November 13th, 2009

Service Corporation International - Akorri Customer Profile

Posted by Dan Kusnetzky @ 3:00 am

Categories: Consumer use of Virtualization, Managing virtualized environments

Tags: Service Corporation International, Database, Data Center, Performance, Sanmina-SCI Corp., Tool, Akorri BalancePoint, Data Centers, Storage, Productivity

In the post “Examining datacenter operations with Akorri BalancePoint“, I had a chance to examine Akorri’s BalancePoint and asked the company to provide a customer reference. Shortly thereafter, I had a chance to communicate with Kevin Brown,  Infrastructure Manager with Service Corporation International. Here are his comments.

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November 10th, 2009

VMware's desktop moves

Posted by Dan Kusnetzky @ 3:00 am

Categories: Access virtualization, Cloud computing/SAAS/ISP Issues, Desktop virtualization, Managing virtualized environments, Professional Services, Virtual machine software, Virtual processing software, Virtualization

Tags: Desktop, Desktop Virtualization, VMware Inc., VMware View 4, Ecosystem Press Release, Virtualization, Hardware, Dan Kusnetzky

VMware made a “cluster announcement” of a number of products and services related to desktop virtualization including VMware View 4, PCoIP Support, a partnership with Affiliated Computer Services and the availability of a set of new reference architectures. It is clear that VMware wants to make adoption of their version of desktop virtualization, whether supported locally or via cloud computing, easy.

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November 2nd, 2009

Oracle's Virtualization Story

Posted by Dan Kusnetzky @ 3:00 am

Categories: Application virtualization, Clustering software, Managing virtualized environments, Marketing, Security in virtualized environments, Virtual machine software, Virtual processing software, Virtual storage, Virtualization

Tags: Oracle Corp., Virtualization, Cloud Computing, Storage Management, Server Virtualization, Utility Computing, Tools & Techniques, Hardware, Storage, Servers

Oracle has been part of the virtualization software market for quite some time. I’ve been following their efforts since they developed technology to support Digital Equipment Corporation’s VAXcluster technology. Their Real Application Cluster (RAC) has been a good example of processing virtualization and their Oracle Cluster File System is an example of storage virtualization. Oracle’s Adam Hawley, Direct of Product Management for Oracle VM, brought me up to date on Oracle’s efforts in the areas of virtual machine software (Oracle VM), their implementation of the XEN virtual machine software project. My quick take is that Oracle’s offerings in the area of virtualization technology will be well received by Oracle’s installed base.

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October 27th, 2009

Examining datacenter operations with Akorri BalancePoint

Posted by Dan Kusnetzky @ 3:00 am

Categories: Managing virtualized environments, Virtualization

Tags: Data Center, Performance, Akorri BalancePoint, Akorri Technology, Data Centers, Storage, Hardware, Data Management, Dan Kusnetzky

Akorri and I have been trying chat and one thing or another has made that impossible.  They’ve sent me a presentation deck in advance of our meeting and so, I’ll present a few highlights here prior to our call.  I’ll follow up on them later.

Here’s how Akorri describes their product

Akorri™ BalancePoint® virtual infrastructure management is the only performance and capacity management software providing analysis across IT virtualization layers and technology silos for both virtual and physical, server and storage infrastructure.  BalancePoint helps companies troubleshoot problems within minutes, optimize utilization, and improve performance in the dynamic data center.

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October 16th, 2009

VMware facing challengers on all sides

Posted by Dan Kusnetzky @ 3:00 am

Categories: Managing virtualized environments, Virtual machine software, Virtual processing software, Virtual storage, Virtualization

Tags: Environment, Xen, VMware Inc., Xen Community, Virtualization, Cloud Computing, Storage Management, Utility Computing, Hardware, Storage

It is clear that VMware is facing significant challenges from at least four different sectors. Citrix, Microsoft, the Xen community and Red Hat are all hoping to push the VMware off of the throne and assume the title of “King of Virtual Machine Technology.” The stiff challenge is causing the hypervisor itself to become a commodity and, as my colleague Greg Zwackman pointed out in a recent report “Virtualization Software: Market Sizing and and Forecasts Overview,” suppliers will be forced to look to other segments of the overall market for virtualization technology for increased revenues and profits.

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October 14th, 2009

Apptis Technology Solutions, an eGenera Partner

Posted by Dan Kusnetzky @ 3:00 am

Categories: Cloud computing/SAAS/ISP Issues, Consumer use of Virtualization, Managing virtualized environments, Virtual machine software, Virtual processing software, Virtualization

Tags: Egenera Inc., Apptis Inc., Apptis Technology Solutions, Dell/PAN Solution, Data Centers, Storage, Cloud Computing, Hardware, Data Management, Dan Kusnetzky

I like to present the views of people actually using technology as well as examining the moves of the suppliers of that technology. Jim Smid, of Apptis Technology Solutions, answered a few questions for me about his organization’s use of technology from eGenera and Dell.

Please introduce your organization and tell us about your role there.

Jim Smid, Director, Data Center Practice for Apptis Technology Solutions.

Apptis Technology Solutions is a technology solutions provider and value-added reseller for government and industry. We offer advanced and secure solutions for data center, unified communications, network infrastructure and client computing. Our interactive approach, engineering expertise and product knowledge provide customers with secure solutions that are precisely aligned with business and budget requirements.

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October 13th, 2009

AutoVirt 3: Storage management control

Posted by Dan Kusnetzky @ 3:20 am

Categories: Managing virtualized environments, Virtual storage, Virtualization

Tags: Namespace, Storage Management, AutoVirt, AutoVirt Policy Engine, Storage, Hardware, Dan Kusnetzky

In the wake of the massive T-Mobile Sidekick storage-in-the-clouds failure (see what my fellow ZDnet blogger, Jason Perlow, has to say in the post In the aftermath of the T-Mobile Chernobyl), it would be wise for organizations to re-examine their approaches to virtual storage. AutoVirt has chosen this moment to lauch a new version of their product. While it is not at all likely that they expected their product launch to arrive on the coattials of the T-Mobile a storage meltdown, it is clear that AutoVirt is trying to prevent similar disasters for their customers. Read the rest of this entry »

September 24th, 2009

MokaFive Suite 2.0: Granular approach to desktop management

Posted by Dan Kusnetzky @ 3:00 am

Categories: Access virtualization, Application virtualization, Managing virtualized environments, Virtual machine software, Virtual processing software, Virtualization

Tags: Environment, MokaFive Suite Desktop Virtualization, Staff Member, Virtualization, Cloud Computing, Desktop Virtualization, Channel Management, Application Performance Management, Desktops, Hardware

As I wrote in the post MokaFive launches version 2 of its MokaFive Suite desktop virtualization (the combination of access virtualization, application virtualization and/or processing virtualization for client-side deployment) has not gotten the intense industry attention that its cousin, server virtualization, has and yet, a number of suppliers have pegged their hopes and dreams to that nascent market.

MokaFive is one of those suppliers. I’ve posted about MokaFive on a number of occasions and have been overly creative with the company’s name (see Moka5 - a different take on application virtualization and Mokafive Version 1.) The good folks at MokaFive and I finally found a time for me to see a demonstration. It was very impressive.

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September 23rd, 2009

Fortisphere - if you can't see it, you can't manage it

Posted by Dan Kusnetzky @ 2:25 am

Categories: Managing virtualized environments, Virtual machine software, Virtualization

Tags: Environment, Fortisphere, Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Ip storage, Hardware, Servers, Dan Kusnetzky

It’s been a while since I spoke with the folks from Fortisphere and decided to reach out to a contact over there immediately prior to VMworld to learn what was new. As I expected, they were really busy preparing for the event. So, we planned on meeting at their booth and to have a longer conversation after the event.I visited their booth during the event and confirmed the time for a later conversation.

After the event, I had the opportunity to speak with to Siki Giunta, Fortisphere’s new President and CEO. I learned that the company had continued to enhance its product, Virtual Service Management, As before, their primary message is that if IT can’t see all of the organization’s virtual servers, they can’t manage them.

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September 9th, 2009

Is desktop virtualization the next focal point?

Posted by Dan Kusnetzky @ 4:00 am

Categories: Managing virtualized environments, Virtual machine software, Virtualization

Tags: Desktop, Hewlett-Packard Co., Operating System, Environment, Citrix Systems Inc., Supplier, Desktop Virtualization, Virtualization, Channel Management, Servers

I’m still getting my feet under me after my travel to New England, New York and New Jersey this week.  So, I’m going to post a few things concerning demonstrations I saw at VMworld 2009.

It is clear to me that many suppliers are intensely focused on providing a virtualized environment for client systems, sometimes called desktop virtualization, application virtualization or user virtualization. How these suppliers are approaching this perceived market need differs from company to company. Large suppliers, such as Citrix, HP, IBM, and Microsoft, are deploying multiple strategies.

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