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PHD Introducing Virtual Monitor version 10.2

Mon, 21 May 2012 21:15:50 +0200

New Enhanced User Interface for Faster Performance Analysis and Remediation

PHD Virtual Monitor version 10.2 for multiple hypervisors now makes it even easier and faster to solve your complex monitoring issues and eliminate blind spots to provide total visibility across virtual and physical infrastructures to ensure application availability. All of the great functionality in their previous version is complemented by the new interface which allows users to quickly navigate through charts, reports, rules, and alerts to acquire the right information and metrics to solve problems and meet SLA's with minimal searching and backtracking.

Download a free trial to test PHD Virtual Monitor v10.2 in your environment, and review screenshots of the new PHD virtual Monitor GUI by clicking here.

Other features and benefits of PHD Virtual Monitor v10.2 include:

Simple set up wizards
- Out of box monitoring in minutes
- Easy to assign monitoring rules to applications, systems and devices
Intuitive interfaces that enable you to easily identify problems, trends, and appropriate remediation actions

PHD Virtual Monitor supports all Windows, UNIX and Linux systems, with out of the box monitoring of associated Windows applications including Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop. PHD Virtual Monitor also supports multiple hypervisors and monitors the underlying network and storage infrastructure. Most of the capabilities and functions found in enterprise monitoring applications can be provided by PHD Virtual Monitor at a fraction of the cost.

Tuesday, May 22nd is Worldwide Proven Professional Day!

Mon, 21 May 2012 20:13:07 +0200

It’s time again to celebrate your achievement as a certified EMC Proven Professional!

Today may 22 it's Worldwide Proven Professional Day. Time for a small celebration. Unfortunately this year I am not present at EMCWorld in Vegas. So unfortunately I'm not celebrating with other proven proffesionals. So how to celebrate? I can tell my wife, but am afraid that she gives me a blurry look. Wear my EMC Proven shirt! I might just put the new FLARE on my VNX instead. I will come up with something!

When you are in Vegas be sure to get your EMC Proven Professionals FREE shirt or visit the Proven Center for your FREE gift! Anyway, I wish everybody a great day and enjoy your certification.

EMC Education Services is sponsoring a number of events and activities exclusively for EMC Proven Professionals at EMC World, but you don't have to be present to participate!

Stay connected!

Like us on Facebook

Gain access to exclusive content, special offers, and promotional discounts!

For more information go http://education.emc.com/emcworldproven/

StarWind Software and Veeam launched a new joint campaign

Fri, 18 May 2012 13:59:15 +0200

Save Money on Backup Storage

On May 16, 2012 StarWind Software and Veeam launched a new joint campaign aimed at rising space efficiency of Veeam Backup & Replication v6.

Especially for Veeam customers, StarWind offers FREE StarWind iSCSI SAN solution that maximizes disk space savings with a breakthrough Global Deduplication technology. It enables deduplication across all backup jobs, eliminating redundancies and transferring only unique data to your storage!

Get StarWind Edition for VEEAM now!
Download StarWind Edition for VEEAM and test the solution in your backup infrastructure:
http://go.starwindsoftware.com/free-starwind-iscsi-san

VMware View 5.1 and Horizon Application Manager 1.5 launched

Thu, 17 May 2012 10:35:18 +0200

Your Cloud. End-User Freedom. IT Control.

End users have come to expect greater mobility and productivity from a wider variety of devices. They want their applications and data
on the devices they choose—with a native experience. With VMware end- user computing solutions, users gain access to new end-user computing services that drive productivity and collaboration while providing high service-level agreements (SLAs).

At the same time, IT organizations of all sizes can enable new and better ways for users to work that go beyond the limitations of physical PCs, legacy operating systems and static management approaches.

Now available: VMware View 5.1, VMware Horizon Application Manager 1.5 and a public beta program for the Project Octopus cloud data synchronization and collaboration service. Click here for more information.

Bombarded with the term Cloud. But what is Cloud again?

Tue, 01 May 2012 11:47:47 +0200

We are bombarded with the term Cloud some years now. But what is Cloud? I feel almost no longer taken seriously if I use the word Cloud. It is becomming a real buzzword, or not?! A lot of entrepreneurs sees Cloud computing as hype. All signs show that this virtual Cloud will not just blow over. No it's going to stay.

Recent figures from Microsoft show that small and medium sized organisations who already work in the cloud are very satisfied and this number is growing daily.

Basically it comes down to this; Cloud computing is a metaphor used by Technology or IT Services companies for the delivery of computing requirements as a service to a heterogeneous community of end-recipients. But that is just one definition! let's take another 'different' approach. Cloud Computing makes it possible for both small and large organizations and individual users to take space. The management, updates and application developments are owned by the provider of the Cloud Computing solution. In this way it is not necessary for users to own knowledge and hardware in our homes, there is a higher Performance achieved at reduced costs. Still Fuzzy? Probably because you still do not know exactly what you get.

Public cloud is not yet mature. Private cloud paves the way for public Cloud services. Until that time, they will be used in a hybrid manner. It will take years, perhaps decades, before the public Cloud is so mature that private Clouds are no longer required. The investments that companies make in private Clouds makes them easier to switch in future public Cloud services. For services which are keen to run in the Cloud, organizations must now consider what constitutes a private Cloud. Organizations must identify the service which fits within an (external) Cloud environment and which services require greater integration and should be closer to the company.

That said, it seems we talking about services. Cloud is a lot, It's not just one thing. Google apps, Hotmail, Mozy, Zimbra, Office365 are Cloud services too. We use these applications for many years now without probably knowing these are Cloud services too. Each of these services is translated into a functional requirement from within an organization. If you already have to renew or migrate that's your starting point in my opinion. Find out what businesses would fit a Cloud solution and come up with an organization-wide cloud initiative.

There are three types (with differences in level of flexibility for the user):

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Software as a Service (SaaS)

Virtualization is the catalyst for Cloud, since it's the enabling technology allowing the creation of an intelligent abstraction layer which hides the complexity of underlying hardware or software. Virtualization enables different operating systems to share the same hardware and make it easy to move operating systems, all while the applications are running. Virtualization enables flexibility and agility. Start converge your traditional data center to a more Virtual Data Center and extension to Cloud infrastructure. While doing this do not lose sight how business processes and services requirements will impact a Virtual Data Centers in preparation for Cloud planning and design.

So, Cloud is more a collective name for various business services. Create a portfolio of your services. Devise a strategy for business services and private cloud. Make it clear what opportunities exist for your company when cloud computing becomes popular if this has not been already. Set an overall Cloud strategy for your company and final form a team that investigates what the wishes of the company and the possibilities of cloud vendors are.

Cloud is not one thing!

KEMP's Virtual Load Balancing

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 11:29:37 +0200

KEMP’s market focus includes small-to-medium sized businesses, Fortune 1000 enterprises, remote enterprise branch offices and managed service providers, who view end-user satisfaction and IT web and application infrastructure reliability and optimization as mission-critical to their long-term success.

KEMP leads the industry in driving the price/performance value proposition for application delivery and load balancing to levels that their customers can afford. Their products’ versatile and powerful architecture provide a very high value, while enabling customers to optimize their businesses that rely on Internet-based infrastructure to conduct business with customers, employees and partners.

I was approached for testing one of their products. As a curious person, how can I say no to that. Kemp provided me the licenses and documentations. As a virtual guy it's more than welcome when they gave me a link to a virtual machine.

There are Load Balancers for Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware which you can download over here. The virtual LoadMaster installs and runs as a 'Guest' operating OS/Application on a dedicated virtual machine. It provides features such as L4 load balancing, L7 content switching, SSL Offload, Server and Application Health Checking, IP and L7 Persistence, Caching, Compression, IPS and much more. It also supports stateful Active/Hot-standby configuration between two VLMs for redundancy and high-availability.

As I told you there are several Load Balancers for several Hypervisors as shown below.

- VMware ESX, ESXi, and VSphere (Requires 512MB disk space and at least 1GB memory)
- VMware Workstation, Server, and Player (Requires 512MB disk space and at least 1GB memory)
- Microsoft Hyper-V (Requires 1GB disk space and at least 1GB memory)

Installation is a straight forward thing after you downloaded the .OVF file and imported it into VMware. When you boot up the virtual machine and look at the console, the Virtual Load Balancer will obtain a DHCP address or statically assigned. Access the Virtual Load Balancer using https://<IP> or via VMware console.

In the beginning I was overwhelmed by the many possibilities this device has. Not really know how to start. But after a support call from Kemp where they put a lot of effort in I cloud give it a start. The documentation for the KEMP LoadMaster is OK. But I really do advise they look in to it. From my opinion it is too general to startl. But as said once, after the support call from Kemp it give you a pretty good feel for the product, how it functions and what you can achieve with it. The interface is well organized. These Server Load Balancers with integrated SSL acceleration and Layer 7 content switching are perfect for creating highly available server clusters.

VMware vExpert 2012

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 08:50:24 +0200

15 April, VMware announced the vExpert 2012 title holders. And I am very proud to say I am one of them again! First let me congratulate all who have also achieved to make it to this title. Well deserved! I know there are many people which put a lot of effort and passion into virtualisation.

Second, I want to thank John Troyer, Alex Maier and the (judging) VMware team for making this possible.

VMware has changed his policy and started giving recognition to employees who takes the extra miles to spread words on blogs, VMware forums, Community, VMUG's and more.

A brief reminder. The annual VMware vExpert title is given to individuals who have significantly contributed to the community of VMware users over the past year. The title is awarded to individuals for their commitment to sharing their knowledge and passion for VMware technology above and beyond their job requirements.

To all other vExperts: Congratulations!

Gartner's statement about 60% of virtualized servers being less secure than physical servers

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 11:32:06 +0200

HyTrust, located in Mountain View, California, is a rapidly growing early-stage company that is focused on virtualization platform security and compliance.

I had the pleasure in an interview related to this issue with Eric Chiu president and founder of HyTrust. (http://www.HyTrust.com) I want to thank him for the time and effort to this. Eric has over 13 years of experience in high tech management and finance. Most recently, Eric was VP of Sales and Business Development for Cemaphore Systems, a leader in disaster recovery.

According Gartner, through 2012, 60 percent of virtualized servers will be less secure than physical servers. Although Gartner expects this figure to fall to 30 percent by the end of 2015, analysts warned that many virtualization deployment projects are being undertaken without involving the information security team in the initial architecture and planning stages.

Response from Eric Chiu:

1. In relation to Gartner's statement about 60% of virtualized servers being less secure than the physical ones they replace through the end of this year (Gartner's statement), how secure do you think the latest Hypervisor layer (VMware ESXi) is? According to VMware this appears to be the most secure hypervisor they build.

The statement from Gartner was focused more on the fact that 60% of virtualization deployments are architected without the security team involved. As it relates to ESXi, the threat surface area is smaller given that the service console has been eliminated -- this helps address hypervisor-level attacks which tend to be more theoretical in nature. However, the biggest real issues around security for virtual environments tend to center around access control, auditing and configuration management, which are not improved by ESXi.

2. According Gartner, hackers have already begun targeting the virtualization layer. How real is this threat?

I believe this is a real threat. Breaches are becoming more common (87% of companies have been breached) and most of the serious breaches (56%) involve an insider threat. Combine this with datacenters becoming virtual and APTs getting more sophisticated, and you will see more major exploits specifically attacking the virtual infrastructure going forward.

3. In my opinion, an infrastructure is only as strong as its weakest employee. What's your perspective?

I agree, and this is highlighted in a recent article from the Wall Street Journal on the "enemy within". Given that the most serious breaches tend to involve insider threats, this is a major issue -- especially in virtualization since the admin has access to all virtualized resources.

4. Will moving to the cloud solve all your problems?

With the cloud, you are merely shifting the responsibility but not solving the problem. To solve the problem, companies need to make sure that they have the appropriate security and compliance controls to address their regulatory compliance requirements as well as corporate governance requirements. Companies that are looking to move the cloud have to make sure that the service provider can meet these needs as well.

Additional Comments:

Virtualization is currently the number 1 priority among CIOs, and the biggest challenge area for enterprise today is to virtualize mission-critical and compliance applications. These mission-critical applications require additional security controls and visibility which aren't addressed by the virtualization platform; therefore, purpose-built solutions are needed. The payoff is big -- by addressing these issues, companies can virtualize the next 50% of their datacenters, realizing the great ROI that virtualization offers.

EMC Knowledge Sharing Article 2011

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 15:50:42 +0100

How to Start Your Disaster Recovery in this “Cloudy” Landscape

Since 2007, program participants have generated and published a collection of more than 100 EMC Knowledge Sharing Articles highlighting perspectives on such topics as Cloud Computing, Content Management Best Practices, and innovative approaches for automating information infrastructure management tasks. After 2010, I received another mail from EMC for participating the contest. After some doubts the first time, I decided to join in again. This year my title is "How to Start Your Disaster Recovery in this “Cloudy” Landscape". Yes it's al about disaster recovery (DR). You can go very big with this. You know for sure you drown and that it does not work like you thought it would. Again I tried to keep the scope simple and pleasurable to read. In any case I hope that it arrives that way to the readers. However, there is a lot to consider before taking this road. Don't take it to easy because this remains a complex and foggy landscape.

Both my abstract where accepted in the EMC’s Knowledge Sharing competition 2010 and 2011. Guy's, I know it's 2012, but I have to wait untill March, which is in a couple of day's. Monthly, there will be published 2 or 3 Articles according to the Publishing Schedule. Of all entries, there are not more than 27 who have been nominated for publication last year.

Unfortunately again, I did not had the winning paper. But often they say that participation is more important than winning. Who am I kidding :). No, seriously, that was not my goal!

A new article will be published soon (March). Despite the long wait I find it a great honor it wil be published and downloadable for everyone. In case you're curious, EMC is trying to publish a variety of topics each month so that the global audience 'stays tuned' throughout the year. Each month, EMC actively promote each articles in the EMC Proven Professional community and Education Services websites.

The EMC’s Knowledge Sharing program is a great initiative that allows people from around the globe to tell their story, whether it is about Cloud Computing, Content Management, Backup and Recovery, innovative approaches or other stuff. Let's face it, it's hot and there is too much to tell. These articles are written exclusively by EMC Proven Professionals, anyone can learn from these Knowledge Sharing articles. If you are not a Proven Professional then take the next step, get certified!

In a couple of day's I provide the link to the article. If you are curious you can download the Book of Abstraction by clicking on the book below.

Click on article for download of Book of Abstraction!

Click on article for download the actually article!

Nominate StarWind - Storage Awards 2012

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 10:39:52 +0100

Nominate StarWind for the Storage Awards 2012 – The Storries IX

Nominations 2012 must be done by Friday, April 6th.

Storage Magazine Awards presents the technology, innovative solutions, and acknowledge companies that have made a major impact on industry progress.

StarWind works diligently to provide highly reliable and best-of-breed SAN solutions for your business. We’ll be thankful if you take a minute to nominate StarWind Software, Inc. for:

"Storage Virtualization Product of the Year"
"Storage Product of the Year"
"Storage Company of the Year"

It’s as easy as 1-2-3, just go to http://go.starwindsoftware.com/e/10612/2012-03-07/6rtw3/47307022 and make your choice.

Thanks for your support,

StarWind Team