News Bits: Virtual Instruments, Dell EMC, Pivot3, Cisco, Rubrik, Flexxible IT, Commvault, & More

This week’s News Bits we look at a number of small announcements, small in terms of the content, not the impact they have. @Virtual Instruments rebrands #LoadDynamiX as #WorkloadWisdom. @DellEMC announces availability of its Proven Professional Certifications. @Pivot3 expands partnerships. @Cisco expands its automation portfolio. @Rubrik approaches $300 Million global bookings run rate. @Flexxible IT launches channel program with @HPE. @Commvualt and #INFINIDAT partner on PB scale data protection. Packet deploys @AMD #EPYC CPUs in its Bare Metal Cloud. Virtual Instruments Rebrands Load DynamiX As WorkloadWisdom  Virtual Instruments has rebranded and enhanced its storage performance validation solution, Load DynamiX Enterprise as WorkloadWisdom. The rebrand comes with new performance and features as well as deeper integration with VirtualWisdom, the company’s performance monitoring and analytics platform. Key features and benefits of WorkloadWisdom 6.0 include: Higher Speed Fabrics: Availability of new 25GbE Series Workload Generator, complementing the existing 32GbFC and 40GbE Workload Generators Full storage technology coverage for new Workload Generators: SAN: iSCSI, Fibre Channel NAS: SMB 1.0/2.x/3.x, NFSv2/v3/v4.x Object: HTTP / HTTPS, S3, Swift, Cinder Unprecedented Testing Scale: Dramatic increase in the number of workload generation ports supported A 5-10X performance improvement in results reporting over the previous version of the platform Redesigned User Interface Significantly Reduces: The time needed to create complex test beds for iSCSI environment The time needed to find older test results amongst thousands of result sets Expanded Scale-Out NAS / Cloud NAS: Introduction of production-to-the-lab automation for the SMB file protocol: SMB file environments can access production workload data using the Workload Data Importer Users can also obtain SMB production workload data from VirtualWisdom ProbeNAS, which monitors SMB and NFS environments Ability to deduplicate workloads for NAS deployments VirtualWisdom Integration: WorkloadWisdom fully integrates with VirtualWisdom to comprise Virtual Instruments’ new app-centric approach to IPM Broader Array Support for Workload Data Importer: The WorkloadWisdom Workload Data Importer analysis policies now cover all major storage arrays from NetApp, Dell EMC, IBM, Oracle, HPE and Pure Storage – dramatically simplifying the workload creation process Virtual Instruments WorkloadWisdom Dell EMC Announces Availability Of Its Proven Professional Certifications  Dell EMC announced its Proven Professional program in an effort to increase knowledge, which will lead to increased experience in IT departments. As technology changes at a rapid pace, IT admins need the knowledge to address it. The new Certifications include: Dell EMC Certified Master - Enterprise Architect is the highest-level, experience-based certification. It uses a board review process to validate that candidates have both the technical acumen and the holistic understanding of business drivers to deliver secure ITaaS solutions that further digital transformation. The Dell EMC Education Services website has the full details, eligibility criteria and application to be considered for a board review. Dell EMC Certified Expert Systems Administrator - Multi-Cloud recognizes expertise in administration of multi-cloud solutions. This certification validates an administrator’s experience managing workloads across multi-cloud environments and their expertise in Dell EMC infrastructure, VMware vRealize Suite, and integrating with popular public cloud providers such as Dell EMC and VMware Cloud Provider Partners, Virtustream, Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services. Dell EMC Certified Specialist Systems Administrator - Infrastructure Security validates that IT professionals have the knowledge and skills to take a security-first approach to administering Dell EMC infrastructure across the data center and cloud. Administrators will learn best practices in configuring and managing Dell EMC enterprise solutions in alignment with their organization’s overall security strategy. Dell EMC Certified Associate - Converged Systems and Hybrid Cloud Platforms establishes foundational knowledge in integrated infrastructure and cloud strategies. Business or technical professionals learn through real-life case studies and interactive experience in which they play the role of a CIO transforming an organization from a traditional data center to a modernized IT environment. Dell EMC Proven Professional program Pivot3 Expands Partnerships  Pivot3 announced that it is expanding partnerships in order to bring more capabilities to its customers. The three companies that it is expanding partnerships with are Zerto, VMware, and Redington Value. This expansion will include: Zerto will be supported across Pivot3’s entire range of solutions. VMware Horizon 7 is now available on Pivot3. Redington Value is now offering Pivot3 with Splunk to support enterprise IT security and analytics use cases. Pivot3 Cisco Expands Its Automation Portfolio  Cisco is expanding its automation portfolio with the release of Cisco Crosswork Network Automation. This new software portfolio is aimed at helping service providers run their large-scale networks. These new software technologies include: Cisco Crosswork Change Automation: Automated operations application that enables large-scale change and closed-loop control Cisco Crosswork Health Insights: Smart sensors, smart alerts and smart remediation to monitor and optimize networks Cisco Crosswork Data Platform: Featuring both an OpenSource and commercial-class data analytics platform Cisco Crosswork Network Insights: Cloud-based analytics solution for solving large-scale routing issues Cisco Crosswork Situation Manager: Machine learning-based event correlation with social operations Cisco Crosswork Network Automation Rubrik Approaches $300 Million Global Bookings Run Rate  Rubrik is happy to announce that it is approaching a global bookings run rate of $300 million due to the pace of adoption it is seeing in large enterprises. This is a pretty good number for a company that emerged on the scene two years ago. It will be interesting to see where this goes moving forward. Rubrik Flexxible IT Launches Channel Program With HP  Flexxible IT launched a channel program with HP, Inc. featuring integrated workspace solutions targeting SME. The program delivers: Citrix and Microsoft software, pre-integrated and ready to deploy Several options of Mobile Thin Clients or Desktop Thin Clients with keyboard and display for the client side The Flexxible|SmartWorkspaces solution, delivering automated and rapid deployment, single-pane-of-glass administration Flexxible IT Thin Clients Commvualt & INFINIDAT Partner On PB Scale Data Protection  Commvault is partnering with INFINIDAT in order to deliver a single data protection solution to large enterprises for primary and secondary storage uses cases. The two companies that that this partnership will help customers protect data on-premises and in the cloud, while increasing business agility, IT efficiency and reliability. This partnership will also allow INFINIDAT to sell and deliver Commvault Software to its cusomters. Commvault INFINIDAT Packet Deploys AMD EPYC CPUs In Its Bare Metal Cloud  Packet, the bare metal cloud company, announced that it is adding AMD EPYC processors to its line up. The system will be built on Dell EMC’s PowerEdge R6415 include 64GB of RAM, two 480GB SSDs, and the AMD EPYC 7401P CPU (with 24 physical cores). This new system is ideal for use cases such as scale-out SaaS platforms, Kubernetes-based cloud native applications, and enterprise workloads leveraging virtualization.

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