On ITOA

IT operations analytics (ITOA) is the new language that incorporates analytics as a part of IT operations. This is a requirement for today’s environments, as even small labs generate terabytes of data a day: terabytes of logs from applications, network sensors, security devices and products, automation tools, and more. The list of possible streams of …

Cost to Build a New Virtualized Data Center, Part 2a

In part one of Cost to Build a New Virtualized Data Center, we discussed the basic software costs for a virtualized data center based on VMware vSphere 6.0, Citrix XenServer 6.5, Microsoft Hyper-V 2012 R2 and 2016, and Red Hat. If you missed that, please click here to review before continuing. This post will take …

Managing Your Cloud from the Cloud

Building a private cloud was a high priority for a number of organizations in 2014. This priority carried over into 2015 because it is hard to execute. For many organizations, it has carried over again into 2016. Of course, the definition of a private cloud has changed in that time, too. Some organizations are happy …

Cost to Build a New Virtualized Data Center

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been thinking about costs relating to a building a new virtualization-based data center. “What?” I hear you say. “Everywhere is virtualized—there is no such thing as a greenfield site anymore!” I would have said that myself, but in the last month I have come across three, one …

In-Kernel vs. VSA: The Phony War of Hyperconverged Marketing

Working on the edges of marketing is interesting. As a technical person, I sometimes find that marketing people do strange things. I find it particularly funny when marketing departments from competing vendors have public arguments that are irrelevant to their customers. I see that going on now between some of the hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) vendors. These …

VMware Log Insight Just Became a Whole Lot Free-er

Early last week, VMware made its vRealize Log Insight product available in a free limited form. The short version is that every copy of vCenter (full fat, not just essentials, as far as I can see) gets twenty-five restricted licenses of Log Insight now, rolled out through the usual software channels. This is an automatic upgrade, and …