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Virtualization: desktop to datacenter: It's been a while since I've posted a blog ... but that one really caused a stir in the Virt circles in the Bay Area. Hopefully it doesn't mean I can't hit up those people for Sharks tickets. I've stumbled across some interesting items that I wanted to share with you. Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack 2009 R2 is now available. The big thing is support for Windows 7. Read the blog here. Here's an excerpt: On the server side, the latest is from Gartner Symposium in Orlando. Gartner announced their top 10 strategic technologies for 2010. Not surprisingly, virtualization is named or underlying several of the strategic technologies. And speaking of, Gartner also shared data on server virtualization adoption today and forecasted through 2012. Read this article. Here's an excerpt: Along those lines, I had a great email exchange a couple weeks ago with Steve at PoundHost in Maidenhead, UK. I was giving a presentation at IP Expo / VM Expo conference in London, and wanted to highlight PoundHost's business results since switching to Hyper-V and System Center away from VMware tools, and since PoundHost has deployed the Dynamic Datacenter Tookit for hosters. PoundHost has a very compelling story of how technology can really help a business transform itself and create new opportunities. The Microsoft case study doesn't really do it justice. Here's some of what Steve shared with me: Read More...
Posted 20 October 09 10:54 by porourke | 3 Comments
Filed under Hyper-V, Disaster Recovery, System Center Virtual Machine Manager, ESX, VMWare, Microsoft Asset Inventory Service, Application Virtualization, Microsoft Application Virtualization, System Center, Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack, virtualization management, VDI, Management tools, VMM 2008, Cloud Computing, Live Migration, Windows Server 2008 R2
Announcing the availability of the updated Infrastructure Planning and Design Guides for Virtualization and System Center: Microsoft has a comprehensive portfolio of technologies when it comes to Virtualization ranging from Presentation Virtualization with Remote Desktop Services to Server Virtualization using Hyper-V with many more in between as below. · Server Hardware Read More...
Posted 24 September 09 03:03 by vtango | 0 Comments
Filed under Virtual PC, Virtual Server, Windows Virtualization, Hyper-V, virtual machine, virtualization, Management, System Center Virtual Machine Manager, Application Virtualization, Microsoft Application Virtualization, System Center, virtualization management, Virtual Desktop Architecture, VDI, integrated virtualization, VMM 2008, Virtuallization Solution Accelerators, Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Tool, Windows Server 2008, Live Migration, Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft Hyper-V Server
Update: What you won't see at VMworld 2009: This post is for the readers out there that will be attending VMworld, or have colleagues attending VMworld. There’s been some speculative statements made in the press and blogs in the past 24 hours, so I want to try to set the record straight: 1. Microsoft Read More...
Posted 27 August 09 12:30 by porourke | 1 Comments
Filed under Hyper-V, Kroll, virtualization, Community, System Center Virtual Machine Manager, ESX, VMWare, Microsoft Application Virtualization, System Center, cross-platform management, VMM 2008, events, Windows Server 2008 R2
Microsoft’s new VDI licensing: VDI Suites: Hi, my name is Manlio Vecchiet, and I am a director of product management on the Windows Server marketing team. I'm in New Orleans right now attending the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) , and wanted to update you on new licenses we’ll offer Read More...
Posted 13 July 09 10:48 by porourke | 15 Comments
Filed under Hyper-V, Management, System Center Virtual Machine Manager, VMWare, Application Virtualization, Microsoft Application Virtualization, Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack, virtualization management, Virtual Desktop Architecture, VDI, Citrix, Windows Server 2008, Live Migration, events
Online sessions, book and more: Admittedly this post is a stew and not a meal (if that metaphor works). But you might be interested in the following items. I'll keep it short: John Kelbley will host a webcast on Friday, May 8 at 8:00am PDT titled, "Running Linux on Hyper-V." The session will discuss install, configure, run, backup and monitor non-Windows systems. See here. On May 14, 8am-noon PDT, Edwin Yuen will host a live chat on TechTarget. He'll answer questions about our virt products, be it datacenter, desktop or managemment. See more here. Wondering what to read when you're flying to TechEd, or your next trip? The Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V Resource Kit book is it. One of the authors, Robert Larson, architect in MS Services and TechNet blogger, told me that the book is in final formatting and some sample chapters are available to download (here). The book will be available via Amazon and Barnes and Noble in June. Read more from one of the authors here. Enjoy. Read More...
Posted 05 May 09 11:56 by porourke | 1 Comments
Filed under Virtual PC, Windows Virtualization, Hyper-V, virtual machine, Community, System Center Virtual Machine Manager, SoftGrid, Application Virtualization, Microsoft Application Virtualization, System Center, VDI, VMM 2008, Windows Server 2008, High Availability, Live Migration, events
VMware vSphere pricing - Meet the new price; same as the old price, only more: Hi, I'm Edwin Yuen, a Senior Technical Product Manager at Microsoft's Integrated Virtualization team. This past week, there were two key announcements made, one by Microsoft and one by VMware, that have an impact on how we compare Microsoft and VMware Read More...
Posted 04 May 09 03:00 by WSV_GUY | 3 Comments
Filed under Hyper-V, Kroll, virtual machine, virtualization, System Center Virtual Machine Manager, ESX, VMWare, Microsoft Application Virtualization, System Center, virtualization management, VMM 2008, Windows Server 2008, Quick Migration, Live Migration
Top 10 VMWare myths video: Edwin and David recently sat down in front of a video camera to talk about the top 10 myths from VMWare. Here's a quick outline of the topics discussed during the 11 minute video: Live migration clustered shared volumes Hyper-V scalability Hyper-V performance Hyper-V footprint Hardware support Memory overcommit End-to-end management Value Why pay VMWare's virtualization tax? See the video below, or the other 22 videos here. Read More...
Posted 03 April 09 05:58 by porourke | 6 Comments
Filed under Windows Virtualization, Hyper-V, virtual machine, virtualization, ESX, VMWare, Application Virtualization, Microsoft Application Virtualization, System Center, Windows Server 2008, High Availability, Live Migration, volume snapshot
March 31 live web chat: On Tuesday, March 31, Microsoft's Edwin Yuen will be hosting a live web chat 11am-3pm EST. Edwin is a sr. technical product manager. Edwin came to Microsoft with the acquisition of Softricity (and the SoftGrid application virtualization technology). He now also covers Hyper-V and System Center VMM. Sign up here. Read More...
Posted 28 March 09 05:24 by porourke | 0 Comments
Filed under Windows Virtualization, Hyper-V, virtual machine, virtualization, System Center Virtual Machine Manager, ESX, SoftGrid, Application Virtualization, Microsoft Application Virtualization, System Center, virtualization management, VDI, Calista Technologies, Management tools, integrated virtualization, VMM 2008, Windows Server 2008, High Availability, Live Migration
Microsoft customers showcased at VMworld Europe 2009: This week at VMworld Europe 2009 we're showcasing a number of European customers who have deployed Windows Server Hyper-V, System Center and App-v 4.5. You can watch two videos below. One is of Bouygues Construction based in France. Bouygues does civil engineering, electrical contracting, and maintenance, employs 51,100 people and operates in more than 80 countries. This video is in French with English subtitles, and includes discussion of their Hyper-V and SCVMM deployment on Dell servers with EMC storage. Read More...
Posted 23 February 09 12:09 by porourke | 1 Comments
Filed under Windows Virtualization, Hyper-V, virtual machine, virtualization, Management, System Center Virtual Machine Manager, VMWare, SoftGrid, Microsoft Application Virtualization, System Center, virtualization management, Management tools, VMM 2008, Windows Server 2008, Dell, High Availability, Quick Migration
Microsoft at VMworld Europe 2009: VMworld Europe's tagline this year is "virtually anything is possible". Kinda reminds me of Mike's blog post on Monday about Red Hat. And for many IT pros, "virtually anything is possible" might apply to the fact that Microsoft is exhibiting at, and sponsoring, VMworld Europe for the second year in a row. Tres bien, as they say in Cannes. So if you're one of the 3,000 paid attendees expected at VMworld Europe 2009, below's a sneak peak at what you'll find inside booth #133. If you're not attending, I'm going to attempt to post some pix ... maybe video if I'm lucky ... from the booth so you can see the action. No doubt there will be plenty of other blogs coming from VMworld Europe. You can see most of them at the Virt blog aggregator. So what am I expecting to see in Cannes? Outside of the Microsoft booth, I'd expect to see early versions of client hypervisors, interop announcements, new product packaging, cloud computing announcements, and likely an update about VMsafe. Should be a busy week. Read More...
Posted 21 February 09 06:30 by porourke | 4 Comments
Filed under Hyper-V, virtual machine, virtualization, Management, System Center Virtual Machine Manager, ESX, VMWare, Application Virtualization, Microsoft Application Virtualization, System Center, Interop, virtualization management, VDI, Citrix, Management tools, XenServer, Windows Server 2008, Cloud Computing, Visual Studio, Live Migration, Red Hat, XenApp
The Virtualization Essentials from Citrix: Bonjour from Cannes. This is just a quick post about Citrix making public the Essentials for Hyper-V news. It's been talked about already by Alessandro and others. Read More...
Posted 20 February 09 05:10 by porourke | 0 Comments
Filed under Windows Virtualization, Hyper-V, virtual machine, virtualization, Management, System Center Virtual Machine Manager, ESX, SoftGrid, Application Virtualization, Microsoft Application Virtualization, System Center, virtualization management, Citrix, Management tools, integrated virtualization, VMM 2008, Windows Server 2008
System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 RTMs and what I’m hearing from customers and partners about Microsoft’s virtualization solutions: I’m Zane Adam, sr. director of virtualization strategy here in Redmond at Microsoft. I’m writing today to announce the exciting news that we’ve released to manufacturing (RTM’d) System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 and to talk a bit about its critical Read More...
Posted 21 October 08 08:52 by porourke | 17 Comments
Filed under Virtual PC, Virtual Server, Windows Virtualization, Hyper-V, virtual machine, virtualization, Management, System Center Virtual Machine Manager, VMWare, Microsoft Application Virtualization, System Center, virtualization management, Management tools, integrated virtualization, VMM 2008, Windows Server 2008
For $50,000, I could pay someone to move my virtual machines for me: The subject line will make sense in a moment. It's a quote from a customer in Australia ... and pretty funny, too. But before that, a few items crossed my inbox that I thought I'd share: Software vendor AspenTech has a process engineering/manufacturing application called aspenONE. Today they announced that their customer BASF deployed aspenONE using Microsoft App-V. I found this interesting for a few reasons. One, I've participated in conversations about whether enterprise customers would deploy 3rd-party apps running on App-V/SoftGrid without some sort of application certification program/logo for App-V. Second, BASF runs large, complex chemical process simulations - and now they're doing so as a network service. I know these sorts of computer-aided engineering apps often times get computed on HPC clusters; but never did I think they'd then get streamed at sufficient speed to the desktop using application virtualization. Along the lines of App-V, J.C. over at the App-V blog noted some new downloads. Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5 security configuration wizard. Download here. Microsoft Application Virtualization best practices anayzer. Download here. J.C. wrote last week that App-V 4.5 for Terminal Services license will be available Nov. 1. Read more here. Adam over at TechNet Edge just posted a video interview with the authors of "Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V Unleashed." I mentioned Rand's and Jeff's book a couple weeks ago. I had the opportunity to meet Rand/Jeff last week while they were up here in Redmond. Rand spoke to a bunch of us about Convergent's business, and set us straight that applications (Exchange, Sharepoint) and solutions such as disaster recovery and compliance are driving his customers' infrastructure purchases (e.g., Windows Server, Hyper-V, System Center) ... not the other way around. Here's a link to Jeff's blog. Read More...
Posted 06 October 08 10:47 by porourke | 5 Comments
Filed under Windows Virtualization, Hyper-V, virtual machine, Disaster Recovery, virtualization, ESX, SoftGrid, Application Virtualization, Microsoft Application Virtualization, System Center, BASF, virtualization management, Windows Server 2008
Guest Post: Virtualization and Cloud Computing: Hello, my name is Karl Schulmeisters, director of alliance technology and architecture for the Microsoft Global Alliance at Unisys. We are a global systems integrator that focuses on large scale-up solutions particularly in the public sector, financial services, federal government and pharmaceuticals industries. I watched Monday’s mid-day keynote at the Virtualization Launch in Bellevue, in which Senior VP of Server and Tools, Bob Muglia, spoke and brought a Gartner analyst on stage for an industry view. The traditional viewpoint of virtualization is that it is driven by cost savings, Green IT and operational efficiency. But according to Gartner, those are tactical considerations. Gartner believes that virtualization unlocks Cloud Computing, which in turn fundamentally transforms how IT is run. I’m not sure that virtualization itself unlocks Cloud Computing. Pervasive connectivity and standardized data protocols, like XML, are more crucial to this. What virtualization lets you do though is to get rid of the issues of app conflicts that have grown out of the PC industry’s history of using dedicated machines for a particular server type. Essentially it lets you isolate the various application servers as though they were on a separate physical box without having to assume the cost of that separation. Read More...
Posted 10 September 08 08:54 by porourke | 1 Comments
Filed under Windows Virtualization, Hyper-V, virtual machine, virtualization, Community, Application Virtualization, Microsoft Application Virtualization, System Center, Interop, VDI, integrated virtualization, Windows Server 2008, Cloud Computing
Before we get to VMworld Vegas: My ears are still ringing from Monday's virtualization event in Bellevue. Not necessarily from the keynotes or demos, but mainly from being 10 feet away from the stage as the band Live played a 60+ minute set during the party. Here's a photo I snapped Read More...
Posted 10 September 08 05:26 by porourke | 1 Comments
Filed under Hyper-V, System Center Virtual Machine Manager, ESX, VMWare, Application Virtualization, Microsoft Application Virtualization, System Center, virtualization management, VDI, Citrix, Management tools, VMM 2008, Windows Server 2008

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