VMblog:  As a VeeamON 2018 sponsor, give us the rundown of your booth setup this year.  How many people will you send?

Clint Wyckoff:  Datrium is super excited to be a sponsor and participate in Veeam's annual conference, VeeamON. At the booth delegates will be able to chat with us, learn about Datrium and see firsthand why Datrium and Veeam together provide a best-of-breed solution. We'll have an entire team on-premises ready to spread the Datrium story.

VMblog:  Is there anything interesting or unique about this year's booth setup compared to previous years or events?  Do you have a theme for this year's booth? 

Wyckoff:  The theme of VeeamON is "Hyper-Available" - Together, Datrium and Veeam, are able to provide customers a simple, scalable and secure approach to provide Tier-1 performance which applications and users require. All this is done while ensuring their applications and services are always-on.

VMblog:  Why should a VeeamON attendee add you to their MUST SEE list?

Wyckoff:  Datrium is completely a new breed of convergence. In its most simplistic definition, Datrium is a 3 in one product. Tier 1, Scale-Out Backup and Cloud DR. Let me explain. Think about all of the issues and complexities which legacy SAN and Hyper-convergence creates inside of a virtualized environment. There's no controller bottlenecks, no LUNs, Volumes, RAID Groups or complex knobs and dials to turn. You don't have to worry about CVMs or east / west traffic, cluster sprawl and whether or not to turn on dedupe or compression. Oh wait, what fault tolerance level do I pick? Administrators demand an easy, scalable and secure. Customers can utilize their existing flash-enabled hypervisor servers, these can be either blades or rack mount - or purchase Datrium branded compute nodes. There's no strict hardware compatibility lists to abide by. This layer provides stateless performance to all of your VMs, while the durable, protected (RF3 // FTT=2) copy of data is stored in a durable and persistent global pool of storage. Data Services like compression and deduplication is always-on - they're not a check box. Customers can easily protect their VMs across sites or out to the public cloud with Cloud DVX. The Datrium split architecture is completely different than what IT is used to deploying - in fact this methodology is exactly what the hyperscalars (Google, Facebook, AWS etc.) are doing today. Split performance from capacity and make each independent of each other so when things go bump in the night there's zero chance of data loss.

Datrium takes the best of SAN, HCI, Backup & Cloud and brings them into a single product. Organizations can benefit from our strong alliance with Veeam to provide a best of breed solution, it's a win-win for everyone.

VMblog:  Can you give VMblog readers a sneak peek as to what you will be showing off at your booth this year?

Wyckoff:  At the booth we'll be demoing our Datrium DVX platform. Just a few weeks back we released DVX 4.0 which is our 3rd major release in less than a year. Datrium's built upon the main premise of converging Tier 1 hyperconverged infrastructure, scale-out backup and cloud disaster recovery. DVX 4.0 features many capabilities including Cloud DVX, full support for Oracle RAC, increased resiliency and enhanced security of data. We'll also be demoing specifically how customers can leverage Datrium and Veeam together in a joint solution. I recently published the Datrium and Veeam Backup & Replication Reference Framework which takes a customer through the journey and outlines best practices and design considerations when implementing the joint solution.

VMblog:  How does your company and product fit within the Veeam ecosystem?

Wyckoff:  There's no hiding the fact that Veeam truly pioneered and paved the way for the VM protection industry. Just like Veeam, Datrium is hyperfocused on providing service levels for VMs which other products can't even begin to touch. Many of our customers, service providers and partners are benefitting today, from the goodness that Datrium and Veeam together can provide. The relationship which Datrium and Veeam have together is very strong and we're very happy to be sponsoring their annual conference.

VMblog:  What would you say to prospective attendees who are thinking about attending VeeamON but aren't sure if it's worth it or not?

Wyckoff:  Throughout my career I've attended several VeeamON events, both as a Veeam employee and as a Veeam Alliance Partner. VeeamON is absolutely one of my favorite events to attend for several reasons. The first, is the community and opportunity to network with like-minded individuals some which I've been friends with for years. Secondly, the quality of the breakout sessions is of the highest quality. There's always great speakers, with great demos and fantastic content. Lastly, well - the party. Veeam knows how to throw a party, trust me.

VMblog:  What do you think we need to do collectively as an ecosystem to strengthen the industry?

Wyckoff:  The ecosystem is ever evolving making alliances very important. There's no single vendor out there that can do it all on their own. Being able to integrate products into solutions which customers and partners can benefit from is an integral part of any business strategy. For Datrium, we recognize Veeam as one of the leaders within the VM data protection space, many of our customers utilize Veeam as their backup product of choice. For Datrium, being able to work cohesively with customers and partners to provide joint solutions and integrate into their environment and flow is crucial to our success.

VMblog:  Do you have any tips for first time attendees that you'd like to share?

Wyckoff:  Don't be shy. Ask questions, speak up. If you don't agree or understand something, ask. If you see someone you know or even someone you don't know, say hi - interact, network. Share your successes with others, be open and willing to learn what's worked for others maybe there's something you could be doing better for your organization. Conferences are awesome for this - personally, I am a fan of only attending a select few sessions live, most if not all are recorded and can be watch afterwards. Spend time with your peers, walk the Solutions Expo floor, meet with the sponsors and take back an entire shed load of knowledge.

VMblog:  Attendees always enjoy a good trade show tchotchke.  Are you guys giving away anything special or interesting this year?

Wyckoff:  We'll be giving away ninja wallets J Stop by and see just exactly what a ninja wallet is.