Andrew Hillier, CTO and Co-Founder, Densify | AWS re:Invent 2017 #reInvent #theCUBE https://siliconangle.com/2017/12/27/tetris-approach-optimal-workload-distribution-cuts-costs-says-cto-reinvent/ ‘Tetris’ approach to optimal workload distribution cuts costs, says CTO Keeping pace with rapidly shifting technology trends while working to determine the appropriate balance of on-premises, virtual machine and container use for application development and deployment is a challenge nearly every enterprise is facing in the current landscape of digital transformation. “Everybody’s kind of caught in between [VMware Inc. and Amazon Web Services Inc.]. People talk about hybrid a lot. … There’s a lot of questions about how [to] get there in a safe way, and efficiently,” said Andrew Hillier (pictured), co-founder and chief technology officer of Cirba Inc. (dba Densify). Using predictive analytics, Densify helps customers get better insight into their processes to save money while developing better-performing applications. Hillier spoke with Stu Miniman (@stu), co-host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, and guest host Keith Townsend (@CTOAdvisor), principal at The CTO Advisor, during the AWS re:Invent conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. They discussed the challenges businesses face in making this shift and how Densify is leveraging its tools and AWS partnership to create efficiencies for customers. (* Disclosure below.) Providing customers with insights across the board Densify customer questions range from migration to process to decreasing cost and more. Hillier and his team are able to give them answers, as well as help them optimize based on custom needs by looking at workload patterns and applying those learnings to processes. “Just getting the cloud watch data, analyzing the patterns and saying, ‘You’re buying the wrong stuff’ … we’re seeing around 40 percent savings on average just by … doing that,” he said. When it comes to containers, Densify works to combine workloads and make them fit on the smallest footprint to maximize cost efficiency. “We’re seeing savings upwards of 80 percent when you do that. There’s huge savings with the right analytics,” Hillier said. Part of Densify’s support is in helping customers determine their optimal combination of platforms. “If you have a workload that’s not doing very much but you can’t turn it off … you’re going to pay for it all even though you’re only doing a little bit of work. … If you put it in a container with other ones that have a similar pattern but at different times, they all stack and gravitate nicely,” Hillier said. It’s in what Hillier calls this game of “Tetris” that Densify sees a huge opportunity to run much higher density and lower cost, saving customers substantial unnecessary expenses. Another major value offered by the company is its cutting-edge position on the latest in tech trends and tools as an AWS partner. “Amazon provides the API to get all the latest and greatest stuff. … That pace is just built into what we do. … Everything is just up to date all the time … you’re getting new stuff every day,” Hillier said. Benefiting from that inside information is another matter, as customers new to the cloud world may not be equipped to leverage it for their own business use. Densify stays on top of all this news for customers and assists them in viewing it through a custom lens. “What we do is say, ‘Work on your business services. … We’ll tell you how it maps to whatever Amazon is selling today,” Hillier concluded. Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of AWS re:Invent. (* Disclosure: Densify sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither Densify nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)