Author: dvdmorera

New Beginnings

dvdmorera Other Techy Stuff , ,

new-beginningThroughout the career of an IT professional, there are many changes that come up during his/her career. People follow a certain path to move up the ladder, and others create their own path as they grow. Today marks a new beginning for me, as I leave the customer realm and join the partner side of IT.

Various opportunities were presented to me lately without really looking too hard, and I am glad they did. While I was content with my job, the issue was just that; I was content. I am the kind of person that loves to learn and be challenged in order to grow personally and professionally, and I hate to just coast.

As of now, I will be joining a great company, H.A. Storage, as a Senior Solutions Architect. I started my career as a consultant for a huge enterprise and worked my way down to smaller companies, which people would consider it backwards, but I wouldn’t have done it any other way. The experience I acquired throughout my career has allowed me to acquire over 20 IT certifications and a Masters degree, on top of a great deal of hands on experience in many areas.

I believe my education and experience has prepared me for this new role. I am ready and excited to help other companies with their projects and need of solutions within their environments.

I received many offers lately, but one company was an obvious choice, and that was H.A. Storage. I am proud to join a team of high level technical engineers, architects, and technologist that make IT happen. People are amazing, and I already feel part of the family. I am really looking forward to what the future holds at H.A. Storage.

Definitely check out H.A. Storage www.hastorage.com

ha-storage-logo

 

Drunk History – Storage

dvdmorera NetApp, Storage ,

For those of you that have watched this show (Drunk History), you either love it or hate. I love learning about history, specially when the narrators are drunk. It makes it very interesting and funny. Anyway, this blog post is not about the show, but about the history of storage breakthroughs that changed the way we do storage.

Anyway, there has been many technology advances that not only affected the storage realm, but also other software define solutions such as hypervisors. The birth of snapshots, array replication, cloning, etc are just some of the many advances that we now take for granted. Here is a good representation of the advances provided by NetApp for the last 30+ years.

NTAP_History

 

When you are shopping for hardware, consider the slide above and ask yourself, what company has the most experience and are the pioneers in the field.

I’m just going to leave this here…

drunk1

 

FUD Slingers have nothing on All Flash FAS

dvdmorera NetApp, Storage , , , ,

FastAs you may or may have not heard the announcement earlier this week, NetApp has released an All Flash FAS (AFF) storage array. Many announcements, blogs and articles have been written about AFF, but I wanted to highlight the main aspects without having to read pages and pages (you can thank my ADHD for that).

Let me start ranting for a bit about those who have been spreading FUD about NetApp and how the company is “doomed”. I do not work for NetApp, but I use and truly believe that it is one of the best if not THE best storage solution in the market. Those who are writing negatively about NetApp still refer to it as a single purpose NAS, when it  truly encompasses a diverse portfolio, and AFF is a perfect example.

Ranting

 

What is the big deal about NetApp AFF?

The recent announcement highlights the marriage between FAS systems (ONTAP) and Flash. Yes, NetApp already has all flash systems such as the EF560, but such systems are not running on ONTAP.

ONTAP + Flash, results in the only storage solution that is truly unified and is capable of utilizing different protocols within the same software AND hardware, in addition to the incorporation of Flash. Yes, no need to buy separate hardware for NAS vs SAN protocols. When you add these two components together, AFF is the result of not only an all flash storage, but also incorporates all the features of ONTAP such as de-duplication, compression, built-in data protection. scale-out performance, multi-tenancy, Non disruptive upgrades, etc, etc, etc.

announcement

AFF Announcement Highlights

Here are some of the highlights about the recent AFF announcements:

  • Lowest price for All Flash storage ~$5/GB Raw
  • One SKU number
  • Includes ALL license Bundles (Yay!!!)
  • Locks in support price for years 4-7 (3 years included)
    • We are talking Flash here, so Flash wear is no longer a practical risk
  • High performance at low latency

In short, AFF promises to deliver Enterprise ready performance at low cost and low latency by leveraging Flash, and ONTAP 8.3.1 (later discussion).

 

For more information about NetApp AFF, follow my NetApp A-Team colleagues on twitter for excellent posts (#NetAppATeam)

 

 

Cisco Live 2015: Day 2

dvdmorera Other Techy Stuff

CiscoLive_day2Day 2 was a very busy day. Lots of great sessions. First full day of the Solutions floor, which has a lot of many great exhibitors.

I’ve noticed a big interest in ACI (Application Centric Infrastructure), so there is a lot of research to be done on this subject. Aside from that, I spent a lot of time at DevNet as well as the exhibition floor.

Being a customer, I was able to sync up with our UC SE, and spent a lot of time doing a deep dive at the Technical Solutions Clinic at the HUB. If you are at Cisco Live this year, make sure you stop by the Tech Solutions and talk to the TAC guys, for a technical dive on the Cisco product of your choice.

Had lunch at Stone Brewery, which was a nice treat. Hoping I can make it to Ballast Point today before the Cisco Live Party with Aerosmith tonight.

So far, it has been a great conference and I’m hoping I can be a recurring attendee.

Cisco Live 2015: Day 1

dvdmorera Cisco, Cisco Live, Other Techy Stuff ,

Pretty busy day today. Navigating through a crowd of 25,000 people is no easy task. This is my first Cisco Live conference, but so far I have been very impressed. As I compare this conference with other IT conferences, this one is towards the top in my book. The content was excellent on all the sessions that I attended. Presenters started at a basic level and quickly dived in to more advance details, so this allowed for a crowd of mixed levels of expertise to be engaged at all times.

Attended a session about UCS, NetApp and Veeam, and was very surprised about the content. I’ll definitely be doing some more research on Veeam’s integration with other vendors in the near future. Rick Vanover (Veeam), did an excellent job delivering the facts without the marketing fluff.

Oh yeah, most sessions had tables and power towards the front of the room. I thought that was a really nice touch, for those that like to take notes, etc. Spent a good bit of time at the DevNet area geeking out with some programing sessions.

I thought the keynote was great. John Chambers (JC) delivered his last keynote as Cisco’s CEO, and handed the reigns over to Chuck Robbins. JC delivered some bold predictions, including 40% of companies will be dead within 10 years. This prediction comes from the fast IT transformation and the impact that it has in the business. Those companies that adopt technology in the right way will survive, those that do not, will cease to operate. So the key is to disrupt and not be disrupted. Of course, in order to disrupt, companies need to adapt and embrace the mentality of transformation and transition. A perfect example is the internal re-structuring of Cisco, as well as other powerful companies such as NetApp. This re-structuring needs to happen in order to survive. 

Aerosmith_Dave