Virtualization is a key piece of modern data center design. Virtualization occurs on many devices within the data center, conceptually virtualization is the ability to create multiple logical devices from one physical device. We’ve been virtualizing hardware for years: VLANs and VRFs on the network, Volumes and LUNs on storage,…
Tag: Data Center
Data Center 101: Server Systems
As the industry moves deeper and deeper into virtualization, automation, and cloud architectures it forces us as engineers to break free of our traditional silos. For years many of us were able to do quite well being experts in one discipline with little to no knowledge in another. Cloud computing,…
UCS Server Failover
I spent the day today with a customer doing a proof of concept and failover testing demo on a Cisco UCS, VMware and NetApp environment. As I sit on the train heading back to Washington from NYC I thought it might be a good time to put together a technical…
Technical Deep Dive
Why Cisco UCS is my ‘A-Game’ Server Architecture
A-Game: When I discuss my A-Game it’s my go to hardware vendor for a specific data center component. For example I have an A-Game platform for: Storage SAN LAN (access Layer LAN specifically, you don’t want me near your aggregation, core or WAN) Servers and Blades (traditionally this has been…
The Cloud Storage Argument
The argument over the right type of storage for data center applications is an ongoing battle. This argument gets amplified when discussing cloud architectures both private and public. Part of the reason for this disparity in thinking is that there is no ‘one size fits all solution.’ The other part…
Technical Drivers for Cloud Computing
In a previous post I’ve described the business drivers for Cloud Computing infrastructures (http://www.definethecloud.net/?p=27.) Basically the idea of transforming data center from a cost center into a profit center. In this post I’ll look at the underlying technical challenges that cloud looks to address in order to reduce data center…
Business Drivers for Cloud Infrastructures
There are several business challenges that drive the cloud discussion and cloud infrastructure market. These business challenges are very different from the technical challenges that are more commonly discussed along with cloud. It’s key to differentiate between the two because typically only one or the other is relevant to any…
Consolidated I/O
Consolidated I/O (input/output) is a hot topic and has been for the last two years, but it’s not a new concept. We’ve already consolidated I/O once in the data center and forgotten about it, remember those phone PBXs before we replaced them with IP Telephony? The next step in consolidating…
What’s a cloud?
So to start things off I thought I’d take a stab at defining the cloud. This is always an interesting subject because so many people have placed very different labels and definitions on the cloud. YouTube is filled with videos of high dollar IT talking heads spitting up non-sensical answers…