Archive for category Cloud Computing

Virtualization and Storage Presentations at TEC 2012

Feb 10

Posted by Anil Desai in Cloud Computing, Management, Microsoft Hyper-V, Presentations, Storage, Virtualization, Windows 8 | No Comments

It’s still a few months away, but I’ll be presenting at two storage-related presentations in the Virtualization and Cloud track at The Experts Conference (TEC) 2012 in San Diego, CA. Below are the abstracts. For more information about the conference, please visit the TEC 2012 Conference web site.

Storage Improvements in Windows Server 8 / Hyper-V 3.0

Virtualization architects and administrators have long sought quicker, simpler and more cost effective ways to scale and manage storage in their data centers. Microsoft has made many significant improvements in the architecture and storage features of Hyper-V 3.0 and the Windows Server 8 platform. Examples include support for SMB-based virtual disks, management UI improvements, network stack improvements, Hyper-V Replicas, NTFS reliability improvements, incremental VHD backups, storage de-duplication, offloaded data transfer, SMB protocol improvements, and Storage Spaces. These features can help improve storage management for many different types of virtualization deployments and can help bring the idea of cloud-based automation closer to reality.

This session will focus on technical details and demonstrations of new features in the Windows Server 8 platform and in Hyper-V 3.0. The focus will be on practical suggestions for how and when the new features should be used to reduce costs, simplify administration, and increase performance.

Designing Storage for Virtual Environments

One of the most common issues related to virtual infrastructure design is related to planning for and managing the storage environment. Successful SAN, NAS, and local storage deployments require the provisioning of highly-reliable, high-performance, cost-effective solutions to meet business and technical needs. The challenge for IT is in consolidating and optimizing infrastructures while staying within budgets. The primary concerns – including storage capacity, performance, and reliability – can drive the success or failure of virtualized deployments.

This presentation begins with recommendations for designing a storage environment based on requirements, starting with a solid understanding of application workload characteristics. Strategies for collecting storage statistics through historical and real-time performance monitoring can provide valuable insight into real requirements. Based on this data, IT departments can compare different storage approaches, including centralized network-based storage, and cloud-based options. Important features to consider include file- and block-level de-duplication, thin provisioning, high-availability, clustering, and disaster recovery. Attendees will learn methods by which they can best plan for, implement, manage, and monitor storage for virtualization in their own environments.

BrightTALK Webcast: Managing VM Sprawl: [Re]gaining Control of Your Data Center

Jan 4

Posted by Anil Desai in Best Practices, Cloud Computing, Management, Presentations, Virtualization, Webcasts | No Comments

I hope the New Year is off to a good start for everyone! For many data center administrators, the tasks related to supporting a wide variety of virtual machines and related infrastructure is going to take a lot of time and resources. To help address some of the chaos, I’ll be presenting a free webcast titled Managing VM Sprawl: [Re]gaining Control of Your Data Center at the upcoming BrightTALK Virtualization Conference. The presentation will take place on January 11, 2012. Here’s an overview of the topic:

As virtual machines have become the default method of deploying new applications and services many organizations have found that they’re encountering the problem of “VM Sprawl” – the rapid proliferation of VMs that make management difficult.

In this presentation, you’ll learn:

Common causes of VM sprawl and how to address them

Specific technical administration issues that are unique to virtual machines

Methods of managing a VM’s “life cycle”, from initial deployment to retirement

Ways to maintain control of data center resources while also allowing for end-user self-service

Ways in which automation can help manage the major causes of VM sprawl

This online conference provides a wide variety of different presentations, so be sure to check out information about the Virtualization Summit and register for the event.

TechNet Radio Community Corner: Virtualization with Microsoft MVP Anil Desai

Nov 16

Posted by Anil Desai in Cloud Computing, General, Microsoft Hyper-V, Presentations, Virtualization, Webcasts | No Comments

I often enjoy talking with other technical professionals about the path of IT (in general) and about new or upcoming technology (the geeky details). I’m happy to have had the opportunity to appear as a guest on a recent TechNet Radio Community Corner. In the ~15-minute conversation, we discussed information about supporting the IT community, the current and future state of virtualization (including directions of Hyper-V and System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM)).

Here’s some brief information about this episode, titled TechNet Radio Community Corner: Virtualization with Microsoft MVP Anil Desai:

In today’s Community Corner, Sr. IT Pro Evangelist John Weston interviews Microsoft Virtualization MVP, Anil Desai to the show. Tune in as they discuss cloud computing’s impact to IT, System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012, as well as the relationship between Virtualization and Private Cloud solutions.

Special thanks to Chris Caldwell and John Weston for inviting me and for a fun conversation! For more shows and episodes of related shows, visit the TechNet Edge web site.

TEC 2011: Virtualization Approaches and Storage Presentations

Mar 30

Posted by Anil Desai in Cloud Computing, Presentations, Storage, Virtualization | No Comments

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m scheduled to speak at The Experts Conference 2011 in Las Vegas (April 17 – 20, 2011). I’ll be giving two presentations in TEC’s new Virtualization and Cloud track. My sessions abstracts are below. In addition, Session Abstracts for each of the tracks and the Conference Agenda are now available online. Let me know if you plan to attend or if there’s anything you’d like to see me cover (either in the presentations or on this blog).

Storage Considerations for Virtualization

Key considerations related to successful virtualization deployments revolve around provisioning highly-reliable, cost-effective solutions to meet business and technical needs. The challenge for IT is in consolidating and optimizing infrastructures while staying within budgets. The primary concerns – including storage capacity, performance, and reliability – can drive the success or failure of virtualized deployments.

This presentation begins with recommendations for designing a storage environment based on business and technical requirements and a solid understanding of application workload requirements. Strategies for collecting storage statistics through historical and real-time performance monitoring can provide valuable insight into real requirements. Based on this data, IT departments can compare different storage approaches, including centralized network-based storage, and cloud-based options. Important features to consider include data de-duplication, thin provisioning, high-availability, clustering, and disaster recovery. Attendees will learn methods by which they can best plan for, implement, manage, and monitor storage for virtualization in their own environments.

Evaluating Virtualization Approaches

The term "virtualization" can apply to a broad range of varying technologies, ranging from storage to networks to servers to applications. The primary goal of these approaches is to simplify management, increase efficiency, allow for scalability, and meet reliability requirements. With recent improvements in virtualization technology, the challenge for IT professionals is in deciding which approaches are the most relevant, given specific requirements.

The focus of this presentation is on understanding the technology behind various virtualization approaches, including presentation-, application-, session-, user state-, desktop-, and server-virtualization. The topic will begin with information on understanding business, technical, and service requirements. These details will then be used to compare a wide variety of different approaches to solving common IT problems. Attendees will receive information that will help them choose which approaches make sense in their own environments.

Virtualization and Storage Presentations at The Experts Conference

Feb 17

Posted by Anil Desai in Cloud Computing, Presentations, Storage, Virtualization | No Comments

I’m currently scheduled to speak on two topics at The Experts Conference 2011 in Las Vegas (April 17 – 20, 2011). The conference has tracks that focus on Directory Services, Exchange, SharePoint, and Virtualization.

The two topics I’m planning to present are tentatively titled Storage Considerations for Virtualization and Evaluating Virtualization Approaches. I’ll post more details and abstracts here as the conference gets closer.

Mozy Support Nightmares: A Cloudy Forecast for Online Storage and Backups?

Feb 17

Posted by Anil Desai in Cloud Computing, General, Networking, Storage | 5 Comments

Over the last year, I have been frequently asked write and speak about storage and cloud-based service offerings. Remote storage is a compelling technology for consumers and IT departments, and it’s a good starting point for those that might be interested in dipping their toes (or heads) into the more-ethereal-than-Ethernet “cloud”.

Trouble in Cloud City

Several years ago, I wrote a blog post about the virtues and benefits of online backups (see Online Backup Options). Since then, I have recommended cloud-based storage (and, Mozy, in particular) to a rather large number of IT professionals, friends, and family. The idea itself is compelling: Online backups have the potential of simplifying the backup process for most users, while providing secure remote storage. But what happens when something goes wrong? Or if you just have a technical question?

I don’t often highlight specific companies for poor customer service – it’s almost to be expected from many organizations these days – but a recent interaction I had with Mozy’s Customer Support has ended in my completely giving up on trying to resolve what should have been a very simple issue. Without getting into the technical specifics, I have been trying to perform backups of Encrypting File System (EFS)-encrypted local files to the cloud. From the latest information I could find, Mozy supports both local and online backups of EFS encrypted files. That wasn’t my experience, though – I received cryptic error messages and overall backup failures. So, I decided to contact Mozy’s Customer Support, creating a case that included my log files and a detailed description of the problem.

A Little Rain Must Fall…

In summary: It has been over two weeks now, and after three escalations, I’m no closer to resolving the problem. Just about every response I have sent to Mozy (along with requests for escalation) have been ignored. In fact, a US Escalations Customer Support Manager has barely managed to feign any interest in my issue at all. An hour-long phone call with a Level 2 Customer Support technician resulted in his disabling of several necessary services on my primary Windows 7 workstation (I had to keep records of this so I could reverse the changes myself), and poring through log files that provided little useful information. The response to my most recent request for support has been a request for me to (again) restate the original problem (it’s thoroughly documented in their support system – I just can’t get anyone to read it). I do plan to escalate this issue to the Director- or VP-level at Mozy as I somehow hopeful that someone at the organization will care.

Cloud Compatibility

One of the most promising aspects of cloud-based service offerings is a reduction in complexity. Rather that relying on complicated application deployments (the story goes), we can leave all of the details to services that are provided off-site. But what about support and compatibility issues? What happens when two or more cloud services vendors decide that their services are incompatible? My case with Mozy might be that type of issue, though it doesn’t seem like there’s any official documentation or support boundaries related to which products can peacefully co-exist on the same system with it and which options are supported. And what if the vendor decides that features and functionality I require aren’t important to them? Sure, I could run into the same problems with local applications, but workarounds are far easier to find when I control both communication endpoints.

Risk Mitigation

I understand that I’m hardly the first person to suffer from poor technical support, but this experience has made me reconsider the risks of cloud-based services in general. I’m hardly an important customer for Mozy, but I am paying for their service and I really do rely on the sanctity of my backups. My typical response to organizations that doubt the cloud is to first compare the reliability of their own datacenter infrastructure against that of an online service provider’s. However, in this case, I’m completely stuck – I either need to reduce security at my file system level, discontinue the use of Mozy (and transfer 25 GB of data to a competing service), or revert to local backups.

All Eggs in One Cloud?

As the entire world moves to a greater reliance on Internet connections and online services, it becomes harder to create fall-back plans and alternatives. It’s simply not practical or cost-effective to expect your service providers to fail you. What’s the point in online backups if I need to have a backup plan for my online backup provider?

That makes me curious: Who else has had a recent experience that has questioned their value in hosted services? Was it downtime, client application issues, availability, poor customer support, or all of the above? And how safe do you feel when your mission-critical IT infrastructure is resting on clouds?

AnilDesai.net

Virtualization, IT Management, .NET and SQL Server Development