Hybrid Cloud 010 – Engineering the Private Cloud with SoftIron HyperCloud

Chris EvansCloud, Hybrid Cloud Podcast, Softiron

In this Hybrid Cloud episode, Chris talks to Andrew Moloney, CMO at SoftIron. SoftIron recently announced HyperCloud, a bespoke hardware and software package for building scalable private clouds. In this conversation, Chris starts by discussing what private cloud means, over and above the immediate assumption of existing HCI solutions. Customers should expect, for example, self-service, multi-tenancy, tiered permissions and service catalogues.

What, exactly, has SoftIron developed? HyperCloud evolves the technology created by the company over the last ten years, including bespoke storage and networking. The unique features of HyperCloud manage hardware installation, maintenance and upgrades in place, enabling businesses to deploy infrastructure with IT generalists rather than specialists.

To learn more about HyperCloud, visit https://softiron.com/hypercloud/ and/or listen to episode #167 with SoftIron CEO Phil Straw and episode #223 on task-specific storage with Danny Abukalam.

Elapsed Time: 00:51:42

Timeline

  • 00:00:00 – Intros
  • 00:01:30 – HCI is not Private Cloud
  • 00:03:30 – Self-service, multi-tenancy, tiered permissions all form a private cloud
  • 00:05:00 – Private (and public cloud) has significant internal integration already done
  • 00:06:15 – What is HyperCloud?
  • 00:08:00 – We reached a point in the industry where hardware became too generic
  • 00:09:30 – IT has pushed itself into a corner with the evolution of computing
  • 00:10:45 – SoftIron built a private cloud solution from scratch
  • 00:12:30 – AWS Outposts is an example of private cloud (but extends AWS core)
  • 00:14:00 – What does the HyperCloud physical infrastructure look like?
  • 00:16:15 – Networking is just “pass the parcel” (hot potato if you prefer)
  • 00:19:00 – HyperCloud nodes are optimised for their specific purpose
  • 00:21:00 – Operating systems are too device-support heavy
  • 00:24:20 – Infrastructure should be optimised for management
  • 00:27:45 – AWS developed Nitro to engineer better hardware
  • 00:29:30 – Making power savings will become a critical decision making point
  • 00:32:45 – Hardware removal can be risky!
  • 00:34:00 – What happens when the system boots up?
  • 00:38:30 – HyperCloud can integrate with the Public Cloud
  • 00:42:00 – How does HyperCloud maintenance work?
  • 00:43:40 – HyperCloud supports mixed x86 & Arm compute servers
  • 00:47:00 – Infrastructure shouldn’t be like a swan below the surface
  • 00:51:00 – Wrap Up

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