Insider Research Podcast

Wed, 22 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction

Last year I had the chance to participate in a podcast. I was invited by Vogel IT, a German publishing house, as a guest for the Insider Research Podcast. I talked about various topics with podcast host Oliver Schonschek. A central aspect was how to implement and operate customer projects in a multi-cloud world and how to ensure data security.
At the beginning of the podcast, we talk about cloud computing as an operating model and then talk about how to use software-driven storage to deploy storage targets independent of their landing zone. We talked about how Project Alpine from Dell Technologies can be used to create a homogeneous storage layer across various landing zones and the benefits this brings. Then, we talked about how companies can protect their mission-critical data from cyber attacks. Finally, we talked about how to realize storage persistence for Kubernetes workloads using the Container Storage Module provided by Dell Technologies.

Storage and data management for a multi-cloud world

The podcast is described in the show notes with the following text:
One of the biggest challenges in the era of multi-cloud is that data is increasingly distributed across on-premises data centers, colocation facilities, and public clouds. The lack of consistency between these environments leads to increased costs, but also compliance and governance issues. How do you achieve consistent storage and data management from on-premises to the various clouds?

The podcast is available at the following link:
Podcast

Summary

After my interview with the German media outlet Computerwoche, the podcast was my second interaction with a press medium in the last year. Here, too, it was very interesting to take part in the production process. The exchange with Oliver Schonschek was interesting and it was impressive to see how professionally the podcast was moderated and produced.

References

Podcast - link
Webinar - link
Project Alpine - link
Container Storage Modules introduced by Itzik Reich - link
Container Storage Modules on GitHub - link

Computerwoche - Interview

Wed, 18 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction

Last year, I had the pleasure of participating in an expert discussion hosted by the German media outlet Computerwoche. This expert discussion was held as a moderated panel discussion between various panelists. Experts from a wide range of companies were invited to the discussion. An interesting and lively discussion emerged throughout the event, which lasted just under two hours. The panel discussion was documented by journalists. Following the discussion, two articles were written and published on the Computerwoche website.
The following quote from myself is reproduced in both articles:

The mantra ‘cloud first’ is changing to ‘application first’. Current multi-cloud usage has grown by accident over time at many companies, and this often creates a degree of complexity. At the same time, many new opportunities are emerging. We need to get to a point in the discussion where multi-cloud management is applied strategically, and aligned with business objectives. Using Google Cloud as an example alone, I can spontaneously think of five ways to host containers. A good strategy takes these options into account.
The first step is to conduct an application assessment to determine which application fits which landing zone. Once this has been done, a decision can be made as to whether it makes sense to operate an application in a cloud environment using lift-and-shift, or whether refactoring is perhaps the better approach.

First article - Multi-Cloud becomes Poly-Cloud

In the first article, the author Florian Stocker writes that among others the trend to consume software-as-a-service offerings has led to the creation of a heterogeneous multi-cloud environment within companies. The author describes IT governance as a major challenge for today’s IT operations since companies operate their own multi-cloud environment without consciously forcing it. IT teams nowadays have to manage this growing zoo of applications, which is difficult without an adapted strategy. The main focus should be on protecting critical business data and maintaining independence by avoiding vendor lock-in. Companies should be well advised to set themselves up to maintain or regain their sovereignty and invest in the right strategy accordingly.

Here the link to the article:
Article 1

Download the text directly:

Download PDF

Second article - How cloud native fuels your business

In the second article, author Lee Atchison writes how adopting Cloud-Native principles is about achieving the flexibility needed to remain competitive in an ever-changing market. The author describes how companies from various industries are adopting cloud-based infrastructures to support their digital transformation. However, just using a cloud operations model is not enough to achieve optimal flexibility, availability, scalability, and overall performance. Companies need to adopt Cloud-Native principles for application development and deployment. Cloud-Native applications are software systems developed according to the principles of the cloud as an operations model(dynamic, scalable, and highly available). Cloud-Native architecture is a response to the challenges faced by software developers when working with legacy approaches. Cloud-Native applications use dynamic resource allocation, service or microservice architectures, are containerized, orchestrated with e.g. Kubernetes, and store and manage data in cloud-managed databases and other data services.

Here the link to the article:
Article 2

Download the text directly:

Download PDF

Summary

First of all, the panel discussion was fun, very interesting to get to know and exchange different perspectives and opinions within an industry. Furthermore, it was very interesting to follow the process and to accompany how the articles for Computerwoche emerged from the panel discussion. Such sideline activities are welcome diversions from my daily work routine.

Media on Home

Insider Research Podcast

Introduction

Storage and data management for a multi-cloud world

Summary

References

Computerwoche - Interview

Introduction

First article - Multi-Cloud becomes Poly-Cloud

Second article - How cloud native fuels your business

Summary