Archive for January, 2011

Vendorwag with Mike – DynamicOps – Leslie Muller [EPISODE 43]

Friday, January 28th, 2011

This weeks vendorwag is with cloud automation vendor DynamicOps – I’m talking to Leslie Muller who is the company’s CTO and Founder. Here’s his bio from the DynamicOps website:

As CTO, Leslie Muller is responsible for the company’s technical strategy and product architecture. Leslie has over 18 years of commercial experience as an entrepreneur, developer, chief architect, and executive leader with deep systems management experience and a successful track record in definition and delivery of enterprise software products. Prior to founding DynamicOps, Leslie was Sr Technologist at Credit Suisse, responsible for defining IT virtualization strategy and coordinating deployment. Prior to joining Credit Suisse, Leslie founded several successful startup companies including Configuresoft which provided enterprise configuration management and SeNTry which was purchased by NetIQ and is now part of Microsoft’s Operation Manager product. Leslie is intensely passionate about technology and has specialized for the past 10 years, in the application of leading edge technologies to solving of complex problems in the enterprise management domain.

As ever if you want the MP3 version of the chinwag it’s here – but to be honest it’s much easier to subscribe to the MP3 podcast via iTunes which means the podcast will be download when ever I do them. Alternatively, if you would prefer the videos on your iPAD/iPOD/iPhone – you subscribe to the video version of the Chinwags there (beware they are big!). If you don’t use iTunes, here’s the generic RSS Feed link

Here’s the list of questions I asked on the call.

Q. I understand the DynamicOps came from Credit Suisse – as a in-house solution that then became a company in its own right. How much do you think this history has helped the product and company – how is its development history different from other ISVs?

Q. So far much other talk surround cloud-computing – has focused on virtualization – DynamicOps supports both physical and virtual deployments – what role does physicalization have in cloud-computing. Why do you support physical machines? How does the physical deployment process work given the complexities of raising purchase orders, racking up kit and so on…

Q. Some cloud-computing providers use flat image based templates as the deployment method – what does DynamicOps use, and what limits do you see if a “template-only” deployment process?

Q. What Barriers/Challenges do customers face in adopting DynamicOps and the cloud-computing model generally?

Q. In our webex you said that private cloud deployments are bigger than public cloud ones – why do you think that is?

Q. In our webex you said “Customers need to automate 10% of the functionality, they use 90% of the time”. Does that mean there’s is 90% of the functionality of virtualization products they simply don’t use/need?

Q. Does DynamicOps require vCenter? Does DynamicOps then inherit the dependency and availability issues that come with vCenter?

Q. What does REST stand for, and what does it do?

Q. What future product functionality are you planning?

If you want to see the video in hi-resolution and full density – you can open it here.

The Future of SRM – Part Deux

Wednesday, January 26th, 2011

This little missive concerns other functionality of SRM which we may see in the future… It’s much more general than the 1st part which focused on VMware’s HBR (Host Based Replication) technology. You can see some tantalizing hints at the future direction of SRM such as being a tool facilatate site migrations, perhaps even been used as engine to move VMs into the cloud. I also take a peek at some of improvements in re-IPing virtual machines, and VM Groups.

Read on McDuff

Chinwag with Mike – Jase McCarty [Episode 42]

Thursday, January 20th, 2011

This weeks chinwag is with Jase McCarty and was recorded just before Xmas. Like me he’s a vExpert and has been using VMware techologies for some time. Jase recently joined EMC as part of the vSpecialist team. He was asked last minute to be a part of VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center (ISBN 1420070274) in 2008 by David Marshall and Steve Beaver. Then in early 2009, he was asked by Matthew Johnson to be a part of VMware vSphere 4 Administration Instant Reference (ISBN 0470520728).

If you want to follow him – he’s very active on Twitter

As ever if you want the MP3 version of the chinwag it’s here – but to be honest it’s much easier to subscribe to the MP3 podcast via iTunes which means the podcast will be download when ever I do them. Alternatively, if you would prefer the videos on your iPAD/iPOD/iPhone – you subscribe to the video version of the Chinwags there (beware they are big!). If you don’t use iTunes, here’s the generic RSS Feed link

In the chinwag we talk about Jase’s recent move to EMC, and what he was doing before the move. I also ask if Jase will have the time to keep up his blogging and book output. Jase said in his email he worked on the “application” side – so I ask him about how saw the terms – application, infrastructure, architecture mean to him. Jase has been involved in virtualization since 1999, so asked him to take us on trip down memory lane, and asked Jase what advice he would give to some who was new to virtualization. We also we have a little chat about cloud and licensing…

Virtualisation in 2010: VDI and the Cloud gain traction

Monday, January 17th, 2011

Well, I guess every pundit likes to look back on the previous year and do some kind of review of the previous year – and I’m not different. For me the big stories were the rise and rise of VDI, and increased serious talk about cloud computing.

Read on McDuff

The Future of SRM…

Monday, January 17th, 2011

This article concerns the future of SRM. It’s a bit of an exclusive, as I got special clearance from VMware to put it together. Of course, I’m very close to the SRM folks, and VMware generally – so it wasn’t that hard. It’s worth saying that none of this stuff is commitment from VMware, and there are no time frames in the article. But it will give you an idea of where things are heading.

Read on McDuff…

ThinApp and IE6 EULA…

Monday, January 17th, 2011

Well, I’m back in the saddle after my weeks holiday in the Canary Island. This week I’m in London attending a Microsoft course about virtualization of desktop. That’s somewhat ironic given that one of my articles on TechTarget recently got a lot of traction on twitter – I was named checked even by legendary Brian Madden…

In case you don’t know Microsoft sent letters to folks telling them that using application virtualization to virtualize IE6. Apparently its against support and the license. I take a pretty forthright attitude on the issue – although I’m not responsible for the title!!!

To hell with Microsoft’s rule against IE virtualization

Vendorwag with Mike – UShareSoft – James Weir (Founder) [Episode 41]

Tuesday, January 4th, 2011

This week’s Vendorwag is with UShareSoft’s James Weir. James is CTO and co-founder of UShareSoft, responsible for the company’s technology vision, strategy and activities. He has over 13 years experience in operating systems and middleware, specializing in SaaS platforms, cloud computing and virtualisation. Prior to co-founding UShareSoft, James held several software development positions at Sun Microsystems and GEC Marconi.

In case you don’t know – UShareSoft’s UForge Appliance Factory enables users to quickly ramp their software to the cloud by packaging it as a self-contained, cloud-ready image or vApp. UForge automates the creation and maintenance of “ready-to-run” software appliances and templates that can be instantly deployed on physical, virtual or cloud environments…

As ever if you want the MP3 version of the chinwag it’s here – but to be honest it’s much easier to subscribe to the MP3 podcast via iTunes which means the podcast will be download when ever I do them. Alternatively, if you would prefer the videos on your iPAD/iPOD/iPhone – you subscribe to the video version of the Chinwags there (beware they are big!). If you don’t use iTunes, here’s the generic RSS Feed link

If you want to see the video in hi-resolution and full density – you can open it here.

Here’s the list of questions I asked on the call.

Q. Tell me a little about how the company got started..
Q. In our call you said you didn’t do “provisioning”. The interesting thing is that word seemed to mean one thing to me, and another to UShareSoft. So what does the word “provisioning” mean to you guys?
Q. I was intrigued at how the product has a “Bill of Materials”. At the time I assumed that this meant there would be some kind of “ChargeBack” model – is that a direction you would like to go in?
Q. I forgot how ask how you handle networking – do you create VLANs/PortGroups on-demand, and use some kind of appliance to achieve multi-tenancy – How do you stop multiple VMs coming up with same IP?
Q. Some “cloud director” technologies – are solely dependent on “templates” for creating new VMs – Does UShareSoft, and what are the limitations of using templates in this way?
Q. What’s your target market – private clouds, public clouds, Servicing the Service Provider market?
Q. Future directions – at the moment you can add RPMs to linux – what other customization do you want to do in the future…. Currently your a Linux only solution – what plans do you have for support Microsoft as guest-operating system?

vSphere Troubleshooting Training from TrainSignal

Tuesday, January 4th, 2011

David Davis,  new vSphere Troubleshooting video training course from Train Signal has been released today. This course took him 3 months to create, it’s almost 14 hours, and it’s made up of 30 videos. Like all their training, it’s available via streaming online video (iPad compatible) and in the DVD offline format. In this course, David educate’s viewers on how to troubleshoot vSphere networking, storage, management processes (and much more), from the GUI but especially from the CLI. The new vSphere Troubleshooting course will be part of an upcoming VCAP-DCA training package so he has covered all topics related to troubleshooting on the DCA blueprint. Even if viewers aren’t interested in the VCAP-DCA certification, he designed the course so that it is an excellent resource to learn how to solve virtual infrastructure trouble.

You can see a sample of one of the videos here – http://www.vmwarevideos.com/vsphere-troubleshooting-video-how-to-restore-network-vmware-esxi

(more…)

BriForum Europe 2011: Save £200 off your admission fee!

Tuesday, January 4th, 2011

BriForum Europe, taking place 10-11 May at the home stadium of the Chelsea Football Club in London, is the most advanced, technical, hands-on desktop and application virtualisation event in 2011. Top-notch industry experts led by Brian Madden, as well as leading solution providers, and hundreds of your peers from across the globe will converge to share the latest tips, tricks and verified techniques around this constantly evolving technology. Walk away being able to do your job better through improved management, lower costs, and ensuring all desktops/laptops are secure and compliant. Register by 4 February and save 200 GBP off your admission fee!

Ya puedes descargarte el libro: VMware Site Recover Manager 4.0 en español

Monday, January 3rd, 2011

n un post publicado en el mes de marzo, hicimos publica la intención de traducción al español el libro de un amigo, colega y profesional como la copa de un pino, Mike Laverick, el cual saco al mercado el libro Administrando VMware Site Recovery Manager 4.0 en inglés.

Hoy, y gracias a profesionales desinteresados como tú, sacamos el libro Administrando VMware Site Recovery Manager 4.0 en español a la venta en Lulu.com, librerías muy especializadas y posteriormente en Amazon.com

En palabras del propio Angel, uno de nuestros colaboradores clave en este proyecto:

Después de casi 200 horas de trabajo, 400 páginas y casi 100.000 palabras, hemos terminado.

Ciertamente, hoy puedo decir con toda certeza que todo el esfuerzo ha valido mucho la pena.

Personalmente, estoy muy orgulloso del trabajo realizado, no solo por los voluntarios que han colaborado y participado de una forma desinteresada en este proyecto , también porque todos aquellos que decidan comprar el libro en formato tapa blanda – también está disponible a un precio súper reducido en formato ebook - estarán ayudando con ello a muchos niños que necesitan mucha ayuda.

Como sabéis, el 100% de las ventas generadas por este libro, se destinaran a la organización elegida por nuestros colaboradores, que no es otra que UNICEF.

Este es el listado de los voluntarios y profesionales que han colaborado en el proyecto para que sirva desde aquí como reconocimiento público por su profesionalidad, esfuerzo y dedicación:

Ángel Arias Pérez – Cádiz
Miguel Ángel Alonso Pomar – Zaragoza
Salvador Biot Cabrera – Valencia
Santiago Fernández Muñoz – Sevilla
José María González – Madrid & Dublin
Albert Gris y Jose Maria Gris – Barcelona
Jonathan Lama López – Barcelona
Gabriel Maciel – Canadá
Vicente Orera Longares – Zaragoza
Andrés Prieto Antón – León
Pablo C. Reyes López – Ciudad de Guatemala
Joan Riera Gascons – Gerona
José Ruelas Casas – Ciudad de México
Santiago Gonzalez Ayçaguer – Uruguay

Sin duda alguna, hoy es un día muy importante para la comunidad de virtualización en general y un día muy especial para estos profesionales y colaboradores.

Estoy convencido que los niños más desfavorecidos, de este nuestro planeta tierra, a los que habéis ofrecido vuestra ayuda desinteresada con esta iniciativa y a los que irán destinados el 100% de los beneficios de las ventas de este libro, se sentirán muy orgullosos de ustedes, tanto o más de lo que ya lo estoy yo.

Ha sido un placer haber trabajado con ustedes.



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