Yesterday at Dell World, Dell’s annual customer event, I did a session entitled: DevOps, Containers and Microservices: Buzzwords or fundamental to survival?
The idea was to explain these concepts, show how they serve as a foundation for digital transformation and talk about where Dell plays in the space. (see abstract below)
Topics and times
2:20 – 5:54 What is DevOps?
6:58 – 9:30 What are containers?
10:24 – 12:30 What are microservices?
12:30- 15:00 Where does Dell play? (professional services, testing, creating MVPs)
Check it out.
Abstract:
Gartner believe that by 2016, DevOps will evolve from a niche strategy employed by large cloud providers to a mainstream strategy employed by 25% of the largest 2000 global organizations [1]. One of the key developments within this space is Container technologies. In turn both DevOps and container technologies are proof of a larger shift in IT to a microservices architecture.
These technologies together serve as the foundation for agility and responsiveness in the modern enterprise. They give organizations an increased ability to serve their customers and, more importantly, are ultimately key to organizational survival in the modern world . This session will explain these technologies in terms of what they mean to your business and how they fit within larger trends in the industry.
[1] Tech Go-to-Market: How to win with DevOps buyers, May 15, 2015; Gartner
Here is my final post from Dell World. Today’s interview is with Nikita Maheshwari, product marketing manager with Nutanix.
I caught up with Nikita on the show floor in front of their booth. I got her to give a brief overview of the company and what they announced with Dell at the show. Check it out.
Some of the ground Nikita covers
Describing Nutanix’s software-based converged infrastructure platform and where their IP lies
Who are some of the customers they’ve been working with and what use cases they are seeing
The week before last I was roaming the expo floor at Dell World and I bumped into Steve Croce. Steve is at Dell and is the product manager and strategist for our OpenStack private cloud offering.
I got Steve to spend a few minutes with me and give me the lowdown on what we are offering and where Red Hat plays in. Take a listen.
Some of the ground Steve covers
Who’s Dell targeting with our offering and how has that expanded
What is the stack comprised of: Hardware, Software and Services
Dell IT’s internal innovation lab running Red Hat’s OpenStack distro
The next interview in my series from Dell World features Julio Tapia of Red Hat. Julio is a global director for Red Hat’s platform as a service, OpenShift.
I got Julio to give me a quick overview of OpenShift, where Dell plays and what they are planning going forward.
Some of the ground Julio covers
Who is OpenShift targeted at and how does it benefit developers
The three flavors: Online (Public PaaS), Enterprise (Private PaaS) and Origin (Community PaaS)
How Dell is working with OpenShift and the DevOps in a Box they both announced
The role Docker plays
What’s in store for next year and how their work with Google and Kubernetes will help ISVs
Last week I participated in Dell World with my trusty Flipcam (yes, I still have one, if it ain’t broke…) and caught a bunch of interviews. Several, not surprisingly, dealt with the cloud space.
The first of these is with Red Hat Sr. Solution Architect, Ian Pilcher who was on the expo floor. Ian was talking to attendees about how Red Hat and Dell are working together in the cloud space. I got him to give a short overview.
Some of the ground Ian covers
How the two companies are working together around OpenStack
What are the use cases he’s seeing for the OpenStack solution
What is Red Hat doing with Docker (Hint: see Atomic Host)
What to expect from Red Hat and Dell vis-a-vis their OpenStack solution
Extra-credit reading
Red Hat goes nuclear in Linux container wars with Atomic Host beta – The Register
Last week at Dell World I interviewed a bunch of folks and will be posting these videos in the upcoming days. On the last day of the event however I got to sit on the other side of the camera and talk about Digital Transformation.
Take a listen below as I explain what I’ve learned and how Digital Transformation is affecting organizations today.
Some of the ground we cover
What is “Digital Transformation?” Why all of a sudden does it seem to be the buzz word du jour?
The importance of placing the customer in center of your thinking.
Which organizations have transformed successfully and why and who has become digital prey.
How does it leverage technologies like cloud, social, mobile and big data/analytics?
Today at Dell world, we are rolling out the public beta of the Dell Cloud Marketplace. The marketplace, which is targeted at both sys admins and developers, allows you to set-up, manage, monitor and pay for a variety of cloud services in a self-service model.
The IaaS platforms available at launch are provided by Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform and Joyent. Cloud services partners include Docker for application development, Pertino for cloud networking and data management provided by Delphix.
Yesterday before the show kicked off I grabbed some time with the marketplace’s chief architect, Campbell McNeill to learn more. Take a listen to what Campbell had to say:
Some of the ground Campbell covers:
What they learned from this summer’s private beta and how they have rearchitected the marketplace accordingly (focusing on control and governance and leveraging the features of the Enstratius acquisition).
A market place catalog where you can get apps running in Docker containers and then run them in the cloud of your choice.
Providing developers with agility while at the same time giving those tasked with security and compliance a governance control plane.
Sign up today and get $500 free credit and give us you thoughts and help us to further refine improve the marketplace.
Extra-credit reading
Dell Cloud Marketplace: Many Clouds, One Dashboard — InformationWeek
Dell launches into cloud brokerage market with Cloud Marketplace — ZDNet
Dell Tests Public Cloud Waters With Beta Marketplace Offering — CRN
Last year at Dell World we talked about our approach to Digital Transformation. This year however we have put it front and center and the theme is woven throughout the show.
Today at Dell World, supporting this increased focus, Dell Services is unveiling a new dedicated service line called Digital Business Services (DBS). This service line is focused on helping organizations better understand and serve their customers through digital technologies.
To get a better idea of what Digital Transformation is all about and how Dell can help customers with this transformation, check out this short video:
A little more digital detail
The new Dell Digital Business Services line includes both Digital Transformation Consulting as well as Digital Technology Services. DBS leads with consulting to help companies determine their needs and then creates a tailored roadmap that leverages technologies such as analytics, mobile, social media and cloud as well as emerging trends like the Internet of Things.
The DBS team brings together best practices from Dell’s analytics, cloud and mobile solutions, IP from our end-to-end portfolio, partnerships as well as our learnings as an online and social pioneer.
If you’re interested in learning how Dell can help you adapt to a digital-first approach to better understand and serve your customers ping us here.
Pitching Sputnik at Dell World (photo credit: Ryan the lawyer)
I wanted to get one more quick post in before I head out for the holidays. Things have been crazy since the XPS 13 Developer Edition launched almost three weeks ago.
In fact no sooner did we start to catch our breath from the product’s launch that Dell World took place. We had a lot of interest at the event and Im looking at following up with the folks I met.
Launch response
For the actual launch we had fantastic press, see the list below. That having been said, there were two areas where we got dinged by folks:
Price — This turned out to be due to an internal pricing inconsistency and we were able to jump on it right away and dropped the price by $100 by the afternoon.
Monitor resolution — We have heard the community loud and clear and are looking at ways to address this, stay tuned.
Partial Media Coverage
Dell launches Sputnik Linux Ultrabook – The Register
Dell releases powerful, well-supported Linux Ultrabook – Ars Technica
Dell ships lightweight XPS 13 laptop with Ubuntu Linux – IDG
Dell’s ‘Sputnik’ Ubuntu Linux ultrabook: First in a new line? – PC World
Dell launches Ubuntu-powered Sputnik for developers – The H-Online
Dell’s Ubuntu Ultrabook goes on sale in the US – PC Pro
Dell Ships High-End Ubuntu Laptop for Cloud Developers – The Var Guy
Dell Unveils Powerful Linux Ultrabook for $1,449 – Mobile Magazine
Dell Launches XPS 13 Ultrabook Developed Edition, Comes With Ubuntu Linux – StudentNews.ie
Dell’s $1,549 Ubuntu-based XPS 13 goes on sale, $50 more than Windows variant (update: $100 price drop) – Engadget
Dell is selling a nicely configured version of its XPS 13 ultrabook with Ubuntu Linux – CNET
Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook With Linux Ubuntu Almost Ready For Launch – iTech Post
Thanks to everyone for helping to turn this idea from project to product. Stay tuned as we we continue to refine and expand on developer offerings in 2013
Last week we held Dell’s first Dell World event here in Austin, Texas. The two-day event was targeted at CxOs and IT professionals and featured an expo, panels and speakers such as CEOs Mark Benioff, Paul Otellini, Steve Ballmer and Paul Maritz as well as former CIO of the United States, Vivek Kundra. And of course, being Austin, it also featured a lot of great music and barbeque.
At the end of the first day Michael Cote grabbed sometime with me and we talked about the event.
Some of the ground I cover:
Dell World overview and our Modular Data Center
(3:35) Talking to press/analysts about our new Web|Tech vertical and our focus on developers
(6:00) The event’s attempt to up-level the conversation rather than diving into speeds, feeds and geeky demos.
The Dell Modular Data Center on the expo floor (photo: Yasushi Osonoi:@osonoi)
Posted by Barton George 
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