VMware

Features

• Burning questions: Virtualisation

  Virtualizing x86 infrastructure isn't just a one-step process -- as servers change, the whole data center must change as well. While server hypervisors such as VMware's ESX, Microsoft's Hyper-V and Xen can make IT more efficient and cost-effective, many of the virtualization advantages can be canceled out when data centers rely on technology and processes that haven't been updated for the virtualization age.

• Meet the father of Google Apps (who used to work at Microsoft)

  Three weeks into his tenure at Google, Rajen Sheth -- former Microsoft and VMware employee -- met with Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt to propose a way of turning Gmail into a business-class e-mail system. And he was soundly rejected. 

• Desktop Virtualization: Top Vendors Still Miss the Mark

  Desktop virtualization has a predicted growth curve that leaves much of the PC and IT services industries smiling: Yet none of the technologies or service providers promising to offer hosted virtual desktops are ready to step into key roles in enterprise IT infrastructures, according the same well-respected analysts who set the server virtualization market on its ear with a similar conclusion last year.

• 5 virtual desktop pitfalls

  Most CIOs have started considering virtual desktop infrastructure and other types of desktop virtualization, but only a minority has reached the deployment stage. (See related story, "As Windows 7 gains steam, VDI set to rise".) Virtual desktops can potentially provide more flexibility for users, make it easier to apply patches and reduce IT help desk calls, but there are still numerous problems that keep desktop pros up at night. Here are five pitfalls to watch out for.

• Technologies come and go, but managing networks is still about problem-solving

  Technologies come and go, but managing networks is still about problem-solving in a changing world, as these IT executives can attest.

• VMware cloud initiative raises vendor lock-in concerns

  VMware talks a good game about interoperability, but its cloud initiative threatens to introduce a type of vendor lock-in that rival virtualization vendors claim they would not impose.

• Platform Computing tackles tech-agnostic cloud management

  Grid vendor Platform Computing has unveiled new private cloud software that aggregates servers, storage, networking tools and hypervisors to create a shared pool of physical and virtual resources.

• Data center derby heats up

  Network thoroughbred Cisco jumps into the blade server market. Server stallion HP adds security blades to its ProCurve switches. IBM teams up with Brocade. Oracle buys Sun. And everybody courts that prize filly VMware.

• Cisco, EMC, VMware form private cloud pact

  The current ratio of IT spend on maintaining IT systems against innovation has become unsustainable according to EMC’s Australian president, David Webster.

• Inside Telstra's Virtualisation Strategy

  Telstra is increasingly turning to virtualisation as its core strategy to both manage the rising costs of, and growth in, its data centres, according the company’s CIO, John McInerney.

• VMware vSphere: Does It Solve IT's Biggest Worries About Cloud?

  For all the hype about cloud computing in the enterprise—hype that Gartner believes is now nearing its peak—IT professionals continue to tell cloud-related vendors that the cloud will not be practical until several serious concerns are addressed. VMware, with its vSphere 4 announcement today, is laying the foundation for what it hopes will be a central role for VMware technology in enterprises making use of both public and private cloud computing systems.

• VMware testing data center OS for managing everything

  VMware believes every business can be like a Google, and have a data center that is highly efficient and automated -- and eventually so completely virtualized it operates not as a collection of networked machines but as a living organism.

• Virtualization rivals step into the ring at VMworld

  VMware expects 14,000 attendees at its annual user conference in Las Vegas this week, including workers from more than 200 trade-show exhibitors. That's a 30 percent increase over last year's attendance -- clear evidence of VMware's influence. But VMworld 2008 will also be the focal point for the gathering storm of competition that the virtualization market leader faces.