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Virtualization 2.0 - Benefits and Challenges

Virtualization as a technology existed from the mainframe era in large glasshouse data centers. Transfer of virtualization technology on to commodity x86 based hardware has increased the adoption of virtualization. The first generation of x86 based Virtualization technologies had limited use in testing, development and re-hosting legacy applications. We are seeing rapid evolution of Virtualization technologies by the vendor community into what we know as Virtualization 2.0. What is Virtualization 2.0 ? In my view, Virtualization 2.0 is about taking the virtualization from development, staging and production servers to Desktop (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure - VDI), Mobile and affordable Cloud based Disaster Recovery/business continuity applications. Virtualization 2.0 signifies free/inexpensive access to advanced hypervisor based Virtualization technologies from various vendors. This is allowing the change in deployment models for virtualization from typical scale-up approach(SMP with
Ubiquitous Storage - data everywhere How many times we have heard someone saying: "Send me the Quarterly numbers….I will check on my Blackberry…" "It’s a big file….gmail it…or put it on the thumb drive…." "Lets look up every thing on xyz product – designs, manufacturing records, marketing materials and support cases" When you start connecting the dots of data management. It is no longer limited to the data center or desktop... If you follow the bit trail....There is data everywhere... The Data management revolves around a simple information lifecycle and associated tools: Data Creation – MS Office, ERP Distribution – Email, Web, FTP.. Action – Document management systems & other applications Disposition – Backup and archival application On further study, You will realize there are three distinct classes of storage: Personal Storage iPod generation Smart Phone, Blackberry, PDA Thumb drive Internet Storage iDisk, SkyDrive, Gdrive Flickr, youTube, gmail

Mission Critical iSCSI Storage Network

Storage Networking is a tricky animal...My brush with networked storage platforms started from the time we needed few hundred megabytes of shared storage for building a cluster to enable database and email consolidation in the late 90's. The essential character of Block based network storage continues, the goal is to protect and consolidate mission critical workloads. Networked Storage using traditional FC-SAN's are getting more complicated in the quest for speed and functionality. In my view, there is a need to simplify networked storage to reduce risk, decrease mean-time-to-repair and reduce costs. Drawing from my personal experience, More complicated SAN sub-systems and network elements are harder to understand, harder to troubleshoot and expensive to deploy.... Personally, I have moved away from SAN implementations with FC-Front end networks after attempting to use use FC-to-ISCSI routers and put up with the complexity in the nework layout and provisioning challenges. The A