If you are a hyperscale (such as for the Cloud) data center manager, one of your top concerns is always how to get the maximum amount of computing work done per Watt of power consumed. With that in concern at the forefront Cloud Providers like Google, Microsoft, and Facebook have strong incentives to explore new solutions to delivering compute cycles. Rumors coming out of Facebook suggest that it is looking to move away from its current X86 architecture platform in favor of servers based on ARM Holdings Cortex processor range. Porting an entire service to a new processor platform may not appear to be a sensible direction to take but porting to a new architecture is more a financial consideration than a technical one. If the cost per unit of performance justifies it , it is cheaper to pay a few programmers to rework the apps for a new architecture than it is to buy more servers.
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Virtualization Backup: Agent or Agent-less?
Many times we virtualization experts push for backups without the agents as these backups tend to be in our opinion, cleaner and faster. But what if you could get the benefits of your existing backup tools (such as Tivoli) but gain the power and advantages of using all the possibilities within the virtual environment. For VMware vSphere this is possible using the Pancetera backup tools.
Application Virtualization or Application Deployment, which one is better? (Part IV)
Application Deployment solutions reduce the cost of delivering applications and help you manage license use? With the end of support for Windows XP happening in 2014 many businesses are moving towards Windows 7 – ideally this inevitable cost is kept low. Application Virtualization can be used on ‘traditional’ desktops and laptops. Application Virtualization can be used in client side-hypervisors. Application Virtualization extends and increases the efficiencies of desktop virtualization as well as enabling portability and improving compatibility of applications. Application Virtualization can free you, not only from the limitation of having to “install within each device”, but lead the way in offering an alternative to “install on only corporate devices”. Application Virtualization can be a tool to reduce the complexity and time needed to move from Windows XP to Windows 7, and from future application updates. Indeed, for many companies, Application Virutalization is an option that can be used now by utilising existing license agreements, or for less cost than converting the application to run as a web-based service.
Wyse explores the boundaries of cloud computing with new Cloud PCs
Wyse Technology has announced a new computing platform designed to capitalize on the growing market for cloud hosted virtual desktop environments that has the potential to un-jam one of the most emotive roadblocks towards the widespread adoption of desktop virtualization. Announced at Microsoft’s Tech Ed conference in Berlin, the Wyse Cloud PC presents an intriguing twist in the junction between desktop virtualization and thin client technologies that gets right to the heart of many IT professionals opposition to desktop virtualization.
Virtualising Citrix XenApp is a Waste of Time and Effort
Is virtualizing Citrix XenApp a waste of time and effort? In spite of the hardware abstraction allowing easier image management and OS upgrades; in spite of options for higher availability and faster recovery, even fail-over; in spite of enabling silo consolidation; in spite of enabling managing user capacity on servers – especially for x32 environments, but also x64; … what could virtualization of your Presentation Virtualization environment possibly do for you?
Rationalizing the NRE Cloud Alliance – newScale, rPath and Eucalyptus
newScale, rPath and Eucalyptus have partnered to provide an elastic infrastructure (Eucalyptus), automated software deployment and management (rPath), and a service catalog (newScale). This provides an interesting alternative to the monolithic stack offered by VMware with vSphere and vCloud Director.