ESG Blogs

The SOAPA video series has featured a series of prolific industry beacons representing leading security operations technology vendors. That will continue, but I thought I’d shake up the format a bit by inviting my colleague and friend, Dave Gruber, to participate. 

John shares some great perspective on VDI solutions and how remote work has inspired the future of work. We also discuss the pros and cons of VPN and how VDI helps overcome some of the traditional challenges of VPN. The other topic we hit on is deployment choice and how businesses may choose on-prem or off-prem VDI deployment models.

VeeamON used to have 2000 attendees. That was in the “old” world from a few months ago. The “new normal” has made the company pivot its popular event to digital, as is happening around the industry, with more or less success and execution prowess. 

Veeam nailed it.

One interesting thing happened: it “democratized” the event, making it available to 20 times more people than the physical event could. So out of a “bad” thing, a good thing happened. Veeam will also hold localized versions of this in various parts of the world in the next few weeks, like Europe. However, it was pretty clear that many did not want to wait and joined the event despite the time difference. 

Data integration is hard. Over the years, of all the technologies and processes that are part of an organization’s analytics stack/lifecycle, data integration continuously has been cited as a challenge. In fact, according to recent ESG research, more than 1 in 3 (36%) organizations say data integration is one of their top challenges with data analytics processes and technologies. The data silo problem is very real, but it’s about so much more than having data in a bunch of locations and needing to consolidate. It’s becoming more about the need to merge data of different types and change rates; the need to leverage metadata to understand where the data came from, who owns it, and how it’s relevant to the business; the need to properly govern data as more folks ask for access; and the need to ensure trust in data because if there isn’t trust in the data, how can you trust the outcomes derived from it?

This week, Dell Technologies announced the release of its new PowerScale storage platform for unstructured (file and object) data. Despite the new name, PowerScale leverages the same OneFS technology that was the backbone of the Isilon brand for so many years.

Why isn’t it just called Isilon? Multiple reasons, Dell looks to be consolidating the naming for its infrastructure portfolio all under “Power” brands, such as PowerMax, PowerStore, PowerOne, and now PowerScale. Also, there is a lot more in this launch than just a new appliance.

The data protection space relies on a very diverse and complex ecosystem of channel players. How has the COVID-19 crisis affected the channel? I discuss this important topic in a new video with resident expert and lead of ESG's channel practice Kevin Rhone.

It's always a pleasure to speak with Carisa as she shares her enthusiasm for the market and the variety of experiences Citrix customers are working through today. We also touch on the potential importance of user experience monitoring and how it may play into future remote work decisions.

Listen to hear how Citrix is helping customers and the unique position that Citrix holds in the market with its ability to deliver a variety of work-from-home solutions. Vishal also shares how important the cloud consumption model has been during these times and some potential maneuvers he sees as customers think through what's next.

Brad shares some great perspective from a customer point of view and what he is seeing with Workspot customers during the COVID-19 pandemic. We chat through the varying degrees of success businesses are having, the work at home kit, and the different measures businesses may take to rebound back to a mix of remote work and office work.

The recent announcement from IBM to withdraw from all research, development, and offerings of facial recognition will not stop facial recognition from being used by law enforcement or government entities. There. I said it. Facial recognition will continue on its gray area trajectory with or without IBM. But what IBM has done, specifically Arvind Krishna, is bringing attention to a growing concern that needs far more national and global attention. The use of facial recognition needs to be scrutinized for bias and privacy concerns. It needs oversight. It needs guardrails. Usage, especially from law enforcement and governing entities, needs to be transparent. And frankly, the technology needs to be better for it to work the way people envision.