Several channel players are predicting the launch of Microsoft's Hyper-V technology will trigger a massive up tick in virtualisation adoption across all types of organisations. But most agree VMware will dominate the space for some time yet.
The idea of cloud computing -- designed around an architecture whose natural state is a shared pool outside the enterprise -- has gained momentum in recent months as a way to reduce cost and improve IT flexibility. But the use of cloud computing also carries with it security risks, including perils related to compliance, availability, and data integrity.
Microsoft's release this week of Hyper-V means there's one more hypervisor in the game -- and one more reason management capabilities will play a large part in determining which vendor will win long-term customer favor by providing the tools to optimize virtual server environments.
If you're not doing virtualisation you're either thinking about it, planning to do it, piloting it or at least reading about it. If you're not, well you're not really into IT. For the last few years the technology has been searing its way into the minds of decision makers and spreading its virtual tentacles into assorted elements of the IT architecture.
IT professionals may initially be awestruck by the promises of virtualization, but Gartner analysts warn that awe could turn into upset when organizations start to suffer from seven nasty side effects.
Saying Australians love their sport is more than just a cliche. We all know that whatever the sport - league, union, AFL, football, cricket, netball, surfing - we'll play it or watch it and have done so for generations. And we will continue to do so for many to come; it's built into our genes.
HP this week at Software Universe offered details about how it plans to build out its software and services business. Here are 10 things we learned that show us HP is serious about software.
There are three huge and hugely influential organisations that vie for top spot on the IT procurement scale every year. No, they don't dig up coal, or manage funds, produce widgets or ship wheat. Their contribution to the Australian economy is vast, but difficult to measure, and with over 600,000 screens and 14,000 servers spread across the eastern half of the country, they are far and away Australia's most important buyers of ICT.
For the past six months, our offices have been part of the brave new world of virtualization. Not of servers, storage or networks but of the next-generation desktop. The rationale for the original decision to virtualize the desktop was to offer the staff operating-system and application flexibility while maintaining governance, manageability and control of the corporate environment.
Jonathan Snyder's five-person team at Dreambuilder Investments isn't your typical IT organization. Or is it?
Cisco plans to claim its piece of the virtual data-center pie with products that automatically provision, manage and optimize virtualized environments.
Virtualization is a superhero among technologies, transforming static, brittle data centers into dynamic, flexible resource pools and giving IT an easy way to cut costs, improve services and expand operations beyond the limits of the physical world. With great power, however, comes great responsibility.
We asked IT executives and industry experts to dream big and tell us about their ultimate wish lists for a brand-new, built-from-scratch data center -- if money were no object. Here's what they had to say:
About 15 miles from its medical center in downtown San Antonio, Christus Health is building a US$23 million data center to house a flood of digital information ranging from patient insurance records to CT scans.
Virtualization has gotten into many nooks and crannies of IT infrastructure, but some of the available vendor technology is half-baked, according to a recent report from Forrester Research. According to Forrester, as of Q2 2008, server and client virtualization is mature enough to pay off in the short term, but storage virtualization-particularly application storage-is "not very advanced" and doesn't yet offer much payback.
The coach and fans would be happy; the Australian server market was kicking goals in 2007 and put its biggest ever score on the board.
When it comes to backing up virtual servers, IT administrators have a lot of choices. But increasingly, they're finding one method of backup isn't enough to satisfy all the demands of a virtual environment.
IBM's new focus and push around the enterprise data center with come with a new Business Partner program that's still being developed and will be launched later in the year, but Big Blue says partners shouldn't wait to develop the required skill sets within their organizations.
Technologies that can improve corporate bottom lines dominated the buzz at Interop Las Vegas, promising efficiencies and returns on investment that may help stave off cuts to IT spending in a tough economy.
Everyone knows that server virtualization shaves hardware clutter in the datacenter, boosts workloads, brings disaster recovery flexibility, slashes costs and basically saves the planet from nasty carbon emissions. But here's the dirty little secret: Many pitfalls await server virtualization adopters, and a stumble can ruin all your virtual dreams.
