Each year at VMworld, I look forward to catching up with HotLink to find out what they've been cooking up for us in the virtualization and cloud management space. Each year, they come up with something new, which is why they have consistently been awarded some type of "Best of VMworld" award for the last few years running. If you haven't already spoken with the company's CEO and founder, Lynn LeBlanc, make sure to swing by their booth this year and have a conversation with her. If you do, you'll see the other reason these guys keep winning awards - passion. They continue to innovate and they remain passionate about what they are doing.
Last year, VMblog had a chance to meet up with HotLink to get a first hand look at how they were transforming VMware vCenter
for hybrid IT, making it so all the existing VMware administration and management infrastructure
can be utilized for Amazon, Hyper-V, XenServer and KVM without any other consoles being required. Watch this VMworld 2014 HotLink video or watch this exclusive video interview with their customer Equinix to hear how they are using HotLink and why.
Until then, find out
more ahead of the show, and check out the below Q&A interview with the
company to see what HotLink has planned for VMworld 2015.
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VMblog: I understand HotLink is once again sponsoring
VMworld 2015. I know people will want to
visit you guys, so tell us, what booth # are you located in? And is there anything interesting or unique
about this year's booth setup?
HotLink: HotLink
is in a 10x10 BRIGHT ORANGE booth #803 near the Expo entrance. Look for the large HotLink logo and
"Transform IT" on a very clean, curved booth design. We will have an orange and
white prize wheel in the front that should be constantly spinning, so attendees
will definitely want to stop by so they can spin and win at the HotLink booth
this year.
VMblog: And with so many booths at VMworld, and so little
time, why should an attendee put HotLink on their MUST SEE list this year?
HotLink: Every
year HotLink wins Best of VMworld awards for our hybrid IT management technologies. We are unique in the ability to extend VMware
vCenter capabilities to all major public clouds and on-premise hypervisors with
our collection of easy-to-deploy and intuitive-to-use hybrid management
solutions. Whether Expo visitors are looking
to diversify their infrastructure for cost reduction, agility, disaster
recovery, business continuity or other reasons, they should definitely check
out the HotLink technology.
VMblog: Can you give VMblog readers a sneak peek as to
what you will be showing off at your booth this year? What should attendees expect to see and hear
at your booth?
HotLink: We
will be demonstrating our entire hybrid IT product line, including a new solution
just announced, HotLink Cloud Management Express. This new product enables
VMware vCenter to natively support Azure, vCloud Air, OpenStack and Amazon Web
Services, so all hybrid IT resource types, both on- and off-premise, are managed
together with vSphere in a unified way. One of our most popular products,
HotLink DR Express, will also be demonstrated.
This solution provides easy, low cost VMware DR/BC in Amazon Web
Services, fully integrated into vCenter. Incorporating public cloud services
into existing operations couldn't be any easier, and attendees will see this at
our booth at VMworld.
VMblog: If you would, please explain or give readers a
few reasons why your product or service is considered unique?
HotLink: HotLink technology tackles
hybrid IT management from the bottom up - isolating, abstracting and automating
the complexities of virtual and cloud-based platforms to provide a simple,
flexible transformational solution to hybrid computing. Unlike overlay
solutions that provide specialized automation on top of multiple native
management toolsets, only HotLink abstracts hypervisor and workload metadata,
so you can natively support other hypervisors and public clouds with existing VMware
vCenter management, tools, workflows and skills. No additional consoles are
required, and deployment takes less than 2 hours.
VMblog: Can you tell the readers more
about your new Cloud Management Express product?
HotLink: Our new HotLink Cloud Management Express product is the
easiest to implement solution for integrating, administering and managing a
wide range of public and private cloud-based resources - spanning public clouds
including Microsoft Azure, vCloud Air, OpenStack and Amazon EC2, and on-premise
OpenStack, Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix XenServer and Red Hat Enterprise Linux
(KVM). It natively extends VMware vCenter capabilities to hybrid resources as
well as enabling existing vCenter-compatible tools and workflows to be utilized
unchanged with hybrid resources. With
HotLink Cloud Management, you have the simplicity of a homogeneous VMware
environment with the flexibility to choose the best on- and off-premise
platform options for your data center.
VMblog: You guys always seem to win a Best of VMworld
award each year. How do you like your chances this
year?
HotLink: I
believe HotLink has been consistently recognized because we never stop
innovating and stay focused on the hybrid management solutions customers really
need to innovate in their own businesses.
This year was no exception. We
pulled out all the stops to continue to enhance our prior award-winners, while
ensuring that we bring our next level of innovation to market with HotLink
Cloud Management Express. Having said
all that, the Best of VMworld awards will still be a nail-biter.
VMblog: What message will you send attendees back home with this year? What can they take back with them to help sell their boss on your technology?
HotLink: HotLink's
award-winning technologies transform VMware vCenter for hybrid IT, so all the
existing VMware administration and management infrastructure can be utilized
for Amazon Web Services, Azure, OpenStack, vCloud Air, Hyper-V, XenServer and
KVM - no other consoles are required, and deployment can be completed in under
2 hours with no special skills.
VMblog: Why is hybrid IT such a hot topic these days?
HotLink: Cloud-based
computing is undeniably a driving force. This year the absolute growth of IaaS
workloads surpassed that of on-premise VMs. Much of the demand is led by
digital initiatives happening across nearly every industry. But, the maturing
capabilities of many public clouds are also attracting the migration of
traditional workloads. Across the board, however, companies are concerned about
avoiding lock-in given a rapidly evolving cloud market. Growing demand for
computing, diverse requirements, relatively flat IT budgets and a wide range of
implementation choices inevitably resulted in high demand for hybrid IT.
VMblog: I still remember the first time I met you guys at VMworld, when you were about to launch the company. Do you remember your first VMworld? Anything stand out about it?
HotLink: In our
first year, we had a small space in the VMworld New Innovator Pavilion. Our giveaway was light-up devil horns. Throughout the show, local hotels, on the
streets, and even in restaurants, people were wearing these devil horns at all
hours. It was quite a site!
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As I said, I can still remember the very first time I met with HotLink, when the company was first launching at VMworld. Even then, I knew these guys were on to something big! And each year, they continue to innovate and surprise, and continue to win VMworld awards. If you haven't already checked these guys out, please make sure to swing by their booth #803 near the Expo entrance. You won't be disappointed.