Stories by Kevin Fogarty

Calculating virtualization, cloud costs: Four approaches

Until recently, almost no IT industry vendor or analyst questioned the assumption that nearly all kinds of virtualization deliver quick, significant cost savings compared to computing only in the physical world.

VM stall: How to avoid a sneaky virtualization project enemy

Virtualizing and consolidating data-center servers provides such clear a financial benefit that there are few companies of any size, in any industry that shouldn't virtualize at least some of their servers and applications, industry analysts say. But companies that start virtualization projects looking for cost savings, without planning for a second phase of migration that requires spending more on new tools than the project might save in short-term costs, will get stuck in phase one -- saving money on hardware, but getting only a fraction of the benefit of the virtualization products they've bought, analysts add.

5 virtualization management tips to live by

Neither cloud computing nor virtual servers were intended as agents that would change traditional IT organizations, says Rachel Dines, a researcher at Forrester Research (FORR) who specializes in IT infrastructure and management. But IT organization and management issues are turning out to be nearly as important as the technology itself to making large-scale virtual-server migrations effective.

5 virtualisation management tips to live by

Neither Cloud computing nor virtual servers were intended as agents that would change traditional IT organisations, says Rachel Dines, a researcher at Forrester Research who specialises in IT infrastructure and management. But IT organisation and management issues are turning out to be nearly as important as the technology itself to making large-scale virtual-server migrations effective.

Two open-source Cloud standards: What it means to you

It's unlikely that hordes of VMware, Citrix or Microsoft Hyper-V users will flock to open-source virtualization or cloud-computing platform as an alternative to the hypervisors and virtualized infrastructure-management software they've already chosen, analysts say. So where does open source fit in the cloud world? Think lock-in and migration flexibility.

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Cloud computing standards: Too many, doing too little

Two years ago, when the Desktop Management Task Force (DMTF) announced a standards-building effort for cloud computing, most people involved in cloud computing didn't even have a common definition of cloud computing. Now there are so many categories of cloud computing and so many competing standards that users have a good chance of finding a standard that matches a particular need, but not much chance of moving among them easily, says James Staten, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research.

Server virtualization: Six management myths

During the past three to five years, when most companies began rolling out virtual servers in earnest as replacements for physical servers, acceptance has grown so quickly among both end users and IT staffs that more than half of all companies now deploy new applications on virtual servers by preference, rather than physical ones, according to a December study from IDC.

Virtualization on mobile devices: what's taking so long?

Despite years of marketing pressure and products that are simpler to use and more widely available, desktop virtualization hasn't taken off to the extent that vendors and analysts expected even a few years ago.

Virtualization and cloud computing hiring outlook for 2011

Despite so many optimistic predictions from Gartner, IDC and other surveys about the growth of cloud computing that they're almost an industry in themselves, there's no better indication of real interest from real companies than spending on a new technology.

LG, VMware aim to deliver two phones in one

The agreement announced this week by VMware and LG electronics will act a proof of concept of VMware's virtualization technology on mobile devices, but may not do either VMware or LG much good otherwise, analysts say.

Citrix launches fresh cloud attack on VMware

Rivals Citrix and VMware have taken their battle beyond technology development, even beyond marketing. Now they're working on the imaginations and psychology of potential customers and, to a certain extent, rewriting history.

Citrix Strikes Surprise Blow Against VMware with Cisco Deal

Within the last ten days, Citrix Systems and VMware have each landed surprise blows in a fight that has heated up from an us-vs.-them platform debate to a real sparring match in the cloud and virtual desktop arenas.

Citrix vs. VMware: Virtualisation battle plan changes

In the wake of an analyst report certifying Citrix's XenDesktop 4.1 as the only product that fully satisfies all the criteria for enterprise-class desktop virtualization, Citrix Systems has come very close to conceding it will remain an also-ran in the market for virtual servers.

Cloud Computing: Today's four favourite flavours, explained

Cloud computing is famous for being a metaphor instead of a technology, but that metaphor is increasingly hard for non-techies to understand. Many variations of cloud have emerged that have little to do with the initial vision that sparked interest-- a public cloud with burst-up capability on demand.

Cloud Computing Shopping List: 4 Key Ingredients

Facing strong concerns about control and security, the cloud-computing trend has drifted somewhat-- away from the notion that all computing resources can be had from outside, and toward a vision of a data center magically transformed for easy connections to internal and external IT resources.