Boom or Bust: The Virtual Economy
Sorry about the lack of blogging lately, folks. We're at production deadline for our next issue, and that takes most of my time. With that in mind, I wanted to give you the normal sneak peak at the upcoming magazine.
Our cover story is about virtualization and the economy. It's not exactly news that the economy is in a tailspin -- but that doesn't mean everyone is suffering equally. Virtualization vendors, in particular, seem to be surviving -- even thriving -- in these dark financial days. Our intrepid reporter goes inside the companies to find out why.
Another feature chronicles the "protocol wars". As you know, display protocols like RDP, ICA and others are critical to the end-user experience in a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environment. That's why VMware recently entered into an agreement with protocol vendor Teradici to make a software version of its PC-over-IP (PCoIP) hardware technology. We survey the landscape, and show you who's doing what.
Have you ever wanted to use PlateSpin Forge? It's a disaster recovery appliance that author and "Everyday Virtualization" online columnist Rick Vanover takes for a, well, spin. Does he give it a thumbs-up or down? Now, you don't think I'd spoil that surprise, do you? Also reviewed is the free V-Scout virtualization discovery tool from Embotics. Virtualization administrator Brian Mislavsky takes you on a tour.
As always, our columnists have fascinating insights to share. "Virtual Architects" Danielle Ruest and Nelson Ruest tackle the little-known, but growing, issue of end-user VM sprawl. Most "sprawl" issues deal with data center sprawl, but with the proliferation of products like VMware Fusion, Parallels for Mac and Microsoft Virtual PC, your users can get carried away, too. How will you deal with that? Danielle and Nelson walk you through a strategy.
"Virtual Advisor" Chris Wolf also tackles VDI. He reviews a free tool called WANem that measures the performance of your infrastructure to determine how well VDI would work in your environment.
My own "Take 5" column looks at the top certifications for the virtualization community. If you've been laid off recently, or are looking to break into virtualization administration, adding one of these certifications can give you a boost.
To subscribe to the print magazine, go here.
Posted by Keith Ward on 03/31/2009 at 12:48 PM