Dell offers VMware alternative: Virtualization Log

Here’s one that slipped through the cracks last week: Dell has signed on to resell Virtual Iron, following in the footsteps of Hewlett-Packard and IBM. Virtual Iron’s new CEO, Ed Walsh, has been beating the channel drum, so this should come as no surprise.

In a far-reaching tip, contributor Anne Skamarock opines on how to avoid virtual sprawl. Hint: It involves doing a proper inventory of your environment before undertaking consolidation.

If backup is your bag, Burton Group analyst Chris Wolf has the lowdown on issues affecting VM backup: CPU, disk I/O and network I/O bottlenecks, and he offers an overview of where backup options like image-level backups; VMware Consolidated Backup, or VCB; file-level backups; and continuous data protection fit into the data protection continuum.