What I've Been Reading 2017-09-17 (Virtualization, Cloud, Automation, Security, Networking, IoT, Collaboration, OS, Productivity)
I hope you enjoyed my first summary which was all about VMworld 2017. For this summary, I am covering many different topics that are of interest to my customers and to me that I spent time researching this week. I hope you find this interesting and helpful.
- Virtualization
- VMworld 2017 Europe
- VMware on AWS Sizing/Pricing
- Why this is interesting: AWS vSphere clusters can vary between 4 and 16 “hosts”. Many are asking “What will this cost and how will this cost differ than running in-house?”
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- Why this is interesting: AWS vSphere clusters can vary between 4 and 16 “hosts”. Many are asking “What will this cost and how will this cost differ than running in-house?”
- Pat Gelsinger’s Take on the IT Industry – “From Mind-Blowing to Mundane”
- Why this is interesting: Pat Gelsinger has 37 year of industry experience including leadership roles at Intel and VMware. This is the written version of the address Pat gave at VMworld.
- Read more
- Why this is interesting: Pat Gelsinger has 37 year of industry experience including leadership roles at Intel and VMware. This is the written version of the address Pat gave at VMworld.
- VMware Horizon Blast Extreme and Why UDP Wins for Latency
- Why this is interesting: End User Computing pilots and roll-outs fail usually due to poor performance and/or lack of personalization. Flash storage has helped with the high read IOPS of EUC environments, but network latency has remained an issue. PCoIP helped, but in some cases not enough. Blast Extreme uses UDP to decrease latency, noticeably in video playback.
- Read more
- Why this is interesting: End User Computing pilots and roll-outs fail usually due to poor performance and/or lack of personalization. Flash storage has helped with the high read IOPS of EUC environments, but network latency has remained an issue. PCoIP helped, but in some cases not enough. Blast Extreme uses UDP to decrease latency, noticeably in video playback.
- VMworld 2017 Europe
- Cloud
- McKinsey Sounds the Death Knell for (Internal) IT-as-Usual
- Why this is interesting: From “Shadow IT” to “Cloud First” many business units and CXOs are choosing to deploy new applications outside of internal IT. According to the CEOs interviewed, if internal IT wants to continue to be relevant, internal IT needs to be:
- Leading design of e-commerce, online experience
- Developing analytics use cases
- Identifying cutting-edge or innovative technologies
- Leading digital transformations across business
- Leading design of e-commerce, online experience
- Read more
- Why this is interesting: From “Shadow IT” to “Cloud First” many business units and CXOs are choosing to deploy new applications outside of internal IT. According to the CEOs interviewed, if internal IT wants to continue to be relevant, internal IT needs to be:
- Microsoft Azure Releases Small VMs for Bursty Workloads
- Why this is interesting: They offer burstable performance and that you build up credits for the periods when you don’t need the full power of the virtual CPU. This is similar to AWS T2 and GCP f1-micro and g1-small.
- Read more
- Why this is interesting: They offer burstable performance and that you build up credits for the periods when you don’t need the full power of the virtual CPU. This is similar to AWS T2 and GCP f1-micro and g1-small.
- McKinsey Sounds the Death Knell for (Internal) IT-as-Usual
- Automation
- AnsibleFest 2017
- Why this is interesting: Ansible is definitely one of the leading DevOps solutions for automation and RedHat just open-sourced Ansible Tower as the AWX Project.
- Read More
- WWT trip report from AnsibleFest 2017
- WWT trip report from AnsibleFest 2017
- Why this is interesting: Ansible is definitely one of the leading DevOps solutions for automation and RedHat just open-sourced Ansible Tower as the AWX Project.
- Automating with Ansible, vRealize Automation and SovLabs
- Why this is interesting: Our cloud automation team at WWT has been integrating just about every plug-in into vRealize Automation including Ansible. SovLabs makes some high-quality vRA plug-ins for data center including directory services and backup.
- Read more in this post
- Why this is interesting: Our cloud automation team at WWT has been integrating just about every plug-in into vRealize Automation including Ansible. SovLabs makes some high-quality vRA plug-ins for data center including directory services and backup.
- Competing Container Management Standards
- Why this is interesting: Containers are the next VMs. Keeping up to date on container technology helps to support DevOps.
- Read more
- Kubernetes emerging as the leading container management system winning over Mesosphere and OpenStack.
- Docker Swarm loses to Kubernetes article
- Michael Dell says get on board with containers
- Kubernetes emerging as the leading container management system winning over Mesosphere and OpenStack.
- Why this is interesting: Containers are the next VMs. Keeping up to date on container technology helps to support DevOps.
- AnsibleFest 2017
- Security
- What’s This GPDR Thing All About?
- Why this is interesting: General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) strengthens the rights of individuals in the European Union (EU) to control their personal data. GDPR goes into effect in less than 250 days (2018-05-25). Most of my customers are global, so they need to consider this. Equifax would have faced stiff fines if GDPR was already in place and Equifax had EU customers.
- Read More
- Why this is interesting: General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) strengthens the rights of individuals in the European Union (EU) to control their personal data. GDPR goes into effect in less than 250 days (2018-05-25). Most of my customers are global, so they need to consider this. Equifax would have faced stiff fines if GDPR was already in place and Equifax had EU customers.
- Equifax: Freeze your credit report (if you can)
- Why this is important: With access to your SSN, name, address and other personal info, hackers can now steal your identity and open new credit cards in your name. Freezing your credit report blocks all new credit from being issued in your name unless you choose to thaw the freeze.
- Read more
- Why this is important: With access to your SSN, name, address and other personal info, hackers can now steal your identity and open new credit cards in your name. Freezing your credit report blocks all new credit from being issued in your name unless you choose to thaw the freeze.
- What’s This GPDR Thing All About?
- Networking
- SD-WAN Is Everywhere
- Why this is interesting: WWT customers are _very_ interested in SD-WAN to optimize, secure and reduce the cost of their networks. WWT currently has 19 different SD-WAN demos running in the ATC and 23 different types of gear supporting SD-WAN. Most requests are to test out Cisco/Viptela, Riverbed, Silverpeak, and Versa as those are the solutions that match Fortune 500 accounts. I was interested to read today that Comcast has entered the SD-WAN arena for their base of business customers.
- Read More
- Why this is interesting: WWT customers are _very_ interested in SD-WAN to optimize, secure and reduce the cost of their networks. WWT currently has 19 different SD-WAN demos running in the ATC and 23 different types of gear supporting SD-WAN. Most requests are to test out Cisco/Viptela, Riverbed, Silverpeak, and Versa as those are the solutions that match Fortune 500 accounts. I was interested to read today that Comcast has entered the SD-WAN arena for their base of business customers.
- SD-WAN Is Everywhere
- IoT
- Considerations for IoT as demonstrated by a robotic arm
- Why this is interesting: Good read to understand what a full IoT implementation looks like including sensors, gateways, edge devices, network infrastructure, DC/cloud, IoT platform, applications, security.
- Why this is interesting: Good read to understand what a full IoT implementation looks like including sensors, gateways, edge devices, network infrastructure, DC/cloud, IoT platform, applications, security.
- Read more
- WWT white paper can be found here
- WWT white paper can be found here
- Considerations for IoT as demonstrated by a robotic arm
- Collaboration
- Making Conference Room Scheduling Smarter
- Why this is interesting: Sounds boring, but real estate is expensive and, booked, but unused, conference rooms are a waste of money and time. WWT has been working on conference room automation solutions that automatically free up unused rooms and ensure that AV equipment is always functional.
- Read more in this article by Joe Berger, WWT
- Why this is interesting: Sounds boring, but real estate is expensive and, booked, but unused, conference rooms are a waste of money and time. WWT has been working on conference room automation solutions that automatically free up unused rooms and ensure that AV equipment is always functional.
- Making Conference Room Scheduling Smarter
- Operating Systems
- Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)
- Why this is interesting: Microsoft has done a complete 180 on Linux from being the enemy to being a friend, including porting SQL Server to Linux. Microsoft knows that developers use Linux and open source tools. To allow Windows developers to use the tools they are comfortable with, Microsoft has added the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) to Windows 10.
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- Great blog post on the architecture and use of WSL including running the i3 window manager on Windows.
- Great blog post on the architecture and use of WSL including running the i3 window manager on Windows.
- Why this is interesting: Microsoft has done a complete 180 on Linux from being the enemy to being a friend, including porting SQL Server to Linux. Microsoft knows that developers use Linux and open source tools. To allow Windows developers to use the tools they are comfortable with, Microsoft has added the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) to Windows 10.
- Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)
- Productivity
- Microsoft Garage Office Toolbar for macOS
- Why this is interesting: To me, and many others, macOS is like a desktop Linux that people actually write commercial software for. Many of our jobs rely on using Microsoft Office and not an Office clone. Mac Office is a poor cousin to Windows Office, especially when it comes to group scheduling. I was excited to read that the Microsoft Garage program produced an Office utility just for Mac users. YMMV, but only half of the features in the utility worked for me.
- Read more
- Why this is interesting: To me, and many others, macOS is like a desktop Linux that people actually write commercial software for. Many of our jobs rely on using Microsoft Office and not an Office clone. Mac Office is a poor cousin to Windows Office, especially when it comes to group scheduling. I was excited to read that the Microsoft Garage program produced an Office utility just for Mac users. YMMV, but only half of the features in the utility worked for me.
- Microsoft Garage Office Toolbar for macOS
- I Love Working at WWT :)
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