Software & Applications

Redis Labs experiences 63% customer growth with Redis Enterprise cloud

Redis Labs has announced continued customer growth with Redis Enterprise Cloud on AWS, with growth of 63% over the past two quarters and new integrations with AWS Outposts and HashiCorp Terraform. In combination with Redis Enterprise's Active-Active geo-distribution technology, both integrations will make it even easier for companies to migrate, build, operate, and scale their applications throughout the cloud lifecycle. Redis Enterprise Cloud on AWS is a cost-effective, fully managed Database-as-a-Service (DBaaS) available as a hybrid and multi-cloud solution. Built on a serverless concept, Redis Enterprise Cloud simplifies and automates database provisioning. Users select the memory limit and throughput, and Redis Enterprise Cloud will provision the proper infrastructure and resources in a fully automated manner. Designed for modern distributed applications, Redis Enterprise Cloud also delivers sub-millisecond performance at a virtually infinite scale. This allows developers and operations teams to deliver intelligent, high-performance, scalable, and resilient applications faster using Redis native data structures and modern data models. Deliver low-latency solutions––anywhere Redis Labs has achieved the AWS Outposts Ready designation, part of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Service Ready Program. AWS Outposts is a fully managed service that extends AWS infrastructure, AWS services, APIs, and tools to virtually any data center, co-location space, or on-premises facility for a truly consistent hybrid experience. This new integration will enable Redis Labs customers to run on-premise with AWS Outposts, as well as in a hybrid-cloud deployment while getting all the benefits of a fully managed Redis solution, including: Five nines uptime at any scale for globally distributed dataActive-Active Redis deployments across AWS regions and hybrid deploymentsSeamless migration between on-premises to the cloud, while avoiding a single cutoff A unified real-time data experience across data structures and modern data modelsAttractive total cost of ownership for large (using Redis on Flash) and small (multi-tenant architecture) datasets Achieving the AWS Outposts Ready designation differentiates Redis Labs as an AWS Partner with a product fully tested on AWS Outposts. Create and manage Redis resources––anywhere The new integration with HashiCorp Terraform allows Redis Enterprise Cloud customers to easily provision and manage Redis Enterprise Cloud databases alongside any cloud infrastructure resources––including with AWS services––that their application requires, all written as code. Designed to fit the workflows modern software teams are adopting, the HashiCorp Terraform Redis Enterprise Cloud Provider makes infrastructure management predictable and reproducible, so fewer errors are made, and development can be more efficient. As enterprises continue to make Redis Enterprise a core data platform service across the business, delivering Redis Enterprise Cloud as a provider in HashiCorp Terraform will simplify deployments, standardize configurations while giving the freedom to deploy Redis on their preferred infrastructure platform. The HashiCorp Terraform Redis Enterprise Cloud Provider is a verified plugin approved by HashiCorp and maintained by Redis Labs. Comments on the News "Redis Enterprise Cloud is a fast-growing choice for companies to unify their global real-time data by offering unparalleled 99.999% uptime, at any scale, anywhere," Explains Yiftach Shoolman, Co-Founder and CTO at Redis Labs. "Our customers are building, deploying, and operating applications over on-premises or hybrid-cloud. Integrating Redis Enterprise with AWS Outposts aligns with our mission to make our customers' cloud journey successful. Along the same path, HashiCorp Terraform makes deploying Redis databases easier, with greater consistency, and enables teams to spend more time on how Redis can solve their real-time data needs. "Companies are modernizing their infrastructure solutions to optimize every aspect of the customer experience," comments Joshua Burgin, General Manager, AWS Outposts, Amazon Web Services, Inc. "We are delighted to welcome Redis Labs to the AWS Outposts Ready Program. Redis Enterprise can help customers create more responsive applications on AWS Outposts, in AWS Regions, and on customer-owned hardware for a truly consistent hybrid experience." "We've moved business-critical functions to Redis Enterprise Cloud because it lets us deliver software more quickly and focus on our product," says Mattius McLaughlin, Site Reliability Engineering Manager at Zapier. "As our SaaS product grows, we depend on Redis Enterprise Cloud to help us rapidly scale to meet the needs of our customers. With the performance, availability, and reliability we get from Redis Enterprise Cloud, our team can be confident the platform will satisfy our business today, and will scale to meet our demands in the future."

NETGEAR debuts four new Gigabit Ethernet Plus switches

NETGEAR has announced the availability of four new PoE+ Gigabit Ethernet Plus switches (GS305EP, GS305EPP, GS308EP, and GS308EPP). NETGEAR Plus switches provide the fundamental network management features that small businesses demand. Small and home-based business networks are expanding by adding power over ethernet IP-connected devices such as Voice-over-IP (VoIP) phones, IP cameras for surveillance, WiFi access points and many other applications. To provide businesses and home offices with even more control and security together with easy management over their expanding networks, an all-in-one solution which also provides power for these IP-based applications is crucial. To address this need for an affordable all-in-one solution, NETGEAR is introducing four new Gigabit Ethernet Plus switches with PoE+ power and essential management capabilities. Providing businesses and home office workers with uninterrupted PoE and PoE+ capabilities with advanced per port controls, GS308EP, GS305EP, GS305EPP and GS308EPP include simple management features like VLANs, QoS, port mirroring, and uninterruptable PoE to help optimize the performance and troubleshooting of business networks. Available at a minimal added cost over that of unmanaged switches, while offering the benefits of essential advanced network management, the Plus switches feature a new, modern, and intuitive business and consumer-friendly Graphical User Interface that is both browser and mobile friendly in 3 languages. “As businesses further develop their networks to provide IP-based solutions, they have a need for easy-to-use network management capabilities in a secure environment,” comments Richard Jonker, vice president of SMB product line management for NETGEAR. “These new PoE+ switches deliver on this capability, with the power to host IoT devices and wireless access points along with an intuitive graphical user interface for management while providing a secure environment with separated network segments over VLANs, all in a budget-friendly package.” With auto-sensing 10/100/1000 Mbps non-blocking Gigabit Ethernet ports with a total bandwidth of 10Gbps (5-port) and 16Gbps (8-port), these new Plus switches provide power budgets up to 123W for powerful PoE+ deployments and easy configuration of advanced features for the network. The new Plus switches deliver 4 or 8 PoE+ ports with 62W to 123W (model dependent) to provide power and network connectivity to PoE+ devices. Along with PoE+ capabilities, the new Plus switches include management features such as advanced per port PoE controls to simplify management of connected devices and uninterrupted power to keep devices connected and active even during firmware or software updates. Work from home offices and businesses can rest assured that the PoE power to their IP security cameras, VoIP phones and wireless access points is always on with this feature.  These new NETGEAR Plus switches also include the following power saving features: Energy Efficient Ethernet (IEEE 802.3az) for maximum power savings —Latest energy-saving abilities including per-port power management to reduce port power when the port link is down, or idleFanless, with versatile mounting options –Completely silent operation in a desktop small form factor that is also wall-mountableAdvanced per port PoE controls – Power management of the PoE connected devices by enabling and disabling PoE power per port, PoE prioritization, PoE power limit per port and more. Simplifies management of Wireless APs, IP security cameras, LED lighting, secure access door locks, IoT devices and moreUninterrupted PoE – Keep PoE power on to connected devices even when the switch is updating firmware or performing a soft reboot And, to safeguard the security of the network, the VLANs can be configured separately for each sub-network. For example, set up a VLAN for guests, one for admin and a separate one for IoT devices. The Plus switches also include the following added security and reliability features: Port Mirroring - For network diagnostics and troubleshootingComprehensive QoS - Advanced controls for optimized network performance and better delivery of mission-critical traffic such as voice and videoIGMP Snooping - Improved network efficiency on delivering multicast traffic. Save cost and improve network efficiency by ensuring multicast traffic only reaches designated receivers without the need of an extra multicast routerVLANs – Port-based and 802.1Q-based network separation into smaller groups for more secure and efficient use of network resourcesLoop Detection and Auto DoS Prevention - Detect accidental network loops and protect against DoS attacksCable Test – Easily identify the health status of Ethernet cables to quickly resolve connectivity issues With multi-language support in English, German, and Japanese, along with a category-leading 5-year warranty and 90-days free technical support via phone/email/chat, the Plus switches are now available worldwide.

National Institute for Health Research: Framework for biomedical research

Every breakthrough in modern medicine comes down to years of painstaking research. The UK’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) aims to make that research as effective as possible for as long as possible. “We’re the research partner of the National Health Service and the public health and social care systems,” says Justin Riordan-Jones, Head of Systems and Information at the Department of Health and Social Care. “Ultimately, our mission is to improve the health and wealth of the nation. We do this by providing the funding, training, and infrastructure for world-class biomedical research to take place in England.” “We wanted a solution that would empower us to operate as a single corporate entity over multiple locations, multiple platforms, and multiple scenarios. For us, the answer is Google Workspace” he continues. Founded in 2006, the NIHR works with government departments, hospitals, educational institutes, researchers, and patients to engage as many people as possible in the country’s health and care research system. As a national organization, it has to coordinate the efforts of thousands of employees and partners spread out across multiple locations and organizations. By 2015, after years of trying to harmonize the various different email addresses, data repositories, and collaboration tools across its organization, the NIHR needed a new way of working. It embarked on a comprehensive digital transformation, powered by Google Workspace. “We wanted a solution that would empower us to operate as a single corporate entity over multiple locations, multiple platforms, and multiple scenarios,” comments Justin. “For us, the answer is Google Workspace.” Multiple physical locations, a single digital hub The NIHR ultimately works for the benefit of everyone, with hundreds of research projects across the UK as well as low- and middle-income countries. But its immediate contacts are with government departments, universities, hospitals, and private companies. More than just a funding body, the NIHR aims to improve the training and ecosystem around medical research in the country. As such, it’s a geographically dispersed institution with four main coordinating centres. Most employees work mainly in the centres, but researchers and partners can be based in universities and hospitals across the country.  As the organization grew, managing staff and partner communications became more complex and departments became increasingly siloed. “We didn’t have a corporate email address for everyone working with us, because they were organized by their host locations on our platform,” says Justin. “Our system worked in the beginning, but the lack of consistency was starting to slow down our progress.” In 2014, the NIHR decided to build a new digital hub to simplify communication and collaboration and centralize key processes. To lead this digital transformation program, it collaborated with Google Cloud Premier Partner PA Consulting. Together, they conducted a rigorous test of various office productivity platforms, ultimately deciding on Google Workspace for its ease of use, out-of-the box functionality, and commitment to innovation. “We’re in research and development, so we need to be using the latest tools,” explains Justin. “When we looked at the development pathway and what Google Workspace was planning, we were impressed, particularly with how Google Meet enabled us to hold meetings without staff having to travel to multiple locations. One meeting could previously incur costs of up to £200 per person, not to mention time wasted during the commute.” Over the following year, the NIHR and PA set to work replacing the NIHR’s existing productivity platform with Google Workspace. For a government organization with several layers of compliance, transformation projects can be fraught with challenges. However, with PA’s help, the NIHR succeeded with minimal disruption. “PA assisted us in two very important ways,” says Justin. “First, it gave us unbiased advice, which is exceptionally important when we’re making big decisions about our future. Second, we were able to benefit from its knowledge, expertise, and experience in the public and private sectors.” The NIHR transformed its communication with Gmail, allowing all its users to have corporate email addresses for the first time. Thanks to the switch, staff also have the option to use Google Meet when talking over a video call would be more effective than email. And with Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides, several people can collaborate on the same documents in real time, then store and share those documents quickly and easily using Google Drive. On top of making communication and collaboration easier for NIHR staff, Google Workspace has also helped to ease the administrative task of managing so many people across so many different areas while still maintaining the highest standards of security. “Many researchers join us for a short amount of time and leave after the project finishes. But as a government organization, we deal with sensitive material, and information security is of the highest importance to us,” explains Justin. “With Google Workspace, we don’t risk losing data or having to manually transfer files from one place to the other. Instead, we have an easy way to securely handle on- and offboarding.” “We chose Google Cloud Search for the power of its search functionality and its stability. As part of Google Workspace, we knew it would do everything we wanted and fit seamlessly into our system.” —Justin Riordan-Jones, Head of Systems and Information, Department of Health and Social Care More effective research and improved efficiency  With its digital hub, the NIHR hasn’t just changed its day-to-day processes; it has transformed the way its employees work. “We’ve adopted a continuous improvement mindset,” shares Justin.  Together with PA, it runs a survey every year asking for feedback on what features work best for users and what can be improved. In 2019, this survey opened the way to improving collaboration even further, specifically in the way data is shared across the organization. The way the NIHR was initially organized meant that several data sources were unintentionally isolated within their host coordinating centers. That meant they were effectively invisible to the rest of the NIHR. As staff worked more closely with one another, they realized that some information was available but not necessarily accessible to those who needed it, and the NIHR wanted to tackle this head on. “We’re a centralized yet autonomous, knowledge-based organization, with large amounts of data in repositories that people should be able to access as quickly and easily as possible,” says Justin. “Instead, they knew the data existed, but getting access to it was frustrating. We wanted to find a way of making all that information easily discoverable.” The NIHR found its solution in Google Cloud Search, which seamlessly integrates with Google Workspace to provide search functionality across the entire technology infrastructure. Over 16 weeks, the NIHR worked with PA to redesign its digital platform, placing Cloud Search at the heart, so that users could harness its power on a daily basis, sharing data and collaborating more quickly and easily than ever before.  “We chose Cloud Search for the power of its search functionality and its stability,” says Justin. “As part of Google Workspace, we knew it would do everything we wanted and fit seamlessly into our system.” “Throughout lockdown, we’ve been using the full range of Google Workspace products to coordinate our urgent public health studies. The hub we have built is the fundamental backbone to our operations.” —Justin Riordan-Jones, Head of Systems and Information, Department of Health and Social Care  Adapting to new challenges at speed The new NIHR hub, complete with Cloud Search, went live in March 2020, just as the UK and much of the world went into lockdown due to COVID-19. Soon, the NIHR faced a unique set of challenges: not only did it have to work within quarantine guidance, it also needed to shift its priorities to helping researchers tackle COVID-19.  The NIHR’s new digital hub became more useful than ever, enabling it to continue working without pause. Its use of Meet went up by 379% within two months of quarantine, showing how video conferencing has helped to replace face-to-face meetings. Meanwhile, users share and collaborate on documents more frequently, with Drive usage increasing by 198%. “We went from being an organization that works in a variety of offices and locations to working from home overnight,” says Justin. “Because of Google Workspace and the hub that we had built with it, that transition was seamless and so far there has been no seriously detrimental effect on our performance.” Refocusing its resources to deal with COVID-19 has perhaps been the biggest challenge faced by the NIHR to date. As the situation unfolded, the NIHR set up and coordinated about 50 urgent public health studies into the effects of COVID-19, including two major studies of possible vaccines.  Typically, major research projects require months or even years to get off the ground, but the digital hub has helped the NIHR to spin them up within days and weeks. Studies like these require large numbers of people to meet and scrutinize a long list of supporting documents. The NIHR used Forms to survey its members and partners and find the right people, while Google Cloud Search made vital information discoverable within seconds. Justin explains how the digital hub made it all possible: “Throughout lockdown, we’ve been using the full range of Google Workspace products to coordinate our urgent public health studies,” he says. “The hub we have built is the fundamental backbone to our operations.” As the NIHR adjusts to the new reality of working today, it still keeps one eye on the future. The institute has taken steps to build on the foundation that Google Workspace and the hub have already made. “We recently hired our first Chief Digital Officer,” says Justin. “He’s been very impressed with the technology and the architecture we have in place with Google Workspace, and we’re looking forward to expanding the NIHR’s digital strategy in the future.”

Lenovo Data Centre Group delivers new data management solutions

Lenovo Data Centre Group (DCG) announces new end-to-end data management solutions allowing customers of all sizes to harness data more securely and efficiently, from edge to core to cloud, with a single set of tools and capabilities for a smarter way forward. “Customers continue to face challenges implementing a cohesive data management system to analyse and process data more efficiently,” comments Stuart McRae, Executive Director and General Manager, Storage, Lenovo Data Center Group. “Lenovo’s unique state-of-the-art data management architecture, in combination with the industry’s most reliable ThinkSystem servers, enables customers to accelerate Analytics and AI within a single platform.”  Accelerating Data Insights and Reducing Data Management Costs from Edge to Cloud The new Lenovo ThinkSystem DM5100F brings high-performance, low-latency all-NVMe storage at an affordable price point, enabling customers of all sizes to enhance analytics and AI deployments, while accelerating applications’ access to data.  The Lenovo DM Series storage systems now include new S3 Object support, to create a next generation unified data management platform. This platform allows customers to manage and analyse all data types (block, file and object) within a single storage platform, accelerating the processing of data analytics while reducing infrastructure costs. These enhancements create expanded data protection capabilities, with transparent failover and management of object storage natively. Additionally, with Lenovo DM Series storage, customers can add cold-data tiering from hard drives to the cloud, or replicate data to the cloud. This enables an economical multi-cloud strategy for storage, reducing the overall cost of data management. Jolera, a multinational service provider, recently worked with Lenovo to build out their back-end IT infrastructure. Jolera chose Lenovo DM Series and DE Series to build out their new offering, in combination with Lenovo ThinkSystem SR630 servers connected to storage arrays. “One of our first achievements was boosting the deduplication ratio of our storage solution from 3:1 to 4:1 by simply using the built-in tools in ThinkSystem,” said José Martins, Vice President, European Sales and Operations at Jolera Inc. “Without question, this improvement will help us contain our storage spend, and we will continue to optimize our data center with tools and guidance from Lenovo.” To help mitigate data management costs, Lenovo delivers an enhanced Lenovo ThinkSystem Intelligent Monitoring 2.0 software solution, a cloud-based management platform that uses AI to simplify and automate the care and optimisation of Lenovo’s ThinkSystem storage environment. Customers can monitor and manage storage capacity and performance for multiple locations from a single cloud-based interface, predict issues before they happen, and receive prescriptive guidance.  To further accelerate the performance of customers’ applications, Lenovo announces the new Lenovo DB720S Fibre Channel Switch. This switch provides 32Gbps and 64Gbps storage networking, delivering higher speed and 50 percent3 lower latency than previous generations. The DB720S delivers autonomous SAN infrastructure with self-learning, self-optimizing, and self-healing capabilities, leading to reduced downtime and simplified storage network management. Bringing Affordable and Flexible Analytic and AI Solutions to Entry and Mid-Sized Organisations As AI moves from the realm of research and science to delivering insights and automation for enterprises, Lenovo is focused on partnering and enabling this value for businesses of all sizes.  Lenovo recently collaborated with NetApp and NVIDIA to publish a Reference Architecture for an AI training system. The architecture combines ThinkSystem SR670 servers with NVIDIA GPUs and ThinkSystem DM5000F All-Flash storage, to help take the guesswork out of optimizing an AI platform.

Epsilon Partners with Aviatrix to deliver advanced multi-cloud networking

Epsilon, a global connectivity service provider, has partnered with Aviatrix, a leading cloud network platform, to deliver a multi-cloud service for enterprises. Epsilon Cloud Networking is an end-to-end multi-cloud service with the automation, operational visibility and control that enterprises need to simplify cloud networking. Epsilon customers benefit from features including advanced multi-cloud functionality, enterprise-class networking and security and network abstraction. The multi-cloud service directly controls native cloud networking constructs to maintain cloud simplicity and automation. It is based on the Aviatrix multi-cloud network platform with the ability to move data between cloud environments, including Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud. “We are excited to partner with Aviatrix to deliver a cloud networking service beyond traditional connectivity. Epsilon Cloud Networking addresses the real challenges in enterprise networking within and across the clouds” says Michel Robert, Chief Executive Officer at Epsilon. “We have combined our expertise in global connectivity with Aviatrix’s cloud network platform to deliver an end-to-end multi-cloud service. With Aviatrix as our partner, we are confident in delivering a best-in-class cloud networking solution for our customers.” Epsilon Cloud Networking uses Epsilon’s private network as the underlay and the Aviatrix cloud network platform to create an enterprise-class network inside and between public clouds. The Aviatrix network provides multi-cloud networking that goes beyond the basic native cloud networking service constructs. The Epsilon service also allows customers to consume security services, such as FQDN filtering and service insertion of next-gen firewalls, to meet their security and compliance requirements. “Our partnership allows Epsilon to deliver a complete end-to-end service for businesses looking for better visibility and control over their multi-cloud environment. Our enterprise-class multi-cloud network architecture is specifically tailored for large-scale enterprises, so that they can transform their operations with the help from cloud experts,” comments Steve Mullaney, Chief Executive Officer at Aviatrix. “We look forward to evolving our solution to further enable Epsilon to meet the changing cloud requirements of enterprises across the globe.” Epsilon Cloud Networking leverages a multi-cloud network architecture with a common network data and operational control plane. Through point and click workflows and infrastructure as code automation, enterprises using the multi-cloud service no longer need to undertake the complex and manual processes of native cloud networking. The service provides everything an enterprise needs to transform their cloud networking through a single relationship. “Business transformation has driven enterprise IT organisations to embrace public cloud as the new centre of gravity for applications and data,” says Chin Woon Lee, Data Services Director at Epsilon. “With the pandemic pushing the pace of this transformation, cloud operations teams are facing more challenges including limited visibility, lack of network control and skill gaps. Our cloud networking service will enable businesses to take on these challenges more effectively.”

Tech firm strengthens asset recovery links

A leading Internet of Things (IoT) solutions company has appointed a new head of global risk as part of its expanding security operations. And the recruitment bolsters the firm’s fledgling reputation in asset recovery, which has amounted to a staggering value of over £5m across the past four years. Seeking to enhance business protection following a rapid increase in high-value asset attacks across the UK, Smarter Technologies has enlisted Mark Roche into its ranks. A highly trained specialist with over 20 years of experience in covert operations, Roche is considered one of an elite group trained to manage high-value asset recovery operations. “In the cat-and-mouse game of fighting criminal activity, it’s our goal to always be one step ahead of the criminals,” comments Roche on his appointment. “We are building and strengthening an expert team to tackle asset recoveries across a global network.” Smarter Technologies already works with recognised institutions such as the Ministry of Defence and Royal Airforce, delivering real-time asset tracking through its secure Orion Data Network. And now with Roche among the ranks, the business is set to excel in helping SME's, blue chip companies and police forces across the country. “The issue is that police forces sometimes don’t have the resources to deal with asset theft" adds Roche. “When it comes to their resource allocation and prioritisation between the theft of an asset and a case that involves potential preservation of life, the latter will always come first.” “My process involves liaising with police force wherever that asset was stolen from, working with the troops on the ground and locating the tracker to a precise location.” One police force that is already familiar with the benefits Roche can bring in his field is Essex and Kent Police. “I have worked with Mark Roche for a number of years, and he has had significant impact in reducing crime and improving recovery rates,” says Jason Hendy, head of serious and organised crime, Essex and Kent Police. “Mark has helped catch more criminals with his equipment than any other company we know. He is also known now as an expert tracker across many police forces and trains officers on tracking. “We look forward to continuing our association to ensure we maintain our position at the forefront of detection and the successful prosecution of criminal behaviour.”

'Not all Micro Data centres are created equal'- Zella DC

Zella DC has recently beat out several global data heavy-weights to secure a multi-country deal with a leading US pharmaceutical group, proving that even the well-established IT infrastructure market is now ripe for disruption. Recognising that fixed server room infrastructure is costly, inefficient and difficult to scale, Zella DC founders Angie and Clinton Keeler have been on a 10-year journey to deliver the next generation of micro data centres. This journey is now bearing fruit with Zella DC securing a number of global enterprise accounts that will see Zella DC micro data centres deployed in six continents across a wide range of industries. The recent win for Zella DC in the US adds to a growing list of global organisations, including BT, Chevron, BHP, and Austal, that see Zella DC data centres as critical to their future data management strategies. Angie Keeler, Zella DC’s Co-Founder and CEO says: “With the increasing popularity of hyper-converged IT infrastructure, the majority of our customers are looking for data centre solutions that are fast, secure, scalable and cost effective, and Zella DC ticks all of those boxes.” Providing massive energy efficiencies and rapid scalability options, the Australian-made Zella DC micro data centres are ideally positioned within the edge computing industry, a global market that is forecast to reach almost US$16B by 2025. Clinton Keeler, Zella DC’s Co-Founder and CTO comments: “The Zella DC modular micro data centres give our customers the flexibility to supplement or completely replace their existing fixed server room infrastructure, and be up and running within days instead of months.” Angie Keeler concludes: “The growing adoption of the Zella DC technology, especially by major global players, has really validated that we are moving in the right direction and we fully expect our growth to accelerate as more companies see the benefits of the Zella DC solutions.”

Scality predicts containerisation and cloud-native apps will define storage

Scality has announced its data storage predictions for 2021, focusing on the rapid growth rate of cloud-native apps and containerisation. According to IDC, by 2023, over 500 million digital apps and services will be developed and deployed using cloud-native approaches. That is the same number of apps developed in total over the last 40 years. “The accelerated growth of next-generation cloud-native digital apps and services will define new competitive requirements in every industry. Cloud native and containers are rapidly turning into the new blueprint for application development and underlying cloud infrastructure services,” explains Giorgio Regni, CTO at Scality. “For the storage industry, the container trend represents a significant inflection point that will transform deployment architectures leveraging Kubernetes and container-native storage APIs. Its impact will be comparable to that of server virtualisation in the 2000s and cloud computing in the 2010s.” Scality’s Chief Product Officer Paul Speciale adds, “2021 will see a number of trends emerge as enterprise IT teams and storage vendors adapt in order to support the rise of cloud-native apps and the subsequent change in application and cloud infrastructure models.” Scality’s predictions for 2021: New container-centric storage solutions will emerge Storage vendors in 2021 will create solutions to address the increasing scale and agility demands of container-based services, including boot volumes and logs, transactional databases, application data over traditional file and new object APIs, as well as backup and long-term archives. New container-centric storage products will be developed to enable traditional data-centric applications, as well as object storage and backups, to access Container Storage Interface (CSI)-type persistent volumes and radically reduce the complexity of large-scale Kubernetes deployments. Hybrid cloud data management will be adopted for disaster recovery Disaster Recovery (DR) across two physical data centres will no longer be required in 2021. Instead, hybrid cloud DR solutions that manage synchronized copies of critical data on-premises and in the public cloud will enable IT leaders to avoid the costs required to maintain and service two remote locations for DR, thereby saving thousands, if not millions, of dollars. Flash media will be embraced for high-capacity storage A new generation of high-density flash storage will become widely available in 2021. The optimal combination of high performance and lower prices makes it suitable for scale-out high-capacity file and object storage. Until now, flash storage has been deployed in smaller capacity applications and latency-sensitive use cases, while high-density spinning disk has been the preferred storage medium for large volumes of data (for example, media files or medical images). With the introduction of lower-cost, higher-density flash media in 2021, these use cases will adopt capacity-optimized solutions that maximize these benefits in density, scale and agility for multiple workloads.  Object storage will become a de facto storage model for data lakes Research and Markets estimates that by 2025 data lakes will grow into a $20.1 Billion market. To fully analyse and take advantage of the wealth of information and insight in these massive data repositories, organizations require a foundational storage layer that makes data accessible and useful. In 2021 object storage will fulfil this role, becoming the dominant storage interface for analytics applications, such as Cloudera, Elastic, Spark, Splunk, Vertica, Weka and many others. This is because analytics applications leverage the AWS S3 API, the standard API for object storage; large semi-structured and unstructured data sets are a natural fit for object storage; and performance and capacity resources can scale independently since object storage decouples the application compute tier from the storage tier. 2021 will see an increased convergence of object and file storage for unstructured data Organizations today are prioritizing data storage that scales both in capacity and in the breadth of applications that it supports. Cloud-native applications, which naturally consume and interact with object storage over S3 API, are increasingly deployed in the enterprise alongside long-standing applications that access file system storage. As a result, solutions that combine file and object models into single unified systems will prevail in the enterprise starting in 2021. The service mesh will be adopted to connect and secure workloads Complex cloud-native applications that straddle cloud regions, on-premises core data centres and edge locations are becoming increasingly popular. Yet secure communication between these services remains a challenge, particularly as the rise in remote working strains legacy network and firewall designs. In 2021, ‘service mesh’ approaches to secure network communication will be broadly adopted. Such approaches will enforce Transport Layer Security (TLS) and authentication and access control for both workload connectivity as well as towards the edge. This gradually introduces ‘zero-trust’ networks (spearheaded by Google’s BeyondCorp framework) where network policies can be codified and systematically deployed and enforced.

Data Centre Advisory Consultancy launches cyber security offering.

Digital Infrastructure Advisors are launching a new service to address serious risks, which are currently being widely overlooked within the Data Centre industry. The specialists will deploy the Darktrace Cyber AI platform as a Darktrace Certified Partner, concentrating on the potentially exposed Facility Critical Infrastructure Networks (FCINs) that surround a Data Centre. The move brings together the Darktrace expertise in protecting corporate and industrial networks, with Digital Infrastructure Advisors' experience in the Data Centre sector. One of a Data Centre's biggest weaknesses is insufficient protection from Cyber threats, and many remain vulnerable to security breaches. This could prove extremely damaging if not addressed with some urgency. Despite the increasingly critical role these Data Centres play in business, and arguably because of their progressive size and complexity, they are often underserved from a security perspective. One of a number of FCINs common to every Data Centre, is the network that supports its building systems. This includes security systems, access control, power, cooling, IoT devices & sensors, fire & life safety systems, remote monitoring tools, building management systems, as well as control systems on multiple networks, which have many protocols and platforms such as BacNet, ModBus, SCADA, TCPIP, and others. This network offers a 'back door' for hackers and rogue insiders to compromise the ICT infrastructure they support, leading to downtime, breached security and broken SLAs. Digital Infrastructure Advisors CEO Mike West says, "The hackers themselves are becoming ever more sophisticated and are broadening their targets. We see increasing threats to Data Centres, with a worrying number of examples of utilities and industrial facilities being compromised." Darktrace spokesperson Sam Alderman-Miller comments, "We have a global 'Solutions for Industry Challenges' programme and at the current time there is an opportunity for Digital Infrastructure Advisors to establish a leadership position in the Data Centre Industry and take advantage of our 'proof of value' trials to establish the value of the Darktrace Enterprise Immune System and demonstrate a 'step change' in the security of the Data Centre facilities throughout its global network." Mike West agrees, "We have recognised a key vulnerability in the Data Centre sector. We identified that Darkspace is unique in the self-learning Enterprise and Industrial Cyber solutions it offers.  Working together, we are uniquely placed to support already overstretched security and IT teams in protecting every corner of their networks." In order to prove its value, Digital Infrastructure Advisors will provide a free thirty-day report on the complete Cyber situation within a Data Centre's building systems network, to those who take up the offer of a free trial of the Darktrace solution.

Kao Data ramps-up cloud connectivity by partnering with Megaport.

Kao Data has announced a partnership with Megaport. This agreement expands Kao Data’s capabilities to provide on-demand cloud connectivity from major hyperscale providers including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and many others. The partnership with Kao Data is set to increase the data centre’s global cloud and connectivity capabilities and provide a strategic location north of London, as well as the closest Megaport presence to Cambridge’s academic and high-tech and scientific communities. This accessibility and flexibility into cloud providers, alongside the capability to house high density, industrial-scale, high performance computing (HPC) environments reinforces Kao Data as the home for HPC and intensive compute within the UK Innovation Corridor. “Enterprise, HPC and AI organisations depend on high-performance, low-latency connectivity, with varying peering and interconnection demands, many requiring local data centre capacity that links directly to their chosen cloud provider,” says Lee Myall, CEO, Kao Data. “We’re proud to offer our clients in Cambridge, London and beyond, a world-class home for their compute. Our partnership with Megaport further strengthens this, offering them unrivalled cloud accessibility through agile networks complementing the already strong foundational carrier attributes present across the campus.” “We’re excited to partner with Kao Data to provide their customers with on-demand cloud connections,” states Eric Troyer, Chief Marketing Officer, Megaport. “Megaport’s industry-leading SDN platform removes traditional cloud access complexities and costly overheads. Through our global ecosystem of service providers Kao Data’s customers will be able to choose and rapidly connect to the services that are right for their needs in a matter of minutes, not months. ” Kao Data’s partnership with Megaport will provide direct, secure and private software-defined networking access to a global cloud and connectivity ecosystem. Customers can connect to leading public clouds, software-as-a-service providers, and direct data centre to data centre interconnections. Multi Cloud and Cloud-to-Cloud connectivity is also available through the Megaport Cloud Router.  Bypassing the public Internet provides customers with improved security and higher availability, guaranteeing service, improved connectivity speeds and resiliency. On-boarding to the service is accessed via Megaport’s point of presence within the Kao Data ‘Meet-Me’ suite, whilst the services are delivered through a self-service portal, allowing customers to enable and adjust the capabilities as and when required through point and click provisioning. The Covid-19 pandemic has increased the numbers of organisations operating from remote locations that have begun using distributed computing.  This trend has showed the need to offer businesses secure cloud-based, low latency, high performance services, and through this partnership Kao Data and Megaport provide 'dedicated access to these environments'.