Solving Data Problems – David Flynn – Ep 100

Back in February I wrote an article for Gestalt IT discussing a recent presentation (at the October 2018 Tech Field Day event) from Hammerspace, a startup company in the field of data management. Their proposition was based on dealing with one of IT’s most challenging problems, that of successfully sharing data across multiple locations, be that datacentres, branch offices or cloud repositories. What appealed to me with their approach was how they not only thought of a new way of addressing the problem but also redefined how the problem should be looked at.

On this week’s show, I’m joined by Hammerspace’s CEO, David Flynn, to explore their approach in more detail and get an update on how their solution has developed. David has a long and distinguished background in IT including been behind Fusion IO.

We started our conversation by looking at how Hammerspace have taken a different and more datacentric, rather than infrastructure-centric, view of the problem and why this matters. David also explains how the world of containers has served as an inspiration behind their approach to tackling modern data management issues.

We explore how Hammerspace exploit the “data about the data”, Metadata, to power their solution and allow their customers to elevate their data discussions and platform design to one based on the goals they have for their data without been restrained by limitations of infrastructure.

We wrap up with a discussion about how their solution works and why it’s important it doesn’t demand you import data onto their platform, leaving you free to continue to get the value from your data storage investment, while also finding new data centric ways of managing your data. Finally, we take a look at some of the potential problems Hammerspace can solve in your business and what may make you a good candidate for their technology.

There are a couple of really interesting things about what Hammerspace is doing, both their technological approach and importantly their efforts to shift thinking to one that takes a more data focussed view. Will their technology be the right solution for everyone? Probably not, but their idea that your decisions around your data platform need to be datacentric and based on stated goals for the data, that really should be the case for everyone. It will be interesting to see how Hammerspace continues to evolve and progress.

To find out more about their technology visit hammerspace.com, you can also contact them via their slack channel and if you want to contact David you can via email at david.flynn@hammerspace.com

Thanks for listening.