Posts Tagged ‘ mainframe ’

10 Virtualization and Cloud Predictions for 2012

10 Virtualization and Cloud Predictions for 2012

Welcome to IT prediction season! Again, I am inspired to throw my exceedingly fallible hat into the ring with my predictions, specifically for virtualization and cloud. I seem to have had a decent run of predictions last year, but I claim more luck than credit. I still think predictions are a mug’s game, and continue to eschew both the importance and reliability of predictions. That said, here are my predictions for 2012: 1. Brands May Come and Go – But No Technology Will Die Not only are we not living in a ‘post-PC’ world, we are not even living in a ‘post-mainframe’ world! Cloud will not kill data centers, virtual will not kill physical, tablets will not kill PCs, Mac will not kill Windows, Android will not kill iOS, streaming will not kill DVDs. The technology pie is growing, our choices are expanding, and almost every slice is getting bigger.…

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A Service Taxonomy for Cloud Choices

A Service Taxonomy for Cloud Choices

I have been talking with many CIOs for some time about strategic adoption of cloud solutions. A key step in these conversations is always the review of the portfolio of services they provide to business users, so they can choose which clouds to adopt and why. This has led me to describe a high-level taxonomy that segments the service portfolio according to the different cloud requirements, capabilities, and approaches in different types of applications and services.

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Chinwag with Mike Laverick

Chinwag with Mike Laverick

I recently had the great pleasure of recording a ‘Chinwag’ on RTFM Education hosted by the inestimable Mike Laverick (@Mike_Laverick). Mike is a consummate pro with a comprehensive understanding of virtualization, so it was a privilege and a joy to record this video chat with him. Andi and I covered a wide range of questions – and we simple didn’t have enough time to cover every topic. These are the questions we DID manage to get through in our time! Q1. Folks used to talk about VM Sprawl, now their talking about VM stall. What is VM Stall, and what causes it? Q2. I see you took a side swipe at the “the software mainframe” analogy for virtualization – go on let rip! Q3. So you have just published a new book on virtualization and private cloud – what is that all about? Q4. There’s a lot of talk on…

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Public Cloud Computing is NOT For Everyone

Public Cloud Computing is NOT For Everyone

Without pointing any fingers, there seems to be a persistent refrain from some public cloud computing proponents that says, ‘If you are running your own IT, then you are doing it wrong’. This attitude fails to account for the magnitude and value of many legacy investments in people, process, and technology.  It ignores the many challenges and risks posed by migrating enterprise IT to public cloud service providers. I have no doubt that many organizations will continue to run their own IT, even as they also adopt public cloud services – for very good reasons. At the same time, many will migrate their entire IT environment, wholesale, to public cloud services. I do not see this as even slightly contentious.

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Mainframe as an Enterprise Desktop Virtualization Server?

Mainframe as an Enterprise Desktop Virtualization Server?

In my last blog, I talked about the idea of a ‘software mainframe’, and how – if that term really means anything – IBM could actually be a serious threat to VMware (and the Virtual Computing Environment coalition of VMware/Cisco/EMC) , if it decided to support native Windows guests on its zSeries mainframes. As I noted in that post, I think this is far from impossible, and would change the face of the server virtualization substantially. After I published that blog it occurred to me that IBM’s biggest opportunity may not be (or may not only be) in server virtualization. After all, VMware has a pretty good lock on that market right now, so simply getting penetration would be very tough (just ask Microsoft!). Plus, scaling out a zSeries platform with 1000 or more virtual servers in one hit is a major project, with a major upfront hardware budget, that…

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‘Software Mainframe’ – a Poor Analogy for Virtualization

‘Software Mainframe’ – a Poor Analogy for Virtualization

IT loves analogies. Seriously, will the computer-as-a-car analogy ever die (please)? It has been over 10 years since we first heard jokes about if Microsoft built cars: At a computer expo (COMDEX) Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated “If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving twenty-five dollar cars that got 1000 miles/gallon.” Recently General Motors addressed this comment by releasing the statement : “Yeah, but would you want your car to crash twice a day?” It has been popular ever since. Citrix stretched the car analogy significantly last year, comparing VDI to a truck, XenDesktop (or was it XenApp?) to a Prius (or was it an SUV?), and XenServer to a Porsche (with Xen as the engine, ‘natch). This year Citrix again used some kind of car analogy, but the compact car was…

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Your Favourite Technology Will Not Kill Anything

Your Favourite Technology Will Not Kill Anything

I have a request. I hope it is not too onerous, because something is really starting to grind my gears. Can we in IT please all stop claiming that any technology is going to kill another? The latest I am reading, for example, is that NoSQL (for want of a better term) will kill off SQL. No, it won’t. My hyperbole aside, I know this with complete and utter certainty, even though I am barely conversant in database technologies. Seriously, SQL hasn’t even killed off VSAM – first released in 1974 – which is still the foundation for a huge volume, perhaps even the majority, of our daily financial, logistics, retail, and government business. In fact, not only are we still storing data in VSAM, we are still programming in COBOL, and even doing it on 20 year old mainframes. So realistically, an upstart like NoSQL has no chance of…

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Virtualization is not Cloud … but Cloud needs Virtualization

Virtualization is not Cloud … but Cloud needs Virtualization

Surfing  a couple of blogs today, jumping from another analyst commenting that virtualization is not cloud (a fair, if unexplored, post), I came across William Vambenepe’s post from September on the confusion between virtualization and Cloud Computing. As he did on my blog recently, I started to post a reply to his site, and then as it expanded, decided to post it as a full reply on my own blog. I like the thinking, and agree with a lot of the principles involved. Without doubt, virtualization is not cloud. But I can’t agree with it all. Apart from technical quibbles (like the part about mainframe LPARs not running on a hypervisor), I simply find it unreasonable, if not impossible, to think of implementing cloud computing without virtualization.

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