November 23rd, 2009

Microsoft Windows Azure and SQL Azure

Posted by Dan Kusnetzky @ 3:00 am

Categories: Cloud computing/SAAS/ISP Issues

Tags: Developer, Microsoft Windows Server, SQL, Microsoft Corp., Tool, Windows Server AppFabric Beta 1, ASP.NET MVC2 Beta, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Productivity

Microsoft launched Windows Azure, its cloud-based services offering at the recent Professional Developers Conference (PDC). Ray Ozzie, chief software architect at Microsoft, described Windows Azure and SQL Azure as core elements of the company’s cloud services strategy.

Now that the dust has settled a bit, it’s time to look at this announcement a bit more closely.

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November 16th, 2009

Vik Desai of Liquid Computing on Unified Computing

Posted by Dan Kusnetzky @ 3:00 am

Categories: Cloud computing/SAAS/ISP Issues, Virtual machine software, Virtualization

Tags: Data Center, Customer, Computing, Liquid Computing, Data Centers, Storage, Hardware, Data Management, Dan Kusnetzky

I received a message conveying some thoughts on unified computing coming from Vik Desai, CEO of Liquid Computing. While I haven’t had the chance to actually chat with him about his opinions, I thought them interesting enough to pass along to you.

Vik Desai’s comments

Unified computing(UCS) is a compelling market that is heating up with all the major vendors jumping into the fray. However,the very benefits of unified computing get negated if customers have to invest in expensive hardware from big vendors with no open architecture. Liquid Computing’s solution on the other hand is a completely open solution that can support any combination of standard operating systems or virtual environments. This means that it can be seamlessly installed within any data center, and doesn’t require any special or proprietary drivers that can compromise the integrity of application performance.

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November 12th, 2009

FusionStorm Datacenter Summit

Posted by Dan Kusnetzky @ 3:00 am

Categories: Cloud computing/SAAS/ISP Issues, Consumer use of Virtualization, Virtualization

Tags: Cloud Computing, Virtualization, Data Centers, Storage Management, Utility Computing, Hardware, Storage, Data Management, Dan Kusnetzky

Vince Conroy, Chief Technology Officer, of FusionStorm, invited me to speak at their Datacenter Summit in Las Vegas. After speaking with him, I’m looking forward to meeting.  I’ve discovered that many Datacenter executives are well versed in facilities issues, including power, cooling and the like, but are not quite as familiar with what’s going on inside of their many computers.

My plans are to speak to them about virtualization and what it means to them, how the increasing adoption of various virtualization technologies combined with the desire many organizations have to cut costs at almost any cost leads to the consideration of cloud computing.  I’m also hoping to get quite a bit of feedback from them on the use of both virtualization and cloud computing in their organizational IT infrastructure.

The attendees and I are also going to visit Switch Communications’ SuperNAP in Las Vegas.

I’ll let you know what I learn.

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 4th, 2009

Cisco, EMC and VMware Announce Alliance

Posted by Dan Kusnetzky @ 2:00 am

Categories: Cloud computing/SAAS/ISP Issues, Virtual machine software, Virtual processing software, Virtualization

Tags: Alliance, Environment, Industry Standard, VMware Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., EMC Corp., Intel Corp., Vblock Infrastructure Packages, Acadia, Virtualization

Cisco, EMC and VMware announced an alliance/coalition/joint venture with the hopes of pushing forward the use of virtualized environments in general and cloud computing in specific. If nothing else, this move is likely to recast partnerships and alliances throughout the IT industry. It is a bold move that changes the environment in a major way. This move is not without risk for these partners. Now that they’re offering complete system solutions, it may be more difficult for them individually or as a group to play well with others.

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November 3rd, 2009

Cloud computing making new alliances

Posted by Dan Kusnetzky @ 3:00 am

Categories: Cloud computing/SAAS/ISP Issues, Virtualization

Tags: Software, Alliance, Environment, Supplier, Channel Management, Virtualization, Cloud Computing, Storage Management, Utility Computing, Marketing

The concept of cloud computing; where dynamically scalable, reliable, manageable IT resources are made available over the network as a service, has a strong possibility of making vast changes in the competitive environment. We’ve already seen alliances between suppliers of hardware, software or services and suppliers of hosting or managed services.

We’re also seeing virtualization technology allowing a suppliers to take a fresh look at how computers are organized and then begin offering products based upon a different combination of features.

Aren’t we also seeing suppliers attempting to re-implement a mainframe environment in software?

I’m reminded of a colleague’s “buzz word generator.” He developed three word lists on a piece of paper and asked me to select one word from each column. The results, he would point out, would be as good as any industry buzz word or catch phrase.  He was suggesting that I use this technique to develop my own catch phrases.

What we’re beginning to see now is something quite similar - suppliers are getting together to mix and match technologies.

What combinations do you think are viable? Let’s see a blade computer combined with virtual machine software, management software for virtualized environments, storage virtualization technology and a really nice cappuccino machine. We could call it Java virtualization. Wait, I think that one is already taken.

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 12th, 2009

WSJ Cloud Computing Quiz

Posted by Dan Kusnetzky @ 3:00 am

Categories: Cloud computing/SAAS/ISP Issues, Consumer use of Virtualization, Off topic

Tags: Wall Street Journal, Cloud Computing, Virtualization, Hardware, Dan Kusnetzky

William M. Bulkeley, of the Wall Street Journal, just published an interesting quiz “How Well Do You Know… the Cloud?“. It apears that the good Mr. Bulkeley has a good grasp of cloud computing in its current stage of evolution. Although it appears that this article is not based upon a strict framework or taxonomy, it serves a really useful service. That is, introducing the concepts of cloud computing to the audience of the Wall Street Journal.

I suspect that many business decision makers would learn useful tidbits about this approach to computing by reading the article.

October 5th, 2009

Fourth type of cloud computing

Posted by Dan Kusnetzky @ 3:04 am

Categories: Cloud computing/SAAS/ISP Issues

Tags: Supplier, Cloud Computing, Virtualization, Hardware, Dan Kusnetzky

It is pretty much agreed in the industry that there are three expressions of cloud computing: software-as-a-service (SaaS), platform-as-a-service (Paas) and infrastructure-as-a-service (Iaas). Several vendors, hoping to gain some marketing and branding traction, have started to call what they’re doing “the fourth type of cloud computing.” For the most part, I don’t believe what their offering is the fourth type of cloud computing.

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September 30th, 2009

Thin client questions? HP still quiet, but Wyse replies

Posted by Dan Kusnetzky @ 3:00 am

Categories: Cloud computing/SAAS/ISP Issues, Desktop virtualization, Virtualization

Tags: Hewlett-Packard Co., Thin Client, Wyse Technology Inc., 64Kbps, Thin Clients, Hardware, Dan Kusnetzky

In the post HP Thin Client Questions I presented a number of questions that a potential HP Thin Client customer asked on September 15th and 16th. I forwarded the questions to HP’s analyst relations team to get the definitive answers. Since the questions were pretty basic (see below), I thought I’d get a quick answer and could help HP. Nearly two weeks later, I still don’t have a response from them.

Just for fun, I contacted Wyse and a few other suppliers of thin client and PC blade hardware to see what they would answer. Wyse responded nearly immediately, engaged in a dialog to discover what I needed and put together a response in less than six hours. Their answer was clear, concise and really useful. I’ve taken the liberty of reproducing their answer below. Thanks for your help Tarkan Maner, Tim Smith, Ricardo Recardo , Param Desai, Daniel Barreto and, of course, Jeff McNaught.

As the others respond, I’ll post their comments here on Virtually Speaking.

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