Virtually In Control

The Bake-off begins tonight!!

cojack — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 03:14:42 +0000

There has been a lot of press from Citrix lately on the management tools that are starting to evolve for Xen. Once I saw Rich Crusco’s review of Citrix workflow studio on www.frameworkx.com I knew it was time to start taking a serious look at Xen again and see how it stacks up with VMware’s offerings.

Tonight I decided to give Xen a serious look. I played with it a few years back, but it was fairly immature at the time compared to VMware.

Let the quest begin!!! The job for tonight is to dl the Xen Server 4.1 ISO and Xen Center.

Right off the bat my first impressions of Xen Center are favourable. The download for Xen Center is 4MB (6% of what the VI Client installer is). Within 5 minutes I had Xen Center downloaded and installed. Sure it may not be as feature rich and fancy as Virtual Center, but something can be said for a product with a small foot print that is fast and and just works out of the gate. One of my biggest pet peeves with VMware is the fat VI client needed to connect to ESX\VC. I am currently running a mixed environment of ESX 3.0.2 and 3.5 so there are 2 versions of the obese VI Client need on my system…

Once I get my Xen Server up and running I will be able to do a better comparison of the 2 vendors, then I will start comparing management tools.

Stay tuned! Got any Xen tips for me?

Hmmm I am Running Vi3 now do I upgrade??, and to what?

cojack — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 05:05:35 +0000

There is some confusion in the marketplace arising from the multiple branches of ESX. VMware’s recently released update which the marketing literature claims to be a “feature rich update” called Virtual infrastructure 3.5 & Virtual Center 2.5 then we have the more secure lower level 3i which was shared at VMworld 2007 (by the way thanks for the USB key ). These multiple variations are causing some head scratching with customers.

I have heard from insiders to hold off on the 3.5 upgrade and wait for 3i. I have not had any confirmation if the next 3i release, will contain any of the 3.5 additional features. Has anyone heard?

VMware is really at a fork in the road right now. So far they have rode on the fact that they have had no substantial competitors for the last 9 years, but now the heat is on for them, lets hope that VMware is able to start sharing more of their roadmap. I think if VMware doesn’t start sharing the roadmap for at least one year out realistically and the 2nd year as a thumb in the air\direction, customers and partners are really going to get hurt. This could be the push for me and probably other customers & partners to start seriously looking at Xen and Hyper-V.

VMware the ball is in your court!

Long and short for me is should I upgrade to 3.5 or wait for 3i? Please respond with your feedback

What should I do?????????

Is Web 2.0 really just BBS1.0 with a candy coating?

cojack — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 04:30:57 +0000

There is a lot hype these days about web2.0, but if you ask me it should be called BBS 2.0. The major innovators to this new craze are the 30-45 year old’s who grew up dialing into BBS’s which had that original community feel.In my opinion this is just replicating the functionality of a BBS on port 80. Sure TheDraw has been replaced by Photoshop and Telix or Procom has been replaced by Google, but at the heart of it we are just looking at a skinned version of Wildcat BBS, Pcboard or Renegade that lets you log on 24hr’s a day instead of 30minutes per day unless you had time stored in the time bank

So join me in my protest and start calling this BBS 2.0 not web2.0.

Shame Network Solutions

cojack — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 04:58:58 +0000

What are you thinking Network Solutions???? article The concept of jacking up the prices for queried domain names is an insane business model. That is bad business.

As quoted in the article Wade said Network Solutions decided on the policy to register the domain after the search so that the name won’t be registered by “some obscure person” before the original searcher comes back to register it.

Wow I guess I should be thanking them!!!!

There is a reason why companies like Godaddy are doing so well. It is cheap, reliable and they are not out to take you up the tailpipe.

I remember the days when Network Solutions was the place to buy a domain name which would cost you 50 bucks per year. I’m not sure if they have not adapted to the times, but come on. The last time I bought a domain name from Network Solutions was 1999 and that was because this little company named Godaddy was drastically undercutting by providing the same service for $8.95

I guess some companies just don’t cope well when there gravy train gets derailed. Network Solutions you just need to face the facts you can’t sell a domain name for $50 or even $35 anymore, start competing instead of extorting.

One thing we can thank Netsol for is making me create the Shame Category on the blog! Way to go Network Solutions your #1 in my shame category.

Howdy

cojack — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 04:12:06 +0000

My vision for this blog is to share my thoughts and idea’s about the cool and not so cool things happening in technology today. Also I want to learn from you so please comment! Though my background is systems management, my interests are virtualization, visualisation and pretty much anything with an IP address. The goal is to share information, get feedback and most importantly have fun. Let me know some of the cool things you are doing. Make sure to sign up for the feed.

Goodtimes!

Cojack