VMworld US 2019: all aboard for multicloud networks

The guiding word for San Francisco between 25th and 29th August was ‘cloud.’ Everything revolved around it, from storage solutions to innovations in computing performance, just about every vendor  came set to showcase how their products provide distinct advantages in a cloud environment.

The verdict is clear: cloud adoption in one form or another is not an ‘if’, but a ‘when'. Those coming to VMworld whose companies haven’t yet invested in some kind of cloud offering, came prepared to explore all options.

Pitfalls and best practices

Cloud adoption is a complex task. And it is especially true in the area of our expertise: networks.

The show floor was abuzz with the newest advancements in technologies like storage for big data (in the cloud) and computing performance in service of machine learning (in the cloud).

Meanwhile, the stalwart Men&Mice team had a field day as scores of people came to us to learn how to do cloud better. We chatted with people running multiple data centers, on-prem, in the cloud or hybrid and multicloud, looking for better management solutions. We debated the merits of appliance-based approaches vs. overlays. (Overlays are better, of course). And we had a blast discussing the power of cloud DNS. (If you’re utilizing cloud DNS, you don’t need anything else. You’re already using the best there is. You just need to make it more transparent and compatible with your existing systems and processes.)

Cloud adoption, coupled with migration of data and existing systems, can bring with it a host of pitfalls to avoid, as well as a score of best practices to study and apply. But how do you get your network ready for cloud, or multicloud, adoption?

On this subject, our North American Director of Sales Operations, Paul Terrill,  gave a talk at VMworld's Solutions Exchange Theater in San Francisco on future-ready network best practices. Take a look:

Cloud is a multiple choice question

We’ve arrived in an era where one cloud is not necessarily the best answer. The differentiation between services and their respective ecosystems has grown beyond simply executing similar processes along the same concept.

The quality of tools and depth of services between different cloud providers can vary considerably, and your needs may be best served by more than one. Every company has to evaluate what works for them. Networking best practices, as discussed by Paul Terrill in the above-mentioned talk, might help you decide what matters most to you.

In this vibrant and varied landscape of the cloud market, solutions that provide a connective layer between the disparate offerings provide lasting value and position networks well for a rapidly changing network management landscape.

The Men&Mice Suite is such a solution, developed to provide an abstraction layer for cloud (and on-prem!) networks that can work with any underlying technology or service. From VMware to Azure to AWS, NS1 and Akamai -- it doesn’t matter what’s in your networks; what matters is how you see (and manage) it.

And because it’s a software-defined and API-first solution, the Men&Mice Suite can be deployed non-disruptively (no more re-buying appliances every five years) while offering advanced automation and customization tools to save valuable resources across network teams.

In short, with the Men&Mice Suite you don’t need to adapt your network to  to conform to our solution. You can continue to use the platforms you have, or want, to build the future-ready network you need.

Get connected

We’ve had a great time in San Francisco (as illustrated) and answered a lot of questions from interested parties. We were also delighted to meet up with current customers and hear their success stories with the Men&Mice Suite.

From the latter, we’ll be bringing you deployment studies, white papers, and more technical content on the blog and in our podcast in the coming weeks and months.

For the former, our doors are always open for a chat, or delve deeper with a free demo.  Feel free to reach out to us and we’ll be happy to answer your questions and show you how we can help you change the way you see, and manage, your networks.