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Day 2: Big Data Innovation Summit 2014 #DataWest14
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Hello again big data fans – from where I’ve learned the San Francisco 49’ers will be playing their 2014 NFL season at Levi’s Stadium… Santa Clara!
(BTW, the stadium – from what I could see – is beautiful! I’m a big NFL fan, and there’s now another reason to come to the San Jose area, other than all the cloud / big data conferences.)
Got a lot of great feedback on yesterday’s “Day 1” post of the summit, so here are some observations from the final day of the conference.
- Yahoo’s Duru Ahanotu spoke through driving efficiency in how data teams are organized, going through the permutations of generalists vs specialists and centralized vs de-centralized, and how to best address teams in each model.
. - PayPal’s Moises Nascimento (who is a very captivating speaker) drove the point home, that though we are now adopting many of the new data technologies like Hadoop and NoSQL, most of our existing data sources and toolsets still provide value – so there is value in leveraging ALL data sources.
. - Moises also made a point of highlighting that data manipulation is best handled at the SYSTEM level, while data analysis is better managed at the ENTERPRISE level
. - In HP’s discussion, they introduced the concept of the GEOBYTE – 10^30 bytes, a size of data that the human race is expected to hit in the next few years.
To provide context on the magnitude of a GEOBYTE (10^30 bytes), there is estimated to only be 10^19 GRAINS OF SAND ON THE EARTH. Think about that for a second.
- The team also highlighted their view on “Big BI” vs “Big Data”
- Big BI – same types of analysis but on more data; more batch processing; results that were not easily actionable
- Big Data – joining datasets that have not been previously joined, near real time analysis, action oriented results
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- I thought Ancestry.com had one of the best sessions of the event, as they went deep into the GERMLINE algorithm that was the foundation of their business technology, and how they had to create jermline (now with a “j”) based on Hadoop / HDFS to create a SCALABLE matching engine. As we all know, SCALE matters. The performance and speed benchmarks between the “G” project and the “j” project were mindblowing.
. - Finally, sat in on the Netflix session – in addition to being a big fan of Netflix, as both a consumer and a tech observer, I’ve always been impressed with the way Netflix has evolved their business, and continues to do so. In this session, they went into great detail on their use of the Amazon cloud services, and their open source projects as a layer above to enhance functionality and deploy features. Topics touched on included red / black deployment to allow ease of features into production, and the importance of graceful degradation, so that a failure can be less of a catastrophic event for the end user.
.- One very telling statement is really a commentary on the value of use and participation in the open source process – Netflix was clear that they see value in being an open source contributor / leader is that it preserves the future of their systems – rather than sitting back and letting the industry decide their direction with tools and tech, Netflix uses open source to help drive and lead the industry to where they see value.
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- One very telling statement is really a commentary on the value of use and participation in the open source process – Netflix was clear that they see value in being an open source contributor / leader is that it preserves the future of their systems – rather than sitting back and letting the industry decide their direction with tools and tech, Netflix uses open source to help drive and lead the industry to where they see value.
- (I did resist the urge to ask the Netflix presenter when the next season of “House of Cards” would come out. 🙂 )
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One of the frequent questions that came up at the Dell booth was “what is Dell doing in big data?”
The answer? Actually… quite a bit, and for quite a while.
Between the Dell Apache Hadoop HW+SW+Services Solution, the Toad BI suite, the Kitenga analytics toolsets, and our growing HPC business, Dell has been a part of this movement since its early days. I’d recommend you drop us a line at Hadoop@Dell.com or visit us at http://www.Dell.com/Hadoop to learn more.
If you were out at the show this week, be sure to leave a comment on your thoughts as well.
Hope everyone has safe trips home, and we’ll see you at the next big data get-together!
Until next time,
JBG
@jbgeorge
It’s OpenStack Foundation Election Time!
What is your relationship to OpenStack, and why is its success important to you? What would you say is your biggest contribution to OpenStack’s success to date?
I believe OpenStack represents a trend that service providers and enterprise IT are making to deeper community collaboration on new technologies and practices, and I will continue to drive the initiative to make my customers and the community successful in a very real-world meaningful way.
Describe your experience with other non profits or serving as a board member. How does your experience prepare you for the role of a board member?
What do you see as the Board’s role in OpenStack’s success?
What do you think the top priority of the Board should be in 2014?
1. Clarify the definition of OpenStack – what is core, what is compliant, and what is not.
2. Understand where the strategic opportunities lie for OpenStack as a technology, and clear the path to ensure OpenStack gets there.
3. Fully enable any and every new entrant to OpenStack in a real way – developers, implementers, and users – with the right level of documentation, tools, community support, and vendor support.
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Thanks, and appreciate your nomination to represent the OpenStack Foundation in 2014!
Until next time,
JOSEPH
@jbgeorge
NOW HIRING: Dell’s Revolutionary Cloud and Big Data Team Expands
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We’re growing!
The Revolutionary Cloud and Big Data Team at Dell (the company I work for) is looking to expand our team of rockstars, so we’re putting the word out. Specifically we’re looking for architects, engineers, developers, and I’m looking to hire a few more senior product managers to join my team of subject matter experts.
Just for context, we’re the team that has taken to market the Dell OpenStack-Powered Cloud Solution, the Dell Apache Hadoop Solution, and the Dell Crowbar software framework and open source project.
And if you’re a rockstar in any of those spaces, we’d like to talk to you.
SPOILER ALERT – If you’re interested in talking to us about a technical spot on our team, you can email us your info and resume at OpenStack@Dell.com or Hadoop@Dell.com.
What is this team about?
A few years ago, the Dell Data Center Solutions team came into being with a mission of servicing the biggest hyperscale environments in the world, which included many of the market’s top cloud providers. It has succeeded in its mission in dominating the density optimized space (check out more on that here), and in fact, just shipped it’s ONE MILLIONTH SERVER.
An extension of DCS’s mission soon became clear – as many customers were looking to accelerate into spaces like cloud and big data, providing them integrated solutions would ease their implementation of these technologies. And so our Revolutionary Cloud and Big Data Solutions team was born – to deliver integrated solutions based on cutting edge technologies like OpenStack and Hadoop (and more), as well as innovative Dell projects like Crowbar, in an effort to enable customers to grow and thrive in their businesses with our products, innovation, and expertise.
Who are we?
The team at Dell is made up of a number of people, like myself, that you’d recognize from OpenStack and Hadoop circles – folks like Rob Hirschfeld, Greg Althaus, Kamesh Pemmaraju, and others. We all come from a variety of backgrounds – some from big companies in the technology spaces and many from startups – we happen to have quite a few entreprenuers on our team! And we try to service our customers in the best way possible – agile development processes, open source friendly, community oriented, etc.
What are we trying to do?
Our mission is to develop and deliver HW+SW+Services solutions to market that will enable our customers to be successful. Clear and simple.
Here’s a sampling of what our team has done over the course of our existence:
- The first hardware solutions vendor to support OpenStack
- Released the first HW+SW+Services OpenStack solution to market – the Dell OpenStack-Powered Cloud Solution
- Launch of open source project “Crowbar” to fill the void of an automated bare metal OpenStack provisioner
- Released HW+SW+Services Apache Hadoop solution to market – the Dell Apache Hadoop Solution
- Launch of the Emerging Solutions Ecosystem Partner Program to enable our customers by incorporating some of our best in breed partner technologies into our solutions, which includes Datameer, Pentaho, enStratus, Mirantis, and Canonical, with more to come
- Launch of the Emerging Solutions Platform Partner Program to enable our customers by delivering solutions focused on specific workloads and target markets
In addition, we’re big believers in the community – we regularly hold hackfests to help move these communities forward, lead community meetups in Austin and Boston working with other key vendors that co-sponsor with us (you may be surprised), are regularly active in IRC, skype discussions, conference breakout sessions, and more.
It’s a fast-paced, customer focused, ever evolving group and its a great place to deliver tanglible, difference making solutions to customers.
It’s not for the faint of heart, but it’s DEFINITELY for the mover and shaker.
Who we want to hear from
We’re looking to expand in a number of areas, but specifically we’re looking for technical talent
- Developers / QA
- Technical Product Managers and Strategists
- Architects and Technical Leads
If I’ve piqued your interest, drop me a note and your resume at OpenStack@Dell.com.
Look forward to hearing from cloud / big data / open source rockstars.
Until next time,
JOSEPH
@jbgeorge
Highlights from the 2012 Hadoop World
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Had a great time at last week’s Hadoop World, so wanted to write up a few of my thoughts from the event.
- This year’s Hadoop World was the best attended to date – I believe I heard the attendee number to be at 2500 vs 1400 last year! It’s great to see this kind of growth among the community considering there were only 500 attendees just four years ago.
- In some similarities to what I’m seeing in the OpenStack community, this conference seemed to boast more from the “user” ranks as opposed to just developers as in the recent past. It speaks volumes to the general adoption that Hadoop is seeing in the market.
- Dell, the company I work for, and our Ecosystem Partner Datameer hosted a networking event for a number of folks at Hadoop World at the prestigious Circo NYC restaurant – great food and a great time with some innovative Hadoop implementers. Got to really get indepth how real people are implementing Hadoop in their enviornments today. Appreciate those that took the time out to attend, and for those who missed out, see you next time!
- Cloudera announced their beta project called “Impala”, which allows users to perform real-time queries of their data, a feature that a number of Hadoop users have been anticipating. According to Cloudera, Impala can process queries up to 30 times faster than Hive / MapReduce – very cool, and I look forward to checking it out.
- Finally, Dell made an announcement about our donation of “Zinc”, an ARM-based server concept to the Apache Software Foundation, with support from our partner, Calxeda, where we see ARM infrastructures as an interesting technology for Hadoop environments. The donation includes hosting and technical support for the Apache community. and we’re hosting the server concept at an Austin-based co-location. The Apache Hadoop project has actually performed more than a dozen builds within the first 24 hours of the servers’ deployment. (You can check out the full press release here to learn more.)
All in all, Hadoop World is another hit! It was a great event overall and I look forward to next year’s conference.
To learn more about the Dell Apache Hadoop Solution and more about what Dell is doing in this space, visit us at www.Dell.com/Hadoop.
And if you want to chat about how Dell can help you with your Hadoop initiative, drop me an email at Hadoop@Dell.com.
Until next time,
JOSEPH
@jbgeorge
Dell Cloud Happenings This Week…
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Just wanted to drop a quick blog to provide a central area on what events Dell has going on in the cloud space this week.
Here we go…
WHIR Webinar – Wed, June 20th
What: Dell / Intel / Morph Labs WHIR Webinar
Title: “Proven Innovation to Reduce Data Center OpEx by 40%”
When: Wednesday, June 20, 2012 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM EDT
Who: Deania Davidson (Dell), Naveen Bohra (Intel), Winston Damarillo (Morphlabs)
More Info: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/506707474
Boston OpenStack Meetup – Thu, June 21st
What: Dell and Red Hat co-sponsor this month’s Boston OpenStack Meetup
When: Thursday, June 21, 2012, from 6:30 – 9:30PM
Where: The auditorium located at 85 Wells Avenue Newton, MA
Agenda: OpenStack Swift, Quantum
More Info: http://www.meetup.com/Openstack-Boston/events/67737262/
Austin OpenStack Meetup – Thu, June 21st
What: Dell and Opscode co-sponsor this month’s Austin OpenStack Meetup
When: Thursday, June 21, 2012, from 6:30 – 9:30PM
Where: The Austin Tech Ranch
Agenda: OpenStack Foundation with Foundation guest speakers Mark Collier, Jonathan Bryce, and Lauren Sell
More Info: http://www.meetup.com/OpenStack-Austin/events/67989692/
Look forward to seeing a big turnout at each of these! See you there.
Until next time,
JBGeorge
@jbgeorge