Zadara Summit 2016 Recap
Zadara Summit 2016 was a big success thanks to all attendees; including speakers, our partners, customers, and many more IT professionals. The week started with a couple of keynotes that introduced some exciting news pertaining to Zadara Storage and some select partners.
Here’s a recap of some of the major highlights:
The Big 3
About a week prior to the event, Zadara Storage announced our latest partnership with Google. That means Zadara Storage is now available to all Google Cloud Platform customers. This announcement is significant because Zadara is now available through the big 3 industry cloud leaders: Google Cloud Platform, Amazon Web Services, and Microsoft Azure.
At Zadara Summit 2016, we were lucky to be joined by Global Product Lead Dave Elliott of Google to discuss what’s next in cloud computing, and not only that, but how Google (with partners like Zadara Storage) are at the forefront of something big. Dave also joined us for a Business Track session that discussed adding Zadara Storage to the Google Cloud Platform – and what your options are.
To learn more about our partnership announcement, click here to watch the short CUBE conversation video with Jeff Frick of SiliconAngle, Noam Shendar of Zadara Storage, and Dave Elliott of Google.
Is SSD the new HDD?
Ran Kurup, Intel’s Director of Business Strategy and Market Development gave a great keynote on Day 1 that spoke about the transition to software-defined and as-a-service models.
Zadara and Intel made a big announcement earlier that morning at Zadara Summit 2016: Zadara is now offering Intel-based flash storage at HDD price points. What does this mean? The market is continuing to move away from traditional CapEx-based storage, and Zadara already offers a very unique storage offering with its universal solution (any data type, any protocol, and any location). Zadara is taking a leadership position in pricing SSDs at parity with traditional HDD configurations – again putting Zadara one step ahead of the rest of the market by partnering with industry-leader Intel.
Bill Leszinske, VP and Director Strategic Planning joined Zadara Storage COO Noam Shendar to discuss the strategic alliance live on the CUBE. “Applications, like the Zadara Storage Cloud, showcase Intel’s latest technologies and accelerate flash adoption across the industry, leading to incredible experiences, breakthroughs and business value,” says Bill Leszinske.
Big Data Getting Bigger
Industry analysts spoke about the direction of the market and discussed the major transition from CapEx to Opex-based business models, as well as the shift to software-defined and as-a-service models. One major component of data that they all agreed on is this: Data is getting bigger and bigger.
Specifically, Dave Elliott of Google discussed “What’s Next in Cloud Computing?” and how we’re at the tail end of a third industrial revolution. He explained how we saw a co-evolution of people with systems as information technology has changed and grown. As these systems continue to evolve and grow (rapidly) so does the way we use them. Key takeaway: Innovation is more important than ever.
Ran Kurup of Intel provided a keynote that was similar, in that we must prepare for the new exceptional demands of our datacenters in his keynote “Is Your Storage Ready for the Spotlight?” Not only did Ran go into the demands of our storage, but how we need to be able to access storage from anywhere at anytime.
Frank Berry, CEO of IT Brand Pulse sparked some interesting conversations about the future of computing. He touched on instrumented and automated storage, self-driving cars, and bionic human beings. We may think we have a lot on our hands now with large social networks and large video files, but the point of Frank’s presentation was that where technology is headed, data is growing, and scaling larger than we could ever imagine.
Overall we had an amazing variety of technical content – thoroughly explaining the Zadara Storage Cloud and all its capabilities – as well as analyst and partner keynotes discussing the current state of the market as well as the future of IT and cloud. The future is bright, and we’re excited to have you along for our journey. We hope to see you next year!
