Go Ahead, Rub the Lamp....

Well, I have been to the mountain top, but now I am back in the valley. I saw the big “cloud” and it looks like a magic genie. It offers “IT as a service”, reduction in time to a positive ROI, more freedom for end users, and effective control for the IT department. Well Aladdin, what do you think? Is it real or just smoke and mirrors? My take is that it is real but like the story goes, you need to be wise and prepared when you let the genie out of the bottle. This is sophisticated technology and just because it has a lot of graphical interfaces with the underlying code does not mean you can treat it like a series of drag-and –drop applications.
Remember that virtualization is networking and the same principles (and more) apply. Think of basic virtualization as today’s version of clustering – powerful but like the “genie”, waiting for some unsuspecting soul to have a momentary lapse in vigilance only to find they are trapped inside the “bottle of frustration”. Fortunately, the reigning “King of the cloud” and your ole buddy, the” IT Sage” understands this dilemma and stands ready to assist you. VMware has a veritable plethora of documentation, training videos, online training, discussion groups, and people like me, who have become converts, to assist you on your journey.
Maranatha & Associates, Inc., the sponsor of this blog, has partnered with the “royal court” of “cloud computing and stands ready to assist you on your journey. The video below depicts our philosophy.

VMWorld 2010: Days 2 & 3

Wow, what a rush. These three days have been at a non-stop pace. There are over 17,000 attendees. Over 13,000 hands-0n lab sessions (advanced and basic), ranging from installation of vSphere to troubleshooting VMware networking issues have been completed. The logistics of this conference has been intense. These folks "get it". No matter if you are a potential customer, a reseller, or a partner, VMware will win you over (is it the "dark side? - don't think so)... There are real programs here for everyone. Validation is shown in the "partners" that are investing their resources to support virtualization and the VMware paradigm. There are heavy weights like EMC, HP, Symantec and others who have reinvented themselves in the image of virtualization, e.g., Wyse, the thin client producer (remember them). The bottom line is that it is apparent that this product is currently setting the IT industry on a new path. Whether you want to call it "Cloud Computing" or enhanced data centers, it is not just infrastructure but a living treatise on how commercial and public sector entities can do business more efficiently. The goal is quite ambitious - satisfy the two factions of the company enterprise who traditionally are at odds with each other - the end user who wants freedom and the IT department who requires control - Good Luck with That....