Virtualization strategies

Some Common Sense Ideas When Designing a Virtualization Environment

This is my attempt at putting together something that every sysadmin and supervisor should have when they look at whether to take the next step in virtualization - a Common Sense (tm, patent-pending, sm, r) guide to putting virtualization in place. Truth be told, it works with any server...

Virtualization Fashion Update: Thin is In!

IT professionals may wear many hats in their organizations, but we tend not to be known for our fashion sense.  To assist in that area, I'd like to cover one of the latest styles in virtualization: The return of the thin client.  Case in point: see Alex Barrett's coverage of HP's acquisition...

Server consolidation via virtualization: Advice on pitches, multi-purpose server conversion and P2V

Burton Group analyst Chris Wolf shared some good advice about consolidating servers with virtualization in our recent interview. Here are some quick tips gleaned from our conversation and some more-info...

Is Xen ready for the data center? Is that the right question?

Article after article and post after post have compared and contrasted Xen, VMWare, Veridian, and a host of other...

Virtualization is a real life game of RISK (A fun analogy)

I was crusing the Web just now, trying to find some interesting blogs that aren't chock-full of code that an associate editor simply does not understand. I clicked on Roudy Bob's blog (see our blogroll for his link) and low and behold, my boredom was alleviated! To read the following analogy of...

Virtualization and next-generation grids: What’s really NG? What’s just a fad?

Does a grid by any other name smell as sweet? In years of covering grid computing technologies, I've seen the definition of "grid" changed to fit vendors' products or the computing flavor of the month. In general, I see the most basic function of grids is creating virtual communities of servers,...

Server virtualization: Three top methods, plus pros and cons

Currently, there are three main styles of server virtualization, and each has its benefits and drawbacks, according to open source consultant and author Bernard Golden, a presenter at the Red Hat Summit, happening right now in San Diego. His lowdown on the three ways to virtualize provides a handy...

P2V wins, losses: VMware Converter

The road from physical to virtual servers isn't a freeway...yet. There some potholes that hold up P2V migrations. Here are a couple of views from those who've taken a trip with VMware Converter.

Language support issues on VMware Converter caused several P2V mishaps for Robert Sieber of...

Proprietary ERP on Open Source Virtualization

It looks like the ERP business is finally starting to catch on to the fact that their customers want to use server virtualization to cut costs, reduce downtime, and do all of those nifty things that come with SV. Novell and SAP seem to have sat down and sorted this out. It's almost too bad it was...

VMware VI3, Microsoft Virtual Server, XenSource XenServer, Virtual Iron, etc… — Living Together in Harmony

Do you know how there are some questions that at first glance seem like they may generate long and complicated answers? Recently I was pinged with such a question, but then I came to realize that the my original answer, and in fact the question itself were both over thinking the situation. The...