Gestalt IT Tech Field Day Roundtable

On-premises object storage has traditionally been associated with archive data. Scale and density were important, but the performance was not a major consideration. Fast object storage was an oxymoron. That paradigm is changing. DevOps teams across enterprises are now building container-based applications leveraging S3. High-performance applications are being designed to bring the capabilities and benefits of S3 and cloud-optimized architectures to on-premises environments. Vertica in Eon mode and Splunk SmartStore are a couple of examples highlighting this trend. Will this trend become more prevalent? Will a majority of new high-performance applications be designed with object storage? Will object storage become the future of primary storage? Tune in to this podcast to find out. © Gestalt IT, LLC for Gestalt IT: Object Storage is the Future of Primary Storage

We all have the idea that there are companies that are good and companies that are bad. Some do kind things for their communities and others seek to take as much as possible. But are the companies really at fault here? Or is this behavior being driven by people behind the scenes? In this episode, we set out to prove that companies aren’t inherently bad but people can be. © Gestalt IT, LLC for Gestalt IT: Companies are Not Inherently Good or Evil

The current state of the world has forced us all to work from home. It’s what we’ve always wanted, right? Freedom to hang out in our PJs all day and no travel to the office. Yet, the reality of working from home is less appealing when you get into the details. For many, working from home isn’t all that great. In this podcast, we’ll explain why and try and find some solutions to the issue. © Gestalt IT, LLC for Gestalt IT: Working From Home Isn’t All That Great

NGINX Spotlight: We live in an increasingly interconnected world that hinges on responsive APIs. It is becoming a standard way for us to interface not only with software, but with devices that run that software. We are trying to do magical things with APIs now, yet not all APIs are created equal. As we develop more and more around APIs and their ability to be accessed, we're finding some limitations, which means we have to develop new thoughts and new ways of handling things. One of the latest is real-time API, which can process an API call end-to-end in under 30 milliseconds. Sound too good to be true? Sound too good to be true? Our panel will dig in to find out the answer to this question: Are all APIs created equal? © Gestalt IT, LLC for Gestalt IT: Not All APIs Are Created Equal

Facts are facts, but that doesn’t mean that your data is telling you the whole story. Data experts know that biases crop up any time we look at data, and this cannot be avoided. That’s why we need to be sensitive to these biases when making judgments and when planning data collection exercises. We apply these concepts to everything from sales metrics to the COVID pandemic to government surveillance. This episode reunites our social justice panel including Leon Adato, Josh Fidel, Karen Lopez, and Phoummala Schmitt, with moderator Stephen Foskett. © Gestalt IT, LLC for Gestalt IT: Your Data is Lying to You

As enterprise storage moves to commodity hardware and software, has the time come for businesses to consider building their own storage systems? In this podcast, we discuss the pros and cons of packaged enterprise storage solutions and consider how the market is changing. Many modern storage solutions, from VMware vSAN to cloud storage, are based on commodity hardware. And there are many instances where a production storage environment uses self-configured software too. But we still recommend sticking with a supported storage solution. © Gestalt IT, LLC for Gestalt IT: You Should Roll Your Own Whitebox Storage

In a highly-connected world, we rely on our technology to stay online at all times. Almost everything uses wireless today, right? But what kind of wireless does it use? You might be tempted to say Wi-Fi, but as it turns out, WI-Fi isn’t always the best wireless solution for your needs. © Gestalt IT, LLC for Gestalt IT: Wi-Fi Isn’t Always the Best Wireless Solution – The On-Premise IT Roundtable

The standards for faster wireless communications are being adopted much more quickly. We have faster speeds and different spectrum allocations to work with. However, the largest consumers of the wireless space in the coming years are the ones that won’t be able to use those faster new speeds without a radical shift in direction. IoT devices use slower, older, cheaper radios. So, the premise of this episode is that IoT Doesn’t Need Wi-Fi 6E. © Gestalt IT, LLC for Gestalt IT: IoT Doesn’t Need Wi-Fi 6E – The On-Premise IT Roundtable

Pure Storage Spotlight: In this episode, we are taking on enterprise cloud architecture, and specifically, the move towards disaggregated infrastructure. As enterprises move towards cloud architecture, a lot of companies are jumping in. Software solutions like VMware Cloud Foundation, for instance, drive the ability of enterprises to build a hybrid cloud. But there has been a lot of talk about architecture as well. The industry has seen a lot of changes in the last several years. There was a move towards converged, then hyperconverged, and now disaggregated architecture offers benefits for an optimized hybrid cloud (for example, Pure Storage and Cisco's FlashStack). Is disaggregated the right move? © Gestalt IT, LLC for Gestalt IT: Disaggregated Architecture Runs Best with Enterprise Hybrid Cloud

Continuing our effort to reconcile the perspective of enterprise IT nerds with the social upheaval happening all around us, the On-Premise IT Roundtable Podcast guests discuss the concept of a single source of truth. In IT analytics, we believe that one system or application has “truth” even if others disagree. Is this true of the wider world as well? What is the difference between data, fact, and truth and how can we leverage this concept to bring justice to the world? © Gestalt IT, LLC for Gestalt IT: A Single Source of Truth Can Bring Justice to the World

Technical people love clarity, facts, transparency, and data, but the world outside the datacenter is anything but. How can we in tech apply ourselves and our experience to promote justice and transparency in the real world? Why don’t governments, media, and the population at large know the facts about crises like the Coronavirus pandemic and the racial justice issues that are shaking the United States and the world? And what can we do to help improve the situation? © Gestalt IT, LLC for Gestalt IT: IT Observability Principles Can Help Bring Justice to the World

Today’s world is driven by software. Applications rule the tech space and they are increasingly relying on machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) to make better, faster decisions. But there are some technologies that don’t really take full advantage of AI. Can an algorithm replace a person troubleshooting? Is something at is as much art as science able to leverage the power of a computer to get the job done? Is it true that AI Can’t Do Much For Wi-Fi? © Gestalt IT, LLC for Gestalt IT: AI Can’t Do Much for WiFi – The On-Premise IT Roundtable

Pure Storage Spotlight: Orchestration is almost synonymous with containers nowadays. One popular opinion is that maybe the reason enterprises haven’t adopted containers quickly is that people are hungry for a way to orchestrate containers that fits into their overall environment. Is this the reason why containers have yet to be widely adopted? Follow this discussion, featuring Jon Owings - Principal Solution Architect at Pure Storage, and Cormac Hogan - Director and Chief Technologist at VMware, and decide for yourself. © Gestalt IT, LLC for Gestalt IT: Orchestration is the Reason Enterprises Haven’t Adopted Containers – The On-Premise IT Roundtable

The world is encrypted today. Our traffic is being protected from beginning to end so our identities and data are safe. But how safe are we in reality? What about the traffic that we want to see? How can we protect against threats when everything is using TLS to hide from our tools? Is there a solution to figuring out how to see the unseen? Is encryption ruining network security? © Gestalt IT, LLC for Gestalt IT: Encryption is Ruining Network Security – The On-Premise IT Roundtable

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are extending the capabilities of our technology at a rapid pace. Or so we have been led to believe. But what is ML really giving us? What good is it to our enterprise? Is there a use case that shines above all others? Or is it just marketing fluff? This episode of the On-Premise IT Roundtable discusses how Anomaly Detection is the only good use of ML in the Enterprise. © Gestalt IT, LLC for Gestalt IT: Anomaly Detection is the Only Good ML in the Enterprise – The On-Premise IT Roundtable

Pure Storage Spotlight: Those of us who have been following storage and server architecture are pretty excited about NVMe and various things over fabrics. So far, it’s been a challenge to bring NVMe-oF into the enterprise datacenter. Does the release of vSphere 7 mean that this technology is finally ready for prime time? Follow the discussion and decide for yourself. © Gestalt IT, LLC for Gestalt IT: vSphere 7 Means NVMe-oF is Ready for Prime Time – The On-Premise IT Roundtable

Lots of us are experiencing the joy of working from home right now and many people are also experiencing the fun of virtual events. How are these events working? A quick non-official poll: "I am never leaving my house again!" "I despise virtual conferences." "An in-person interaction can't bring more to the table than my computer screen and I can bring (to the kitchen table)." "Events are a thing of the past and are being replaced with the almighty virtual option." Who's right? Join us as we'll discuss the various ways in which we can weigh a virtual vs in-person event, and why there are some things that just can't be replaced. © Gestalt IT, LLC for Gestalt IT: Virtual Events Are Good Enough – The On-Premise IT Roundtable

Computers never work. I can’t check my email. The Internet is always slow. No matter what I’m doing it seems like Information Technology is never the way I want it. Everything is completely broken. Or is it? Join us as we'll discuss the various ways in which IT can be operating properly but still not as users want and why there is a huge difference between slow and broken. © Gestalt IT, LLC for Gestalt IT: IT Isn’t Really “That” Broken – The On-Premise IT Roundtable

Modern technology has focused on delivering value. The current shift away from hardware to software means that companies need to recognize how they deliver that value. In order to ensure they are responding to their customers’ needs in the best possible way, they need to charge appropriately for the features that are being used. So, we ask the panel today, if feature-based licensing for infrastructure a good thing? © Gestalt IT, LLC for Gestalt IT: Feature-Based Licensing for Infrastructure is a Good Thing

Enterprise AI seems to be a buzzword we are having trouble escaping. Is it following us, or just getting smart enough to know the paths we tread to shake it? The roundtable faces this pursuer and decides if we should take away its boastful title, call it something else, or if we have crossed the threshold far enough for it to lay claim to its moniker. Is Enterprise AI a bunch of BS? Follow the discussion and decide for yourself. © Gestalt IT, LLC for Gestalt IT: Enterprise AI is a Bunch of BS – The On-Premise IT Roundtable