“Sell the sizzle not the steak” is an old saying in the marketing biz, but channel partners and their customers got to the meat (figuratively and literally) of software defined networking (SDN) during Tuesday’s Dell Cookin’ IT Right event.
It was an SDN primer served with a siding of prime beef, courtesy of the Gossip Restaurant’s celebrity chef Rob Rainford, who treated everyone to an interactive, live workshop on how to cook the perfect barbecue.
It was a day of SDN, barbecue, and a FIFA World Cup match on an ultra-wide screen TV. How can you top that?
Brandy and butter injection definitely. Not low calorie #dellbbq pic.twitter.com/DESn9GDRb4
— Nestor Arellano (@NestorArellano) June 24, 2014
Attendees got generous servings of the basics of SDN and software defined storage (SDS) as Dell experts outlined how current strategies and practices may impact their businesses.
@ArmughanAA talks abt new style of IT and SDN #dellbbq pic.twitter.com/NbfPPP8QFi
— Nestor Arellano (@NestorArellano) June 24, 2014
Great event by Dell SDN #dellbbq presented by the best of the best @ArmughanAA, @kevburgess2009 ,@GlenCampbell pic.twitter.com/pvNNFYLGq9 — Rola Dagher (@RolaDagher) June 24, 2014
Armughan Ahmad, vice-president of networking and converged solutions for Dell, spoke on the Software Defined Enterprise, or as he called it, the age of “software defined everything.” He also stressed the role of the channel community in boosting the adoption of SDN technology. “In order to deploy SDN solutions, we need channel partners more than ever,” Ahmad said.
Private cloud , virtual desktop infrastructure, unified communications, Cloud Hadoop, all part of Dell paradigm #DellBBQ
— fawnannan (@fawnannan) June 24, 2014
great discussion and great food at the #dellbbq #GossipRestaurant — Kevin Burgess (@kevburgess2009) June 24, 2014
#dellbbq panel discussion pic.twitter.com/hWLHVW0wqt — George Kotsopoulos (@geokots7117) June 24, 2014
Four forces rewriting the rules of traditional IT – Cloud, Mobility, Big Data and now Software-Defined @ArmughanAA #dellbbq — Jim Love (@therealjimlove) June 24, 2014
IT leaders in various organizations are looking for simplicity around storage and networking, Jim Love, CIO of IT World Canada, noted during the panel discussion.
Kevin Burgess, enterprise technologist of the networking group at Dell Canada, and Greg Deffenbaugh, senior enterprise technologist at Storage Dell, discussed the company’s open networking solutions that are designed to work with various enterprise systems.
Their key message was that organizations should take a broad approach, avoid SDN and SDS “lock-in,” and to make sure to “keep your options open.”
“The best definition of Software Defined Storage is yours,” said Deffenbaugh.
Those that sampled Chef Ron Rainford’s specialty, however, probably defined SDN as Steak Defined Networking.
Steak Defined Networking? RT @NestorArellano: Yummmm #dellbbq. This is what SDN is all about pic.twitter.com/iTezcrNpwO #SDN
— Brian Jackson (@brianjjackson) June 24, 2014
