Archive for the ‘Guest Bloggers’ Category
August 30th, 2010 | 
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Well, my first VMworld experience started with a bang! After some seemingly too-long flights and an interesting shuttle ride from the airport to the hotel, I made it! I dropped off my stuff at the hotel and went to register. Thankfully, by 5:30, there was no one in line and the process was very quick. I went back to the hotel and got connected with Scott Sauer and John Blessing (@ssauer and @vTrooper) and we headed over to the Thirsty Bear for the VMunderground party, WuPaaS. I can’t say enough how great this event was, so thanks to all the sponsors, Sean Clark (@vSeanClark), and Theron Conrey (@theronconrey). I had a chance to finally meet a lot of the VMware/virtualization twitterverse I’ve been talking to for the past year, which was really cool. After the Warm-Up party, we moved to the Chieftan and continued chatting.
This morning, I grabbed some food in Moscone South and met up with Tommy Trogden (@StorageTexan) and Peter Selin (@pjselin) and headed to an informative session about View performance tuning and View Planner. We tried to get into a storage session but it closed early because it was full. We headed to an early lunch and then I spent some time in the blogger lounge.
So far, I am really impressed with everything, except for the lines. What can you expect though, with 16,000+ people in attendance?
More to come….
-Kelly
It seems fashionable these days to use the phrase “single throat to choke” with regard to vendors, and integrated solutions. Sadly, this seems to be used as a selling point by the big guys who are interested in bundling their offerings together. Other than IT guys who like to repeat buzzwords to make themselves feel important, this phrase is rarely used in mainstream business. The reason is clear.
As a customer, I can tell you that I don’t want a throat to choke. Today’s successful business doesn’t need a throat. What it needs is a partner. Don’t believe me? Take a look at BMW. For those who have had the pleasure of touring the plant in South Carolina, there is one thing that stands out beyond the fascinating machinery, and beautiful plant. What stands out is the way that BMW partners with their suppliers.
At each manufacturing station, there’s also a loading dock door. Vendors back their trucks right up to the proper door with their part, and unload just enough to keep the line going until the next truck arrives. What this means is that BMW’s suppliers aren’t “throats to choke”, but partners. These partners enable BMW to manufacture more efficiently, cutting out non-value add processes like moving parts around giant warehouses.
If one of their partners fails to deliver, the entire plant can grind to an abrupt halt. And when this happens, BMW might want to choke a throat, but in reality, the vendor is choking their own throat. Just like SLA’s in our world, there are heavy fines for these kinds of mishaps in that world. The end result is the vendor has a vested, ongoing interest in satisfying the customer. When things go wrong, both of them take a hit, because they are partners.
We’re not manufacturing in IT, but we are delivering a product to a customer. The more partners we have, the better. Do we really care that we can call one phone number for a storage, network, hardware, or virtualization platform problem? I would submit to you that we do not. We care more that our partners can listen, and deliver what we need to be successful. We want it delivered on time, and we want it to enhance our company, and our profitability.
While I see merit in the vBlock, SMT, and other integrated solutions, I believe the “throat to choke” argument cheapens these offerings. The vendors who are able to pitch the strengths of their products, and how they can strengthen our environments, will win out over those who focus on choking people. The argument seems to me to be more of the fear, uncertainty, and doubt that needs to disappear from the industry in order for it to advance.
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Brandon Riley is a new blogger here at Virtual Insanity as this is his second post. He is currently working as a Sr. Distributed Systems Engineer with The Clearing House.
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Welcome Brandon Riley
Sr. Distributed Systems Engineer, Clearing House Payments Company
Throughout the vBlogosphere these days, a common refrain is often heard. vProphets are shouting from their vRooftops that we IT people need to radically diversify our skill sets if we hope to survive in the age of the cloud. No longer will there be “server guys”, “network guys”, and “storage guys”. It is said that in the virtual world, we need to be all of the above, and more. Anyone who has dipped so much as a toe into the virtualization pool understands this well.
Unfortunately, many companies still don’t get it. VCE coalition members are saying that some executives are deciding to buy vBlocks simply to facilitate the transition away from the isolated silos which still Balkanize IT. When executives make purchase decisions based on how they will affect corporate IT culture, there is clearly a problem.
While we sit and wait for the old guard to catch on, some vendors have brought tools to market that push us a little further down the path of convergence. Storage vendors are doing a fantastic job integrating tools into vCenter and making our lives easier. Companies like Veeam and Vizioncore are showcasing tools that give us much more insight into the virtual environment and help us shoulder this increased responsibility. Server vendors are releasing great management tools for blade servers that help us deal with that layer of abstraction. Even Microsoft is trying to help with SCVMM and other tools in the pipeline.
Notice anything missing from the list?
When it comes to making this tectonic IT shift more palatable, the networking players aren’t holding up their end of the bargain. Cisco has done a brilliant job with UCS, and UCS Manager. No sane person can argue that those products don’t vastly improve management of the server hardware layer. The 1000v is also a remarkable tool, and I know they have heavily invested in the VMware relationship. But are they doing anything to make networking more accessible to the new age of vGeneralists?
As a CCNA, I can tell you from my experience that this bare minimum level of Cisco knowledge just scratches the surface of Cisco networking, and is not enough to get a decent sized VMware environment running well. As I write this, there are many volumes of Cisco material in my bookshelf that I can call upon, but I still don’t feel even remotely confident configuring Etherchannel, PVLANs, VPC, TRILL, and all the other administrative jujuitsu an optimized virtual environment requires. The “network guys” at my company each have ten thousand or more pages of Cisco reference on each of their desks, and I am sure they do not feel a high degree of proficiency with these features.
Does the market expect the new generation of cloud architects to also be CCIE certified? I hope not. As I pointed out previously, in most of the other areas where we are expected to be competent these days, we are getting some help. There are even plenty of tools out there to help facilitate all the PowerShell and scripting we need to perform. But as the number one networking player, Cisco does not seem interested in making networking more accessible to already overburdened, hyper-qualified virtualization experts.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not looking for sympathy, and I don’t mean for this to come off as a Cisco bashing session. But unless we are able to increase our efficiency at the same rate we are increasing and diversifying our skill sets, this transition will be as tough on us as it will be for the old IT guard who are refusing to leave their silos. UCS Manager is a huge step in the right direction for Cisco. If they can bring that type of functionality to the network stack, they will only sell more products. Will they apply the same optimized method of management to the rest of their line? Or will they continue on their current track just to sell more books and bill more consulting hours for their partners?
Welcome Kelly Culwell!
Solution Architect, InterWorks
A few years ago, I attended a VMware classroom training session (I think it was VI 3 ICM) and learned a lot. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the name of the instructor, but he included a bit of wisdom that I will carry with me always, and that is the six Ps … P’s … Pees … what have you. Prior Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance. In some cases, the final two become Pissed-off People. While this principle is applicable to every aspect of life, not just IT, it becomes crucial when planning the implementation of a virtualized environment.
I’ve talked about this concept many times before, and I think some of my co-workers are repeating it now as well. You wouldn’t try to build a house without considering the foundation, the frame, the wiring, and the roof, so why would your infrastructure or the core of your business be any different? I don’t know how many times I’ve looked at a new client or some other environment and immediately seen the effects of over-provisioning, or improper provisioning, of their resources. Now don’t get me wrong–I am by no means claiming to be an expert on anything, but I’m good at some things, and I relate a lot of my experiences to my day-to-day grind. The purpose of this post is simply to make people think.