Many parallels are drawn between containers and VMs. At the same time, container evangelists are often quick to position containers as a replacement for virtualization. As is always the case, the new is different from the old but can learn from the past. Containers and VMs address different part of IT/IS, so they are not directly …
Alastair Cooke is an independent analyst and consultant working with virtualization and datacenter technologies. Alastair spent eight years delivering training for HP and VMware as well as providing implementation services for their technologies. Alastair is able to create a storied communication that helps partners and customers understand complex technologies. Alastair is known in the VMware community for contributions to the vBrownBag podcast and for the AutoLab, which automates the deployment of a nested vSphere training lab.
Cloud-Portable Applications
If you have been following IT infrastructure for a while, you will have seen the rise of the cloud hailed as the solution to all of our IT problems. You will also have heard that the public cloud is like Hotel California, where you can easily check in but can never leave. I wrote a little while ago about the …
IT Infrastructure: It Isn’t Even about the Applications
For those of us working in IT infrastructure, it is easy to lose sight of why we have a job. Any kind of infrastructure is doing its job best when it is invisible. Nobody comments that the light turned on when we flick the switch. Buses that turn up on time and are clean and comfortable are …
Continue reading “IT Infrastructure: It Isn’t Even about the Applications”
Do You Have a Workspace?
What do you give to the person who has everything? You give them somewhere to keep it. In this post-PC era, we need to provide our users with one place to go to find all of their IT resources. Ten years ago, there were two things that were going to save IT: single sign-on and …
A Redundant Array of (In)expensive Clouds
The cloud is all very well—buy resources as you need them, and don’t care about the infrastructure required to deliver those resources. But there is no cloud: it’s just someone else’s computer. So you should still think about what is required and what happens when things go wrong. In particular, what happens when a cloud …
Continue reading “A Redundant Array of (In)expensive Clouds”
HP Helion Is out of the Public Cloud Game
A few years ago, I told HP’s product manager for public cloud that I thought all public cloud providers would run out of money and get out of the business. I was mostly being controversial to spark conversation. But HP has recently ceased selling its Helion public cloud. While this did prove me right in that case, I’m …
Continue reading “HP Helion Is out of the Public Cloud Game”