gen3 slots (six x16 or two x16 and ten x8), dual M.2 boot devices, network options (4 x 1 GbE, 4 x 10GbE, 2 x 10GbE + 2 x 1Gbe or 2 x 25GbE). Other components include up to 32 x 2.5” SAS/SATA HDD and SSD, and four direct-attached NVMe devices, as well as four double-wide GPUs or 8 FPGAs. With the additional resources, the R940xa is designed for accelerating databases along with other onsite high-performance workloads combines up to four CPUs along with GPUs or FPGAs. View additional Dell PowerEdge R940xa speeds, feeds, slots and watts specifications here (PDF).

Converged and Hyper-Converged

Dell Technologies has enhanced its Converged Infrastructure (CI) as well as Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) portfolio with gen 14 servers, GPUs, NVMe along with 25 GbE networking. In addition to VxBlock solutions incorporating PowerMax, XtremIO X2 along with mid-range Dell Technologies storage, VxRail as well as VxRack updates were announced in support of VMware vSAN among other items.

Thin Clients and VDI

New Dell Wyse 5070 thin client workstation for on-site or cloud-based applications. Dell EMC VDI solutions leverage PowerEdge 14th generation servers including VxRail and vSAN ready nodes, as well as incorporate NVIDIA Quadro virtual data center workstation (vDWS) and Tesla P40 GPUs. In addition to Wyse thin clients, Dell has also enhanced OptiPlex PCs.

VMware NSX and Cloud

In addition to the recent April SDDC cloud foundation and March Cloud announcements, VMware also announced NSX software-defined networking enhancements. The VMware NSX updates include NSX Cloud support for applications running in Microsoft Azure cloud, Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN) via its Velo cloud acquisition, along with NSX for container cloud-native and bare metal applications, along with Telco/Network Function Virtualization (NFV) updates.

Introducing PowerEdge MX Composable Infrastructure (the other CI)

Dell announced at Dell Technology World 2018 a preview of the new PowerEdge MX family of data infrastructure resource servers. PowerEdge MX is being developed to meet the needs of resource-centric data infrastructures that require scalability, as well as performance availability, capacity, economic (PACE) characteristics flexibility for diverse workloads. Read more about Dell PowerEdge MX, Gen-Z and composable infrastructures (the other CI) here.

Where to learn more

Learn more about Dell Technology World 2018 and related topics via the following links:

Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

What this all means

Dell is moving to converge not only technologies, tools, management of their technologies, as well as the data infrastructures of their client customers; they are also doing the same for their organization. We have seen the combination of Dell and EMC into Dell EMC and now into Dell Technologies. What was also noticed is the reinforcement of the Dell Technologies family or what in the past was referred to post-merger (or acquisition) as the EMC Federation.

Dell Technology World 2018 Party Walk The Moon and Sting
Dell Technology World 2018 Party with Walk The Moon before main act Sting

Dell Technologies World 2018 in some ways was a proof point of where the company is as well as how they have progressed in the twenty-some months since the integration of Dell and EMC. While there are still signs, messaging, naming and vestiges of the former EMC, along with EMCworld, make no mistake, this is a Dell Technologies event. From desktops to datacenters, Dell Technologies is showing its technology breadth as well as product lineup.

There were some questions from the press not answered such as what is going on with Dells financial organizational restructure, which as Michael Dell told the attendees, read the SEC 13D documents ( here, here and here) if you have not, as all the answers that Dell (Michael Dell and Dell Technologies) can talk about are there.

Here are some additional perspectives of what Dell Technologies may or may not due concerning business restructuring:

Via SearchStorage: Dell EMC storage strategy talk buzzes Dell Tech World
Via SearchStorage: Dell EMC storage IPO, VMware merger plans still unclear

Leaving Las Vegas and Dell Technology World 2018
Leaving Las Vegas and Dell Technology World 2018

Overall Dell Technology World 2018 was a good event, and I look forward to hearing more from Dell in the weeks as well as months ahead as they roll out more of what was discussed (or previewed) last week.

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Cheers Gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2017 (vSAN and vCloud). Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

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IT transformation Serverless Life Beyond DevOps with New York Times CTO Nick Rockwell Podcast

IT transformation Serverless Life Beyond DevOps with New York Times CTO Nick Rockwell Podcast

server storage I/O data infrastructure trends

By Greg Schulz – www.storageioblog.com November 30, 2017

In this Server StorageIO podcast episode New York Times CTO / CIO Nick Rockwell (@nicksrockwell) joins me for a conversation discussing Digital, Business and IT transformation, Serverless Life Beyond DevOps and related topics.

In our conversation we discuss challenges with metrics, understanding value vs. cost particular for software, Nicks perspective as both a CIO and CTO of the New York Times, importance of IT being involved and understanding the business vs. just being technology focused. We also discuss the bigger broader opportunity of serverless (aka micro services, containers) life beyond DevOps and how higher level business logic developers can benefit from the technology instead of just a DevOps for infrastructure focus. Buzzwords, buzz terms and themes include datacenter technologies, NY Times, data infrastructure, management, trends, metrics, digital transformation, tradecraft skills, DevOps, serverless among others.

.Gregs Server StorageIO Podcast

Check out Nicks post The Futile Resistance to Serverless here. Listen to the podcast discussion here (MP3 16 minutes and 50 seconds) as well as on iTunes here.

Where to learn more

Learn more about Oracle, Database Performance, Benchmarking along with other tools via the following links:

What this all means and wrap-up

Check out my discussion here (MP3) with Nick Rockwell as we discuss IT and business transition, metrics, software development, and serverless life beyond DevOps. Also available on 

Ok, nuff said, for now…

Cheers
Gs

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2017 (vSAN and vCloud). Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

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Introducing Windows Subsystem for Linux WSL Overview #blogtober

Introducing Windows Subsystem for Linux WSL Overview #blogtober

server storage I/O data infrastructure trends

Updated 1/21/2018

Introducing Windows Subsystem for Linux WSL and Overview. Microsoft has been increasing their support of Linux across Azure public cloud, Hyper-V and Linux Integration Services (LIS) and Windows platforms including Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) as well as Server along with Docker support.

WSL installed with Ubuntu on Windows 10

WSL with Ubuntu installed and open in a window on one of my Windows 10 systems.

WSL is not a virtual machine (VM) running on Windows or Hyper-V, rather it is a subsystem that coexists next to win32 (read more about how it works and features, enhancements here). Once installed, WSL enables use of Linux bash shell along with familiar tools (find, grep, sed, awk, rsync among others) as well as services such as ssh, MySQL among others.

What this all means is that if you work with both Windows and Linux, you can do so on the same desktop, laptop, server or system using your preferred commands. For example in one window you can be using Powershell or traditional Windows commands and tools, while in another window working with grep, find and other tools eliminating the need to install things such as wingrep among others.

Installing WSL

Depending on which release of Windows desktop or server you are running, there are a couple of different install paths. Since my Windows 10 is the most recent release (e.g. 1709) I was able to simply go to the Microsoft Windows Store via desktop, search for Windows Linux, select the distribution, install and launch. Microsoft has some useful information for installing WSL on different Windows version here, as well as for Windows Servers here.

Get WSL from Windows Store

Get WSL from Windows Store or more information and options here.

Microsoft WSL install

Click on Get the app

Select which Linux for WSL to install

Select desired WSL distribution

SUSE linux for WSL

Lests select SUSE as I already have Ubuntu installed (I have both)

WSL installing SUSE

SUSE WSL in the process of downloading. Note SUSE needs an access code (free) that you get from https://www.suse.com/subscriptions/sles/developer/ while waiting for the download and install is a good time to get that code.

launching WSL on Windows 10

Launching WSL with SUSE, you will be prompted to enter the code mentioned above, if you do not have a code, get it here from SUSE.

completing install of WSL

The WSL installation is very straight forward, enter the SUSE code (Ubuntu did not need a code). Note the Ubuntu and SUSE WSL task bar icons circled bottom center.

Ubuntu and SUSE WSL on Windows 10

Provide a username for accessing the WSL bash shell along with password, confirm how root and sudo to be applied and that is it. Serious, the install for WSL at least with Windows 10 1709 is that fast and easy. Note in the above image, I have WSL with Ubuntu open in a window on the left, WSL with SUSE on the right, and their taskbar icons bottom center.

Windows WSL install error 0x8007007e

Enable Windows Subsystem for Linux Feature on Windows

If you get the above WSL error message 0x8007007e when installing WSL Ubuntu, SUSE or other shell distro, make sure to enable the Windows WSL feature if not already installed.

Windows WSL install error fix

One option is to install additional Windows features via settings or control panel. For example, Control panel -> Programs and features -> Turn Windows features on or off -> Check the box for Windows Subsystem for Linux

Another option is to install Windows subsystem feature via Powershell for example.

enable-windowsoptionalfeature -online  -featurename microsoft-windows-subsystem-linux

Using WSL

Once you have WSL installed, try something simple such as view your present directory:

pwd

Then look at the Windows C: drive location

ls /mnt/c -al

In case you did not notice the above, you can use Windows files and folders from the bash shell by placing /mnt in front of the device path. Note that you need to be case-sensitive such as User vs. user or Documents vs. documents.

As a further example, I needed to change several .htm, .html, .php and .xml files on a Windows system whose contents had not yet changed from https://storageio.com to https://storageio.com. Instead of installing wingrep or some tools, using WSL such as with Ubuntu finding files can be done with grep such as:

grep "https://storageio.com" /mnt/c/Users/*.xml

And then making changes using find and sed such as:

find /mnt/c/Users -name \*.xml -exec sed  -i "s,https://storageio.com,https://storageio.com,g" {} \;

Note that not all Linux apps and tools can use file via /mnt in which case a solution is to create a symbolic link.

For example:

ln -s "/mnt/c/Users/Test1/Documents"  /home/Test1/Projects

Where To Learn More

Learn more about related technology, trends, tools, techniques, and tips with the following links.

Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

What This All Means

If you primarily work on (or have a preference for) Linux systems and need to do some functions from development to the administration or other activity on a Windows system, Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) provides a bash shell to do familiar tasks. Likewise, if you are primarily a Windows person and need to brush up on your Linux skills, WSL can help. If you need to run Linux server applications or workloads, put those into a Docker container, Hyper-V instance or Azure VM.

Overall I like WSL for what it is, a tool that eliminates the need of having to install several other tools to do common tasks, plus makes it easier to work across various Linux and Windows systems including bare metal, virtual and cloud-based. Now that you have been introduced to Windows Subsystems for Linux WSL and an overview including install as well as using, add it to your data infrastructure toolbox.

By the way, if you have not heard, its #Blogtober, check out some of the other blogs and posts occurring during October here.

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2017 (vSAN and vCloud). Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

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Cloud Conversations AWS Azure Service Maps via Microsoft

Cloud Conversations AWS Azure Service Maps via Microsoft

server storage I/O data infrastructure trends

Updated 1/21/2018

Microsoft has created an Amazon Web Service AWS Azure Service Map. The AWS Azure Service Map is a list created by Microsoft looks at corresponding services of both cloud providers.

Azure AWS service map via Microsoft.com
Image via Azure.Microsoft.com

Note that this is an evolving work in progress from Microsoft and use it as a tool to help position the different services from Azure and AWS.

Also note that not all features or services may not be available in different regions, visit Azure and AWS sites to see current availability.

As with any comparison they are often dated the day they are posted hence this is a work in progress. If you are looking for another Microsoft created why Azure vs. AWS then check out this here. If you are looking for an AWS vs. Azure, do a simple Google (or Bing) search and watch all the various items appear, some sponsored, some not so sponsored among others.

Whats In the Service Map

The following AWS and Azure services are mapped:

  • Marketplace (e.g. where you select service offerings)
  • Compute (Virtual Machines instances, Containers, Virtual Private Servers, Serverless Microservices and Management)
  • Storage (Primary, Secondary, Archive, Premium SSD and HDD, Block, File, Object/Blobs, Tables, Queues, Import/Export, Bulk transfer, Backup, Data Protection, Disaster Recovery, Gateways)
  • Network & Content Delivery (Virtual networking, virtual private networks and virtual private cloud, domain name services (DNS), content delivery network (CDN), load balancing, direct connect, edge, alerts)
  • Database (Relational, SQL and NoSQL document and key value, caching, database migration)
  • Analytics and Big Data (data warehouse, data lake, data processing, real-time and batch, data orchestration, data platforms, analytics)
  • Intelligence and IoT (IoT hub and gateways, speech recognition, visualization, search, machine learning, AI)
  • Management and Monitoring (management, monitoring, advisor, DevOps)
  • Mobile Services (management, monitoring, administration)
  • Security, Identity and Access (Security, directory services, compliance, authorization, authentication, encryption, firewall
  • Developer Tools (workflow, messaging, email, API management, media trans coding, development tools, testing, DevOps)
  • Enterprise Integration (application integration, content management)

Down load a PDF version of the service map from Microsoft here.

Where To Learn More

Learn more about related technology, trends, tools, techniques, and tips with the following links.

Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

What This All Means

On one hand this can and will likely be used as a comparison however use caution as both Azure and AWS services are rapidly evolving, adding new features, extending others. Likewise the service regions and site of data centers also continue to evolve thus use the above as a general guide or tool to help map what service offerings are similar between AWS and Azure.

By the way, if you have not heard, its Blogtober, check out some of the other blogs and posts occurring during October here.

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2017 (vSAN and vCloud). Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

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Server and Storage I/O Benchmarking 101 for Smarties

Server Storage I/O Benchmarking 101 for Smarties or dummies ;)

server storage I/O trends

This is the first of a series of posts and links to resources on server storage I/O performance and benchmarking (view more and follow-up posts here).

The best I/O is the I/O that you do not have to do, the second best is the one with the least impact as well as low overhead.

server storage I/O performance

Drew Robb (@robbdrew) has a Data Storage Benchmarking Guide article over at Enterprise Storage Forum that provides a good framework and summary quick guide to server storage I/O benchmarking.

Via Drew:

Data storage benchmarking can be quite esoteric in that vast complexity awaits anyone attempting to get to the heart of a particular benchmark.

Case in point: The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) has developed the Emerald benchmark to measure power consumption. This invaluable benchmark has a vast amount of supporting literature. That so much could be written about one benchmark test tells you just how technical a subject this is. And in SNIA’s defense, it is creating a Quick Reference Guide for Emerald (coming soon).

But rather than getting into the nitty-gritty nuances of the tests, the purpose of this article is to provide a high-level overview of a few basic storage benchmarks, what value they might have and where you can find out more. 

Read more here including some of my comments, tips and recommendations.

Drew’s provides a good summary and overview in his article which is a great opener for this first post in a series on server storage I/O benchmarking and related resources.

You can think of this series (along with Drew’s article) as server storage I/O benchmarking fundamentals (e.g. 101) for smarties (e.g. non-dummies ;) ).

Note that even if you are not a server, storage or I/O expert, you can still be considered a smarty vs. a dummy if you found the need or interest to read as well as learn more about benchmarking, metrics that matter, tools, technology and related topics.

Server and Storage I/O benchmarking 101

There are different reasons for benchmarking, such as, you might be asked or want to know how many IOPs per disk, Solid State Device (SSD), device or storage system such as for a 15K RPM (revolutions per minute) 146GB SAS Hard Disk Drive (HDD). Sure you can go to a manufactures website and look at the speeds and feeds (technical performance numbers) however are those metrics applicable to your environments applications or workload?

You might get higher IOPs with smaller IO size on sequential reads vs. random writes which will also depend on what the HDD is attached to. For example are you going to attach the HDD to a storage system or appliance with RAID and caching? Are you going to attach the HDD to a PCIe RAID card or will it be part of a server or storage system. Or are you simply going to put the HDD into a server or workstation and use as a drive without any RAID or performance acceleration.

What this all means is understanding what it is that you want to benchmark test to learn what the system, solution, service or specific device can do under different workload conditions.

Some benchmark and related topics include

  • What are you trying to benchmark
  • Why do you need to benchmark something
  • What are some server storage I/O benchmark tools
  • What is the best benchmark tool
  • What to benchmark, how to use tools
  • What are the metrics that matter
  • What is benchmark context why does it matter
  • What are marketing hero benchmark results
  • What to do with your benchmark results

    • server storage I/O benchmark step test
    Example of a step test results with various workers and workload

  • What do the various metrics mean (can we get a side of context with them metrics?)
  • Why look at server CPU if doing storage and I/O networking tests
  • Where and how to profile your application workloads
  • What about physical vs. virtual vs. cloud and software defined benchmarking
  • How to benchmark block DAS or SAN, file NAS, object, cloud, databases and other things
  • Avoiding common benchmark mistakes
  • Tips, recommendations, things to watch out for
  • What to do next

server storage I/O trends

Where to learn more

The following are related links to read more about server (cloud, virtual and physical) storage I/O benchmarking tools, technologies and techniques.

Drew Robb’s benchmarking quick reference guide
Server storage I/O benchmarking tools, technologies and techniques resource page
Server and Storage I/O Benchmarking 101 for Smarties.
Microsoft Diskspd download and Microsoft Diskspd overview (via Technet)
I/O, I/O how well do you know about good or bad server and storage I/Os?
Server and Storage I/O Benchmark Tools: Microsoft Diskspd (Part I and Part II)

Wrap up and summary

We have just scratched the surface when it comes to benchmarking cloud, virtual and physical server storage I/O and networking hardware, software along with associated tools, techniques and technologies. However hopefully this and the links for more reading mentioned above give a basis for connecting the dots of what you already know or enable learning more about workloads, synthetic generation and real-world workloads, benchmarks and associated topics. Needless to say there are many more things that we will cover in future posts (e.g. keep an eye on and bookmark the server storage I/O benchmark tools and resources page here).

Ok, nuff said, for now…

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

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A Pivotal or cloudy moment for EMC and VMware?

Storage I/O cloud virtual and big data perspectives

EMC and VMware (who is majority owned by EMC) have announced a new joint initiative called Pivotal (read more here and here) as part of their software defined data center strategies and architecture.

Image of EMC and VMware Pivotal PaaS cloud

Is this a pivotal moment for both EMC and VMware signaling that they will be going head to head (via their new initiative based company) with Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, HP Cloud services, Rackspace and a long list of others?

Part of the answer to that question would be based on what is meant by going head to head, and which aspects of those services. For Cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS) along with big data analytics related I would say yes. In terms of other Cloud AaaS or SaaS or IaaS probably not as much so at this time.

On the surface Pivotal appears to at least initially be more of a Platform as a Service (PaaS) play vs. Software as a Service (SaaS) or Application as a Service (AaaS) or Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) play. Thus it will be interesting to see how Pivotal pivots and evolves into other directions beyond first cloud and big data applications development assistance.

This will not be the first initiative or company jointly formed with VMware following on the heals of VCE that also includes Cisco and Intel as partners.

Pivotal will be headed up by Paul Maritz who has been EMC Chief Strategist and formerly CEO of VMware as well as having spent time at Microsoft. EMC will have 69% ownership with VMware having the balance, it is estimated that about $400 Million US dollars will need to be invested.

The new company or initiative is slated to launch on or about April 1, 2013 (April Fools day) with target 2013 revenues of about $300 Million. Projections are for an annual revenue of around $1 Billion in five years. That revenue will come from the existing assets and business being brought together along with probably some net new business. Doing some quick back of the napkin based math shows an average straight line growth of about 36% over five years.

VMware intellectual property and assets contributed:
Cloudfoundry
Spring source
Cetas

EMC intellectual property and assets continued:
Pivotal labs
Greenplum big data solutions

Thus is this a Pivotal move signaling the entry into new areas that could further disrupt and cloud that status of VMware and EMC as technology suppliers?

Or this clear the clouds a bit to bring clarity to what EMC and VMware are doing along with leveraging various acquisitions?

By clarity, this in theory should help place both EMC and VMware with their customer, partners and prospects as technology (along with associated services) supplier (what some refer to as arms merchants) vs. competing with those entities.

Storage I/O cloud virtual and big data perspectives

IMHO this is pivotal in that it helps to bring clarity for some of the different technologies and business that EMC and VMware has acquired. That clarity will help its own sales teams along with partners avoid creation of revenue prevention teams impacting sales of other solutions.

Likewise there should be good synergy around the various tools, technology and offerings around big data, little data and application development with pivotal. That synergy is a combination of tools, technologies, development techniques. The combination of the tools and new techniques should enable customers to leverage new technologies in new ways, vs. trying to use and deploy in old ways.

Btw, anybody notice Mozy or the lack of that mention keeping in mind that technology was brought back into the EMC backup group fold, while still being operated as a service. Also keep in mind that Mozy was bought by EMC and then transferred to VMware a couple of years ago.

Ok, nuff said (for now).

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved