Ding-dong Pernix Pro is dead

Ding-dong Pernix Pro is dead

by | Oct 12, 2016 | Nutanix, Pernix, Storage

So before I start this I want a little disclaimer as I know I will split the audience with this post and please do fully read this and I am open to constructive comments 🙂 I am much like you and wanted to throw out negative thoughts with argh my lab needs serious investment… where are my keys etc but on reflection I think there could be a way everyone could be happy!

Secondly before I even get into the post fully I too must thank Jane and Frank for all their efforts in getting the PernixPro program to where it was and allowing me to be part of it!

Before the WebEx even started I had my thoughts on what would happen after articles on the register but I tried to keep an open mind

I also felt for Angelo as before he could even kick off I could tell there may be angry hoards on the call as we were all a little nervous expecting the worst. To top this off the poor guy had a technical hiccup and all I can say is fair play he kept it all in control. I would have been a nervous wreck coming back onto that WebEx. I also think it was great Poojan took the time to make the call as I know this must have a been a difficult decision for him too as he sold his product and could be signing away a massive community.

In summary the call confirmed the PernixPro program ends in December 2016 and we are all being provided a chance to register for the Nutanix NTC program.

Many asked about the future of Pernix products and if we could even get lifetime keys for being supporters. Neither of the questions were fully answered on this call which was a shame but I also don’t think its the place. I think the dust should settle and this gets me onto my main points and reason for this post.

Firstly we were all part of a community and I love the fact I was part of this unique community. But how does this really differ from the NTC program… thats just another community. Yes it may not fully offer what Pernix Pro offers now but it may do, no one said they wouldn’t offer their product set in the future. We were only told of what it offers now which to be fair if I was doing my NPX or VCDX I would love to be part of this community.

I know there is a lot of fear about the Nutanix buy out and lets be fair as techies none of us like change or rather major change. Even if it sometimes benefits us! Major software updates put the fear of god into many of us, management saying lets rip out software X and go with Y as its fresh and cool just as we got it perfect… there was even a day when I would laugh and go SSDs in a datacenter…. are you mad!?!? But thing is we need to change to grow. I know shortly after the call Angelo reached out to me as he knew I had major concerns. The biggest being I felt isolated as I don’t sell the product let alone champion it is so does that mean I am of the running for NTC?

We exchanged a few messages and I get why he was trying to focus it on the community side… well isn’t that the reason we entered the program in the first place…

I will sound like such a sell out with this but I did reply with the following as I believe it to be true but hey… my 2 pence worth

I completely agree it’s about the product and the community! The freebies just help you sell that message and drive more people the the product! But that’s no good without the community and the networking/connections

I don’t think this would be complete without a meme!

1c8io0

I also do get why everyone else is upset! I for one run the Freedom product in my VDI environment and it has massively helped… What does this mean for me as of December? I feel even more sorry for the people that have the paid for version as they have no answers at all! Yes I know why am I not using my NFR… simple thats not what its for! Secondly it just means that SSD shelf and/or Fusion IO cards may need to go on a budget somewhere after all 😀

How do I think Pernix/Nutanix should resolve this… in my eyes release one more LT(S) version minus the support a bit and release perpetual keys for PernixPros and customers stating they can continue to run the software on this version and vSphere 6 etc until the dust settles.  Any support tickets after this would be best endeavours for customers who paid previously.

From here we can keep happy labs and customers and allow the guys to innovate the product. Growth can’t come without change and sometimes its just not always they way we want it to happen.

I sincerely hope within the next 6/12/18 months we will know what is then happening with the features from Pernix and we can all reassess then. You never know maybe all us NTC’s at that point would get a licensed copy of the acropolis hypervisor to run on our kit with the bits we love from Pernix today included. I know this takes it away from vSphere but if its running on the hardware or hypervisor somewhere and you get the benefits does it really matter?

So with that I best stop typing and get on with my NTC application and see what this is all about! Hopefully see some of you on the other side! This doesn’t stop my love for VMware as I may even run it on top and I am learning to embrace change… not push it away! It helps me and things around me grow!

Lets not get started on NSX… that is just voodoo and still scares me! Lets hope I can sort that next week

vSAN Lite

by | Jan 26, 2016 | Storage, VMware

During the London VMUG last week I had the fortune to speak to Paudie ORiordan (@oriorp) and this was an excellent opportunity to express some views of storage with VMware

We started talking about the roadmap of vSAN and also its adoption. I explained that I have had thought of using the product for a few deployments but there tends to still be a view of keeping storage and processing separate regardless of SDDC or hyper converged solutions being out there. I still think this is a general fear within most IT guys but best kept for a separate post.

I explained that in the past I had used PernixData due to the ease of integration with any type of back end storage and configuring some simple VMs and SSDs with the hosts. This is at the point where we discussed it would be a great opportunity for VMware. We exchanged the thoughts of the fact some end users still find it hard to comprehend the whole converged set up or even move away from traditional storage. Sometime this being down to a recent major investment in traditional storage.

This is where the idea of ‘vSAN lite’ came to fruition, the concept of being able to trial the benefits of vSAN by adding some SSDs to your hosts but still leverage your back end storage. I thought this was something they could work on due to the ROFC being depreciated from the VMware VSphere product line. Oddly enough I had used this a few times in the past.

I know VMware would find this quite hard to position and they would be worried that the adoption of the vSAN product may decrease but maybe if it was offered as a trial only with no extensions this would provide the best of both world. The end user to not only reap the benefits and also be able to capture the required statistics to sell it back to their steering committee or board but also see the real world experience.  Maybe during the trials there could be an agreement where all statistics could be sent to VMware for analysis and also for publications on real world IO savings and IOPS charts. What would also make this sing is the use case for each deployment such as VDI, Processing or standard infrastructure.

I do also wonder though if it may be easier for VMWare to acquire PernixData and then embed this into their road map.

 

*Disclaimer:- All these views are from my side of the conversation. This may not go to production and may not be a viable option for VMware or Paudie