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Information Technology Navigator

Tips, Advice & Insights from Technology Pros

Hypervisor-Based RecoverPoint: A New Twist for Backing Up VM’s

It happens all the time – a customer has a problem that’s tough to solve. I was recently asked how to best protect a virtual environment – stretched between two data centers. The customer wanted all administration through vCenter with instant recovery and the ability to meet stringent RPOs and RTOs. And the catch – they wanted the backed up data to be stored on a different vendor’s array utilizing a different protocol - NFS instead of Fibre Channel (FC) block storage.

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Mon, Nov 24, 2014
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Moving Your Data to the Cloud? - 5 Tips to Ensure It’s Safe and Secure

Is that light you see at the end of the proverbial tunnel, or is it the headlight of an oncoming train?

The future of your professional career just might depend on your ability to successfully lead your company to the cloud. So many things to consider…


Yes, the cloud offers many advantages to your business including agility and high levels of fault tolerance, but in and of itself, the cloud does not release you from backing up your data in order to protect yourself from user error, data corruption, or data loss.


Just like provisioning new applications or scaling current applications, you need to consider every angle when protecting your data that lives in cloud.

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Tue, Nov 11, 2014
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Hybrid Cloud Management: Unraveling vRealize

 
As VMware is wont to do, it has released a new brand of products that users may already be familiar with. Though I witnessed a number of complaints from users during the small group discussions at VMWorld, the vRealize rebranding really does go beyond simple marketing. Until a couple of days ago, the products that now make up the vRealize Suite came from very different origins, and had been positioned for very different use cases, from simple monitoring to justifying ROI. However, these products were also unique in how they integrate with VMware’s cloud offerings, thus the logic behind the mirrored vRealize Air product line.
 
vRealize is a culmination of VMware’s strategy to transition their products to the cloud and to show that they continue to deliver value once the user has made that transition.
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Tue, Oct 14, 2014
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4 Cloud Strategies to Secure your Corporate Data

 
By now, many of you are probably aware of the most recent cloud breach where a large cache of celebrity nude photos was released on a forum board on 4chan. Though details are still emerging, the prevalent theory is that the hackers managed to gain access to the pictures by accessing the celebrity’s Apple iCloud accounts.
 
This is but the most recent security breach in a long string of security breaches, affecting major enterprises like; Sony, Twitter, Target, and even the Department of Homeland Security. It’s not your company data necessarily that these data thieves are interested in. Rather, it’s your contact data – the personal data you compile on each contact in your data base such as social security number, credit card number, and email address. This naturally raises the question; just how secure is your corporate data in the cloud? The hard truth is - “it depends”. Fact is, the only surefire way to guarantee your cloud data is 100% secure is to disconnect it from the cloud.
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Mon, Sep 29, 2014
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Transitioning To the Virtual Cloud? Choose Wisely

Imagine you're sitting in the studio audience, dressed in your best Game of Thrones or Batman costume. Monty Hall walks right up next to you and says, "I've got a deal for you!" Can you picture it?

As he does on every show, Monty points to two doors. They look identical. You can't see what's behind the doors, but the payoff is potentially great. He says, "Your transition to the cloud sits behind either door #1 or door #2. Which door do you choose?

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Mon, Sep 22, 2014
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Will CloudVolumes Help VMWare Horizon Reach the Promised Land?

 
VMware has traditionally struggled in the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) space because while customers may use vSphere to support their VDI environment, the actual brokering software is almost always Citrix instead of VMware View.
 
This may soon change. During the second day of VMWorld 2014, Sanjay Poonen, VMware’s EVP & GM, End-User Computing, announced some very exciting news about VMware Horizon that could have a big impact on the End-User Computing (EUC) landscape.
 

Historically, administrators faced a challenge. Either they had to have a small footprint with View Linked Clones AND needed to re-provision applications (sometimes manually) at the end of all recompose operations. Or, they had to give everyone thick persistent desktops, which ate up storage costs and thereby decreased the ROI of VDI significantly. Enter CloudVolumes.
 
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Mon, Sep 15, 2014
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The Top 10 Buzz Words from VMWorld 2014



VMWorld 2014 is a wrap!

 
Feels good to finally get back to work and reflect on the great lineup of speakers, new trends, and general buzz from the conference.
 
Speaking of buzz, while it's still fresh on my mind, I'd like to share my top 10 buzz words from the 2014 conference.

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Wed, Sep 03, 2014
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Has VMware De-mystified the Cloud?



We are all airheads now...

 
As a cloud consultant, it’s good to have my head in the clouds. Same is true for IT managers and directors who are responsible for hybrid cloud initiatives.
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Wed, Aug 27, 2014
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VMworld 2014 Keynote: VMware's Evolution to the Cloud



Greeting From #VMWorld

 
VMware kicked off their annual VMworld Conference with the usual showmanship, to more than 22,000 attendees, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. VMware’s focus remains unchanged and they will continue to be bringing their vision of the Software Defined Data Center, Hybrid Cloud (now called AIR) and End User Computing to fruition over the next year. For certain there have been many enhancements over the last 12 months to VMware’s offerings to further their goal of being the common platform for everything.
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Tue, Aug 26, 2014
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Hands-On Testing at EMC World 2014

By Jake Roczniak and Eric Grueter, Senior Consultants

This year at EMC World 2014, EMC had a variety of different technologies available for us to get some hands-on time.  Here are some of our favorites and ones that we think the industry will be seeing more and more of in the future.

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Tue, Jul 01, 2014
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