In my last post I started the discussion on the tools of the trade for automation and orchestration. The post mainly focused on Microsoft PowerShell as one of the primary tools of the trade when working within Microsoft, VMware and Citrix virtualization and orchestration solutions. One of the main reasons that I focused on Microsoft PowerShell. So why PowerShell? Quite simply it is a very powerful platform that has a very strong community to help support it and companies outside of Microsoft have invested a great deal of time and development to use this technology as one of the main administration and management platforms for working with VMware vSphere and Citrix Xen. For the sake of this discussion, I am going to refer to PowerShell as one side of the automation coin and now concentrate on the flip side of the automation coin.
Stephen Beaver is the co-author of VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center and Scripting VMware Power Tools: Automating Virtual Infrastructure Administration as well as being contributing author of Mastering VMware vSphere 4 and How to Cheat at Configuring VMware ESX Server. Stephen is an IT Veteran with over 15 years experience in the industry. Stephen is a moderator on the VMware Communities Forum and was elected vExpert for 2009 and 2010. Stephen can also be seen regularly presenting on different topics at national and international virtualization conferences.
A Look at Automation Tools of the Trade
A look at automation tools of the trade. In my last post, I spent a little time talking about the difference between automation, which is the automated task or scripted solution to perform a task, and orchestration, which is the complete process and then top it all off with how DevOps is a philosophy behind the orchestration. For this post I want to focus in on the some of the most common tools of the trade behind the automation and orchestration for the different types of environments.
Automation, Orchestration, and DevOps in Today’s Data Center
Automation and orchestration are two of the terms that you hear about more and more especially when discussing virtualization and or cloud computing. One of the main reason for that is as virtualization and cloud computing technology continues to mature, so has the automation and the orchestration that are such an intricate part of the solutions presented forth from this technology and as such there are more and more products and services that are built around automation and orchestration itself. For this post, I want to focus more on the underlying technology before I get more into the different products themselves. This may be most interesting for anyone that is looking to expand their skillset to be able to compete and excel in a technology world that is traveling full speed up into the clouds.
Security in Our Modern Times, Part 3: My Final Thoughts
Security in our modern times and my final thoughts. This is a continuation of my other “Security in our Modern Times” post that can be found here and here and this story has gotten to a point where you just cannot make this up. So let me give you the Reader’s Digest review of the story and then give you my opinion on the latest twist and see if you agree with my opinion.
Security in Our Modern Times, Part 2
Welcome to my second part of the conversation on security in our modern times. In my last post, I left off talking about the U.S. Government’s court order complying Apple to develop a solution to open the phone for the investigation into the attack that happened in San Bernardino, California.
Security in Our Modern Times
Throughout all the years I have been working in information technology, security has been an area that engineers have striven to improve. As a result, we have make our environments as secure as possible. We have always looked to make the security of our systems stronger. Security has evolved over time. One example of this evolution is the …