Archive for vmware
June 5, 2008 at 11:26 pm · Filed under virtualization, vmware
http://www.finextra.com/fullstory.asp?id=18539 and http://www.dynamicops.com/files/DynamicOps_Final_2.pdf
Investment bank Credit Suisse says it has formed a new company that will bring its virtual infrastructure management technology to the commercial market.
The new Massachusetts-based unit, called DynamicOps, was formed in January and is funded by Credit Suisse’s Next II venture group.
The business is headed by Rich Krueger, a former EVP at storage virtualisation company Incipient. Krueger also held management roles at LightSpeed Software, EMC and Conley Corporation.
Credit Suisse says it first deployed a virtual infrastructure in 2005 but realised that while virtualisation improved resource utilisation and business agility, it also increased operational complexit.
It will be interesting to see what services/solutions this new venture has to offer, any innovation in the management of virtual machines has to be a good thing. I’ll need to read up more, do check it out.
May 28, 2008 at 10:00 pm · Filed under virtualization, vmware
http://www.vnunet.com/itweek/news/2217417/vendors-bolster-support-virtual-4023352
Enterprises gained new support options for virtual desktops this week as VMware announced professional services to help firms implement its Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) model, while Citrix unveiled plans to link its traditional application delivery framework to its XenDesktop technology.
VMware is expanding its professional services organisation to support VDI as well as server virtualisation. Customers will be able to get consulting and deployment assistance from VMware itself, or through a VMware partner, the firm said.
For companies new to desktop virtualisation, VMware is offering VDI Jumpstart to train staff on how to set up its desktop virtualisation technology, while its Plan and Design scheme is for customers taking desktop virtualisation to the next level.
“Plan and Design is a bit more sophisticated, for people that already have a pilot up and running. It’s about training people and building out the infrastructure and is more tailored and customer-specific,” said Tommy Armstrong, VMware’s senior product marketing manager in Europe. The new service offerings are available now.
Very cool, it will be interesting to see how we evolve the virtual desktop, what solutions the major players bring to systems management and administration as well as performance. Virtualizing a desktop for an end user is not an issue, but as we scale up to the different user groups within my organization - who has performance priority within my virtual world? Do we separate the development, trader and ‘normal’ desktop infrastructure?
May 20, 2008 at 11:06 pm · Filed under virtualization, vmware
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/vmware-introduces-several-new-professional-services-offerings-for-virtual-desktop-implementations,398969.shtml
PALO ALTO, Calif. - (Business Wire) VMware, Inc., (NYSE:VMW), the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the datacenter, today announced a new suite of professional services that help IT departments implement, manage, and optimize virtual desktops. Using proven best practices based on VMware Infrastructure methodology, customers and partners gain valuable insight on how to increase employee productivity, reduce IT costs, and improve security in their desktop computing environments.
By extending the VMware platform to the desktop with VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, IT administrators can deploy virtual machines on every PC and deliver a complete desktop experience that is easy to manage, fast to deploy, less costly to maintain, always-current and radically more secure. Virtual machines deployed on desktops are protected from disaster, disruption, attack, or theft and are therefore better and safer environments in which to run applications and store user files and data. In addition, VMware virtual desktops are enabled to be always-current because thousands of virtual machines can be updated instantly from the datacenter without touching a single desktop. Workforces running VMware virtual desktops get a full PC experience—both online and offline—allowing them to work from anywhere and be more productive.
Very cool, it will be interesting to read up on these new services, I’ll need to check them out. Going forward the virtual desktop could be a great vehicle to improve the way you provision and support the desktop, not to mention improve security and compliance, it will be interesting to see how the different user groups benefit from the platform.
May 20, 2008 at 10:49 pm · Filed under virtualization, vmware
http://www.cio.com/article/360615/VMware_Makes_Thin_Client_Moves
MON, MAY 19, 2008 — CIO — VMware today announced several moves of interest to enterprises using or considering thin client machines in conjunction with virtualization. The virtualization giant also served up new professional services offerings for enterprises rolling out thin clients and desktop virtualization.
First, a new certification program for thin client machines means enterprises can choose from more VMware-certified hardware options that work with VMware’s VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) technology. With a VDI setup, virtual machines hold end users’ PC environments; those VMs live on servers in the data center.
Very cool, certification of thin client devices allows the end user to have confidence when looking at the various options and configurations available in the virtual desktop world. I’ll need to read up more - I wonder if there is anything on making the legacy pc a thin client? I appreciate it might not be as energy efficient, but there may be those satellite or remote offices that have pcs, where I might want to re-use their existing pc and not provide replacement thin clients for the time being?
May 18, 2008 at 7:47 pm · Filed under virtualization, vmware
http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2216657/norwich-union-insures-4001000
Norwich Union decided to use a niche supplier to handle the transition to a virtualised server environment a move that was “not without its risks”, according to analysts.
The firm consolidated 2,500 ageing servers to fewer than 200 physical boxes running 1,000 virtual machines, a project it rolled out in six weeks.
The insurance giant said budget was not the primary concern during the project, and it was more concerned with keeping the systems running.
Steve Houghton, infrastructure solution architect at Norwich Union IT Solutions, said the firm encountered issues with software drivers and old networking infrastructure that slowed down the deployment.
“Keeping software up-to-date across the server infrastructure had become a complex and time-consuming task,’ he said. Houghton opted to run a nightly conversion timetable of eight physical-to-virtual servers often running workflow and quotation applications which had to be fully functional by the start of business on the following day.
Very cool, check out this article illustrating how Norwich Union used virtualization to aid it’s consolidation project. Moving towards a virtual environment can make provisioning a more on-demand process, reducing the deployment time which can be a real enabler especially in the retail/customer facing environment - being able to bring online another web server to accommodate more capacity, can be the difference between earning revenue and not. The simple act of refreshing hardware, and consolidating through virtualization can reduce your hardware support costs significantly, a great return on investment.
May 18, 2008 at 6:43 pm · Filed under blades, virtualization, vmware
http://www.it-analysis.com/news_release.php?rel=5991
Leading provider of integrated asset management services to the public and private sector , Connaught plc, has appointed CSA Waverley to move and deliver a complete IT infrastructure across two new sites as part of a broader £5M five year project to help the group stay ahead of increasing data demands.
The new environment will enable replication to increase efficiency between Connaught’s 68 offices across England, Scotland and Wales.
Like many pro-active organisations, Connaught plc faced the challenge of increasing its data storage, back-up and infrastructure but lacked physical space and power to meet the required demands.
With data playing a central role in driving Connaught’s business, the ICT that supports it is at the heart of customer satisfaction. With greater capacity the company’s network of 2500 PC users could operate with enhanced efficiency for more equitable business.
Infrastructure and storage solutions specialist, CSA Waverley put forward an innovative end-to-end proposal that included design, procurement, implementation and support for moving core server infrastructure from the company’s HQ in Exeter to two new centers in London.
As part of a major project, CSA Waverley is set to consolidate servers and virtualise storage using VM Ware to reduce the physical server estate from over 150 to just 40, using HP blade server technology. The solution uses HP EVA SAN technology, Cisco switching and network infrastructure plus HP MSL tape libraries for back-up.
Check out this article illustrating how using virtualization (in this case VMWare) has allowed the organization to reduce their server estate from 150 to 40 servers, it’s always great to see people benefiting from the technology whether it’s in terms of functionality or cost.
May 13, 2008 at 5:12 pm · Filed under virtualization, vmware
http://www.itweek.co.uk/itweek/news/2216411/vmware-bundles-datacentre
VMware has announced two bundles of management and automation tools for datacentres operating numerous virtual machines. The bundles make it easier for customers to acquire key tools that are likely to be used together anyway, and offer a significant saving over purchasing them separately, according to the firm.
The two packages consist of the VMware IT Service Delivery Bundle and VMware Management and Automation Bundle. Both will be available from 19 May, but the latter will only be available until the end of the year.
The bundles combine new tools that VMware announced at its VMworld conference in Cannes in February. The IT Service Delivery Bundle consist of Lifecycle Manager and either Lab Manager or Stage Manager, for example, and is aimed at automating the entire lifecycle of IT services, the company said.
“With this suite, through Lifecycle Manager, customers can standardise on catalogues of virtual machines,” said Douglas Phillips, VMware senior marketing manager for EMEA.
Very cool, anything that we can do to aid in the lifecycle management of the virtual machine has to be an important thing. Being able to manage and report on your virtual infrastructure, is just as important as being able to handle the provisioning and decommissioning, not only in terms of the technology, but the process, the sign-off etc. I’ll need to take a look at Lifecycle Manager.
May 11, 2008 at 7:49 pm · Filed under blades, rackmounts, virtualization, vmware
http://communities.vmware.com/message/940884?tstart=0#940884
Check out this great post on the VMWare community talking about blades or rackmounts for virtualization. I’ve got mixed opinions on this. Rack servers can be a great vehicle for virtualization and I have used them in the past. This question is going to be dependent on your exposure and ‘comfort’ with blades as a platform and also volume. I see blades as more suited to virtualization projects when we’re using the volume farm type scenario. Putting in a blade solution with the integrated switches, with the right processor and memory configuration could be a powerful solution, it’s going to be dependent on the range of networks involved. You will find that blades require economies of scale, by that I mean (with no negativity) a blade solution is going to be cheaper the more blades you fit in the enclosure, because of the cost of the enclosure.
The conversation amongst the vendors and the end users are set to continue, I see blades more a volume virtualization tool. The example I like to use is one of the enterprises organizations that I spoke to last year, they were taking 800 rack servers ranging from Compaq 2500s to current day HP Proliants and virtualizing them on to blade technologies for the following reasons:
Blades allowed them to have one hardware platform - let’s say they decided on 400 IBM blades, they changed their hardware support contract and reduced it substantially, instead of 16 derivatives of servers to support there were two, the IBM blade and the enclosure.
The blades were configured for SAN boot, so a blade could be re-provisioned or the storage re-mapped in the event of a hardware failure.
The debate is set to continue, the key is to focus on what your goals are, where your strengths are and go in that direction. I’m all for blade technology as a platform in grid, hpc or as an alternative to a rack server, but they need to be used (as with anything) to the benefit of the customer first, IT second.
April 21, 2008 at 10:20 pm · Filed under Other things, virtualization, vmware
http://msmvps.com/blogs/bradley/archive/2008/04/18/the-lies-of-it.aspx
Now to the 10 most frequent lies told by IT consultants. When you hear these lines spoken you have two alternatives: 1) fire the consultant on the spot, and; 2) bring your smartest and most crotchety nerds into the room and make the consultant explain his or her statement to their satisfaction then back it up with some performance guarantee and penalty clause.
A great read, it’s a topic that is regularly discussed whether you’re dealing with big or small customers. It’s a mixed thing, Consultants need to keep the customer needs and issues in mind, at the same time customers need to ask the right questions and do the research on the technology or solution that they want deployed. Related to this when speaking with a vendor or consultant:
- Establish the in-scope - what’s included in the price and what’s extra
- What are the responsibilites
One small business had called me up saying that they’d got half way through a virtualization project and been told “we’ve virtualized your infrastructure” by the consultant but when they asked where the data was, were told - “that’s extra”. It’s a dual relationship, the customer should have stipulated that the data would be migrated, but then the vendor should understand that there are some things you expect as part of a solution - the data when you virtualize the server is one of these things.
April 15, 2008 at 4:44 pm · Filed under blades, vmware
http://virtualization.com/partnerships-deal-alliance/2008/04/14/egenera-bladeframe-systems-now-come-with-vmware-virtualization/
Egenera today announced the general availability of VMware virtualization on Egenera systems with full support from Egenera and its resellers. Under the companies’ original equipment manufacturing (OEM) agreement announced in 2007, customers can purchase VMware Infrastructure 3 with the Egenera BladeFrame system, a platform designed to support large-scale virtualized deployments of critical applications with high levels of availability and scalability.
Very cool, that we have the option for VMWare virtualization brings more options to those considering virtualization as well as more opportunities for Egenera. I’ll need to read up more, having an integrated Egenera solution using VMWare’s virtualization technology could be very appealing if you were looking at a VMWare virtualization project, it’s going to depend on volume and what’s good for your business. Do check it out.
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