The first Microsoft Webcast for today's virtualization launch is in the books. Unfortunately, I only got to see the last 10 minutes of Bob Kelly's keynote, and that didn't tell me anything. For some reason, Windows Media Player wouldn't open for me, and I just got a "buffering" message. It wasn't just my computer, though; Executive Editor
Tom Valovic
, up in Framingham Mass., had the exact same issue.
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Posted by Keith Ward on 09/08/20084 comments
Are you ready to "
Get Virtual Now?
" Microsoft certainly hopes so, and has a big day of product announcements ahead (they sent out a press release just after midnight ET in the U.S. Fortunately, I was up late watching football and caught the e-mail via my iPhone. Best game of the day: Chargers-Panthers. Game-winning touchdown pass by Carolina on the last play of the game!)
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Posted by Keith Ward on 09/07/20082 comments
My recent
blog
on VMware pricing seems to have struck a nerve, and I wanted to provide a little more feedback. This is one of the most eloquent, thoughtful responses I've ever received on a topic, and wanted to share it in full, as it provides an interesting view on both sides of the issue. The writer is Ofer B. Ho (used, as always, with permission.)
I was reading your article on VMWare's pricing and Jason's response and felt the urge to throw my thoughts into the fray. I have been an avid VMWare fan for quite some time. I started using VMWare's product when I was a lowly Network Admin working for a Defense Contractor in Monrovia, CA. Post 9/11 spending into the Defense Industry by all branches of the US Government led to releases of vasts amounts of funds into our IT budget, which led to a major Virtualization project of our DataCenters. I can't tell you how pleased I was with the performance and functionality of ESX, especially after comparing it to various other products, including Microsoft's virtualization. I didn't care what the cost was, the end result was its own reward. No more weekend/late night updates of Servers and crawling into bed at 6:00am after working a 20-hour shift. With virtualization, I suddenly had an overnight supply of test and dev systems that I could use to fully test patches and other items prior to production release. System downtime was reduced to practically nothing and I was seen as a hero. I was in IT Heaven.
I am now the CIO of a Non-Profit Community Clinic in Downtown Los Angeles and, while I still remain a huge fan of VMWare, I am struggling with its cost. We are highly dependent on MediCal funds from the State and, without a State budget, have been providing services and making payroll without the benefit of revenue coming in. We have been told by State officials that this situation may very well continue through October. You try keeping your lights on and payroll flowing with a huge source of revenue no longer being collected. Microsoft has a Non-Profit Charity program and VMWare does not. I have managed to squeeze one license of ESX Standard (no VMotion) out of another project, but that is like giving free meals at the best restaurant in town to someone who keeps Kosher. I can see all the goodies, but can't partake in them. I have switched over another server to running ESXi, as that is free. I am able to hook that into my iSCSI SAN and have been able to manually move some of my machines off our main ESX Server onto it. However, without VMotion and HA and other expensive licensed features, I am still feeling the pain.
So, while I agree with Jason that the benefits of ESX greatly outweigh the cost, I still have to say that pricing is really putting the brakes on our Virtualization. You can't milk a bull and I can't pull money out of thin air. VMWare is going to have to reduce its pricing in order to stay competitive with the market. Either that or one of my lottery tickets has to hit the jackpot.
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Posted by Keith Ward on 09/05/20082 comments
As you may have seen by now, Microsoft Application Virtualization, which now goes by the
cool moniker
of App-V, has been relased to manufacturing (RTM) (note that RTM used to have more meaning. It meant that product would be available in a month or so; nowadays, with downloads the main distribution method, it's normally a day or so before availability. Not too much "manufacturing" in the process anymore.)
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Posted by Keith Ward on 09/05/20081 comments
I wanted to share some feedback I got from a reader about VMware's pricing. He's responding to an article in the July/August print issue -- the lead item in my "Take 5" column. Here's what I wrote about VMware's top challenge:
"Ask 100 VMware customers what their greatest complaints about the company are, and 99 of them are likely to list price at the top. VMware recently took a step in the right direction when it made ESXi free, but there's more to do. It's still the most expensive solution out there -- by a mile."
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Posted by Keith Ward on 09/03/20088 comments
Well, I've done it now. Gone and enlisted in the iPhone army. Seeing as how I'm a buck private, much of this may be old news. Still, I'm excited about it, and wanted to pass that excitement along for those of you considering joining Steve's Army.
I used to have a Cingular 8525, but found it to be less than ideal. As a texting device, it was fabulous. The problem is that I'm not a texting addict, like my daughter; I believe she'd give up air before texting. I'm old-fashioned, I guess -- I like calling and talking to people. You know, that whole wacky "interaction" thing.
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Posted by Keith Ward on 09/02/20087 comments
Everybody likes free, right? Especially in a struggling economy. The problem with free in the IT world, though, is that free products are often unstable, unreliable and not what one would call feature-packed.
Virtualization start-up vendor Embotics, makers of lifecycle management product V-Commander, have released a subset of that product, called V-Scout. Embotics is positioning V-Scout as an entry-level discovery product, capable of telling you what's on your VMware network. It goes beyond that, though, doing more than most free products.
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Posted by Keith Ward on 09/02/20081 comments
Microsoft's Virtual PC guy, Ben Armstrong, has an unintentionally (I think) funny
blog entry
detailing a reason your virtual machine (VM) may not start from a USB or other external drive. If your VM fails to fire up, you might get the message that "'Foo' failed to initialize." (Don't you hate it when that happens? "Doggone it, my Foo failed to initialize again!")
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Posted by Keith Ward on 08/28/20084 comments
VMworld
, as you're undoubtedly aware, is a little more than two weeks away, in Las Vegas. This year's show promises to be one of the most interesting ever.
First is the change at the top, with Paul Maritz headlining his first show. Maritz has impressed me so far, enduring a number of serious company stumbles with aplomb. His keynote will be well worth attending.
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Posted by Keith Ward on 08/26/20084 comments
Microsoft is beginning to get it when it comes to
virtualization licensing
. They still have a ways to go yet, but at least they're taking steps in the right direction.
Starting Sept. 1, according to this document ("Application Server License Mobility"), you can now move certain applications around to various servers within a farm without buying extra licenses. It's very complicated (par for the course when it comes to Microsoft licensing), but broken down into its simplest terms, this is what it means:
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Posted by Keith Ward on 08/19/20087 comments
Chris Wolf is
reporting
on his indispensable blog that VMware has joined Microsoft's Server Virtualization Validation Program (SVVP). As of 3:17 p.m. ET, Microsoft has yet to post anything official on the
SVVP Web site
, so for now, we'll take Chris' word for it.
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Posted by Keith Ward on 08/19/20081 comments
Ex-VMware CEO Diane Greene made the top 10 on a list she'd rather not be on:
Top 10 Tech Tyrants
, as picked by Valleywag. The list also includes two Microsoft execs (it doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out which ones made it, but here's a hint: one's bald and the other just went into semi-retirement).
Ironically, Greene described both as "a hard-driving perfectionist who loves nothing more than to get her way," and loved by her underlings.
Posted by Keith Ward on 08/13/20087 comments