Archive for Commentary
Citrix CTP Meeting
Posted by: | CommentsRecently, I was nominated to become a Citrix Technology Professional (CTP).
I just got back from two really informative days at the CTP meeting. The day started out with Mark Templeton welcoming us and we saw so many decision makers at both the business and product levels from Citrix over the two days that its very clear that Citrix puts a great deal of value on the CTP program.
The thing I really appreciated about it was the lack sales/marketing spin in their presentations. They presented each product factually with just a few slides with the understanding that it was more of “what do you think?” rather than “here’s the way it is”.
This was my first CTP meeting and it was really great to meet the other CTPs from all over the world. I’m looking forward to the next one.
New Server Virtualization Advisory Board Topic
Posted by: | CommentsI participate in Techtarget’s Server Virtualization Advisory Board. Here is a link to this months topic:
Handy Cloud Applications and Web Based Services Make My Migrations Much Easier
Posted by: | CommentsI move between computers and OS’s fairly regularly. I’ve started using a few really handy web-based applications to make the moves as painless as possible and without having a long downtime when I choose to install a different Linux distro or Windows 7 as the pre-release versions drip out from Microsoft.
As I’ve added these apps, I’m finding that I can move pretty quickly to a new setup very quickly now. Here are the ones I’ve found so far to be the most handy.
Free:
Office applications, email, calendaring.
Google Mail, Docs, Calendar http://google.com
File storage, free up to 2GB. It’s easy to set up and use.
Dropbox www.dropbox.com
Great note-taking, pasting functions. This is quickly becoming my memory. In fact, I wrote this blog post in Evernote.
Evernote www.evernote.com
Firefox plug-ins:
Xmarks - syncs your bookmarks and passwords
Delicious – I still use Delicious to go across browsers to bookmark links.
Not Free (for full versions):
Google Apps http://google.com/a I really like Google Apps. They do nearly everything I need on a normal basis.
Carbonite www.carbonite.com All my critical files are automatically backed up and updated every day. I don’t even think about it anymore.
I’m sure I’ll add more to this list and some may be replaced eventually since that’s the nature of our business.
New look for Virtualization Information Site
Posted by: | Comments
I spent some time this weekend revamping the blog site. I wanted to allow for more flexibility in posts and content. It’s a work in progress, but it is starting to settle in to the general feel I want.
How Fast Will Cloud Computing be Embraced by Companies?
Posted by: | CommentsAs virtualization seems like it might be eventually destined for cloud computing, I don’t think the adoption rate will be a tidal wave of activity anytime soon. There are still too many technical and organizational challenges to overcome before ubiquitous computing is the standard.
Cloud computing essentially asks companies to use servers and infrastructure that they may not know anything about to trust the cloud with their data.
To say most of these companies are risk averse is an understatement.
One recent professional service engagement we completed illustrates the organizational challenges. The client enlisted the software vendor’s professional services team even though they knew that our company would be delivering the services. The software vendor charged them double what we would have charged, and did nothing except pass paper around, just so middle management could tell upper management that they had engaged the software vendor. This has happened many times over the years.
Hurting the adoption rate further will be the legitmate concern about the security of private data and its reliability. The horror story at Journalspace as told by TechCrunch, might technically fall under software as a service (SaaS) but the core issue is the same.
Companies will have to build up both technically and mentally to accept clouds. The implementation will probably sound similar to the adoption of virtualization itself.
- The organization starts with test machines
- Infrastucture services and security issues are resolved (this may take awhile considering security is still immature for virtualization)
- It proves that it is a reliable solution
- Machines that are not critical are deployed
- Management can count on the ROI; it is embraced as a viable solution.
- Good cloud candidates are picked and deployed
- The rest of the IT management world reads about successful cloud stories and decides to try it
So a very rough timeline for a cutting edge, aggressive company with budget might go like: Read More→
What does it cost a Small Business to Implement Virtualization?
Posted by: ssnowden | Comments CommentsI get this question all of the time in one form or another, so I’m trying to determine hypervisor costs for a SMB as if I’m the owner looking to implement virtualization. This is an academic exercise, so pretend it’s your company and your money and you don’t have a particular vendor preference and you’re doing research online trying to determine apples to apples.
I usually don’t work the licensing side of the street, so I’m looking for feedback and correction if the costs are off the the mark. I’m using the vendor web sites and retail prices as if I were an SMB with no vendor connections.
Here’s the scenario:
From these requirements, we should have a really simple setup:
Two Hosts Connected to Shared Storage
Hyper-V
I went to the Microsoft Licensing assistance site to help me determine what I would need:
It said I need the Datacenter Edition because I was running more than 4 VMs per host.
Product Edition Advisor from Microsoft's Site
I worked my way through the tool and it recommended the Open Licensing with Software Assurance on the Server 2008 Datacenter version. The total was $8,094.
Not because the site really says so, but I think I need to add in the System Center with Virtual Machine Manager to be more on par with the other vendor’s management interfacesproducts.
I’m really not sure if I got all of the things included, but I bought Software Assurance with the Windows Server 2008 Datacenter, so I believe for Systems Center it will be $744 , plus I think I can use the Workgroup edition of Virtual Machine Manager for $505, plus I I think I’ll need CALs at $40 each of the 20 VMs for a total of $800. So for the management side of Hyper-V, I think the cost will be $2,049, plus whatever two more years will cost in maintenance.
I think I’ve met most of the requirements. Here is the link to the Hyper-V feature grid. But I couldn’t seem to select 3 years of support with their tools, so there will be more costs each year for maintenance. For one year I think the total is $10,143.
VMware ESX or ESXi
VMware has done a good job with packaging their products for small businesses. The Essentials Plus pack would be perfect at $4,905 except for some reason, it doesn’t include VMotion. So I guess we need to step up to the next level which is VMware vSphere 4 Advanced with 3 years platinum support for $3,675 each, for a total of $7,350 for the servers.
But wait, it’s only for 1 CPU, so I’ll need to contact someone to see how much a second one is to add to my order.
Only 1 CPU, I'll have to add another one.
To get VMotion and centralized management, I’ll need vCenter. They have vCenter Foundations for up to 3 hosts for $3,139 for a total of $10,489 for 3 years plus whatever a second physical CPU costs per physical host for the additional two years.
Citrix XenServer
Citrix has the technical product packaged pretty cleanly.
XenServer Enterprise has the technical features
XenServer with XenMotion is free, but I need High Availability and support for 3 years, so I need XenServer Advanced, Citrix Essentials Advanced with 1 year preferred support for $8,500.
I still need 2 more years of support
I still need 2 more years of support though. If it is linear, it should be $6,000 for 2 more years for a total of $14,500 to meet all of my requirements including 3 years of support.
Summary and To Do List
I don’t think I selected an unusual set of requirements in this as far as the hardware goes. I’ve seen plenty of dual CPU servers as the standard platform for virtualization projects. The 3 year support requirement didn’t seem to be out of line, but it seems to not be a frequent enough option for 2 of the 3 vendors to be in their online check out.
Microsoft – I need 2 more years of support costs. It wasn’t broken out where I could extrapolate it over 2 more years. I also would like for someone to validate that I have the right components and licenses for SCVMM.
VMware – I need to get the costs of adding the second socket CPU into the $7,530 server price
Citrix – I need to confirm that the support costs are $6,000 for two years
SQL server – I should note that both VMware vCenter and Microsoft’s Systems Center should be running with SQL server for production. Citrix XenServer does not require SQL server for XenCenter, so the cost of SQL Server can be deducted to the total for XenServer. For this exercise, I checked with CDW and SQL 2005 Standard was about $2,600.
It makes sense that the vendors would want to drive the larger organizations to partners to discuss pricing options. For the straightforward purchases like this scenario, it seems they might want to add just a few more options in their shopping carts for longer support warranties and more CPUs.