>>mhm mhm >>Hey guys, welcome back to Los Angeles lisa martin. Coming to you live from cuba con and cloud native Con north America 2021. Very excited to be here. This is our third day of back to back coverage on the cube and we've got a couple of guests cube alumni joining me remotely. Please welcome parse our karate senior consultant, product marketing, Dell Technologies and David Noi VP product management at Dell Technologies. Gentlemen welcome back to the program. >>Thanks johnny >>so far so let's go ahead and start with you. Let's talk about what Dell EMC is offering to developers today in terms of unstructured data. >>Absolutely, it's great to be here. So let me start with the container storage interface. This is Q khan and a couple of years ago the container storage interface was still in beta and the storage vendors, we're very enthusiastically kind of building the plug in city of the different storage portfolio to offer enterprise grade features to developers are building applications of the Cuban this platform. And today if you look at the deli in storage portfolio, big block volumes. Nash shares s three object A P I S beyond their virtual volumes. However you're consuming storage, you have the plug ins that are required to run your applications with these enterprise Great feature speech right about snap sharks data replication, all available in the Cuban this layer and just this week at coupon we announced the container storage modules which is kind of the next step of productivity for developers beat you know uh in terms of observe ability of the storage metrics using tools like Prometheus visualizing it ravana authorization capabilities so that you know too bad moments can have better resource management of the storage that is being consumed um that so there are these multiple models were released. And if you look at unstructured data, this term may be a bit new for our kind of not very family for developers but basically the storage. Well there is a distinction that is being made you know, between primary storage and unstructured storage or unstructured data solutions And by unstructured we mean file and object storage. If you look at the cube contact nickel sessions, I was very glad to see that there is an entire stream for um machine learning and data so that speaks to how popular communities deployment models are getting when it comes to machine learning and artificial intelligence. Um even applications like genomics and media and entertainment and with the container storage interface uh and the container storage modules with the object storage portfolio that bill has, we offer the comprehensive unstructured data solutions for developers beat object or file. And the advantage the developers are getting is these you know, if you look at platforms like power scale and these areas, these are like the industry workhorses with the highest performance. And if you think of scale, you know, think of 250 nasnotes, you know with a single name space with NVIDIA gpu direct capabilities. All these capabilities developers can use um for you know, applications like machine learning or any competition intensive for data intensive applications that requires these nass uh scale of mass platforms. So so um that's that's what is new in terms of uh what we are offering, you have the storage heaters >>got a parcel. Thank you. David, let's bring you into the conversation now you've launched objects scale at VM World. Talk to us about that, what some of the key features and capabilities are and some of those big business benefits that customers are going to be able to achieve. >>Sure thing. So I really want to focus on three of the biggest benefits. This would be the fact that the product is actually based on kubernetes country, the scale of the product and then its ability to do global replication. So let me just touch on those in order. Mhm You said that the product is based on kubernetes and here we are cube concept. The perfect time to be talking about that. This product really caters to those who are looking for a flexible way to deploy object storage in containerized fashion, appeals to the devops folks and folks who like to automate things and call the communities a P I. S to make uh the actual deployment of the product. Very simple in turnkey and that's really what people turn to kubernetes for is the ability to spin things up when they need them and spend them down as they don't and make that all on commodity hardware and commodity, you know, the quantity pricing and the idea there is that I'm making it as simple and easy as possible. You're not going to get as much shadow I. T. You won't have people going off and putting things off into a public cloud. And so where security of an organization or control of the data that flows with an organization is important. Having something that's easy for developers to use in the same paradigm that they're used to is critical. Now I talked about scale and you know, if you have come to me two years ago I would have told you, you know, kubernetes, yeah, containers people are kicking it around and they're doing some interesting science experiments, I would say in the last year I started to see a lot of requests from customers um in the dozens, even 200 petabyte range as it relates to capacity for committees and specifically looking for C. S. I and cozy with this. This this is the the object storage implementation of the container storage interfaces. Uh So skin was definitely there and the idea of this product is to provide easy scalability from the terabytes range into the multi petabyte range and again it's that ease of use, ease of deployment because it is kubernetes basically because it's a KPI driven that makes that possible. So we're talking about going from a three night minimum to thousands of nodes. and this allows people to deploy the product either at the edge or in the data center um in the edge because you can get very small deployments in the data center to massive scale. So we want to provide something that covers the gamut. The last thing I talked about was replication. So let me just touch upon what I mean by that uh when people go and build these deployments, if you're building a deployment at the edge of an object scale product, you're probably taking in sensor data or some kind of information that you want to then send back to a data center for processing. So you make it simple to do bucket based replication. An object, sorry object storage based replication to move things to another location. And uh that can be used either for bringing data back for analytics from the edge, it can be used for availability. So making sure that you have data available across multiple data centers in the case that you have an outage. It could be even used for sharing data between developers in one site and another site. So we provide that level of flexibility overall. Um this is the next generation object store leveraging. Dell technologies number one position in object storage. So I'm pretty excited about >>and how David is object scale integrated with VM ware software. Stop give us that slice and dice. >>Yeah, and that's a good question. And so, you know, we're talking about this being a Kubernetes based product, you can deploy it on open shift or we integrate directly with VM ware cloud foundation and with Tansy, which is VM ware's container orchestration and management platform. I've seen the demo of the product myself from my team and they've showed it to be did all of the management of the product was actually done within the V sphere Ui, which is great. So easy to go and just enter the V sphere. You I installed the product very simply have it up and running and then go and do all of your management through that user interface or to automate it using the same api is that you used to through VM ware and the 10 Zoo uh platform. >>Thank you, paris are back to you. Security is a big theme here in kubernetes. It's also been a big theme here. We've been talking about it the last three days here at cop con. How does Dell EMC's unstructured portfolio offer that necessary cyber protection that developers need to have and bake that into what they're doing. So >>surely, you know, they talk about cybersecurity, you know, there are different layers of security right from, you know, smarter firewalls to you know how to manage privileged account access and so on. And what we are trying to do is to provide a layer of cyber defense, right at the asset that you're trying to protect, which is the data and this is where the ransom their defender solution is basically detecting any patterns of the compromise that might have happened and alerting the I. T. Um administration about this um possible um intrusions into their into the data by looking at the data access parents in real time. So that's a pretty big deal. Then we're actually putting all this, you know, observance on the primary data and that's what the power scale platform cybersecurity protection features offers. Now we've also extended this kind of detection mechanism for the object data framework on pcs platforms as well. So this is like an additional layer of security at the um layer of uh you know where the data is actually being read and written. Do that's the area, you know, in case of object here we're looking at the S. Three traffic and trying to find his parents in case of a file data atmosphere, looking at the file's access parents and so on. So and in relation to this we're also providing uh data isolation mechanism that is very critical in many cyber recovery processes with the smart absolution as well. So this is something that the developers are getting for like without having to worry about it because that is something implemented at the infrastructure layer itself. So they don't have to worry about you know trying to court it or develop their application to integrate these kinds of things because it's an it's embedded in the infrastructure at the one of the FBI level at the E C. S A P I level. So that's pretty um pretty differentiating in the industry in the country storage solutions. I'll get. >>Uh huh. Yeah. I mean look if you look at what a lot of the object storage players are doing as it relates to cyber security. They're they're playing off the fact that they've implemented object lock and basically using that to lockdown data. And that's that's good. I mean I'm glad that they're doing that and if the case that you were able to lock something down and someone wasn't able to bypass that in some way, that's fantastic. Or if they didn't already encrypted before I got locked down what parts are is referring to is a little bit more than that. It's actually the ability to look at user behavior and determined that something bad is happening. So this is about actually being able to do, you know, predictive analytics being able to go and figure out that you're under attack. There's anomalous behavior um and we're able to go and actually infer from that that something bad is happening and where we think it's happening and lock it down even even more securely than for example just saying hey we provide object like capabilities which is one of the responses that I've seen out there from object storage vendors >>can you share with us. Parts are a customer example like walk us through how this is actually being used and deployed and what some of those business outcomes are. >>Yes lisa. So in terms of container realization itself, they have a media and entertainment kind of customer story here. Um Swiss TXT um they have a platform as a service where they serve their customer base with a range of uh you know, media production and broadcasting solutions and they have containers this platform and part of this computerization is part of their services is they offer infrastructure as a service to you know, media producers who need a high performance storage, high performance computing and power skill And Iceland have been their local solutions to offer this And now that they have containerized their core platform. Well you see a sign interface for power skills, they are able to continue to deliver the infrastructure, high performance infrastructure and storage services to their customers through the A. P I. And it's great to see how fast they could, you know, re factor their application but yet continue to offer the high performance and degrees enterprise grade uh features of the power scale platform. So Swiss Txt and would love to share more. Keep it on the story. Yeah. Hyperlink. >>And where can folks go to learn more about objects scale and what you guys are announcing? Yes, particular. You are a website that you want to direct folks too. >>I would say that technologies dot com. And uh that's the best place to start. >>Yeah, I would go to the Delta product pages around objects should be publicly built. >>Excellent guys, thank you for joining me on the program today. Walking through what how Dell EMC is helping developers with respect to unstructured data, Talking to us about objects skill that you launched VM world, some of those big customer benefits and of course showing us the validation, the proof in the pudding with that customer story. We appreciate your insights. >>Thank you. Thank you lisa >>For my guests. I'm Lisa Martin. You're watching the Cube live from Los Angeles. We're coming to you from our coverage of coupon and cloud native on North America 21. Coming back. Stick around. Rather I should say we'll be back after a short break with our next guest.

>> Narrator: Live from Las Vegas It's The Cube Covering VMworld 2017. Brought to you by VMware and its ecosystem partners. >> Hey, welcome back to The Cube. Continuing coverage of VMworld 2017. Day two of the event, lots of exciting conversations that we've had so far. I'm Lisa Martin with my cohost Dave Vellante-- >> Hey. >> Hey! We're excited to be cohosting together, right Dave? >> That's right. >> Of course! And we have Cube alumni Calline Sanchez, Vice President of IBM Enterprise Storage Systems. Welcome back to The Cube. >> Thank you for inviting me. It's always great to have discussions with you. >> Yeah. So, talk to us, we're at VMworld day two, what's new with IBM and VMware? >> So what was great about working, or walking through the expo floor, is hearing conversations about data backup, like as they say with the IBM Backup Bar-- >> It's hot! >> They have, and also this idea that we work to optimize data within the entire stack. So yeah, you have your base infrastructure, but you layer on top of that things that support the digital experience. >> Why is backup so hot? Why now? >> Well, so my favorite reason is because of tape. Tape allows you to cheaply store data, so it's like about a cent per gig. That's a big deal. And I don't know, I suspect you like really good deals on shoes, bags, et cetera, I know I do. So that's what's great about tape, is it's cost effective as well as it's a high performer, high capacity element that we intend to deliver. >> OK, so I buy that. I've always been a fan of the economic argument for tape. Let me ask you another question, and see if you see this, Calline. It seems like when virtualization came into vogue, people had to re-architect their backup for a variety of reasons, less physical resources, et cetera. Is cloud affecting the way in which people think about backup and if so, how? >> So we support cloud service providers. As they say with tape, if you're cost effective and you can meet certain performance and capacity requirements well, you usually are part of the stack associated with the delivery into the cloud service provider data centers worldwide. So all I'm saying is that it's relevant, it's important that we continue to innovate, associate with what's required with regards to tape. >> Well, while we're on the subject of tape, let's carry that through. The conventional wisdom from the spinning disk and now the flash guys, oh, tape, tape is dead, I've been hearing tape is dead since I've been in this business, which is now quite a long time. What's kept tape alive, it's obviously the economics, but it's got to be more than that. It's got to be easier to use, it's got to be functional, what kind of innovations have occurred around tape to make it continue to be viable? >> So I would say our focus on enhancing spectrum archive. It used to be called a linear tape file system, and really it's this idea of a USB for file access or data access. So we keep working on focusing and delivering data access patterns that are actually efficient for our clients, simple to use, and we enable automation, which has been something that's great based on Ed Walsh's focus or strategy for our storage portfolio, and I know you've just heard that we had two awesome growth quarters within IBM Storage and our goal is to continue that through modernizing our entire portfolio. >> Three would make a trend, I told Ed. And he's like, "Come on, gimme a break." No, but it is awesome to see IBM's storage business growing again and hopefully that can continue. >> So speaking of innovation, and you talked about tape and people think tape's been dead for a long time, but you're talking about it as a core component of cloud strategies for businesses. How has IBM evolved your messaging, your positioning, as technologies have evolved and customers are now going, "We have to keep a ton of data," Michael Dowd talked about the importance of data today being at the CEO agenda level. Talk to us about how some of the innovations IBM is doing to help customers understand the relevance of different types of storage according to data growth but also going from data centers to centers of data. >> Great question. So, one thing that's really interesting, being that I'm from the lab, we have delivered, or our intent is to accelerate the entire roadmap as it relates to tape, so that we stay ahead of the delivery path and meet the requirements based on clients worldwide whether they're scientific clients based on some of the advanced data that is required, as well as cloud service providers. They say, "Hey, we're expecting you to innovate "and deliver as quickly as possible." And sometimes it's like the requests are quite interesting and fascinating based on just even the digital or the analytics of measuring like, temperatures in data centers. And what we're doing with Rocky interface based on ethernet interfaces. The clients are pushing us with regards to improving overall and delivering to meet the cloud economics that they require, as well as the attributes of. >> What's changed at IBM, if anything, I'm inferring something's changed because I've always said, one of the criticisms I've had of IBM storage is the pace with which it was able to get products out of engineering and to the marketplace, and that pace has accelerated quite dramatically. I don't know if it's new leadership, you mentioned Ed Walsh before, or there's been a change in the philosophy, am I dreaming or have I noticed-- >> No, you're completely accurate. So when we're talking about development or delivery, we're so much more agile that we really work to reduce the complexity of delivery, and we're delivering major functions or complex things to more simple, and getting client input sooner, and partner input sooner than later. Where as previously, it was like we worked for over a year sometimes on technologies or advancements and it would take a while for those clients to then adopt. Now, we have to deliver something a heck of a lot faster than we had done before. >> And are customers part of that innovation process? It sounds like-- >> They are. >> That's been a big change-- >> So we're big. Historically, we always talked about betas. Now we're talking about alphas, and some of these original demos in order to grow our understanding of the use case in the very early phases. And usually we did not have this type of discussions prior, at least in my experience, but now it's like it's a requirement. So, with new leadership is a component, as we discussed, but also this idea of really focused agility. Delivering to the marketplace faster, listening to our clients, so that means improvement based on how we go to market as well. Because it's important that we deliver value to our clients or we're not relevant. >> We were talking earlier to another guest, a competitive company, and we were talking about the anatomy of a transaction, and we were going through it and at one point he said that it hits a mainframe in an associated database and he said, "And that's OK." So we know the mainframe, alive and well, we've done a bunch of Cube activities, we were there at the Z13 launch at the Jazz at Lincoln, which was a great event. >> That's awesome. >> And so, give us the update on what's happening there. You guys have made some new announcements there, new DS8000 class systems, new Z systems, what's going on at that transaction world? >> So I would say two, or actually three major things that are part of that announcement to collaborate with Z is improvement based on modernizing our service support structure, which is like remote code load, things like that, so that we can have experts remotely, via a control center, help clients load latest levels of code as well as new feature function. The second element that I would say is, lead with flash. So we've optimized flash storage that complements specifically some of the ZOS, the System Z workload, which is significant for us to deliver to the marketplace as well. And then third, is this idea of Z hyperlink. Z hyperlink is this idea of, like, synch iO. It's a different structure that, yes, it'll take a while for adoption, we have a number of our alphas that are working in partnership with us to solution. Well, we're going to be doing replication, and also some of the iO streams differently than we had in the past. >> Question for you on the alphas. >> Yeah. >> From a business perspective, since so much has changed, lots of announcements just in the last 36 hours, as technology changes rapidly and stop-run tech companies are, like you said, poised to deliver agility faster, when you're talking with alphas, as you said, kind of in the nascent stages of a use case being developed, what are some of the key business metrics that your alpha clients are articulating to you that, when we get to x stage of this alpha, we need to be able to demonstrate x, y, z back to the business, thinking of cost reductions, resource allocations, faster time to market, what are some of those business KPI's that you're hearing from your clients? >> Yeah. So I would say it's price performance as well as capacity based on the amount of data growth. So those three things are fundamental components that come up quite often. Now, it usually is made very clear to us that things like security, like quality, that's job one. That's table stakes. Like, if we want to have fine dining, we'll just assume there's going to be this nice handkerchief as well as tablecloth. Well, security and quality are just fundamental. So they want to think about those things less. Because they're just naturally being delivered via whatever technology we're putting out or delivering from the lab. >> Alright, let's bring it back to VMworld. We're here. VMware, VMworld, what do you guys got going here, what's the relevance of all the activity that you have going to this event? >> So what's great about the event is we have the data backup bar that's associated with what we're doing with Spectrum Protect Plus. What I personally like and love about the Spectrum Protect Plus is simplicity. It's delivering this idea of usability. Which is important because we received feedback from our clients in very early stages on how we deliver. So we have a data backup bar to discuss some of that technology and actually run through specific downloads which I think is great, cause you get feedback out on the floor immediately to ensure that we're improving. The other aspect of our booths is discussing things, some of the fundamental infrastructure just like we talked previously on tape, as well as DS8000, cause DS8000 is not only a mainframe attach, but it's attachment agnostic. So we support aspects of distributive storage as well. For instance, we have some of the VMware enhancements that will allow us to more efficiently capture or reclaim data in thin provision volumes, and VMware has been fundamental in partnering with us to deliver. >> So continue to go to market approaches with VMware on the backup side, also on the cloud foundation side for IBM? >> Yes. >> Excellent. Thank you so much for stopping by The Cube again and sharing your thoughts and what's going on with the industry and how IBM is moving forward with respect to innovation and working with clients together. >> Right. Wonderful. Thank you. >> For my cohost Dave Vellante, I'm Lisa Martin. >> Stick around, you're watching day two of The Cube's coverage of VMworld 2017, we'll be right back. [Upbeat Synth Music]