ESG Blogs

In my second networking conversation with Bob Laliberte, part of the ongoing ESG 360 Video Series, we concentrate on how networking can be aligned with - and help to drive - business objectives; with step one being the provisioning of information (analytics, ML, and AI) and step two being an active system (programmable automation to limit or preclude manual steps). When combined, these constitute the major elements of what is often spoken of as “intent-based networking” - in simple terms, you can think of this as traditional static network plumbing transitioning to become a contemporary dynamic part of optimizing application outcomes.

Last week, Pure took advantage of the historic Bill Graham Civic Center and auditorium to host its annual customer and analyst event, Pure Accelerate 2018. Accelerate is a good choice for Pure as 2017 marked its first year with over one billion dollars in revenue as an independent company. A feat it accomplished in 8 short years.

IT has probably never been more complex and demanding than today: even as approaches such as convergence, myriad clouds, containers and software-definition (etc.) seek to make operations simpler, so to a degree such elements can also obfuscate some of the underlying subtleties and opportunities of the foundational components. After all, while it’s great to focus on purchasing - for instance - application service levels or business outcomes, some understanding of the IT elements (and considerations or choices) that contribute to those is also often useful. That is the purpose of this video discussion series: it offers ESG’s subject matter experts discussing some of the key trends, drivers, and considerations across various IT areas. We aim to do it succinctly and to deliver it in engaging, plain English - while also tying each technology area back to its eventual potential to positively impact both IT and business results. 

Nutanix held its annual customer event, Nutanix .NEXT, in New Orleans this year – kicking off the event with a Mardi Gras-like parade, complete with band and floats. That was followed by a pair of customers welcoming the crowd to New Orleans! Nutanix has been growing rapidly and the event has been maturing as well, this year attracting over 5,000 attendees. It would seem that its message and solutions are resonating with customers and Nutanix continues to roll out new capabilities that further enable its customers.

The canals, gondolas, and St Mark’s Square in the Venetian Hotel served as the back drop for the first ever Dell Technologies World event in Las Vegas last week. Dell is continuing to execute against its strategy to help organizations execute against their digital and IT transformations. Over the last 20 or so months, it has worked diligently to eliminate conflict in its portfolio and discuss the value of its solutions across the entire family of companies.

Last week I attended Extreme Connect, Extreme Networks' first ever user event. This event attracted roughly 500 people from across the globe. Nestled in the Weston Kierland resort in Scottsdale Arizona, this event was the culmination of a five-month tour to introduce customers to the new Extreme. You may remember that Extreme recently acquired Zebra wireless, Avaya networking, and Brocade Data Center Networking Solutions.

This week I am escaping the cold and wet northeast to head to the warm and sunny climate of Scottsdale, Arizona to attend the Extreme Networks customer event aptly named “Connect.” While there, I will take part in an analyst panel hosted by Norman Rice, the Extreme CMO, discussing trends and initiatives that are impacting the network.

Last week Mark Peters and I attended the Aruba (an HPE company) Atmosphere event in Las Vegas. It has been three years since Aruba became part of HPE and officially took over all campus switching from HP.

So, you may ask, how are they doing? Well, as it turns out, they are doing pretty darn well. According to CEO Keerti Melkote, Aruba has achieved 15% growth to result in 2.5B in 2017, with a nearly 50/50 mix of wired to wireless (perhaps a tad more on the wireless side). All of this results in Aruba having about a 20 percent market share.

Mark Peters and I are looking forward to joining more than 3,000 networking and security professionals at the HPE Aruba Atmosphere conference being held next week under the glittery lights of Las Vegas. It will be great to hear about the latest developments from the Aruba team – which, according to last quarter’s published earnings results, showed strong results, posting a 9% increase. This is the group responsible for driving innovation in campus networks, wireless LAN, and security solutions. I can’t help but think that one of the key reasons this acquisition by HPE has gone smoothly and has been able to achieve impressive growth is because its founder (Keerti Melkote) stayed with the company during the transition and is committed to keeping the company’s culture intact.

ESG surveyed 651 global technology decision makers in our annual 2018 IT Spending Intentions Survey.

In this video, I highlight some of the results most relevant to networking and cloud platforms.