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VMware Reveals New Offerings At VMWorld 2006
Nirav Mehta writes to mention a Techworld article about this past week's virtualization announcements at VMWorld 2006. VMWare had several new offerings in the event's third year. From the article: "VMware has released details of ACE 2.0, which is due for release towards the middle of 2007. The product, which was demonstrated in alpha at VMworld this week, allows administrators to distribute pre-packaged virtual machines to users in a secure manner. This means, for instance, that contractors can be allowed to attach to the enterprise network using their own laptops but only via the ACE VM. The new version was created, according to VMware, because users asked for greater control over the VMs, especially when, for instance, large numbers of remote users need to attach to the enterprise network. Other areas due for improvement include security and integration with enterprise management tools. "
...for them to release an affordable hypervisor based virtualization package. Host based virtualization is as dead as BSD.
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
It also doubles as a great data compressor!
Ok, ok, bad joke, I'll continue navigating with my Firebird browser.
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I'm still waiting for vmWare for the Mac. I'm still ticked for not receiving an email for the beta version. I can beta test Microsoft's Vista bloatware but not vmWare's only Mac product? Incredible!
The new version was created, according to VMware, because users asked for greater control over the VMs, especially when, for instance, large numbers of remote users need to attach to the enterprise network.
Thats funny, it seems to me the new version was created because a couple of competitors jumped into that space, which VMware had decided to basically abandon to the dislike of the people who bought ACE 1.
was WMWorld itself a tradeshow or was it a tradeshow virtualized within another one?
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
All I want is the ability to resize an "automatically resizing" disk.
From TFA:
"VMware has revealed more about the forthcoming version of its free Workstation product, version 6."
It's going to be free????
Yes, but does it run linux ?
- Allow me to use my laptop on their network and allow me to connect to my company's network through their corporate network or through a dedicated network they've set up on the side, using a VPN client.
- Allow me to use my laptop on their network, but do not provide me with a network for reaching my company's network.
- Do not allow me to use my laptop on the corporate network, but instead provide a "standard laptop", same as the rest of the workforce is using or a desktop to use.
In the first case, I'm always more productive and cheaper per unit of delivery than the other options, because I've got all my tools setup and on average all software (except perhaps one or two apps) I need to perform my work already licensed. I'm also able to harvest the information, knowledge and assets available through my company's network. Some clients realize the benefit of this and instead regulate which tools I may use and what I may do while connected to their network by making me sign an agreement (along with the standard NDA).In the second and third scenario, clients still require me to sign the same "usage agreement" and NDA, so there really is no benefit for them from a liability standpoint. The risk is the same for all three cases and mitigated the same way (through agreements). On the downside, each unit I deliver costs more because I don't have my toolbox and don't have the software configured for optimal productivity. However I still deliver reasonable value per dollar spent because I am still able to leverage resources from my company by using my own laptop on the side (either through a client provided network or a 3G card).
There is really no benefit that I've witnessed from a client perspective in not allowing me to use my own machine and tools.
Now, the quoted statement of having me use my own machine coupled with the limitation of not having my tools available and also not being able to use the resources available through my company's network for the client's benefit seems like a worse situation for a client than any of the previous ones.
No matter from which angle I try comparing the three typical scenarios with using ACE for the suggested purpose, I fail to see the bottom-line benefits for a company relying on consultants / contractors.
In a society that believes in nothing, fear becomes the only agenda ~ Bill Durodié
How 'bout getting DX9 working, or maybe allowing the virtual machine direct access to the graphics card so it can use DX natively?
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
My company is doing driver development for IEEE 1394, i.e. Firewire, devices. Not having 1394 support in VMware is a show stopper for us. Unless and until they get around to including it we'll be sitting here experiencing BSOD crashes several times per day, and sometimes per hour. We've heard the reasons VMware has not virtualized Firewire and, quite frankly, they don't hold water.
I have to VPN in to work from home. I built myslef a virgin, pristine, virtual VM under Parallels with exactly what I need to get in to work, and nothing more. More secure for everybody. Sweet.
I just left LA today (Friday), the conference ended yesterday (Thursday) and now I'm freaking stuck at O'Hare overnight because they cancelled outgoing flights due to weather...so I'll write up some of the interesting stuff I saw.
Most interesting comment - During Partner Day, Karthik Rau (the Vice President of Product Management) during his presention made a comment that 'Windows Vista may be the last OS of it's type', which drew a gasp from partners around me. Hyperbole? Well, we'll see.
Market Penetration - had some discussions with partners and pretty much everyone agreed that VMware will saturate the enterprise market in just a few years (5? 7?). The benefits are just too compelling esp for DR. Sure, not every workload is suitable for virtualization (maybe 20% of workloads out there are better left running physical) but that means that 80% of servers ARE suitable for virtualization. Anyone in an IT position should at least be looking a good look at this stuff if you don't know it already.
VMware ESX 3.0 - bigger and better. Lots of places with more info about ESX 3.0, but the HA and DRS are probably the key improvements (basically, machine automated VMotion). I guess the 4-way vSMP is cool too. And the support for NAS and iSCSI. And the improved snapshots. And so on...
Vmware Lab Manager - this is SLICK for dev/test/QA. Formerly known as Akimbi Slingshot before they were bought out by VMware, Lab Manager lets you suspend a set of machine states and store them all in a library, and you can pull them all out at the same time right on your network and the don't interfere with anything because they have a 'network fence' option which lets you keep all the network settings. All set up for self-service - no admin required (a developer can web-browse to the Lab Manager and grab machine sets themselves). Will probably use a ton of storage, but very neat.
VMware and Hardware Assist (Intel VT/AMD Pacifica) - the first generation of HW assist from either vendor doesn't help VMware much - VMware's Binary Translation (BT) method of capturing kernel calls is so heavily optimized that doing the same thing with VT/Pacifica will actually be slower. So VMware won't actually use VT/Pacifica much. (Hardware assist IS useful for Xen though)
However, the next round of hardware assist, which concentrates on optimizing virtualized memory performance, WILL be of benefit to VMware. Don't know when those chips will be out.
Oh, for the big night out (Wednesday) they closed off a big section of Universal Studio's Theme park for us. No lineups for rides! (Well, really short ones). Not every ride was available but heck it was fun esp. with all the alcohol.
Met lots of cool guys from all around the world there (Germany, Ireland, Sweden, and of course Americans and Canadians)...but sure wish there were more hot chicks (in my dreams!)
Not having been in LA before, the weather there is AWESOME. I wanna live there! Shame about the housing prices...
Now, if only my flight would finally come at 7 am.... Oh my aching back...
Parent is -1 Troll (or Flamebait). I have no idea why it registered as +1 Underrated :/