Notable trends in virtualization: 1. Hybrid clouds mature. The nature of hybrid clouds – meaning parts of your infrastructure are running in both public and private data centers – is getting more mature and sophisticated. New providers are springing up frequently, which make evaluating them all that much harder. Some are traditional hosting providers, other offer more virtualization expertise and some have built their own management tools around their services. One example: Terremark’s VMware-based computing […]
virtualization
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Cloud computing is an on-demand, integrated, configured, ready-to-use combination of compute, storage, network, platform and application software available as a standardized set of service offerings on a pay-as-you-use pricing model. Cloud computing is altering the IT service delivery by providing rapid service delivery – provisioning resources takes few minutes instead several weeks, on demand scaling – businesses can scale up or scale down resources based on needs instead of provisioning for peak demand, consolidation of […]
Lately we’re talking to CIOs and IT managers who feel more like referees. It used to be, we just had to moderate between end users and security or the helpdesk. But now, as the data center evolves to include pervasive virtualization and a mix of in-house and cloud IT assets, the internal turf battles are threatening to KO agility advances. It’s unarguable that virtualization–on premises or in the cloud–has increased flexibility exponentially. Getting a new […]
As with any new exciting technology, companies commonly look towards creating a “strategy” around the movement in order to ensure their investments achieve the greatest ROI. In the 1990s, it was all about how companies needed a “Linux” strategy; the last decade has been dominated with companies needing a “virtualization” strategy; and the trend I’m seeing today is everyone talking about needing a “cloud computing” strategy. While this new saying is good news for large […]
This cloud computing video discusses hosted desktops and virtualization. meshIP uses Quest vWorkspace as part of its public cloud service offering:
Worried about your data? If you’re not, you’re kidding yourself. It’s become clear over the past few months that the risk of security breaches has reached a new and frightening level — from sophisticated tools in the hands of national governments and organized crime to spontaneous attacks harnessing the resources of thousands of loosely connected vigilantes. Add to that the dizzying array of devices now used to access, move and store data. Security strategies that […]
If you came here for the article with the title, “Is the Cloud Really Just the Return of Mainframe Computing?’, unfortunately, it has been removed at the request of the publisher of the website from which it was obtained. Asking me to remove it was within their rights, but I believe it was a shortsighted decision based on old media ideas about the copyright “protection” of assets and the imagined potential loss of ad revenue. […]
Target Corp. recently implemented virtualization technologies by Microsoft to run business-critical applications for all 1,755 stores. Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V was added to help deploy and manage applications more quickly, eliminating 8,650 physical servers. Microsoft System Center was integrated to manage and patch endpoints. With these technologies, Target’s IT department has greater agility and economies of scale. “Target’s investment in Hyper-V is a result of the strong technology partnership between our two companies,” says […]
One of the challenges of evaluating cloud computing and the use of hosted desktops in the small business enterprise is understanding not only the business case ROI, but the operational impact. Here are 30 questions to assist you in thinking through the issues associated with deploying hosted desktops. First some definitions: VDI, Virtual Desktop infrastructure = Dedicated Virtual Desktop (hosted desktop) There are two kinds of VDI: server-hosted and client-side. A Server-Hosted Virtual Desktop Infrastructure […]
The desktop virtualization market was chugging along at a decent albeit unspectacular pace before Apple’s iPad arrived and helped crystallize the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) concept. Since then, the iPad has become the main onramp for companies looking to mobilize their work forces through the use of virtualization. Executives were the first to bring the iPad into the workplace, but before long all types of employees were clamoring for the ability to access corporate […]
More companies are taking advantage of cloud computing and virtualization technologies to streamline their network operations, but significant management challenges remain, according to Network Instruments’ State of the Network Global Study. The company’s fourth annual study surveyed 265 network engineers, IT directors and CIOs, located in North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and Australia. Respondents were asked about the extent to which their companies take advantage of cloud computing, video conferencing and virtualization technologies, […]
A lack of understanding about security risks is one of the key factors holding back cloud computing. Report after report after report harps on security as the main speed bump slowing the pace of cloud adoption. But what tends to be overlooked, even by cloud advocates, is that overall security threats are changing as organizations move from physical environments to virtual ones and on to cloud-based ones. Viruses, malware and phishing are still concerns, but […]
While smaller companies may adopt virtual machines in greater numbers in 2011, they may not necessarily adapt their backup plans to match the changes in their environments. That’s a problem, says backup and recovery vendor Acronis, which recently took a deeper dive into the data from its January study on small and midsize business (SMB) disaster preparedness. The report found that SMBs will increase their deployments of virtual servers in 2011, with adoption jumping from […]
If you haven’t tried virtualization yet–or don’t even know what it means–it’s about time you did. Here are 10 reasons to tempt you into the virtualization waters. Virtualization isn’t just for geeks or those who run enormously powerful servers. It offers something for everybody, and if you haven’t yet dipped your toe into the virtualization ocean, then you’re at serious risk of being left behind. In its strictest sense, virtualization refers to running two or […]
Despite years of marketing pressure and products that are simpler to use and more widely available, desktop virtualization hasn’t taken off to the extent that vendors and analysts expected even a few years ago. The bring-your-own-device movement among end users, on the other hand, has lit a fire under the market for mobile device virtualization. A survey released last month by telecommunications giant Mitel showed 90 percent of respondents expected virtualization to become more important […]
Tablet computing use has been proliferating faster than rabbits in springtime. Tablets bring with them increased mobility and ease of use coupled with a more interactive and immersive experience. Whether you fancy the Apple iPad or one of its rivals, there’s likely a tablet in your future. Executives and other persuasive users are demanding that tablets be allowed access to their work resources. And these users don’t understand why IT departments see the trend as […]
VMware, a provider of virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions, announced the launch of its mobile virtualization solution that is expected to offer a personal as well as separate secure profile for work applications on a single Android phone. The virtualization software was demonstrated on LG Optimus Black at the Mobile World Congress. VMware is currently working with LG to pre-load the software. The company will start the trials of the software by the middle of […]
Like many disruptive, evolving technologies, cloud computing is going through a phase characterized by opposites: hype and exaggeration on one side, and fear and skepticism on the other. How do you determine what’s really going to work for your organization? Separating the myths from the facts of cloud computing is a good place to start. Let’s take a look at the top 10 cloud computing myths as we see them, and the realities behind those […]
The big industry event about virtualization is VMworld, usually held in late Summer / early Fall. You don’t have to wait for VMware’s conference, however, to find yourself in VM World. We now live in it, every day. It’s really quite amazing how quickly virtualization has swept through, and become ensconced in, IT. Data centers have–for decades–been famously conservative when it comes to introducing changes that might threaten to disrupt production applications. For years, whenever […]
When it comes to enterprise computing environments, the skies are getting increasingly cloudy–and dealing with that will mean covering up with flexible, dynamic security. This was the message of Art Coviello, executive chairman of EMC’s RSA security division, during his keynote at the RSA Conference today, in San Francisco. Last year, he told the audience, his speech was about the promise of the cloud–the assertion that it’s possible to achieve security and do it better. […]
VMWare is showing off a mobile virtualization platform that will let people run a personal profile and a separate, secure profile for work applications on the same Android phone. VMWare CTO Stephen Herrod demonstrated the software on an LG Optimus Black at Mobile World Congress. The company is now testing the software internally and with partners. The idea is that enterprises can let their employees buy an Android phone but isolate the personal applications from […]
Cloud computing needs governance. Which is to say that cloud computing needs processes, policies, and procedures. In a way, this is no different from IT more broadly. But virtualization, dynamically moving workloads, and an increased reliance on third parties for many types of IT functions mean that well thought-out and documented processes, policies, and procedures tend to be more important in cloud computing than with a more static and manual environment. This has been driven […]
Few technology trends have captured as much popular attention as Cloud Computing. The level of hype associated with the ‘Cloud’ hasn’t been seen since the hoopla created during the Dot.com era. As a result, there has been plenty of debate about whether the Cloud Computing phenomenon is headed to a similar demise. This quote is taken from a Seeking Alpha article by Jeffrey Kaplan, published in December 2010. Just a few weeks after Jeffrey’s comments, […]
1. Get smart Before making a move into the cloud, get educated on the principles and definitions of cloud computing, advises Johan Goossens, head of NATO’s Allied Command Transformation’s (ACT) Technology & Human Factors Branch in Norfolk, Va. “We started in the summer of 2010 with educational efforts. We got ourselves smart on the terminology, sitting down with vendor partners,” he says. 2. Know your apps “Before we got started with the cloud, we made […]
When Dataprise Inc., an IT services company, helped a customer with a desktop virtualization project last year, it found itself dealing with desktop virtualization’s dirty little secret: No one — including vendors — seems to know how to license the software. Having run a successful pilot, Dataprise’s client wanted to take the next step and deploy 700 virtual desktops, says Chris Sousa, director of infrastructure service at Dataprise. That’s when the trouble began. Like many […]
As your organization relies more on cloud-based applications for productivity and business success, you must be increasingly vigilant against Web-borne attacks. As sensitive data now migrates between corporate data centers and cloud data centers beyond your network perimeter, you can no longer think only in terms of network security, but instead must shift focus to information security. Three overarching, interrelated trends — cloud consumption, virtualization and mobility — present themselves as key industry themes for […]
So much digital ink, on InfoWorld and elsewhere, has been spilled analyzing cloud computing — what it is, whether it’s anything new, whether it will change IT as we know it. But a recent conversation has me thinking that cloud computing’s greatest contribution may be in the way it applies the principles of mass production to IT. Last week I spoke with Siki Giunta, vice president of cloud computing and software services at global IT […]
I got a press release this morning from VMware that was touting the adoption of of vSphere as the virtualization technology of choice for the SMB user. Included in the press release, as usual, were a few brief customer stories and the expected quotes from VMware executives and their business partners. The purpose of the release, I’m sure, was to raise my awareness of the success of vSphere in the SMB space, but what it […]
Investing in private clouds is a top priority for IT organizations in 2011, according to two recent online polls, Unisys said on Jan. 26. The two polls were conducted on the Unisys Web site. The first poll, in December 2010, asked visitors about their cloud computing implementation plans. The second poll, asking visitors to name their organization’s biggest investment priority in 2011, was conducted a month later and completed on Jan. 24. In the January […]
Bitzer Mobile this week introduced its Enterprise Virtualized Mobility (EVM) technology, which isolates corporate data from personal data on employee-owned mobile devices and enables secure remote access to enterprise data on these devices. The company is addressing the issue of employees bringing their own devices to work and wanting access to enterprise information; IT managers have had difficulty in determining how many to support and have to worry about security and provisioning, said Bitzer CEO […]