tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41892650458764793272024-02-06T20:16:02.117-08:00VM YakVM Yakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17380032840523409457noreply@blogger.comBlogger38125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4189265045876479327.post-64130192181271067002011-08-12T11:44:00.001-07:002011-08-12T11:44:14.145-07:00XenServer Linked-In Group<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">There is now a LinkedIn group for those end users running or evaluating Citrix XenServer in the City Of London.</span></div><div><br></div><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=4027871&trk=hb_side_g">XenServer & The City, London LinkedIn Group</a><div><br><div>It's a great resource, you might want to give it a look.</div></div>VM Yakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17380032840523409457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4189265045876479327.post-75230132074512391382011-07-19T11:53:00.001-07:002011-07-19T11:53:39.974-07:00Hyper-Dense Virtualization<!--StartFragment--><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:14.0pt;line-height:18.0pt;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana;color:#262626;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Hyper-dense virtualization<br> </span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana;color:#262626;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Whether building a Cloud, running a web farm, hosting 100's of sequel databases or serving up 1000's of virtual desktops; hyper-dense virtualization enables you to run more of everything more VMs, more connections, more clients.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:14.0pt;line-height:18.0pt;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Verdana;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana; color:#262626;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">What do we mean by Hyper-dense?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>VM ratios of 5:1 even 8:1 are common; our experience is that a ratio of 10:1 is fairly easily achievable on well setup of the shelf commodity hardware. At VMC our objective is to start at what is considered by many as very dense 20:1 with 50:1 or even 100:1 being considered normal and our objectives being to go far beyond that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Without compromising performance, we believe it is not a case that you can have performance or density, we believe that it is perfectly possible to have both. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:14.0pt;line-height:18.0pt;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Verdana;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana; color:#262626;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-no-proof:yes"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype id="_x0000_t75" coordsize="21600,21600" o:spt="75" o:preferrelative="t" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f" stroked="f"> <v:stroke joinstyle="miter"/> <v:formulas> <v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"/> <v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"/> <v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"/> <v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"/> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"/> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"/> <v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"/> <v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"/> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"/> <v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"/> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"/> <v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"/> </v:formulas> <v:path o:extrusionok="f" gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect"/> <o:lock v:ext="edit" aspectratio="t"/> </v:shapetype><v:shape id="Picture_x0020_1" o:spid="_x0000_i1025" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="VMs per server 09.png" style='width:254pt;height:266pt;visibility:visible; mso-wrap-style:square'> <v:imagedata src="file://localhost/Users/stevebarnett1/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip/0clip_image001.png" o:title="VMs per server 09.png"/> <v:textbox style='mso-rotate-with-shape:t'/> </v:shape><![endif]--><img width="256" height="268" src="file://localhost/Users/stevebarnett1/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip/0clip_image002.png" alt="VMs per server 09.png" v:shapes="Picture_x0020_1"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Verdana;mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;color:#262626;mso-ansi-language:EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:14.0pt;line-height:18.0pt;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Verdana;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana; color:#262626;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">This chart from IDCs 2009 report on virtualization trends showed the split that their researchers had uncovered amongst 400 US enterprises using virtualization technologies.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:14.0pt;line-height:18.0pt;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana;color:#262626;mso-ansi-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Verdana;mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana;color:#262626; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><br clear="ALL" style="page-break-before:always"> </span></b><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:14.0pt;line-height:18.0pt;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana;color:#262626;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Achieving Hyper-density<br> </span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana;color:#262626;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">We achieve these extreme densities by employing a number of tactics:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom:14.0pt;mso-add-space: auto;text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:18.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1; mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Verdana;mso-fareast-font-family: Verdana;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana;color:#262626;mso-ansi-language:EN-US"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">1.<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt; font-family:Verdana;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana;color:#262626;mso-ansi-language: EN-US">Focusing on the physical specification of our systems; designing them without compromise and in such a way as to remove contention between components ensuring that the optimum mixture of real CPU cores, RAM and Network IO is in place to deliver maximum firepower where and when it's needed. We design up to a specification - not down to a price point<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom:14.0pt;mso-add-space: auto;text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:18.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1; mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Verdana;mso-fareast-font-family: Verdana;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana;color:#262626;mso-ansi-language:EN-US"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">2.<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt; font-family:Verdana;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana;color:#262626;mso-ansi-language: EN-US">VMC systems are delivered as turnkey Appliances; with the hypervisor preloaded and tuned to the platform, we have spent several man years learning how to get the most out of configuring and tuning the various hardware, firmware and software components so our customers don't have to.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom:14.0pt;mso-add-space: auto;text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:18.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1; mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Verdana;mso-fareast-font-family: Verdana;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana;color:#262626;mso-ansi-language:EN-US"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">3.<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt; font-family:Verdana;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana;color:#262626;mso-ansi-language: EN-US">We provide software an orchestration layer; Virtual Estate Manager watches over the physical and virtual performance of the appliances, manages logs, issues reports & alerts, identifies resource bottle-necks and offers guidance on allocation of resources to ensure you get the most out the systems; whilst ensuring that you maintain healthy safety margins on all resources.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Verdana;mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana;color:#262626; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Supported Hypervisors</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Verdana; mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;color:#262626;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><br> We currently support latest versions of VMware ESX/ESXi and Citrix Xenserver </span><!--EndFragment--> VM Yakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17380032840523409457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4189265045876479327.post-10914993970864858852011-07-07T04:27:00.001-07:002011-07-07T04:27:42.485-07:00More than just Cloud Music Services threatened by Kazaa founders patent ruling<font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">Cast your minds back a few years along with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niklas_Zennstr%C3%B6m">Niklas Zennstrom</a> (of Skype fame) an Australian businessman </span></font></font><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Bermeister">Kevin Bermeister</a> was one of the key players at the Kazaa; the early days peer-to-peer site. Bermeister and Kazaa finally fell foul of the Australian Federal courts in 2006.</span></font></font></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><br></span></font></font></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">Quote: </span></font></font><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">In the 'Kazaa' case (</span></font></font></i><em><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">Universal Music vs Kazaa Networks</span></font></font></em><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">), the Federal Court found that Bermeister and five others associated with the companies Sharman Networks and Altnet had "knowingly allowed </span></font></font></i><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazaa"><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; ">Kazaa</span></font></font></i></a> users to illegally swap copyrighted songs."</span></font></font></i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><br></span></font></font></span></div><div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">Well here is a turn-up for the books.</span></font></font></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"> T</span></font></font></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">he Music worlds Nemesis </span></font></font></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">has been granted three new US patents which </span></font><a href="http://www.itnews.com.au/News/262659,aussie-eyes-apple-google-over-cloud-music-patents.aspx"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">his company plans to use to demand license fees from hosted music download service providers</span></font></a><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"> such as </span></font><a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/07/07/kazaa_founder_patent_portfolio/"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">Apple and Google</span></font></a><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">. Oh the irony; the same music industry that is relying on sales through only line stores is now at the mercy of the guys they tried to have stuck in the State Pen'</span></font></font></span></div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><br></span></font></font></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">But more seriously the rulings could effect the wider delivery of content delivery industry as CDNs </span></font></font></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, FreeSans, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 21px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">work by storing content all over the world, and as a user requests content, working out the copy that can be delivered most efficiently. De-duplication of content helps make the process more efficient – e.g., by making sure that each node in a CDN only holds</span></font></span><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"> </span></font><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, FreeSans, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 21px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">only</span></font></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, FreeSans, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 21px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"> a single copy of any particular file; while access control touches on the subscriber interaction. All of which can be considered by legal minded folks to be covered by the patents. </span></font></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, FreeSans, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 21px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><br></span></font></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, FreeSans, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 21px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">Also, I wonder how this will work within organisations and vendors who will want to use distributed data techniques in Cloud type environments which share similar characteristics.</span></font></span></div>VM Yakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17380032840523409457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4189265045876479327.post-15376092027153194562011-06-15T03:37:00.001-07:002011-06-15T03:37:14.729-07:00Virtualisation to Hyper V: Inside the Royal Mail's Internal CloudThe register looks inside the UK's Royal Mail Internal Cloud<div><br></div><div>If you get 5 minutes take a look and grab the white paper.</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://whitepapers.theregister.co.uk/s/821/3ca1b/306/9064ab76?td=m-ev">http://whitepapers.theregister.co.uk/s/821/3ca1b/306/9064ab76?td=m-ev</a></div>VM Yakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17380032840523409457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4189265045876479327.post-50004373267232252672011-06-14T04:56:00.000-07:002011-06-14T05:01:10.287-07:00VMC Benchmark Update 6 months on<style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Times; panose-1:2 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0cm; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {mso-style-noshow:yes; color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Times;">Well, it's been 6 months since we reached the top of the leader-board at Geekbench and we're stil there. Check out the comparative performance data for yourself.</span><b style=""><span style="font-family: Times;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><b style=""><span style="font-family: Times;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Times;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"">Benchmark results</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Times;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Times;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"">Some recently published the results from Geekbench give comparative performance and ratings of VMC Server Virtualization Appliances’ vs the main stream.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Times;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Times;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"">Most of the ‘Hot-systems” tested on Geekbench are Intel Xeon based so in example 2 we also included an AMD vs AMD to give some idea of how much more punch our systems deliver due to the HPC approach we take to system design, component selection and tuning.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Times;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Times;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"">1) TOP Of the Charts VMC vs IBM & Oracle/Sun </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm"><a href="http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/top"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:Times;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"">http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/top</span></a></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Times;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm">2) VMC 1200Series IR system using <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">2</i> AMD Opteron 6176 2.3Ghz processors winning against DELL PowerEdge R815 using <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">4 </i>AMD Opteron 6174 2.2Ghz Processors</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm"><a href="http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/compare/317797/294440">http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/compare/317797/294440</a></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm">So it’s not just an Opteron vs Xeon thing though in our experience Opterons perform better in virtualization that the current Xeon range</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Times;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Times;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"">3) VMC 1200 Series 2CPU system delivering nearly 80% of the performance of a 4 CPU HP DL580 G7.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Times;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm"><a href="http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/compare/317905/303241">http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/compare/317905/303241</a> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm">The HP server appearing on the Geekbench results is (according to HP figures) idle at 541 watts, and at 100% utilisation at 975 watts, assuming the CPU/RAM configuration that was tested, and that it had the same 4 port NIC that the VMCo had.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm">The VMCo system tested (the one scoring 80% of the HP score) was idle at 119 watts and at 100% at 307 watts.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm">The VMCo system that beat the HP (the 2nd link in this document) is 185 watts idle, 409 watts at 100% load. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm">So in this particular test, we are slightly faster than the HP box at less than half the power consumption while under heavy load.</p>VM Yakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17380032840523409457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4189265045876479327.post-54480111123157070052011-05-19T11:17:00.000-07:002011-06-14T05:32:30.093-07:00Where does all that Datacenter power go?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVGPfJuR4AHMLxjwlnwwvUK_dKXc39GkoteeblsVlNbvVIDpSIxb-BHo4Ll99Gfuizjn3ZQwVeVXp-ir1qCp_kEcTPKTj4ZiamfrjE9Dv_5eQFkS8hfPMeNn1bO3YDYt-GviWBoxNG_1w/s1600/Datacenter+Economics+Chart"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 296px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVGPfJuR4AHMLxjwlnwwvUK_dKXc39GkoteeblsVlNbvVIDpSIxb-BHo4Ll99Gfuizjn3ZQwVeVXp-ir1qCp_kEcTPKTj4ZiamfrjE9Dv_5eQFkS8hfPMeNn1bO3YDYt-GviWBoxNG_1w/s400/Datacenter+Economics+Chart" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5597366355161706402" border="0" /></a><br />I like simple charts so here is a great one showing where the money goes in powering the average data-center.<br /><br />This is the picture on P&C costs in the datacenter comes from a Cisco white-paper available <a href="http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns340/ns517/ns224/ns944/white_paper_c11-627731.html">here</a>.VM Yakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17380032840523409457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4189265045876479327.post-27752572677030916912011-04-15T08:53:00.000-07:002011-05-05T11:19:47.107-07:00Introducing Hyper-dense virtualization<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBv6zaP8BF-TFhlffiscgqf1GVb1AWuSIUB8nq9dNihFx9zR2mJkHD_oAtZk-GwuF-SDNjXSTgDOi7byGaqpIUYVR4uu092lIzx98de61IL1Rj98AEtCA-YO7-xCMyDQgTjtOle2ozQF8/s1600/hypercubes.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 259px; height: 194px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBv6zaP8BF-TFhlffiscgqf1GVb1AWuSIUB8nq9dNihFx9zR2mJkHD_oAtZk-GwuF-SDNjXSTgDOi7byGaqpIUYVR4uu092lIzx98de61IL1Rj98AEtCA-YO7-xCMyDQgTjtOle2ozQF8/s400/hypercubes.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5597245985110602338" border="0" /></a>Hyper-dense virtualization is about running even more workloads on even fewer machines, slashing the cost of datacentre power & cooling even further saving on software licensing, support contracts and physical infrastructure.<br /><br />Whether building a Cloud, running a web farm, hosting 100's of sql-databases or serving up 1000's of virtual desktops; hyper-dense virtualization enables you to run more of everything more VMs, more connections, more clients.<br /><br />The latest range of <a href="http://www.virtualmachineco.com/products.htm">Hyper-Dense virtualization appliances from VMC</a> deliver a tight, highly tuned integration of the worlds fastest commercially available server appliance and a choice of enterprise class hypervisors from VMware and Citrix.<br /><br />At VMC we bring the disciplines of high-performance computing to the world of datacentre virtualization; enabling you to realize the full potential of Hyper-dense virtualization right out-of-the-box.VM Yakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17380032840523409457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4189265045876479327.post-12988234977827246652011-04-12T09:07:00.000-07:002011-04-15T09:53:28.829-07:00Going Hyperdense - VMCs Latest Virtualization Appliances<div style="text-align: left;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHZnR9uP1J0IsjHH-1z0jwDdvmtgxcQm3f4qN4iBMqGvf2iaYaUgLIj3h4bjNDMML1GKAPsIIE-ww31kHR-9dye0Niewke1i0fzTvTgp_k41s99Y15oHo6dUIKfMiuwU2kaKnWhGTfCWg/s1600/VMCO+VSA+closeup.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 175px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHZnR9uP1J0IsjHH-1z0jwDdvmtgxcQm3f4qN4iBMqGvf2iaYaUgLIj3h4bjNDMML1GKAPsIIE-ww31kHR-9dye0Niewke1i0fzTvTgp_k41s99Y15oHo6dUIKfMiuwU2kaKnWhGTfCWg/s400/VMCO+VSA+closeup.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5595849805541876226" border="0" /></a>Here is some information on the new VA1200Series and VA2400 Series virtualization appliances from the Virtual Machine Company<br /><br />The first of the new 2400Series started shipping this March. The 1200 Series in January.<br /><br />Both are based on the latest 12 Core AMD Opteron CPUs and designed to deliver <a href="http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/top">market beating performance</a> 'and' hyper-density.<br /></div><p>A VMC virtualization appliance is a high-performance x86-64 based server especially configured and tuned for virtualization; with your choice of hypervisor pre-installed configured and running our <a href="http://www.virtualmachineco.com/virtual_estate_manager.htm">Virtual Estate Manager</a> performance management software. Virtual Estate Manager is a small VM that provides both physical and virtual environment monitoring, alerting and reporting software which can help you gain the maximum advantage from virtualization.<br /></p><p>Per unit VMC are appliances are keenly priced to compete with commodity server manufacturers, but much cheaper to run, and due to our Hyper-dense technology fewer units are required overall. The savings will of course depend on size of the estate, VM density and electricity tariff.</p><p>Price paid includes: <a href="http://www.virtualmachineco.com/virtualization_appliances.htm">Virtualization Appliance Hardware</a>, <a href="http://www.virtualmachineco.com/virtual_estate_manager.htm">Virtual Estate Manager</a> Software, <a href="http://www.virtualmachineco.com/in_cloud_services.htm">In-Cloud</a> Monitoring and reporting service and 12 months next business day onsite hardware support, but excludes the cost of the <a href="http://www.vmware.com/go/costperapp-calc-maxworkloaddensitywp">Hypervisor</a> license as this varies<a href="http://www.channelworld.in/face-off/slice-virtual-pie"> based on individual client requirements</a>.</p><p>Model & description: 2400 Series<br /><span style="font-size:85%;">VA2400 2U, 4CPU, 48 Cores, 128Gb DDR3 1333Mhz RAM<br />VA2450 2U, 4CPU, 48 Cores, 256Gb DDR3 1333Mhz RAM<br />VA2500 2U, 4CPU, 48 Cores, 512Gb </span><span style="font-size:85%;">DDR3 1333Mhz RAM</span></p><p>Model & description: 1200 Series<span style="font-size:85%;"><br />VA1200 1U, 2CPU, 24Cores, 64Gb DDR3 1333Mhz RAM<br />VA1220 1U, 2CPU, 24Cores, 96Gb DDR3 1333Mhz RAM<br />VA1250 1U, 2CPU, 24Cores, 128Gb DDR3 1333Mhz RAM<br />VA1280 1U, 2CPU, 24Cores, 192Gb DDR3 1333Mhz RAM </span> </p><p>As well as 12 months NBD support we also include 12 months complimentary subscription to the '<a href="http://www.virtualmachineco.com/in_cloud_services.htm">In-Cloud</a>'; our virtual server babysitting service which provides 24 x 7 monitoring, reporting and alerting. Additional support options are available inc 4 hour same day, 24/7 and one, three or five year support periods.</p><p>The pricing is keenly set against vanilla hardware from the the commodity manufacturers; which belies the fact that the turn-key Appliance approach delivers ready-to-rack systems that are tuned to spec'. They are considerably faster, have better VM performance, offer greater VM density, require as little as half power & cooling - and come with some really great management software.</p><p>We also offer the IR (<a href="http://www.jstor.org/pss/2034235">Infinitely Radical</a>) upgrade which moves performance up another notch proving that you can have seriously hot performance and extreme VM density.</p><p>Some recently published the results from Geekbench give comparative performance and ratings against the main competition.</p><p><a href="http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/top">http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/top</a></p><p><a href="http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/compare/303256/318534%20%20%20">http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/compare/303256/318534 </a> </p><p>You can also find spec sheets and <a href="http://www.virtualmachineco.com/products.htm%20%20%20%20%20%20%20">product info here</a>.</p>VM Yakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17380032840523409457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4189265045876479327.post-35607034992762570692011-02-10T04:23:00.000-08:002011-02-10T05:08:31.152-08:00Geekbench: VMC virtualisation hardware tops benchmarkThe results are in from the independent performance testing of our new hardware appliance platform. <br /><br />Like the song says 'It's not what you do it's the way that you do it. Our HPC approach to virtualisation really delivers on the promise of the MultiCore x86-64 vision.<br /><br />So to the results:<br />The VMC 1200 series - 2P 24 Core system comfortably faces down the latest 4P 48Core <a href="http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/compare/317797/294440">DELL R815</a>. In the real world that saves you a VMware license<br /><br />The 4P 48Core VMC 2400 series slips past a <a href="http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/top">'quant-built' 8P 128Core </a>custom rig to take top slot, leaving the 8P 64Core IBM System x3850 X5 trailing in 3rd; and that would save you 2 VMware licenses.<br /><br />But seriously, it's not simply license savings when you move to very dense virtualisation solutions like ours. You save on everything; rack-space, power, cooling, software licenses, networking infrastructure and storage solutions.<br /><br />Checkout the VMC <a href="http://www.virtualmachineco.com/products.htm">VA1200</a> Series specifications.VM Yakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17380032840523409457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4189265045876479327.post-74587334110647771012011-02-07T02:23:00.000-08:002011-02-07T02:40:47.883-08:00Wikileaks: Avoiding the problem in the first placeAs young Mr Assange makes a return trip to court this week, one of our partner companies issues some guidelines on improving your cyber-security.<br /><br />Topics<br />(1) Recognise Where You Are Vulnerable<br />(2) Know If You Are A Target<br />(3) Diligence And Statutory Obligations (Compliance)<br />(4) Segment Your Data<br />(5) The Human Element, A Matter Of Staff Maturity And Common Sense<br />(6) Handling A Leak<br /><br /><a href="http://360is.blogspot.com/2011/02/wikileaks-lessons-for-uk-information.html">Check it out here</a><br /><br />As an ex-security guy myself I've found that most day to day security breaches are people based; systems left open, people sharing a user account, shared passwords and most often a text file full of passwords on the computer itself.<br /><br />Here is what past master Kevin Metnick has to say about <a href="http://www.zdnet.com.au/kevin-mitnick-social-engineering-101-339290739.htm">social engineering</a> your way into someones data-store.VM Yakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17380032840523409457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4189265045876479327.post-53643852196705392072011-01-05T07:48:00.000-08:002011-02-01T04:56:41.638-08:00Cloud Computing ExplainedThis little video seems quite simple, but has some powerful reminders:<br /><br />1. Make sure your provider has the same level of security that you would have on site<br />2. Ensure you understand the service level agreements and what happens if they are not met<br />3. Be clear as to what services 'must be available' for your users - and make sure they agree to...<br />4. What happens if you cannot access the Internet? or if the Cloud Provider goes bust!<br /><!-- Start CBS Interactive embedded player --><div style="width: 400px; overflow: hidden;"><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://www.silicon.com/videos/embed/61446145/" codebase="http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,0,0" allowfullscreen="true" height="265" width="400"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><param name="movie" value="http://www.silicon.com/videos/embed/61446145/"><param name="loop" value="false"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="quality" value="high"><param name="bgcolor" value="white"></object><div style="width: 400px; height: 26px; background-color: white; overflow: hidden;"><ul style="text-align: left; margin: 5px 0pt; padding: 2px; font-size: 10px; font-family: arial; color: black;"><li style="list-style: none outside none; float: left; margin-right: 5px;"><a href="http://www.silicon.com/videos/view/features/cloud-computing-explained-61446145/" style="color: black; display: inline;">Cloud computing explained</a></li><li style="list-style: none outside none; float: left; margin-right: 5px;"><strong>|</strong></li><li style="list-style: none outside none; float: left;"><a href="http://www.silicon.com/videos/" style="color: black; display: inline;">silicon.com</a></li></ul></div></div><!-- End CBS Interactive embedded player -->Also, don't forget the data remains your responsibility where ever it's held so make sure your Cloud provider so check all stored data is encrypted, and do make sure you know where in the world that data is being processed or stored - data protection legislation still applies to your data in the Cloud.VM Yakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17380032840523409457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4189265045876479327.post-45312916722057467292010-12-16T09:03:00.000-08:002010-12-16T09:13:47.302-08:00It's that time againWe're closing down for Christmas on the 23rd and will be back on the 4th of January 2011. We'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their support in 2010 wish you all a Merry Christmas and see you in the New Year.<br /><div style=""><object id="'A64060'" quality="'high'" data="'http://aka.zero.jibjab.com/client/zero/ClientZero_EmbedViewer.swf?external_make_id=" service="sendables.jibjab.com&partnerID=" holidays="" pluginspage="'http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer'" type="'application/x-shockwave-flash'" wmode="'transparent'" height="'319'" width="'567'"><param name="'wmode'" value="'transparent'"><param name="'movie'" value="'http://aka.zero.jibjab.com/client/zero/ClientZero_EmbedViewer.swf?external_make_id=" service="sendables.jibjab.com&partnerID=" holidays=""><param name="'scaleMode'" value="'showAll'"><param name="'quality'" value="'high'"><param name="'allowNetworking'" value="'all'"><param name="'allowFullScreen'" value="'true'"><param name="'FlashVars'" value="'external_make_id=" service="sendables.jibjab.com&partnerID=" holidays=""><param name="'allowScriptAccess'" value="'always'"></object><div style="">Personalize funny videos and birthday <a href="http://www.blogger.com/%27http://sendables.jibjab.com/ecards%27">eCards</a> at JibJab!</div></div><br /><br /><br />All the best from Nick, Steve, Andy & the VMC teamVM Yakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17380032840523409457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4189265045876479327.post-6847008503740722912010-12-16T03:45:00.000-08:002010-12-16T03:49:48.100-08:00Citrix XenServer 5.6 ESG Lab Validation ReportThe Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) has released a report titled: <a href="http://virtualization-info.tradepub.com/free/w_ct72">Lab Validation Report, Citrix XenServer, Complete, Cost-effective Data Center and Server Virtualization</a>. <br /><br />The 20 page report which contains hands-‐on testing of Citrix XenServer 5.6 with a focus on manageability, consolidation, and cost effectiveness.<br /><br />The following features were tested: Initial deployment, managebility, XenConvert, OVG Appliance Import, Dynamic Memory Control, Workload Balancing, XenServer HA and StorageLink with Site Recovery.<br /><br />Bit of light reading :0)VM Yakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17380032840523409457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4189265045876479327.post-42782653977066696432010-12-14T12:52:00.000-08:002010-12-16T04:07:06.045-08:00DCIG 2011 Virtual Server Backup Software Buyer's Guide Now Available<img src="file:///Users/stevebarnett1/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/moz-screenshot-3.png" alt="" />DCIG is a great resource for information on products and services in IT and I particularly like their technology reviews. I've been waiting for this report on Virtual Server Backup Software for a while and it was released today and is free to download from <a href="http://www.dciginc.com/free-dcig-downloads.html">here</a>. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.dciginc.com/free-dcig-downloads.html">The 2011 Virtual Server Backup Software Buyer's Guide</a> weights, scores and ranks over 20 virtual server backup software products. It's worth a read.VM Yakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17380032840523409457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4189265045876479327.post-76362406864716805302010-11-25T11:07:00.000-08:002010-11-25T11:10:17.452-08:00We keep getting better<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmGx434vnLHXDo7WmuSOIzxBX6ES4vGmhioZQ6OMk4omCLWj_zLuZDWl_ucoGNWEF06bZYszafN52KbtjxQxJhBx_K5F0bH3iyJO1S-uzP6VqNGqbv521cNcpsLuElx1-Rsu9q1LGwZEc/s1600/8-AMD-6172-chips.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 179px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmGx434vnLHXDo7WmuSOIzxBX6ES4vGmhioZQ6OMk4omCLWj_zLuZDWl_ucoGNWEF06bZYszafN52KbtjxQxJhBx_K5F0bH3iyJO1S-uzP6VqNGqbv521cNcpsLuElx1-Rsu9q1LGwZEc/s400/8-AMD-6172-chips.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5543566361465630530" border="0" /></a><br />Watch out for news release from Virtual Machine Company next week.VM Yakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17380032840523409457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4189265045876479327.post-41843672418491792602010-11-06T10:23:00.000-07:002010-12-16T03:30:59.494-08:00Virtual Machine Company Webinar Recording and download<div class="post-header"> </div> One of our partner companies 360IS recorded a Virtual Machine Company seminar is which is now available for download. For details of the agenda and material covered please see the original invite <a href="http://360is.blogspot.com/2010/02/web-conference-15-minutes-on.html">here</a>.VM Yakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17380032840523409457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4189265045876479327.post-32287620984811094332010-10-24T11:01:00.000-07:002010-10-24T11:52:59.362-07:00Visionary analysts over-egg Cloud adoption<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzJaNgJyZzvzJPUwUhRNP4Chf3MGHuzGRBliVkooc9bxHpmAhLPGUd39EvUUBmhPRop8-2JmJsk2tv9wIYEjZaKXoaiM045C_WKxfIRxUt_bwxAonJA2EA42ojprCtjGfhjYXbXCrayoI/s1600/arcati.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 190px; height: 265px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzJaNgJyZzvzJPUwUhRNP4Chf3MGHuzGRBliVkooc9bxHpmAhLPGUd39EvUUBmhPRop8-2JmJsk2tv9wIYEjZaKXoaiM045C_WKxfIRxUt_bwxAonJA2EA42ojprCtjGfhjYXbXCrayoI/s400/arcati.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5531686976652710146" border="0" /></a><br /><span class="sqq"> </span>If we're <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-computing/gartner-1-in-5-businesses-will-dump-all-it-assets-they-move-cloud-740">not going to own any infrastructure</a> in 5 years, how come the latest surveys suggest that only <a href="http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2010/10/21/243478/Only-5-of-firms-have-a-cloud-computing-strategy-claims.htm">5% of organisations</a> polled have plans to go Cloud.<br /><br />I suspect that Garnet, IDC et al are still overstating the situation when they say that 40% of organisations are using 'Cloud' today. It is more that many are using SaaS applications, managed email, as well as off-site Storage & Disaster Recovery.<br /><br />I work with plenty of organisations who are delivering ICT as a service and referring to it as 'Internal Cloud' and many more who use Virtual Private Clouds to centralise their companies business applications they use a mix of their own equipment in colocated datacentres and mash up of SaaS applications, like Salesforce.com and hosted email/exchange services.<br /><br />Don;t get me wrong I think that the future for much of IT is in the use of 3rd party services and organisations will be pragmatic adopting new "Cloudy" services as they become cost effective and add value to/remove costs from their businesses. But, franky I don;t see Millions of businesses dumping their IT in the next 2 years do you?<br /><br /><span class="sqq">I have often thought that the true value of industry forecasting and punditry is to make astrology look respectable...<br /></span>VM Yakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17380032840523409457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4189265045876479327.post-30965645048575157522010-10-13T04:06:00.000-07:002010-10-13T04:23:34.394-07:00Clouds over London Evaporating<img src="file:///Users/stevebarnett1/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/moz-screenshot.png" alt="" /><img src="file:///Users/stevebarnett1/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/moz-screenshot-1.png" alt="" />As co-location requirements soar providers are struggling to keep up with demand.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxQW2mrUPxUM784d2Ubqh7Y9HKMVQlK0Bsup0vE9WzOLgxCo95YVLlAKanl0D9ipkkyiwNo05iIwsC8ds7rIrzC5ofI6Zc4mrZpexz9G1_jrZ94NykW0eQPKvoAkgbZzaMzkjip5AljYk/s1600/news20101013-1.gif"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 342px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxQW2mrUPxUM784d2Ubqh7Y9HKMVQlK0Bsup0vE9WzOLgxCo95YVLlAKanl0D9ipkkyiwNo05iIwsC8ds7rIrzC5ofI6Zc4mrZpexz9G1_jrZ94NykW0eQPKvoAkgbZzaMzkjip5AljYk/s400/news20101013-1.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527487107257326690" border="0" /></a>New data from TeleGeography’s Colocation Database reveal that colocation service providers are struggling to keep up with demand. Despite significant new construction, colocation site capacity is more constrained in 2010 than it was in 2009. More than 41% of sites surveyed by TeleGeography were at least 80% full at mid-2010, up from 34% of sites a year earlier. <a href="http://www.telegeography.com/cu/article.php?article_id=34720&email=html"><read></a><br /><br />Among the worst hit areas are London and the South of England, where surging power costs and a squeeze on physical space are causing colocation costs to rocket.<br /><br /><br /><img src="file:///Users/stevebarnett1/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/moz-screenshot-2.png" alt="" />VM Yakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17380032840523409457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4189265045876479327.post-78468976798638014252010-10-12T12:54:00.000-07:002010-10-12T13:45:50.003-07:00Plug into your local CloudAt the turn of the 20th century most big businesses owned their own power sources. It was very expensive, increasing the business costs dramatically and the ability/inability to generate power became limiting to the growth of business generally. Which was bad for the economy; as we all know that increased business costs effect the cost of the product to the consumer. If the cost of the product is too high then it won't sell and the business will fail. The solution was clearly<a href="http://www.ampersandcom.com/ampersandcommunications/ABriefHistoryofElectricity.htm"> a shared power resource</a> - a main power plant that could rent power a piece at a time to the business, hence the creation of the electric companies. A positive spin off was the wide adoption of power to the home and the eventual arrival of home working.<br /><br />Cloud computing offers the same type of service to businesses and people at home. There is no longer a need for a business or organisation to front the cost of building or maintaining their own data centres, because now you can rent a moment in time to perform the processing you need, and pay for what you use - that's why power companies are helping <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/37058679/Technology-Insight-Report-Cloud-Computing-Billing-Technologies">Cloud providers design their billing systems</a>.VM Yakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17380032840523409457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4189265045876479327.post-54062831031475388382010-09-28T01:18:00.000-07:002010-09-28T02:17:28.847-07:00Orange joins Cisco, EMC, VMware to form cloud computing allianceIn what is clearly the biggest news story of the week <a href="http://www.totaltele.com/view.aspx?ID=458926&mail=353">it's reported today</a> that Orange Business Systems, the network service provider and mobile operator, is to provide the billing know-how for the 'pay as you go' cloud offering from the increasingly<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borg_%28Star_Trek%29"> borg'd</a> industry triumvirate o<a href="http://www.oncloudcomputing.com/en/2010/09/orange-business-services-together-with-cisco-emc-and-vmware-forms-global-business-alliance-to-address-enterprise-cloud-computing-needs/">f Cisco, EMC and VMware.</a> <br /><br />The Flexible 4 Business Alliance expands on the <a href="http://www.internetnews.com/infra/article.php/3846721/Cisco-VMware-EMC-Forge-Datacenter-Alliance.htm">Virtual Computing Environment (VCE) coalition</a> that Cisco, EMC and VMware established early last year and allows them to deliver complete Cloud Solutions.<br /><br />EMC has clearly learned some valuable lessons from the <a href="http://vmyak.blogspot.com/2010_07_01_archive.html">closure of it's Atmos Cloud</a> service in July this year:<br /><br />1) If you make hardware that allows people to build Clouds, stick to the knitting.<br /><br />2) Work with people you trust to deliver integrated offering - it's an open secret <a href="http://www.internetnews.com/infra/article.php/3846721/Cisco-VMware-EMC-Forge-Datacenter-Alliance.htm">EMC & Cisco</a> are engaged.<br /><br />3) You need specialist expertise to collect the money - Like <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/">Amazon</a>, Orange has extremely efficient microbilling capability<br /><br />I predict this will be a great success amongst Global organisations and governments who want their own private cloud infrastructures, and for service providers looking for a one stop shop for the delivery of what will become core infrastructure.VM Yakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17380032840523409457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4189265045876479327.post-91772431835201239312010-09-13T03:06:00.000-07:002010-09-14T04:14:06.121-07:00European IT Managers cool about Cloud<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTp54uY3XudsBzmC1G12zZNdEfbqxxbqjcD7dKCDU6t84uWmdWcyrVpZXA0ewPcnf-SipwvUm0zTXXue4B20zt-TfDgRGR-xbmekMqD8d6YKV1vFEJScj5YG8xuS3wtdaEEReWJF-8Olo/s1600/euroclouds.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 318px; height: 159px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTp54uY3XudsBzmC1G12zZNdEfbqxxbqjcD7dKCDU6t84uWmdWcyrVpZXA0ewPcnf-SipwvUm0zTXXue4B20zt-TfDgRGR-xbmekMqD8d6YKV1vFEJScj5YG8xuS3wtdaEEReWJF-8Olo/s400/euroclouds.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5516725260612416946" border="0" /></a><br />In February this year Computer Associates released an interesting report titled ‘Unleashing the Power of Virtualisation 2010_Cloud Computing and the Perceptions of European Business’ rather long title but actually a very interesting survey I would recommend <a href="http://www.ca.com/Files/SupportingPieces/ca_virtualisatn_survey_report_228900.pdf"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">downloading a copy from here</span>.</a> The survey covered the attitudes to virtualisation and cloud computing at 550 IT managers in 14 European countries with 65% of those surveyed having over 3000 employees and the remainder between 1000 and 3000.<br /><br />After several readings of the results conclusions I would draw is that the growing confidence that is coming from the rapid and successful rollout of virtualisation projects is pulling the Cloud concept up the adoption curve very quickly. Evidenced by the fact that was only 17% of European IT managers identified “Cloud Computing” has been transformational to their business 47% of them are adopting cloud type delivery models for internal ICT services.<br /><br />It is quite clear that the delivery of internal Cloud environments facilitated by increasingly robust virtualisation technologies is seen by European IT managers as a way of regaining control of the corporate computer environment thereby forcing down runaway IT costs that are widely acknowledged as a drag on the bottom line.VM Yakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17380032840523409457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4189265045876479327.post-15442961267186238402010-08-23T03:10:00.000-07:002010-09-14T03:05:15.118-07:00HYPER-V Support for Red Hat Linux paves way for ISVs to migrate away form VMWare<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7rhA5XOEbOmVI1ycBoIjMnv3yRoxs2F8peD2osvD5BX3UGRoGoJOMknaQKOuKDyoBHTgEbsSLZNMlpKqzzJdYSt6FZ8fAxSkXPpDj0YvU-xaU_M4FGx0FpfKJSKwDSr9RjCgpafmeaUQ/s1600/penguin.png"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 176px; height: 162px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7rhA5XOEbOmVI1ycBoIjMnv3yRoxs2F8peD2osvD5BX3UGRoGoJOMknaQKOuKDyoBHTgEbsSLZNMlpKqzzJdYSt6FZ8fAxSkXPpDj0YvU-xaU_M4FGx0FpfKJSKwDSr9RjCgpafmeaUQ/s400/penguin.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5516707887688930178" border="0" /></a><br />A while back Microsoft suprised some in the industry by taking the unusually pragmatic approach of supporting the <a href="http://www.brajkovic.info/virtualization/hyper-v-virtualization/suse-linux-hyper-v/">Novell SUSE Linux under Hyper-V</a>. This week they have gone a step further by extending suport to one of the most common commercial Linux platforms <a href="http://www.brajkovic.info/virtualization/hyper-v-virtualization/red-hat-hyper-v/">Red Hat</a> a platform that was often pitched as the successor to Windows Server.<br /><br />Really this should come as no surprise - Microsoft are secure in their market position. According to IDC in the tail end of 2009 over 50% of servers delivered as a VM or virtualised workload were Microsoft Windows Server 2008, and I don;t see Citrix doing a lot of Apple Desktop virtualisation, it's all Windows. By expanding the range of <a href="http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/cc794868%28WS.10%29.aspx">supported guest OS's</a> and giving it away for free, Microsoft will continue to take marketshare as organisations new to virtualisation (or not keen on spending on VMWare licenses) will undoubtedly try if not take the easy option.<br /><br />By starting to support the linux community Microsoft are setting the stage. Making it easy to quickly expanding the number of ISV delivered applications for provisioning, management, HA, DR, security et al. that are needed to setup run a successful virtualised datacenter. Applications up to now only available for VMware<br /><br />Microsoft have history here - in the mid '90's companies like FTP, Woolongong & Sunsoft had a very nice business selling TCP/IP stacks for PC's, until Microsoft introduced the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winsock">Winsock API</a>, which allowed every ISV with an terminal emulator or printing app to access Microsofts own free-to-download product - all three companies disappeared in one way or another over the next 4 years. I'd also contend that it led to the demise of Netscape - but that's another story.<br /><br />So todays VMYak 'take-away' is - Remember, whilst VMware has hundreds of thousands of customers for VMWare - Microsoft has millions customers of Windows server out there. Windows Server is in almost every service provider, commercial organisation and public agency in world, and for them virtualization is just a free download away.VM Yakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17380032840523409457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4189265045876479327.post-61596212006281157382010-08-09T03:47:00.000-07:002010-08-09T04:12:14.904-07:00Myths about managing virtualised infrastructure<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiVJeHIsB3N9hHAM0Ho7ZPs9rgkK04mUt32dAd2-9kkqtTgDbahhCv2s50VbV_i6CVohYSgz9NktPwHaTdQWvvT25smj4N9J1qgIhQwjgi2xVgWZY9qerS7DOsZ_7V1pqRMyOnsoEl5gg/s1600/broken+chain.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 259px; height: 194px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiVJeHIsB3N9hHAM0Ho7ZPs9rgkK04mUt32dAd2-9kkqtTgDbahhCv2s50VbV_i6CVohYSgz9NktPwHaTdQWvvT25smj4N9J1qgIhQwjgi2xVgWZY9qerS7DOsZ_7V1pqRMyOnsoEl5gg/s400/broken+chain.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5503366151644450898" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Interesting post by Rupert Collier, Product Manager for Visualization over at specialist distributor Computerlinks worth a read if you have a couple minutes;</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><a href="http://searchvirtualdatacentre.techtarget.co.uk/generic/0,295582,sid203_gci1517969,00.html"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Managing virtual environments: Common myths dispelled:</span></a> <span style="font-weight: normal;">discusses particularly the need </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal;">not</span><span style="font-weight: normal;"> to manage virtualized and physical infrastructure separately from one another.Whilst on the surface this may sound contrary to the ideas of cloud computing, it is in fact Central to the delivery of cloud computing. In order to deliver an environment where virtual machines are able to be migrated seamlessly around it is essential that the underlying infrastructure runs like a Swiss watch, for whilst the infrastructure may be virtualised, adaptive and self healing you can guarantee that when something goes badly wrong the problem will be physical; RAM squeeze, CPU core failure, Network IO contentions or just simply the power going off... </span><br /></span> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br />Yep, all those things we lived with for the last 40yrs of business computing.<br /><br /><br /></span>VM Yakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17380032840523409457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4189265045876479327.post-14367420248438335632010-07-07T02:06:00.000-07:002010-07-07T03:14:06.384-07:00EMC Closes Cloud: Atmos'phere has changed says analyst<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2TCBzrUOmJ4PtnTprmnMqXZwoSOJTzKiWrgXxp49hOqfvoTZ8laAtjSmgWDcv8hpUxZTIavf80rgqb18Iu8vOs2ewTpEhWumKcRumufgzdSSMFeXJDQ7gR5KH1AG0DfcaYN_HxiAbx28/s1600/lightning.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2TCBzrUOmJ4PtnTprmnMqXZwoSOJTzKiWrgXxp49hOqfvoTZ8laAtjSmgWDcv8hpUxZTIavf80rgqb18Iu8vOs2ewTpEhWumKcRumufgzdSSMFeXJDQ7gR5KH1AG0DfcaYN_HxiAbx28/s400/lightning.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5491105517896619202" border="0" /></a><br />As they <a href="http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2010/07/emcs-atmos-shutdown-shows-why-cloud-lock-in-is-still-scary.ars">close <span style="font-style: italic;">almost without warning</span> their Atmos storage cloud</a>, it seems that EMC has woken to the fact that the cost of infrastructure in any telecommunications project is unbearable for a company that makes it's money from selling products. Read EMC announcement <a href="http://www.atmosonline.com/?page_id=366">here</a>.<br /><br />The announcement is bad PR not just for EMC but for Cloud computing in general as it leaves customers in a position where they have no support, no service level agreement and no guarantees that their data will be there tomorrow!<br /><br />If you have five minutes it's worth reading the critique by cloud blogger <a href="http://www.hpcinthecloud.com/blogs?blog=89795417&blogger=89795417">Nicole Hemsoth</a> over at her <a href="http://www.hpcinthecloud.com/blogs/EMC-Cedes-the-Clouds-97765009.html">Behind the Cloud</a> blog where she takes to task the analyst who just a few months ago rated him seize Atmos storage cloud has one of the rising stars of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing_provider#Provider">Cloud Computing.</a><br /><br />Having spent many years working for, or with, service providers of all types & sizes it's very clear to me that the financial model required to deliver Cloud computing environments runs counter to that of a hardware or software manufacturer no matter how big they are. Infrastructure is by definition “a massive upfront investment funded by debt paid back over many years that generates cash flow which is used to fund operations, pay back the debt and pay dividends to investors, which is about as far as you can get away from the model of a company that sells product.<br /><br />You can't blame EMC for wanting to be at the forefront Cloud computing wave as is a defining period for the industry in which EMC is an undoubted leader, I think they have done the right thing in stepping back before it impacts their core business as I foresee that a number of other companies who have jumped too early with too little consideration of the financial model that needs to be employed following suit, or the conflicts of interest that may arise with <a href="http://www.techno-pulse.com/2009/12/top-cloud-computing-service-providers.html">customers who can 'do it better'</a>.<br /><br />My advice to anybody thinking of moving to cloud infrastructure is to proceed with caution:<br /><br />1) Look at whether it is a core element of their business, is it what they do all day every day?<br />2) Look at the providers ability to sustain the business model; 'can they stand the level of long term' debt?<br /><br />Do this “before” deciding <a href="http://www.channelpro.co.uk/Resource/406884/the_threat_of_data_loss_flying_into_the_cloud.html">who to trust your precious data to</a>.VM Yakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17380032840523409457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4189265045876479327.post-11161050685487384592010-06-29T06:19:00.000-07:002010-06-29T07:11:35.561-07:00Breaking news: VMCo offers embedded Check Point VPN-1 VE security<h2><span style="font-size:78%;">Working together Virtual Machine Co and CheckPoint remove the final barrier to virtualization of enterprise-wide, tier-one computing. This is a new and unique offering</span> </h2> <h5><span style="font-size:78%;">June 29, 2010 Cambridge, UK </span></h5><span style="font-size:78%;">Read more <a href="http://www.virtualmachineco.com/press_releases.htm">here</a></span>VM Yakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17380032840523409457noreply@blogger.com0