The Data Center Insiders Podcast: Virtualization | Cloud Computing | Enterprise IT | VMware | EMC

MyService360 is a solution that I can really see the value of, and is one that I wish I had access to when I was a Systems Administrator, due to the ease at which it consolidates highly useful service-centric data relating to EMC based appliances in your IT environment. The following is a high level summary of the types of functionality and information it provides: * Health and Risk Scoring – Displays proactive and predictive system health indicators to identify areas that may be at risk, giving IT ample time to prioritize actions and react accordingly. * Code Level Analysis – Analyses the percentage of the global install base that is up to code, providing the ability to drill down into specific systems to determine what systems are due for code upgrades. * Actionable Service Insights – Allows EMC customers to review IT service activities across their enterprise with the ability to dive into specific sites to understand what needs attention and the type of action required. * Connectivity Status – Displays what percentage of the install base is remotely connected to EMC Customer Service so customers can take action to get remaining systems connected. * Incident Management – Taps into proactive data to identify analytical trends on service incidents. As you can see from this list, it certainly goes a long way to simplifying the ability to access to service related data all from a single location. In episode 19 of the Data Center Insiders podcast I’m joined by  Dr Rex Martin, Chief Architect  of the Advanced Proactive Services division.  This is a slightly delayed podcast, it was originally recorded shortly after EMC World 2016, though the information and discussion is all still relevant and well worth a listen. Finally, one of the main things worth noting is that MyService360 is FREE to all new and existing EMC customers registered with EMC Online Support services – more information here: https://support.emc.com/myservice360

EMC Isilon is a scale-out (ie: add more nodes/instances to increase capacity and throughput) storage platform for unstructured data, up to a capacity 50PB!  It comes with a rich feature set including point-in-time data backup protection and file restoration (SnapshotIQ), asynchronous data replication for disaster recovery, business continuity, disk-to-disk backup, and remote archiving (SyncIQ). The recent update to Isilon’s OneFS operating system, called OneFS .Next (available early 2016), sees the introduction of a software based version called IsilonSD Edge, for remote offices, non-disruptive upgrades, and the ability to tier data out to a “Cloud Pool”.  These exciting new features help make up a strategy by EMC called Data Lake 2.0.   In this epsisode of the Data Center Insiders podcast I speak with Ashish Palekar & Ed Beauvais from the Isilon team about the newly announced features, and how these can be of benefit to business who are, or are wanting to, run a Data Lake model.

Simulated EMC Celerra and VNX instances have been around for a few years now, and has provided many with the ability to become familiar with web based Unisphere management interface and how to setup and configure a Celerra and/or VNX instance.  These simulators have their limitations, and as the name suggests, are just simulators. EMC have now released the real-deal, with an available to download, and free, fully virtualized VNX storage appliance, called the vVNX. The vVNX has the features and functionality found it’s physical VNX counterpart, with the exception of FAST storage tiering in the current available version, and is FREE to download, install and run in your own vSphere based lab environment. There has never been a better time to get hands on time with EMC’s highly popular unified (ie: block and file) storage offering, with it (as already mentioned) being free to download, and there being no time limitations on the use of your copy of the vVNX. The only catch is that this currently available vVNX Community edition doesn’t come with any official EMC support and is not intended for production use, but that said, there is a very active moderated EMC community (which can be found here) that can offer non-official guidance and support. At VMworld San Francisco a few weeks ago, the vVNX team also announced a ‘Technology Preview’ instance of the vVNX which features VVOL functionality.  This, as with the Community Edition, is also free to download and use, and can provide you with valuable hands-on time with the new vSphere centric VVOL technology. In this episode of the podcast I speak with Rahul Pradhan (Senior Manager, Product Management) and Phil Triede (CTD Midrange Marketing) about the vVNX, and discuss what is the vVNX, where it fits into EMC’s storage portfolio and what can we expect to see from this virtual appliance in the future? If you are looking for some shared block and file virtual storage to run in your work or home vSphere lab, or perhaps just want to become familiar or kick the tyres on the vVNX then definitely check out this episode.   Show Links: * EMC vVNX Community Edition – Download Page * EMC vVNX VVOLs Technology Preview – Download Page * EMC vVNX FAQ * Introduction to the vVNX Community Edition * EMC vVNX Community Forum Check out some of the other Data Center Insiders podcast episodes:

EMC XtremIO is an exciting all-flash array offering, that offers not only performance (as you’d expect from an all-flash array) and scalability, but also has exciting and cost-saving features such as de-duplication & compression. Itzik Reich, CTO of EMC XtremIO, takes us through what XtremIO is, it’s features, how it fits into the EMC portfolio of storage products and also how it compares to other all-flash array offerings currently in the market.  He also let’s us know what we can expect from the XtremIO team in the near future. Do you like your flash storage?  If so, then this is the episode for you! Links Mentioned: XtremIO Website EMC XtremIO Page Itzik’s Blog – well worth a look! Itzik on Twitter

ScaleIO is at the forefront of EMC’s Software Defined Storage (SDS),  providing performance and flexibility for those businesses looking at moving towards a SDS storage model.  Jeff Thomas (JT) joins me in this episode of the Data Center Insiders Podcast to discuss what ScaleIO is, a high-level architectural overview, the benefits it brings over traditional storage appliances and how to download your own (FREE evaluation) copy of ScaleIO for use in your own lab! EMC, along with many of its other products, are now available for easy download and install into your own lab environment.  Unlike many software evaluations that are limited in some way, most of the EMC downloads, such as the ScaleIO software, is not limited.  So there is nothing stopping you, from downloading it and getting some hands-on time with EMC ScaleIO!  Links below. This is a longer episode of the podcast though I highly recommend you take the time to listen to it, as there is great information from JT all the way through! Subscribe and listen via iTunes or via the player below.   Links mentioned: EMC ScaleIO Website EMC Software Downloads JT’s Twitter Account Check out some of the other Data Center Insiders podcast episodes:    

Chad Sakac (aka Virtual Geek) joins me in this episode of the Data Center Insiders podcast to discuss his industry observations. We are definitely in a period of transition within the IT industry. Meeting with many global businesses to discuss their IT strategy each week, Chad is armed with plenty of front-line and real-world feedback on how our industry is changings along with the challenges and IT opportunities being faced by many real-world companies out there.

In this episode I speak with Brian Gracely who is heading up the EMC {code} initiative. Brian informs about what the {code} project is, and how EMC is contributing and communicating with the open community.

Chad Dunn, EMC’s Senior Director of VSPEX, speaks about EMC's new VSPEX BLUE offering, how hyper-converged architectures fit into the IT industry, what differentiates EMC’s EVO:RAIL based hyper-converged product, and also goes into more depth on VSPEX BLUE itself.

I speak with Mike Laverick (VMware's Product Integration Architect for EVO:RAIL), and discuss VMware's hyper-converged product, EVO:RAIL.

OpenStack is evolving and gaining traction, with many businesses looking towards OpenStack as a potential Public Cloud platform alternative to the likes of AWS. Though for many in the industry OpenStack is still something of an unknown frontier. To help shed some light on the topic I speak with Ken Hui (EMC’s OpenStack Cloud Solutions Business Development Manager) who helps us gain a better understanding of OpenStack, what it is and how it fits into the Cloud eco-system.

I speak with Jim Sanzone (EMC Solutions Technical Marketing Director), to discuss Hybrid Cloud and EMC’s new Enterprise Hybrid Cloud (EHC) solution. With Hybrid Cloud gaining more traction, and with more vendors starting to come to market with increasingly robust Hybrid Cloud offerings, this seemed like a good opportunity to find out more, and get some details around what the EMC Enterprise Hybrid Cloud has to offer. In this show we discuss and cover the following topics: - What is Hybrid Cloud? - EMC Enterprise Hybrid Cloud (EHC) overview - EHC use cases - How do I get EHC?

Alex Almeida is the Senior Technical Manager from EMC’s Backup & Recovery Systems Division, and a backup guy from way-back. With the recent big announcements from EMC around most of its backup and recovery products I thought this would be an excellent time to get Alex on the podcast to talk through some of the new features and enhancements from the announcement. We also cover the topics of how EMC has stayed ahead of the curve regarding backup and recover over the years, along with the increasing trend and benefits in moving the ability to backup and restore at the application level, and empowering end users and application administrators. The importance of backup and recovery has traditionally been overlooked by many in the industry, though luckily this has changed in recent years, and with the introduction of many exciting new backup and recovery technologies on the market has made this area a far cry from the days of old where working with backups were just plain boring and uncool.

I speak with the one and only Virtual Geek, Chad Sakac. As always I enjoy my conversations with Chad and his excellent knowledge of technology and the IT industry on the whole. We cover a wide range of topics including: - Life after creating the vSpecialist organization: Chad talks about his new role as EMC’s Senior Vice President of the Global SEs, and the challenges in scaling the concept of a “Tribe”. - Software Defined x: Chad runs through his take on the current state of play around the Software Defined Data Center (SDDC), and the various aspects and considerations for some of the software defined components/devices. - Lab time excellent! I find out what Chad is running in his famous home lab these days - And finally, will we see any more Chad’s Worlds webcasts or live events?

I am joined by EMC Senior Social Engagement Manager, Matthew Brender (Twitter: @mjbrender). In the podcast we cover the topics of what Matthew’s role entails, EMC Elect, what does “Social Engagement” mean and finally what is the best approach to ensure success, acceptance, and importantly, how companies should look at adding value in the world of social media.

I speak with Matthew Yeager, EMC VMAX Cloud Edition Team Lead (EMEA), about the recent EMC VMAX Cloud Edition storage offering. We discuss what the VMAX Cloud Edition is, it’s high level functionality, how it differs from the standard EMC VMAX, it’s use cases and where the VMAX Cloud Edition is positioned in the market.