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It looks like there is all sorts of excitement going on in regards to new product releases in the virtualization space. Both Virtual Iron and VMware announcing new versions that introduce quite a bit of new functionality into their respective offerings. Fortunately, Mike Laverick had taken the time to provide a nice "New Features" document that highlights all of the new VMware functionality and how to actually configure it. I will be following up at some point in regards to why you should or shouldn't rely on these new components as the greatest features to ever be introduced into virtualization (as much as the platform vendors would like you to think so).
I actually got a chance to sit down and enjoy a damn fine dinner with Ron Oglesby last night in Chicago. We devoured some wings that I can easily say fall within my top 5 list of best wings I've ever had. If anyone is ever in Chicago on the near University Village, check out Junior's Sports Lounge.
Ron and I had a chance to talk about all sorts of good stuff such as how there are about 900 pages in the unedited version of the VI3 book. Apparently, this took Brian Madden (the publisher) a little by surprise. It looks like we are now looking at a January release. Ron and Brian are working hard to finalize the last details to get this thing available on Amazon for pre-sale. We are going to print out an EXTREMELY limited number of copies on Lulu of the content we submitted to Brian (only grammatically edited and with no content removed) as "Author's Editions". We will both sign this small initial blast (If Mike were closer we'd let him play as well). I will find a way to run some form of contest to help drive some more traffic to the revamped website to auction off the copies that I will receive.
We had a great conversation on how virtualization is still just a small piece of the puzzle when looking at many of the enterprise projects that are going on today. Many of these large projects have a focus on datacenter consolidation/migration, and virtualization simply fills one of the many gaps by minimizing the cost associated with purchasing the new hardware. Logical consolidation of applications and databases is still widely popular as well, which is helping to drive the need for advanced analytic tools such as those provided by CiRBA.
We also had the chance to have a few laughs over some of our favorite customer stories in regards to just how limited the understanding of virtualization truly is in the enterprise environments. Many organizations are so wrapped up in politics and unable (many times they are simply unwilling) to make the necessary business and operational changes necessary that virtualization will simply never work for them. I've been watching this happen not only while I was a consultant, but even after I moved into software development and the problem is not going away. Hopefully as virtualization continues to grow and more vendors are truly "enterprise ready" we will start to see the paradigm shift in the IT Business. |
