Accelerate Cloud migration with Data

#AskTheCEO Podcast

Connect with Buurst on the Azure Marketplace: https://ter.li/9pk8qh Garry Olah is the CEO of Buurst, a company that provides trusted cloud native tools for data control, performance, and availability on many cloud platforms. Their virtual storage appliances help customers migrate on-premises data to the cloud, better manage that data, and allow applications to run at the same high performance that customers expect from their on-premises storage infrastructure. As part of this discussion, we shared how their partnership with Microsoft, their use of Azure, and the Azure Marketplace has empowered them to scale and grow their business. Contact Garry: Web: https://buurst.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/softnas/ Twitter:@buurstdata Personal Twitter:@GarryOlah Partner with Buurst: https://www.buurst.com/partners/ Contact Avrohom: Web: https://asktheceo.biz Facebook: AvrohomGottheil Twitter: @avrohomg Instagram: @avrohomg INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS: [01:16] Cloud is now a mature technology, and many businesses are moving their mission-critical applications to the cloud. One of the byproducts of Digital Transformation and moving to the cloud is the large amount of data that’s generated by all of our connected devices. Because cloud is so commonplace, we tend to take for granted – as we should – things like low latency access to our virtually unlimited ubiquitous cloud storage of our data. However, as a technologist, I can appreciate that a lot goes on under the hood to make these things work properly. What are the challenges that businesses struggle with when migrating mission-critical applications to the cloud? Garry: Beyond the usual challenges of migrating large data sets to the cloud (latency, performance, how to actually move Petabytes of data), 90% of the world’s data has been created in the last two years, and that amount is projected by analysts to double every two years. At the current cloud storage prices, corporate IT budgets won't be able to keep up. Furthermore, even companies who are not price-conscious still struggle with achieving the performance they demand from mission-critical applications as they move those applications from on-prem data centers to a cloud storage environment. [04:02] How can businesses leverage cloud in the right way? Garry: There are obvious ways cloud storage products can help mitigate these issues. Features meant to enhance cost-efficiency include deduplication, compression, thin-provisioning, etc. For customers worried about performance, running application workloads with higher instance and VM sizes will help increase performance. [04:12] 90% of the world’s data has been created in the past 2 years. [04:17] Within the last decade, data has doubled every 2 years. [06:26] Buurst recently launched a new offering on the Microsoft Azure marketplace, called SoftNAS. Tell us about it and how it addresses some of the challenges we just discussed. Garry: Buurst SoftNAS frontends native Azure storage (managed disk and Blob) to overcome Azure storage limitations. The SoftNAS virtual appliance also allows for greater flexibility to better customize an application's performance versus price and can go beyond the capacity caps of Azure. [09:43] How would a company use your solution with Azure? Garry: The SoftNAS virtual appliance is available through the self-service Azure Marketplace or through a BYOL Azure Marketplace listing. The deployment through Azure Marketplace does not change how the underlying software functions. [11:44] How can customers find out more about SoftNAS, and procure it through the Azure Marketplace? Garry: You can access it via this link https://ter.li/9pk8qh. [12:50] How has partnering with Microsoft helped Buurst scale and grow your business? [14:00] How do people connect with you? [14:35] Do you have any parting words of wisdom that you’d like to share with the audience? #AskTheCEO With Garry Olah