VM /ETC

Posts Tagged ‘opinion’

Can you better understand IT geeks by watching Dr . House and his team of experts?

J. Ello’s Computerworld.com article titled Opinion: The unspoken truth about managing geeks has hit home. In fact, reading Ello’s advice for understanding and motivating IT Pros was almost like a long stare in the mirror for me. Obviously, my opinions are biased in favor of engineers and administrators, but Ello doesn’t dismiss IT geek stereotypes. He reinforces them, but also does a great job of explaining why geeks act the way they do. Ello then offers great suggestions for professional harmony.

At one point in the article, Ello likens hiring IT Pros and Managers to medical professionals. He even assumes most IT Pros would idolize Dr. House from the hit TV Series. The more I think about that comparison and the way that House operates in a never ending cycle of high stakes, team leading, rule breaking, colleague mentoring, and maverick -like individualism the more I realize could understanding IT Pros be as simple as thinking ‘what would House do in this scenario?” I’m sure I seem like House at times to those around me!

I highly recommend VM /ETC readers, whether you hold a position of CEO/CIO/CTO, VP/IT Director, Sales, Marketing, Human Resources, Management, or Engineer, take the time to read this posting with an open mind. Ello provides something of value to all, and he actually helps each position understand how perception, impression, and opinion varies between the different vantages of business responsibilities.

Read the entire article at the link above and the lengthy discussion in the comments, but here are some of my favorite quotes from Ello: Read the rest of this entry »

A conversation of tweets over the weekend about which virtualization related accounts should you follow on Twitter caught my attention. Scott Lowe started it off by pondering “who are the top 10 people to follow for virtualization?” I thought about this, started to respond in 140 characters (the Twitter limit), thought about it again, and then decided to write this post. I decided that you can’t follow virtualization on Twitter like you can with News sites or blogs. Twitter is too dynamic and random. Sure there are plenty of virtualization related links and discussions, but those are generally well hidden between the “I’m making spaghetti” or “My cat just fell in the toilet” tweets.

Don’t get me wrong. You should follow virtualization on Twitter, and you will benefit both personally and professionally. I’m just warning you that Twitter is a social network first and foremost. I believe you will find out more about an individual’s personality then their technology or expertise – which is still a great benefit in my opinion. You also may get the opportunity to get a quick answer, opinion, or even advice from a large community of professionals not only on virtualization but on blogging, web site administration, how to make a meal or keep your pet out of the bathroom.

So who should you follow? How do you come up with a Top 10 or Top 20 list? Read the rest of this entry »

PCQuest has published a performance comparison of popular virtualization platforms from Microsoft, Citrix, and VMware. In the report titled Virtualization Platforms Compared, the testing measures various CPU and graphics card benchmarks of the VMs running on the different platforms. Check the report out for yourself, but the testing details explained in the report left me confused. Since there is no option for comments at PCQuest I am posting about it here at VM /ETC.

Here’s the test setup info from the report: Read the rest of this entry »

The product expiration time bomb that was mistakenly left in the first versions of the ESX 3.5 and ESXi 3.5 Update 2 download media is no doubt an embarrassing and horrible mistake by VMware. The timing of this disaster couldn’t be worse with Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix XenServer, and others starting to be considered as an alternative virtual infrastructure platform for companies just beginning to explore the benefits of virtualization. How could this have happened and what are some lessons to be learned, not just for VMware, but for VI administrators around the world? Read the rest of this entry »

Businessweek.com reported back in April about how VirtualLogix’s Peter Richards is building a virtualization layer for mobile phones. Virtualization Goes Mobile explains that just like virtualization for the computer, a phone could use virtualization software to simultaneously host multiple operating systems such as RIMM, Symbian, Windows Mobile, or Google Android. Assuming VirtualLogix can work out each individual operating system’s dependencies on their current physical hardware device (qwerty keyboard, touch screens, etc.), imagine finally being able to have just one smart phone on your belt.

So, while we’re fantasizing about the possibility let’s not stop there.

Read the rest of this entry »

Why is it that migrating to virtual infrastructure (VI) is most often considered to be the responsibility of the server administrators? Anyone who has already done it can tell you it involves much more than servers and hardware. Even for small companies, virtualizing servers potentially (and usually) involves networking, storage, security, and infrastructure services changes. In fact, it is often as involved and complex as moving your physical servers from one data center to another.

So why is there a perception that implementing VI is only a server team responsibility? Obviously, one reason is because on the surface it’s about installing and consolidating operating systems on server hardware. Another reason is because VMware, the source for all the interest in migrating to VI to date, has done such a great job marketing their products as just server installs. Read the rest of this entry »