What I've Been Reading 2017-10-20 (Azure, AWS, HCI On-Ramps, HPE Exits Cloud, vRO, KRACK, Threat Remediation)
Well, KRACK has dominated much of the blogosphere this last week. Beyond WPA2 vulnerabilities, there were many other interesting developments in IT. Please let me know if you would like to discuss any of these topics in more detail.
Cloud
- The Pairing of Hyperconverged Vendors and Cloud Providers
- Why this is interesting: I am seeing a reality check on the “cloud first” battle cry. I think what most executives mean by “cloud first” is “tell me why this app cannot run on cloud first”. For many cloud-native, latency-insensitive applications, public cloud is the right fit. Many other new and old application may perform better and cost less running in internal data centers or colocation. There is a move by hyperconverged vendors to become the go to “on ramp” to public cloud. With the general release of Microsoft Azure Stack on many hardware platforms, Azure Stack is the perfect on-ramp for Azure. VMware is positioning vSphere, VSAN, NSX, and appliances made from these components as the logical on ramp for Amazon AWS. The third, significant cloud provider is Google Cloud Platform (GCP). It appears that Nutanix would like to be the de facto on ramp for GCP.
- Read More
- The Register article is here
- The Register article is here
- Why this is interesting: I am seeing a reality check on the “cloud first” battle cry. I think what most executives mean by “cloud first” is “tell me why this app cannot run on cloud first”. For many cloud-native, latency-insensitive applications, public cloud is the right fit. Many other new and old application may perform better and cost less running in internal data centers or colocation. There is a move by hyperconverged vendors to become the go to “on ramp” to public cloud. With the general release of Microsoft Azure Stack on many hardware platforms, Azure Stack is the perfect on-ramp for Azure. VMware is positioning vSphere, VSAN, NSX, and appliances made from these components as the logical on ramp for Amazon AWS. The third, significant cloud provider is Google Cloud Platform (GCP). It appears that Nutanix would like to be the de facto on ramp for GCP.
- Azure & AWS Service Comparison
- Why this is interesting: Purely informative. I subscribe to the AWS and Azure blogs and it is remarkable how many features they add on a daily and weekly basis. Although this comparison was written by Microsoft, so it has a bias, the comparison remains educational.
- Read More
- The Microsoft article is here
- The Microsoft article is here
- Why this is interesting: Purely informative. I subscribe to the AWS and Azure blogs and it is remarkable how many features they add on a daily and weekly basis. Although this comparison was written by Microsoft, so it has a bias, the comparison remains educational.
Servers
- HPE Exits the Cloud Server Business
- Why this is interesting: IaaS public cloud workloads have grown to represent about $35B of the $3,500B annual IT market. Initially, HPE did well with their “white box” line of servers for cloud providers. Over the past few years though, cloud heavyweights such as Facebook, Google and others have gotten together to form the Open Compute Project (OCP). OCP provides standard open source hardware specifications that all manufacturers have access to. Since there is no differentiation in server hardware, IaaS companies purchase based on price and availability, not reliability and world-class, global support.
- Read More
- HPE Quits Cloud Servers
- HPE Quits Cloud Servers
- Why this is interesting: IaaS public cloud workloads have grown to represent about $35B of the $3,500B annual IT market. Initially, HPE did well with their “white box” line of servers for cloud providers. Over the past few years though, cloud heavyweights such as Facebook, Google and others have gotten together to form the Open Compute Project (OCP). OCP provides standard open source hardware specifications that all manufacturers have access to. Since there is no differentiation in server hardware, IaaS companies purchase based on price and availability, not reliability and world-class, global support.
Storage
- Access Azure Blob Storage as Amazon S3 Storage with Scality
- Why this is interesting: I have always been a fan of Scality. Enterprise-class, software-defined, object storage including NAS. For many applications, especially backup applications, Amazon S3 has become the de-facto storage format. Well, what if you have standardized on Azure or Azure Stack? Scality has you covered by presenting Azure storage blobs as S3 storage.
- Read More
- Article on Scality Connect for Microsoft Azure Blob Storage here
- Article on Scality Connect for Microsoft Azure Blob Storage here
- Why this is interesting: I have always been a fan of Scality. Enterprise-class, software-defined, object storage including NAS. For many applications, especially backup applications, Amazon S3 has become the de-facto storage format. Well, what if you have standardized on Azure or Azure Stack? Scality has you covered by presenting Azure storage blobs as S3 storage.
- NetApp becomes Microsoft’s Azure Enterprise Network File System (NFS) service
- Why this is interesting: Nice move for NetApp. Most storage vendors already have a software version of their storage as a catalog offering in AWS and Azure. This puts NetApp behind the official Microsoft NFS offering and provides links into other NetApp products such as AltaVault.
- Read More
- Article can be found here.
- Article can be found here.
- Why this is interesting: Nice move for NetApp. Most storage vendors already have a software version of their storage as a catalog offering in AWS and Azure. This puts NetApp behind the official Microsoft NFS offering and provides links into other NetApp products such as AltaVault.
Automation
- Blue Medora Plug-Ins for vRealize Operations
- Why this is interesting: As automation and velocity becomes more and more important for private cloud and public cloud, the ability to automate all these functions from a single tool is powerful. The folks in the WWT ATC Labs just completed the integration of vRealize Operations, using Blue Medora, with:
- VMware NSX
- VMware vSphere
- VMware vSAN
- VMware Horizon
- VMware Service Discovery
- VMware vRealize Log Insight
- VMware vRealize Business
- VMware vRealize Automation
- VMware SDDC Health
- Amazon Web Services
- Azure
- Dell EMC VNX
- Dell EMC XIO
- Dell EMC ViPR
- Dell Converged Vblock
- Dell PowerEdge
- Microsoft SQL Server
- Microsoft IIS (via EPO Agent)
- Microsoft Active Directory (via EPO Agent)
- Cisco Networking
- Cisco UCS
- F5 BIG-IP
- Pivotal Cloud Foundry
- Docker
- VMware NSX
- Read More
- The Blue Medora vRO page is here
- Why this is interesting: As automation and velocity becomes more and more important for private cloud and public cloud, the ability to automate all these functions from a single tool is powerful. The folks in the WWT ATC Labs just completed the integration of vRealize Operations, using Blue Medora, with:
Security
- KRACK WPA2 Vulnerability
- Why this is interesting: Being in IT, I’m sure you have been overwhelmed by coverage on the KRACK vulnerability. I liked this article for pointing out that, although serious, the KRACK vulnerability is not easy to exploit. Patches have already started rolling out to wireless hardware and some operating systems. This vulnerability is another reminder that a multi-layered security strategy, as well as a security incident response plan help to mitigate the effects of frequent vulnerabilities.
- Read More
- Article from The Verge is here
- Article from The Verge is here
- Why this is interesting: Being in IT, I’m sure you have been overwhelmed by coverage on the KRACK vulnerability. I liked this article for pointing out that, although serious, the KRACK vulnerability is not easy to exploit. Patches have already started rolling out to wireless hardware and some operating systems. This vulnerability is another reminder that a multi-layered security strategy, as well as a security incident response plan help to mitigate the effects of frequent vulnerabilities.
- Create a Threat Response and Remediation System
- Why this is interesting: As security attacks increase in volume and complexity, automation of discovery and remediation are needed more than ever. This article using Cisco Tetration is a great example of how to do this.
- Read More
- WWT article on Tetration response and remediation is here
- Why this is interesting: As security attacks increase in volume and complexity, automation of discovery and remediation are needed more than ever. This article using Cisco Tetration is a great example of how to do this.
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