Whilst I can’t claim to have a detailed knowledge of the finer points of music composition, I know when I hear something that I like. And so when it was announced that VMware was unifying its vRealize Cloud Management and CloudHealth suites under the banner of VMware Aria, I definitely wanted to know more.
A powerful voice
The origin of the word ‘aria’ is air – something that’s fitting given that (whilst it won’t appear on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs) cloud computing is like oxygen to our lives and businesses. Anyone who has accidentally switched off the WiFi at home will be familiar with the uproar that this can cause!
In musical terms, ‘aria’ relates to a solo performance and I’ve heard it referred to as a voice that’s heard above all others. This resonates when you consider the aims of VMware Aria to offer organisations a single dashboard from which to monitor and control (or perhaps conduct?) multi-cloud workloads in a secure and sustainable manner. At a time when CIOs find themselves under pressure to reduce costs and carbon emissions without compromising on commercial activity, it is reassuring to know there are people and solutions ready to help.
Harmonising with sustainability needs
At Storm, we are very much customer-led and much of what we do is designed around responding to customer needs. Sustainability is now a core component of every project that we work on and we’re seeing some consistent themes:
- Accelerate towards Net Zero without sacrificing performance
- Grow capabilities whilst reducing carbon footprint
- Introduce automation to reduce unnecessary power and compute
And guess what? These are themes for us too. So it’s in this spirit that we’ve recently made our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) commitments public on our website here: https://www.storm-technologies.com/esg.
Singing as one
The beauty of this is that not only does publicly stating our goals, achievements and commitments make it easier for our customers to see how well we align to their goals, it helps us to communicate to the key vendors that we work with. In the case of VMware, our own efforts align closely to their values of ensuring that not only are we ‘doing the right things’ at a practical level (electric delivery vehicles, zero plastic cups, recyclable packaging) we’re working hard at a cultural level too.
Results you can hear as well as see
Alongside my own small contribution via these blogs (you may also be interested in this piece on one way in which we’re making our own datacentre less energy intensive) a big part of our focus is to share key insights by bringing some seriously respected names to your screen. And I’m delighted that our very own Lucy Drinkwater has secured the services of Tobias Lilley, Director of Multi-Cloud Management at VMware, to run a special live demo and Q&A on how organisations can respond with clarity and confidence to the environmental, commercial and operational challenges presented when using a multi-cloud environment.
An invitation to use your voice
The ‘SOS – Sustainable, Observable, Secure’ live presentation and Q&A will take place on 6th September. If you’ve got questions relating to how VMware Aria has been engineered to make multi-cloud environments more sustainable, secure and easier to manage, make sure you put your name down to join the conversation with Lucy and Tobias at https://storm-vmware-aria.inbound.systems/ . Here’s to even greater harmony when it comes to sustainability!
