Diamanti is evolving into a software-focused company and recently announced a standalone software version of Diamanti Ultima as a Kubernetes data plane solution for on-premises and public cloud environments.

It’s a full data plane solution which is addressing both the storage and the networking needs of Cloud Native Infrastructure. There are low-level building blocks that users need to be able to run their applications using Kubernetes. They need storage volumes, virtual block devices, virtual network interfaces, etc. Diamanti’s data plane provides these actual and consumable resources through its software data plane. Diamanti Ultima can run in a variety of different locations, whether that’s in the Cloud or it’s in a bare-metal infrastructure in a customer-owned data center.

This announcement demonstrates Diamanti’s transformation from a hardware company to a software-focused company. “We started with the hardest thing, which is building our own hardware. Our focus was on hardware offload and acceleration technology. That has been the key to our success as a business and as a platform,” said Brian Waldon, VP of Product at Diamanti.

Waldon is fully aware that Kubernetes is a crowded and busy space. To differentiate itself from competitor Diamanti offers a fully baked holistic platform to address those Data Center Modernization and Digital Transformation needs which allows companies to simple move from Legacy Infrastructure and Legacy Architecture onto Cloud Native, specifically Containers, Kubernetes, microservices.

“Our platform is really a Full Stack solution to the full suite of problems that our customers are facing today,” said Waldon.

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Here is the raw transcript of the discussion: 

Swapnil Bhartiya: Let’s jump right into the announcement. Tell me more about what you are announcing today?

Brain Waldon: Yeah. We’re really excited today to announce a general availability here of a software only data plane. We think it’s a really important aspect of Cloud Native Infrastructure in Kubernetes these days that many people tend to overlook. So Diamante is putting a pure software offering out on the market today. In addition to the existing hardware-based and hardware-accelerated offering already out in many production environments.

Swapnil Bhartiya: Can you talk about some of the core features and functionalities of Dim and Altima that you are bringing to the users?

Brain Waldon: For sure. Yeah. It’s a true full data plane solution. We address both the storage and the networking needs of Cloud Native Infrastructure. What that really comes down to… To really distill it down. This is, where do your volumes come from, your virtual block devices and where do your virtual network interfaces come from? These are low level building blocks that you need to be able to run your applications using Kubernetes. So these are actual and consumable resources that are provided by our data plane. I think that even more importantly is how we’re doing all of this and I guess where the software can be operated. It’s a literal software data playing, which means it can run in a variety of different locations, whether that’s in the Cloud or it’s in a bare metal infrastructure in a customer owned data center

Swapnil Bhartiya: Diamanti is going through its own transformation. How does this announcement accelerate Diamanti’s evolution to a software-focused company?

Brain Waldon: That transformation for us has really been from our initial DNA as a true hardware company. We started with the hardest thing, which is building our own hardware. Diamante started with a major focus on hardware offload and acceleration technology. That’s really been the key to our success as a business, but also the key technically to the success of our platform. So as we’ve been developing our capabilities behind the scenes that have been traditionally accelerated with an offload technology, we’ve been able to build a more flexible platform that can now come off of that offload architecture and into pure software. So all of the features that we provide in our Offload-Based Data Plane today are actually also available as software-based features.

Swapnil Bhartiya: If you look at Cloud Native in our communities, it’s a very crowded space. There are a lot of similar solutions which are already available there. So how does this product differentiate Diamante from other players in this space?

Brain Waldon: Yeah, that’s a great question. So this is definitely a busy space. I won’t argue with that. We look at the field of other options out on the market. We also get a lot of feedback from our customers here. The majority of Diamante customers have ended up on our platform because they’ve tried to pull existing point solutions off the shelf and cobble them together into something resembling a production environment. Typically, Day One goes okay and the initial design phases go okay. Then Day Two and further operationalization and expansion of their platforms just really does not pan out. So from Diamante’s perspective, to put it really simply having a fully baked holistic platform to come in and address those Data Center Modernization needs, the Digital Transformation needs, the simple move from Legacy Infrastructure and Legacy Architecture onto Cloud Native, specifically Containers, Kubernetes, microservices.

So our platform is really a Full Stack solution if you will, to the full suite of problems that our customers are facing today. In addition to that, a simplified approach of providing a holistic platform, our data plane specifically is key here. It papers over all of the intricacies and we’ll say inadequacies and a lot of the existing providers specific or Point Solutions platforms on the market today. So it means a customer can have a consistent experience from a Data Plane perspective, whether they’re operating in AWS, whether they’re operating on Hypervisor on Premises. They can actually span all of that infrastructure together to provide Fault Tolerance and Data Level Resilience for their enterprise.

Swapnil Bhartiya: Yes, you’re right. It is a busy space, but a lot of consolidation is happening. A lot of acquisitions and mergers are happening for Worx, Cast Undergoes for example. What does this consolidation mean for Diamante and specifically this announcement?

Brain Waldon: Yeah. Well, I can’t quite tell you what it means for us necessarily. I wish I had a crystal ball there. The way that I interpret this is, we’re going through this big wave of innovation in this specific space. This continually happens. We’re always going through these cycles. So with these specific recent acquisitions, what I’m thinking are the bigger players are looking to build out broader sets of functionality and to bring in truly Cloud Native features and capabilities into their existing incumbent platforms. When you look at Pure and Portworx, for example, I don’t claim to have any special knowledge of either of these players, but when you just look at them on paper, I see Pure has physical capabilities. Portworx has software capabilities. They both are making moves with Kubernetes into the Cloud. So I see that as more of a consolidation and a platform expansion play for those parties involved.

Swapnil Bhartiya: Brain, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule today and talk to me about this Longman. I look forward to talk to you again. Thank you

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