As a long-time supporter of KubeCon + CloudNativeCon, Tintri is making a strong showing this year as a platinum sponsor. With a unique approach to data management that prioritizes application and workload performance over pure storage capabilities, Tintri continues to push the boundaries of AI-driven data solutions.

Ahead of the show, VMblog spoke to Brock Mowry, CTO, Tintri, to better understand their plans for the event.  At their 20x20 booth, Mowry said Tintri will showcase the latest developments in their VMstore platform, including the introduction of a new CSI driver and Kubernetes support. Attendees can expect interactive demos, exciting giveaways, and insights into the evolving landscape of Kubernetes, containers, and hybrid cloud environments.

VMblog:  If you were giving a KubeCon attendee a quick overview of the company, what would you say?  How would you describe the company?

Brock Mowry:  Tintri has taken a unique approach to managing data over the years. Instead of focusing on pure storage performance, Tintri chooses to focus on ensuring peak workload/application performance.  LUN/Volume-based storage platforms struggle with resource contention and poor visibility while requiring third-party data protection services. At Tintri, early platform features served primarily Virtual Machines (VMs) and Virtual Workloads with more recent innovations adding VDI, SQL-DB and Containers to the workload menu. Tintri's deep understanding of workloads provides optimized performance of all applications; with AI-based guaranteed Quality-of-Service (QoS), observability and data protection; all at the workload/application-level which no other storage or data management platform can perform. Tintri continues to innovate in the data management space which includes a cloud offering currently focused on DR/Back-up.

VMblog:  Your company is sponsoring this year's KubeCon + CloudNativeCon event.  Can you talk about what that sponsorship looks like?

Mowry:  Tintri has supported this event for a number of years, and we are a platinum level sponsor this year with a 20x20 booth space. The Kubernetes market is growing and we feel that our platforms serve not only the workloads/applications better than our competitors - we provide customers the simplicity and observability that no other platform can provide.

VMblog:  How can attendees of the event find you?  What do you have planned at your booth this year?  What type of things will attendees be able to do at your booth? 

Mowry:  Located at #C6, Tintri's booth theme is an extension of our seasonal winter ski lodge campaign. Within the booth, we will be hosting a series of interactive demo sessions (we call them Geek-Outs!) around how our customers solve complex data challenges. Attendees will have a chance to win exciting giveaways along the way. Additionally, attendees will be able to take part in activities in the booth including photo opportunities with our campaign mascot! We will have an in-booth barista to serve yummy beverages and a popcorn machine for snacking.

VMblog:  Have you sponsored KubeCon + CloudNativeCon in the past?  If so, what is it about this show that keeps you coming back as a sponsor?

Mowry:  Yes, we have sponsored this event over the previous few years and have witnessed the growth in the community.

We believe Kubernetes and Container-based adoption and deployments are growing year-over-year, serving more use cases along the way. Tintri believes in enabling organizations to scale applications, manage hybrid cloud environments, and improve security as their Kubernetes deployments scale. This show is an ideal conduit to tap into and feel the pulse of the market and to showcase the success of our customers.

VMblog:  What kind of message will an attendee hear from you this year?  What will they take back to help sell their management team and decision makers?

Mowry:  

• Simplicity
• Application-centric QoS and Observability
• Built-in Data Protection
  

VMblog:  Can you double click on your company's technologies?  And talk about the types of problems you solve for a KubeCon + CloudNativeCon attendee.

Mowry:  Tintri VMstore has been the flagship product since Tintri's founding over 15 years ago. The current platform is an on-prem, 2U appliance powered by NVMe media with AI and ML baked into the software layer. Tintri Cloud Platform is a cloud offering focused on DR and Back-up with its current feature set. 

Organizations typically face (3) core infrastructure challenges due to their reliance on LUN/Volume-based platforms: complexity, poor observability and needing to deploy data protection from a third party. Tintri simplifies management, offers granular observability with built-in data protection.  Focused on the workload our solutions allow you to manage each Persistent Volume-level (PV), VM or Database as a single asset for performance via AI-based QoS, powerful data protection features and unmatched management visibility. 

VMblog:  While thinking about your company's solutions, can you give readers a few examples of how your offerings are unique?  What are your differentiators?  What sets you apart from the competition?

Mowry:  Kubernetes PV management and observability co-exist with SQL databases, VDI and VMs on the same UI. AI-Based Data Projection is built-in. Snapshot, clone and back-up are from a workload level or VM-level.

VMblog:  Where does your company fit within the container, cloud, Kubernetes ecosystem?

Mowry:  Tintri fits within the data management and storage provider for Kubernetes deployments.

VMblog:  KubeCon + CloudNativeCon is typically a great venue for a company to launch a new product or an update to an existing product.  Will your company be announcing anything new?  If so, can you give us a sneak preview?

Mowry:  Yes, we are announcing the release of our CSI driver and general Kubernetes Support on the VMstore.

VMblog:  Are companies going all in for the cloud?  Or do you see a return back to on-premises?  Are there roadblocks in place keeping companies from going all cloud? And if so, what are they, and how do they address that challenge?

Mowry:  Some organizations have gone all-in, but a large portion have repatriated back on-prem for a number of reasons. The most common customer feedback is that cloud costs are so unpredictable month-over-month, performance can be poor and they have less control over their applications. Organizations that require high-performance storage typically steer away from the cloud and stay on-prem where performance can be much more predictable. We are also very entrenched in the Virtualization space and like there, we are seeing a resurgence of on-prem workloads, specifically returning from cloud providers. Our customer feedback is that the unpredictable resource costs have driven much of this move back on-site.

VMblog:  The keynote stage will be covering a number of big topics, but what big changes or trends does your company see taking shape for 2025?

Mowry:  

• Hypervisor options outside of VMware/Broadcom
• New container-focused deployment strategies in the Enterprise space
• More tooling around platform migration support
• New AI-supported platforms
  

VMblog:  Are you giving away any prizes at your booth or participating in any prize giveaways?

Mowry:  Each expo day, we will be giving away an exclusive Tintri-branded Nintendo Switch, drawing from our "Geek Out" attendees. All attendees of our "Geek-Out" sessions will receive a ticket for a prize draw in addition to a swag bag of Tintri goodies. Visitors can gain additional tickets through speaking to our on-site experts - in short, the more visitors interact with us, the greater their chances of snagging our top prize. We will also be raffling three 1980's themed LEGO sets for attendees that come by the booth for a live demo.

VMblog:  Do you have any advice for attendees of the show?

Mowry:  These shows are an opportunity for attendees to interact with organizations and thought leaders within the entire spectrum of the Kubernetes ecosystem and build on their knowledge and exposure for both professional and personal development - so come with an open mind and ask questions.

Besides the obvious advice of visiting Tintri at booth #C6 ... wear comfortable shoes!

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