Normally Microsoft licensing can cause some headaches to get it right, but how is Microsoft licensing defined in a virtual environment. A new area where desktops can run. A number of sources are available on the web. And Microsoft has published a Licensing Guide on their website. Better known as VECD Licensing or Windows Vista Enterprise Centralized Desktop Licensing for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure.

Source: Blog of Quest’s Provision Networks Division, Microsoft VECD Licensing Guide

Received email from our VMware contact in the Netherlands that VMware has collaborated with Cisco to produce a guide for deploying VMware Infrastucture 3 with Cisco switches. This guide covers the physical and virtual data network and storage network deployment considerations for ESX Server with suggested topologies and designs.

Source:  VMware Best Practrices & Resources, Deployment GUIDE PDF

IBM announced on june 10th the SAS Connectivity Card (CFFv) 43W3974 which at the date of announce is compatible with the HS21 XM and HS12. It is a low-cost alternative to the SAS Expansion Card (CFFv) 39Y9190.

But, what is the difference ?

IBM Top Gun training is designed to increase sales, solutions, competitive and technical skills for I/T Industry professionals. The program uses a popular "Top Gun" format involving unique class themes, stimulating lectures, stand-up exercises, hands-on labs, quizzes, and product demonstrations.

Top Gun training is for sales and solution specialists, IBM Business Partners, eSM's, client reps, telemarketing personnel or anyone who spends a significant amount of their time selling, marketing, and supporting IBM eServer, TotalStorage and Software products and solutions.

Look at the Top Gun schedules and sign up !!

Source:  IBM Field Education - Top Gun

IBM Systems Director Virtual Availability Manager^TM V1.1, an extension of IBM Director, provides a simplified availability solution for customers using Xen-based virtualization. Virtual Availability Manager can be used to help manage and respond to planned and unplanned system outages, leveraging virtual server checkpoint/restart and mobility to avoid or recover from virtual server and host system failures.

It predicts and reacts to server hardware failures before they occur and reacts to unplanned host system and virtual server failures. Virtual Availability Manager then takes actions as defined within simplified high availability policies. The Management server runs on AIX®, Windows on x86 platforms, Linux® on x86 and Power^TM Systems, managing the availability of Xen virtualized host systems.

Now you can try this software 90 at no charge

We normally connect our servers running VMware to Storage by Fibre Channel because we think it has the best performance and uptime characteristics. For some time now the N Series has a better way to connect your VMware environment.....that is through NFS.

Save money but not using Fibre Channel at all on your N Series. The Fibre Channel protocol is emulated on the N Series and therefore you'll understand that FC can be slower than NFS.   But a more pleasent reason for using NFS is to save 50 + % diskspace compared to FC when cloning.

Ask your local N Series representative for the "VMware on NFS" information and beat the competition by far (in price and performance).

Source:  Virtual Optics BLOG, N Series and VMware 3, NetApp Blog, InformationWeek

A new copper pass thru module for BladeCenter has announced shortly. Information on that module can be found on the ServerPROVEN compatibility pages HERE and HERE.

It has NO external break-out cables as there are 14 external ports in the module itself, support for SOL (when in bay 1) and cKVM (when in bay 1).  Similar function suite as existing IBM SCM.  Setup/statistics works through the Advanced Management Module GUI or CLI.

Source: SSCT, ServerPROVEN, BladeCenter Product Page & IBM PLET

A recent addition to the Standalone Solutions Caonfiguration Tool is the option to be notified when a new version has arrived.

As of today a new version can be found. Just click on the Download button in the popup screen.

InternetNews reported that Sun Microsystems today announced it has licensed its UltraSparc T2 CMT (chip multi-threading) processor, a.k.a. Niagara 2, to Themis Computer, a maker of blade systems for the embedded market.  Direct link is @ Themis Product page

Does this mean we will see a UltraSparc blade into the IBM BladeCenter chassis, as Themis is also licensee of the BladeCenter chassis !!!

PINS, a leading Dutch Hosting Provider, announced that it has entered into a partnership with Q-layer. The partnership will allow PINS to launch a Virtual Private DataCenter solution, based on the datacenter virtualization technology from Q-layer and using the ESX server virtualization technology from VMware.

For a limited time registered users of xAnalisys.com can benefit from this partnership as PINS can offer you a try & buy of this solution.   All you have to do is sent an email to PINS and mention that you are a registered user of x4live.com / xAnalisys.com

The heart of the QS22 is a new processor compliant with the Cell Broadband Engine™ (Cell/B.E.) Architecture, originally developed by IBM, Sony and Toshiba to provide the computing power for cutting-edge gaming applications. And for the most challenging arithmetic operations, this new processor, the IBM PowerXCell™ 8i, offers five-times the speed of the original Cell/B.E. processor.

As we probably know this processor has been designed by a dutchmen !!

We know that the gigahertz race is over and that we will have a different design of microprocessors in a few years time. And memory will be the part of the system that will hold the most space on a motherboard.  Power consumption will be a very 'hot' issue. And so on, and so on.

During the technical conference in Sevilla (april 08) a group of people with extensive knowledge on IBM BladeCenter had a meeting and discussed the next waves of blades..... things like incorporating the solid state disks, hot-swap disks or rather diskless, the number of memory dimms on one blade, the chassis, the next fibre channel and ethernet standards.

IBM wants to know what your needs are in terms of the specs of the next blade.  Sent an email to your local representative or contact me directly.    This is your chance to speak out.

World Environment Day, commemorated each year on 5 June, is one of the principal vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action.

The World Environment Day slogan for 2008 is Kick the Habit! Towards a Low Carbon Economy. Recognising that climate change is becoming the defining issue of our era, UNEP is asking countries, companies and communities to focus on greenhouse gas emissions and how to reduce them. The World Environment Day will highlight resources and initiatives that promote low carbon economies and life-styles, such as improved energy efficiency, alternative energy sources, forest conservation and eco-friendly consumption.

The main international celebrations of World Environment Day 2008 will be held in New Zealand. UNEP is honoured that the city of Wellington will be hosting this United Nations day (read the press release).

Source: United Nations Environment Programme

IBM said it's planning to launch a global, online marketplace for software applications under a plan it's calling the Blue Business Platform.

Three key components of Blue Business Platform were unveiled today at the Business Partner Leadership Conference in Los Angeles:

1. IBM is opening up their powerful Application Integration Toolkit to all Business Partners, giving them immediate access to a set of standard interfaces to simplify installation of applications, systems management and online services for SMB clients.
2. IBM is launching a new Global Application Marketplace to provide a convenient nexus for Business Partner offerings targeting the SMB market.
3. and they are announcing a new IBM product for small businesses: Lotus Foundation Start, a pre-loaded server that can launch a small business in less than 30 minutes with e-mail, security, back-up and recovery and other collaboration software.

More components of Blue Business Platform will be introduced through 2008. All will share the same guiding principle: putting powerful IT into the hands of SMB clients in very simple ways.  Ask your local IBM representative for additional information.

Source:  CNN Marketwire, InformationWeek, CRN/ChannelWeb , Google Alert on blue+business+platform

We know by now that a lot of services and systems will become or already are virtual. And now Q-Layer has introduced the Virtual Private DataCenter.

With the Q-layer’s Virtual Private DataCenter (VPDC), service providers can offer their customers a “self-service” ability to build, provision and manage a private datacenter without the pains of buying, installing and configuring their own hardware and software. Instead of buying racks, servers or storage devices, the customer buys a pool of CPU power, memory, storage capacity and network capacity. The customer will use the acquired resources to setup his own (virtual) datacenter, including servers and storage, without touching any physical machine.

Source: Q-Layer VPDC, VMWorld Video, VPDC Demo