Data Unpacked

Brookend Ltd

A seasonal podcast that looks at the challenges of managing data in the modern enterprise

Episodes

  1. 03/23/2023

    Data Unpacked 007 – Exploring the Managed Database Continuum with Mat Keep from MongoDB

    In this episode, Chris chats to Mat Keep (Senior Director of Product at MongoDB) about the proliferation of managed database solutions. Specifically, the conversation covers options for MongoDB, including Atlas. Managed databases provide a way for customers to gain rapid access to a development or production platform, paying for usage either on a time or transactional basis. This choice increases value for the customer, while ceding greater management control to the vendor. Whilst the database administrators may not have as many “nerd knobs” to vary, the time to value is hugely increased when database endpoints can be provisioned in a matter of minutes. Mat explains how MongoDB has developed Atlas, an online portal for databases on-demand. This consumption model enables developers test code and for businesses and organisations, such as the UK’s HMRC, to rapidly put new applications in place. You can learn more about Atlas and MongoDB at https://www.mongodb.com/ Elapsed Time: 00:43:01 Timeline 00:00:00 – Intros 00:02:34 – Database history goes back many years (including before relational databases) 00:03:07 – Database “as a service” is now a thing – 50% of the market 00:04:42 – On-demand databases have an incredibly short lead time 00:05:37 – 6 month lead time is now 6 minutes 00:06:38 – 750 million applications on the horizon? 00:07:57 – Value for use is higher with SaaS and on-demand database solutions 00:09:20 – The vendor is in the best position to provide product support 00:11:47 – What are the negatives of using SaaS platforms? 00:15:00 – Database migrations are tricky to achieve safely 00:16:16 – MongoDB offers serverless as an option 00:17:42 – MongoDB is available on Arm, Power and mainframe 00:19:53 – Is SaaS used just for development or across the spectrum of adoption? 00:24:34 – How does data encryption work in a SaaS environment? 00:25:48 – Queryable encryption is achieved at the client side 00:31:08 – Deleting encrypted data is just a case of deleting the encryption keys 00:32:33 – How should customers choose where to run database applications? 00:34:17 – There are many aspects to migrations – TCO, skills, regulation 00:38:11 – Culture and people can be a challenge in migration 00:41:08 – Wrap Up Copyright (c) 2023 Unpacked Network. Post #e34f. Do not reproduce without permission, in part, or whole.

    43 min

  2. 02/01/2023

    Data Unpacked 006 – Introducing HYCU R-Cloud

    In this episode, Chris talks to HYCU CEO Simon Taylor and SVP of Products Subbiah Sundaram about the announcement of HYCU R-Cloud. R-Cloud is a new solution for protecting SaaS applications, of which there are around 17,000 in the US alone. Traditionally, SaaS vendors need backup vendors to develop support for the backup APIs the SaaS vendor provides. This results in each vendor doing custom work to write to the specifics of each API. The consequence if this process means backup vendors will choose to support SaaS platforms with the greatest volume of customer data. Smaller SaaS vendors can easily get squeezed out and find it difficult to be onboarded. R-Cloud inverts the process, providing an API and low-code environment where SaaS vendors can build integration in as little as three days. Through the use of single sign-on, a customer can quickly visualise all data in a view called R-Graph, which focuses on the data, rather than infrastructure view. You can read more about R-Cloud in our related blog post – https://www.architecting.it/blog/hycu-rcloud-launch/ or visit https://www.hycu.com/ for more details. Elapsed Time: 00:26:42 Timeline 00:00:00 – Intros 00:00:41 – What is R-Cloud? 00:01:30 – How many SaaS applications exist today? 00:03:30 – How do backup systems work? It’s ETIL 00:04:55 – SaaS vendors must build an API for backup vendors to use 00:06:39 – The shared responsibility model means customers must protect their data 00:08:30 – How will R-Cloud work in practice? 00:09:44 – Midsize companies could have data in 212 different locations 00:10:33 – R-Graph lets customers see a map of their data 00:12:53 – HYCU Protege is already modular in design 00:14:31 – How can HYCU “genericise” SaaS data structures into a single API? 00:16:25 – Single sign-on is a critical piece in developing R-Cloud 00:18:05 – R-Cloud enables new routes to customers through the marketplace 00:20:49 – Does R-Cloud replace SaaS platform recovery? 00:23:20 – No backup vendor can code to support 17,000 SaaS applications 00:25:34 – Wrap Up Copyright (c) 2023 Unpacked Network. Post #c3df. Do not reproduce without permission, in part, or whole.

    27 min

  3. 01/23/2023

    Data Unpacked 005 – Securing SaaS Data Protection Solutions with Commvault Metallic (Sponsored)

    In this recording, Chris talks with David Ngo (CTO for Metallic) and Indu Peddibhotla (VP Products at Commvault) on how Commvault and the Metallic platform implement secure SaaS data protection. Customers depend on Metallic to recover from ransomware and other data loss scenarios. This puts more pressure on SaaS backup to be secure, protected and impregnable from assault. Commvault uses a set of design principles in its approach with Metallic that include; Security built-in, Certification, Air-gapped security, audit trails, multi-factor authentication, zero-trust methodology and early threat detection to achieve secure status. In the conversation, David and Indu take us through exactly what each of these concepts means and how they are used to develop a secure SaaS data protection solution. Naturally, some of the processes are trade secrets, but we can see from certifications including FedRAMP, FIPS 140-02, CJIS compliance, GDPR compliance, HIPAA and more, that the service is secured to a high degree of competence. During the conversation, we reference Cloud Field Day 13 – here’s the link to Commvault’s presentations – https://techfieldday.com/appearance/metallic-presents-at-cloud-field-day-13/ We also quote the great Donald Rumsfeld about “known unknowns” – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_are_unknown_unknowns Here are two previous pieces of content on vendor guarantees: https://www.architecting.it/blog/backup-vendor-guarantees/ https://unpacked.network/guest-speakers/95-storage-guarantees/ Here’s a link to Metallic Recovery Reserve, mentioned by Indu – https://metallic.io/metallic-cloud-storage Here’s the link to Metallic ThreatWise – https://metallic.io/threatwise-cyber-deception Finally, here’s a link to the Trust Centre mentioned by Indu – https://metallic.io/trust Elapsed Time: 00:31:26 Timeline 00:00:00 – Intros 00:01:00 – Cloud Field Day 13 generated some thought about protecting SaaS applications 00:03:00 – “Disaster” has a new set of definitions in the hybrid world 00:04:30 – SaaS backup is an natural solution for modern data protection 00:05:40 – SaaS data protection has a unique set of additional security requirements 00:07:37 – Zero Trust, Secure software development, logical air gaps 00:10:26 – What do customers want and need to protect? 00:12:10 – Modern data protection needs more than simple immutability 00:13:52 – We need to focus more on what businesses really want 00:14:55 – Vendors need to demonstrate capability, but not expose how! 00:16:20 – ThreatWise enables Commvault to do early intrusion detection 00:17:53 – Commvault SREs make sure SLAs are met 00:19:30 – How do vendors avoid socially engineered hacks? 00:21:37 – What about the “unknown threats”? 00:23:00 – Is there any value in ransomware guarantees? 00:26:15 – I’d prefer to not have my leg cut off in the first place…. 00:26:47 – Is there a minimum set of standards to expect? 00:28:42 – Commvault continues to innovate on a holistic approach to data protection 00:30:03 – Wrap Up Copyright (c) 2023 Unpacked Network. Post #c3po. Do not reproduce without permission, in part, or whole.

    31 min

  4. 01/09/2023

    Data Unpacked 004 – Reflections on Data Management, Security and Protection with HYCU CEO Simon Taylor

    In this live recording from AWS:Reinvent in December 2022, Chris catches up with HYCU CEO Simon Taylor to discuss data management, security and protection. These three aspects are becoming increasingly intertwined as challenges such as ransomware continue to affect more companies than ever before. Electronic data is critical to every business and any breach affects not just the commercial world, but other areas such as healthcare. As the conversation continues, Simon highlights the challenges around protecting SaaS applications. There are around 16,000 currently active in the US, while a typical company operates around 175 data silos. There’s lots of work to do as we see greater use of the public cloud, especially with respect to software-as-a-service. In this podcast episode, Simon mentions https://getrscore.org/, which we covered in this blog post back in September 2021. Elapsed Time: 00:13:42 Timeline 00:00:00 – Intros 00:01:00 – What are Simon’s initial thoughts? 00:02:15 – Security around data has become a critical issue 00:04:00 – How should ransomware impacts be quantified – money, people, health? 00:05:00 – Electronic data is critical to modern life 00:06:20 – How should developers consider data security? 00:07:25 – 16,000 SaaS services in the US – 175 different data silos 00:09:00 – How are SaaS applications protected? 00:11:30 – There’s a Cambrian Explosion of new companies – are they diverse enough? 00:13:25 – Wrap Up Copyright (c) 2023 Unpacked Network. Post #agee. Do not reproduce without permission, in part, or whole.

    14 min

  5. 12/16/2022

    Data Unpacked 003 – Protecting the Cloud for Free with HYCU Protégé

    In this episode of Data Unpacked, we talk to Subbiah Sundaram (Senior VP of Products) and Andy Fernandez (Director of Product Marketing) from HYCU. The company recently announced a free tier of the HYCU Protégé service for developers working in Amazon Web Services. Users can quickly get started and protect data, with the option to upgrade later to paid features. Why is the company doing this and what problem is it solving? It turns out that many developers don’t realise that data protection isn’t turned on by default in the public cloud. The Shared Responsibility Model means AWS takes care of hardware management, but data becomes the customer’s resource to protect. HYCU enables developers to install a free version then try advanced features for a limited time before choosing to buy (or not). To learn more, follow https://www.hycu.com/protege/aws and scroll down to the free trial offer. Elapsed time: 00:27:29 Timeline 00:00:00 – Intros 00:01:20 – Data protection in the cloud is your responsibility 00:01:50 – Developers moving to the cloud don’t realise there’s no backup 00:02:40 – Vendor’s commitment is to the hardware 00:03:40 – Only the application owner knows the backup requirements 00:04:40 – What do developers expect from infrastructure? 00:07:01 – Agility is important in cloud, backup should be the same 00:10:43 – How does a backup company engage with developers? 00:12:06 – Try and buy (or try and use) is the new way of working 00:13:15 – Who wants to wade through a 1” thick manual? 00:14:25 – Could you do self-managed backup? 00:15:22 – Snapshots work but are difficult to manage at scale 00:16:55 – What is HYCU offering developers? 00:19:30 – What does “free” mean for HYCU Protege in this instance? 00:20:40 – How did our test-drive work out? 00:21:30 – HYCU wants to protect customer’s data within 20 minutes 00:22:40 – Customers can upgrade at ay time 00:23:52 – Developers don’t need a credit card to try features out 00:26:00 – How can listeners try this out? 00:27:16 – Wrap Up Copyright (c) 2022 Unpacked Network. Post #2w3e. Do not reproduce without permission, in part, or whole.

    27 min

  6. 10/28/2022

    Data Unpacked 002 – Data Management in the Hybrid Cloud

    With data dispersed across many locations that today could include on-premises, the public cloud, edge and co-location facilities, how can businesses ensure that data is in the right place at the right time, without the issue of creating multiple copies? In this episode, Chris talks to Floyd Christofferson, VP of Product Marketing at Hammerspace to learn how the company has abstracted the file system and associated metadata to address the problems of mobility and consistency. One interesting aspect of the Hammerspace approach is that it enables metadata to be extended and inherited in a way that provides workflow and other data management capabilities. These features can then be automated using policies or objectives in Hammerspace terms. Elapsed Time: 00:00:00 Timeline 00:00:00 – Intros 00:01:00 – Data has become highly distributed 00:02:25 – Businesses have a more diversified data landscape than they realise 00:04:30 – Data outlives the lifetime of hardware and applications 00:06:15 – Identifying owners and users of data asset can be tricky 00:07:51 – Shadow IT creates new silos of unconnected data 00:09:12 – Data mobility breaks when users start copying data 00:11:30 – Metadata stuck in a single piece of infrastructure causes problems 00:12:40 – Should an abstraction layer redirect or chunk up data on storage? 00:16:00 – Hammerspace data “assimilation” processes only the metadata 00:18:14 – Inherited metadata applies rules to data automatically 00:20:00 – Policy (objectives) allow data workflow management 00:24:00 – Hardware optimisation is one benefit of Hammerspace 00:25:32 – At scale, data management needs automation 00:26:50 – Hammerspace can dynamically scale into the public cloud 00:29:20 – Selective data migration lets data be placed efficiently 00:34:17 – The data mobility challenge is the greatest issue to hybrid cloud adoption 00:37:30 – Owning the file system is the key piece to data mobility 00:42:30 – Wrap Up Copyright (c) 2022 Unpacked Network. Post #bgvg. Do not reproduce without permission, in part, or whole.

    43 min

  7. 10/10/2022

    Data Unpacked 001 - Defining a Data Platform

    In the first of a new series of podcasts, Chris Evans is in discussion with Colin Gallagher (VP of Product Marketing) and Joel Kaufman (Senior Technical Marketing Manager), both with data management start-up Weka. Weka recently announced Weka 4, a major upgrade to the technology offered by the company. At the same time, the distributed file system that was WekaFS is now being marketed as a “data platform”. We wanted to get into the details of how a file system and a platform can be defined and how specific features and functionality separate the two. The conversation takes us through understanding the Weka technology, looking at aspects such as data variety, user experience, data mobility, data efficiency and dynamic scalability that all form part of the requirements of a platform. For more details on Weka, check out the company website at https://www.weka.io/ or our blog content at https://www.architecting.it/blog/category/vendors/weka/. Timeline 00:00:00 – Intros 00:02:00 – Weka 4 introduces the term “data platform” 00:04:10 – What are the key features of the Weka platform? 00:06:20 – Weka has already demonstrated performance credentials 00:07:11 – What makes a data platform more than a file system? 00:08:52 – Weka rebuilds on modern technology 00:10:46 – It’s no longer necessary to deploy multiple platforms for multiple use cases 00:12:43 – Don’t tell me that data is the new oil 00:14:00 – Data is processed in pipelines, rather than in batch 00:15:21 – Petabyte scale is no longer “big” 00:18:28 – The I/O blender is back for big data 00:20:12 – How do platforms solve the data growth problem? 00:21:56 – New NVMe drives are becoming cost effective in combination with object stores 00:23:41 – A Data Platform should automatically manage the data placement & efficiency issues 00:25:54 – Data should be mobile and available when required 00:26:52 – How does the data platform change the user experience? 00:28:25 – The public cloud has driven the simplicity of data management 00:30:50 – Data Platforms should be flexible and dynamic 00:32:30 – Customers want longevity and ephemeral storage platforms 00:36:00 – 23 & Me is a good example of a seasonal demand requirement 00:38:04 – Demand scaling can be for workflow process, like Virtual Effects companies 00:40:11 – Data is alive and has flow, movement and changeability 00:42:12 – Wrap Up Copyright (c) 2022 Unpacked Network. Post #6c26. Do not reproduce without permission, in part, or whole.

    43 min
  • 7 Episodes

About

A seasonal podcast that looks at the challenges of managing data in the modern enterprise

Information

  • Creator
    Brookend Ltd
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2023
  • Episodes
    7
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    Copyright © 2016-2022 Brookend Ltd
  • Show Website
    Data Unpacked