Tag: Virtualization (Page 2 of 3)

Circle of Innovation

May 30, 2012 / Mark Vaughn / 0 Comments

I was recently talking with a colleague about new technologies and noticed a pattern: Many of last year’s innovations in hardware are very similar to next year’s new software features. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that this IT trend is nothing new.

Ten years ago, for example, server sprawl was a very real concern. As end users demanded more servers for a particular application or task, hardware vendors turned to small-appliance form factors and blade configurations. These new server technologies helped promote denser server environments.

At first, the need for a large number of small servers was met in the physical world. Not far behind this hardware innovation came server virtualization, a software answer to the need for higher server counts. While this need was initially easier to meet with hardware, software vendors soon arose with a more efficient solution.

Fast-forward to today and there are similar IT trends. Many networking devices — from load balancers to firewalls — are now available as virtual appliances. What once required purpose-built hardware can now be run on virtual hardware and deployed almost anywhere. In fact, virtual appliances are actually becoming the preferred format for networking equipment in many data centers.

When you think about, this leap frogging of technology is really just following Moore’s Law, which states that computing power doubles every two years. Initially, when a difficult problem emerges, purpose-built hardware is coupled with custom application code to create a device that fills a very specific need. Over time, computing power and scaling matures to a point where more flexible and dynamic software can replace the hardware solution.

You can read more on this topic in my article on TechTarget’s Search Server Virtualization site at: http://searchservervirtualization.techtarget.com/news/2240150998/IT-trends-Where-hardware-innovation-leads-software-follows. As always, please come back here and leave any comments that you may have.

Saving the Best for Last

March 22, 2012 / Mark Vaughn / 0 Comments

Virtualizing tier-one applications has begun to catch on. If your virtualization strategies do not include business-critical workloads, you may want to reevaluate that decision.

Over the past three to five years, a major shift took place in server infrastructure. As budgets tightened, and virtualization technologies matured, server virtualization exploded into a perfect storm on the data center scene.

By the time most IT shops began exploring virtualization, their server environments were rife with low-end servers, which consumed rack space at an unprecedented pace, stressing data center infrastructures to their breaking points.

In many of these IT shops, the return on investment and other benefits of server virtualization, such as reduced power draw and greater resource efficiency, had an immediate effect. But many IT departments found themselves with a daunting list of servers to virtualize. Between migration lists and the constant stream of new servers, IT first attacked the “low hanging fruit,” or the easy-to-virtualize servers that presented little to no risk.

That was a good strategy, but now you are through the “low hanging fruit” and need to take a serious look at how to virtualize your tier one applications. For more on this topic, read my TechTarget article “Tier-one applications: Part of effective virtualization strategies“. Feel free to come back here and leave comments.

The Server is Dead…Long Live the Server!

January 30, 2012 / Mark Vaughn / 0 Comments

IT pros still argue over horizontal vs. vertical scaling, but the evolution of virtualization hardware appears to have subtly shifted the data center design debate to horizontal scaling vs. converged infrastructure.

Virtualization is winning the battle over installing an operating system on bare metal, and I think most people will concede that point. Not everyone has adopted virtualization, but time will soften their defenses and allow for improved virtualization and options — until all are assimilated.

But what will happen to server hardware? Do people still care about the server? Even hypervisors need a physical home, and there are still plenty of discussions on how to best architect that foundation.

To read more on this topic, jump over to my TechTarget article “Virtualization hardware and data center design: did the debate shift?”

VMware View client for the iPhone

December 30, 2011 / Mark Vaughn / 0 Comments

Disclaimer: I am an avid VMware user and I work from a VMware View 5 desktop on a regular basis.

With that being said, I am still disappointed in VMware’s lack of a View Client for the iPhone. They have created a client for the iPad, with full PCoIP support. In fact, this is a very impressive client with creative solutions to the “touchscreen to mouse” problems when using an OS like Windows XP or Windows 7 that was not created for use on a touchscreen device. Using gestures and even a virtual trackpad, navigating a Windows desktop in this client is pretty intuitive.

VMware has also released a similar client for Android, working on both Android tablets and phones. However, the iPad client WILL NOT WORK ON THE IPHONE! This is very frustrating. As I ask around within VMware, I regularly hear that there is no interest in the end-user community for an iPhone client. On that point, I have to disagree. I am not only an end-user that would love to have this client, but I regularly work with customers that are also asking for this feature. Look at almost any blog post written on the topic, and the comments will be full of people asking for VMware to provide an iPhone client.

With as much discussion as I see and hear for this, it escapes me why VMware thinks there is no interest. Is the iPhone the ideal format for accessing a VDI desktop, no. However, if you want “anywhere, anytime” access to your desktop, your smartphone is the one device you always have with you. I currently have to leave RDP enabled on my VDI desktop, which prohibits me from using some advanced PCoIP features. However, I do this to support the WYSE Pocket Cloud app on my iPhone, as that is the only way to access my desktop in a pinch. On several occasions, I have had to resort to this method for fulfilling quick requests or fixing issues prior to performing a demo.

Even if I am an anomaly, and no one else would ever use this feature, I am still surprised that VMware has not placed a higher priority on it. If nothing else, I would have thought this would be a marketing priority. Even if no one will use it, this is an item that VMware needs on the menu.

If you agree, or disagree, let me know. Hopefully, VMware is listening and will make the iPhone View client an early 2012 gift.

Mind the “Air Gap”

May 27, 2011 / Mark Vaughn / 0 Comments

I regularly work with organizations that are wary of mixing public and private workloads in a common virtualization environment. Whether it is mixing public and private workloads, mixing multiple organizations on a common virtual infrastructure or simply mixing workloads from various internal networks, there is still a lot of concern around the security aspects of this discussion. Many people still look at one physical server, and get uneasy about different workloads sharing that server. Logically, many people relate it to sharing an operating system and that is the root of many concerns. This is an easy misconception, since traditional deployments have long been just that, one operating system for each physical server. If not properly explained, virtualization remains a black box to many people and old perceptions remain in place.

This is where we, as consultants and virtualization architects, need to do a better job of explaining new technologies. In this, case, it is not even a new technology, just a real lack of education in the marketplace. In 2001, the National Security Agency (NSA) worked with VMware on a project called NetTop to develop a platform for mixing secure and non-secure workloads on a common device. Previously the NSA maintained an “Air Gap” policy of not letting servers with mixed security needs touch each other. With the NetTop project, the NSA leveraged virtualization to bring these workloads onto a common server or workstation. This was not 2 years ago, but 10 years ago. And the security measures deployed in NetTop have only been improved on since then.

In fact, in 2007, the NSA came back to VMware to develop their High Assurance Platform (HAP). I won’t pretend to know your security needs, but I know virtualization has long been used for mixing highly sensitive data by people who live and die by data security.

iPad vCenter Client

March 18, 2011 / Mark Vaughn / 0 Comments

Had to throw out a quick comment on the new iPad vCenter Client from VMware.

For over a year now, VMware has offered the vCenter Mobile Access (vCMA) appliance. I have used it internally, but it has never caught on as well as I had thought. One drawback was the lack of SSL support, and that was fixed last week. Here are some quick screenshots of vCMA in action (these were on an iPad, it is really made to be viewed on a smaller PDA or phone screen, so some screens have excess whitespace):

vCMA was a great tool, but it just got better. VMware has developed a new iPad vCenter Client that leverages the vCMA to provide an even better user interface. Like the vCMA, the iPad vCenter Client can only do about 50% of the standard functions available in the Windows vCenter Client, but they are now committed to growing this application and adding more functionality. From some of the pre-launch discussions I was able to be in, VMware is very excited about this tool and anxious to begin expanding it’s functionality. The iPad client connects through the vCMA, and I am not sure I will be exposing it to the internet any time soon. I only operate a lab, and the vCMA now has SSL support, but I have VPN access and will likely use that to allow vCMA to stay behind the firewall…for now. Here are some shots of the iPad client, and you can see how much it improves on the previous vCMA interface:

As you can see in the images above (click on any to enlarge them), you can view the stats for ESXi hosts and for the VMs from the main screen. There is a small stats icon in the upper right corner of each VM’s image that will change its image form a banner representing the OS to a stats chart. Once you drill down to a VM, you can perform start/stop/suspend/restart functions, as well as restore snapshots. You can also view recent events, monitor stats and perform tests (ping and traceroute). Not bad for a convenient app you take with you on an iPad.

Steve Herrod, CTO at VMware, officially announced the iPad vCenter Client this morning, along with a link to this article on VMware’s CTO blog site.

Eric Siebert (virtualization guru and fellow vExpert) also wrote a great post on this at vSphere-Land. Be sure to follow the “full article” and “part 2” links at the bottom of the article to get more information and installation instructions.

As great as this client is, do not feel left out if you do not have an iPad (or if you use one of those inferior tablets…Aaron ;-), you can still use the vCMA from almost any mobile browser on a cell phone or tablet. Though the interface is not as refined, it will provide the same basic functionality.

Put down the gum, and no body gets hurt

November 19, 2010 / Mark Vaughn / 0 Comments

Virtualization has introduced a HUGE change in how servers are requested and acquired. In many cases, people have begun to think of virtual servers as being a “free” or “cheap” resource that has no lead time in requests and little cost for acquisition. This is very dangerous. Keeping adequate virtual resources available is critical to realizing the value of virtualization, but allowing this “sprawl” of virtual machines to steal these resources can be a serious issue. Replenishing resources for the virtualization environment is not free, so you cannot allow the consumption of those resources to be free.

In some ways, purchasing servers moved from the concept of a server being the large boxed item in the back of the store to being the pack of gum at the check out counter. The large box requires a considerable financial investment to purchase and some logistical considerations to actual get home. You don’t buy these unless you need them, and there is some pain involved that discourages waste in these purchases. The pack of gum, you buy that on impulse on the way out the door, and you grab a few extras for later. Low investment, little pain, lots of waste.

I go into this topic in much more detail in my recent SearchServerVirtualization article “Closing the VM sprawl floodgates” at http://searchservervirtualization.techtarget.com/news/column/0,294698,sid94_gci1523796,00.html

Please, come back here after reading this article and leave your comments. This is a topic that just won’t go away. Be looking for a future post on VM Stall, and how it relates to VM Sprawl.

Don’t put the cloud cart before the virtualization horse

October 24, 2010 / Mark Vaughn / 0 Comments

The other day, I was digging into a discussion on thin provisioning, deduplication, snapshots and all of those great topics. I love these technologies, and I love to speak about them. However, after a few minutes, I came to a sad realization…I had ignored my audience and did more talking than listening.

There are a lot of very talented people in IT that have yet to begin their virtual journey. Sometimes, we can get so wrapped up in a virtual world that we forget that. When we let that happen, we lose value. This is a real paradigm change, and one that people need time to digest.

To read my entire article on this topic, please go to http://searchservervirtualization.techtarget.com/news/column/0,294698,sid94_gci1522243,00.html, then return here to leave feedback.