VMware brings app delivery to the web

We live in an app-centric world now. If you use a smart phone you probably have spent time searching the app store for the latest new app. Then you go to work and open up Word or Excel or Outlook to get your work done. Users are less and less interested in the operating system and more on how well their app will work on it. With that in mind, VMware announced the tech preview of AppBlast.

VMware takes Cloud Contracts globally

VMware has made steps to make the public cloud a much more dynamic system. VMware Global Connect is a partnering agreement between vCloud DataCenter certified vendors that will allow a customer to use all of their services with a single contract. Adding vCloud Connector into the mix will allow a customer to migrate systems from a private cloud to a local vCloud Datacenter provider.  VMware now has 7 global providers approved as vCloud Datacenter providers.  The vCloud DataCenter certification means that a vendor has built a full datacenter using a specific architecture that has been approved by VMware.  The Global Connect agreements provide shared SLA and reporting that is managed by the local provider but guaranteed regardless of the physical datacenter that the systems reside in.

UGGHH My calendar is messed up..How to fix it.

I have hated traveling to the west coast, not because of it being the west coast.  The weather is beautiful normally and people seem nice enough, but my calendars on my phone seem to be messed up all the time with the time zone changes.

I keep multiple calendars on my iPhone, my corporate exchange calendar and my GMail one being the most used.  It seemed as though everytime I would travel my time zones were off but only on some appointments.  I have found a few reasons for you to check.  You might need to try some or all of these and depending if you have “fixed” some appointments, you may need to put them back to the original.

What to do with the business cards you get…

If you are anything like me, when you travel around for meetings and conferences you end up collecting a stack of business cards and they never end up in my contacts.  You could go out and buy a CardScan scanner and scan them all in when you get back to your office, but in all reality who has the time.  Worry not, there is a solution out there for all of you with smartphones.  Welcome WorldCard Mobile.  I first came across Worldcard on my Windows Mobile phone a few years back and when I first switched to an iPhone I was disappointed it did not exist.  Lucky for you, times have changed and the development team has built iPhone and Android apps along with the Windows Mobile app.

Pre-Built Private Cloud: Is it Marketing or Innovation?

If you have been anywhere near a briefing from VMware, Citrix, or Microsoft in the past few years, you are well aware of what “the cloud” is.  You have probably already heard about the public cloud with the likes of Amazon and Google among others.  The newest additions to the cloud vernacular are the private and hybrid cloud.  The private cloud is where software companies like Citrix and VMware have developed solutions to allow an enterprise to keep their data secure, but still get the commodity model that has been advertised to their users in the consumer space. The hybrid model is the utopian integration and flexibility between the public and private cloud environments. As I sat through the second session of the Blogger Reality Show, which was focused on Converged Systems, it occurred to me that like so many pre-built platforms these days, the HP CloudSystem is exactly what the private cloud was envisioned as.  Then the thoughts of all the other hardware vendors starting sneaking in and I got to thinking about what is really included in these hardware offerings. Are we seeing a revolution in the way that IT equipment is purchased or are we just seeing marketing spin by a few vendors that have joined forces to sell the solutions that are already available.

HP: The Legos of enterprise IT

Security breaches from lost laptops, consumerization of enterprise IT, and a slowed economy have all been factors forcing current CIOs and IT staffs to find ways to cut costs and increase efficiencies. Virtual desktops while often one of my primary topics has become just one of the many pieces of the puzzle. The others include but are certainly not limited to the server infrastructure, networking equipment, enterprise storage and all the components that allow them to run, both physically with cabling, cooling and power, but also virtually, with management consoles and user interfaces.

Over the past two years, almost every major vendor in the IT industry has come up with a new fancy name to say that they are combining all the components needed to run your enterprise. Acadia was a collaboration from EMC, VMware and Cisco which later became VCE, Netapp was soon to follow with the Flexpod. Both of these are great solutions and are clearly geared at the large enterprise that buys in bulk. They both allow you to control the storage as part of a solution that includes the servers and even includes hooks into the virtual infrastructure. However, they also come with a cost, and a large one since you have to buy the units as a full configuration all at once.

What a ride 2011 has been…Time for the next contest

Throughout your career things seem to ebb and flow, with hills and valleys along the way.  For me 2011 so far has been a fast winding downhill road.  Normally people look at the downhill as the bad part and that you want to be at the top of the mountain, but since the beginning of the summer when I got the new Motorcycle I have learned to appreciate the long winding curves of a downhill road, knowing that the next challenge and uphill is around the turn waiting for me.  Sounds like a great epiphany right… So what brought this on?

How to Add your Twitter Name to your VMworld Registration

My company has a central point register employees for conferences so the same was true for VMworld. But I noticed that my twitter handle was not included and could not figure out exactly how to add it. After some searching and an email to VMWorld2011Registration@vmware-events.com I was able to figure it out. To save you all a little hassle, here’s a quick screenshot walk through that should help.

1. Go to http://www.vmworld.com and sign in

   

2. Enter whatever your VMworld.com username and password is

   

3. Click Register Now (I know you already did but this is how it works)

   

4. Select Your Conference Site then Click Submit

   

5. Click on Registration

   

6. Click on the Pencil Beside Contact Information

   

7. Scroll to the bottom and just above Emergency Contact Information you will see a Twitter Username Space. Enter your username including the “@”. If you leave off the @ it will not be on your badge.

   

8. Click Continue and you will be taken back to the Registration Information Screen.

All Done. Hope that helps everyone out. Please feel free to pass it along. Social Networking does not do much good if we aren’t social.