Enterprise IT Watch Blog » Virtualization in 2010

Is there a branch office virtualization crisis coming?

KevinBeaver — Mon, 31 May 2010 09:41:25 +0000

This recent post from Michael Vizard hits some good points about virtualization and the branch office. Apparently Blue Coat Systems determined that 59% of IT managers surveyed have deployed virtual servers in branch offices. Big deal, you say. Well, as Michael points, out more virtual servers means more network traffic. Not a problem on the LAN but potentially a big problem on the WAN. Where’s that bandwidth going to come from? Who’s going to manage it? Who’s going to pay for it?

Another point Michael made is something I’ve seen ever since I started working in this field:

But more often than not, the folks in the branch office tend to do what they please when it comes to servers. It’s only when that activity starts having a negative impact on the network that corporate IT takes any notice of what’s happening in the branch office.

In other words, the typical branch office is often ignored – sometimes forgotten about – when it comes to computing resources. I don’t know if this is a flaw of a centralized IT management model or just a sign that the average network manager is too overwhelmed. Regardless, it’s a problem that cannot be ignored if you’re going to manage IT and, more specifically, virtualization and network bandwidth at remote offices. Perhaps an impending “virtualization management crisis” is indeed on the horizon?

Certainly something to think about.

Kevin Beaver is an independent information security consultant, keynote speaker, and expert witness with Principle Logic, LLC and a contributor to the IT Watch Blog.

Next up: The “Zero” Client

KevinBeaver — Fri, 28 May 2010 16:38:42 +0000

Now here’s an interesting concept I came across on Gizmag (a very cool site itself). It’s a “zero client” system by Pano Logic with “no processor, no operating system, no memory, no drivers, no software and no moving parts.” I don’t know about zero client since there’s still a 2″ x 3.5″ x 3.5″ box sitting on your desk, connected to your monitor, keyboard, network, and audio, but it’s a neat concept for clearing desktop clutter nonetheless. Like any other “thin” client, the Pano device also requires a server-side component to connect to for processing, storage, etc.

This reminds me of the NC. For those of you who were in the industry in the mid-90s, you’ll remember the network computer (NC) revolution. It was going to change the world, how we used computers, how we operated our businesses…and then it fizzled out like many other neat IT concepts. Now that virtualization has a strong grip on the industry, I suspect something like the Pano device could take hold as well. Maybe an acquisition target for Microsoft or Google? I’m a bit skeptical but I love this kind of innovation – it’s what makes the world go ’round…and keeps us employed!

Apple trumps Microsoft: Why it matters and why it doesn’t

Michael Morisy — Fri, 28 May 2010 15:30:30 +0000

After years of Microsoft playing the Goliath to Apple’s David, the tables have officially turned: Apple’s market value hit $222.1 billion, besting Microsoft’s value $219.2 billion and making it the most-valuable technology company.

And while two imaginary numbers being punted around by investors doesn’t impact IT directly, the changing of the guard has made a significant impact on workplace technology and how it’s managed.

But first, what hasn’t changed:

The Windows era isn’t over: Microsoft has seen a lot of very public, very embarrassing setbacks since its founding in 1975: Anti-trust cases, cornering the market on viruses, the infamous Blue Screens of Death in a variety of fun flavors and even Clippy, the misguided office assistant. But it has the momentum and manpower to bounce back when it needs to. See Windows 7, post-Vista, which has emerged to strong sales and positive, if not rave, reviews. Microsoft is still the standard bearer, no matter what others say.
The mass market matters, but so does the enterprise market: Dana Blankenhorn writes: ”The class market — complex computer systems used by enterprises — is not only less sexy than the mass market, but less profitable as well.” Horse radish. What is true is that Microsoft was tied to several large cash cow businesses (Windows, Office, Exchange, Server) that limited its agility. Since Apple was tanking before Steve Jobs re-entered the picture, it was far more able to invest strategically in growing markets, but to say consumer out-profits enterprise is absurd. As one counter-example, look at the laptop market: PC makers in the consumer space are being destroyed by low-margin netbooks, which enterprises have largely avoided since durability and stability issues.
Plain PCs still dominate the desktop and laptop markets: Apple got ahead not by competing on Microsoft’s own turf (although they build admirable, beautiful and significantly less frustrating products) but by executing in the more open field of mobile computing. In fact, according to a recent analysis, Apple’s OS X still only holds 5% of the OS marketshare. It’s the iPhones, iPods and, now, iPads that are juicing investors’ giddiness about Apple’s long-term potential, and while Apple has shown a strong lineup for those looking at more traditional computing, it’s still a niche product aimed at the high-end market.

All that being tempered, Apple’s past growth and projected success has made a huge impact on the world of IT.

1. IT no longer calls all the hardware shots: When the iPhone first came out, there was one thing almost all information security professionals could agree on: It was not ready for prime time by a mile, and it wouldn’t for a long time to come. Fast forward a few short months, when CEOs start demanding support for their new magical devices, and many in IT grit their teeth and made it happen, security consequences be damned, or best case scenario, minimized.

IT was once again put in a reactive stance in one area, mobile devices, in which vendors like RIM and Motorola had traditionally worked closely with them. And since more and more work was being done on these mobile devices that the users were picking out and, in some cases, even purchasing themselves, IT policies had to become more reactive, agile and creative in ensuring that critical data was as protected as possible, even when they don’t control the end points.

2. Desktop virtualization is coming to the masses, in fits and starts and fits: One of the things I was surprised to hear about at this year’s Interop was the genuine interest in desktop virtualization. Maybe I had been naive, or just too jaded to believe the discussion about increasing projected virtualization projects, but the complexity of IT’s job these days is pushing many to look at desktop virtualization as a way of managing the complexity in an effective manner.

But desktop virtualization is even creeping into the consumer space, thanks to Mac OS X’s Boot Camp and VMware fusion: It’s now easier than ever to run a virtualized OS in your primary OS, which helps Apple pooh-pooh any lingering compatibility qualms while giving a broader user base at least a basic understanding of what the technology is all about.

3. The phone is no longer just a phone: This has been a long-time coming, and while Bill Gates famously loves his tablet, Microsoft just couldn’t execute on the fact that the mobile device was doing everything desktops do, but doing it differently. Knowledge workers are now as reliant or more on their always-connected phones than they are their PCs.

4. SaaS solves a lot of problems: Once upon a time, Java was supposed to give us a full, cross-system compatible stack that would make all our OS problems irrelevant. That never came close to happening, but what did happen is JavaScript and a little Ajax magic made the browser take on a lot of the duties of the operating system, making web applications the cross-compatible, no-fuss method of choice for many business and consumer applications. Plus it further separated the OS from pesky programs that tend to corrupt, slow or mess with an otherwise good deal. With more apps being delivered via the web, from calendaring to e-mail to CRM, a user could as easily plug in via their Mac as their PC, and even get something approximating the same experience on their phone without IT having to modify and deploy the same application more than once.

5. Fragmentation is the way forward: While Mac OS X might just own 5% of the OS market share, Windows Vista helped many IT shops break the cycle of Microsoft-dictated upgrade cycles. First, they pushed back on end of life for XP and won. Now, many are seriously considering a mixed environment of XP and Windows 7, and possibly even Mac OS X and Linux. No, it’s not the year of Mac domination nor Linux on the desktop, but it is the year in which IT starts to get clever about how to handle both those operating systems, plus numerous mobile flavors, in a safe, secure and consistent way.

Michael Morisy is the community editor for ITKnowledgeExchange and formerly the news writer for SearchNetworking and SearchTelecom. He can be followed on Twitter or you can reach him at Michael@ITKnowledgeExchange.com.

As the VMworld Turns: From Virtualization to Cloud Computing

MelanieYarbrough — Wed, 26 May 2010 14:00:07 +0000

While VMWorld’s full content catalog won’t be released until June, the preliminary topics are out now and have attendees buzzing about where the conference, scheduled for August in San Francisco, is headed.

As InfoWorld.com reported:

Is VMworld still the premiere virtualization trade show it once was? Or is it now becoming a cloud event? … As hypervisor becomes (or many argue already has become) a commodity, VMware has to take it to another place or another layer: the cloud.

Perhaps organizers were influenced by the recent announcement that VMware is now one half of an unlikely couple with Google. InfoWorld’s David Marshall goes on to state that VMware’s acquisition of SpringSource was a factor in last year’s VMworld, despite its less-than-relevant status among conference-goers. Will Google and VMware’s partnership to take over the cloud computing market dominate VMworld 2010′s conversation? Four of the eight sessions suggest yes:

Hybrid and Public Cloud
Private Cloud—Management
Private Cloud—Business Continuity
Private Cloud—Security

Virtualization pros needn’t panic, however, since individual sessions are still virtualization-centric or, as Marshall describes it, virtualization wrapped up in a “nice cloud package.”

Cloud computing and virtualization are the buzz words of the year, so it comes as no surprise that one is complementing the other in a setting like VMworld. Don’t let the presence of competing vendors fool you: VMware is the core of VMworld, and with VMware’s exploration of the cloud comes its implementation of the cloud using its honed virtualization tool set. In its seventh year, it makes sense that VMworld is evolving.

Melanie Yarbrough is the assistant community editor at ITKnowledgeExchange.com. Follow her on Twitter or send her an email at Melanie@ITKnowledgeExchange.com.

Where’s all the desktop virtualization?

KevinBeaver — Tue, 25 May 2010 16:17:50 +0000

SearchCIO.com‘s guide to desktop virtualization for CIOs, recently linked to here, reminded me of how many IT managers I see struggling with desktop management. I often see people in the trenches struggling with everything that desktop management can throw at you: malware infections, inconsistent configurations, missing patches, workstation backups … you name it. It made me wonder why more shops aren’t relying on desktop virtualization. Is it a lack of budget? A misunderstanding of the long-term administrative benefits? A lack of security buy-in? What’s the deal?

I know desktop virtualization solutions like XenDesktop and VMWare View are not a magic solution to all our IT problems. However, managing desktops the old-fashioned way seems a bit out of line and behind the times here in 2010. Not using available technology goes against what the high-paid business consultants with their MBAs tell management they need to fix in order to cut costs and streamline their businesses. Why is this being overlooked in so many situations?

Maybe it’s out there and I’m just not seeing it. I’m curious to hear what you’re seeing and hearing – especially as it relates to businesses that aren’t using it. Is management not on board for some reason? Are they not listening at all? Is it just too expensive? Given the complexities of today’s environments, there’s got to be a better way.

Kevin Beaver is an independent information security consultant, keynote speaker, and expert witness withPrinciple Logic, LLC and a contributor to the IT Watch Blog.

VMWare and Google: The Odd Couple steps out

Michael Morisy — Mon, 24 May 2010 15:56:17 +0000

A few years ago, a sighting of VMware and Google holding hands at a quaint bistro or being caught snogging on a tropical beach might have sent shockwaves through the IT paparazzi. Even Steve Herrod, VMware’s Chief Technology Officer, said the two tech giants were a bit of a mismatch:

When we first met last year, both sides seemed a little unsure… at the time we had fairly different product focuses, customer sets, and cultures.

Google was the bad boy of the consumer revolution, of life made simpler, the David that slayed Microsoft’s giant while breaking all the rules. VMware was a quieter revolutionary; the quiet, nerdy prodigy that helped organize away abstract concepts efficiently, whose biggest fans were in the IT sector that Google was pushing towards irrelevency.

Call it fate, or Cupid’s arrow, or the fact that they shared the same college dorm at Stanford, the Gates Computer Science Building.

Whatever the cause, Steve Herrod was publicly crowing about the two tech giants’ ”Open PaaS” strategy, and he offered a little more insight in his Q&A with Alex Barrett, news director of SearchCloudComputing:

What are VMware’s broad goals for cloud computing?
S.H.: We’re moving from straight virtualization to virtualization as an enabler for cloud computing. We need to help IT build the private cloud, to create differentiated but compatible public cloud offerings and — to bridge those two — by letting IT managers view IT assets that reside on on-premise and off-premise resources.

We also need to address security. One thing you hear CIOs say is “My data needs to stay in one state” for compliance reasons. I think we’ll see the emergence of different kinds of public clouds: the New Jersey cloud, the hydroelectric cloud, the cheap cloud, the secure cloud, etc. One way we do that is by working with partners. We currently have 2,000 cloud partners — that’s up from zero one and a half years ago — and each has a different angle about why they matter, and who they appeal to.

Essentially, VMware hopes to vastly broaden the SaaS and cloud markets, carving out a piece of the action. And as long as that market grows exponentially, they’re happy to help Google grow its own hosting service (which Herrod noted “is not currently based on VMware’s server virtualization products”) and hopefully convince customers rapidly deploying it that VMware’s own hosting solutions, which virtualize the messy hardware side of things, might be a better long-term fit if they want to control costs, security, or another element more tightly.

Or as VMware’s CEO Paul Maritz put it more succinctly: ”The more choice you give developers to deploy their technology, the greater the motivation and the greater the resulting apps.”

Strange bedfollows indeed, but they might just be a winning combination when it comes to growing the SaaS, virtualization and cloud computing markets.

The IT Watch Blog’s Guide to Virtualization

Michael Morisy — Thu, 20 May 2010 20:46:40 +0000

Looking to beef up your virtualization knowledge, or just boot up some virtual desktops? We’re compiling the top resources you need to stay at the top of your game.

The Best Guides on Virtualization Strategies

Looking for a comprehensive primer on server, storage, network or desktop virtualization? You’ve come to the right place. Click one for help on your chosen path:

Top Virtualization Blogs

We’ve put together a list of top virtualization blogs, but we’d love your suggested additions in the forums. Here are some of the blogs that made our list:

Search Server Virtualization: Search Server Virtualization editors outline how industry changes and announcements affect how your company uses virtualization.
Virtualization Pro: SearchVMWare editors provide the grittier bits of the business side along with resources you need to check out.
Irregular Expressions: User Dan O’Connor reveals vulnerabilities and exploits while sharing virtualization tips and tricks.

Top Virtualization Twitter accounts

Looking for something a little more real-time? Then look no further: We’ve also compiled our favorite Virtualization Twitter accounts, including luminaries like Brian Madden and the lovable @VMWareCares.

Virtualization as a security testing platform?

KevinBeaver — Tue, 18 May 2010 19:30:04 +0000

Virtualization has many obvious benefits, but the one that stands out to me is being able to use it for security vulnerability testing. One of the things that has frustrated me the most over the years is how security testing tools will junk up your system – especially Windows. Install enough vulnerability scanners, network analyzers and so on over time and you’ll undoubtedly be cussing like a sailor when system slow downs, instability and blue screens of death creep into your work. Oh, not to mention the ever-frustrating situation whereby your anti-virus software “cleans” your vulnerability testing tools right off of your system!

The neat thing with virtualization software such as VMWare Workstation, VirtualBox and the lesser-known Windows XP Mode in Windows 7 (that I recently wrote about for SearchEnterpriseDesktop.com) is that you can create a virtual security testing environment to muck up as much as you’d like without having to worry about affecting your day-to-day productivity by creating problems on your local system. When problems do arise in your virtual environment, you can simply fall back to an older image that works, or just quickly recreate a new one.

I know it seems like it’d be easier to have a dedicated computer to run your security tests from. However, doing everything on one system increases efficiency when you need to be mobile and share files between the host and virtualized systems. Plus, it gives you an excuse to invest in a high-end laptop that you may not be able to justify otherwise.

Kevin Beaver is an independent information security consultant, keynote speaker, and expert witness with Principle Logic, LLC and a contributor to the IT Watch Blog.

The Art of Virtual Storage

Guest Author — Tue, 18 May 2010 13:40:18 +0000

Today’s guest post is from Graeme Elliott, a Sydney-based Storage Architect for a large financial firm and leader of the Sydney Tivoli Storage Users Group. Elliott will be starting his own blog on IT Knowledge Exchange shortly, to be titled The Art of Storage.

Virtual Storage is the “art” of moving the “smarts” (Mirroring, Snapshots, Replication etc.) from a standard storage array’s controller and placing them into an appliance. This appliance is placed in the data path between the Host and the Storage Array. Even though these virtual appliances are in path there is generally only a minimal performance hit and in some cases, a performance boost due to the appliance’s caching algorithms.

The storage from the backend storage array is now presented to the virtual appliance just like any other host. The virtual appliance can further carve up or merge this storage as desired into “virtual disks” that can be allocated to your hosts. From the Hosts’ perspective, these virtual disks are just like any other disk.

The advantages of doing this are tremendous.

All that you need to worry about when acquiring storage arrays is storage and performance (no smarts required)
Span “virtual disks” across multiple arrays or Raid Groups
Only need to the use the host drivers for the Virtual Appliance, not for the specific storage array vendor
Storage from arrays can be placed in pools on the Virtual Appliance allowing for a tiered approach to allocations

Another major benefit of these “virtual appliances” -and one that in my experience usually drives the initial purchase-is the data migration features offered. Being able to migrate data between storage arrays while the host is online is highly beneficial in most organizations when it comes time to lifecycle a storage array.

In my “ideal” storage environment, I would have a virtual storage appliance between all hosts and their storage. This provides a consistent and fast method for storage administrators to provision storage while also providing a consistent presentation of this storage to the hosts no matter what backend storage vendor or storage array model is used.

There are always downsides for technologies like this and virtual storage is no different. Troubleshooting performance is more complex as host data can now reside across multiple backend storage array Raid Groups and LUNs, spread across multiple storage arrays or be shared with other hosts on a backend LUN.

IT Twitter Top 10: Virtualization Edition

MelanieYarbrough — Fri, 14 May 2010 16:00:25 +0000

If you want some 140-character goodness all about virtualization, check out these accounts to keep track of what’s going on.

1. @virtnews: Get the latest news on virtualization software from the top virtualization blogs across the internet including VMware, SearchServerVirtualization, and Virtualization.com, conveniently organized on their webpartner site.

2. @VMware: Receive updates on events, products, and troubleshooting.

3. @vmwarecares: Ask your questions about VMware and get answers from the community and experts. Their profile boasts “human assistance”; can’t beat that!

4. @SMBVirtualization: Everything you could possibly need aside from the hardware, this feed is chockfull of white papers, blog posts, videos and instructional material geared specifically toward small- to medium-sized businesses.

5. @ServerVirt_TT: Get the best server virtualization info from the site editor of SearchServerVirtualization.com, Colin Steele.

6. @brianmadden: He’s a virtualization blogger providing updates on virtualization software and services as well as links to his latest blog posts.

7. @govirtual: Virtualization.info’s official Twitter account.

8. @scott_lowe: He’s an IT professional who specializes in virtualization and VMWare who’s very active with his followers. Send him a question!

9. @ThatFridgeGuy: Rod Gabriel sends out bite-sized insights on the IT world.

10. @stevie_chambers: If you can’t get enough of his equally entertaining and informative website, check out his tweets.

Then of course, there’s always us: Follow ITKE on Twitter for a new IT relevant topic each month. Who are some of your favorite virtualization pros to follow on Twitter? Let us know in the comments section!

Melanie Yarbrough is the assistant community editor at ITKnowledgeExchange.com. Follow her on Twitter or send her an email at Melanie@ITKnowledgeExchange.com.