Archive for April, 2011

This is just a gentle reminder – I recently recieved an email for the London VMUG to say that the registration process had opened up for our “Cloudy Day”. It’s been a long time since London had a pea-souper fog, but we still get clouds occasionally!

When I last wrote about this the agenda such as it was still being fleshed out – but there’s now much more detail.

Sadly, I won’t make this VMUG as I will be out of the country at the time…

This weeks vendorwag is with Alon Yaffe of InstallFree – and its part of theme of podcasts that I have been doing with Application Virtualization vendors. Some of these guys picked up on a recent TechTarget article I did about Microsoft’s stance on virtualizing IE6. But I’m interested in the general usage case of application virtualization. Alon is a seasoned Product Management and Marketing professional with extensive experience in systems management, software configuration management and client virtualization. As ever I worked with InstallFree to learn more about their technology, before us embarking on the Q&A session. Since the recording there has been some developments – and it looks as if InstallFree will have a new release out which add this functionality:

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 my list of questions which I asked Alon to answer…

Q1. When you “encapsulate” you spin up your own “virtual environment” – it seems to me you have a particularly unique way of capturing software – could you explain how you do this, and why? A lot of application virtualization vendors recommend a clean machine every time you capture an application – is that the case with InstallFree? If your using application virtualization should it matter which OS it runs on.

Q2. You have this concept of “Shell Shadow” – can you explain what that is…?

Q3. How do you advertise the applications to users – and do you handle user rights and permissions? Do you have a big management system and backend to setup, configure and maintain…

Q4. Going forward some application virtualization vendors imagine a day when users might “self-provision” and “self-encapsulate” applications – what does that phrase mean to you?

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About a year ago I made the switch from being a WindowsPC guy to AppleGuy. It wasn’t a Road to Damascus conversion. I basically had enough free money to go all in with Apple, and I frankly I was bored with the Windows world, and just fancied the change. It was a bit like I was bored with wearing my staple black jeans and decided to wear chinos for change… Don’t consider myself a fanboy of any technology – and automatically distrust anyone who has that glazed look over their eyes like they have just come back from being lobotomized by religious cult…

Anyway, I want to share with my readership some of my experiences about using Apple Technology. The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. Perhaps your considering the “switch” (no its not as intrusive as the sex change, not that I can speak from personal experience), and I think you might appreciate a honest appraisal.

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Yesterday I was speaking at the San Diego Regional VMUG. I flew in on Tuesday, and managed to hook up with Thomas Bryant (aka kix1979) of Quest. The VMUG itself was very well attended with in excess of 350 attendees. I was speaking about the future of virtual DR, and VMware’s Site Recovery Manager. Afterwards there was a book signing event that I did, and hung out in the solutions exchange, chatting informally with folks about the DR plans and datacenter moves.

I made it to event!

Peter the chair of the VMUG welcomes everyone

The Big Old Group!

Jean Williams (she’s been in the VMUG community from the very beginning)  gets here camera out -

Terridici present on PCoIP

Some of my “fan base” waiting in a queue to speak to me, and hopefully get a free book too!

Of course, no VMUG would be complete with out the members winning some quality swag – two IPAD2s!

This weeks chinwag is with fellow author and vExpert Edward Haletky. Edward L. Haletky is the author of VMware vSphere(TM) and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing the Virtual Environment as well as VMware ESX and ESXi in the Enterprise: Planning Deployment of Virtualization Servers, 2nd Edition. Edward owns AstroArch Consulting, Inc., providing virtualization, security, network consulting and development and The Virtualization Practice where he is also an Analyst. Edward is the Moderator and Host of the Virtualization Security Podcast as well as a guru and moderator for the VMware Communities Forums, providing answers to security and configuration questions. Edward is working on new books on Virtualization.[All Papers/Publications...]

In this weeks wag we focus on mainly on security here’s the topics I we discuss…

Q1. Ed you recently updated your “… In the enterprise” book  – what inspired you to update your book, where others [ahem] have not…

Q2. VMware recently “released” the VMware Operations – what do you make it of it – is it a substantive release or merely product rebundling & rebranding exercise?

Q3. You seem a very security oriented guy – I remember you picking up a VMware View guy on the communities podcast about certificate vulnerabilities. What is it about the cloud (public or private) – that keeps you awake at night from a security perspective?

Q4. You seem to have picked up on the concern of “proving identity” in the cloud… What do you mean by this, and what technologies (if any) do you think will help or hinder…?

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

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Click at the graphic above to register!

The #lonvmug steering committee is very pleased to annouce that their “Cloud Day” agenda is now available, and registrations to attend the event are now open. This London VMUG first attempt at an all day event – starting at 10am and finishing 5pm. It will involve multiple tracks as well as lab session on both using and configuring VMware’ vCloud Director technology.

Lab A – Consuming Cloud resources from VMware vCloud Director
This lab is tailored to provide a user’s view of consuming compute resource from the cloud.  It provides an insight into the ability provide resources via a self-service portal deploying virtual machines via vApps within private virtual datacenters.
Lab B – Administrating VMware vCloud Director
This lab provides the administrators view of vCloud Director.  The lab contains a virtual center server, vCloud Director server and an ESX host to create compute resources within the cloud.  It provides the ability to define different compute services in the form of vApp’s which can then be published within the vCloud Catalogue.  This also enables the administrator to define different.

I think the highlight speakers will be:

Massimo re Ferre, Making sense of vShield & vCD for the “average Joe”

and

Stuart Radnidge, Rethinking Infrastructure

Sadly, I won’t be able to make the event as I will be in Palo Alto at the time with VMware…

This weeks vendorwag is a bit delayed, you might have noticed there was no chinwag or vendorwag last week. That’s because I was busy in Salt Lake City/Portland presenting and meeting with customers for mstates.com

Anyway, this week vendorwagggie continues a new theme which is all about application virtualization, and topic that received some traction after I aim a broadside at Microsoft’s policy on not-supporting the virtualization of IE6.

My vendorwaggie is Lee Murphy of Spoon (formerly Xenocode) – Lee Murphy is a Partner Integration Engineer at Spoon.  He helps organizations like Autodesk and the US Marine Corps migrate their software from traditional installed applications to cloud-based virtual applications. Spoon had recent new direction, where they continue to service their enterprize business – whilst at the same time becoming provider for applications that any user can subscribe to, and have common applications streamed to their desktop. Here’s a bit of blub:

Named by Virtualization Review as one of the top two companies to follow in 2011, Spoon is a pioneer in application virtualization and cloud computing technologies. Spoon enables users to launch desktop applications from the web with no install, so you can test and use applications instantly, wherever you are. Today Spoon.net has over a thousand apps available for launch from the cloud with a simple browser plugin. Imagine what’s coming next. Spoon technology helps enterprises centrally manage, update, and deploy applications. Spoon Server lets you host and manage cloud-based apps on your own networks and servers.  The easy-to-use Spoon Studio tool lets you convert existing applications into virtual applications that are never installed, but behave and interact like installed applications. Spoon virtualization runs applications in an isolated environment for conflict-free execution, and can be distributed on public and private clouds.

I spent sometime with the Spoon guys to learn more about their technology, and then we lined up the vendorwag for a recording. Here’s the questions I asked them:

Q. You recently had a company name change designed to make your more “consumer” friendly. Does that mean Spoon intends to focus on the mass-market more, than enterprise IT market?

Q. Would you say that “application virtualization” like say “replication” in the storage arena is no longer a product, but a commodity? With Spoon online isn’t the model changing to one of selling service than selling software…?

Q. It seems with most application virtualization – its up to the end user to do a lot of leg work to find out the best way to “capture” an application. What is Spoon doing to help?

Q. How does Spoon advertise/publish the final application to the users environment. Do you see this changing in the future.

Q. If we thinking about applications delivered from the web or cloud – it isn’t just about the application – its about data as well. Is Spoon investigating opportunities in this direction too?

Q. Many of the application virtualization vendor say you must ‘record’ an app on the OS you intend to run the virtualization application. Exactly how virtualized are virtual applications?

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.

Podcast Video Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (9)

It’s the end of my financial year, and I’ve in the last couple of months started writing a new version of the SRM book. So its with great pleasure that I can now announce that the PDF version of the SRM 4.0 book will free to download from this date. You can still order a hard-copy of the book from LULU if you so wish at cost price. Of course you welcome to make your own donation to UNICEF should you wish.

I will start totting up how much money I raised in total for UNICEF, and will make a donation within the next couple of days.

Enjoy! Click the cover!

PDF Version

Here’s some pictures of the Leeds VMUG going on today…

To register click the big graphic above….

Well, its that time again. I think this might be my 4th User Summit in Charlotte, North Carolina. Last year I was there on a panel with Chad Sakac, Vaughn Stewart and Scott Lowe – and previous years I’ve delivered keynotes and being a “panel session” discussion with VMware luminaries. The agenda is still being worked on – but already there’s an impressive line up including many directly from VMware. There’s many speaker slots to be filled, with four different parallel tracks including as labs as well. Session lined up include…

• Cloud in the Real World (VMware)
• Enterprise application deployment strategies with vCloud Director (VMware)
• Automating vSphere with PowerCLI a Primer (VMware)
• A Practical Guide to vCenter Operations (VMware)
• VMware View Reference Architecture (VMware)
• Transitioning to ESXi (VMware)