Avastu Blog: Sustainable Global Clouds

My quick analysis: When you want to encapsulate everything in your data center in one box and call it "VDC-OS", it is wither a great ambition or a fool's dream. Why a great ambition? xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx Why a fool's dream? xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx Maritz passed us both by, though, by declaring not only that VMware would continue as the high-end virtualization vendor of choice, but that the entire IT ecosystem was evolving past its dependence on the operating system into a kind of mesh world in which applications, data, servers and security are all handled behind the scenes and IT departments would have godlike powers of integration and management based on cloud computing, virtualization and a firm reliance on VMware management technology. That's a bold claim no matter how often it's been made (by Novell, IBM, Microsoft, HP and others, under various buzzwords and in various guises over the years). Microsoft, in fact, is making the same claim again (though ...

Q: Tell us about Hyper9? A: Hyper9 is a company that is dedicated to helping ease the complexity of virtualization management. Our product automates and consolidates many of the manual processes that VI administrators confront in their daily routine. Manual processes such as console hell -- the experience of having 25-40 consoles open on a single screen in order to diagnose and solve problems such as performance issues. Virtualization administrators are also forced to use multiple spreadsheets to keep track of virtual machines, and then have to use a manual process like a hierarchical tree view in order to find VMs. Ultimately, we are trying to address those issues that cause VI administrators the greatest amount of pain; and we will continue to evolve the product to solve an even greater number of problems as they occur in the maturing virtualization market. Q: What are you announcing at VMworld 2008 in Vegas? A: We are launching the first Beta version of our Hyper9 solut...

Today at VMworld in Las Vegas, Skytap, Inc., a leading provider of cloud-based virtual infrastructure solutions, announced it has joined the VMware vCloud Initiative to participate in developing an integrated set of services via standard APIs that allow the seamless extension of traditional IT into the cloud. Skytap's existing cloud-based Virtual Lab platform enables organizations to adopt a "hybrid" IT model whereby cloud resources can be used to replace existing high-cost, dynamic environments such as application quality assurance (QA), pre-production, training and IT prototyping environments. By joining the VMware vCloud Initiative, Skytap will work closely with VMware on standardized APIs to ensure easy migration of virtual environments from onsite IT to the cloud. "A common misconception people have about cloud computing is that it has to be an all or nothing decision," said Theresa Lanowitz, founder of analyst firm voke. "Skytap's API and advanc...

LAS VEGAS (VMworld 2008, booth #759) – September 15, 2008 - VMLogix , Inc., a leading provider of virtual lab automation solutions that help software companies and IT organizations leverage virtualization to consolidate lab infrastructure and automate build and test processes, today announced VMLogix StageManager™, a hypervisor-agnostic solution that provides staging of applications and services for testing and deployment into production. StageManager will allow users to quickly stage applications and services – delivering testing performance under production environment conditions, helping manage new application and service rollouts including patch and upgrade management, and archiving a working production configuration set-up. “Deploying virtual servers can be a wonderful way to increase the flexibility and agility of an organization's testing procedures," said Dan Kusnetzky, president and principal analyst of the Kusnetzky Group LLC. "The freedom this technolog...

I spoke to FalconStor guys a few days before the laucnh of the news and will be collaborating with them closely as SRM gaining traction within lots of our Customers across EMEA. For now here's the news: MELVILLE, N.Y., Sept. 15, 2008 —FalconStor Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: FALC), the provider of TOTALLY Open™ data protection solutions, today announced FalconStor ® Network Storage Server (NSS) Virtual Appliance for VMware ESX, enabling customers to transform their existing direct-attached storage into an iSCSI virtual SAN appliance for VMware environments. The FalconStor NSS Virtual Appliance has been validated by the VMware Ready Virtual Appliance program, assuring customers of its full compatibility with VMware. By offering trial downloads and a free limited version of FalconStor NSS Virtual Appliance, FalconStor is helping to accelerate adoption of virtualization throughout the small-to-medium sized business (SMB) and remote-office markets. "FalconStor is delivering...

Enterprises looking for ways to expand their on-premise infrastructure to add capacity on demand, as well as SMBs or workgroups wanting a fully outsourced infrastructure, are investigating cloud computing. Many of today’s solutions have issues like proprietary application platforms that require redevelopment time to function off-premise, inability to move to another provider if SLAs aren’t met, and long lead times to move or set up new environments. Introducing VMware vCloud, the only cloud solution built on the reliability and advanced technology of VMware products and its robust partnerships. Official press

VMware will be talking about analytics and intelligence in its own ESX, not Data Center. Something which is the worry of a typical data center manager who has all kinds of hyprvisors and desktop and streaming virtualization technologies. This move, although deceptive in doing the Data Center talk, only focuses on its ESX server. Since VMware hasn't found a way get out of the hypervisor arena, it will do some talk of Cloud Computing, some talk on some enhancements to its interface, some mention of ESX 4.0 beta. All some introductions with some upgrades. Anyways here's Fortisphere CTO's response: "I'm glad that VMware is validating the market need for better visibility, control and automation. It is a pain we are seeing in the market today (every day) and it is front and center with customers that have deployed production infrastructure. I believe the move is a positive one for traditional virtualization management companies like Fortisphere as it will eventually a...

I am not traveling this time to U.S. I did get my free pass but just cannot go there as a lot is happening here in EMEA. I am helping setup the EMEA version of CloudCamp with Reuven and others here. Obviously that is taking all of my attention. I love to meet up with all my friends and investors across the world in VMworld. Most of them stay in touch with me and I too call them up once in a while. This is a good thing. And I really hate it that I am not going to be there. But also since my session (I had some really cool one on Virtualization 4.0 and Cloud Computing) was rejected by some folks at the VMworld committee, I decided to not attend it either. It makes no sense for me to hang around there as an attendee. I am kind of disappointed but I also understand that all those partners who have paid out of their increasingly emptying pockets must also get a session block for themselves. It is a totally different thing that not many folks will be watching them speak. Many VMware folks to...

Well given the pace the virtualization industry is exploding, looking jus ta few weeks back seems like ages ago. Anyways we missed out on Citrix Synergy as I wasn't able to travel for personal reasons. Anyways here's our intro with Nicholas, our good friend, who covered VMworld for us in France, 2008. Good news for others to note is that VMworld 2009 Europe will also be in Cannes (So I hear) Also, VMworld Asia is coming, so stay tuned!

This is, in my opinion, the most engaging discussion of all the discussions I have engaged in. Who did participate? This video is very refreshing and thought provoking. You must watch it! Mike Laverick : Mike is a trainer and is also co-authoring the ADTG Part Deux with Scott and Ron, hopefully the book will get out in April. And I am secretly hoping to get a free copy. But hopnestly I'll buy the book as these guys have been doing a great job. Also please visit Mike's RTFM site and do please also contribute to his blog by throwing in few bucks for all the ahrd work this guy has put in. David Marshall : Another hardcore professional, who has been into virtualization for quite a while. I have been communicating with David for quite a while and it was real fun to have finally met him. David has written a book, blogs on Infoworld and owner of VMblog.com . David too is working on his book on VI3. Alex Pelster : A long time veteran at AtosOrigin and a virtualization nut at heart...

Microsoft is beginning to rise up to the Hyper-V challenge and by Q2 2008 a lot will start moving, and in a big way. In fact I had someone asking me for Hyper-V deployment yesterday in their production environment! A big customer and I pointed them in the right direction but also told them that they will have to wait for the GA ;-). Microsoft's Hyper-V is going to be central in its own Cloud-Ready data centers. The future virtualization will look a lot different than the carve by OS approach we see today. Anyways so I got in touch with couple of my Microsoft buddies in U.S and they invited BrainForce guys to do a quick chat with me. Here I am chatting up with Albert Hooyer, Product Manager at Brainforce from The Netherlands. These interviews were conducted for Virtualization.com portal.

Talking to Simon is always a pleasure. A gentleman with deep understanding of the dynamics of the enterprise. With XenServer, XenDesktop (soon to be GA) and XenApp, Citrix has a rock solid foundation within your data center. There are two things that make our activities for our employer worthwhile, people and the applications they work with and Citrix has been doing that for nearly two decades! Here's our chat, please watch the whole interview as it is a great conversation, at least I enjoyed it! More at Virtualization.com

This one was an interesting interview. You'd love to sit down, have a cup of coffee or beer, get your comfy headsets and listen to our conversation. You'll love it! More at Virtualization.com

Virtualization Life Cycle Management is a lot more than just acquiring a company and calling your product life cycle manager. Embotics CEO explains what it takes to walk that path and what VMLM is all about. and the V-Commander demo is here: More at Virtualization.com

Susannah addresses some important issues around desktop virtualization. At many points I seem to talk too much, I apologize for the same. (Just cannot curb the enthousiasm) More at Virtualization.com

Tamar Newberger is a great woman. She has strong pointers and they need to be understood. I see these sentiments across several vendors like Symantec (we were honored to have met some of them), Blue Lane (Greg's interview will soon be up). We have also interviewed the new start-up, that's still in Stealth Mode and that particular interview will be published on March , the 17th with the release of their product. Security is a must, you don't have it, you're in for a shock in the very near future. More at Virtualization.com

We'll be relinking to the Virtualization.com videos, which I covered for Toon. Here's our interview with Mike.

Cannes , France , February 26, 2008 – Embotics, the Virtualization Lifecycle Management™ Company, today announced the Embotics Partner Program, a network of technology and solution partnerships in the North America , Europe and Asia . The program aims to provide Embotics Value-Added Resellers (EVARs), Embotics Technology Alliance Partners (ETAPs), OEMs and vertical-market solution providers with a first-to-market advantage by supplying customers with comprehensive control software that is designed to identify, track, secure and manage enterprise-wide virtual machines (VMs). The ETAP program is for partners looking to establish a formal technology partnership with Embotics, and is ideal for both small and large partners interested in everything from certification to integration to co-marketing. The EVAR program is a multi-tier reseller program for companies providing virtualization consulting and support services. EVARs enhance their solutions with Embotics’ technology and...

Tomorrow I'll be chatting with the CEO, Amir Ben-Efraim and ask what they do. Altor Networks site is here.

I get too many emails (from my virtualization buddies, both peers and Industry leaders) so I thought I'd just post it here ;-) Thats 3rd floor and ask for a absolutely gorgeous dude, meaning me ;-) Or drop a note at the reception just next to the room. See you guys there ;-)