Last week I came across a hardware configuration requested ad-hoc by a customer to support their VMware VI3 setup. The hardware, an IBM System x 3950 M2 4-way (I know it's not yet generally available at the date), was configured with as many as 5 quad-port 10/100/1000 Ethernet adapters which in total would account for …

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"I need to setup a VI3 solution. Which CPU should I choose from a performance perspective? Intel or AMD?". I have heard this ad nauseam. If I was to get one single cent for every thread discussion I have seen on the net regarding the matter... I would be a billionaire. I have my opinion on the matter and I …

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A few days ago Microsoft released Release Candidate 0 for Windows Server 2008. Apparently, in a last minute rush before the final RC0 build was "cooked", they wanted to give the industry a taste of how Windows Server Virtualization (aka Viridian) will look like. I took the opportunity to get the build and …

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Last week, at VMworld 2007 in San Francisco, VMware announced ESX 3i. There have been lots of speculations within the virtualization community about what ESX 3i would have looked like. And now it's here. So what (really) is this thing and what does it mean for the industry? I personally think that 3i is a good …

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It's interesting that up until a year ago many people were showing their AMD tattoos claiming that Opteron was king of the hill and Intel was going nuts. Nowadays all these people seem to wear very nice shirts that hide these tattoos as there seems to be a consensus now that Intel, backed by their immense R&D …

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For those interested the Session ID is WV27 and the title is "Virtual Appliances and the New Data Center - Changing the Rules" The bad news is that there is going to be a partner on stage (IBM). The good news is that I won't be trying to sell you anything ... :-) Joking aside, this year I thought it would …

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A few days ago I was with a Business Partner at an event where one of the customers presented their own consolidation projects. This was not a shocking presentation for me as I have seen many customers moving from a physical environment to a virtual environment and get very excited about that (more flexibility, …

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It is my feeling that there has been a bit of confusion lately around how hypervisors are being positioned by the various vendors. I am specifically referring to the three major technologies that seem to be the most relevant strategically going forward: VMware ESX Microsoft Viridian Xen VMware ESX is the VMware …

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I recently bumped into a new idea that is "Employee Owned PC". Brian Madden made a very good article on the concept here: I like the idea. I have been working on this SBC (Server Based Computing) thing for so long and recently I have been looking into this VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure).... and, other …

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"Now that Microsoft is coming out with their own enterprise virtualization software who's going to buy VMware products any more?". How many times have I heard that? Let me first be very clear before you ever start reading this post: I have a Microsoft background and I have built my own career on that. On the …

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