Citrix Synergy 2012

Trying to explain to my friends and family what it is I do is always an interesting conversation, but every time I mention I work with companies like Citrix, they immediately reply "oh, the GoToMeeting company." While that is true, it is an astute observation and an impression Citrix is out to change.

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VMware View: Not VDI

VMware coined the term VDI years ago when its virtual desktop product was so creatively named VMware VDI. Since then, VMware changed the product name to View and has been working hard to take advantage of its strong vSphere footprint inside the data center. Today, VMware announced its latest release of View which is important, but not as interesting as a few other announcements the company slid in.

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The IT Infrastructure Consumption Unit is Changing

IT will resist as long as they can, but when it comes to purchasing infrastructure for virtual computing environments and cloud computing initiatives, the do-it-yourself (DIY) model is becoming a thing of the past. Instead, the new IT consumption model is moving toward reference architectures or pre-configured solutions. Integrated computing consists of tightly integrated packages of servers, networking, and storage "glued together" by virtualization and intelligent management software designed, tested, and qualified to operate as a single unit.

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Vendor Synergies Drive Next Gen of NetApp FlexPod

Some may see the latest FlexPod from Netapp as another arrow in their quiver and the next generation of a solution that supports Microsoft System Center 2012. It is, but I see something way more interesting. It is difficult in any partnership to get two teams to work collaboratively, share a common vision and strategy, and successfully execute together. NetApp's latest announcement includes the collaboration and cooperation of FOUR vendors - FOUR! This is not an easy feat.

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Microsoft Hyper-V 3.0 Shared Nothing Live Migration

Now that Microsoft Windows Server 2012 has been officially named, it is time to start homing in on what's new and what matters. One of the features sure to get plenty of early attention is Shared Nothing Live Migration. A common observation and rising challenge IT pros share with me is the sheer cost and volume of storage that server virtualization is creating. Couple that with the fact that the majority of their implementations are focused on cost reduction and resource containment and it makes for some serious head scratching.

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Hyper-V: Hyper Adoption

I'm attending Microsoft Management Summit 2012 this week and had an interesting observation in one of my sessions. I always ask (and make a little joke out of asking) "Who is using VMware?"  and as you would expect, the majority of the room raise their hand. No surprise. I asked the same question during one of my sessions at MMS and I received the same result.

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A New Menu Item – EMC VSPEX

EMC VSPEX is further evidence that the IT infrastructure consumption model is changing. VSPEX is ultimately a new menu item for select EMC partners. From the outside, VSPEX has a consistent look of a packaged solution, but it is what is available on the inside that gets interesting. A customer will be able to customize a VSPEX based on hypervisor preference (Citrix, Microsoft, or VMware), Cisco servers, Cisco or Brocade networking, and multiple flavors of EMC storage.

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NetApp FlexPod Expands into the Midmarket

The way IT is accustomed to procuring and consuming virtual computing infrastructure is rapidly changing. Its traditional DIY (do it yourself) model is littered with risk and new integrated computing solutions take the guesswork out of infrastructure, remove the complexity, and ultimately arm IT with the ability to improve business process as opposed to spending a giant portion of their time maintaining infrastructure.

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Dell Acquires Wyse: The Software Company

Wyse??? I thought they made AS400 dump terminals.!?!?!

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Cloud is Really a Service Disguised as a Solution

Companies are desperate for knowledge when it comes to cloud. Executives want it and IT frankly is struggling with the best way to go about it or whether it even makes sense to adopt it. On the consumer side, I find myself moving more and more to the cloud. Music, photos, notes, email and even scanned-in paperwork is all in the cloud and that has made my life significantly easier and saved me time-two traits any high performance company is looking to achieve. But, taking my personal experience with the cloud into enterprise IT is not a small task. Successful cloud adoption involves:

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Fire Up Your Laptop?

“Fire up your laptop”!?!?!? I’ve lost count of how many times I have heard this expression and remain baffled by how end-users have become accustomed to and accept the fact that it can take minutes, many minutes in some cases, before a user begins to productively start work. This is nuts!

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Get Out of the Data Center Business

I just spoke with an IT executive at a large marketing and advertising firm. He has completely moved his data center to a local colocation facility. He has two cages at the facility. One cage is dedicated to the IBM Mainframe and the other to his x86 environment. About 40% of his x86 environment is virtualized with the plan to keep virtualizing systems as the opportunity presents itself.

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ROBOs Present Golden Opportunity for Desktop Virtualization

ESG recently completed research of 454 IT professionals responsible for supporting IT requirements at their organization’s ROBO (remote office branch office)sites. The research was focused on both midmarket (100 to 999 employees) and enterprise-class (1,000 or more employees) organizations from North America (30% midmarket, 70% enterprise).

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VMworld 2011: The Momentum Continues

Cloud remains the predominant marketing term in the IT industry. In one sense I like how it sparks innovation and new IT thinking but on the other hand it makes my stomach turn every time I hear it. I just completed a week in Las Vegas attending my 7th VMworld and most of what I saw was on par with my expectations. Here are a few notes of interest I walked away with:

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Oracle VM 3.0 Launch

My colleague Brian Babineau had the opportunity to attend the Oracle VM 3.0 launch where the company outlined its “Application-Driven Virtualization” strategy and solution portfolio. Although I personally have not dug into the details of the entire announcement (it is a busy time of year for anything virtualization), I wanted to share a couple Brian’s thoughts and provide some quick analysis.

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Dell Adds Integrated Computing Platform: vStart

Put the key in and take it for a ride--that is value Dell plans to deliver with vStart. A recent brief I wrote on the offering goes in to more detail, but perhaps the most compelling part is that Dell is well positioned to address the market segment that can derive the most value from these solutions.

Top 5 Considerations When Purchasing Integrated Computing Platforms

If you had a chance to look at the ESG Research Brief, Integrated Computing Trends (requires an ESG subscription), you saw that although only 10% of organizations have already deployed integrated computing platforms, two-thirds expressed some level of interest in the technology. ESG research respondents tout simplified management, reduced deployment times, and a better economic model as top benefits, but the are still concerned about vendor lock-in.

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SaaS Rising with VMware Horizon

Being tethered to a device is soon to be a burden of the future and strategies such as those incorporated into VMware App Manager start to unlock users from devices and enable device-independent access to applications. One of the drivers of this user centric model is the ongoing adoption of SaaS.

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Microsoft TechEd 2011

When attending TechEd, it's difficult to leave with a single takeaway since Microsoft covers such a broad spectrum of products and strategies at the event. Here are a few highlights that rose to the top:

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• Moving to the cloud is going to require a shift from administrating to managing IT environments. This is going to take some changes in technology, but will mostly be driven by organizational change and alignment across the various IT disciplines.

Virtualization Capacity Planning and Rightsizing

With an initial server virtualization implementation, it's relatively simple to get to the point where you see the value and want to do more, but planning for that next phase is difficult. IT professionals attending ESG's Ahead of the Curve summit were asked about some of their biggest challenges when it comes to choosing server hardware for a virtualized environment: IT organizations continue to struggle with capacity planning and rightsizing. They want to move ahead, but I often see one of two methods:

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