Latest News from Virtualization Journal

Data Center Fabric for Cloud Computing at Cloud Expo New York

Wed, 16 May 2012 10:30:00 EDT

Enterprise IT organizations want to deploy a virtualized data center fabric that will provide the foundation for agile private cloud computing. Getting there does not have to be difficult, but it does require a new approach to data center infrastructure design – an approach that is non-disruptive, vendor-agnostic, and very adaptable to changing business requirements. In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Bruce Fingles, Chief Information Officer and VP of Product Quality at Xsigo, will look at the limitations of traditional thinking, and show how extending the power of virtualization can help maximize performance, minimize complexity, and empower IT organizations with an agile data center fabric.

Analysis: Dell's Alleged Bid for Fusion-IO

Wed, 16 May 2012 07:15:00 EDT

Last Friday Eric Savitz over at Forbes reported that Dell may have put in a speculative bid for Fusion-IO (thanks to Don Jennings for spotting the article). The rumoured price was $33 a share, which is approximately a 50% markup on the share price at the time – we can only assume the offer was rejected. As Chris Mellor recently reported, Fusion-IO have been increasing revenue but making a loss and Eric Savitz also noted that 55% of their revenue comes from just two companies – Apple and Facebook. From what I understand there are also other storage companies that also contributed heavily to Fusion-IO’s revenue numbers.

Cloud Expo New York Speaker Profile: Dave Asprey – Trend Micro

Wed, 16 May 2012 06:00:00 EDT

With Cloud Expo 2012 New York (10th Cloud Expo) now under four weeks away, what better time to introduce you in greater detail to the distinguished individuals in our incredible Speaker Faculty for the technical and strategy sessions at the conference... We have technical and strategy sessions for you every day from June 11 through June 14 dealing with every nook and cranny of Cloud Computing and Big Data, but what of those who are presenting? Who are they, where do they work, what else have they written and/or said about the Cloud that is transforming the world of Enterprise IT, side by side with the exploding use of enterprise Big Data – processed in the Cloud – to drive value for businesses...? We have technical and strategy sessions for you every day from Nov 7 through Nov 10 dealing with every nook and cranny of Cloud Computing, but what of those who are presenting? Who are they, where do they work, what else have they written and/or said about the Cloud that is transforming the world of Enterprise IT?

Cloud VDI: Leveraging the Full Potential of the Cloud at Cloud Expo NY

Wed, 16 May 2012 06:00:00 EDT

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) has been a hot topic in the IT community for years but delivery models have limited its use. Today there are real options for using the technology to truly replace the existing desktop infrastructure to realize tangible benefits. Today’s cloud-sourced VDI offers the enterprise new opportunities for security, centralization, mobility, and business continuity while avoiding much of the upfront investment of traditional in-house deployments. Utilizing cloud-based VDI to centralize application deployment, secure corporate property, or scale the IT enterprise brings flexibility and a layer of abstraction that was not previously available. There are many different delivery strategies on the market with different benefits, nuances, and use-cases. While most agree that IT’s consumption of infrastructure is changing drastically, how do you choose which is the right model for your business?

It's Time to Consider Human Capital Again

Tue, 15 May 2012 15:57:00 EDT

Throughout history there has been a cycle that ebbs and flows where new technology makes production more efficient and reduces the need for manpower in a particular space, thus forcing those in charge into the difficult position of deciding who stays and who goes. This is normally replaced by an uptake in needs for employees elsewhere, and eventually by expansion of the original vertical market, a return to labor-heavy workloads. This cycle has existed (in a variety of forms) for ages. With a crossbow, less skill and more bodies were needed to field an army. With early guns, more skill and less bodies were needed. The cycle goes around again. The same is true of any marketplace where technology can help improve efficiencies. In the case of farming, fewer small farms and an increasing number of massive farms with staff no larger than the small farms whose land the large ones take up. The reason being technology improving the rate of all the jobs that are required on a farm.

Atlantis Computing Partners with VMware to Simplify Infrastructure

Mon, 14 May 2012 12:03:25 EDT

Atlantis Computing, a provider of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) storage and performance optimization solutions,has announced the release of Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI 3.2, a solution that enables VMware View customers to deploy virtual desktops with no storage. Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI can help simplify VMware View deployments by enabling customers to deploy virtual desktops using only server CPU and RAM, while at the same time delighting users with a faster than PC experience. Without storage, the infrastructure is easier to manage and the CAPEX including the servers and Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI can drop below $200 per virtual desktop, while removing storage related OPEX.

Reducing the Impact of Virtualization on Storage Needs

Fri, 11 May 2012 08:00:00 EDT

Virtualization can be a great boon to an organization’s data center, but it has to be managed correctly. The fact of the matter is that you can’t simply take servers, virtualize them, and then just expect to meet capacity. You need to measure, test, and tweak your virtual systems to as to get the maximum impact. There are few areas where this is as evident as in the area of storage.

Yet, scaling storage to meet the demand of virtualized systems isn’t always easy. Fortunately, there are some things you can do to reduce the impact virtualization has, and keep pace:

Understand where you’re starting from. Part of the point of virtualization is to make better use of the resources in your data center. Unfortunately, your resources are probably at very different levels of utilization. For example, your servers might be running at 5-10% of capacity. Your storage utilization, however, might be as high as 50%. If you simply begin the virtualization process, you’ll find your storage capacity maxes out long before your server utilization does.

Utilize thin provisioning. Thin provisioning is a feature of storage virtualization. This lets you set aside a larger amount of storage for the applications that actually need them, and creates a pool of available storage to be used on an as-needed basis. In other words, if every virtual server were utilizing all of the data it needs at any given moment, you wouldn’t have enough capacity. Because that’s not how utilization happens, however, thin provisioning is a good option.

Take into account the I/O implications. Another impact on storage is how storage I/O works. Rather than keeping data on one or even just a few physical disks consider using wide striping technologies to spread the data across many disks. This helps you to avoid I/O bottlenecks while still providing the kind of performance that your virtualized environment demands.

Don’t let virtualization throw your storage infrastructure into a tailspin. Make sure you know what virtualization is likely to do, and then use techniques like wide striping and thin provisioning to address those concerns.

The Definition of a Converged Infrastructure

Wed, 09 May 2012 11:00:00 EDT

There’s been a cacophony of hyperbole and at times marketing fluff from vendors and analysts with regards to Reference Architectures and Converged Infrastructures. As IBM launched PureSystems, NetApp & Cisco decided it was also a good time to reiterate their strong partnership with FlexPod. In the midst of this, EMC decided to release their new and rather salaciously titled VSPEX. From the remnants and ashes of all these new product names and fancy launch conferences, the resultant war blogs and Twitterati battles ensued. As I poignantly watched on from the trenches in an almost Siegfried Sassoon moment, it was quickly becoming evident that there was now an even more ambiguous understanding of what distinguishes a Converged Infrastructure from a Reference Architecture, what it’s relation was with the Private Cloud and more importantly whether you, the end user should even care.

Cloud Expo NY: Server Virtualization – How to Choose the Right System

Wed, 09 May 2012 06:00:00 EDT

As datacenters expand and cloud computing becomes a reality, there are challenges to implementing a one-size-fits-all strategy. While purchasing hundreds of the exact same server – even with minor variations – is simpler from the buyer’s perspective, different applications include a wide range of requirements. In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Shai Fultheim, founder and CEO of ScaleMP, will explore the decisions every IT manager needs to consider when acquiring the right computer system for their intended workloads. He will also discuss the ROI of implementing server virtualization for aggregation, and best practices for using it to achieve maximum benefits.

DCIG Reports That Gridstore Addresses SMEs' "Bigger Data" Needs

Tue, 08 May 2012 15:26:09 EDT

Gridstore, a provider of grid-based, scale-out storage solutions, has announced that the leading analyst firm, DCIG, reports that Gridstore scale-out storage provides an answer to the "bigger data" needs of the mid-tier market, with the convenience and flexibility of enterprise scale-out NAS without the big scale-out cost. "SMEs are asking, ‘What scale-out storage systems will enable us to affordably address our bigger data problems?'" said Jerome Wendt, lead analyst, DCIG. "These organizations are finding an answer to their question in the form of the Gridstore scale-out storage platform. The Gridstore architecture provides the convenience and desirability of scale-out NAS by creating a virtual storage grid that eliminates the most costly components of scale-out clustered NAS solutions - their controllers and complex clustering software."

Data Virtualization – The Quest for Agility

Tue, 08 May 2012 08:00:00 EDT

Yes, data virtualization is definitely about agility. We covered this from different angles in my previous article. Agility in this context is about accelerating the time-to-delivery of new critical data and reports that the business needs and trusts. It is also about an architecture that is flexible to changes in underlying data sources, without impacting the consuming applications. It’s about doing data virtualization the right way so you can deliver new critical data and reports in days vs. months. However, what about productivity? A discussion around agility cannot and must not exclude productivity. Productivity thus goes hand-in-hand with agility. Whether it is about the rate at which goods are produced or work is completed, or a measure of the efficiency of production, it’s about doing something well and effectively. This begs a deeper conversation around productivity, both as a capability as well as a benefit. However, looks like somebody forgot to talk about this - or, did they?

Inktank to Commercialize Ceph Big Storage

Mon, 07 May 2012 08:15:00 EDT

Developers behind the open source massively scalable distributed storage system known as Ceph have started a company called Inktank to commercialize the stuff. It’s supposed to be the first company to offer enterprise-level support and services for Ceph. They claim Ceph is the “future of storage,” a self-managing, highly scalable, open source distributed storage system that delivers object storage, block storage and POSIX-compatible file storage in a unified platform that runs on commodity hardware. Sage Weil, who created the Ceph project for his doctoral dissertation at UC Santa Cruz in 2004, will be Inktank’s CEO and chief architect.

VMTurbo Says It’s OK to Virtualize Critical Apps

Mon, 07 May 2012 07:45:00 EDT

VMTurbo has added application delivery visibility to its intelligent workload management software for cloud and virtualized environments. The new Operations Manager 3.1 basically assures companies that it’s okay to virtualize business-critical applications because it can ensure service and resource availability based on application performance and business priority. That includes transaction time and performance characteristics for multi-tiered applications The widgetry expands VMTurbo’s patented Economic Scheduling Engine (ESE) model to the ADC environment, ensuring application performance for multi-tiered business-critical applications. It says its ESE model provides a fundamentally different method for controlling and managing data center and cloud infrastructures by employing a market-based approach that allocates resources, manages capacity and ensures application performance based on business priority.

Storage and IO Metrics That Matter

Mon, 07 May 2012 06:15:00 EDT

It is great to see more conversations and coverage around storage metrics that matter beyond simply focusing on cost per GByte or TByte (e.g. space capacity). Likewise, it is also good to see conversations expanding beyond data footprint reduction (DFR) from a space capacity savings or reduction ratio to also address data movement and transfer rates. Also good to see is increase in discussion around input/output operations per section (IOPs) tying into conversations from virtualization, VDI, cloud to Sold State Devices (SSD). Other storage and IO metrics that matter include latency or response time, which is how fast work is done, or time spent. Latency also ties to IOPS in that as more work arrives to be done (IOPS) of various size, random or sequential, reads or writes, queue depths are an indicator of how well work is flowing. Another storage and IO metric that matters is availability because without it, performance or capacity can be affected. Likewise, without performance, availability can be affected. Needless to say that I am just scratching the surface here with storage and IO metrics that matter for physical, virtual and cloud environments from servers to networks to storage.

Cloud Expo New York: Borderless Applications in the Cloud

Sat, 05 May 2012 16:00:00 EDT

As virtualization adoption progresses beyond server consolidation, this is also transforming how enterprise applications are deployed and managed in an agile environment. The traditional method of business-critical application deployment where administrators have to contend with an array of unrelated tools, custom scripts to deploy and manage applications, OS and VM instances into a fast changing cloud computing environment can no longer scale effectively to achieve response time and desired efficiency. Oracle VM and Oracle Virtual Assembly Builder allow applications, associated components, deployment metadata, management policies and best practices to be encapsulated into ready-to-run VMs for rapid, repeatable deployment and ease of management.

Making Virtualization Worth the Investment

Sat, 05 May 2012 09:00:00 EDT

Today’s IT organizations have recognized the power of virtualization to improve service delivery while also reducing costs. Once relegated to the lab, virtualization now plays key roles across the IT organization. Companies are increasingly moving business-critical workloads onto virtualized infrastructures, with many organizations now running, or planning to run, more than 80 percent of their computing on virtualized platforms. The next step for these organizations is to realize the promised benefits of virtualization — agility and lower costs — and to grow its footprint. Virtualization can also lay the groundwork for a move to the cloud. While virtualization completely changes the realized capacity of your physical resources, it does not change the functionality of the virtualized systems. Virtualization cuts your tight dependence on hardware by abstracting it away, thereby reducing complexity and increasing flexibility. However, the applications on the virtualized servers run no differently and, to the end user, a virtual server appears the same as a physical server.

Five Security Principles for Virtualized Environments

Sat, 05 May 2012 08:00:00 EDT

Over the past decade, we’ve become much more robust in our approach to information security. We recognize that our company’s largest vulnerabilities have to do with its computer systems, and that data security is at the core of loss prevention, disaster recovery, and even normal operations. Virtualization has created a much more efficient environment for our technology, but it’s also raised some new types of security risks. If you’re going to keep business running as usual and keep it secure, you need to know how to mitigate some of these risks.

Back to Basics: Load Balancing Virtualized Applications

Wed, 02 May 2012 08:00:00 EDT

The introduction of virtualization and cloud computing to data centers has been heralded as “transformational” and “disruptive” and “game changing.” From an operational IT perspective, that’s absolutely true. But like transformational innovation in other industries, such disruption is often not in how the core solution is leveraged or used, but how it impacts operations and the broader ecosystem, rather than the individual tasked with using the solution. The transformation of the auto-industry, for example, toward alternative fuel-sourced vehicles is disruptive and changes much about the industry. But it doesn’t change the way you drive a car; it still works on the same principles and the skills you’ve learned driving gas powered cars are still applicable to alternative fuel-source cars. What changes for the operator – just as within IT - is there may be new concerns with which you must contend.

Using RAM in SSD Caching

Wed, 02 May 2012 07:00:00 EDT

If you were happily running your IT system but needed some additional performance, chances are you turned to some kind of SSD caching solution to improve performance at a lower cost point than adding more servers or storage. You went on what I am calling a “cache diet” (no, not the “crash diet” you went on last year to lose a few lbs). You may think your cache diet is great. “Dog, we got some performance improvement and the applications guys are not bothering me anymore, at least for now.” And it is true, you did see some performance improvement when you went to an SSD caching solution….but now, things are starting to slow down again and the applications guys are making noise again. You are experiencing IO bottlenecks and higher latency times for data access or you just never really got all the improvements you expected. “So what do I do now, Dr. Dog?” Well, the problem is the SSD cache solution you implemented does not have any RAM in it and the solution from the good doctor is “you need more RAM in your cache diet.”

Integration Competency Centers: Gateway to Data Virtualization Adoption

Tue, 01 May 2012 11:30:00 EDT

ICCs can be used wisely to help, or unwisely to inadvertently hinder, adoption of new data management technologies such as data virtualization. Because of both organizational resistance and technological concerns, enterprises often struggle when adopting new data management technologies such as data virtualization. Yet, taking a tentative or go-slow approach to new data management technologies is no longer an option, especially because there's no end in sight to ever-growing data volumes and complexity. And business demand for business insight is proving insatiable. To get over these barriers and successfully deploy and benefit from new data management technologies, this article looks at the common organizational barriers to data virtualization adoption and examples of applicable Integration Competency Center (ICC) strategies used by successful adopters to overcome these barriers.

More Storage IO Momentous HHDD and SSD Moments

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 06:00:00 EDT

This is the first of a two part series on my latest experiences with HHDD and SSD's

About two years ago I wanted to start installing solid state devices (SSD's) into my workstations and laptops. Like many others, I found the expensive price for the limited capacity gains of the then generation SSD's did not make for a good business decision based on my needs. Dont get me wrong, I have been a huge fan of SSD for decades as an IT user, vendor, analysts, consultant and consumer and still am. In fact I have some SSD's used for different purposes as well as many Hard Disk Drives (HDD) and Hybrid Hard Disk Drives (HHDD's). Almost two years ago when I first tested the HHDD's, I did an first post in this ongoing series and this two-part post is part of that string of experiences observed evolving from HDD's to HHDD's to SSD's

Image courtesy of Seagate.com

As a refresher, HHDD's like the Seagate Momentus XT combine a traditional 7,200 RPM 2.5 inch 500GB or 750GB HDD with an integrated single level cell (SLC) nand flash SSD within the actual device. The SSD in the HHDD's is part of the HDD's controller complementing the existing DRAM buffer by adding 4GB (500GB models) or 8GB (750GB models) of fast nand flash SSD cache. This means that no external special controller, adapter, data movement or migration software are required to get the performance boost over a traditional HDD and the capacity above a SSD at an affordable cost. In other words, the HHDD's bridge the gap between those who need large capacity and some performance increases, without having to spend a lot on a lower capacity SSD.

However based on my needs or business requirements two years ago I found the justification to get all the extra performance of SSD not quite there when. Back two years ago my thinking was that it would be about two maybe three years before the right point for a mix of performance, availability (or reliability e.g. duty cycles), capacity and economics aligned.

Note that this was based on my specific needs and requirements as opposed to my wants or wishes (I wanted SSD back then, however my budget needed to go elsewhere). My requirements and performance needs are probably not the same as yours or others might be. I also wanted to see the incremental technology, product and integration improvements ranging from duty cycle or program/erase cycles (P/E) with newer firmware and flash translation layers (FTLs) among other things. Particularly with multilevel cell (MLC) or enhanced multilevel cell (eMLC) which helps bring the cost down while boosting the capacity, I'm seeing enough to have more confidence in those devices. Note that for the past couple of years I have used single level cell (SLC) nand flash SSD technology in my HHDD's, the same SSD flash technology that has been found in enterprise class storage.

While I wanted SSD's two years ago in my laptops and workstations to improve productivity which involves a lot of content creation in addition to consumption, however as mentioned above, there were barriers. So instead of sitting on the sidelines, waiting for SSD's to either become lower cost, or more capacity for a given cost, or wishing somebody would send me some free stuff (that may or may not have worked), I took a different route. That route was to try the HHDD's such as Seagate Momentus XT.

Disclosure: Seagate sent me my first HHDD for first testing and verifications before buying several more from Amazon.com and installing them in all laptops, workstations and a server (not all servers have the HHDD's, or at least yet).

The main reason I went with the HHDD's two years ago and continue to use them today is to bridge the gap and gain some benefit vs. waiting and wishing and talking about what SSD's would enable me to do in the future while missing out on productivity enhancements.

The HHDD's also appealed to me in that my laptops are space constrained for putting two drives and playing the hybrid configuration game of installing both a small SSD and HDD and migrating data back and forth. Sure I could do that for in the office or carry an extra external device around however been there, done that in the past and want to move away from those types of models where possible.

Ok, nuff said for now, lets resume this discussion in part II.

Cheers Gs

Greg Schulz - Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press, 2011), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press, 2009), and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier, 2004)

twitter @storageio

More Storage IO Momentus HHDD and SSD Moments (Part 2)

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 12:34:00 EDT

This follows the first of a two-part series on my latest experiences with Hybrid Hard Disk Drives (HHDD's) and Solid State Devices (SSDs). In my ongoing last momentus moment post I discussed what I have done with HHDD's and setting the stage for expanded SSD use. I have the newer HHDD's, e.g. Seagate Momentus XT II 750GB (8GB SLC nand flash) installed and have since bought another from Amazon as well as having some of the older 500GB (4GB SLC nand flash) in various systems. Those are all functioning great, however still waiting and looking forward to the rumored firmware enhancements to boost write capabilities.

Do Object Storage Plays Displace File Systems or Are They Absorbed?

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 07:45:00 EDT

NAB kept me totally away from all the interesting online discussions last week. It’s too late to respond to @JoinToigo’s tweet (we’d call this Figs after Easter in Dutch), but I thought I’d share my thoughts in a bit more than 140 characters. The short answer is no … but a better answer is very much *yes*. The first file systems were not designed with the thought of petabytes of data. I don’t know what the exact projections were back then, but gigabytes must have sounded pretty sci-fi. Bytes and kilobytes were a lot more common. We didn’t think that we’d soon all be creating tens if not hundreds of multi-megabyte files per day. File systems have of course evolved a lot and some have become so popular you could actually say they have a fan base (I’d need to do research on ZFS fan clubs). It is clear that the file system has played a very important role in the evolution of the computer industry. In my list of features that helped to make computers a commodity, the file system would probably be in the top three (with the windows-style GUI and the mouse). The file system enables the use of directories, which have been the most important tool to keep our data organized.

Hacker Leaks VMware ESX Source Code File

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 09:00:00 EDT

VMware has confirmed that one of its ESX hypervisor source code files was posted online. Iain Mulholland, director of VMware’s Security Response Center, posted the following event-minimizing message: “Yesterday, April 23, 2012, our security team became aware of the public posting of a single file from the VMware ESX source code and the possibility that more files may be posted in the future. The posted code and associated commentary dates to the 2003 to 2004 timeframe. “The fact that the source code may have been publicly shared does not necessarily mean that there is any increased risk to VMware customers. VMware proactively shares its source code and interfaces with other industry participants to enable the broad virtualization ecosystem today. We take customer security seriously and have engaged internal and external resources, including our VMware Security Response Center, to thoroughly investigate. We will continue to provide updates to the VMware community if and when additional information is available.”

Complying with PCI DSS – Part 6: Maintain an Information Security Policy

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 08:15:00 EDT

Complying with PCI DSS – Part 5: Regularly Monitor and Test Networks

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 07:45:00 EDT

According to the PCI SSC, there are 12 PCI DSS requirements that satisfy a variety of security goals. Areas of focus include building and maintaining a secure network, protecting stored cardholder data, maintaining a vulnerability management program, implementing strong access control measures, regularly monitoring and testing networks, and maintaining information security policies. The essential framework of the PCI DSS encompasses assessment, remediation, and reporting. We’re exploring how F5 can help organizations gain or maintain compliance and today is Regularly Monitor and Test Networks which includes PCI Requirements 10 and 11. To read Part 1, click: Complying with PCI DSS–Part 1: Build and Maintain a Secure Network, Part 2:Complying with PCI DSS–Part 2: Protect Cardholder Data, Part 3: Complying with PCI DSS–Part 3: Maintain a Vulnerability Management Program and Part 4: Complying with PCI DSS–Part 4: Implement Strong Access Control Measures.

Five Advantages of Virtual Storage Appliances (VSAs)

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 01:30:00 EDT

With hypervisors a ubiquitous component of nearly every IT deployment, virtual appliances present a compelling alternative to traditional physical appliances by offering a simpler and faster software deployment model. In recent years, many data storage vendors have jumped on the “virtual bandwagon,” offering virtual storage appliances, often referred to as VSAs, and bucking the trend of an industry largely dominated by traditional hardware boxes.

EMC Reportedly After Flash Storage Start-Up XtremIO

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 08:00:00 EDT

EMC is reportedly hot to buy three-year-old Israeli flash storage start-up XtremIO. According to Globes on Sunday, EMC is dangling $400 million-$450 million in front of its quarry and closing in for the kill. Supposedly EMC rivals including NetApp have also been after XtremIO. One of XtremIO’s founders previously sold Rainfinity to EMC and there are other family ties. XtremIO’s CFO Robin Ren was once director of R&D at EMC subsidiary VMware. Globes says EMC CEO Joe Tucci, VMware CTO Stephen Herrod and VMware finance VP David Golden have all been in Israel. NetApp’s M&A guy and its EMEA VP also made the pilgrimage, but EMC usually brings a bigger checkbook to such affairs as NetApp can testify.

Complying with PCI DSS – Part 4: Implement Strong Access Control Measures

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 15:54:00 EDT

According to the PCI SSC, there are 12 PCI DSS requirements that satisfy a variety of security goals. Areas of focus include building and maintaining a secure network, protecting stored cardholder data, maintaining a vulnerability management program, implementing strong access control measures, regularly monitoring and testing networks, and maintaining information security policies. The essential framework of the PCI DSS encompasses assessment, remediation, and reporting. We’re exploring how F5 can help organizations gain or maintain compliance and today is Implement Strong Access Control Measures which includes PCI Requirements 7, 8 and 9. To read Part 1, click: Complying with PCI DSS–Part 1: Build and Maintain a Secure Network, Part 2: Complying with PCI DSS–Part 2: Protect Cardholder Data and Part 3: Complying with PCI DSS–Part 3: Maintain a Vulnerability Management Program.

Suppose AMD Bought MIPS

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 07:15:00 EDT

MIPS Technologies, the coulda-been-great processor house that’s down-on-the-heels for the umpteenth time, has reportedly hired Goldman Sachs to find a buyer. Bloomberg say it got it from “people with knowledge of the decision” and apparently the search is already weeks-old. MIPS’ largest customer is Broadcom, whose name is being bandied about with Qualcomm’s, Google’s, Nvidia’s, AMD’s and even ARM’s as possible suitors. Forbes, for one, its ears to the ground, is betting on the AMD rumor, pointing out that “MIPS has a chip that runs Android 4.0 ICS and consumes LESS power than competing ARM parts. Furthermore, that chip is built in old 65nm process versus power-saving 40nm and 28nm competitors.”

Converged Infrastructure or Reference Architectures?

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 05:45:00 EDT

This last fortnight there’s been a cacophonyof hyperbole and at times marketing fluff from vendors and analysts withregards to Reference Architectures and Converged Infrastructures. As IBM

Cisco and the Networking Industry: Golden Age or Golden Fleece?

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 14:00:00 EDT

A recent and rather ambitious outlook on Cisco at Motley Fool entitled “Cisco and the Golden Age of the Internet “ talks about the rise in internet traffic and the growth potential it holds for companies like Cisco. While the article does mention competitive pressures (from the likes of IBM, HP, DELL and JNPR), it [...]

Complying with PCI DSS – Part 2: Protect Cardholder Data

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 08:15:00 EDT

According to the PCI SSC, there are 12 PCI DSS requirements that satisfy a variety of security goals. Areas of focus include building and maintaining a secure network, protecting stored cardholder data, maintaining a vulnerability management program, implementing strong access control measures, regularly monitoring and testing networks, and maintaining information security policies. The essential framework of the PCI DSS encompasses assessment, remediation, and reporting. We’re exploring how F5 can help organizations gain or maintain compliance and today is Protect Cardholder Data which includes PCI Requirements 3 and 4. To read Part 1, click: Complying with PCI DSS–Part 1: Build and Maintain a Secure Network

Storage Switzerland Lab Test Validates Zetta.net

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 13:33:00 EDT

Zetta.net, a provider of enterprise-grade online backup and disaster recovery solutions, has announced the results of a Storage Switzerland lab review that validates Zetta DataProtect as the next generation enterprise-grade server backup solution for small and medium sized enterprises that doesn't require appliances and can be deployed within minutes. The Storage Switzerland video review demonstrates the ease in which Zetta DataProtect was deployed and configured. From day one, it ran flawlessly on both Windows and Mac platforms. Granular data recovery was also simple with several options. The easiest method was mounting replicated file systems of backed up servers as web drives on a local system and just dragging and dropping the files that were needed.

Complying with PCI DSS – Part 1: Build and Maintain a Secure Network

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 07:00:00 EDT

The Cool (Or Is It Hot?) New SATA Spec for SSD

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 09:15:00 EDT

The IT Dog is waggin’ his tail today with this one. I love progress and the SSD revolution is certainly pushing the storage industry forward on many fronts. New products with SSD in every segment of the IT data chain from the server side SSD to SSD raid storage. SSD capabilities has so radically changed the performance parameters of data IO that long standing data interface standards need to be updated to take advantage of the true benefits SSDs offer. Today’s standard for discussion is SATA. SATA Yesterday and Today Sounds like the name of great conference somewhere in the mid-west in January that you would like to attend, right? Well, I just wanted to give a little snapshot of where SATA is before I talk about what is next. SATA stands for - Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (must have been a fun meeting in Santa Clara when they came up with name). SATA is a computer bus interface design specification for connecting bus controllers to hard drives. It has been around since 2002 and has been incrementally changed over the years. Version 1.0 was specified to run at 1.5 Gb/s. The current version (from 2009) is 3.0 and it is specified to run at 6.0 Gb/s. Now you can guess what the problem is.

Virtualization Simplifies Disaster Recovery

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 08:00:00 EDT

Myron Steves, a small- to medium-sized business, developed and implemented a modern disaster recovery and business continuity strategy based on a high-degree of server and clients virtualization. When Hurricane Ike struck Texas in 2008, it became the second costliest hurricane ever to make landfall in the U.S. It was also a wake-up call for Houston-based insurance wholesaler Myron Steves & Co., which was not struck directly but nonetheless realized its IT disaster recovery (DR) approach was woefully inadequate. Supporting some 3,000 independent insurance agencies in the Gulf Coast region, with many insured properties in that active hurricane zone, Myron Steves must have all it resources up and available, if and when severe storms strike.

Vyatta Introduces Software Forwarding Plane for Datacenter Scale

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 05:00:00 EDT

"Vyatta is delivering a next-generation distributed software networking environment that is capable of an order of magnitude better performance than our previous generation software on the same off-the-shelf hardware," saidRobert Bays, CTO of Vyatta. On Tuesday Vyatta introduced Vyatta vPlane technology, a highly scalable forwarding plane for next-generation enterprise and cloud network designs. Delivering a combination of speed and flexible deployment models, Vyatta vPlane's fast-path architecture is poised to improve the cost and capabilities of networks for virtualized datacenters. The migration of mission-critical enterprise applications to virtualized environments is producing a perfect storm of networking challenges. The resulting application density and multi-tenancy environments are creating traffic patterns that traditional Layer 3 infrastructure is ill-equipped to address due to inflexibility, cost and throughput limitations.

Network Industry Needs to Embrace Software

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 12:45:00 EDT

Network equipment vendors today are suspended -sometimes in disbelief, sometimes in denial- in a choice between innovation and irrelevance. The world around them has changed dramatically from the first Interop, from the powerful supply chains that have driven time and expense out of dozens of industries to the amazing rise of ecommerce in retail and banking. Dan Lynch (one of the founding fathers of the network equipment industry) quipped to us after our Future in Review panel last May that networks have indeed fallen behind the world that they helped to create. (You can watch the FIRE infrastructure 2.0 panel and come to your own conclusions). The core of the network hasn't changed materially in decades. That's a critical consideration now that virtualization has triggered the automation of systems in production environments.

Storage Switzerland Recognizes Gridstore as the Affordable Solution

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 12:33:00 EDT

Gridstore, a provider of scale-out NAS storage solutions, has announced that Storage Switzerland has identified Gridstore as an affordable fault tolerant storage solution that can stand up to almost any failure. In a recent Storage Switzerland article and lab-based “stress test,” the leading analyst firm underscores the value and performance of Gridstore’s grid-based NAS offering. In the article, “Fault Tolerant vs. Highly Available Storage,” lead analyst George Crump states, “Grid-based storage, like that offered by Gridstore, can leverage its architecture to provide fault tolerance without the cost that’s traditionally associated with this technology. The ability to provide consistent performance and improved uptime makes grid based storage a valuable new solution to some common storage problems.”

HotLink Makes vMotion Vendor-Agnostic

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 08:00:00 EDT

HotLink, the two-year-old start-up, has updated its flagship SuperVisor for VMware product first released last year. It’s the only solution that can extend VMware’s vCenter so it supports other hypervisors natively. The new SuperVisor for VMware 1.5 delivers advanced vCenter features like live migration (ya know, vMotion) to cross-platform virtual infrastructures including Microsoft’s Hyper-V, Citrix’ XenServer and Red Hat’s Enterprise Linux (KVM) virtual machines within homogeneous clusters. CEO Lynn LeBlanc says half the enterprise is using two or more hypervisors for different user populations and different critical workloads. For instance, as one might imagine, Exchange is better with Hyper-V.

How to Prevent VM Sprawl

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 12:45:00 EDT

Virtualization has revolutionized the data center, and has solved much of the impending trouble organizations would have faced in the past few years. Greater demand for computing services has been met, largely, by technologies such as virtualization. Yet along with virtualization has come a parallel problem: VM sprawl. VM sprawl occurs when your virtual machines are spread across your virtual infrastructure, hogging resources whether or not they’re being used proportionately. Make sure you see the larger picture. Understand exactly what your current data center architecture supports, and know what’s being used and where. Knowing your limitations will help you to be able to address user VM requests in a more effective and efficient way.

BYOD – The Hottest Trend or Just the Hottest Term

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 09:15:00 EDT

It goes by many names: ‘Bring Your Own Danger’, ‘Bring Your Own Disaster’ and what most people call ‘Bring Your Own Device’ and everyone it seems is writing, talking and surveying about BYOD. What used to be inconceivable, using your own personal mobile device/smartphone for work, is now one of the hottest trends or at least, one of the hottest topics being discussed throughout the IT industry. The idea of using a personal smartphone at work sprouted, I think, when many executives got their first iPhone back in 2007 and wanted access to corporate resources. As more smartphones made their way into employee’s hands, the requests for corporate access only grew. Initially resistant to the idea due to security concerns, IT seems to be slowly adopting the concept based on the many blogs, articles and surveys that have littered the internet of late. But, it is a true trend that will transform IT or simply a trending term getting a lot of attention? We’ll be right back after these important messages.

Radware Joins the Open Networking Foundation

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 05:30:00 EDT

SDN technologies provide network owners and operators better control over their networks, allowing them to optimize network behavior to best serve their customers' needs. While networking technologies continue to evolve, the ONF believes that more rapid innovation is needed. "Application acceleration and attack prevention capabilities across distributed networks are essential to ensure the smooth working of mission-critical applications for enterprises of all sizes, and Radware's expertise in ADCs and information security platforms enables organizations to build highly available and secured OpenFlow supported networks," said Avi Chesla, Chief Technology Officer, Radware. "We look forward to working with all global companies involved with the Open Networking Foundation and sharing best practices for the future of enterprise networking."

Freedom vs. Control

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 10:45:00 EDT

No sooner had I posted BYOD–The Hottest Trend or Just the Hottest Term, last week than yet another BYOD survey hit the news. The full results will be released in a webinar tomorrow but SANS announced their First Annual Survey Results on Mobility Security. Last December, SANS launched its first ever mobility survey to discover if and how organizations are managing risk around their end user mobile devices. The survey of 500 IT pros found that a meager 9% of organizations felt they were fully aware of the devices accessing corporate resources, while 50% felt only vaguely or fairly aware of the mobile devices accessing their resources. In addition, more than 60 % of organizations allow staff to bring their own devices. With so many companies allowing BYOD, controls and policies are very important to securing business environments.

VMware Loses CFO

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 08:00:00 EDT

VMware’s CFO Mark Peek has slipped the leash to go to Workday as CFO. Workday, the SaaS financial management and human capital management vendor built by PeopleSoft survivors Dave Duffield and Aneel Bhusri, is reportedly getting ready to IPO and Peek has been on its board. VMware CEO Paul Maritz said in the statement, “Mark helped take VMware public in 2007 and has provided a steady hand since then.” His departure seemed to take a couple of bucks off VMware stock. He leaves June 1. In the same announcement VMware said it has made Carl Eschenbach, responsible for sales and marketing, COO and co-president and Raghu Raghuram EVP of cloud infrastructure and management.

Qualcomm Follows AMD, Citrix in Funding BlueStacks

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 08:00:00 EDT

BlueStacks, a software start-up founded in 2008 by former McAfee CTO Rosen Sharma to make ARM-based Android apps run on x86 PCs, Ultrabooks, netbooks and tablets unmodified, has picked up an undisclosed investment from Qualcomm. It’s already got $14 million from AMD, Citrix, Andreessen Horowitz, Radar Partners, Ignition and Helion Venture Partners amassed since last May. After a three-month alpha test that it says attracted just over a million users toward the end of last year, it released a beta-1 version of its free App Player on March 27. It said it saw over a million downloads in the first 10 days and figures users have run over 12 million apps.

Will IT Share the Fate of the Titanic?

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 07:45:00 EDT

Like their business counterparts, IT has proven to be amazingly adaptive in times of challenge. Wary for business’s growing dissatisfaction, with a few wise course corrections, for example the adoption of data virtualization, IT can continue as business’s vehicle for success. Business dissatisfaction with IT is well-chronicled by TDWI and others. IT responsiveness surveys1 show an average time to add a data source of nearly eight weeks, with another seven weeks added-on to create a new report or dashboard.

Data Mining and Data Virtualization

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 06:45:00 EDT

Data Mining helps organizations to discover new insights from the existing data, such that predictive techniques can be applied towards various business needs. Data Virtualization is becoming part of Main stream enterprise data access strategy, mainly from the angle of it abstracts the multiple data sources and avoids complex ETL processing and facilitates the Single Version Of Truth, Data Quality and Zero latency enterprise. If value adds like Data Mining engine if can be built on top of the existing Data Virtualization platform, the enterprises will be benefited further.

Part V: PureSystems, Something Old, Something New, Something from Big Blue

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 21:01:00 EDT

So what about vendor or technology lock in? So who is responsible for vendor or technology lock in? When I was working in IT organizations, (e.g. what vendors call the customer) the thinking was vendors are responsible for lock in. Later when I worked for different vendors (manufactures and VARs) the thinking was lock in is what was caused by the competition. More recently I'm of the mind set that vendor lock in is a shared responsibility issue and topic. I'm sure some marketing wiz or sales type will be happy to explain the subtle differences of how their solution does not cause lock in.