Cloud computing is supposed to save us all tons of dough. You do away with your
servers, disks, interconnects and air conditioners, and run all your software
over the wire from a cloud. You presumably save on hardware, energy and management.
But cloud services don't magically configure themselves or keep themselves
up-to-date. Some, like BitCurrent analyst Alistair Croll (I imagine Alistair
with a pipe, a smoking jacket and a shelf full of dusty old books), believe
it can actually be more
difficult and expensive to manage this remote software. Not only will admins
have to administer this software, but their companies may add more and more
applications to the mix -- increasing complexity and admin time.
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Posted by Doug Barney on September 22, 20080 comments
Doug may be sad to see the Gates-Seinfeld commercials go, but James thinks the
whole endeavor was a failure from the get-go:
I saw the first commercial and thought, "Wow, that has to be the
lamest commercial I have ever seen! They should fire whichever agency sold
'em that load of crap." Then I saw the second commercial and I realized
why Vista sucks so bad. It's because Microsoft has a bunch of morons working
for it. If it can't see how lame those commercials were, they should all be
fired and bring in some people with enough sense to say, "Hey, those
commercials suck, let's go hire that company that made the Apple ads. At least
they have a sense of humor."
Now I hear that Microsoft is scrapping the Seinfeld commercials because
they "accomplished what they wanted," which I guess was proving
that MS is out of touch with reality. OK, so tell me another one. More like
Microsoft finally saw that people were only laughing at how ridiculous its
commercials were, especially compared to the Apple commercials (I thought
the latest one with PC in the pizza box was the best one so far). If MS doesn't
pull their collective heads out of their behinds, they are going to end up
digging such a deep hole, they will never be able to climb out of it.
-James
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Posted by Doug Barney on September 22, 20080 comments
I admit I was
pretty
rough
on the first Gate/Seinfeld video. In fact, I thought Bill was way
funnier than Jerry. I hope the ad whizzes at Microsoft didn't take too much
of that to heart and that critics like me aren't the reason there will be
no
more episodes
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Posted by Doug Barney on September 22, 20080 comments
One reader is optimistic about VMware's
virtualization
ambitions
:
A Datacenter Operating System? I think that'd be wonderful if implemented
correctly. From my experience, most datacenters have a tendency to have a
server per application to ensure the reliability of that application and that
multiple applications won't tread on each other's territory. It also makes
it easier to plan upgrades, patches and new releases.
With everything running under a virtual environment, we open up a new
possibility. If all you are going to run is a Web server, then why not have
an OS that is designed from the ground-up to be a Web server? You could have
the same for a file server or a print server. I know that Windows Server 2008
has headed in this direction by only installing the roles needed, but there
is probably still a LOT of unnecessary code that allows this one OS to be
everything to everyone. Without this extra code, the OS would run much faster
and would be much easier to secure. I think the time is right for someone
to develop operating systems that are designed from the ground-up to maximize
the benefits of a virtual environment.
-T.W.
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Posted by Doug Barney on September 18, 20080 comments
All week, the financial news has been bleak. Lehman Brothers saying uncle,
stocks falling faster than a base jumper, the doom-and-gloom analysts getting
unlimited air time...
But I was living in a different world. At VMworld, there were some 10,000 customers
looking to transform their shops, over 200 third parties creating a brand-new
and vibrant market, and a company, VMware, looking to do revolutionary things
-- doing it all with a fair bit a class and savvy.
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Posted by Doug Barney on September 18, 20080 comments
Everyone, it seems, is trying to crash VMware's big VMworld party. Microsoft's
shenanigans this week are well-documented, but Citrix (also a pioneer in thin
client computing) made some noise, too -- right in VMware's back yard: Citrix
unveiled
server virtualization tool XenServer 5.
Some have questioned Citrix's commitment to XenServer given that the company
is so close to Microsoft and such a fan of Hyper-V. Perhaps XenServer 5 will
help answer that question. New features focus on monitoring, disaster recovery
and more options for third-party programs.
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Posted by Doug Barney on September 18, 20080 comments
Sun is one of the pioneers, if not the pioneer, in thin client computing. While
the "Network Computer" that Scott McNealy and Larry Ellison talked
about for years never quite materialized, the Sun Ray line is a very effective
thin solution.
But just as Sun made up with Microsoft, it apparently isn't religious about
thin client and other virtual tools. This week, in fact, Sun agreed
to sell and support VMware's Virtual Desktop Infrastructure and Virtual
Desktop Manager.
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Posted by Doug Barney on September 18, 20080 comments
In a Q&A session, Maritz was asked about support for non-VMware hypervisors.
He said, "At this point in time, we don't support hypervisors other than
our own," adding that VMware isn't religious about hypervisors and it would
consider it if there was enough demand.
After private conversations, it's clear that the door is open for other hypervisors.
The trouble is in doing things like VMotion with Hyper-V et al. that are so
easily accomplished with ESX.
Posted by Doug Barney on September 17, 20080 comments
Readers talk browsers -- specifically, why Firefox trumps IE, and whether Netscape
died a natural death:
I don't know what you don't like about Firefox. I find it fast, intuitive,
extensible and easy to use. Granted, I've been in on this session since 1982;
I've seen EVERY version of IE. I've seen everything that IE can possibly do
and I am not happy with IE. I only use IE because of some Web sites, like
the educational system's Web site. Otherwise, I do everything else in Firefox.
If I had to choose just one feature of Firefox that I rely on most, it's
the infinite zoom feature.
-Ari
Netscape definetely died. Take a look at Firefox (well, it's free). It's
still gaining momentum over IE, and now Chrome is doing its part. If Netscape
would've offered a very compelling reason to stick with it, it would be alive.
But I'm sure it would be as freeware.
I think Microsoft did a good job (even tough, unconsciously) in making the
market for the Web browsers at no cost. I don't think paying for such a piece
of software would've improved the security and quality.
-Armando
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Posted by Doug Barney on September 17, 20080 comments
While Microsoft has a series of discrete tools for servers, PCs, applications
and management, VMware is now
talking
about
what it calls a Datacenter Operating System. If that wasn't bold enough,
this OS (well, it's not really an OS) handles computers, networks and storage
(not sure how Cisco and NetApp feel about all that).
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Posted by Doug Barney on September 17, 20080 comments
New VMware CEO Paul Maritz stood in front of a crowd of (I'd have to guess)
thousands and, like Sarah Palin,
gave
the speech
of his life. What's the difference between a former VMware CEO
and a pitbull? Lipstick. And if you put lipstick on Hyper-V, it's still Hyper-V.
No, Maritz really didn't say any of those things. In fact, that's probably
the lamest joke I've ever penned (send barbs my way at [email protected]).
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Posted by Doug Barney on September 17, 20080 comments
Based on the aforementioned Michael's reaction, the second Seinfeld-Gates commercial
is already
more
successful than the first
:
In case you haven't seen it yet, here
is the next installment. It's on YouTube. I was crying about 30 seconds in.
That grandmother is hilarious.
-Michael
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Posted by Doug Barney on September 16, 20080 comments