Hey Checkyourlogs fans,

As many of you know, I have been an advocate of the HyperConverged solutions on the market for quite some time. During my adventures in this space, I have done a lot of work with Vendors that OEM SuperMicro hardware for their solutions. It makes a lot of sense because SuperMicro makes it quite easy to rebrand and customize the solutions. The unfortunate reality is that with the recent announcements from Bloomberg that came out this morning it could be disastrous for companies that use this hardware. I can’t confirm that the models listed in the reports this morning found here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-10-04/the-big-hack-how-china-used-a-tiny-chip-to-infiltrate-america-s-top-companies impact any of these vendors, but the questions still need to be asked.

Does this mean that as a security precaution that we need to rip these things out of the racks? How, are Amazon and Apple dealing with this. The answer is very simple (DENY, DENY, DENY). It was like watching presidential politics this morning just for us techies in the field

How are HyperConverged Vendors that OEM SuperMicro hardware is dealing with this fallout?

I know major players like HP, Dell, Lenovo, and my good friends at DataON must be licking their chops this morning.

I can see how the sales meeting for someone trying to sell SuperMicro hardware is going to go today.

Sales Person – “Hi Mr. Customer how are you today”?

Customer – “I’m great thanks for asking Mr. Sales Person.”

Sales Person – “Have you heard about our amazing platform powered by SuperMicro Hardware it’s great.”

Customer – “Yes I did I saw the reports on Bloomberg and CNN this morning about the hacking of the platform. Is this going to be an issue with your hardware.”

Sales Person –”No sir our hardware has been thoroughly tested, and we would NEVER put compromised hardware into our customer’s hands.”

Customer –”Really then how did these Servers make their way into some of the most secure environments in the world like Apple and Amazon”?

Sales Person – “I can’t really speak to their companies, but our hardware is great.”

Customer – “Great isn’t going to cut it I think we will not be using SuperMicro because I don’t want to create an (RGE)”

Sales Person – “RGE?? What is that.”

Customer – “Resume Generating Event”

Customer – “Does your platform run on any other hardware other than SuperMicro?”

Sales Person – “Yes it sure does. Would you like to hear about our great offering on Dell, HPE, Lenovo, or others”?

Customer – “Yes”

Does this mean that customers are going to be leery about purchasing cheaper equipment from SuperMicro moving forward? I know that question has been asked in several discussions that I have had this morning with my customers.

Is this going to give vendors that OEM similar types of Servers from Intel a leg up? I know I sure think so…

Now, for the HyperConverged solutions that I’ve been working with specifically Storage Spaces Direct from Microsoft, this doesn’t impact them at all. Microsoft’s solution runs works with different vendors via their certification process call WSSD (Windows Server Software Defined). If one vendor falls, ten others are waiting to take their place.

You can find more details on the Vendors and the program here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/cloud-platform/software-defined-datacenter

Here is what the hack that was announced today looks like à (Images are courtesy Bloomberg.com and illustrator Scott Gelber)




I think that the industry will continue to push forward with HyperConverged Infrastructure. It just might not include SuperMicro in their plans because of this.

So, to my friends at HPE, Dell, Lenovo, and DataON I think that you best be ramping up production because the giant is falling. I also wish SuperMicro the best of luck with this as this is not an easy thing to overcome. I have enjoyed working on their hardware for the past six years, and it has been really solid. However, this won’t be enough for my clients they want the security blanket, and I don’t think CIO’s and CTO’s are going to be deciding to use SuperMicro in their data centers a light one.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to your comments,

Dave