Virtualisation » Opinions »

  • The challenges of competing with Cloud computing providers

    In discussions about cloud computing and in comments readers leave on my blog posts, I commonly get statements along the lines of "Yeah, this cloud computing stuff sounds great, but at the end of the day, you have to have an IT guy solving problems like they've always done." In personal interactions, I often hear this sentiment portrayed as, "Public cloud computing is fine for the SMB and startup market, but enterprises aren't ready to move to that model." The tone of much of this feedback is that anyone who advocates cloud computing is at best naive or at worst incapable of understanding the real details of IT.

    Written by Bernard Golden • 27 Aug. 11 03:32

  • Cloud computing: A sustaining or disruptive innovation?

    If you've read this blog over the past couple of years, it should be no surprise that I am a huge advocate of the theories of Clayton Christensen, author of "The Innovator's Dilemma." Christensen and his book were brought to mind this week by the cover story in Forbes about his severe health problems, his experience with the U..S healthcare system, and his prescriptions for how to fix it.

    Written by Bernard Golden • 17 March 11 05:28

  • The cloud issue you really can't ignore

    Maybe it's time to rethink the cloud. Yeah, I know -- at this point, most IT shops haven't thought through the cloud the first time. But Microsoft's recent troubles keeping its cloud services available to users shine a harsh light on the issue of cloud availability and reliability.

    Written by Frank Hayes • 27 Sept. 10 20:08

  • Vizioncore updates virtual backup & recovery tool

    Vizioncore has announced a major new version of its flagship backup package for virtual machines that includes support for VMware's new cloud operating system, vSphere 4.

    Written by Tom Jowitt • 27 May 09 08:09

  • Being personal in a centralised world

    Personalisation is about more than decorating a user’s desktop, it must encompass business policy, end-to-end visibility and user introduced applications.

    Written by Sean Walsh • 21 May 09 11:22

  • 5 Steps to A Big Picture Approach to Virtualization

    Think far beyond your servers from the start if you want to reap virtualization's wider potential in the data center, says Dave Robbins, CTO, Information Technology for NetApp. Here's his starting checklist for IT pros who want to take a holistic view of virtualization in the enterprise.

    Written by Dave Robbins • 23 March 09 08:37

  • Windows Server 2008: Windows also rises

    We suppose it happens in families too, where one twin seems charmed from the start while the other lives under a shadow. Certainly that's the case with Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista, the one almost universally heralded and the other widely snubbed. Still, isn't it odd? How do two operating systems, born together and sharing so much DNA, arrive to such different fates?

    Written by Doug Dineley • 30 Dec. 08 07:26

  • A primer on cloudbursting

    The term "cloudbursting" was coined by Amazon Web Services evangelist Jeff Barr to describe the use of cloud computing to deal with overflow requests, such as those that occur during seasonal rushes to online retail sites.

    Written by Lori MacVittie • 18 Dec. 08 09:07

  • Cloud computing. More than blue sky thinking

    Looming on the horizon are the nimbus, cirrus, stratus and cumulus that threaten to deliver us cloud computing imminently. Promising an end to most of the challenges and frustrations of IT systems as we know them, the concept of cloud computing is thundering through the business community to become one of the most talked about and revered subjects of the day.

    Written by Paul Harapin • 28 Nov. 08 10:23

  • AMD bails out IT

    There's a good deal that's special about AMD's new Shanghai server CPU. It's fabulous science, fun for those of us who get dewy-eyed over the prospect of a 25 percent faster world switch time and immersion lithography. It makes the x86 battle interesting again because it carries AMD into territory that it must fight hard to win--the two-socket (2P) server space--and where innovation is sorely needed. AMD beat Intel's next-generation server architecture to market while closing performance, price, and power efficiency gaps between Core 2 and Shanghai. Just as it did in the old days, AMD now claims that its best outruns Intel's best despite having a lower clock speed.

    Written by Tom Yager • 17 Nov. 08 10:46

  • Storing your data in their cloud

    Although it may seem like your computing life is all e-mail and browsing, computer users still create files, documents, spreadsheets, boring presentations and all manner of other stored information. Which brings me to the question: Where do you store your data? And are you ready to store your data online in a service hosted by a third party provider?

    Written by James E. Gaskin • 07 Nov. 08 09:34

  • Reinventing storage virtualization

    The initial approach to storage virtualization, which has been around for years, was to address it in the storage-area network because the SAN sat between the storage and servers, and would cause the least disruption to these systems. However, after nearly a decade, this approach has not taken off while server virtualization has become widely accepted. What needs to be changed to make storage virtualization as ubiquitous as server virtualization?

    Written by Hu Yoshida • 02 Oct. 08 10:26

  • Testing environment management challenges with virtualisation

    Many IT projects have encountered environment related issues and defects that impact the test and development teams and are the cause of significant delays to projects. It has been estimated that up to 40 percent of effort during the software development life-cycle is wasted due to these types of issues.

    Written by Julian Brook • 26 Sept. 08 11:16

  • Red Hat Outlook: Clouds and Virtualization Everywhere

    At a conference for UK press this week, Red Hat added some detail to its plans for virtualization, cloud computing and application messaging.

    Written by Martin Veitch • 11 Sept. 08 10:56

  • The challenge of securing virtualization operations

    I have been very interested in virtualization security since early 2004 and it now seems like it has become a mainstream topic. Most of the focus however is on securing the technology of virtualization (the hypervisor) and providing virtualized security (usually as virtual appliances). My focus nowadays is more on the operational impact of virtualized infrastructure and by extension the impact on security operations. After all, security controls (technology) are essential but without operational controls (people) they are not sufficient. So what is the operational impact of virtualization?

    Written by Andreas M. Antonopoulos • 08 Sept. 08 09:00
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    Real time drives database virtualization

    Databases are evolving faster than ever, becoming more fluid to keep pace with an online world that's becoming virtualized at every level.

    Written by James Kobielus • 25 Aug. 08 09:36

  • VMotion and FCoE: A match made in admin heaven

    In a recent review, I consolidated FC and Ethernet networks using FCoE (fibre channel over Ethernet) and Cisco's new Nexus 5000 switch. As the review showed, the combination merged the two transport protocols easily, allowing FC frames to channel through a 10G connection without giving up features or performance.

    Written by Mario Apicella • 14 Aug. 08 10:54

  • Preview: VMware Fusion 2 Beta 2

    Virtualization on the Mac has never had it so good. There are several options available for running almost any x86-based operating system as a VM under Mac OS X, including Parallels, VMware Fusion, and VirtualBox. If you like the fact that Macs are less prone to problems, viruses, and spyware, but you simply have to run a few Windows applications, it's a great time to be alive.

    Written by Paul Venezia • 01 Aug. 08 09:59

  • Collaboration brings value to VAN clouds

    Maybe Gartner Vice President of Research Benoit Lheureux can't say, "I've seen the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked," but he did sound a bit like the poet Allen Ginsberg when -- speaking about VAN (value-added network) service providers -- he said, "I saw these guys sink into the morass of the IT hell hole, and they were bleeding revenue."

    Written by Ephraim Schwartz • 30 July 08 11:51

  • Did VMware sell out to EMC too soon?

    Did VMware sell out to EMC too soon? I try not to mix personalities with analysis because when I do, I sometimes get into trouble. But as I try to rationalize Diane Greene's abrupt departure from VMware, and EMC CEO Joe's Tucci's role in her demise, personalities keep getting in the way. While I've met both these powerful players, I can't say that I know them. All I really have to go on is my sense of their public personas. Diane has built a huge following, is perceptive -- even visionary -- and opinionated. Joe has taken control of a franchise that was head-strong to begin with and transformed it. In my view he's even handed, but a man who is very capable of pushing back when pushed. And no doubt about it, with VMware he acquired an equally head-strong organization.

    Written by John Webster • 22 July 08 11:35
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