ESG Blogs

It’s hard to believe that almost exactly a year ago, on October 14, 2019, Commvault launched Metallic, which is now an award-winning solution. As a product guy, I know from experience how difficult but rewarding it is to get an award at VMworld for your solution. A one-year old solution with a best in show is very impressive. Well done Metallic team! More importantly: well executed!

IBM’s announcement last week that it is to split into two companies by spinning off a big chunk of itself leads with a compellingly bold statement, saying it is “…to accelerate hybrid cloud growth strategy and execute spin-off market-leading managed infrastructure services unit.” By the way, when I say “big chunk,” I actually mean a relatively small percentage (just under 25% of current revenues)…but anything at IBM-scale is big compared to most businesses; the NewCo has a current revenue run-rate of $19BN, a backlog of $60BN and does business with 75% of the Fortune 100. Not bad, eh!?

Like so many industry and vendor events so far in 2020 (and no doubt like many more for a good while yet), VMworld was presented digitally this year. That significant change did not however affect its scale, whether measured by ambition, breadth of coverage or likely impact.

Application modernization efforts are pushing traditional infrastructure to its limits in an era where businesses across nearly every industry depend upon data and applications to not only continue operations, but to also create new opportunities. High performance improves customer experience, accelerates business operations, and can deliver superior business results. Technology is no longer simply a passenger for business operations, it is the now the engine and often the driver as well.

As with many Oracle product names, one of its latest monikers – Oracle Cloud Observability and Management Platform – doesn’t exactly get one’s IT juices flowing…but it should. For all the talk of "cool" modern apps, DevOps, highly distributed and sophisticated infrastructure solutions and ubiquitous AI/ML, the fact of the matter is that –for all these things– users still need to know what’s going on in these increasingly complex ecosystems. It’s like crossing a road: it doesn’t matter whether the vehicles are horse-drawn, pedal-, gas-, or electric-powered, you still need to look both ways before deciding when to step off the curb (or “kerb”…but more on that later).

I’ve long admired the work of Dr. Anton Chuvakin, head of solution strategy at Google Chronicle. Anton really knows security analytics and operations so now that he’s no longer a Gartner analyst, it was great to have him participate in the SOAPA video series. In part 1, Anton and I discuss:

• Detection as code. In a recent blog, Anton proposes, "detection as code." The thought here is that you want to “devops” your detections to keep up with threats and strive for constant improvement. This is an intriguing concept that may be especially useful for large organizations in specific industries under attack. We have focused industry ISACs, why not focused industry detection code?

As we all work through the various impacts of the novel coronavirus – from the depressing and the serious to the merely inconvenient – it's vital that as much industry and business as is safe and possible continues. When thousands are dying, it can seem trite to even consider this, but it is not only important in terms of us having a vibrant post-virus world; IT is an important contributor to sustaining our lives and communications today, and also a vital element to finding ways to overcome the virus.

Extreme Networks recently held its 2020 User Conference, Extreme Connect, the first with Wes Durow, CMO. Keeping in line with the new reality we are all facing, it was a virtual event. However, Extreme took great efforts to give the thousands watching from home the feel of a main stage production and infuse two days' keynotes, breakout sessions, and executive chats with opportunities to have some fun and be entertained.

A really common question this summer has been “What did you do during the pandemic?” Most would respond with projects around the house, maybe learned a new language, etc. However, If you attended the Nutanix .NEXT virtual conference, it would be pretty clear what the team at Nutanix was doing – innovating to deliver new capabilities for their customers. As the image below indicates, Nutanix announced a slew of innovative new solutions designed to enable organizations to Run Better, Run Faster, and Run Anywhere.

The day has finally arrived. Today, Snowflake will IPO under the ticker SNOW. Many knew this was coming, even before Frank Slootman was brought in as CEO. But I don’t think it was expected to have as much fanfare as we’re seeing. Buffet (Berkshire Hathaway) is on board. Benioff (Salesforce) is on board. It’s being called the hottest tech IPO of the year. So, what’s the draw? Is it the differentiable technology? Not really. The number of customers? Nope. Customer growth? Impressive, but no. What about the total market size? Getting there. What about the value propositions it offers customers? Well yes, but I would argue there are several competitors that offer similar value propositions. So, what is it? The opportunity. The opportunity is simply massive.