Friday, August 30th, 2013

Time	Event
12:40p	Pure Storage Snags $150 Million Capital Infusion An all-flash enterprise storage array from Pure Storage, which has just raised $150 million in funding. (Image: Pure Storage) With a valuation over $1 billion all-flash enterprise storage company Pure Storage has received additional capital to continue its rapid growth, and pave the way for a potential future IPO - announcing that it has closed an oversubscribed $150 million Series E funding round with institutional investors.  Just a few days earlier flash storage provider Violin Memory filed for a $172.5 million IPO. Led by T. Rowe Price, Tiger Global Management and other public market investors, with participation by its previous venture capital investors Greylock Partners, Index Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Samsung Ventures and Sutter Hill Ventures, the new funding brings the company’s total capital raise to $245 million. will use the new funding to accelerate continued expansion of its European and Asia-based operations, grow its sales, support and marketing teams worldwide, and increase its investments in research and development. “We are very selective in the private companies that we choose to invest in,” said Henry Ellenbogen of T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. “In our view, Pure represents a rare combination of disruptive innovation, strong leadership, and strong growth. In particular, customer references were excellent. We look forward to working with Pure as they scale and strive toward becoming a public company.” Pure Storage also announced  that former Data Domain CEO Frank Slootman has joined its board of directors. Slootman was one of the company’s earliest supporters and angel investors, which also include VMware’s cofounders: former CEO Diane Green and former CTO Mendel Rosenblum. “Pure Storage is experiencing much of what we did at Data Domain,” said Slootman. “They’re replacing one storage media (disk) with another (flash). They pioneered the use of inline data reduction to remove the cost hurdle for the media upgrade, and, as a result of being the first to get this right they are growing about as fast as companies can grow organically. I am glad to be able to offer my own perspective in driving and managing growth to the top tier board of directors and leadership team at Pure.” The $1 billion valuation for Pure Storage is based on the size of its market and rapid growth. After launching in 2009 and releasing its flagship FlashArray in 2012, the company has achieved over 50-percent consecutive quarterly growth, surpassing previous industry growth benchmarks set by NetApp and Data Domain. The company has also responded to international demand, by establishing new bases of operations in more than 10 countries across three continents in 2013. “In 2009, we set out to build the next great storage company,” said Scott Dietzen, CEO at Pure Storage. “Today, we are taking our most significant step yet toward realizing that goal. This landmark financing reinforces our position as the frontrunner in leading the transition from mechanical disk to flash memory in the data center – perhaps this decade’s most significant IT disruption.” (Comment on this)
1:16p	So Many Devices, So Much Data: Focus Shifts to the End-User and Mobility With any BYOD initiative, there has to be a solid plan, good policies and an educated user in place. Over the past couple of years, IT consumerization has really taken off. Many users are now asking to have two or even three devices connected to the corporate network. Why? From a user’s perspective, it’s simple: Flexibility, productivity and because it’s easier. With more users bringing in their own devices, administrators have scrambled to find ways to effectively support these types of demands. With any BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) initiative, there has to be a solid plan, good policies and an educated user in place. Furthermore, there’s really no need to over-complicate an environment especially when there are such powerful tools around to help. The focus at the data center level has shifted. Cloud computing, diversification in device availability, and a growing “data-on-demand” society has created a greater focus on the user. The idea isn’t just to deliver an application or a desktop to the user – rather – it’s to allow the user to carry around their personalized settings regardless of the device or platform. This is where current technologies can really make the process easier. Application virtualization. App virtualization has really simplified the BYOD concept. Now, administrators can simply publish applications on a private cloud environment, provide a secure HTTPS portal the end-user and allow them to connect to their applications. Why is this great? The apps are always stored at the data center. The user will only see screen refreshes. User virtualization. New technologies are allowing the user layer to be completely abstracted from the hardware platform. That means user settings (folder redirection, printer settings, profile settings, and more) can smoothly follow the user regardless of their OS, hardware device or location. This simplifies user management and creates a powerful end-user experience. Storage virtualization. Storage is expensive. So, with the latest controllers IT managers can logically segment a single controller into multiple, secured, business units. Why is this important? BYOD applications, settings and other functionality can safely reside on a segmented storage network. Network virtualization (SDN). The days of one-to-one network configurations are numbered. Now, administrators can create hundreds of vNIC instances from a single hardware device. Why is this important? IT managers can now segment entire networks and create an underlying infrastructure for BYOD. Entire subsystems can be created for users who bring in foreign devices into the network. Furthermore, software-defined networks act as powerful tools to logically connect networks which can span the nation – or globe. Security and encryption. For BYOD, this is huge. Aside from the fact that you can easily configure all traffic to work through HTTPS, security appliances have now entered the “next generation.” This means that security administrators have a lot more flexibility into the type of devices they allow and how users access the environment. For example, an admin can set an end-point scan and not allow any users who don’t have the latest antivirus or patch running. Recent security advances around mobile technology (MDM) can even check to see if a device is rooted. Based on the end-point, specific ACLs or policies, and even the location of the user – the administrator is able to granularly control what data is delivered. Depending on the circumstance, only a few applications may appear, none at all – or all of them. MDM/MAM/Mobility – We mentioned MDM earlier, but recent technologies are taking the conversation even further. With direct integration into existing infrastructure components, the latest in mobility management takes security, application, and data control to the next level. Data and application containerization allow the administrator to completely restrict where files and information is available. Plus, they are able to dictate how and where files are open. Remember, we’re not just talking about controlling devices. Rather, we need to focus on the data and applications that are being delivered to the end-points. The idea isn’t to restrict the end-user. Rather, with easier application and data access, organizations deploying mobility solutions are trying to empower their workforce. One of the biggest trends within today’s organizations is the challenge around create a mobility policy. Why? Because we now have a mobile workforce that requires an equally mobility-ready business. When working with a BYOD initiative, remember to work with the end-user and identify the types of devices you want to support. Never, ever, make BYOD a free-for-all. There has to be management in place which will help control the data and where it is being delivered to. There are numerous options in how an organization can deliver their data to the end-user. With IT consumerization and BYOD, organizations can create a truly productive and happy workforce. Remember, these trends aren’t going away. Tablets and mobile devices are continuing to grow where more users are doing their work from a mobile platform. As the Cisco image below demonstrates, mobile data is creating exabytes of new data traffic. According to Cisco, overall mobile data traffic is expected to grow to 11.2 exabytes per month by 2017, a 13-fold increase over 2012. The time to create and control your mobility strategy is now. There will not be a decrease in the number of devices accessing your infrastructure and there will be an increase in the amount of data being presented to mobile devices. Allowing the end-user to use a personal (or even corporate) device that they’re used to – while still delivering a powerful experience – can have many positive results for any organization. (Comment on this)
3:28p	Colo Roundup: CoreSite, ViaWest, Cologix, 365 Main A number of colocation providers have recently announced customer wins. Here’s a roundup of some of these announcements: CoreSite to Power iland’s East Coast Hybrid Cloud Network – Global cloud infrastructure provider iland is growing its Enterprise Cloud Services (ECS) offering by expanding its presence within CoreSite’s Reston, VA facility and joining the Open Cloud Exchange, CoreSite’s Ethernet on-ramp to the cloud. iland, a global provider of enterprise-class, private, public, and hybrid infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) solutions, is a CoreSite customer in Northern Virginia, Boston and Los Angeles. Cox Business Partners with ViaWest for Colocation, Cloud - Cox Business has announced a strategic partnership with colocation service provider ViaWest to offer commercial customers secure fiber network connectivity along with compliant colocation and cloud infrastructure solutions. Cox Business will begin offering ViaWest’s services to customers with an initial focus on the Las Vegas, Phoenix and Southern California markets. Fairway Expands Relationship with Cologix in Dallas – Interconnection and data center company Cologix said this week that Fairway Independent Mortgage, one of the country’s largest mortgage bankers, has chosen to expand their relationship with Cologix to support their rapid growth by deploying acquired private cloud architecture leveraging Vblock Systems in Cologix’s new Dallas data center. 365 Main Adds iRis Networks in Nashville – Data center developer and operator 365 Main announced this week that iRis Networks now provides high-speed transport for voice, video and data services at 365 Main’s Nashville data center. iRis Networks is a wholesale telecommunications carrier serving all of Tennessee and parts of northern Alabama, northern Georgia and western Kentucky with 5,000 miles of fiber and seamless access to regional and national markets. (Comment on this)
5:00p	Top 10 Data Center Stories, August 2013 Cabinets filled with servers in a Facebook data center. A story about the company’s insights gained during last year’s Leap Second bug was the most popular item with DCK readers in August. (Photo: Facebook) The impact of a “leap second” on servers at Facebook and the number of servers at Rackspace were the most popular stories of the month, followed closely by outages at major hosting companies and how “space weather” effects a data center. Other popular topics this month was our coverage of the possibilities of the future, such as “the new data center operating system” and “fog computing.” Here are the most viewed stories on Data Center Knowledge for August 2013, ranked by page views. Enjoy! A Storm of Servers: How the Leap Second Led Facebook to Build DCIM Tools – August 6 – Last July 1, the “Leap Second” bug caused many Linux servers to get stuck in a loop, endlessly checking the date and time. At the Internet’s busiest data centers, power usage almost instantly spiked by megawatts. Here’s a look at Facebook’s experience, which has led the company to develop its own DCIM tools. Rackspace Adding 50 Servers Per Day – August 12 – The growth is back at Rackspace Hosting. The cloud computing specialist added 4,762 physical servers in the second quarter of 2013, an average of 52 servers per day. Major Outage for BlueHost, HostGator, HostMonster – August 2 – A Utah data center supporting some of the web hosting industry’s best known brands has suffered a networking outage, causing an extended service outage. The problems at a Provo, Utah facility operated by Endurance International Group, have led to downtime for customers of BlueHost, HostGator and HostMonster. Space Weather and the Data Center: The Risk from Solar Storms -August 9 – Solar flares are a potential threat to critical infrastructure, according to NASA scientists. who say the sun’s vast magnetic field is about to flip, an event that creates an elevated risk of solar activity and “space weather.” One concern for data center providers is the potential for solar storms, which can wreak havoc on infrastructure. Defining the New Data Center Operating System – August 16 – The abstraction of the hardware layer within the data center means we are able to utilize new types of controls around our data center. New technologies are being deployed within the data center at a very fast pace. We take a look at how the future data center environment will be managed. IBM, Google Team on OpenPOWER Consortium – August 7 – In a bid to reinvigorate its POWER processor architecture, IBM this week announced a new development alliance called the OpenPOWER Consortium, with Google, Mellanox, NVIDIA and Tyan as initial members. IO Conducts PUE Faceoff: Modular vs. Raised Floor – August 20 – Which delivers the best energy efficiency: raised-floor space or a modular data center? It’s a hard question to answer in a satisfying fashion without comparing apples and oranges. IO has compared the PUE performance of both models within a single facility. Strong Growth Continues for Cloud Provider DigitalOcean – August 5 – DigitalOcean launched not too long ago, in 2011. In a short timeframe, the company’s growth has sky-rocketed, prompting it to open up additional space with Telx, in the Google-owned 111 8th Avenue building in New York City. Welcome to Fog Computing: Extending the Cloud to the Edge- There’s a new buzz word in distributed computing – Fog Computing. The idea of fog computing is to distribute data to move it closer to the end-user to eliminate latency and numerous hops, and support mobile computing and data streaming. Stay current on Data Center Knowledge’s data center news by subscribing to our RSS feed and daily e-mail updates, or by following us on Twitter or Facebook. DCK is now on Google+. (Comment on this)
7:11p	Friday Funny: What is the Best Caption? Thank Goodness It’s Friday! The finish line of the work week is in sight and it’s time for the weekend. But before you take off, vote for our reader suggestions for the caption for our new Data Center Knowledge cartoon, How Remote Do You Go?. New to the caption contest? Here’s how it works: We provide the cartoon and you, our readers, submit the captions. We then choose finalists and the readers vote for their favorite funniest suggestion. The winner receives a hard copy print, with his or her caption included in the cartoon! Take Our Poll Please visit Diane’s website Kip and Gary for more of her data center humor. For the previous cartoons on DCK, see our Humor Channel. (Comment on this)

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