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.

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

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.

Bundling Up for the Cloud

I hear that vendors are bundling cloud services with their other software licensing deals, and I have some thoughts about why. Azure credits are being bundled into Microsoft software license deals. Oracle customers can buy cloud credits as a way of avoiding problems that stem from database software licensing true-ups. There are a couple of ways 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 …

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 …

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 …