C-suite executives, especially those in technical roles, always crave faster solutions that are scalable and cost-effective.

While those demands are fair, infrastructural underpinnings, such as storage/database and data protection, must never be overlooked.

“I think what’s happened in this community is there’s a momentum that’s been built,” said David Nicholson (pictured, right), chief technology officer of Infinidat Ltd. “Folks who are making major decisions about the futures of their organizations are looking at this and realizing that they need to take these aspects of infrastructure seriously. By optimizing using the proper tools, you can free up resources to do the things that you think are cool and sexy, like artificial intelligence.”

Nicholson and Lisa-Marie Namphy (left), Cloud Native Computing Foundation ambassador and head of developer relations at Cockroach Labs Inc., spoke with theCUBE industry analysts John Furrier and Savannah Peterson at the recent KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe event, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed the importance of infrastructure to any enterprise cloud-native operation and notable announcements from both companies. (* Disclosure below.)

AI and keeping a constant eye on the infrastructure ball

Infrastructure tools sit below the surface and connect cool, crowd-pleasing innovations with real business outcomes. A perfect example is Formula One, where hidden IoT sensors monitor all the variables that put the car in a position to win.

With product integrations central within the cloud-native space, Infinidat’s just-announced support for Kasten K10 signals the company’s resolution to play a deeper role in the Kubernetes ecosystem, according to Nicholson.

“From an Infinidat perspective, we are here specifically talking about our newly-announced integration with Kasten K10,” he said. “We know our place in the ecosystem and work with drivers that we support. We don’t pretend to be the center of the universe. We are only a part of this community and ecosystem.”

Reliability and scalability have always been central to the Kubernetes promise from day one. Thus, leveraging K8s has enabled CockroachDB to offer database solutions with those same qualities to its cloud-native developer audience, according to Namphy.

“For me, one of the benefits of Kubernetes is the scalability,” she said. “That’s what we lean into hard at CockroachDB — that massive scalability and then that resiliency. The fact that it’s node-based means it will never fail you. All of those things are the great promises that this tech delivers.”

Cloud-native technologies, such as Kubernetes, are driving new fields like AI. As with many breakthrough ideas before it, AI will become an industry-wide standard separating successful companies from the rest, according to Nicholson.

“I have a student in my program who runs the supply chain for a very large organization,” he explained. “They’re using AI to make sure, in this person’s words, that the right people have the right information at the right time. Eventually, the margins associated with making mistakes and not having AI will be the difference between being a successful business and being a business that goes out of business.”

On the other hand, AI’s shortcomings must always be taken into account since its human programmers are fallible and those mistakes get into the code, according to Namphy.

“AI is not quite my favorite thing yet because the humans that are programming these things are still flawed and the flaws are getting in there,” she said. “You still have to know that you need to check that work, you need to check that code. You cannot just hit send.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe event:

(* Disclosure: This is an unsponsored editorial segment. However, theCUBE is a paid media partner for KubeCon + CloudNativeCon. Neither Red Hat Inc. nor other sponsors of theCUBE’s event coverage have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE