It's that time again

We'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.

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

All the best from Nick, Steve, Andy & the VMC team

Citrix XenServer 5.6 ESG Lab Validation Report

The Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) has released a report titled: Lab Validation Report, Citrix XenServer, Complete, Cost-effective Data Center and Server Virtualization.

The 20 page report which contains hands-­‐on testing of Citrix XenServer 5.6 with a focus on manageability, consolidation, and cost effectiveness.

The following features were tested: Initial deployment, managebility, XenConvert, OVG Appliance Import, Dynamic Memory Control, Workload Balancing, XenServer HA and StorageLink with Site Recovery.

Bit of light reading :0)

DCIG 2011 Virtual Server Backup Software Buyer's Guide Now Available

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 here.

The 2011 Virtual Server Backup Software Buyer's Guide weights, scores and ranks over 20 virtual server backup software products. It's worth a read.

We keep getting better

Watch out for news release from Virtual Machine Company next week.

Virtual Machine Company Webinar Recording and download

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 here.

Visionary analysts over-egg Cloud adoption

If we're not going to own any infrastructure in 5 years, how come the latest surveys suggest that only 5% of organisations polled have plans to go Cloud.

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.

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.

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?

I have often thought that the true value of industry forecasting and punditry is to make astrology look respectable...

Clouds over London Evaporating

As co-location requirements soar providers are struggling to keep up with demand.
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.

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.