

DataCentric
NAND Research
Welcome to the DataCentric podcast, where we delve into the latest developments in information technology, offering insights into its intricate workings and broader implications.
Hosted by Steve McDowell, Senior Analyst at NAND Research, our podcast explores new technologies, influential trends, and provides expert commentary on the forward trajectory of the technology industry.
Join us as we navigate the complex landscape of IT. Whether you're an industry professional or simply curious about the future of technology, DataCentric is your trusted source for informed discourse and forward-thinking analysis.
Hosted by Steve McDowell, Senior Analyst at NAND Research, our podcast explores new technologies, influential trends, and provides expert commentary on the forward trajectory of the technology industry.
Join us as we navigate the complex landscape of IT. Whether you're an industry professional or simply curious about the future of technology, DataCentric is your trusted source for informed discourse and forward-thinking analysis.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Nov 18, 2019 • 27min
HPE's Container Platform with HPE Cloud Strategist Robert Christiansen
As Hewlett Packard Enterprise launches its bare-metal container platform at KubeCon this week, Moor Insights & Strategy analysts Matt Kimball and Steve McDowell have a conversation with HPE VP and Chief Cloud Strategist Robert Christiansen. The guys talk about how HPE views cloud workloads, and how the power of Kubernetes and containers might just be the right answer for both cloud and edge.
It's a great conversation with unexpected insight about the long-term impact of Kubernetes on IT architecture. HPE is helping to shape that future as it brings the power of MapR and BlueData into the fold. Listen in.
Thank you to Robert for taking the time to join us this week. Special Guest: Robert Christiansen.Links:HPE Unveils Container Platform

Nov 14, 2019 • 47min
November 2019 Event News Roundup: Microsoft Ignite, VMWorld Europe, NVIDIA GTC DC & More!
It's been a busy few weeks as the fall conference season hits its stride. In this episode, Moor Insights & Strategy analysts Matt Kimball and Steve McDowell talk about it all: Microsoft Ignite, VMworld Europe, NVIDIA GTC DC announcements.
There's also chip news as AMD delivers a stellar quarter, Intel has a benchmark oops (and then recovers), and lots of discussion of ARM and Edge. Join us for our unique perspective.
Times:
00:00 Microsoft Ignite: Azure News
13:24 AMD’s stellar quarter
19:00 Intel’s Benchmark Oops
24:35 VMWorld Europe
27:00 ARM at the Edge & in the Datacenter
32:00 NVIDIA GTC DC + NV at the Edge
46:43 That's all!Links:Five most significant announcements from Microsoft IgniteVMWorld Europe AnnouncementsAMD EarningsIntel's Misleading Benchmarks?

Nov 7, 2019 • 37min
NetApp talks about Cloud Native, Containers, & HCI
NetApp is about more than just about on-prem enterprise storage. They are changing with the industry as it embraces HCI, Cloud Native, and Kubernetes as part of the Data Fabric. This is critical to the company's strategy.
We had the chance to sit separately with NetApp's SVP & GM of Cloud Native (which includes its Kubernetes/Containers activity) Anthony Lye to talk about how NetApp and its enterprise customers view that space, as well as how they are evolving from an "on-prem first" storage player into a multi-cloud and cloud-native solution.
We also had a great conversation with NetApp's Chief HCI Architect Adam Carter at the show who talked about the philosophy behind NetApp's untraditional approach to HCI.
This one is a great listen, and we owe a serious debt of graditude to both Anthony and Adam for making the time at a busy event, as well as the entire NetApp A/R and PR team who made it all happen.
00:00 - 05:15 Matt & Steve hit on some recent news & travel, including Micron 3D XPoint and FujiFilm's IT Summit
05:15 - 24:00 NetApp HCI with Adam Carter, as well as Matt & Steve's post-interview discussion & thoughts
24:00 - 34:50 NetApp's Cloud Native and Container Strategy with NetApp GM and SVP Anthony Lye
34:50 - 36:32 Wrapping UpSpecial Guests: Adam Carter and Anthony Lye.Links:NetApp Cloud Native ApplicationsNetApp HCI

Oct 15, 2019 • 44min
ARM TechCon 2019 Wrap-Up with Patrick Kennedy from Serve The Home
As ARM TechCon 2019 wraps up in San Jose, hosts Steve McDowell and Matt Kimball from Moor Insights & Strategy are joined by Patrick Kennedy of Serve the Home in a wide-ranging discussion of the entire microprocessor market, and where ARM fits in.
Here's a general timeline for the discussion, though the topics overlap, so you owe it to yourself to listent to the entire thing.
00:00 Intros
02:20 Big Themes & Announcements from TechCon
03:50 Patrick's views of TechCon from a server, storage, and networking perspective
06:00 ARM at the Edge
10:30 ARM in the Server Market
14:05 ARM in the HPC and other Server-Adjacent Spaces
17:28 ARM in power and performance hungry applications
22:00 Does OpenPOWER and IBM's recent Open Sourcing moves matter?
24:10 Does heated AMD/Intel competition open the door for ARM to gain traction against those players?
27:17 What's Patrick Kennedy and Serve the Home looking forward to in 2020
32:20 Let's talk about Inspur & "Inspur-like" players
38:00 What's Serve the Home doing Differently in the review space?
41:00 Overarching takeaways Special Guest: Patrick Kennedy.Links:Serve the Home

Oct 7, 2019 • 30min
Talking Data Protection with Arcserve CTO Oussama El-Hilali & VP of Strategic Partnerships Clark Brown
In the data era, data protection is everything. Cyber resilience can mean life and death for companies that rely on intelligence to drive business. So what’s more important? Securing your organization? Or being able to quickly recover from cyberattacks without having to pay ridiculous ransom amounts to a group of hackers in Eastern Europe? The answer is “both.”
In this Datacentric podcast, Steve and Matt speak with Arcserve about its partnership with Sophos and how this integrated solution can help in both the prevention and recovery from cyber incidents. Oussama El-Hilali, Arcserve’s CTO and Clark Brown, VP of Channel Sale and Strategic partnerships talk about the trends leading to this partnership and how they view the market evolving.Special Guests: Clark Brown and Oussama El-Hilali.

Sep 25, 2019 • 44min
News Round-Up: RedHat Summit, Pure Accelerate, Dell's EPYC Server,
A catch-up podcast as Moor Insights & Strategy technology analysts Matt Kimball & Steve McDowell run through a very news-filled September. The guys recap Red Hat Summit, Pure Accelerate, and also hit product announcements from Dell EMC, IBM, and Huawei, bemoan the dwindling quality of conference SWAG, and more. Much, much, more:
Red Hat might be owned by IBM, but its about helping enterprises manage digital transformation, focused on where "opportunity and innovation intersect". Steve's a little dense on this topic, and Matt helps him understand what Red Hat's up to.
Pure Storage holds its annual conference in Austin, where they announce new products and supplement others. It's all about delivering a consistent data-driven expeirence to enteprises, and IT practitioners seem to be on-board. We also talk about partying back-stage with Weezer.
Beyond that, there are Optane-related storage announcements from Dell and Oracle, while Huawei releases the highest-capacity flash array in the world.
Times:
00:00 Start!
01:45 Red Hat Summit - Digital Tranformation!
14:40 Pure Accelerate (and Weezer!) - New QLC Flash Array, Optane Caching, Consumption-Based, Cloud Volumes!
26:20 Huawei Ships the Worlds Largest All Flash Storage Array
28:40 IBM Ships a Really Fast Storage Array for MainFrame
31:00 Dell updates its PowerMax storage with Optane persistent memory for both read & write.
35:40 Oracle also puts Optane in a storage box, if you want to buy an Oracle box.
36:30 Dell puts AMD's Epyc Rome CPU in a couple of new servers
42:25 Where are the guys focused over the next few weeks?

Sep 12, 2019 • 51min
Talking with Coz: Pure Origins and the Future of Storage
Want to hear a good origin story? Or about the future of data? You're in luck. As Pure Storage heads into its annual Pure Accelerate Conference in Austin next week, it's looking to celebrate its 10th anniversary. 10 years in which Pure has grown from a seed-stage start-up to a ~$4B publically traded company. And Pure continues to be a disrupter in the storage industry.
Given this milestone, we thought we'd step back and talk to the man behind the all-flash storage revolution, Pure's Co-Founder and CTO John "Coz" Colgrove.
Coz touches on everything you're interested it, from the origins of Pure, to current challenges, to the future of storage.
The interview starts about 3 minutes in, if you're the type who likes to fast foward.
Special thanks from the MI&S DataCentric team to Terri, Armi, and Rena at Pure Storage for making this happen and, of course, to Coz, who was very generous with his time. Tune in!Special Guest: John "Coz" Colgrove.

Sep 6, 2019 • 45min
VMWorld 2019 Wrap-Up
VMworld, which has become ground-zero for setting the direction for IT infrastructure, just wrapped up in San Francisco. Attended by over 21,000(!) people, it's become one the largest tech conferences in the world.
This year the dominant themes were all about Containers and Clouds, with product announcements touching every aspect of the edge-to-core-to-cloud world.
Tune in as Moor Insights & Strategy senior datacenter analysts Matt Kimball and Steve McDowell talk how VMware has become the operating system for the enterprise, and what happened at VMworld all fits together.

Aug 29, 2019 • 34min
Talking with Pure Storage CEO Charlie Giancarlo
Charlie Giancarlo, CEO of Pure Storage, has propelled the company into the All-Flash era, achieving remarkable growth rates while revolutionizing data storage. He discusses delivering exceptional customer experiences that surprise and delight, as well as the intersection of flash and cloud technologies for seamless integration. Giancarlo also addresses AI’s transformative effect on enterprise data, envisioning a future where data operates as a utility. Additionally, he shares insights on corporate social responsibility and community initiatives within the tech industry.

Aug 21, 2019 • 32min
AMD Releases an Epyc ROME while Lenovo delivers very nice earnings
Moor Insights & Strategy analysts Matt Kimball & Steve McDowell are back from their various summer adventures and are easing back into the podcast saddle by asking the question: Is AMD's new Rome server part really "all that"? Should IT buyers care? And if you do, should you buy a server from Lenovo, who's continuing a stellar run of solid execution? All that, and more, on the newest DataCentric.
00:00 AMD's EPYC Rome server launch: How does it stack up? Is Intel really being threatened?
21:30 Lenovo released very solid earnings for last quarter, continuing an impressive run of datacenter growth. Let's talk about that.
32:24 The End.