As an independent industry analyst, I’ve been invited to be a Tech Field Day delegate at Commvault GO in just a few weeks in Denver. This will be my second time at this event and I’m looking forward to chatting with project teams about what they’ve accomplished in the last year. As a Data Evangelist with a focus on data quality and data protection, I’m going to be looking at topics that help me love my data better.
Commvault News
Commvault recently announced its acquisition of Hedvig, a software-defined storage (SDS) solutions organization. I have been following Hedvig since their first briefing at Data Field Day 1 in 2015. The acquisition was announced earlier this month, so there haven’t been many details shared about how they will integrate with Commvault, but I’m expecting a better understanding by the time we all leave Denver.
One of the interesting things about Hedvig is that it was founded by the man at the head of the development of Cassandra at Facebook and a key player in the development of DynamoDB. I’ve previously said that “software-defined” is a misnamed “data-defined” infrastructure approach. Having a data-focused product owner in the software-defined space is a real strength. Commvault has been known primarily as a data protection company; the addition of big data hyperscale SDS data management capabilities is a no-brainer for remaining a key player in the data space.
Commvault GO Datachick Topics
Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence: In addition to the enterprise data backup and protection topics, I’ll be looking for more information on how Commvault uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to detect and react to data risks and threats. If you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll know that I can be picky about the use of these terms in briefings and presentations. Commvault is an early adopter of machine learning technologies to better protect data, so I expect to hear about how much further they have progressed in the last year.
Compliance and Governance: The @DataChick side of me also wants to see more about Commvault data governance and compliance offerings. The first part of protecting data is understanding what data you are storing, what duties you have in stewarding it, and what special compliance issues need to be remediated. Maintaining that visibility as data changes, even in backups, is critical to remaining compliant with legislation and good data practices.
Ransomware: I don’t know about you, but I’m spending more of my time thinking about threats around ransomware. With this threat, old-school backup technology isn’t enough to protect against these encryption and extortion risks. I’m looking forward to seeing what features and offerings will help me protect development, production, backed up and archived data.
Commvault GO Fun
I’d be remiss if I didn’t include a mention of the fun keynotes I’m looking forward to. Of course, I want to hear from Commvault leaders and partners, but I’m not-so-secretly looking forward to these hints of fun on the agenda.
Stunts: There’s not much information, but the keynote speakers list includes two stunt persons. You know that’s a good thing, right? I can’t wait to see what Cloe Bruce and Bobby Holland Hanton have in store for us.
NASA Program Executive: If you follow me, you know I’m a space exploration fan. As a NASA Datanaut, I’m looking forward to hearing Kira Blackwell share what NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate Office is doing for innovation in tech and space.
Follow Along
I (and others) will be covering this year’s event using the hashtag #CommvaultGO, so you can follow along with the news, topics, and fun that happens in Denver, October 14th-20th.
