Category emc

I couldn’t think of a better way to publish my schedule… so I’ve instead opted for this blog post!

I think I’m gonna be hardpressed to find time to step out of everything going on, but I’ll see what kind of flexibility exists!

The official “Agenda” which was delivered to me stated this:

Times: M & W 8-5pm; Tu 8am-9pm; Th 8-6pm; F 8-2pm

Considering I’ll be shuttled to the Airport at noon on Friday, not much chance to do things then.   And as far as the other days.. here is my “unofficial” agenda I came across… :)

Sunday, Nov 8th – 6-7 Dinner, 7-930 “Storage Basics” class – So unless we’re doing something on a Sunday evening after 10!? Though if you want, I can bail on the Storage basics class and be available after 7PM on Sunday!

Monday, Nov 9th – 8-5 Training, 530 Bus to Boston, 6-7 Dinner (And I imagine a bus back? so this evening looks kind of set in stone a bit, not sure how flexible!)

Tuesday, Nov 10th -  8-4 Training, 4-??? Other Training (By the looks of above, it claims I’m busy until 9PM!? So that may be true…)

Wednesday, Nov 11th – 8-5 Training, 6-7 Dinner, and Evening is more training, so again, not sure if this is a possible day – but one thing to note: Franklin Facility Tour in the morning, and EBC tour as well!

Thursday, Nov 12th – 8-6 Training, 6-7 Dinner, and then it talks of “Evening” for some more training, so another unknown

Friday, Nov 13th – 8-2 Solid, and then off to airport – Again, too many unknowns..

If you have any suggestions or experience in the areas of the training I’ll be attending as to knowing when things will normally run to, and the liklihood of dinner or otherwise, I’m open to finding that out, else I may be out there – in the area, but no chance to actually meet/see any of you!@?

Either way, here is my schedule, published and available! :)

I remember in the early days of UCS, the competitive question on the table was “I don’t see why I’d want to do this, noone is using it” and I also imagine to hear that echoed here today.

So, who DOES think that this whole VCE coalition is a good idea? Is anyone willing to put their name against it? (Other than the CEO’s of 3 of the largest and best of breed innovative companies on the planet?)

Certainly, Steven Tally – CTO of Purdue University wouldn’t go on record saying:

“Purdue is a research university and the majority of our IT needs are spent on high-performance computing, which requires strong computing, massive amounts of storage, and high-speed networking fabric,” said Steven Tally, CTO of Purdue University.  “The Vblock solution offers these elements in a single pre-tested, pre-integrated solution which will be easier to deploy.  VMware, Cisco, and EMC are ideal partners to respond to this problem because they offer complementary tool sets and have a history of delivering good products in the market space.  When these solutions are tied together in a coherent and systematic way, it is very good news for an environment like Purdue.”

I mean, frankly that’d be ridiculous! That’s  because no one is obviously using this ‘untested’ ‘untrained’ and certainly ‘unplanned’ initiative of aligning three worldclass businesses together around efforts to improve the experience in data centers and making the private cloud a reality?   I frankly know of many other businesses leveraging VCE, as well as many getting ready to sign off on it, and thus I will not share that information until I have something external to reference on it (I do like keeping my job, kthx! ;))

Today was the big day! The launch of the Virtual Computing Environment coalition, also known as the VCE Initiative!

CNN Broke the news as far as the link to the Webinar would go, with announcements being made by:
John Chambers, chairman and CEO for Cisco
Joe Tucci, chairman and CEO for EMC Corp
Paul Maritz, president and CEO for VMware

There has been a lot of chatter about this, over the weekend and even moreso leading into this announcement, with some highlights:

The launch of Privatecloud.com is only the beginning in the mass of places to find out information and content on this amazing initative.

VCE Beats out IBM with Melbourne IT

Cisco and EMC, Together with VMware, Form Coalition to Accelerate Pervasive Virtualization and Private Cloud Infrastructures

In unveiling the Virtual Computing Environment coalition, Cisco and EMC also introduced Acadia, a joint venture focused on accelerating customer build-outs of private cloud infrastructures through an end-to-end enablement of service providers and large enterprise customers. Acadia’s unique “build, operate, transfer” model for delivering the Vblock architecture, addressing people, process and technology, will offer customers further choice, flexibility and cost advantages as they seek to virtualize their IT infrastructures and evolve to private cloud environments. In addition to Cisco and EMC as the lead investors, the build-out of Acadia’s expanded capabilities in 2010 has also been capitalized by investments from VMware and Intel. Because the Vblock architecture relies heavily on Intel Xeon® processors and other Intel data center technology, Intel will join the Acadia effort as a minority investor to facilitate and accelerate customer adoption of the latest Intel technology for servers, storage, and networking.

Cisco, EMC, and VMware join hands and plunge into cloud: Acadia, the power of three

In fact, many partners – both systems integrators, and service providers have all started lining up behind Vblocks.    Here are just a few examples:

Most of the vCloud Express launch partners are using the VCE coalition, and want to move forward with a formal Vblock model.   Examples are Terremark, Alphawest, Savvis, Orange and SunGard. (Thanks for this Chad!)

Virtual Compute Environment – an insider’s take.

Virtual Compute Environment – Vblock Partner Ecosystem

Virtual Compute Announcement – Integrated Sales/Service/Support

Virtual Compute Environment – Solutions Venture and Investment

Virtual Compute Environment – Technology Innovations

Also, looks like there is some Twitter presence too! So, represent! @privatecloudcom

Today, is quite an exciting day, and while all of this is high level, I’d be glad to go into much more depth about this – something I’m sure many of those linked and referenced here can say and do the same.   This is not intended to be a tutorial, but an advisory of what’s new, where to go, and I’ll have separate blog posts to go into the details :) It’s an exciting day! :)

Welcome to the ix4-200d! This single device is a life changer for both the active home user as well as the SOHO business user who wants to take things to the NEXT Level!

If you’re not familiar with this little beast in a box, here are some of the high-lights which this brings to bear!   NFS, CIFS, iSCSI, AFP Support, BitTorrent client, Xbox Media Services, Printer, USB, Rsync, Celerra integration, dual gigabit Ethernet?!   Oh, and did I mention it’s –VMware- Certified out of the box?!?

Now, seriously! Let’s take a tour of this little system which has taken quite a step or integration in my household!

When I first powered this system up, it sat there for awhile without me doing anything to it.  Why? This thing is SILENT! I forgot I had powered it up, and as a result didn’t even bother to check what the IP address was that it assigned itself!   Well, out of the box, it came with a RAID protection I was fine with! I had options to change it, but I’m comfortable with it!

Frankly, this covers most of what you need to do with the device and you’re set! –Done!- But that doesn’t mean you need to stop there!

Most of the features in this unit can be configured by simply checking a box and poof! You’re done!

I have mine configured in the following fashion: AFP for my Macbook to backup, NFS and iSCSI for my ESX Servers, CIFS for local network file access, Media Services to interface with my Xbox360 to stream content and pictures, rsync Server to strangely replicate the box between this ix4 and an ix2 as well as to replicate over to the Celerra VSA :)   (Oh, and the Avamar Virtual Edition running in a VM backing up all of my home machines while taking up far less space with inline deduplication :))

I don’t have Video Surveillance enabled yet, but it’s nice to know the integration is built in there! (Printers also nice, but this lives in a closet, so I’m not sure I want to do that :))

So, hopefully you get the opportunity to play around with this power house in a box, and with the ix2-200d offering the same services (but with less disks and less IOPS) Oh, and if you’re interested in buying one, it’d help if you knew the “retail” costs!

So, that gives you an idea of “retail” cost, now I’d say, go to Fry’s and try not to pay more than $599.99 for the 4TB model (Fry’s is your friend! ;))

For another great review of this, check out Stephen Foskett’s review!

Do you like SharePoint or Exchange? (Or use it, or plan to use it, or want to know information about SharePoint 2010?) This is the seminar for you!

Is your SharePoint environment Secure? (Or even your Exchange environment) and are you looking for solutions around that? Check out what RSA has to say! (RSA Invented security, right?!)

I welcome you to join us for Lunch and content here in Lisle, IL at the EMC Offices! (I will be there, so I can see what RSA has to offer in conjunction with the Microsoft solutions, not to mention checking out the latest happenings on SharePoint 2010 – Yes, I know a lot around SharePoint, but I love it when someone knowledgeable gets up there and evangelizes on it!

A few things clipped from the invite, such as the products covered (Exchange, booyah!) and the ‘intended audience’ If I’m reading that correctly, that’s almost everyone in IT ;)

Featured Products/Topics: Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, Microsoft Exchange Server 2010

Recommended Audiences: Technology Executives, IT Managers, CEO, CIO, CFO, IT Directors, Administrators, Business Decision Maker, Technical Decision Makers

Thursday, October 29
EMC Office
4225 Naperville Road, Ste 500 Lisle, IL 60532
10:30 am. – 1:30 p.m.
Space is limited, reserve your place now!

If you want an email invite, let me know and I can shoot one off to you! (I will be attendance!)