blog.aarondelp.com

Vote for The Cloudcast (.NET) - Best Computing Blog/Podcast

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Delp) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:39:00 +0000

We're excited to have been nominated in several categories of the VSPHERE-LAND annual "best of" survey:

Best Virtualization Blog
Best Cloud Computing Blog
Best New Blog in 2011
Best Podcast

We love being able to do the podcast each week - meeting new people, learning from the experts and being able to share that knowledge with the virtualization and cloud computing communities. We hope you find it valuable. If you like what we do and have a few minutes, we'd appreciate your support.

2012: It's Time To Say Something Different

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Delp) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 20:15:00 +0000

I brought up this idea on our most recent episode of the Cloudcast (.net). Lately, I keep getting the feeling that we're stuck in a bit of a Cloud Time Warp. It could be January 2011, not 2012 the way many conversations in the industry have gone recently.

Here are some questions to think about in 2012:

Where are the new reference customers? (No, Netflix, is NOT a valid Enterprise reference)
Where is the new content?
Where are the new things to talk about?

It's time for the industry to bring something different to the table. Let's move beyond defining "the cloud" and providing a list of the same AWS reference customers that have already been used over and over again.

This is where my blog and our podcast will hopefully provide benefits in 2012. We have some great things coming! Happy New Year and I look forward to 2012!

2011 By The Numbers and a Change for 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Delp) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 14:41:00 +0000

A Quick Look Back on 2011

Wow - What an awesome year! I can't thank everyone enough for taking the time to come by the site!! I'm still amazed that anyone reads my articles. Thank you again for all your time and I have some big plans for 2012. Here are some stats for 2011:

The total page views for my site as of today for the year will be: 209,139!!!
I currently average around 20,000 page views per month
Here's a screenshot from my stats page:

I also hover somewhere between 700-900 RSS subscribers.
Feedburner won't let me pull stats for the last year but lifetime I'm at 120,264 views and 20,566 clicks on links in my articles.
Here's a screenshot from my RSS stats page:

If you combine the total page counts along with the 100,000 I had from my previousWord Press setup for 2007-2009 I'm sitting at somewhere around 425,000 views on my sites since starting blogging in January 2007. If you would have told me almost half a million people will look at my site, I would have never believed you!

Lastly, Brian Gracely and I started a podcast (the Cloudcast) in February of this year and we have seen explosive growth over the last 9 months. When I looked at the stats the other day over 20% of our total downloads were in the last 30 days! We look forward to expanding the content and hopefully providing quality information to everyone!

What's in Store for 2012?

I recently changed roles within VCE. I'll be leading a team that will specialize in management, orchestration, and automation products from our partners and parents. The truth is I really don't do much with the underlying components anymore. I plan to shift the focus of the blog going forward around these products and I also plan to go dabble in "cloud" products (AWS, OpenStack, CloudStack, etc.). I'm really excited for 2012 and I hope you join me for the ride.

Thank You! Thank you! & Thank you again to everyone for coming by!!

Installing Android on HP TouchPad from a Mac

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Delp) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 14:39:00 +0000

Yesterday I finally took the time to install Android on my HP Touchpad. So far, this is very cool and I highly recommend it! The documentation that is out there for this process is a little "fuzzy" so I wanted to document the links I used as well as what was different for me because I installed it from a Mac instead of a Windows platform.

Here are the links I used, go read/watch all of them before you get started to understand the process end to end. I used pieces of each of them.

Here is the link to the actual files you will need to download. You will need the ACMEInstaller, moboot, the cm-update, and the tenderloin files
Here is the link to the two files you will need to enable the Android Market to log in to a Google account and download apps.
Watch this video for an idea of how to install it from a Mac.
Watch this video for a much better tutorial of the process.
Lastly, this link will explain step by step how to do the entire process end to end, but it is for a Windows PC.

Some notes on my install:

I copied the ACMEInstaller to my Desktop to make it easy to find from the Mac Terminal program
I copied the moboot, cm-update, and tenderloin zips to a folder called cminstall on the Touchpad
I DIDN'T install the Palm SDK on my Mac. You don't need it for novacom. novacom is built into the Mac and you can kick off the novacom from terminal.
Once Android was installed, I copied the google app zips to the root of the Touchpad to make them easy to find

So how is it? So far so good. I've been playing with a few apps, the Touchstone works for charging, and the battery drain in standby seems to be less than WebOS. I'll post an update as I play with it more.

Please Fill Out the Cloudcast (.net) Survey!

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Delp) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 14:17:00 +0000

2011 was an AWESOME year for the Cloudcast (.net). We can't thank everyone enough for this last year. In an effort to make 2012 better, we'd love it if you would take a couple of minutes to fill out a survey on how we can improve the Cloudcast (.net) experience in 2012.

If you can find a few minutes, please head on over to the site. Thank you!!

Cloudcast (.net) Year in Review and Predictions

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Delp) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 14:14:00 +0000

Happy Holidays Everyone! Just a quick post to let you know that Brian and I released a new Cloudcast (.net) recently. We talk about what was good (and bad) in Cloud Computing for 2011 and we make some predictions 2012.

Head on over to the site to have a listen and thank you for coming by!

Lots of New Cloudcast (.NET) Content!

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Delp) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:10:00 +0000

Quick post to tell everyone that we have released a number of new podcasts over the last month over at The Cloudcast (.NET). Great topics from great guests! Links to each episode:

Episode 23 - Going Mobile: Awesome discussion and debate on the state of mobile devices in our industry
Episode 24 - CloudPassage & Security in the Cloud: Brian spends some time with Rand Wacker, VP of Products at CloudPassage
Episode 25 - The Intersection of IPv6 and the Cloud: Ever wanted to know about IPv6 and how it affects the cloud, here's your answers
Episode 26 - IT Women of the Cloud: Brian and I spend some time with some awesome and influential women in the cloud space

New Cloudcast: Live from CA World with Andi Mann

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Delp) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 16:14:00 +0000

This morning we posted a new The Cloudcast (.net) podcast with Andi Mann, VP of Strategic Solutions at CA Technologies. Andi sat down with us last night at CA World and we had a great discussion around the state of public and private cloud in the enterprise and how that relates to virtualization trends in the market today. Fascinating conversation (if I do say so myself) and worth a listen.

VMworld Europe "Fun" Run

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Delp) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 17:10:00 +0000

As I mentioned earlier, Steve Bryant-Brown have been chatting recently about running while we'll be in Copenhagen for VMworld Europe. We're both training for upcoming half marathons so we thought 6 miles would be a good training run.

I know this is a little long for most of the IT folks out there and it really puts it into the "Fun" Run category but if anybody out there is interested, please leave a comment with your name and a way to reach you (Twitter handle probably preferred) or get in touch with either of us on Twitter.

We're flexible on a course and time but right now we're thinking Wednesday evening after most of the session and before the party. Neither of us have run in Copenhagen before but I found this route online that looks popular and takes you through some popular running spots. We hope to see you there!

Here's a link to the proposed course: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=5127481

My First Year at VCE

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Delp) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 11:14:00 +0000

Last week was one year for me at VCE. In honor to Jay Cuthrell, I'd like to take a moment to reflect on the last year of the rocket ship that has been VCE. Here are some random thoughts in no particular order:

Building an organization from nothing is much harder than it sounds. My first day at VCE consisted of reporting to the "Yoga Room" in an EMC exercise facility that had been converted into cubes for our temporary use. Luckily we weren't there long. Conducting job interviews in the hall is fun but gets old quickly. Once you have a team, then what? How do projects get on the Roadmap? How do they get dropped? What documentation standards will we all use? We started with a clean slate. We didn't make all the right choices the first time but we learned quickly how to make course corrections on the fly. What a great learning experience!

Management has been an interesting gig. For those that didn't know, I accepted a role in Management when I signed on to VCE (hence the reason the technical content on this site over the last year has dwindled but that will be corrected shortly, details soon). Learning all the management basics (one on one's, team meetings, coaching, etc.) has expanded my horizons greatly but doesn't make for entertaining blog posts. Over the last year I've hired a team and "herding cats" in the right direction has been an exciting challenge but the rewards have been great. I have an exceptionally talented team and they make all the difference in the world!

The idea of a "job description" hasn't applied. Our job roles change on a frequent basis and we all dig deep to get it done. It seems at times my team has done everything except our mission (designing solutions). Because we wear so many hats, we have become a very diverse team. The "chaos" has given way to "controlled chaos" and "order" is starting to settle in.

All the haters are gonna hate but VCE is doing just fine (better than fine actually). I had the honor of attending VMworld this year and the crowds at the VCE booth were amazing! The booth was constantly filled with great customers asking great questions. The Vblock Infrastructure Platform message is resonating with customers and the momentum continues to increase.

The "speeds and feeds" don't matter to me as much anymore. When I first started at VCE, I had a head full of speeds and speeds and lots of technical questions about what made the Vblock Infrastructure tick. Like many of our customers, I found my desire for this diminish over time. Does this mean the "speeds and feeds" aren't important? Of course not. What it means is that some of the brightest folks in the industry work very long hours to make all of that "go away" for you. The Vblock Platform has taken the industry one step closer to the concept of "Utility Computing".

VMware VMworld Europe - Be There!

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Delp) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 17:52:00 +0000

Sorry to be silent for a bit, work is crazy and going through a bit of a transition (more on that another day).

I wanted to pass along that I will be attending VMworld Europe for the first time and I can't wait!

A number of vExperts have posted about why you need to be there. Rather than write another similar post, I'll refer you to their excellent posts!

What will I be doing while I'm there? For the most part I'll be working in the VCE Booth, stop by and say Hi!

I'm also working on a Cloudcast (.NET) from Copenhagen as well as a 10k Fun Run along with Steve Bryant-Brown. Details on both events as well as VCE's official schedule as everything develops. Stay tuned and thanks for coming by!

VMworld Tuesday General Session Live Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Delp) — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 16:05:00 +0000

This one is going to be "live". No editing, no proofreading, nothing. I'm sitting at the blogger's table for the Tuesday General Session and I'll be taking the notes the whole time and then I'm going to hit submit "as is". Please excuse this if it turns out a little more "raw" than other posts.

Here's a couple of pics from prior to the start as the crowd is filing in:

Intro video is on the screen. Project Octopus is mentioned... Links content to devices to people
Dr. Herrod (CTO) is on the stage

He is highlighting a few of the products
We need to move above managing device -> What does the user really need?
It's now about Universal Access from all devices at all times with high expectations

Video about how the way we work and collaborate is changing

it's not about provisioning machines, it's about user data and their access to the data
IT still has control of the platform!
users dictate the work style now with IT enabling this new style

Dr. Herrod is back

How do put all the devices, users, and data all together?
Need to Simplify, extract from silos that exist today
Manage all this in a new way
Windows more manageable and secure View with ThinApp
Focus going forward will be an App Catalog Service as well as Data Service
He introduced the concept of a Unified Service Broker to connect all this together to provide Secure Universal Access
He is taking us through each area in turn from the perspective of both the administrator and the user

Talking about View 5 - showing automated pool creation with Link Clones. Creates about 1000 desktops in about an hour. More automation and provisioning in View
App Catalog Service - New Project -> ThinApp Factory, patches and automation for applications ties into Project Horizon
Project Horizon will be Windows apps as well as mobile apps
ThinApp Factory allows you to create ThinApps easily and prepares them for insertion into the catalog -> It will fire up a virtual machine, install the app, and create the package, all automated
Assign apps to groups and users for access so app catalog will be specialized per user for what the catalog will display
Tracks user licenses upon application activation
Onto to Data Service -> Project Octopus
He mentions Dropbox - He many are using it and how many SHOULD be using it :)
Dropbox service for the enterprise
Policies based on users and groups depends on what you can share
Controls the sharing of sensitive data, the idea of sharing expiration and also group based security
Delivered via public and private cloud (no details given though)

Now a demonstration from the user perspective

Gives a demonstration of View 5 -> pulls up Windows 7 desktop
App Catalog is provided after desktop, new user can activate and install apps based on their role in the enterprise
User would have pre-populated user shares based on Project Octopus permissions
Activate a mobile device from the App Catalog and it will push the applications and file sharing to the new phone
App on the mobile phone will be a "VDI device" on the phone, apps appear on the phone in a new "enterprise area". It's a phone within a phone and you can switch contexts back and forth with Horizon Mobile on the mobile device
More demonstrations about the Horizon Mobile

Showing Excel modification on iPad using AppBlast
Showing SocialCast on an iPad
WAN based TCP/IP call on iPad

AppBlast -> delivering applications over HTML5

This is a labs project right now

If you have a home phone, you can wipe the "work device" (the Horizon mobile device within a device) without wiping the personal device.

It's all about managing data, people, and applications in a post-PC era

Giving a demonstration of the upcoming rev to the iPad vSphere Client

vMotion now enabled

What does the back end to all of this look like?

vSphere 5 is now available
200 new features
It should just work and work well, that is the goal

Talked VMware Go for a bit

VSA is mentioned since Go is designed for SMB (small/medium business market)
The VSA make it easy to deploy and manage shared storage using local servers instead of a SAN

Now talking AutoDeploy for larger enterprises

PXE boot stateless servers

Talking performance

Biggest virtual machine ever - over 1,000,000 iops!

Performance guarantees

How do we solve the noisy neighbor problem?
Storage Pooling

The concept of Tiered Storage and placement of vm's
This allows critical apps to be Tier 1, less critical Tier 2, etc.
Storage DRS, moving vm's around in pool
The combination of all of these features allows for SLA's to be generated

At this point I had to bail to prepare for a video interview. I'm sorry but I won't be able to blog the last 30 minutes of the session.

VMworld Day 1 Wrap Up

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Delp) — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 13:03:00 +0000

Yesterday (I'm writing this early Tuesday morning) was my "free day". If this was my "free day", the rest of the week is going to be crazy! After today, my schedule calms down a bit on the job front and I plan to walk the Expo Floor and talk to a bunch of other companies and I'll be reporting back my discussions with them here. Look for that in the Day 3 and Day 4 wrap ups!

Back to Day 1 - I spent a large portion of my morning hanging out in the blogger's lounge. If I'm not working the VCE booth this week, look for me in the blogger's lounge. It was great to see old friends and I was able to crowd source many of the questions from the live Cloudcast (.NET) from some of the super smart folks there. Here's a few pics of the lounge:

Every VMworld has an "unofficial theme". By that I mean what area is generating the most interest and buzz at the conference. This year most of the people I spoke to were interested in Automation & Orchestration. Everything from PowerCLI, vCO, Tidal & New Scale, Cloupia, etc. You name it, people were talking about it. As the VMware product set matures and also becomes more complex, customers are demanding more efficient ways to provision and manage their resources.

I was also fortunate to be invited to a meeting with the Open Stack folks along with Brian Gracely. We picked their brains about Open Stack and came away with a greater understanding of their product and I was very impressed. Look for more information on Open Stack in future Cloudcast (.NET) podcasts.

After Open Stack, it was time for the Cloudcast (.NET) live from VMworld. All I can say it Holy Crap that was fun! Mike and Chris were awesome and they are some SUPER SMART dudes! We can't thank them enough for coming on and speaking with us!

My company, VCE, also announced a new product, the FastPath Desktop Virtualization Platform.

I wasn't able to attend the General Session so I won't be able to comment on that (but I should be at the rest of the General Sessions doing live blogs).

After that is was time for the Expo Floor to open up. The amount of people on the show floor were amazing! I was working the VCE booth and the interest in our products was overwhelming! Here's a few pics from the floor:

That's a wrap for Day 1 at VMworld. My week ramps up from here so come by for future daily wrap up articles!

The Cloudcast (.NET) LIVE from VMworld!

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Delp) — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 12:36:00 +0000

This was SOOOOO cool! VMware asked us to do a Cloudcast (.NET) podcast live form VMworld! This is what we're like without editing! Our guests were Chris Colotti from VMware and Mike Foley from RSA. Check out this link for the show notes and more information. I also embedded the video here.

My only comment, it's much harder to do this when you don't have a beer in your hand, there's lights in your face, and your laptop with all the questions is sitting over in the corner! All in all, it turned out really well and Mike and Chris were GREAT!

Watch live streaming video from vmwarecommunitytv at livestream.com

VCE's FastPath Desktop Virtualization Platform is Here!

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Delp) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 17:39:00 +0000

Just a short time ago, VCE announced a new product, the FastPath Desktop Virtualization Platform. FastPath is a custom solution that allows you to quickly and easily get up and running with VMware View. Benefits Include:

Single Order – VMware View Premier licenses (including support and maintenance) are included
Seamless Support Extended to Include View – VCE has extended support to include View! You’ve heard me talk before about View running “on top” of a Vblock. With FastPath, View support is “inside” the Vblock
Rapid Provisioning, Setup & Configuration – Standing up a View environment has never been easier! Apply power and network connections to the Vblock, complete the Wizard (screenshots included below), upload a VDI “Golden Master” Image, and go get some coffee or maybe lunch and the FastPath Platform will take care of the rest!
Validated Platform – The FastPath Platform has already completed testing for common VDI pain points (boot storms) and the entire Platform is designed for resiliency and reliability
First Product to Utilize the UIM API’s – This is the first product VCE has introduced that hooks into UIM’s API’s for provisioning and configuration. You’ll see much more of this in the future
Factory Reset – The FastPath Platform was built with the ability to quickly and easily hit the “Reset” button and set everything back to factory defaults. Great for POC and lab environments!

Check out VCE’s FastPath Landing Path for more information: http://www.vce.com/fastpath

Here are some screenshots (click for a larger view) of the FastPath Platform Wizard:

If you are at VMworld this week, stop by VCE’s Booth (#1121) to see a demonstration or to speak with somebody about this exciting new product!

VMworld Day 0 Wrap Up

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Delp) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 13:57:00 +0000

I have no idea if this is going to actually work or not but I'm going to attempt a post everyday of VMworld. Considering my schedule most days starts at 8:00am and lasts until well past midnight, I have my doubts...

I was lucky enough to catch an early flight out Saturday morning. How lucky was I? This picture of the board at Raleigh/Durham Airport will give you a clue. I just happened to be flying Delta and connecting through Atlanta. That's pretty much the only reason I made it. Before I go any further, my thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected by Hurricane Irene. There's WAY more too life than VMworld!!

After arrival, I checked into the Venetian (what an incredible place!) and headed over to the VCE booth to check out the progress. If you ever wanted to see the behind the scenes of the expo floor being built, here ya go:

Lastly, right next to the Expo Floor is the VMworld "Hang Space". I can say I have seen anything like this. It is amazing how elaborate it is! It is part indoor park and playground (basketball courts!) along with the "Big Board" on the back wall and all the social areas and recording studios around the edges. Simply amazing:

Sunday brought more booth work and then John Troyer's excellent vExpert session. John spoke a bit about the success of the program of the years, the expectations of a vExpert, and the future of the program. In addition, we were treated to some great information about both current and future products. I had to duck out early to get set up for v0dgeball. Here's a few pics of the vExpert session:

As I was leaving for v0dgeball, the registration line had started to form. While we know many who weren't able to make it out due to Hurricane Irene, the line was still a couple hundred deep before registration even opened:

After that it was time for the highlight of Sunday, v0dgeball! The event was a great success and we raised over $12,000 for the Wounded Warrior Project! I ended up having to leave my team to serve as a referee for the night (buy me a beer sometime and ask me what I thought of that!) but it really was just crazy fun! Here's some pics:

It was an amazing first day and VMworld hasn't even begun! It's going to be a great week!

Summary of All Things VCE at VMworld

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Delp) — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 05:00:00 +0000

This will be a short post tonight. I wrote a guest blog article for VMworld listing all of VCE's activities this year on Cisco Data Center blog. If you are interested in everything VCE is up too, check it out!

The #vHunt at VMworld is ON!

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Delp) — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 05:01:00 +0000

A number of EMC folks have already posted about this including Chad, vTexan, Bas, and Matt. EMC and a few partners including VCE will be hosting a #vHunt at VMworld this year. To borrow from Bas's blog, the rules are simple:

So, what’s the deal? Simple, follow these steps and see if you win:

Members of the EMC vSpecialist and VCE teams will be tweeting various tasks and challenges throughout VMworld. Day and Night, on the floor, in the labs, in the sessions, at the parties, etc. You can identify those tasks and challenges by looking for the vHunt hashtag “#vHunt” in our tweets. You will find all kinds of things there, facts, trivia or fun challenges.
Every time you respond to one of those challenges or tasks, tag it with “#vHunt. Someone from EMC will be watching those responses.
During the convention (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, 3x a day, our marketing folks pick winners based on the criteria above, and hand the winners their prize.

That’s all there is to it! I have a few things in mind already.

In case you're wondering, I'll be pretty easy to find. I'll either be in the VCE Booth (#1121) or in the Blogger's Lounge. I won't be attending sessions this year so stop by and say hello!

VCE TweetUp at VMworld

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Delp) — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 04:36:00 +0000

This is just a quick post to let everyone know that VCE (my company) will be hosting a TweetUp at VMworld. If anybody has questions about VCE or the Vblock Platform, stop by and say hello! Here's a link to register.

Where: Double Helix Wine & Whiskey Bar @ Palazzo
When: Tuesday 8/30 @ 5:30

(Stop by and wish me a happy 14 years of marriage)

The Cloudcast (.NET) LIVE at VMworld Talking vCloud & Security

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Delp) — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 19:23:00 +0000

This is so cool. We've been asked to bring the Cloudcast (.NET) to VMworld!

On Monday 8/29 @ 2:00 we'll be broadcasting the Clouldcast LIVE as part of VMware's Community TV. This will be our first time live as well as our first time on video. The chances of this being a train wreck are pretty good!

We've decided on guests and a topic. Mike Foley from RSA and Chris Colotti from Vmware have agreed to join us to discuss vCloud Director Updates & Security. If you're around, stop by!

VCE & VMware's AlwaysOn Desktop Solution at VMworld

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Delp) — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 17:50:00 +0000

I get to share something really cool with everyone today! Welcome to the next generation of VDI. At VMworld next week VCE and & VMware will highlight a joint solution we call AlwaysOn Desktop. Stop by VCE's Booth (#1121) to see a live demonstration.

What is AlwaysOn Desktop you ask?

VCE and VMware took a standard VDI solution and "cranked it up":

Always On, Fast Logon
VDI Desktop Follows the User ("Follow Me Desktops")
Any Device
Quickly Provision Desktops
Easy to Manage
Highly Available

Think of it like this: VCE along with our partners on this solution have created a desktop solution that allows a user to access their desktop from any VDI station through their access card using Imprivata's Single Sign On product. Your desktop will now quickly and easily follow you around. This solution was developed in our Raleigh Solutions Lab and it is soooooo cool. Walk up to one station, hold up your card, get your desktop. Walk up to another station, hold up your card, and you're disconnected from the previous station and switched to the new station within seconds. It is awesome!

The solution involves Imprivata’s Single Sign On (OneSign®), Cisco’s load balancer (ACE), and VMware View – all running on a replicated Vblock™ infrastructure. That's right, replicated. The Demonstration for VMworld will be for the Healthcare Industry, we're calling it AlwaysOn Point of Care. But, this can easily be adapted to ANY industry that requires Highly Available VDI.

Here's a high level look at the architecture:

In the upcoming weeks VCE will publicly publish more on AlwaysOn, until then stop by the VCE Booth (#1121) and talk to the folks who designed the solution!

Let's Talk about Cisco UC on Vblock at VMworld!

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Delp) — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 16:55:00 +0000

For a good portion of VMworld this year I have the distinct privilege of hosting customers in the VCE Booth (#1121). We have many great things to discuss this year that I will be highlighting over the next few days leading up to VMworld.

Today, I want to discuss a solution near and dear to my heart. My team has been working closely with Cisco to bring Cisco Unified Communications (UC) as an integrated solution to the Vblock platform.

What has VCE accomplished to date for Cisco UC?
Through VCE and Cisco's collaboration, we have introduced Unified Communications Blade Packs specific to the Vblock platform. If you are familiar with UC, you will understand the concept of Cisco's Tested Reference Configurations. Basically, it is a hardware standard that the Cisco UC team has fully tested and Cisco will support. Cisco and VCE jointly support the B200 M2 TRC#1 and TRC#2 configurations. In addition, EMC's PowerPath/VE and the Cisco 1000v now come standard with every UC blade pack to better support co-residency with other applications inside a Vblock (but on different hardware blades). If you have any questions, find me at VMworld and we'll discuss the "nitty gritty" details.

Why has VCE introduced the Cisco UC Blade Packs?
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. The following table is taken from the design considerations page on Cisco's UC website. We want to make the infrastructure "go away". By running UC on Vblock, you can focus on the UC design and not worry about all the "stuff underneath". All components of the Vblock are supported by VCE & Cisco will handle the UC application. It couldn't be easier!

What about UC's newly announced specs-based support?
In June of this year Cisco introduced the concept of specs-based support for UC. Long term this will remove the hardware dependence of the Tested Reference Configurations. VCE and Cisco are working closely on a fully supported and documented solution for this architecture as well. Specs-based UC on Vblock will work today but it is up to the customer or partner to design the architecture.

In conclusion, it's an exciting time for Cisco UC on Vblock! Stop by VCE's Booth 1121 and let's talk about it!

New Cloudcast (.NET) with Dell "Cloudy Folks!"

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Delp) — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 14:23:00 +0000

Brain and I were fortunate enough to get some time with some great folks from Dell's cloud organization this weekend on The Cloudcast (.NET). We sat down with Joseph George, Rob Hirschfield & Aurelian Dumitru. They are flying under the radar and getting it done. Very impressive! Here's a link to the Podcast for more information. Enjoy!

As a side note, Aurelian didn't get the time he deserves and in hindsight, we really should have done this as two separate podcasts. To make it up to "A.D." we're going to do exactly that. Look for more Hadoop goodness in September!

Thanks for listening!

Scale Up with VMware vSphere 5: “I’m Not Dead Yet!”

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Delp) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 18:03:00 +0000

Well, what a crazy two weeks. It looks like Kevin Bacon became a VMware employee this week:

Since this post will be long and filled with numbers, here’s a summary:

The cost difference to license VMware vSphere 5 in a Scale Out vs. Scale Up scenario is roughly equivalent, BUT if you take into account the additional hardware and Microsoft license costs required, Scale Up holds it own against Scale Out. Remember, we have to build a TOTAL solution, not just look at one small piece of the overall cost.

Now that the panic has died down a bit, I wanted to show some very surprising numbers that I found last week regarding Scale Up vs. Scale Out with vSphere 5. Many people’s first reaction to high memory environments was “I’m just going to buy 96GB servers from now on!” I’ve run the numbers and the short answer is you shouldn’t do that if your main concern is a higher TCA (Total Cost of Acquisition).

For those unfamiliar with the terms, what are Scale Out and Scale Up? Scale Out refers to the concept of hosting many small servers in a cluster to provide resources. For this article, I will define a 2xCPU server with 96GB of memory as the baseline for Scale Out. In Scale Out, you have many a higher number of smaller sized servers. The main advantage to Scale Out is a higher utilization per node if you plan for an outage in the environment. Today we use n-1 or n-2 typically for planning purposes. This means we set aside the capacity equal to one or two hosts spread across the cluster. Scale Out also allows you to start small and grow large over time.

Scale Up is the concept of using a smaller number of servers with a larger capacity to achieve that same cluster size of resources. In this instance, you have a smaller number of larger sized servers. For this article I classify a Scale Up server as anything greater than 2xCPU or 96GB of memory. The advantage to Scale Up is fewer management points and typically a smaller cost per unit. In a Scale Up scenario, you invest up front and see greater savings over time.

I know many customers have different theories with either model and no one model fits every customer. If you take into account budget cycles, internal politics, facilities, existing standards, etc. you may not be able to make a decision based solely on the numbers presented here. I also concede that some just aren’t comfortable with Scale Up and the potential virtual machine density it can provide. In Scale Up’s defense, I contend that the advances to vMotion and HA in both vSphere 4.1 and 5 we will see this fear start to ease over time as everyone becomes more comfortable with the enhancements to the technologies.

If VMware license costs aren’t the Scale Out culprit, who is?

Everyone get your pitchforks; let’s figure out who we need to string up next! As I stated previously, it is now cost neutral for Scale Out and Scale Up with vSphere. But, what about Microsoft licenses? What about hardware costs for new servers? What about soft facility costs like power, cooling and space? If you are going to build a solution you need to factor in ALL the costs, not just a single data point.

Let’s take each item one by one.

Microsoft License Costs – Uncle Bill Gates (or should I say Uncle Steve Balmer these days) gets paid one way or the other. In larger environments, the most cost effective way today to license a VMware server is purchase a Data Center License for each host. A Microsoft Data Center License costs $2999 MSRP per socket. This leads to a minimum $6000 “mTax” per server!

Physical Server Costs – There are many things to consider here. We need to buy a server, at least 96GB of memory, 10GB NICs or a bunch of 1GB NICs, and we can’t forget about hardware maintenance for 3-5 years. I went online to the HP website and configured a 2xCPU, 96GB, 2x10GB NICs DL360 for about $11,000 MSRP. I then calculated the same server with 192GB for about $24,000 MSRP. I’m going to use these two numbers as my data points. Let’s call this value the “pTax”.

Soft Costs – This includes many things that are hard to quantify but NEED to be considered in calculations. It costs money to own and operate a server. They take power, they take cooling, they need people to manage them and we have to pay this staff (at least the good ones), they consume network ports, we have to plug cables into them, etc. Every thing listed contributes to the cost of the solution. Let’s call this value the “sTax”. This isn’t a fantasy world of free servers and facilities. No Rainbows and Unicorns for You!

Still with me? Eyes haven’t glazed over yet? In for the long haul? Ready for some numbers? Read On.

I created a spreadsheet modeled after the awesome Rynardt Spies’s Blog Post: http://www.virtualvcp.com/news/163-a-deeper-look-into-vmware-vsphere-5-licensing

For this exercise, I’m assuming only 2xCPU servers per the pTax bullet above and comparing 96GB and 192GB configurations. I’m also assuming vSphere Enterprise Plus and MSFT Data Canter Licenses for each server. This is a worst-case scenario: a scenario where the entire infrastructure is purchased up front. In environments of this size, it is often considered bad practice to “go back to the well” for more funding later. I have consulted with many customers in which this has been the case over the years.

Let’s look at a small four host, Scale Up 192GB per server, cluster vs. an equivalent amount of 96GB servers. To calculate the number of equivalent 96GB Scale Out servers, we need to compare the amount of the Configured Memory value (highlighted below). Using an n-1 failure scenario, you can see if you take the amount of cluster memory (768 GB) on the 192GB line and then subtract out the memory needed to support an n-1 host failure (3 hosts * 192GB = 576) you can achieve an equivalent amount of configured memory utilizing Scale Out 96GB with seven hosts.

Now that we know the number of hosts for Scale Out and Scale Up, we can calculate the total cost. In this example 3 subcomponents, vSphere cost, MS DC cost, and hardware cost, provide the total cost. vSphere cost is equal to the number of licenses * $3495, MS DC costs is equal to the number of licenses * $2999, and hardware is equal to the number of hosts * either $24,000 for Scale Up or $11,000 for Scale Out.

As you can see in this example, Scale Out is marginally more expensive (I’d argue that the cost is close enough to be “in the noise” and the costs are roughly equal). Scale Up is a viable solution.

What happens when we double the cluster size to 8 Scale Up hosts? Using the same calculations we see Scale Up start to pull ahead.

Let’s go big! In this example I doubled again to 16 Scale Up hosts. In this example I used n-2 for the host failure scenario due to the increased cluster size. The greater we scale, the greater the benefits.

In conclusion, Scale Up as a general rule isn’t more expensive. As memory costs fall, this trend will accelerate over time. Scale Up is often equal too or less than the TCA (Total Cost of Acquisition) for an equivalent amount of Scale Out computing. Scale Up can provide a beneficial cost structure while providing less management points in your environment. Remember, if you are going to include the “vTax”, you’ll need to include the “mTax” “pTax” and “sTax” as well!

Scale Out Computing’s Not Dead Yet!

I want to thank Maish, Andrew Storrs & vTexan as well as some of my VCE & VMware peeps for helping me out with the numbers and providing clarity. This post was a train wreck to start would not have been possible without them!!!

New Cloudcast (.net) - Isaac Roth with Red Hat's OpenShift

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Delp) — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 18:03:00 +0000

Just posted a very cool new Cloudcast today. This week we spent time learning about Red Hat's new PaaS offering, OpenShift. The interview turned out great and Brian and I learned a lot. Details and Show Notes are on the Cloudcast website.

A little bit of inside baseball: Editing Podcasts are a complete bitch. I'm serious, it just sucks. That has probably been a major hold up to us getting things out the door. In this episode we did less editing to see how it would sound. Let us know what you think. We're trying to turn them around quicker so we can spend more time recording and less time editing.

Have a good weekend everybody!