How did they do that?! By Aaron Sweemer published: Thursday, July 24 2008
This
morning I found myself watching one of those drug commercials we've
all come to know and make fun of. You know what I'm referring
to. Each one varies a bit but they're all basically the same.
This one was for a new medication that treats chronic diarrhea and it
opens with a very handsome guy mountain biking down an ocean front
cliff, the sun in his face, and the wind at his back. Angels
were singing and birds were chirping. The commercial ends with
total world peace and all the world leaders holding hands and singing
"Kum Ba Yah" around a perfect campfire. Awesome!
I need to get me some chronic diarrhea! Wait. Hold on.
How did they do that?!
As
I watch the Microsoft marketing engine shift into high gear, and as I
read various articles and posts scattered throughout the blogsphere
about the recent release of Hyper-V, I can't help but feel like I'm
watching the techie version of a drug commercial. I mean
seriously, for three years the Microsoft zombies have been holding
hands, surrounding the virtualization crop circles, eyes glazed over
and swaying side-to-side in perfect harmony, constantly repeating
their unmistakable mating call "hyyyperrrrrveeeeeeeeeee."
And now the mother ship has landed. The result? Phrases
like "Microsoft will eat VMware for lunch" and "VMware
will be dead in five years" and "VMware will be the next
Netscape" are a dime a dozen. Really? Awesome!
I need to get me some Hyper-V! Wait. Darn it, I
fell for it again! How did they do that?! And where are
my diarrhea pills?
Let
me clearly state that I'm actually not a Microsoft hater. I
write this article using Microsoft Word which is installed on my
Windows XP operating system, both of which I love. And my
Microsoft mouse ROCKS! It's got all sorts of cool buttons and
it lights up and it's shiny!!! Weeeeeee!
Don't
mistake my twisted humor as a full-on attack of Microsoft or of
Hyper-V, because it's really not. To be perfectly honest, in my
limited exposure to Hyper-V, I would say it's a half decent start for
a version 1.0 hypervisor. My intent really is to just cut
through the hype and the marketing spin surrounding it.
Let's
not lose sight of the real reasons we are virtualizing the in first
place. Sure, creating a virtual machine is fun and easy and the
lure of putting 30 VMs on a single physical machine is certainly
powerful. But creating a VM became possible almost 10 years ago
and server consolidation of this magnitude has been happening for at
least 3 or 4 years now.
Today,
the true power of virtualization is revealed at the management and
automation layer. With the proper platform and tools in place,
IT can actually take control of their infrastructure, becoming the
choreographers of a fantastic ballet of dancing VMs. And simply
being given the option to create a VM doesn't come close to
delivering on this promise. Rather, to achieve what we're
really looking for, we need a whole new set of management and
automation tools. We need a set of tools that are purposefully
built from the ground up, capitalizing on all the inherent properties
of a VM. And if you're just starting to virtualize, believe me
when I say you'll get here fast. Don't let anyone fool you into
thinking that you can wait for this type of management.
The
good news is that this is more than just a promise for many
companies, and it can be for you, too. Disaster recovery,
virtual lab automation, release management, provisioning
management, life cycle management ... VMware has virtualization
management and automation solutions that address all of these areas
(and more) and they're available today. Better still, they're
built around a hypervisor that's been in the data center for years,
not a few days.
It's
easy to get lost in the smoke and mirrors of phantom products and
even easier to choke on the exhaust of a marketing engine in full
throttle. So do your homework and make decisions based on solid
facts. And while this is a new frontier for all of us, VMware
isn't new to the game and they have very real virtualization
management solutions today. Why wait? You're missing out
and wasting a ton of money if you're waiting for the free version to
be "good enough." And really, I equate this to
waiting to see if my 80 year old grandma will be able to break
dance. Gosh darn it, it took her an hour just to stand up!
Regardless of what she
tells me, I just don't see her bustin' a move anytime soon.
Related Links:
Microsoft , Hyper-V , VMware , Aaron Sweemer Blog
 Aaron Sweemer is a 15 year IT industry veteran. His career began in
the data center as an intern at ARINC, while completing his
undergraduate degree at the University of Maryland. He soon found
himself with an invitation to join the prestigious BBN
Internetworking. And it was in this role where he the fortunate
opportunity
to help design massive, large scale networks that supported millions of
users and spanned multiple continents.
In 2003, living in Los Angeles and with a recently acquired MBA in
Technology Management, Aaron started an independent consulting
practice. And it was through the power of virtualization that allowed
him to successfully differentiate himself from other IT
consulting companies. Aaron was able to win clients and grow his
business by delivering very real, solid, highly valuable solutions
(like data center migrations and disaster recovery) while meeting tight
budgets and timelines.
Today, Aaron lives with his wife, son and four dogs in Cincinnati
where he works full time with VMware as a Senior Systems Engineer.
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