VMworld 2010 session offers insight into myriad tools that can help IT managers track performance, storage and more in virtual environments – without spending budget dollars.

By Denise Dubie

VMworld 2010 in San Francisco is flush with sessions on technologies to manage, secure and optimize VMware environments. Yet one session educated conference attendees on tools that could help them do all this – at no cost.

David Davis, vExpert, VCP, CCIE and video training author at TrainSignal and Kendrick Coleman, vExpert and blogger, teamed up to present a list of several free IT tools for vSphere management. The joint presentation offered insight into more than 10 tools and each speaker offered their take on why the free application helped monitor performance, migrations or storage, for instance. The endorsements by Davis and Coleman should cause many IT managers to at least check out the no-cost technology.

Here in no particular order are 10 of the many free tools mentioned during the presentation.

VMware Guest Console

Veeam FastSCP

Trilead VM Explorer

XtraVirt: vSphere Client RDP Plug-in

VKernel Capacity View

vSphere Mini Monitor

RVTools

Vizioncore vFoglight QuickView

Xangati for ESX

SolarWinds VM Monitor

Also for more information on vSphere management and additional detail on free tools, check out Davis’ blog here and catch up with Coleman’s posts here.

What free tools do you depend on to manage your virtual environment? Are there downsides to using no-cost applications? Please leave a comment here or let me know directly via e-mail at Denise.Dubie@ca.com.

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VMware announces at VMworld 2010 San Francisco that it plans to acquire management software maker Integrien, with company leaders declaring VMware’s intentions to became an IT automation provider.

By Denise Dubie

Mergers and acquisitions happen often in the high-tech industry, but some stand out more than others either for their huge price tag, their strategic nature or the "game-changing" implications of the deal. VMware’s announcement Tuesday that it entered into an agreement to acquire management software maker Integrien proves the hypervisor vendor wants to make more money with customers by selling them management and automation technology.

Integrien Alive addresses virtual performance

At the opening keynote during VMworld 2010 San Francisco, Stephen Herrod, chief technology officer and senior vice president of R&D at VMware, revealed the hypervisor vendor had entered into agreements to acquire Integrien and separately security vendor TriCipher. Both planned acquisitions seem to address the need to provide management and automation, as well as security for the hybrid cloud environments VMware says it wants to enable.

“We need to innovate in this layer primarily around automation and management. We need to make it cheaper to operate this new infrastructure and automation has to span all of the resources in the data center,” Paul Maritz, president and CEO of VMware, said during the keynote Tuesday, reinforcing the upcoming news. Maritz went on to explain that VMware is talking about delivering “data center management and data center automation."

Continue reading "Things that make me go hmm: VMware set to acquire Integrien" »

Reflex Systems survey shows that enterprise IT managers continue to face challenges managing virtual environments.

By Denise Dubie

Virtualization has its benefits, but enterprise IT managers admit without being able to adequately manage virtual environments, those advantages can be more difficult to achieve.

How to use virtualization to leap into the cloud

Reflex Systems this week at VMworld 2010 in San Francisco released the results of a survey of 300 enterprise IT managers. The data showed that many of those polled experienced challenges when approaching traditional IT management practices in the virtual realm. And perhaps part of the reason lies in the fact that many say they have already virtualized or plan to virtualize more of their environment by year-end.

For instance, more than half of the respondents said “at least half of their business critical applications will be virtualized by the end of this year,” according to a Reflex Systems press release. That figure represents a 17% increase from current utilization, the virtual systems management and security vendor reports. Survey respondents said in addition to hypervisors they also plan to invest in virtual storage and virtual management tools in the next six months. Among the reasons cited for investing in additional management tools (above and beyond those provided by the hypervisor vendors) were performance, security and auditing/reporting, Reflex Systems reports.

Continue reading "What’s virtualization without management? Difficult, survey says" »

Virtualization offers a lot of benefits, one of them being a clear path to developing a private cloud.

By Denise Dubie

Virtualization enthusiasts came out in droves Monday as VMware hosted its annual VMworld 2010 conference in San Francisco’s Moscone Center.

With more than 16,000 reported attendees, VMworld saw many shut out of sessions, due to long lines and a no standing-room only policy (everyone had to be seated). That led to some show goers passing the time with ping pong, air hockey or pool, while others lined up to get a coveted spot in the next session.

The day also featured presentations from folks such as Anil Karmel, solutions architect for the network and infrastructure engineering and production systems group at Los Alamos National Laboratory in northern New Mexico. In 2006, Karmel explained to attendees that his organization began its journey to the cloud by first implementing virtualization. He made it clear that “virtualization is not cloud computing,” but it is a great starting place for those hoping to establish a private cloud.

Other more artistic avenues also explored the “journey to the cloud.” Chalk artists created an image sponsored by CA Technologies that depicted the message “accelerate your journey to the cloud.”

And CA Technologies also drove the point home in its booth. The vendor is campaigning for IT organizations to “quit stalling” with their virtual deployments so they can expand into private clouds. With virtual sprawl comes virtual stall in some cases, but with the right technologies, processes and people, IT organizations can move past the management, security and other hurdles large virtualization deployments can represent, according to CA Technologies.

What are you doing at VMworld? Which sessions did you find most interesting? What did you find disappointing? Please leave a comment here or e-mail me directly via e-mail at Denise.Dubie@ca.com.

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VM sprawl and VM stall can slow enterprise IT organizations' plans to adopt cloud computing, but gaining visibility and control and adding automation technologies could help IT overcome hurdles

By Denise Dubie

Virtualization is an obvious stepping stone to private cloud computing environments, but many IT organizations could encounter obstacles preventing them from evolving their virtual server deployment into a cloud implementation.

Technologies that won’t be ignored

In the past, industry watchers warned of virtual machine, or VM, sprawl in which too many virtual instances were deployed without IT management consent or control. VM sprawl could cause IT staff many problems including loss of licenses, unrealized resources, capacity shortages and overworked administrators, trying to keep up with the multiplying VMs. Now the issue has evolved into VM stall, in which many IT organizations are unable to grow their virtual deployments beyond some 30% of servers or the servers that handle the low-hanging fruit in the environment. VM stall can be blamed in part on VM sprawl, as strange as it may seem, according to Andi Mann, vice president of product marketing for the Virtualization and Automation customer solutions unit at CA Technologies (and a former industry analyst at Enterprise Management Associates).

“It’s ironic that VM sprawl can lead directly to VM stall, but it is one of the reasons virtual deployments simply stop progressing,” Mann says. “VM stall happens when IT departments run out of capacity because of poorly managed and controlled VM sprawl or they run out of licenses and the people to manage the environment. Essentially, IT departments run out of options because they can’t deploy more virtual machines.”

Continue reading "How to use virtualization to leap into the cloud" »

Budget dollars or not, Gartner says there are some technology trends that IT organizations cannot afford to ignore.

By Denise Dubie

Economic experts warn of a double-dip recession, but IT industry watchers say technology trends won’t slow down in the next two years, forcing high-tech leaders to take notice.

Check out the Gartner Webinar: Technology Trends You Can’t Afford to Ignore

Gartner Managing Vice President Raymond Paquet recently hosted a Webinar to detail the 10 key trends the research firm was tracking in the coming months. Not surprisingly two of the trends are virtualization and cloud computing, and a third involves social software. This blog will explore those three areas because frankly one can’t go online without running into multiple instances and references to the technologies.

Virtualization could be an obvious pick, considering its increase in popularity over the past several years, specifically x86 server virtualization. Yet Paquet pointed out that network, storage and desktop virtualization demand attention as well. The fact that server virtualization allows IT departments to consolidate resources and eliminate power and cooling costs provides an obvious ROI, according to Paquet, who also pointed out that client virtualization needs to be approached a bit differently.

“We cannot consolidate desktops. PCs by definition have a one-to-one ratio,” Paquet explained. “The return on investment model is fundamentally different even though the technology is fundamentally the same and therefore will not have nearly as high the potential ROI.”

Continue reading "Technologies that won’t be ignored" »

CA Technologies releases products designed to manage and secure virtual, cloud applications as well as deliver service assurance capabilities across physical, virtual and cloud environments.

By Denise Dubie

With every innovative new technology comes a mandate for advanced management and security tools to help IT organizations actually achieve the benefits promised by deploying, say, virtual servers or cloud applications.

CA makes ambitious moves to the cloud

This week CA Technologies made news with several high-tech reporting outlets for just that. The software maker Monday announced the general availability of five products within its CA Virtual portfolio: CA Virtual Assurance, CA Virtual Automation, CA Virtual Configuration, CA Virtual Assurance for Infrastructure Managers and CA Virtual Privilege Manager. The vendor also introduced its CA Virtual Foundation Suite, which CA Technologies states in a press release “combines select virtualization management products at a compelling price point.”

Continue reading "Tackling access management challenges in virtual, cloud environments" »

CA Technologies shares at Cisco Live how its software can enable network engineers to guarantee application delivery and manage data center performance.

By Denise Dubie

Cisco Live attendees will hear about more than just the network giant’s tablet product plans. The Las Vegas show also gives Cisco partners the opportunity to showcase how their wares can monitor, manage and optimize Cisco environments.

Application performance management, network engineers and Cisco Live

On the heels of Cisco’s introduction of its Cius tablet, CA Technologies will be presenting to IT and network professionals at Cisco Live on how they can better manage virtual machines, ensure optimal application delivery and take on performance management in Cisco data centers.

Continue reading "How to make the most of your Cisco environment" »

Going to Cisco Live? Check out these sessions on how to guarantee optimized services in virtual environments.

By Denise Dubie

Network managers in the know realize they must master the art of optimized application performance just as they conquered Cisco router configuration. The application performance related job duty fell in the laps of network gurus years ago when it became clear that the network wasn’t always to blame for poor application performance -- but that network engineers possibly held the best perspective on how to optimize bandwidth and other network resources to ensure business-critical apps performed as expected.

Poor application performance to blame for lost productivity, increased costs

Next week at Cisco Live attendees will get a chance to learn more about how to manage application performance from the network perspective.

Continue reading "Application performance, network engineers and Cisco Live" »

Director James Cameron might not be the most obvious choice of speaker at an IT industry conference, but attendees at this year's CA World '10 quickly learned that the choices Cameron made in his career can be related to challenges IT managers face daily when tasked with providing more services to the business with fewer resources.

Putting aside the star power Cameron brought to the event, the renowned director of films such as "Avatar", "Titanic" and "Terminator" shared what he believed he had in common with audience members: his geek pride. While Cameron delved into technologies used in his films and the CA World '10 crowd focuses on IT technologies, the filmmaker made it clear that fear was not a factor when innovating in his industry.

"Too much caution can be crippling. ... Any complex enterprise striving for innovation is a leap of faith," Cameron told the audience.

It may not seem so on the surface, but the foray into 3-D filmmaking for Cameron could be likened to IT organizations exploring technologies such as virtualization and cloud computing. If IT executives fear change and remain stagnant, they could miss the opportunity to innovate and help the business accelerate beyond competition. Accepting that there will be failures and learning from them, Cameron said, helps the innovation process.

"Failure always has to be an option, but fear is not," Cameron concluded.

For IT organizations, the principle is the same. Take, for instance, an IT group that fears the potential of cloud computing for security or personnel reasons and resists evaluating it as an option for the business. It is likely that a business unit could gain access to cloud resources, prove to executives it is a more logical choice than internal IT and then the IT group is left looking uninformed. Or internal IT departments that resist allowing end-user groups to access social networking or peer-to-peer resources, perhaps also due to security concerns, could also find the community working around the IT mandates, improving productivity.

"The biggest problem for IT departments today is culture and political issues," says Glenn O'Donnell, senior analyst at Forrester Research. "The complexity of environments, economic conditions and the threat of the external cloud should drive IT to change their culture."

Posted by Denise Dubie

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