update – lets hope it doesnt double create

Disclaimer: I was asked not to publish this data until a week after it was released, so I honored that (and then got busy the month after the Forum, so the lesson is.. don’t embargo me ;))

If you’re anything like me, you’d love some of these slides which were published, and if not.. well, here are some rocking slides! Two in particular which really speak to most organizations as a whole!

However, there were so many sessions to speak of, so make sure you go and download the respective slides and decks you missed!

So, for those who enjoyed the EMCForum in Chicago, I know I did! It would take me hours to walk a few feet, but it was great to see old friends, new friends and more!

If you find yourself still missing some details from the Forum, don’t hesitate to let me know and I’ll get those details taken care of for you!

So, a hearty Welcome Jeremy is in order, but what does this mean for the organization?

EMC up until this point has not had an emphasis on marketing, however in Jeremy’s role he’ll be reporting directly to Joe Tucci, and in Joe’s words on Jeremy’s joining:

“EMC has the people, vision, technologies, and partnerships to lead what we believe will be the most significant wave of change and opportunity the IT industry has ever seen – cloud computing.  Jeremy’s deep software industry experience and marketing leadership credentials provide a strong complement to our executive leadership team.  We look forward to the contribution he can make in helping us extend EMC’s presence and relevance on the world stage, in building and guiding our global reputation and brand, and in further enabling the success of our sales teams and partner ecosystem.”

So it sounds like not only is this role ready to be fulfilled, but I’m sure the inbox is filling with opportunity for ways to take EMC from a shining star to the appropriate Super Nova of industry it has been exhibited itself out to be.  

You’re fresh in to the hot seat Jeremy, though you’ve been served up a smoldering hot hand.    With opportunities abound I look forward to how you help drive our success forward even further.  Welcome Jeremy, You couldn’t find yourself in a better place, at a better time, I know we certainly have the right person.

FAST for the DMX!

Whoa, hold on there wait just one minute.   You said DMX4 AND the DMX3?!? Are you serious?!?!

Why yes sweetheart! (yea I know you san admins LOVE to be called sweetheart :)) This does infact support the DMX3 and the DMX4, but because I didn’t find it on my first google search after spending a few seconds (I know you’ll do the same ;)) so the caveat which all of you hardcore DMX3’ers know – the fact that the DMX3 supports only fibre-channel drives. But now that we have that put to the side, let’s discuss what this means for your environment today!

Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) for Symmetrix DMX enables your system to automate the movement of data across differing drive types based upon your performance characteristics.  However, unlike the VMAX which allows you to move across both “Drive Types” AND “Protection Types” the DMX supports only moving across Drive Types.     So if you have a short stroked configuration today running across a boatload of Fibre Channel disks (Oh you clearly know who you are :)) You can start to do what it takes to move that workload non-disruptively to a smaller sampling of Enterprise Flash Disks, and I’m sure your facilities people will instantly fall in love with you (Valentines day! :))

Okay nay sayers, it’s time for you to step up and say “DMX 3 FAST sounds stupid, WTF is that for? It’s FC Only! /end whine” :)   Yea, I’m with you guy, I totally get that.  I have an investment in DMX3’s on the floor today and I want to find SOME way to take advantage of this before I’m completely off of maint and I start swapping systems out for VMAX’s (You know you want to..:))

What value you’ll be able to get here, is since it is FC only, fortunately FC has been tiered within itself for such a long time – through different disk sizes, and different speed types (10k, 15k) So this can atleast allow you to take your applications which don’t require that 15k workload and move it off to your “less critical” 10k disk infrastructure and still allow you to leverage the investment you have on the floor until such a time that you’re ready to upgrade to a DMX4 or V-MAX.    If you’re that guy who happens to have the fully loaded DMX3 15k infrastructure of all the same size disks – Hey, it’s a good problem to have, and in that case the FAST for DMX3 will NOT be the solution you’re looking for.    I’m not sure what percentage of folks are in that particular bucket, but it’s nice to have options :)

Alright, now that I’ve spent nearly have the blog post discussing how to leverage this within the DMX3, I want you to make sure to realize that the DMX4 is still an excellent platform especially for it’s supportability for FLASH and SATA which will let you leverage this to great proportions!    So get out there, contact your rep or TC and get rolling on upgrading to Enginuity 5773.155.107!

I want to make special mention of Barry Burke’s post on this subject 2.040: dmx gets some fast love! a definite must read as it covers a whole bunch of OTHER features now available in the DMX line which all of you VMAX’ers are loving today.    So make sure you read his post as well!

And if you’re looking for information on FAST for the V-MAX, please refer to: One Stop Shop for Symmetrix V-Max Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) docs!

Well, let’s lay out the details.. Yes, this is indeed the (un)conference Cloud Camp, which is ever so popular world wide!

CloudCamp is an unconference where early adopters of Cloud Computing technologies exchange ideas. With the rapid change occurring in the industry, we need a place where we can meet to share our experiences, challenges and solutions. At CloudCamp, you are encouraged to share your thoughts in several open discussions, as we strive for the advancement of Cloud Computing. End users, IT professionals and vendors are all encouraged to participate.

Okay, now that you have a fairly decent idea of WHAT it is, let’s cover the good and raw details!   The schedule below is likely to change as it gets finalized, but what I can guarantee is that Friday evening there will be an Executive round table and panel, which will be moderated and also open to questions from the audience and Twitter (I’ll be monitoring it on a hash tag I’ve yet to define..)  I’ll also do what I can to ensure we have one or more uStream live feeds which have made Cloud Camp so popular and successful in the past!

CloudCamp Executive Panel Event

Friday March 5th starts at 4:30PM
Agenda
•    4:30PM – 5:30PM Registration, Happy Hour & Networking
•    5:30PM – 6:00PM Break
•    6:00PM – 7:00PM Panel of Experts consisting of local corporate executives, industry experts and professors addressing how Cloud Computing is impacting their organizations and the business climate at large
•    7:00PM onwards – Social Networking Continues at a local Establishment

CloudCamp Chicago
Saturday March 6th starts at 12PM
Agenda
•    12PM – 1PM – CloudCamp Networking and Registration
•    1:00PM – 5:30PM – CloudCamp Un-Conference
o    1:00 – 1:30 – Lightning Talks (5 minutes each)
o    1:30 – 2:00 – Un-Panel to Select Topics
o    2:00 – 3:00 – Topic Breakout Sessions
o    5:00 – 5:15 – Reconvene and Share Takeaways with all Attendees
o    5:15 – 5:30 – Wrap-Up and Calls to Action
•    5:30PM onwards – Social Networking Event

Being that this event will consist of two days, (Friday evening Round Table, and Saturday all day adventure) there are two separate registration links so you can choose which is more fitting for you.    So if you’re more business focused and want to strategize around Cloud Friday may be a better fit for you, but if you’re deeply technical and don’t care about the business, it’s all Saturday!

However, many of you are like me, and care about both sides of the coin and will register accordingly.  I’m not just saying that because I’m helping organize, coordinate and more the event.. It’s also because I am focused on both sides of the house, as it were :)  So good times if you want to meet me I’ll be there in either case!

Register: CloudCamp Executive Panel, Mar 5, 2010

Register: CloudCamp Chicago, Mar 6, 2010

And for all other general purpose information, feel free to visit the CloudCamp Chicago portal page.

This event will be hosted at the ITA – I’ve attended numerous events here in the past, it’s a nice facility and definitely worth a visit!

Illinois Technology Association (ITA)
200 S. Wacker Drive, 15th Floor
Chicago, IL 60606

So, I look forward to seeing you there, and if you’re attending entirely online (like I have a tendency to do for other CloudCamp events, be sure to follow me on Twitter @cxi and I’ll be live-tweeting from the event and sharing live video from multiple sources!)  Thanks, and get out there and register before all the slots fill up!

Hi Google, you may know me… I use your Analytics, I host email off of your gmail redirectors, I also take advantage of numerous apps as well!

I feel it’s important that we discuss a number of… pursuits you’ve made in the most recent past.   Let’s start with…

Google Wave (-25)

WTF? I don’t want to go too much into this, because I think it’s been said by a lot of people.  Definitely, well done on mashing up a bunch of functionality very poorly to lump it together in an even more mismanaged interface.    We won’t discuss this any further.  I just wonder when it’ll be seen for the fail it clearly is, OR you actually innovate and make it into something successful.

Google Voice +-0

Hey! This is quite possibly one of the best things you’ve done in a long while! Sure it isn’t innovative – But it IS useful, in numerous ways most of which are likely not the intended usage, grin.   So, well done on executing a ‘strategy’ which has been done poorly for a very long time.  There’s a lot of potential there, and in the right cross-hairs it can integrate well, but innovation it is not.

Google Mail +-0

I like Google Mail, it’s like the Google version of Hotmail and Yahoo mail – Again, it’s not innovative, but definitely a useful strategy for getting consumers over to your network.  I know how the backend mail storage is handled and I actually find that quite nice and promising.  So innovative on the back-end, but from a ‘user’ stand point, there is no clear innovation which really stands out here.  Oh, integrating Google Talk into it? Excellent, Hey, wait, isn’t that like Exchange with Office Communicator? Yea, again nice catch up :)

Google Buzz (-50) WTF

Oh I get it! You think that by adding Facebook and Twitter together you’ll get Super Twitter Facebookery! Yea, totally. Following that logic, if I combine bugs with lightning, I should get lightning bugs.   But sadly, jumping 2-3 years late into something you PREVIOUSLY failed with Jaiku and trying to put some ‘Buzz’ around it by calling it Buzz? +1 in Marketing name Innovation, but a absolute FAIL on setting a clear direction, strategy and executing on it.   Just as an FYI: A majority of people use Twitter and Facebook as a means of communicating with a community, peers and others – and frankly if I wanted a consolidated source of whatever kind of ‘direction’ you’re claiming to project with Buzz – Err, I think I just described FriendFeed! Way to play catch up twice!

Google Android (-5)

Now you’re just taking the piss.   3 years after the release of the iPhone you announce Android! It may as well have been 300 years, because it’s pretty clear that in the most recent round of recession based layoffs that all of the talent which would have made the Android a complete success were no longer there. Grin.  This whole post may come across as negative, but in actuality it’s just an honest reflection of a constant (and moreso recently) failure to understand your audience, or I guess to understand we’re not simply idiots, we ARE buying Vision when we buy android, however you’re giving us a myopic vision so far filled with cataracts on the horizon.

Google Maps +1

I like and use Google Maps, though I wish you were a tad more respectful for preferences, to the kind of things I get out of Yahoo Maps.   You really took it up a notch here with Google Streetview, while that did nudge on some people’s ‘”Privacy” rights and violations, it did provide a vehicle for really breaking down barriers of ‘streets’ to bringing ‘locations’ to the masses of the world.   Why can’t you take this kind of strategy which said “Let’s do something like no other” and apply it to other areas, where you’re playing apparently LAME copycat games.

Google Search +5

To say I don’t use Google Search is like saying “Oh yea, I use Bing for everything”, which is clearly a joke.  Hey, I love Microsoft, and I absolutely love some of the innovations around Bing! Now make the content relevant to ME and we might be getting somewhere.  But I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have to search 25 pages in to find something I CARE about, whereas Google? You have my option on the first page? What’s that? It’s even in the top 5 positions, 95% of the time? Thanks Google!  It’s almost like this was the bread and butter you built your business on, but I digress.    You haven’t really innovated anything new in this space in recent times, other than “What’s local” and while you’ve kept up appearances of keeping the upper hand over all of the other search engines, I’m not saying I expect more from the search engine capability – But it may be time to see how you can leverage this to improve your other solutions and innovate! Oh and not through senseless tat like I’ve mentioned above.

Google BlogSpot “Blogger” +-You Don’t deserve a rating

I don’t think there is any lack of google searches you can find which won’t tell you just how much I HATE BlogSpot.   I’m sure it’s all fine and dandy for people who find WordPress or TypePad (Yea, I don’t like you either TypePad, but for different reasons) difficult.   However, Your FORCED and I mean FORCED like in Microsoft Style “Make me login with my Passport to try to do ANYTHING” submission you force upon me to comment on people’s blogs? Seriously? Hey, let’s CONSIDER for a moment open standards.  The credentials I use 99% of the time which happen to be tied to my domain do not automatically pass through when I hit a Blogger based site, and it wants to comment with the wrong creds.  I find the system doesn’t then let me comment using another set of credentials, I get frustrated, I don’t comment and I further go on hating BlogSpot.  Perhaps this is just a poor attempt at integrating Blogger (Who was decent BEFORE you purchased it) into the fold of the trillion other apps you have out here – Ooh, perhaps you should non-innovate on something “like” Microsoft Passport, but one which doesn’t suck like Microsoft’s or your own today! That’d be a non-innovation, but frankly, just opening up a Facebook/Twitter oAuth sounds like a better idea, grin.

Google Chrome +-0

Two years ago, I might have given this a plus, but seriously.   I do like the description on the google options page “A browser built for speed, stability and security” Strangely, three things it doesn’t exactly do very well.    Speed is AMAZING if I’m a single threaded boy living in a single threaded world, however as my usage goes up, scalability (not even mentioned!) goes through the floor, and with it goes Speed and Stability.   It’s because of that I cannot even begin to imagine it being appropriate for an audience like me.   I wasn’t even a “casual user” as I adopted the full use of Chrome 100% of the time, and found that I was using it for 98% of all of my web traffic, until I encountered scalability fail, and that story I’ll end there :)    The real story behind Chrome is a ‘competitive keeping up appearances battle with Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer’, but it isn’t exactly what I would call an innovative browser in any sense of the word, Sorry.

I could literally go on forever, because frankly Google has a lot of stuff, but I think I’ll end it on this one last ‘innovative’ note..

Google Invites +-WTF?!

Looking up the definition for “invite” by doing a “define: invite” in my browser, I come across several topical definitions: “tempt”, “have as a guest”, “request the participation”, “attractive and tempting”, although no where in those definitions does it say “Hey, let’s be a douche and stingy about our Invites”, I also seemed to miss the definition whereby “smoke and mirrors” was used in lieu of releasing a viable solution which actually DOES have a strategy and a vision.  Yea I know, it has the name “Beta” on it, which clearly means we have no semblance of planning, but let’s get with the program.   Every one on the planet wants to Opt-in for the latest and newest Google solution, just like everyone wants to try out the new Apple products 500 years before they’re “announced” yet, they’re so secretly kept under wraps that we’re all bored by the time they get released because it’s blatantly obvious.    Perhaps what might make your invites a little more, relevant could be Use Cases! (OMFG HE DID NOT JUST SAY THAT) Yea, I used the 4 letter word (2 words, 3+5 letters, but if you divide by 2, oh my!) Day 1 “Who has an invite for x!” Day 10 “Hey, anyone want an invite?” Day 100 “WTF Why is this still a crappy beta and I have a zillion invites!”    Yea, let’s focus a tad bit more on innovation, be a little more liberal with your ‘invite’ stream, and perhaps even have a viable feedback mechanism! (Whoa! Google Feedback with PSR like capabilities built into the application so people can provide content back to you? Oh no you didn’t!)

Alright, I’ll wrap it up here.  Seriously, I do love you guys, I’m sure you’ve lost a lot of great talent, and probably a majority of your creative talent too (If I’m wrong, let me know, perhaps you’ve overworked by trudging on some stupid project by some visionless neophyte, it wouldn’t be the first time!)  And if you want, we can sit down and discuss what ‘strategy’ and ‘vision’ are, perhaps even a little whiteboarding session on Creativity and innovation because I sadly haven’t been seeing much from you guys – And considering the level of talk of anti-trust and people considering Google to have even less Ethics than Microsoft did back in the day, I’d love to see so much more from you – Cmon, it’s the time of the “Cloud” so it’s time to get your head out of your asses and back into the clouds because that’s where “some” innovation might be found, frankly it’s gonna need more of it and not the constant parroting of what sucks today but in a cloudy model!

Feel free to challenge or call me out on anything I said, Googlers, Others, friends, foes and the like – These reflect my opinions and the thoughts and feelings of every one of you out there who would never say this in public but know you feel it and want to say something :)

This last year in September I was given an opportunity to partake in something bigger than me – I applied myself and earned my place as part of a Team! What is this teams objective you might ask?   It was to partake in running the 2010 Boston Marathon in order to raise money for the Michael Carter Lisnow Respite Center.    As part of this initiative I signed on to raise $5000 to help children with disabilities.    Of course, don’t let me be the only one to tell you about it, here is Michael’s story.

Michael was born in 1986, sixteen weeks premature, weighing just over a pound. He was so small his father’s wedding ring could slide up his arm. His chance for survival was only ten percent, yet he lived for ten years. The first three months we spent in neonatal intensive care. It was a roller coaster ride and our family entered a new world. A world with its own language and culture. Many think that the experience of having a child with disabilities either breaks you or makes you stronger. The truth is it does a little of both. When we learned Michael had extensive brain damage and would be blind we wondered how our family would survive. The early years became a series of hopes dashed by reality.  He would not walk, he would never talk, he would not see, he would eat through a tube and he would always have seizures. The world was turned upside down. At one year Michael still weighed less than ten pounds. Life was fragile and lonely. Slowly Michael’s personality began to grow. It was Michael’s laugh, his joy and his determination that became the strength of our family. He was the joy of our lives. He thrived in our local public school and had a wealth of friends. He loved with all his heart. Things became difficult when Michael would get sick again. Throughout his ten years Michael had seven stomach surgeries. Children’s hospital became a second home.

When Michael was five I met Mary, a special education teacher. We shared a vision for creating a place that would provide emotional and physical support for families with children with disabilities. Many people think the Center was created in Michael’s memory but it was actually conceived when Michael was eight and had been healthy for over a year. Our dream became a reality when we were given a parcel of land in Hopkinton, Massachusetts. Two years later, as the house was being framed, Michael went into the hospital for what we thought would be an easy surgery. This was not to be, the surgery was complicated and Michael ended up in the hospital for a month. Michael died nine months later, at home, from complications of the surgery.  During that time Mary and I had lost our ability to dream, Michael’s care was all consuming. We were blessed to have two local businessmen continue building, knowing that someday our hearts would return to the mission. We received $158,000 in Michael’s memory and the house was completed. Slowly we came back and one year later the Respite Center opened, providing respite care for four families. Eight years later over 130 families use the Respite Center and we offer seven different respite programs. Our ability to dream and our passion for helping families with disabilities returned. Many see the house as Michael’s legacy but his true legacy is the wisdom he gave us and the ability to know how to help when others can’t. Michael would have turned eighteen this year, his class graduated from high school in June. As each year passes the sweetness of Michael’s memories grow and the lessons he taught become clearer.

As the Respite Center enters its eighth year, Mary and I thank you for the support you have given to us throughout the years. Your generosity has helped many families. Michael’s story reflects many of the same things experienced by our families. We ask that you take a moment to read some of the stories from families you have touched.

With love and appreciation,

Sharon

Michael’s Mom

Now, I know a number of you supported me when I shaved my head to raise awareness and money for children with cancer.  

This cause is going to be even more challenging than simply shaving my head, as I’ve been training since I found out I’d be able to support this cause.  Yes, for those of you who know me – you do know me as not exactly the ‘most athletic’ soul, which is why I further emphasize how much every single dollar counts!   Think about what I’m willing to endure on my own physical body, both through training and on Race-day when I force my body through the act of running 26.2 miles – Just so some others are able to have a better life from our contributions!

Yes, here it is! Seriously.   Every single dollar counts.   If you can give only $1, I’d absolutely love that – and every other dollar you can give is even better!   Don’t wait and think “yea, someone else will give, so my donation won’t matter” – It does matter.  It matters to me, it matters to them.   If you want further incentive (and if it’ll encourage you) I’ll shave my head again on behalf of this cause (You’ll need to let me know if that’s what you’re looking for, though I prefer to do that on behalf of Cancer to show solidarity – But you let me know :))

Supporting me is as simple as clicking on this link or picture

So, don’t wait until it’s too late.   Every day counts, every dollar counts.   I have 2 months of training to go, and I’m far from my target!   So, please help for the children!

Thank you! – Christopher Kusek

This last year in September I was given an opportunity to partake in something bigger than me – I applied myself and earned my place as part of a Team! What is this teams objective you might ask?   It was to partake in running the 2010 Boston Marathon in order to raise money for the Michael Carter Lisnow Respite Center.    As part of this initiative I signed on to raise $5000 to help children with disabilities.    Of course, don’t let me be the only one to tell you about it, here is Michael’s story.

Michael was born in 1986, sixteen weeks premature, weighing just over a pound. He was so small his father’s wedding ring could slide up his arm. His chance for survival was only ten percent, yet he lived for ten years. The first three months we spent in neonatal intensive care. It was a roller coaster ride and our family entered a new world. A world with its own language and culture. Many think that the experience of having a child with disabilities either breaks you or makes you stronger. The truth is it does a little of both. When we learned Michael had extensive brain damage and would be blind we wondered how our family would survive. The early years became a series of hopes dashed by reality.  He would not walk, he would never talk, he would not see, he would eat through a tube and he would always have seizures. The world was turned upside down. At one year Michael still weighed less than ten pounds. Life was fragile and lonely. Slowly Michael’s personality began to grow. It was Michael’s laugh, his joy and his determination that became the strength of our family. He was the joy of our lives. He thrived in our local public school and had a wealth of friends. He loved with all his heart. Things became difficult when Michael would get sick again. Throughout his ten years Michael had seven stomach surgeries. Children’s hospital became a second home.

When Michael was five I met Mary, a special education teacher. We shared a vision for creating a place that would provide emotional and physical support for families with children with disabilities. Many people think the Center was created in Michael’s memory but it was actually conceived when Michael was eight and had been healthy for over a year. Our dream became a reality when we were given a parcel of land in Hopkinton, Massachusetts. Two years later, as the house was being framed, Michael went into the hospital for what we thought would be an easy surgery. This was not to be, the surgery was complicated and Michael ended up in the hospital for a month. Michael died nine months later, at home, from complications of the surgery.  During that time Mary and I had lost our ability to dream, Michael’s care was all consuming. We were blessed to have two local businessmen continue building, knowing that someday our hearts would return to the mission. We received $158,000 in Michael’s memory and the house was completed. Slowly we came back and one year later the Respite Center opened, providing respite care for four families. Eight years later over 130 families use the Respite Center and we offer seven different respite programs. Our ability to dream and our passion for helping families with disabilities returned. Many see the house as Michael’s legacy but his true legacy is the wisdom he gave us and the ability to know how to help when others can’t. Michael would have turned eighteen this year, his class graduated from high school in June. As each year passes the sweetness of Michael’s memories grow and the lessons he taught become clearer.

As the Respite Center enters its eighth year, Mary and I thank you for the support you have given to us throughout the years. Your generosity has helped many families. Michael’s story reflects many of the same things experienced by our families. We ask that you take a moment to read some of the stories from families you have touched.

With love and appreciation,

Sharon

Michael’s Mom

Now, I know a number of you supported me when I shaved my head to raise awareness and money for children with cancer.  

This cause is going to be even more challenging than simply shaving my head, as I’ve been training since I found out I’d be able to support this cause.  Yes, for those of you who know me – you do know me as not exactly the ‘most athletic’ soul, which is why I further emphasize how much every single dollar counts!   Think about what I’m willing to endure on my own physical body, both through training and on Race-day when I force my body through the act of running 26.2 miles – Just so some others are able to have a better life from our contributions!

Yes, here it is! Seriously.   Every single dollar counts.   If you can give only $1, I’d absolutely love that – and every other dollar you can give is even better!   Don’t wait and think “yea, someone else will give, so my donation won’t matter” – It does matter.  It matters to me, it matters to them.   If you want further incentive (and if it’ll encourage you) I’ll shave my head again on behalf of this cause (You’ll need to let me know if that’s what you’re looking for, though I prefer to do that on behalf of Cancer to show solidarity – But you let me know :))

Supporting me is as simple as clicking on this link or picture

So, don’t wait until it’s too late.   Every day counts, every dollar counts.   I have 2 months of training to go, and I’m far from my target!   So, please help for the children!

Thank you! – Christopher Kusek

If you guys remember my original post Certification and MeasureUp Discounts 20% off Certs! that story is still true – so the ‘approved’ countries will still be able to get 20% off which can make your exam costs as little as $100 USD! (Fill in the blank of your respective country :)) However, if you don’t want to get money off and instead want to take your chances at the exam at full price YET if you happen to fail (No one ever fails, right? Especially not ME?!? :)) This will give you a second chance at the exam for free then!

So, in USD terms, here’s a breakdown of the values!

So, by looking at that, wow! There is a definite value in taking advantage of this Second Shot Program! However, if you KNOW you’ll pass the first time and you live in an ‘approved’ country, then the 20% off voucher is definitely valuable.  Otherwise though, jump all over this Second Shot offer, as far as I know it’s available in EVERY country, which is great, and the fact it ALSO run’s until June 30th, 2010 – means you’re all winners all around!

So, just like before, feel free to email me, contact me on facebook, twitter @CXI, even linkedin (or you can comment here) – Whatever means is comfortable for you to get these vouchers.  I don’t have any limits, and I want you to pay as LITTLE as possible for your certification! (In the event you didn’t catch it, this is all free :))

Albeit, it would be kind of cool if there were indeed a GodMode version of the Cylons.. but I seriously digress!

No, I’m here to tell you about GodMode in Windows7 (Also applies to Windows Vista, but pshaw on vista!)

Enabling GodMode is very easy – simply create a folder and name it “GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}”  After that, poof! The folder will change into this icon!

Wow! Look we’ve got GodMode! But changing a ‘folder’ into a magical icon isn’t exactly the king of things, it’s what comes beyond that!   You open that bad boy up and you see a screen which looks like this!

Here’s a little breakdown of ‘title’ sections you’ll get to dive into here within GodMode

• Action Center (15)
• Administrative Tools (10)
• AutoPlay (3)
• Backup and Restore (2)
• Biometric Devices (5)
• BitLocker Drive Encryption (2)
• Color Management (1)
• Credential Manager (1)
• Date and Time (4)
• Default Programs (2)
• Desktop Gadgets (6)
• Device Manager (1)
• Devices and Printers (11)
• Display (11)
• Ease of Access Center (26)
• Folder Options (5)
• Fonts (3)
• Getting Started (4)
• HomeGroup (2)
• Indexing Options (1)
• Internet Options (14)
• Keyboard (2)
• Location and Other Sensors (3)
• Mouse (8)
• Network and Sharing Center (16)
• Notification Area Icons (7)
• Parental Controls (1)
• Performance Information and Tools (4)
• Personalization (12)
• Phone and Modem (1)
• Power Options (9)
• Programs and Features (8)
• Recovery (1)
• Region and Language (10)
• RemoteApp and Desktop Connections (1)
• Sound (4)
• Speech Recognition (3)
• Sync Center (6)
• System (22)
• Taskbar and Start Menu (10)
• Troubleshooting (12)
• User Accounts (13)
• Windows CardSpace (1)
• Windows Defender (1)
• Windows Firewall (2)
• Windows Mobility Center (2)
• Windows Update (2)

Effectively what you get is a kind of ‘super control panel’ which is basically a breakdown of all features you’d get whenever you were to dive into each of these sections individually, except consolidated down to a single super GodPanel!

So, I leave you to play with it, and try not to get taken over by any Windows7 based Cylons.  For the One True GodPanel that knows and directs all mgmt tools, So say we all!

Special thanks to Rob Nottoli for the link I was sent to about this, and the author of the article on this, @inafried “Understanding Windows 7’s ‘GodMode’”

Disclaimer: No offense is intended to anyone’s God’s in particular, as I did not name this particular function of Windows. Unless you’re a poly-theist from Caprica or your God happens to be Windows Vista, in which your god is CLEARLY dead, suck it up and start worshipping Windows 7 :) (And seriously, all you Win-XP-theists, it’s time to drop it, XP is DEAD!)

The team is well known for having one of the greatest dynasties in Technology history during the 2010s, winning six championships in 8 years with two three-peats.

All six of those championship teams were led by Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and coach Phil Jackson. (hover)

Disclaimer: I’m from Chicago, yea we had the world champion Chicago Bulls who won EVERY fricking time! This was back when going to a game was affordable! Imagine that!  

What Chad is doing here is just that, creating a world champion team the likes of which we haven’t seen since the All star series (separate blog post on that later) or even, the Chicago Bulls!    I hear a lot of slack from the community whether this is a good thing to be having the best of breed in the industry, working for the best of breed company in the industry who owns not only the best storage solutions but joint develops them in tandem with owning the best virtualization solution which exists (fact)

For those naysayers who think this will make customers ‘lose’, au contraire, this will have the exact opposite effect!  If you’re concerned that there all of a sudden won’t be any virtualization jobs, guess again.   Just like the Chicago Bulls, this will force all the other ‘teams’, to bring their A game, because you clearly know you will be up against the BEST in the industry.  There is no doubt about that – I’ll put Scott Lowe up against Scott Pippen any day and see our Scottie come out on top! ;)

What you’re looking at now is the Gold Standard in Virtualization – it started with the vExpert program, denoting who was the best of the best – And then those members of the community stepped up their game, releasing book after book, video after video, deep diving and screaming at product groups when things didn’t go the way they and their customers wanted – Results?   The entire community wins! And that includes the naysayers.

Now you not only have something to strive for, but something which establishes your place among the stars – It couldn’t be any clearer what the top looks like and it’s no glass ceiling!

So, do you want to sit in the stands? Or be out there on the court throwing VM’s with the best of them.

You decide.

Disclaimer: The following diatribe is not created by someone who has ‘drunk the Kool-Aid’ nor have I lost my objectivity of what is reality and what indeed isn’t.   Everything is founded on real fact and experience, whether my own or others I have interviewed and had discussions with.  So if you think this is all some single sided touting, feel free to call me out on it, it isn’t. ;)   If you happen to be someone who is looking to join the organization – the following tips can apply to you as well, as a preparation of what kind of organization you’re aiming to be a part of.

Here you are, whether it is your first day, first quarter, first year, or first whatever or beyond – You’re part of a championship team now!    But this jibber jabber isn’t preparing you for anything unless you have something concrete to work with, what to know and what to expect!    Let’s see how well we can tackle that journey!

What to Expect

• If you had any negative preconceived notions of what life is like or what to expect – You may want to find out just how much truth there is to that
• Personal Story: I had impressions of the business – going back over 10 years, these impressions stuck with me (a stigma which is not too uncommon when someone gets that ‘bad taste in their mouth’ even if it wasn’t their mouth, but instead someone else’s.)   Thus I was apprehensive and wanted to confirm the truth of these matters, even so far as bringing it up in the interviewing process – citing specific detail of enormous negative consequences, not only what I believed, but what I had heard from countless others over the years and even the recent past.    End result was that not only were most of these facts unfounded or outright wrong, but that they were very much no longer the case.   The ‘’true’ situations going back over 10 years were long gone and replaced by a culture so upstanding that those of you with history might look and be surprised that the business culture had changed so dramatically.   Thus the old adage of calling EMC “Evil Machine Corporation” in my mind has been CLEARLY replaced with “Encouragement Meets Culture”  (or fill in the blank of your own positive statement, because frankly you’ll find numerous potential acronyms to work with!)
• Encouraging and persistence in ensuring that you succeed
• If you like to work alone, do that and be successful!   However, you are surrounded by peers of equal or even greater ability than yourself!  (Are you used to that?! People who rock just as much as you do? Get used to it!)  You’re bound to find countless OMFG Intelligent, Passionate, Engaged, you name it! People who come to work with the same level of drive which got you to where you are in life and will take you to your next steps.   Asking for help is not a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength and acknowledgement of your ability to get things done.   Don’t shy away from it because you will succeed, whether under your own weight or by carrying the burden with others!   More hands on the shovel builds a bigger bunker, and two or more GREAT heads is better than one!
• Education, Education, Education!
• You ever get that feeling “Wow, I feel stagnant, I haven’t had any training or education in a long while”.  Yea, that is not an EMC story.  Actually quite the opposite.   I cannot speak for every role, but education is such an ingrained part of your daily, weekly, and quarterly lives that it’s not a question of “Will I get educated” It’s requisite for you to be constantly educated and as an equal with your peers in the organization and industry.   However, your education is not solely in the hands of leadership.   You have the power to invest in yourself and have access to quite possibly the most comprehensive library of education (digital!) resources you may have ever seen!   We care about educating our employees who have so many diverse skill-sets that it does not stop with technical, but instead dives much deeper into relevant verticals, industry skills, and ‘soft’ skills which help keep the wheels turning in the world, let alone within any individual industry.     You have the tools at your disposal to help you lead and become a leader.
• Leadership that breeds and enables leaders
• Grace Hopper once said “You manage things, but you lead people” which is an excellent example of the kind of leadership around here!    Have you ever heard of a successful model of ‘upper management building managers’ as opposed to ‘senior leadership developing thought leaders’    People who are followed are leaders, unrecognized or not.   (alright, not a lot of depth on what to expect there, but your results will definitely vary – All of my leadership ROCKS, so, take that with NaCl ;))
• I don’t know about you but leadership recognition, women’s rights, GLBT and work place diversity are both very important to me.  So it rocks that these programs exist:
• Keeping Working Mothers Happy
• Our Commitment to Diversity
• EMC Women’s Leadership Forum – EMC World 2009 WLF Panel Discussion
• Grow with the Leader
• Job Opportunities for Students and Recent Graduates
• So, to sum this part either be led, or follow – but leadership is not an area you’ll find particular weakness here, I’m a testament to that :)
• Social Media Awareness like no other!
• “What’s this whole fandangled facebooker thing? I’m confused by the twitter! Linked what? I’m not letting you in!”   These are all terms you’re far less likely to hear at EMC which not only has it’s finger on the pulse of social media, it damn near innovates with a lot of it, and leverages it to the maximum for core efficiency!
• Personal story:   I dabble a little in Social Media, Yea I’ll evangelise on the subject and have delivered numerous presentations at various venues at lengths upon each of the core mediums for it, but I do not speak of it in a bubble.    In my previous life, I was reached out to, contacted and recruited through my profile on LinkedIn – I know what a lot of you will feel “Yes! The value of LinkedIn, this is why I need to update my profile!” And I absolutely agree, fill out that profile, fill it with relevant data, you’d be remiss not to.    However, how on earth does this story end?   One fateful day I’m sitting there at home doing some work, and I receive a phone call! (Oh my! :))   It turns out the hiring manager for a position had looked on his Facebook Network, looking at folks and peers and through a few clicks, and a google search against my name ended up at my blog where I keep a fairly current copy of my resume online (No, it’s not for job hunting! universities usually require a recent resume when you teach or deliver speeches there :)) but poof! A Phone call!   To tell you the truth, had it been an ‘inquiring recruiter’ I likely would not have given it much thought nor considered things, but when the hiring manager takes the value and power of his team into his own hands – That is the kind of team *I* want to be a part of!
• Okay, back to TwitterBookIn…. :) I haven’t done the full math yet (I will soon!) though I’m hardpressed to find a single organization with as many advocates speaking out on behalf of it, and representing while taking an active and considerable role in the lives of the customers and community.    Whether it’s Chad Sakac and his great tweets and blog posts, Chuck Hollis and his unique way of getting the community talking, or Polly Pearson and her constant finger on the pulse of brands and culture at large – This is only a handful of the numerous other people you’ll find active on Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, Blogs and more!
• What do you mean I can get my job through Twitter?   Whoa, hold on there partner, did I say that? Okay, I guess I could say that ;)    There have been numerous success stories of people who leveraged twitter as a tool in order to aide in their job hunting, recruiting and insight into the business process.   And I don’t want to come across saying that EMC has a tendency to recruit heroes of industry who also happen to leverage Social Media and Blogs, because that’d be weird with that whole list of new hires I have below who ALSO happen to be very active in that space. ;)

What to know

• Your peers are your greatest asset, and don’t forget that.   
• Everything you know, is potentially right – But put it in context!    If you think things can be done better, and can prove it – that kind of insight may help you, your peers and the business do things better.   Don’t be shy to express your opinion, you may see things a different way, whether right or wrong – Learn the right way but be open minded!
• This is not a job, this is a career!  Career’s have potential, growth, upward mobility, etc! (You fill in this for me, your words not mine!)
• Invest in yourself and it will pay dividends, because the business will continue to invest in you over and over again.

What to know for Expats

• This is not (fill in blank of previous company)   Yes, I know probably HALF your team came from the company, but this is not there :)
• Remember when it was like pulling teeth to get the right thing done?  Yea, swap that – Do the right thing, it’s not only good to do, it’s the only way
• Security, Security, Security:  The pro’s and con’s of owning the best of breed security company in the world is… Don’t send confidential data externally, even on accident! (I’ve warned you!)
• Your relationships are your greatest asset.  Your peers and colleagues will get you through hard times, your relationships will keep you afloat in the storm.  Build and Re-build them.
• I love you and welcome to the company? Err.. Wait, that came out right.    No, but seriously. It’s great for you to be here! The longer you are in the industry the MORE people you’ll recognize ;) and if they’re not here today, your friends from the past may very well join you tomorrow ;)

A few final tips for looking new hires

• EMC is not a storage company.  (Wait, What?!?) Yea, that’s the stance I stand by firmly! Sure, we have the best of breed storage in the industry with unparalleled innovation across all bounds, but we are more than a storage company.    Did you know that we own RSA, the best of breed in security? VMware the hands down best virtualization stack on the planet?   I’d deduplicate the following statement but with Avamar and DataDomain in the mix, I can choose to do it at the source or the target!    Oh, did I forget to mention the other MASSIVE slew of products and solutions? No, I’d rather whet your appetite for more to learn and discover that on your own (World Class Consulting organization with a heavy focus on business process?!) Okay, I’m done.. for now! ;)   But seriously.   The opportunities here are boundless.   I usually describe the depth of breadth of solutions as “as many products if not more than microsoft” and the fact of the matter is.. I’m not even sure how many products we have, that’s just how many things we do (oh, did I mention excel at? :))
• Be sure to read 100 Job Search Tips from Fortune 500 Recruiters – Whether you decide to pursue a career at EMC or not, this book will improve your career hunt for the future and give you the upper hand on any everyone else by providing that insight that is often unknown about the hiring process
• Ask.    If you’re interested in what the work life balance is like, or how the products are, or what this or that is – Ask.   You can hit me up on any medium (social media, email, phone) and I’d be glad to answer your questions, and get you in touch with others who can also provide insight as well.   But it’s up to you to ask the questions, to get that insight, to take your career in your own hands.
• I could keep adding tips all day long, but I want to get this published, so if you feel I’ve missed something epic, let me know and I’ll gladly add it!

And last but not least, I would like to heartily welcome some of our newest hires (that I’m aware of!)    Scott Lowe, Ed Saipetch, Rick Scherer, Gilda Farvid, and Dave Cipparone!    So, welcome to the team and may every day be as amazing as the days I live out :)  

EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC), the world leader in information infrastructure solutions, today announced new high-density configurations of its market leading EMC® CLARiiON® CX4 and EMC Celerra® Gateway systems systems, delivering twice the capacity of previous systems in half the floor space optimizing precious and expensive data center space and resources. Additionally, the more compact midrange storage systems will support high capacity 2 terabyte (TB), low power SATA disk drives, which consume significantly less power than previous generations.

The new high-density configurations combined with 2 TB SATA drives, high performance enterprise flash drives, and EMC storage efficiency technologies—like disk spin down and EMC fully automated storage tiering (FAST)—enable customers to more easily manage the growth of storage-intensive applications. These comprehensive solutions, unique in the industry, are designed to reduce power consumption and cooling costs, and significantly reduce physical space requirements and satisfy weight considerations in today’s data center or remote office locations. Customers can achieve this substantially greater storage density within their existing datacenter power and cooling schemes.

Key Facts:

• High density CLARiiON CX4 system configurations offer up-to 390 2TB, 5,400 and 7,200 RPM SATA drives and high performance flash drives in a single rack using half the floor space and number of power connections required for the same number of drives in conventional racks. Customers wanting to enable CIFS and NFS can deploy the more compact CLARiiON CX4 systems with high density Celerra Gateway systems.
• The energy-efficient 5,400 RPM 2TB SATA drives provide twice the capacity while consuming over 60-percent less power per GB than 1TB 7,200 RPM SATA drives.
• High density CLARiiON CX4 configurations also support 1TB and 2TB SATA disk drives, as well as enterprise flash drives, which store data on electronic memory rather than spinning disks.
• The more compact CLARiiON CX4 configurations also support EMC spin down technology—which powers down inactive disk drives—saving 65-percent of the power required by traditional spinning SATA drives.
• The high density configurations offer full access to all disk drives from the front of the storage system’s rack. The sliding design enables the front enclosures to be moved forward, providing easy access to enclosures and drives in a second ‘slide out’ tier.

"Physical space constraints present significant challenges to IT administrators facing the task of managing 50-percent or more information each year," said Rich Napolitano, President, Unified Storage Division at EMC. "We’ve developed the industry’s most comprehensive compact storage system. In addition to an innovative hardware solution that reduces floor space requirements, EMC offers software that makes the most cost-effective use of the storage system and ensures that the right information is on the right media at the right time. In doing this, we’re helping our customers address the challenges of managing significantly more information, more efficiently, using less power and with more automation."

Availability & Services

The new high density CLARiiON and high density Celerra Gateway configurations, which are based on EMC CLARiiON CX4 systems, are available today worldwide. EMC will make high-density EMC Celerra unified storage system configurations available later this year.

Additionally, EMC Global Services offers a complete suite of services from assessment to implementation to migration to help customers quickly realize the value of their new high density CLARiiON CX4 and Celerra Gateway storage system. EMC also provides services targeted to help customers fully leverage EMC FAST technology on the new configurations to optimize system performance, further increase capacity utilization and improve service levels.

So, the highlights –

• CX4 and gateways
• Twice the capacity, half the floor space while consuming 60% less power than 1TB 7200
• 2TB disks + EFD = more FAST for your buck!
• Drive Spin down, but we’ll have to see that in action relative to how many drives are in use in this scenario

Oh, and I’m sure you can clearly read the rest! So you tell me what you think? Do you see enhancements of how this will dramatically impact your CLARiiON today on the floor for the future and beyond?   Seriously reducing drive counts has it’s SIGNIFICANT benefits, especially when considering the heavy utilization of SATA 1TB’s and how you’re using them on the floor today.

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Pro: Windows Server 2008 R2, Virtualization Administrator

About this Exam

This exam validates a candidates knowledge of Microsoft virtualization technologies.

Audience Profile

Candidates should have one to three years of experience using Microsoft virtualization products, including Hyper-V, System Center Virtual Machine Manager, and Remote Desktop Services (RDS), in a Windows Server 2008 R2 infrastructure. Candidates for this exam are IT professionals who have jobs in which managing or deploying virtualization technologies is their main area of responsibility.

Credit Toward CertificationExam 70-693: Pro: Windows Server 2008 R2, Virtualization Administrator: counts as credit toward the following certification(s):

Microsoft Certified IT Professional: Windows Server 2008 R2, Virtualization Administrator

So, there is the high level view of the exam as listed at Pro: Windows Server 2008 R2, Virtualization Administrator and one of the most useful tools you will find on that page is the “Skills Measured” tab which happens to give you a comprehensive overview of what kind of content there is on the exam – If you follow that list and rule, you will indeed be prepared if you study against the skills measured!  I do want to note, I HIGHLY encourage you to check out the ‘Skills Measured’ from TS: Windows Server Virtualization, Configuring – Seriously!  – A slight disclaimer here.. I mistakenly wrote the reference material against last years 70-652 TS: Windows Server Virtualization, Configuring – But take it for what it is.. Combine the two ‘skills measured’ from both exams and your chances of passing will increase exponentially!

Now what may be beneficial is a comprehensive understanding of… competitive pressures? Would you call it that? I have to say, I saw a damn lot of another vendors virtualization product (Some might call it, the largest virtualization product in the industry, not to mention the most deployed)   In the “Installing Hyper-V” section, as seen in Skills Measured, it mentions very briefly a coverage of clustering, storage – shared and otherwise – accounting for 14% of the exam.  To me it honestly felt more like 45% of the exam had some focus on Storage or Clustering.  I haven’t seen that much iSCSI, and FCP touted in a long time! (Take my NFS and CIFS Please! – Oh, yea while not mentioned, you probably want to ensure you’re up on the entire protocol stack, grin :))

Next, if you look across all 4 Skill areas, you’ll notice SCVMM is included in there.   Yea, there’s a reason for that.   Infact, I’d be surprised if there were any questions which DIDN’T include SCVMM! I say ‘mostly’ in jest, because it makes you wonder ‘Is this Hyper-V, or a purely SCVMM exam?!?” :)

As far as annoying faults in the tests go, I only found one major syntactical error which I reported, but on the whole the test itself was well formed and the questions were free of Grammatical mistakes.   Now, let’s get into the Wow section.

Perhaps I was a bit hasty when I said “Wow” about this exam.  Perhaps I should have placed myself more into the category of WTF?!?   So, feel free to see an intermingling of my thoughts on the exam now :)   The questions were well formed, perhaps even a little too well formed.   A number of them looked as though they were struggling to find examples of what WASN’T the right answer, because they were all pretty damn easy to answer in and out!   Am I saying I passed? There’s a pretty good chance, but I place no bets!    If you are NOT up on the competitive landscape as far as where Hyper-V plays in the industry, you better be to take this exam.  I wasn’t sure if I was sitting for the VCP, a minor in Citrix, or if this was infact an actual Microsoft Exam! (Yes, I know it was a Microsoft exam because all of the questions WERE very well formed, and a number of them… were sadly still written to the old adage of ‘Choose the microsoft answer’ ;)

This exam also included the recent name changes to products, so I commend it’s accuracy!    And the intimate level of focus on VDI – was quite amazing, but sadly I reach a saddening point.

If I am to fail in this exam under any circumstances? It is because of the number of ‘it depends’ questions they had in there.   What does that mean?   I’m sure providing details about how many interfaces you should have and factual information backing it is PERFECTLY okay, I can sign off on that – No problem, albeit Best Practice and ‘minimal acceptable’ is further subjective.   But when it comes to degrees of scale and how many VM’s I can actually host on a particular server?   Without raw details, a breakdown of workload, and not to mention this isn’t a different vendors solution so the pure economies of scale require me to be EXTREMELY conservative.   I’m not being negative I’m being factual, we all know that – and we know JUST how subjective things are when it comes to VM density.   With that said be very careful, I have no guidance there other than try to find out what the proverbial ‘microsoft answer’ is for what density looks like I’ve always seen it published as ‘not as much as others’ and some of the deployments in the exam outright scared me – And I don’t get scared by technology, I put fear into it’s heart!

I’m FAIRLY certain I didn’t say anything which violates NDA, since pretty much everything included here is referenced in the Skills Measured page Pro: Windows Server 2008 R2, Virtualization Administrator but incase I did… don’t spank me! preferably fix the questions which are wrong (glares in Liberty’s direction ;)) And… Well, have a good time – Use of the technology and understanding these skills are pretty much all you need in order to pass!

Now on a personal note! I’m going to be running the Boston Marathon in a few months in order to raise money for disabled children and every single dollar helps, so if you can help me in my cause these children and their families will greatly appreciate it!   Even if you can only afford $1 that’s perfectly fine! The more people who contribute the better!

http://www.firstgiving.com/cxi – Help sponsor my run in the Boston Marathon on behalf of disabled children!

So, thank you all and I hope you find something useful from this post-mortem and truly every $1 helps, and I greatly appreciate it!  Thanks!

Let’s start as you normally would, by logging into the support console!

http://192.168.1.1/support.html

Whoa, what’s that I highlighted there and even tossed in an arrow?! Can I MAKE it any more straight forward? Psst.. Click on Support Files :)

Ooh, what’s that little guy down there? Dump? Yea, I didn’t even notice this before (because I had shell access myself ;)) but this is for your benefit!

The system will go through "Gathering system state…"

Why yes, I did go mad with clicking colors and arrows in the win7 version of MSPaint.. Okay, but I digress. :)

Click that bad boy, which will include dump data about your system! Download it, and open it!

Drill down into the dump –> config –> etc –> and open up the file named “shadow”   (dump-20100107225620.tar.gz\dump-20100107225620\config\etc)

Find your shadow File in there, and lo and behold, you will have your Iomega root users hash!    Now it’s just a matter of cracking it!

It is beyond the scope of this article to tell you how to actually crack the pwd.. (giggle) go here, download john the ripper and you’ll do just fine :)

Taking my seed from my system and running it through a simple alphanumeric search, I come up with username root, password soho! That was easy! That works if you have NO Password set!

Through a collaborative effort with @randyjcress @Kiwi_Si @VirtualisedReal and @gabvirtualworld we were able to determine that by using soho and whatever password you use on the system, that should do it! And really, the credit does primarily go to @randyjcress for leading us in that specific direction so props randy! :)

ie: admin pwd is apples, so login using sohoapples – This is still undergoing verification, but I thought I’d share it out there, while we sort it out!

Disclaimer: The means to perform all of these tasks has been replicated and verified in the wild without requiring any intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the system. 

Finding a job

This is not always as harsh a situation as it seems, but the particular audience this speaks to are people who have been RIF’d, people who have never even had a formal job (re: college graduates or esteemed HS drop outs), or even people looking to change careers (such as going from a train engineer to being a systems engineer!)   But where do I start?

I would be remiss if I did not highly advise you to read this amazing FREE book! (No registration required!) 100 Job Search Tips from Fortune 500 Recruiters read it, and then read it again as it will apply in all of these roles but will definitely give you the guidance you need to get yourself started and start getting organized.   You’ll come across references to having a profile on social networks, and while many will be mentioned – the top three sites I HIGHLY advise you ensure you have a filled out profile on are LinkedIn, FaceBook and Twitter.   And just so I can use some relevant examples of exactly Why?!    Several years ago, I was found and recruited by someone who found me on LinkedIn.   Most recently I was found via FaceBook which lead to my resume on my blog, and last and most importantly… I’ve helped numerous people get jobs which all started and ended with Twitter – So don’t dismiss the hype! I’ve met those guys, don’t be them!

The following area speaks directly to those who have been RIF’d and/or those who happen to have families.

• #1 – and this is important.  Now is NOT the time to have some kind of stupid pride or EGO!  
• DON’T go it alone – There are lots of people out there who CAN and WANT to help. 
• DON’T bear this burden on your own. 
• DO accept the charity of references and contacts with recruiters.  
• DON’T default to ‘what I did in HS’ or something if you were a highly qualified, passionate and driven person, GET the contacts you need to get yourself employed again.
• DO file for unemployment.   IMMEDIATELY actually.  We are STILL in a recession, so expecting a job to manifest over night may not be practical unless you’re highly sought after and even then, those bills aren’t going to pay themselves nor will your table fill itself with food unless you have a horn of plenty (If so, let me know I need a vegan one :))
• DO ask for help, there’s never been a better time to not have any stigma associated with losing your job, again – people WANT to help their friends

Now, hopefully you’re not all in the same situation where you’ve been RIF’d and are instead just looking for a job or career change – we’ll call you hs/college graduate, or career changer.

So for you career changers or graduates, take the following words of wisdom with a grain of low sodium salt! (WTF?! :))

• Be current.  Ensure that your Resume AND your online presence and profiles happen to reflect you, and especially in a positive light – Any recruiter who is serious WILL google you
• Be relevant.  If you’re just out of HS or College – that 3 month internship with a business is relevant, but those 6 weeks working at McDonalds? Not so much
• You have to ask yourself – Will the information in my resume help me get this job? Do they care about this information.
• Even when changing careers, having a history of being a part-time house sitter isn’t going to get you the next big break in your career you’re looking for.
• If you have to ask “Is this really relevant to the job I’m looking for” then the answer is no, and leave it off.
• If you are an Eagle Scout, or similar long and arduous journey in your youth which you can share stories and experiences of? Leave it IN!

Let me discuss that for a moment.  You’re saying my years as a fry clerk at McBurgers isn’t relevant but my time spent collecting badges is?   Honestly, Eagle scout and equivalent is the closest you get to saying someone if committed to a journey, they stick it out, they come prepared, they can get things done, and they understand steps in a process – equal to certification.   Long ago I questioned this but Eagle scouts are like Green Beret’s or even Ninja’s – experts in their own right who have gone the test of time and can extol those virtues elsewhere in life.

And for you tech or even graphics folks here are relevant and non-relevant items (though if you can defend them in your case I will stand down :))

• Tech: Seriously? You’re putting MS DOS 5.0 on your resume?  We all CLEARLY know that MS DOS 6.22 was the best and ONLY version worth mentioning.  If you’re going to put EXTREMELY dated material on your resume to show longevity (which I respect) don’t show ignorance and choose the worst possible version since DOS 3.3 (which rocked mind you)
• Graphics:  You want to show you’ve been doing this awhile, I get that. But Harvard Graphics? SERIOUSLY? Harvard Graphics? It’s not 1985, I don’t want to hire you 25 years ago!
• Tech: Random gibber jabber of versions and code really tells me nothing, unless you actually deliver your resume IN C# or something, don’t try and confuse me by telling me a bunch of keywords (Key words CAN and ARE important, but not 100% keyworded resumes)  Instead, entice me with something we can engage in a story about!
• General: Keep it interesting.  Draw me in somehow, not telling me that you like black and white movies, but a discreet line in there intended to make the interviewer laugh (in a field respective way) where they clearly know you meant a joke like “I know chmod” will help lighten the mood.  I’d probably specifically want to talk to the candidate who gets resume humor :)
• General: Most importantly, if there is something you DO NOT want to have a job doing, DO NOT put it on your resume.   I leave more off my resume than I put on, including voicemail systems, fax, pbx, Wireless, systems management, operations – I can do these things but I am an architect, a designer and above all an evangelist – let’s not stray from our paths :)

Going back to the points above, if I had three additional things to say and was limited to a word each I urge you to be Positive, Passionate, and be Professional and if I could slap one more into the fold which doesn’t start with P (that was sheer coincidence!) I cannot urge you enough to BE YOURSELF!   You’ll be happier and more positive passionate and professional for it!

Be Honest, and Don’t lie

This deserves it’s own highlight and mention as this is something I would discuss with candidates I’ve mentored over the years.   (I’ve had some initially argue the two mean the same thing, they don’t)     When you’re looking for this newfound job regardless of the circumstance you need to be honest with yourself, honest with your resume and honest with the people you’re talking to.   You don’t want to end up like Cisco Fatty who mind you was honest to a fault, but if they were honest with themselves they wouldn’t have been considering an improper fit driven only by $$.

Don’t lie.   Falsifying a public document such as your resume is no way to get a job, as it will come back and bite you – and the truth is FAR easier to remember than a lie!  Do not lie in an interview! If you don’t know something, say it, however also be honest that if it’s something you COULD know, you can certainly learn [be warned though depending upon the interview this could be perceived as not being prepared, so it’s a double edged sword.. it’s usually just better to know what they’re asking in the first place ;)]   Also, don’t claim to have done something you never did.   We once interviewed a guy who claimed he built out a whole series of systems – so during the [group] interview when one of our interviewers decided to ask the candidate details about this build he was unable to provide details, twisting and turning in the wind in a torrid rain of lies.  Oh, why did the interviewer ask? He had actually built those systems when employed in the environment the candidate claimed to have done the work.   I cannot stress it enough.  Don’t lie. :)

Keeping and upgrading your job

I had excellent plans of breaking these two out into two separate sections, but seriously – they’re the exact same thing effectively! And frankly the people who are usually good at keeping their job are typically the types sought after to upgrade their job (whether within the company or moving to a whole new business!)

I am so fortunate that this very exact topic was covered by the smart and amazing Polly Pearson with  "How To Get A Better Job?" A post for employees and job seekers alike. which if you read nothing more from this post – Be sure to read her post, it will change your perspective on career changes with real hard actionable information you can act on immediately!

Oh, and I would be remiss to not mention 100 Job Search Tips from Fortune 500 Recruiters again – you thought it was important finding a job? It’s even more relevant when it comes to upgrading or literally just keeping your job!

So here are some tips from me which fall into the realm of both keeping and upgrading – ultimately staying relevant is what it comes down to:

Get Certified

The best example I’ve ever found of the illogical failure for people to get certified is this: Did you ever go to school for 4 years, get all of your credits and yet choose to fail to get your diploma because you feel “I have the experience, I really don’t need the piece of paper”.   Any qualified person who chooses to not get certified because they ‘know it’ is like saying that the experience (while VERY important) trumps your college diploma.   Now putting that to the side a moment and still comparing college.    Did you know that for each Microsoft certification exam you complete, it could be worth 1-3 credit hours?  Oh, and the PMP is worth even more.   But wait, are you seriously telling me that the EMC Proven Professional Expert certification is worth 50% of the Masters of Information Technology at some schools?  So put your ego aside a moment, and if you really DO know the knowledge prove it with an exam and you’ll make your resume ALL that more credible.

Certification shows that you not only know information, but it also proves that you invest in yourself, your employer and your future.   It typically says to employers “Whoa, hey they likely stay up on their technology and perhaps even read a book and care about their job”   Nothing says you care, like investing in yourself which turns around into better productivity!

I know I’ve said this one an infinite amount of times, but I still do have discount vouchers for Microsoft Exams – 10% for the entire world, and 20% for some places (USA, England, etc)

Get Networked

The first thing I say every morning when I wake up is “I’ve met enough people, my network is big enough, I don’t need to meet or know anyone else” which is usually followed by me telling myself that I obviously know everything and I don’t have to prove anything so I’ll never show anyone that.     Yea… I don’t have that conversation, and anyone who does either needs a wake up call, or has actually ascended and hats off to them – Breaking from your physical form to go pure energy is harsh and definitely requires your dedication!

So what does this mean? How do I get networked? WTF IS NETWORKING, IM CONFUSED! err.. Whoa, hold on there!  Let’s cover some real basics

• Use LinkedIn.  And that doesn’t mean spend every waking hour staring at everything linkedin.  But fill out your profile, add a picture (shows commitment) and connect with people you actually know.  Chances are, people you know are on LinkedIn! And people you’ve known over the years, they’re probably out there too, so reconnect with them.
• It’s not about who you know, it’s about who knows you.   That rule doesn’t always apply, but in order to be ‘introduced’ to someone, someone else has to know you, so the more of your associates, friends, colleagues and more that you’re connected to – the easier it will be for people to get to know you :)
• Use Facebook.   I’m in no way saying you need to have a hybrid personal/professional FB Profile like I do.  At the very least, HAVE a profile, put a picture, post things on occasion so people know what’s going on with you! This does default back to the ‘its not who you know but who knows you’ remember you can get a job off of Facebook :)
• Use Twitter.  Do you know how many of your peers are out there twittering about their daily jobs? Even talking to others!  Countless people use Twitter as a means to solve problems, learn new things and wait, what? Network with people!   Not everyone in the world is on twitter, and the ones who are, are typically sharp and moving forward.. move with them :)
• Attend Trade shows, conferences, conventions.   Whichever happens to apply to your circumstance.  Is there a user group for whatever it is you do? Go attend a meeting! Meet your peers! Your peers strangely are NOT only the people you work with, you may find that something you or your business are doing could be done better – result, you’re the winner! :)
• Visit a Toastmasters club.   Yea, I know you’re the best presenter in the world, would you mind delivering this keynote to 20,000 people? kthxbye! (Okay, I wouldn’t mind! Got a keynote, I’m there!) But if you find yourself not as comfortable presenting to large groups of people, OR you want to meet and watch others speak to improve Attend a toastmasters meeting in your area!
• Find a mentor, collaborate with a peer – Talk to others who are in the position you want or you see accelerating like you’d like to.   Find out how they got to where they are today and what kinds of steps you might need to take in order to get there.   You are in charge of your career not your manager or anyone else.  Take charge.

I hope you’ve found these various steps useful in taking charge of your career with this new years resolution  (feel free to mention what works well for you in the comments) these few steps alone can make a paramount difference in your career, family, future and well being for the rest of your life.    I wish you the absolute best and let me know how I can help :)

But a lot of people like to set resolutions, which are often intangible and hard to meet, reach and exceed – Here in the following series of blog posts will be real tangible ways to achieve you’re often intangible resolutions! To make them accountable, and moreso, to make YOU accountable to your resolutions! (Ever actually keep one of yours? Here’s how!)

One of the top resolutions people will set falls within the realm of “Health” which often has stipulations such as “I want to get fit” “I want to watch what I eat” “I want to drop x pounds” or even “I want to get x amount of sleep this year”  Well, other than the tangible and concrete ones, there is absolutely no accountability for ‘getting fit’ or what ‘watching what I eat’ means, nor any real means of tracking in the others (they’re nice to haves, often controlled by your rather inaccurate scale! :))

Well, now with the power of the internets, and technology… You could very well meet these objectives in a concrete and tangible fashion!

I want to watch what I eat track my calories activity weight and sleep

So, you’ve decided to watch (for a few days) what food you’re about to eat “I’ll eat this pasta, but not this cake” whereas behind the scenes the cake may have been more healthy than the pasta?! wtf?!  Damnit! I can’t keep track of all of this on my own!”

Allow me to introduce to you numerous options available at your disposal!

Our friends at FitBit, the makers of the FitBit offer a free dashboard for logging food, activity, weight and more!

• As you can see from this dashboard, it tracks some pretty cool stuff! Calories burned (You manually enter it, or with the FitBit device for $99)
• Calories eaten is controlled by you manually entering the food you eat on a regular basis, whether through meals or individual items
• And weight is tracked manually by you as well (Hey, it’s not gonna weigh you itself! Though that’d be nice a mass indexer.. ;))
• And lastly.. it’ll also track your sleep efficiency! (again, this requires the purchase of the device!)

So, you’re telling me there is a website where half the functionality isn’t available unless I buy some kind of device for $99?!@?  No. Not in the least bit.

I’m telling you there is a website where half the functionality IS available, that you usually have to pay for from other sites (which I’ll mention in a bit ;))

Let the record show I do not own one of the FitBit devices (though I’ll gladly take one to do a formal review and comparison! wink wink, psst :))

In the event the hint is not taken and I am not sent a free FitBit to review.. I had intended to buy one anyway to do a formal assault/assessment of the device and how it compares to other similar devices intended to help you keep track without burdening you with trying to keep yourself accountable on paper. (Formal review of all devices will be coming soon!)

Now, something I can talk about even further is an actual device that I DO wear! The GoWearFit – This helps give me accountability on whateverthehell I am doing, and lets me know that if I want to obtain some level of fitness… I have a tracking mechanism build into me practically! :)

Yes, that is my actual arm! I took that with a camera, OMFG?! And yes that is my little sensor I took a photo on my lenovo with.. :)

But the real key to this, is the (PAY) subscription where it tabulates all of this data online for you to work with! Take a look at the BodyMedia dashboard!

• Calories Burned is tracked from the unit on my arm – the target is defined by me either manually or by accepting a ‘default’ series
• Calories Consumed is tracked by filling in what you’ve eaten for a given day, from a comprehensive list or manually entering in details
• Calorie Balance is the difference of the two above (Jan 2nd was a busy day and I never entered my foods I ate for that day! :))
• Physical Activity is a tracking of any activity which usually falls in the 1-3 or 3-6 MET’s range, I defined my target as 60mins of Moderate daily activity
• Steps Taken is literally just that – every step you take! You should walk 10,000 steps a day! I usually walk around 5000, so my target is low ;)
• Sleep Duration is my FAVORITE Part! It inspired a whole series of conversations on Facebook on the subject! I’ll show you more on it!
• Weight (and waist size) are manually entered, if you want to track things over time!

I’m not gonna too deep in this, because I’m saving that for a separate deep dive post later on, but let me show you the sleep duration bit, because people love that ;)

So, you may look at this and say “Whoa, You didn’t meet your sleep target of 8hrs a day!” Well, first of all, let me put a few things straight.. 5 hours and 55 minutes of undisturbed sleep! totally rocks! I average 4-5 hours of undisturbed, no tossing, no turning, not evening moving, just flat out sleeping! (and lucid dreaming if I agree to it before I sleep ;))

And to further that defense.. when It’s the weekend or a day off.. and I don’t have somewhere to be in the morning (rare) I sleep until 2PM, but this only calculates until noon, so.. :)

It looks like I have poor efficiency from my lying down time vs sleep time, but I lay down a lot (with laptops on top of me) with no intention of sleeping :)

So, when it comes to saying “Man, I’m tired every day, why is that” I have a tangible and very concrete place to reference to see just how much sleep I’ve been getting, and whether I’m well rested at all “Wow, I thought I got 8hrs of sleep, but I only got 2?!?” Etc, so on and so forth :)

Also, there is another tool which is very similar to these other two, the BodyBugg which is extremely similar with various differences – I’ll go into depth on that later, as @skyyogastudio is using that tool, I’m using this one, and if FitBit sends us one to test, Both of us will test it out (and then probably give it away as a prize at Sky Yoga Studio hint hint :))

So, what is the moral of this story and resolution?  You have tools at your disposal whereby you don’t have to do anything and it’ll keep track of half or more of your health.  And if you do a little effort, you can also keep track of how many calories you burn – whether it be for free using the FitBit dashboard, or paying and using the other tools by BodyBugg or BodyMedia

The link may require credentials on EMC’s PowerLink – so please keep that in mind when it comes to accessing the site!

So, check it out! This will be your best friend when it comes to working with Avamar, and solving your backup problems and other for the future! :)

I’m not sure whether this is good until Jan 22nd, or Jan 31st, it’s kind of contradicting itself… so good luck either way!

VMware “Upgrade” Promotion

PLEASE NOTE: In order to comply with VMware’s retake policy your initial VCP4 exam must be taken by January 22, 2010!

Notice: Due to overwhelming demand, existing VCP3 professionals will be able to obtain the VCP4 certification with no additional course requirement through January 31, 2010.

Dear VMware Certified Professionals,
First, let us say thank you for supporting VMware’s certification program! We appreciate our VCPs who have worked hard over the past few months to achieve our newest certification, the VCP on vSphere 4. In order to meet the December 31, 2009, deadline, many of you recently scheduled (and hopefully passed!) your exam with our testing partner. In fact, so many of you scheduled exams that some of our VCP professionals were unable to find a testing center with available seats prior to the December deadline.
In order to accommodate participants that, despite best efforts, were unable to schedule their exam prior to the deadline, VMware will continue accepting the VCP3 certification as a qualification to take the VCP4 exam without requiring attending the “What’s New” class through January 31, 2010. We fully expect that the additional four weeks will allow remaining participants ample time to find a testing center with available seating, and will NOT be extending the deadline any further, so please take advantage of this opportunity!
Regards,
The VMware Technical Certification Team

If you received an email from VMware regarding this promotion, below is how to redeem your VMware “Upgrade” exam (note: this is a two-part process):

Part I: Register for a VCP4 exam at full price using the Upgrade voucher number sent to you by email from VMware. Important: The unique voucher number needs to be entered during the registration process to establish your eligibility for a free retake exam if you fail the initial exam. This discount offer will not be available on VMware Certified Professional on vSphere™ 4 (VCP4) exams scheduled without an Upgrade voucher number.

Follow the steps below to enter the voucher number during the exam registration process:

1. Schedule an appointment for your VMware Certified Professional on vSphere™ 4 (VCP4) exam.
2. Once at the payment screen, scroll to the bottom of the page to access the “Voucher Number” field.
3. Enter your unique voucher number and click “Apply Voucher.” Note: The Total Due amount will not show any adjustment.

   Below is the screen you should see to enter and apply your voucher number:

   

4. Finally, click the “Next” button.

Part II: If you fail the exam that was scheduled with your unique voucher number, you may schedule a free retake by entering the promotion code: UPGRADE at the time of registration. Important: This discount will only be valid on retakes of exams that were initially scheduled using your unique voucher number.

Follow the steps below to enter your promotion code during the exam registration process:

1. Schedule an appointment for your VMware Certified Professional on vSphere™ 4 (VCP4) exam.
2. Once at the payment screen, scroll to the bottom of the page to access the “Promotion Code” field.
3. Enter the promotion code “Upgrade” and click “Apply Promo Code.”

   Below is the screen you should see to enter and apply the “Upgrade” promotion code:

   

4. Finally, click the “Next” button.

Both the full price and free “Upgrade” exams must be taken by January 31, 2010. Offer valid for the VMware Certified Professional on vSphere™ 4 (VCP4) exam only (exam code – VCP410). Only one (1) offer per person. Standard VMware retake policy rules apply.

Look at the big picture and see what this means for your datacenter!

So, out of box today UIM fully supports management of the whole Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) stack, with evolution to support the rest of the Vblock infrastructure!   Which means taking your Pain of glass you have today and truly turning it into a comprehensive datacenter wide pane of glass for managing the entire stack from a single interface.

What this can mean is consolidated views of your entire Vblock infrastructure..

In the first release your datacenter will be cooking with Service Profile Catalogs enabling a “recipe” for building services and the basis for truly delivering infrastructure as a service.  Yea I know it sounds like lip service but when was the last time you truly had this level of ‘cookie cutter’ capability to deploy what you want, where you want it without having to reinvent the wheel every single time – Service Profile Catalogs will be the answer to let you take control of your datacenter again.

Though, if you feel that even creating recipes is a recipe for disaster – Policy-based management helps keep your environment honest to ensure configuration policies are set and enforced to ensure system-wide compliance to avoid configuration drift.   Oh, did I mention this functionality is also fully supported in this release of UIM with Cisco UCS Network infrastructure, such as Nexus and MDS? I say sweet! :)

What helps to complete this story is Unified Provisioning, configuration, change management – and a simplified integration.

What I’m particularly floored by is the deployment, bare metal provisioning which includes automated provisioning of the disaster recovery site! (Whoa, he did not just say Automated DR!)

The story around provisioning, configuration and change management will be the foundation of your success in the datacenter of the future.   Think about it! unlimited revision history, fine-grained tracking, traceability, and reproducibility! This isn’t the datacenter of 2010! This sounds more like the datacenter of 2100!     Out the gate this first release of UIM will focus on the unified provisioning, configuration and change control of Cisco UCS and the related network infrastructure.

You aren’t going to get away so easily though! I did say simplified integration and I mean it!   UIM Element management integrates with your existing enterprise management solutions on the floor today, providing change and compliance events to help track critical changes.   Furthermore, it leverages Cisco UCS manager APIs and EMC storage management systems allowing you to take advantage of existing instrumentation and component configuration.

So, putting all the marketing jibber jabber aside what does this mean for you, the datacenter owner?   This means that old fashioned model of “Is UCS ready? WTF is this VCE thing? Why do I even need a simplified datacenter operation? What do you mean Private Cloud, it’s sunny outside!”  It means welcome to the future of your datacenter.   The days of silo provisioning, configuration, management and troubleshooting are over!   You know that the top of mind conversation for the 2010 datacenter and on ever C-class’s lips will be  datacenter virtualization, reshaping the data center, and enhanced security – Take a look at that Gartner list and you tell me that VCE isn’t the answer to 5 or more of them ;)

So, the future is most definitely here (hey, 14 days ahead of schedule! How can you go wrong?!)  So there’s no better time than the present to educate yourself about this opportunity and what the rest of the future lay in store.  if you’re looking to discuss the future of your datacenter, let me know because your priorities are my priorities!

I’ve taken the liberty to consolidate all of the Ionix Unified Infrastructure Manager 1.0 documents here for your ease: (Powerlink credentials required)

? EMC Ionix Unified Infrastructure Manager Release Notes
? EMC Ionix Unified Infrastructure Manager Data Sheet
? EMC Ionix Unified Infrastructure Manager Installation Guide
? EMC Ionix Unified Infrastructure Manager Report Advisor User Guide
? EMC Ionix Unified Infrastructure Manager Backup and Recovery Guide
? EMC Ionix Unified Infrastructure Manager System Management Console Guide
? EMC Ionix Unified Infrastructure Manager Regular Expressions User Guide
? EMC Ionix Unified Infrastructure Manager Infrastructure Driver Release Version Support Matrix
? EMC Ionix Unified Infrastructure Manager Non-EMC Software Read Me
? EMC Ionix Device Services Engineering DASL Language Changes

I’d also like to thank Chad Sakac for this great YouTube Video and post More VCE Vblock Details including EMC Ionix Unified Infrastructure Manager and Storagezilla for their post Vblock and Ionix Unified Infrastructure Management

And even going to the “Update Device Software” tab, it always reported “The device software is up to date” Which I now know is a LIE! LIES I SAY! :)

I did a little searching and came across an updated firmware! (oh my!) however it didn’t say it’d do anything about data reconstruction problems! But hey, I always like to be running the latest/greatest, so I downloaded and installed the latest firmware! StorCenter ix4-200d Firmware Version 2.1.25.229: Read First (You’ll find this to be quick and painless!)

Well, some minutes passed and all of a sudden the system was all “DATA RECONSTRUCTION IS HAPPENING IN THE HIZZY!” Okay, not in those exact words.. but I don’t feel like pulling my power to try to reproduce the problem – needless to say, my data reconstruction resumed and finished in short order! Score one for the bucko! (dated reference much?!)

So I deep dove into the system to see what else had changed! (nothing consequential that I could find) but my journey to find a way to ssh this box had not ended! I was determined! I must.. I must.. I must increase my SSH ability! And while searching I came across not only this webpage SSH/Shell access to iomega StorCenter ix2 but that little gem of a webpage included this little link at the bottom! http://ip-of-nas/support.html – Which when you browse to it on your ix4, you end up seeing a page which looks like… this!

This has a few little gems, only two of which will I look at in any detail – Support Access and Recover Disks

Well, Support Access looks pretty damn straight forward! Check the box, reboot, and SSH will be enabled (permanently!)

The Storage Recovery Verification is a bit more interesting – my “guess” is that it allows you the ability to force the data reconstruction many of us complain of! Again, I have no intention of forcing the deal to try to see what happens if I fail my system – You simply let me know if this works for you – with data reconstruction woes :)

Sweet, eh! So, I feel comfortable sharing the process on how to do this.. because frankly, I had to find it from the outside looking in! So I definitely grant you good luck on solving your data reconstruction, firmware updating, and enabling SSH on your NAS!   Until I find an externally cited source though.. I cannot share with you my passwd I used to log in to my ix4 ;)

As promised!  Shell access to your ix2/ix4 exposed! “Get yer red hot ssh here!”

If you come across a site referencing it though, I’d be glad to add it to the mix!  Thanks for your patience.. and look forward to a future post around getting my ‘gigabit runs at 100mb’ problem :)

You may recall from Episode 1 that I said this was something I am extremely excited about – and I thought I made that clear!  

To tell you the truth at first I was mainly excited about the V-MAX FAST, and didn’t even give much thought to the whole "Unified" Celerra FAST or  CLARiiON FAST

That was until I started to delve into the details, find, sort and collect the documents (which I unveil for you to find here!) and not to mention all of the other features above and beyond just FAST! That is what got me excited for FAST beyond the V-MAX!  So I hope this collection of documents gets you going in the right direction so you can become just as excited about FAST for the Celeriion just as I AM :)

I know a lot of you are looking for materials and information regarding FAST – There are numerous questions you have regarding this and since a lot of you are self-starters, I’m going to tell you what information I directly know about today, and where to get it!

Available today on PowerLink are the following documents around Celerra FAST and CLARiiON FAST in the areas of Introduction, Implementation and Solution

The documents below require credentials on EMC’s PowerLink – so please keep that in mind when it comes to accessing the links!

• Celerra
  • Automated Tiered Storage with EMC Celerra and Rainfinity File Management Appliance – Applied Best Practices
  • Celerra Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) Demo Lab Guide
  • Reference Architecture: Automated Storage Tiering on EMC Celerra
  • Reference Architecture: EMC Celerra Fully Automated Storage Tiering
  • EMC Celerra Unified Storage
  • EMC Rainfinity File Management Appliance
  • Storage Tiering with EMC Celerra FAST
  • EMC Celerra NetWork Server – Release Notes
  • Video: Foster Pepper on Celerra FAST
    • Definitely check out the video! I thought about hacking together a display of the video on here, but since it’s not published via YouTube or other, and I didn’t want anyone to spank me for exporting the .flv video, and uploading it or displaying it through another site – I’ll just link you to it’s source :)
• CLARiiON
  • Data Sheet: EMC CLARiiON CX4 Series
• Other great resources!!!
  • Theory and Best Practices for FAST: Performance and Planning
  • Enterprise Flash Drives and Unified Storage – Technology Concepts and Business Considerations
  • Clipper Group: EMC Rolls Out Fully Automated Storage Tiering and Other Storage Enhancements
  • Building the Virtual Information Infrastructure – Technology Concepts and Business Considerations
  • EMC Ionix ControlCenter 6.1 Admin guide – includes steps around FAST
  • Handout: Simple, Powerful, Unified Storage from EMC
  • EMC FAST and Technology Direction

Being that I’ve consolidated Celerra and CLARiiON into a single post, you might be asking “Well, what value do I get from either or both of these?!” Here is a Features and Benefits list!

I know what you’re saying “Wow Christopher, you got those marketing terms down pat!” hee, but seriously, those are quoted verbatim from the links mentioned above.   However, one hard solid benefit of Celerra you need to make sure you’re always aware of is the fact that on its own, Celerra largely reduces your backup window.  Add FAST to Celerra and watch out!

So, I hope you get as much joy and excitement out of this new launch and technology which will revolutionize the way you not only do business but by the way you think about SLA’s and business problems in the future.   I’ll cover specific details of how this has solved real hard business problems for customers so you can enjoy those successes like I have!

I’ve provided these direct links using PowerLink and a Partner account (not employee)  – Please advise if for whatever reason you’re unable to find something and I’ll be sure to get that taken care of and the document in front of you!   Also, if you come across a document I missed and you think should be included, raise the roof and let me know and I’ll be sure to get it featured here! Not to mention if you find a particular document to be overly useful, feel free to comment on that fact, I’d love to know which would be a better doc to re-read or recc’ to others!

I’m really excited about this and your questions are what will make me and the whole community as a whole a lot more knowledgeable around this subject! So Keep em coming!

Be sure to check out my other posts about EMC FAST: One Stop Shop for Symmetrix V-Max Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) docs! and FAST from EMC – Performance meet the quickening!

Hopefully this little tutorial will give you the basics you need in order to vote! (And if I’m still in this contest at the time you read this, a vote for me ;))

First step is to Find the contest in question – My contest is accessed via this URL  Hello Bachelors! Voting is now open

You’ll see something looking like this: And once you scroll down a little bit, you’ll see this which tells you how to vote, yet obscured by other text on the screen! Leave a vote for your favorite bachelor in the comments…

So, it seems pretty straightforwardish now – I simply need to comment, right?! Well, that requires me to log in via Twitter, Facebook or ChicagoNow!

So, if you want to login via each of the services you’ll get different options

Clicking on Twitter gives you: Enter your credentials and it grants you the ability to comment using Twitter as your auth!

Clicking on Facebook is mostly a wash – comes up fine! but after putting in creds I get FAIL!

Leaving your only other option to be “Create an account”

I’m not opposed to the create an account function (okay, seriously I really am.. At that point, I’d rather you create a twitter acct ;))

So, once you’re finally logged in, scroll down to the “Leave a Comment” box and say something like “I love you christopher!” or whatever ;)

And there you go then! You aren’t the first to hit challenges while trying to vote, and may not be the least! so until then… here are the tools you need to vote!

So get out there, vote early and vote often (Hey, that’s a chicago thing!)  And if you’re looking to vote for me, I appreciate the vote!

I know a lot of you are looking for materials and information regarding FAST – There are numerous questions you have regarding this and since a lot of you are self-starters, I’m going to tell you what information I directly know about today, and where to get it!

Available today on PowerLink are the following documents around for V-Max FAST in the areas of Introduction, Implementation and Solution

The documents below require credentials on EMC’s PowerLink – so please keep that in mind when it comes to accessing the links!

• Introduction
  • Symmetrix V-Max Series FAST Quick Start
  • EMC Symmetrix V-Max Series Product Guide
  • FAST for Symmetrix V-Max Feature Sheet
  • New Features in EMC Enginuity 5874: Enhancements for Symmetrix V-Max in Open Systems Environments
• Implementation
  • Implementing Fully Automated Storage Tiering for Standard Provisioning Environments
  • EMC Solutions Enabler Symmetrix Array Controls CLI Product Guide
  • Theory and Best Practices for FAST: Performance and Planning (This is a GREAT document, I’m reading it right now!)
  • Best Practices for Fast, Simple Capacity Allocation with EMC Symmetrix Virtual Provisioning
  • Symmetrix Management Console (SMC) online help and FAST Wizards
  • Symmetrix Performance Analyzer (SPA) online help
• Solutions
  • Storage Tiering using Microsoft SQL Server and Symmetrix V-Max with Enginuity 5874
  • Storage Tiering using Microsoft Exchange Server and Symmetrix V-Max with Enginuity 5874
  • Symmetrix Storage Tiering for Oracle Databases using Virtual LUN and FAST technologies with Enginuity 5874
  • Symmetrix Storage Tiering for VMware using Symmetrix V-Max and FAST Technologies
  • Symmetrix Storage Tiering with DB2 for z/OS Systems using Virtual LUN and Fast Technologies
  • Symmetrix Storage Tiering for DB2 for Linux, UNIX and Windows Databases using Virtual LUN and FAST Technologies
  • Symmetrix Storage Tiering for SAP using Virtual LUN and FAST Technologies with Enginuity 5874
• Other amazing links and use cases I was able to find!
  • EMC Tiered Storage for Microsoft SQL Server 2008—Enabled by EMC Symmetrix V-Max with FAST
  • WP: Building the Virtualization Information Infrastructure—Technology Concepts and Business Considerations
  • WP: EMC Tiered Storage for SAP: A New Way to Optimize with Use Cases for EMC Symmetrix V-Max with FAST and Virtual LUN—Applied Technology
  • Clipper Group: EMC Rolls Out Fully Automated Storage Tiering and Other Storage Enhancements
  • EMC Ionix ControlCenter 6.1 Admin guide – includes steps around FAST
  • ESG: Enabling Next Generation Tiered Storage With FAST – Video

Whoa, wait a minute – Are you saying there is already a Best Practices guide and solutions already built out for every major application under the sun? (psst, yes I am saying that :))

I’ve provided these direct links using PowerLink and a Partner account (not employee)  – Please advise if for whatever reason you’re unable to find something and I’ll be sure to get that taken care of and the document in front of you!   Also, if you come across a document I missed and you think should be included, raise the roof and let me know and I’ll be sure to get it featured here! Not to mention if you find a particular document to be overly useful, feel free to comment on that fact, I’d love to know which would be a better doc to re-read or recc’ to others!

I’m really excited about this and your questions are what will make me and the whole community as a whole a lot more knowledgeable around this subject! So Keep em coming!

I’m looking forward to producing a similar single point of capture list for Clariion FAST and Celerra FAST as well, so that’ll be coming soon!

This years TechEd North America will be hosted in none other than New Orleans, LA! – Which frankly is a GREAT city to host a TechEd in (I went ~10 years ago in NOLA – Good times!)

What this year does have on track for those of you looking to attend are – talking points and ways to convince your boss!

This actually takes you to a web-form which will generate off an email and send it to your boss :)

Now from a personal perspective, the benefit and value of this promotion is pretty severe.  I attended TechEd NA 2009 (Maybe you met me! I personally talked to ~3000 people!) And with that said, the attendance was dismal as far as I was concerned! Not to mention there was a great imbalance of Developers compared to IT Pro’s!    So the value of convincing your boss is and should be very important – considering the fact that VMWorld had 3-4x the number of participants yet worldwide FAR more people work within the space of Microsoft Technologies (Hey, I love VMware too, but you’d think we’d atleast get a decent attendance!)

I’ll be ‘convincing’ my boss, and so should you!   So, I’ll see you at TechEd (By hook or by crook :)) And what better time to convince than when you can save $300! :)

There’s so much to say about this – but if you have any semblance of what Scrum is, I highly encourage you to check out Crispin Parker’s blog, and all will reveal itself :) Even if you’re an Agile guy, check it out! (Or if you’re an up and coming programmer :))

Important Reference Links:

SCRUM For Team System V3, Beta 2 released

Scrum for Team System – V3.x Beta 2 Discussions

Crispin Parker’s Blog

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Looking at the particular challenge storage brings us – it’s always been a delicate balance of “What kind of storage do I put my APP on” “How do I meet SLA’s for the peak load” and of course “Whatever decision I make today is locked in stone for the next 3-5 years so I better design appropriately”.    If you disagree that these harp on the extremely delicate balance of App v Infrastructure please let me know you’re feelings :)

Now while I absolutely love to have those design conversations above – The time has finally come where we don’t need to have a doctorate in ‘application layout’ or get religion around IOPS Latency calculation workloads in order to accommodate a mixed application environment.   That has come through the creation of FAST by EMC.     FAST which is an acronym for “Fully Automated Storage Tiering” actually does what it says on the tin!   

Think about it for a moment.  What if I simply laid my applications out on disk and let the workload dictate what kind of storage my app should live on, and unless I have specific requirements, let my SLA’s really run the show.    This would take the complicated work of ‘figuring it out’ which frankly is an arduous task and leave that up to the deep analytics to figure it out – End result means you have more time to work on other projects and you start to give back and perform like never before.

But that is not to say this is infallible – Storage is almost as bad as the Database world, whereby people not only WANT control over what happens, when and why, but DEMAND it!  And this gives you that power.   I somewhat relate FAST to DRS from VMware – Let the system analyze what IS happening, and based upon past performance and utilization, predict what would be a good fit – And if you agree you can APPROVE the change the system has put forth.   Or if you have reached a point of being comfortable that it’s acting in your best interests – Allow it to automatically move data – People usually start off with DRS in a “Manual” approval mode, and then quickly roll into “automated” because if 99 suggestions the system made were good, there’s a good chance that 100th suggestion will be a good fit as well.

But just like DRS for VMware, there are exceptions: And it is in these exceptions that you have a POLICY defined to ensure that your will is enforced and things you don’t want to happen – DONT!

So lets get down to basics!  What does this mean for you and me?  

• For once in our sad lives, we’ll be able to implement both FLASH and SATA into a traditional FC system and have the right disks spinning for the right apps.
  • Imagine it! Predictable workloads are EASY to assign to the right tier (sort of) but imagine those unpredictable apps, or even Month-end Apps!
    • Whoa! Are you saying I can take my somewhat stable monthly app which hits its Peak for month-end and move it around based upon the applications performance requirements?!   Just think about it – High IOPS, High Throughput, FAST latency response times – all the benefits of FLASH when it’s needed, but the cost of SATA when it isn’t.  
    • Next thing you’re going to tell me, I could be a seasonal business like a retailer or similar and shift my workload over to FLASH disk non-disruptively for the extreme peak workload, and then shift it back off to SATA when it’s not being hit quite so hard. :)
    • Oh and this means so much more, but it’s late and I want to publish this without overflowing you with information ;)

But this is far more than just simply allowing you to manage your dynamic workloads and ensure that the right storage is being used at the right time.  Across the stack this can be an enabler when it comes to times of legal discovery, long term data retention and archival, and fast response in situations of disputes or otherwise.  

Alright, but what does all of this mean, and why should I care? (read: Why are you so excited about it Christopher? :))

Active ESX Cluster Without FAST	Same Cluster with Flash and FAST Policy
384 Fibre Channel Disks 100% FC Disk Disk resources are ~80% Busy	368 FC Disks, 16 Flash Disks 96% FC, 4% Flash 68% less disk I/O contention 2.5% faster disk response time

The little chart above is a basic breakdown of what you can very easily realize.  Those little images are called “HEAT Maps” If you can see the little legend on the left, the more RED something is, the more busy it is which means your disks are getting hit pretty hard (Notice how for the most part all of disks are either HOT or very HOT)  

What does this mean for me from an operational perspective? I didn’t have to get in loads of engineers and architects to sit around and say “How do you think we should lay out the data to best most efficient on these new 16 Flash Drives we added?” No.  The system analyzed the workload and over a couple of days came to a conclusion “This LUN will move from FC to Flash” and all of a sudden our performance started to shine, without having to take any outage, any downtime – Hell we didn’t even need to try to figure out what we should do – We could let it collect data and then advise us (since its algorithms know things about the operation of the system we can only guess about!)

What would have been even sweeter is if this example had SATA in the mix as well – Because then we’d have the question of what should get shifted from where to where! Take a look at this pretty straight forward workload chart showing which LUNs are more active than others

Is this chart a guarantee that all environments look like this? Absolutely not.   I know of one specific heavy SAP environment which has a majority of its disk look like good flash targets and none of them look like a good fit for SATA.  However, a majority of environments DO have some things which likely aren’t on the most ideal of storage – And when you consider consolidation, that story only gets even more compelling.   So, if you have a dedicated frame which is maxed out for a single app – You definitely want to consider FAST in the equation because it can help determine your best fit for FLASH, and if SATA is a player at all (in v1 of FAST) then excellent. v2 of FAST will change all the rules

Though what I’m sure you like just as much as I do – is a real live example, so check out this Video, which was delivered at VMworld 2009!

And here we are, in a new era, a new level of sophistication the likes if you has never been seen before (Oh, there have been ‘attempts’ at producing solutions which are effectively ‘features’ but the full picture and depth of what today brings about – There is not a candle in the industry which can hold to this maelstrom!

Also, for reference – Here is the official Press Announcement from Today!

(One more Video!!!)

What’s cool about this (video) and this particular site is that these are real people, talking about their real journey and challenges encountered along the way – So you have something real and concrete to take away from it.

What is really cool about this, is this site – discussing EMC’s IT’s Journey through Virtualization is it covers the whole stack – Server, Virtual Desktop, Consolidation, Management and Automation, and especially Private Cloud.   This isn’t a pipe dream – This is a transparent view into what is really physically going on within a large company, so you can relate it to your own business.  We’re all going through the same challenges economically, managementwise, and management and power consumption aren’t going to go down on their own!

So, check out the site/blog, and you may gain a better understanding that you are not alone in the challenges you face, and you may just learn something! :)

Hey Chicago! Hey Girls! (Hey Girls In Tech in Chicago?! :)) Okay, that’s a bit trite… :)

It was a beautiful Tuesday evening this December 1st of 2009 – For the opening event of the Chicago chapter of Girls In Tech!    There was an almost equal pairing of women and men at this launch event! It’s great to see the number of men who want to see women thrive in technology and are willing to come out to show it!   

I took a photo which didn’t really come out, but I did take a short 5min video of the introduction, kick off and overview of the organization (with banter from the crowd as well ;)

So, I encourage you men and women alike to not only keep an eye on Girls In Tech, but take an active role in promoting this to others as well!  This is a great organization reaching out to the masses who don’t need to stand alone, there is a solid community and support network out there! Embrace it.  Join and you won’t regret it!

I want to extend special thanks to Managing Director Dawn Kuczwara @digitaldawn for organizing this whole event and Microsoft Technology Evangelist Angela Dugan @oakparkgirl for presenting at this first event!

That’s right! Coming to a city near you (Or specifically very near me :)) Is the Launch event for Girls In Tech (This is a Co-Ed event, so don’t get overwhelmed guys)

Girls in Tech – Chicago Launch!

Girls in Tech is a social network enterprise focused on the engagement, education and empowerment of like-minded, professional, intelligent and influential women in technology.  Everyone is welcome as we kick off and celebrate the launch of the Chicago chapter! Hor d’overs will be served.

What’s a cool way to use Twitter, Facebook, Twitpic and more?  How about as a real time travelogue? Angela Dugan from Microsoft will talk about using social media to share your adventures with friends, family & co-workers in near real time!

If you are at all invested in technology, and want to see not only the future of technology continue to thrive but also to meet intelligent women of the world who will have a stake in that future – Your investment in an event like this will make all the difference.

And as an extra incentive, use coupon code “twitter” to save an extra $2 off of the event!

So, come on down and I’ll see you at TechNexus on Tuesday!

TechNexus
200 S. Wacker Drive
15th Floor
Chicago, IL 60606

You will be asked to create an EMC World 2010 username and password as you register for this event. Please note that accounts created for previous EMC World conferences or your Powerlink credentials cannot be used to register. EMC reserves the right and discretion to verify your relationship with EMC and to determine if your attendance is appropriate. For registration assistance, contact EMC World Registration Support

Early Bird Registration
Attendees who register for a conference registration package on or before February 28th, 2010 @ 11:59 p.m. MST and pay the conference fee of $1,895 on or before April 26, 2010 @ 11:59 p.m. MST will be eligible to receive either an iPod touch, an Iomega ScreenPlay Plus, or a complimentary evening guest pass to EMC World. Click here for full terms and conditions.
Eligible attendees will be able to claim their early bird gifts at the onsite registration counters. Details will be provided prior to your arrival in Boston for the conference.

You know the model – If you plan on attending something anyway, may as well register early and get some swag out of the deal!

So, don’t forget – Get out there, get registered and get connected!

Starting with the basic look and feel – this is how things look when viewed from the “All” Tab – Quite uniform, side by side.

Here are some of the Positive things about this interface:

• Seems to have a nice scrolling feel to it, and updates rather dynamically
• Each Column fits ~13 tweets (TweetDeck tends to hit a maximum of 10 tweets per column)
• The ability to interface and work with the Twitter defined Lists, so all lists you’ve created can be managed in this screen!

Some things I would consider gracious limitations of this interface

• No ability to modify the look/feel of the interface (I’m stuck with black text on a white background)
• I’m limited to a maximum of 5 columns available on screen (TweetDeck lets me get atleast 6 columns)
• For whatever reason, the ability to manage the Twitter defined lists = fail, and users are unable to be dragged into Lists to be managed (see below)
• Dragging a person and dropping them onto a Twitter Lists leaves a lock on them (and fails)

Alright, but once you see past the interface, you can tweet easier and better, right?

Here is a side by side tweet test, using Seesmic Desktop, and TweetDeck

When using the Seesmic for Windows Interface, a tweet which looks like:

Test Tweet from Seesmic Getting your beta on for the holidays! (Exchange and WinMo6.5) http://www.pkguild.com/2009/11/getting-your-beta-on-for-the-holidays-exchange-and-winmo6-5/ 

translates into –39 Characters Remaining and Posting Failed

Taking the exact same tweet:

Test Tweet from TweetDeck Getting your beta on for the holidays! (Exchange and WinMo6.5) http://www.pkguild.com/2009/11/getting-your-beta-on-for-the-holidays-exchange-and-winmo6-5/

And the Tweet auto shortens and is ready to tweet, with a surplus of 31 characters!

So, what you’re going to say is “Well, you can click “Link” enter the URL and shorten it.   Yes, I absolutely can, if I thought there was a purpose behind manually shortening a URL when I clearly expect the App to be intelligent enough to figure that out.  If TweetDeck can figure it out, and he’s a behemoth of memory and obesity, Seesmic can get a clue and do the same.    I had WANTED to do this test with the Web based Twitter interface which USED to auto-shorten URL’s, but apparently, they did away with that.  WTF? Yea. Seriously.

So, sadly, the sheer lack of features in Seesmic for Windows prevents me from going into too many more details.  And don’t get me wrong, this is a POSITIVE review, it’s just with the sheer lack of features, optimizations, simplicity and ease of use compared to TweetDeck, I won’t  be switching full-time like I had planned to.

And if you think that Seesmic for Windows will use less memory than TweetDeck – At first (and by at first I mean at IMMEDIATE Launch) it will use up less memory than TweetDeck since TD prestages a lot and pulls up history, however shortly after running the two will start to even out and normalize.    So this won’t be a win for Seesmic for Windows.

I do encourage you to take the plunge and dive into the beta, check it out and make your own judgement and decision.  It can ONLY get better, because in its extremely sparse state at the moment I’m not sure it could possibly get any worse!

And with no further adieu, here are the published invites! (Hooray!)

Windows Mobile 6.5 Developer Beta Exam Invite

Exam: 71-580, TS: Windows Mobile® 6.5, Application Development

Registration begins: November 11, 2009 – Beta exam period runs: November 30, 2009– December 21, 2009

Please use the following promotional code when registering for the exam: WEMOD

Windows Mobile 6.5, Configuring Beta Exam Invite

Exam: 71-579, TS: Windows Mobile® 6.5, Configuring

Registration begins: November 11, 2009 – Beta exam period runs: November 19, 2009– December 11, 2009

Please use the following promotional code when registering for the exam: WEMOI

Exchange 2010 Pro beta exam available—Register now!

Exam: 71-663: Pro: Designing and Deploying Messaging Solutions with Microsoft Exchange Server 2010

Registration begins: November 20, 2009 – Beta exam period runs: December 1, 2009– December 21, 2009

Please use the following promotional code when registering for the exam: EPROJ

Well, this is a pretty straight forward breakdown of the exams! If you encounter any of the exams closed (from the codes being over used, be sure to let us know! :))

Good luck, and good testing! (I’m scheduled for the Exchange exam, but my post mortem won’t come until Dec 21st – so too late for the rest of you :))

Here is the fundamental breakdown of what I was able to determine based upon currently released browsers and my utilization habits.  Feel free to call me out on any of this, but I’ll reference and cite as much as I possibly can – if you want to reproduce it, go ahead!

Using the following browsers:

I opened up tabs to the following locations:

And in short order the results I obtained from a memory, and cputime perspective were:

So, looking at this by face value alone, you might rate these by various chunking orders such as memory usage, CPUtime usage, or even a combination of the two – Though face value does not determine scalability over the long term usage of the application in question.   Given the figures above, the order I’d place them in would be Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari.

I’ve been using Safari full-time since the release of Safari 4.0, and it’s been a great trip, it works very nicely, has an ‘alright’ rendering quality, and has a great UI experience for a number of activities.  It’s short-comings are pretty obvious above, it uses a fair amount of memory but it’s CPUtime utilization is through the roof and this app alone can bring a machine to its knees from inactive browsing activities, let alone regular active time spent on the browser.  Today will by my last day of using Safari full-time.

The recent tests like this one alone here has been encouraged by the preview of IE9 in it’s ultra alpha/beta state, and I would absolutely love to use IE8 as my active browser today (even took steps to do that recently!) As you can see it’s ability to leverage CPUtime and level it off is rather stable albeit higher than some of the others.  IE8 does allow one to scale though not without suffering a memory window to account for, and not to mention when tabs crash they only crash within the crash and not the entire browser as the other 3 browsers suffer from.   Unfortunately the memory consumption is too high for my average use, and I’ll have to put myself in the place of a beta instead of a stable release as this is.   Though don’t get me wrong, When IE9 hits a beta I can get my hands on, it’s rendering engine alone will shatter that of the other browsers and likely will be what I switch to then :)

I used Google Chrome pretty actively for 2 full years, and it looks like it is the champion in a number of ways – almost lowest memory, definitely lowest CPUtime, though one of the things people don’t know about Google Chrome is the fact that it doesn’t scale, the more you use it.  Infact, the longer you use Chrome the more often it just ‘forgets’ your credentials forcing you to retype them, or when you click from tab to tab and wait and wait and wait for it to render the current tab, like it decided to forget the ‘state’ of it and have to reference it entirely.   Not to mention one other little thing whereby I’m no longer able to login to ONE of my gmail accounts using Chrome because it’s trying to “protect me from myself”.  So, the longevity and scalability challenges of Chrome which I know so well will be yet another set of reasons I’ll be unable to use it.

Leaving me with falling back on Firefox.  Yes, I know you FF Zealots who will say “We told you so!@!@!” I already get a flood of those on my facebook ;)   For what it’s worth, I’d much rather use one of the other browsers, because while Firefox is nice and does scale extremely well, not to mention taking advantage of the memory and somewhat decently in the CPUtime space, there are just some fundamental challenges with Firefox which leave me wanting for more.   (A number of IE, Chrome and even Safari features would make Firefox a greater champion) but unfortunately the Firefox stable is to ‘go get yourself a million plugins, kthxbye’ instead of building a far better browser out the gate (Perhaps that is an excuse for scalability issues in the others, though that’s not the cause for Chrome’s problems :))

So, there is no doubt about just how fickle I am when it comes to browsers and my ability to do my work, personal and interactive activities in a constant motion – Feel free to call me out on any of this, and your thoughts on any and all of this, not to mention your preferred plug-ins across the board.   I’m game, and I’m not entirely biased which is why I explain just how I feel about these bits and pieces intimately here :)   See you at the next browser launch :)

I think I’m gonna be hardpressed to find time to step out of everything going on, but I’ll see what kind of flexibility exists!

The official “Agenda” which was delivered to me stated this:

Times: M & W 8-5pm; Tu 8am-9pm; Th 8-6pm; F 8-2pm

Considering I’ll be shuttled to the Airport at noon on Friday, not much chance to do things then.   And as far as the other days.. here is my “unofficial” agenda I came across… :)

Sunday, Nov 8th – 6-7 Dinner, 7-930 “Storage Basics” class – So unless we’re doing something on a Sunday evening after 10!? Though if you want, I can bail on the Storage basics class and be available after 7PM on Sunday!

Monday, Nov 9th – 8-5 Training, 530 Bus to Boston, 6-7 Dinner (And I imagine a bus back? so this evening looks kind of set in stone a bit, not sure how flexible!)

Tuesday, Nov 10th -  8-4 Training, 4-??? Other Training (By the looks of above, it claims I’m busy until 9PM!? So that may be true…)

Wednesday, Nov 11th – 8-5 Training, 6-7 Dinner, and Evening is more training, so again, not sure if this is a possible day – but one thing to note: Franklin Facility Tour in the morning, and EBC tour as well!

Thursday, Nov 12th – 8-6 Training, 6-7 Dinner, and then it talks of “Evening” for some more training, so another unknown

Friday, Nov 13th – 8-2 Solid, and then off to airport – Again, too many unknowns..

If you have any suggestions or experience in the areas of the training I’ll be attending as to knowing when things will normally run to, and the liklihood of dinner or otherwise, I’m open to finding that out, else I may be out there – in the area, but no chance to actually meet/see any of you!@?

Either way, here is my schedule, published and available! :)

If you are like me, you may have noticed that ever since Tuesday November 3rd after 8PM Central – Your tweets have shown up on Facebook as Private “Only Me”

However, after I took steps to figure out WTF happened, I solved it, and I’ll show you how too!

Out of nowhere, Facebook decided to setup some function called “Publisher Control Default” which if yours looks like mine, it’d look like this:

Effectively making it so all content generated (such as Tweets) or other “Publisher Controls” were showing up as Only Me – seen above

This can be easily fixed by doing the following

So, what this means for you is – You no longer have to worry about the loss of your visible tweets and the pure WTF-ness this was provided by Facebook (WTF Seriously!)

Also, if you’d like to follow me on Twitter or Facebook, feel free to send an invite :), and respectively, if you want to join my Mafia or other stuff, I love new friends!

So, who DOES think that this whole VCE coalition is a good idea? Is anyone willing to put their name against it? (Other than the CEO’s of 3 of the largest and best of breed innovative companies on the planet?)

Certainly, Steven Tally – CTO of Purdue University wouldn’t go on record saying:

“Purdue is a research university and the majority of our IT needs are spent on high-performance computing, which requires strong computing, massive amounts of storage, and high-speed networking fabric,” said Steven Tally, CTO of Purdue University.  “The Vblock solution offers these elements in a single pre-tested, pre-integrated solution which will be easier to deploy.  VMware, Cisco, and EMC are ideal partners to respond to this problem because they offer complementary tool sets and have a history of delivering good products in the market space.  When these solutions are tied together in a coherent and systematic way, it is very good news for an environment like Purdue.”

I mean, frankly that’d be ridiculous! That’s  because no one is obviously using this ‘untested’ ‘untrained’ and certainly ‘unplanned’ initiative of aligning three worldclass businesses together around efforts to improve the experience in data centers and making the private cloud a reality?   I frankly know of many other businesses leveraging VCE, as well as many getting ready to sign off on it, and thus I will not share that information until I have something external to reference on it (I do like keeping my job, kthx! ;))

CNN Broke the news as far as the link to the Webinar would go, with announcements being made by:
John Chambers, chairman and CEO for Cisco
Joe Tucci, chairman and CEO for EMC Corp
Paul Maritz, president and CEO for VMware

There has been a lot of chatter about this, over the weekend and even moreso leading into this announcement, with some highlights:

The launch of Privatecloud.com is only the beginning in the mass of places to find out information and content on this amazing initative.

VCE Beats out IBM with Melbourne IT

Cisco and EMC, Together with VMware, Form Coalition to Accelerate Pervasive Virtualization and Private Cloud Infrastructures

In unveiling the Virtual Computing Environment coalition, Cisco and EMC also introduced Acadia, a joint venture focused on accelerating customer build-outs of private cloud infrastructures through an end-to-end enablement of service providers and large enterprise customers. Acadia’s unique “build, operate, transfer” model for delivering the Vblock architecture, addressing people, process and technology, will offer customers further choice, flexibility and cost advantages as they seek to virtualize their IT infrastructures and evolve to private cloud environments. In addition to Cisco and EMC as the lead investors, the build-out of Acadia’s expanded capabilities in 2010 has also been capitalized by investments from VMware and Intel. Because the Vblock architecture relies heavily on Intel Xeon® processors and other Intel data center technology, Intel will join the Acadia effort as a minority investor to facilitate and accelerate customer adoption of the latest Intel technology for servers, storage, and networking.

Cisco, EMC, and VMware join hands and plunge into cloud: Acadia, the power of three

In fact, many partners – both systems integrators, and service providers have all started lining up behind Vblocks.    Here are just a few examples:

Most of the vCloud Express launch partners are using the VCE coalition, and want to move forward with a formal Vblock model.   Examples are Terremark, Alphawest, Savvis, Orange and SunGard. (Thanks for this Chad!)

Virtual Compute Environment – an insider’s take.

Virtual Compute Environment – Vblock Partner Ecosystem

Virtual Compute Announcement – Integrated Sales/Service/Support

Virtual Compute Environment – Solutions Venture and Investment

Virtual Compute Environment – Technology Innovations

Also, looks like there is some Twitter presence too! So, represent! @privatecloudcom

Today, is quite an exciting day, and while all of this is high level, I’d be glad to go into much more depth about this – something I’m sure many of those linked and referenced here can say and do the same.   This is not intended to be a tutorial, but an advisory of what’s new, where to go, and I’ll have separate blog posts to go into the details :) It’s an exciting day! :)

If you’re not familiar with this little beast in a box, here are some of the high-lights which this brings to bear!   NFS, CIFS, iSCSI, AFP Support, BitTorrent client, Xbox Media Services, Printer, USB, Rsync, Celerra integration, dual gigabit Ethernet?!   Oh, and did I mention it’s –VMware- Certified out of the box?!?

Now, seriously! Let’s take a tour of this little system which has taken quite a step or integration in my household!

When I first powered this system up, it sat there for awhile without me doing anything to it.  Why? This thing is SILENT! I forgot I had powered it up, and as a result didn’t even bother to check what the IP address was that it assigned itself!   Well, out of the box, it came with a RAID protection I was fine with! I had options to change it, but I’m comfortable with it!

Frankly, this covers most of what you need to do with the device and you’re set! –Done!- But that doesn’t mean you need to stop there!

Most of the features in this unit can be configured by simply checking a box and poof! You’re done!

I have mine configured in the following fashion: AFP for my Macbook to backup, NFS and iSCSI for my ESX Servers, CIFS for local network file access, Media Services to interface with my Xbox360 to stream content and pictures, rsync Server to strangely replicate the box between this ix4 and an ix2 as well as to replicate over to the Celerra VSA :)   (Oh, and the Avamar Virtual Edition running in a VM backing up all of my home machines while taking up far less space with inline deduplication :))

I don’t have Video Surveillance enabled yet, but it’s nice to know the integration is built in there! (Printers also nice, but this lives in a closet, so I’m not sure I want to do that :))

So, hopefully you get the opportunity to play around with this power house in a box, and with the ix2-200d offering the same services (but with less disks and less IOPS) Oh, and if you’re interested in buying one, it’d help if you knew the “retail” costs!

So, that gives you an idea of “retail” cost, now I’d say, go to Fry’s and try not to pay more than $599.99 for the 4TB model (Fry’s is your friend! ;))

For another great review of this, check out Stephen Foskett’s review!

I’ll have some of the prizes/giveaways for the Windows 7 party with me, but lo and behold here are the details for the Chicago meeting of the CWUG!

We had our Annual PC Recycle at our September meeting in Downers Grove.  Brian Jones arranged for ATEN to join us in the parking lot of the Microsoft Downers Grove parking lot again this year (thanks Brian!).  This was also our 2nd consumer focused CWUG – Jeri Stodola gave an example of our very first birds of a feather session and has earned her very own Windows 7 Backpack!  We’re still looking for topic suggestions and facilitators for our 2^nd Enterprise focused meeting which will be held downtown Chicago in the afternoon. Sign up information is provided below NOTE:  the date was changed to October 22^nd.

October Meeting – Enterprise Focused

Thursday, October 22^nd

12:30 – 1:30 bring lunch/network

1:30 – 1:45  meeting begins

1:45 – 4:15 Topics and Birds of a Feather sessions

Session 1:  HyperV

Session 2:  Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (DART)

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032424373&culture=en-US

Going forward, we will use the CWUG online group to share information, communicate with each other and schedule meetings:  http://cwug.groups.live.com

Be sure to SIGN Up for the CWUG and I will see you there!