The Microsoft Distributed File System (DFS) has provided virtualization at the file share level for years but with file virtualization solutions entering the data center, the managed target shrinks from a share that may contain thousands of files, to a single file. We discuss DFS and its value in environments where file virtualization is present. We compare and contrast DFS and file virtualization. We review file virtualization as a migration and administration solution and discuss the role of DFS. We review different disaster recovery scenarios where one or both virtualization solutions are in place. We consider the practical and the promise of file virtualization with and without DFS in the environment.

Speaker Bios: Ursula Sinkewicz is an IT Director at Fidelity Investments who specializes in Directory Services and File Services. She is responsible for designing and engineering large scale infrastructure solutions including Active Directory, LDAP and Microsoft Identity Integration Server (MIIS). She is currently completing a major upgrade of a 100 TB file services infrastructure. Before joining Fidelity, Ursula was at Digital Equipment Corporation developing UNIX, networking and distributed computing products. She did the TCP/IP networking changes for the ULTRIX symmetric multiprocessing product. She worked on several advanced research projects including threads on multiprocessor systems and an object broker system. She was responsible for several DCE RPC product releases. She has a graduate degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and undergraduate degrees from the George Washington University. Ursula has spoken at several technology conferences and has published a number of papers on multiprocessing and networking. She has presented several papers recently at the Directory Experts Conferences on Active Directory failover and disaster recovery.

Matt George is senior software engineer with Fidelity Investments. In his 10 years with the company, he has had experience with supporting and engineering enterprise wide products and solutions. In 2007, Matt helped design an infrastructure that utilizes Network Attached Storage (NAS) and file virtualization technology. Through this infrastructure, Fidelity was able to seamlessly migrate Terabytes of data onto a more stable system with zero impact to their customers. Prior to this, Matt worked on the Active Directory infrastructure team where he designed and implemented tools utilized by Systems Administrators throughout the company. In March, 2007, Matt partnered with Microsoft and Quest Software at the Microsoft SMS Conference for a presentation regarding Windows Powershell and how it can be utilized for Active Directory automation.

3rd International "Virtualization Conference & Expo" Call for Papers
Virtualization, the hottest subject in all IT right now, will be center stage in 2008. Key opinion-formers in the field of infrastructure and pioneers of virtualization technologies of all types have already begun submitting speaking proposals to Virtualization Conference & Expo 2008 East, being held in New York City, June 23-24, 2008. Topics covered will range from Application Virtualization, Desktop Virtualization, Network Virtualization, Server Virtualization, and Storage Virtualization, to Virtual Machine Automation, Physical to Virtual (P2V) Migration, Management Applications, Tools and Utilities, and Virtualization Scripts and Procedures.

Submissions on these and dozens of other topics have already begun streaming in. The Call for Papers is as always a 100% online process, found here.

IDC has stated that the virtualization services market alone is going to reach $11.7 billion by 2011 and in general this technology, which has been around for a good number of years, seems suddenly to be on everyone's mind.

In short, Virtualization is fast becoming a key requirement for every server in the data center, enabling increased workloads in server consolidation projects, efficient software development and testing, resource management for dynamic data centers, application re-hosting and compatibility, and high-availability partitions. Help with that transformation: submit your speaking proposal today.

Topics will include:

• Server Virtualization
• Desktop Virtualization
• File Virtualization
• The Future of the Virtual Enterprise
• Hosted Virtualization
• Para-virtualization
• Virtualization Hardware Support
• Hardware-level Virtualization
• Storage Virtualization
• Virtualization for Server Consolidation and Containment
• Windows Virtualization
• Utility Computing
• State of the Virtualization Services Market