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Infrastructure, Cloud & DevOps

  • 2022 Red Hat’s Summit Announced Changes to Edge Strategy, Linux Admin Skill Gaps, and Hardware and Software Modernization

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    Paul Nashawaty

    Red Hat Summit 2022

    The 2022 Red Hat Summit was held on May 10-11 and covered a number of customer, partner, and industry expert approaches in open source technology delivery.

    Red Hat has seen a lot of growth and market share when it comes to enterprise Linux. The innovation demonstrated at Red Hat Summit 2022 shows continued growth, not just when it comes to the OS, but also in ways that address organizational challenges such as skills gaps, edge growth, and modernization across the ecosystem.

    My full coverage of 2022 Red Hat Summit can be found in my TechTarget article titled “Key takeaways from Red Hat Summit 2022.“

    Key Product Takeaways

    Here are the key highlights from the suite of products Red Hat showcased at the event:

    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9
    • RHEL 9 edge capabilities
    • RHEL 9 security
    • Automation with RHEL 9
    • Red Hat OpenShift Updates
    • Ansible update and validate patterns
    • Automotive OS and partnership

    The Conversation around the IT Skills Gap

    Organizations are challenged by limited availability of Linux admins. One efficient way to address this is for organizations to provide consistency and unify their environment. Using tooling and automation like Ansible helps companies get the most of their Linux talent. OpenShift and automation can be used across a web console and with other hardware and software.

    Managed services should also be considered. Steph Bacon, senior director of portfolio strategy at Red Hat, shared some insights about how Red Hat-managed services also play a key role in customer success. This is another area where organizations can use a managed service approach to offset the skills gap challenges.

    And Other Red Hat News

    Future RHEL 10 and CentOS Stream releases were also discussed. When RHEL was first created, Fedora was a sandbox, RHEL was for the enterprise, and CentOS was meant to provide insights for the RHEL release. Now CentOS Stream provides the upstream version of RHEL as it is being created. CentOS Stream can be considered the new sandbox for enterprise RHEL.

  • Enterprise Strategy Group on Location: Creating at IBM Think

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    Scott Sinclair

    Fresh off my trip to Dallas for IBM Think, I am reminded how much I enjoy the intimacy offered by these smaller regional events. Unlike their global counterparts, you can often get a closer look at the interaction between a vendor and its customers along with better insight into how IT leaders are handling their own transformation journeys. This setting was a wonderful complement to IBM’s theme of “Let’s create.”

    Creation in business often requires combining the right technology with the right expertise. Historically, IT organizations tended to maintain the needed expertise in-house and would look to the vendor community for the right technology. Given the pace, scale, and complexity of modern IT, however, businesses often can’t meet their demands for expertise relying solely on in-house experts anymore. IT leaders have had to turn to third parties to fill in the gaps. And frankly, there is a scarcity of expertise in tech today. We see it in our research into pervasive skill shortages and IT personnel consistently being asked to assume more responsibilities.

    IT vendors, such as IBM, that can offer a multi-cloud, multi-partner perspective that is customer-centric, and not just technology-centric, deliver tremendous value. The level of complexity in modern multi-cloud environments is so great, however, that one vendor, or even one cloud provider can often not cover everything alone.

    IBM recognizes this challenge and opportunity. Its “Let’s create” message is not only an open invitation to collaborate, but also an acknowledgement IBM will work to integrate the right partners as well. Technology combined with the right expertise from the right partners is a powerful message, one that IBM is embracing.

    For additional insights from IBM Think, please check out the video below.

    Thanks.

  • Cisco Live! is Live Again!

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    Paul Nashawaty

    Cisco Live! returned to Las Vegas on June 12-16. Getting back to in-person events has been refreshing and seeing remote colleagues and friends for the first time in a long while at this event was invaluable. (more…)

  • Lenovo ISG Analyst Summit 2022 Wrap-Up!

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    Paul Nashawaty

    On June 15-17, Lenovo’s Infrastructure Solutions Group held an analyst summit highlighting the state of the business as well as its future direction. Kirk Skaugen, Executive Vice President Lenovo, President Infrastructure Solutions Group, kicked off the event by discussing the company’s four decades of innovation as well as the current data economy. (more…)

  • Catch Up On Highlights from KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2022

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    Paul Nashawaty

    KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2022 did not disappoint and has picked up from last year. This event was held both virtually and live in Valencia, Spain, May 16-20, and included over 26,000 registered attendees, from developers, product management, DevOps, IT ops, architects, and executives. There were over 9,000 companies in attendance across multiple industries.

    My full coverage of this event can be found in my TechTarget article titled “Highlights from KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2022.”

    (more…)

  • Developer Impact of the Broadcom Merger with VMware

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    Paul Nashawaty

    Broadcom VMware

    When I think specifically about the developer viewpoint, VMware Tanzu comes to mind. In the throes of this merger between Broadcom and VMware, I find it a bit concerning that the financial momentum surrounding Tanzu has tapered off over the past year, given that it was once one of the highest-performing offerings in the VMware portfolio. According to the latest Enterprise Technology Research survey, Tanzu’s share of VMware’s business went from 49% in April 2021 to 32% in January 2022. By April 2022, that number fell to just 20%.

    Now that VMware sits under the Broadcom banner, how will the future of cloud-native developers change? There has been markedly slow growth in the VMware developer community, which will be taken into consideration during the course of this acquisition. However, the declining interest in Tanzu over the past year suggests that VMware’s cloud-native developer community will take another big hit under the new regime.

    In my recent article, titled “How Broadcom’s merger with VMware will affect developers,” I unpack the potential challenges developers will have with this merger if Broadcom does not invest up-stack.

    Which Path to Follow

    Finally, there is a potential opportunity for Broadcom to expand and grow the VMware developer community to one that represents the entire software stack. The tools to make that happen are there in VMware’s portfolio; it depends on Broadcom to see the potential.

    VMware is clearly more than a mundane cash cow in Broadcom’s eyes, but it remains to be seen where Broadcom plans to take VMware’s future. Whether that means expanding into emerging markets or staying true to the core business, Broadcom has its work cut out for it to stay competitive on the heels of this merger.

  • Pure Accelerate TechFest22: Man on the Street

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    Scott Sinclair

    Last week, I got to attend Pure Accelerate. It was wonderful to be back in out in the world again, and experience the sights and sounds speaking to live people face to face. As for the event, there was a ton to like. I took some video at the event and added my thoughts in the video below, please check that out.

    For a more detailed take on the Pure Accelerate event as well as the new announcements, please check out my blog on TechTarget.

    Thanks for watching and reading.

  • Amazon’s Strategy of Operational Excellence

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    Enterprise Strategy Group

    Cloud

    In the wake of the 4th annual Amazon Web Services (AWS) user conference, AWS has finally emerged as a leader in cloud infrastructure and platform services. AWS now has over 1 million active customers and year-over-year growth in EC2 instances, data transfer, and database use that is close to 100% as of 2015 Q2. AWS did $4.6 billion in revenue in 2014 and expects to see $7.3 billion by the end of 2015 which is close to 60% growth. Amazon is now adding over $1 billion in new revenue per quarter. It’s rare to see these kinds of growth rates in a business that is closing in on 10 years old. This shows the transformative effect that cloud services are having on the IT business.

    But the high growth of AWS is far more than a story about being in the right place at the right time. Although AWS was a pioneer in the IaaS and PaaS market segments, plenty of vendors, including storied names like Microsoft, IBM, and Oracle, now have a strong cloud presence. Survey data also shows private cloud being a preferred path forward which is a path that AWS doesn’t support. So what is it about AWS that sets it apart from its competitors? We believe that it boils down to one factor: operational excellence.

    AWS and Amazon both hold the objective of high volume and low cost as core values that are part of their DNA. While it’s easy for most vendors to make occasional efficiency claims, the growing strategic importance of IT meant that enterprises have been trained that they need to pay to play. This has been especially true since 2000 in the highest growth area of IT, which was software. Much of this software revenue was tied to proprietary products with high price tags and licensing policies that in today’s world seem punitive. While open source software products have been successful as low cost alternatives, they address a different target market due to their unique business model, which impacts their scope and performance. The net result has been an IT market that has grown weary of high prices and is ripe for disruption.

    From the start, AWS has designed its data centers to deliver reliable services on demand at a low price. AWS has now perfected the process of designing, building, and operating data centers. AWS employs purpose-built servers, storage, and networks which enables them to carefully control costs while ensuring delivery of reliable on-demand services. AWS has also mastered how to manage their supply chain to make sure they are well insulated from cataclysmic events given the rate at which they now are bringing capacity online. This operational excellence also extends to how AWS develops software services. These services often have their roots in open source but are reengineered by AWS to improve performance. The result has been 516 new services launched in 2014 and 487 so far in 2015. AWS has now reached a point where from an IaaS and PaaS perspective they have comprehensive offerings with significant depth in infrastructure, security & compliance, integration, analytics, application services, mobile services, development, operations, and support.

    Because all of this has been developed with a continual eye on delivering high volume at a low cost, AWS pricing sets the bar to beat in the industry. While Microsoft and Google monitor and adjust their prices to achieve parity or leadership in some cases, AWS is driving margins of 17%, meaning that it would be hard for them to lose any race to the bottom. Now that AWS has demonstrated that they can deliver reliable on-demand services worldwide, enterprises are taking notice. The number of enterprises now all in on AWS has exploded in 2015 and we see this largely as a recognition that AWS’s focus on operational excellence is a winning strategy. However, while other strategies such as product leadership and customer intimacy are also formulas for success, AWS is pursuing a strategy that is new to the IT market where there is a vast sea of pent-up demand for exactly what AWS is delivering.

  • Cloud-native Applications

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    Paul Nashawaty

    See how IT professionals use cloud-native applications to help advance their businesses into the future with this free Enterprise Strategy Group Infographic, Distributed Cloud Series: Cloud-native Applications.

    Download Now
    For more information or to discuss these findings with an analyst, please contact us.

  • Observability from Code to Cloud

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    Scott Sinclair

    Organizations continue to try to strike the balance between cloud-native and legacy infrastructure. Whether organizations take a “cloud-first” or a “cloud-when-it-makes-sense” approach to their digital transformation initiatives, the number and variety of infrastructure options and locations continue to expand. Specifically, IT operations teams continue to strive to improve collaboration with developers on building modern application architectures and establishing the related processes. As companies accelerate or embark on their digital transformation journeys, what is the expected role of ITSM in enabling businesses to realize the benefits of automation, observability, intelligence, and optimization?

    To gain insight into these trends, ESG surveyed 357 IT, DevOps, and application development professionals at organizations in North America (US and Canada) responsible for evaluating, purchasing, managing, and building application infrastructure.

    (more…)

  • Distributed Cloud Series: Cloud-native Applications

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    Enterprise Strategy Group

    ESG conducted a comprehensive online survey of IT professionals from private- and public-sector organizations in North America (United States and Canada) between December 6, 2021 and December 17, 2021. To qualify for this survey, respondents were required to be IT, DevOps, and application development professionals responsible for evaluating, purchasing, managing, and building application infrastructure.

    This Complete Survey Results presentation focuses on cloud-native application trends, including bridging the gap between container development, Kubernetes, and IT operations through CI/CD pipelines, as well as building, maintaining, and operating a developer-ready infrastructure without impacting developer velocity.

    (more…)

  • Distributed Cloud Series: Observability Trends

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    Enterprise Strategy Group

    ESG conducted a comprehensive online survey of IT professionals from private- and public-sector organizations in North America (United States and Canada) between November 15, 2021 and November 20, 2021. To qualify for this survey, respondents were required to be IT, DevOps, and application development professionals responsible for evaluating, purchasing, managing, and building application infrastructure.

    This Complete Survey Results presentation focuses on building modern application architectures and establishing the related processes, including the expected role of ITSM in enabling businesses to realize the benefits of automation, observability, intelligence, and optimization.

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