VMware vSphere - Avoiding an Internal Storm?

With the majority of businesses using internal Cloud Services, whether it be Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) or Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) in a VMware vSphere environment I'll be presenting a free webex on May 5th which gives an insight into how to manage the gathering Storm Clouds.

After an introduction to VMware's Virtual Infrastructure 4 (vSphere) environment andCloud Computing, I'll be discussing how Capacity Management provides the means to spot potential Storm Clouds far in advance  and more specifically, how you can avoid them.

Delving deeper I'll be looking at IaaS and how to identify potential capacity on demand issues.  Discussion focuses on topics such as:

• identifying whether virtual machines are under or over provisioned
• the advantages/disadvantages of application sizing
• how to minimize SLA impact
• whether to scale the infrastructure out,  up or in and ultimately how to get it right. 

Typically organizations have adopted a "silo mentality" where they ring fence IT systems and don’t share resources through lack of trust and confidence. I'll look at the advantages virtualization brings in terms of flexibility, scalability, cost reduction (monetary and environmental) and how we can protect our 'loved ones' through resource pools, shares, reservations and limits.

With all this in mind, join me to find out what information and processes we recommend you need to have and implement to avoid an Internal Storm and ensure that Brighter Outlook!..

Register now http://www.metron-athene.com/training/webinars/index.html and I hope to meet you there.

Jamie Baker
Principal Consultant

Transitioning to strategic Capacity management to manage "The Cloud"

Sometimes ITIL and Capacity Management can prove to be a hard sell in an organization with the associated costs being difficult to justify. With the advance of Cloud and green technologies I believe that the justification for strong ITIL processes and mature Capacity Management will become easier.

I’m running a webinar next week, which is based on consultancy conducted at a large financial organization, which will provide you with a brief overview of the Cloud terminology.

I’ll be looking at the profile of a “standard” ITIL Capacity Management implementation and considering the various phases:

Phase one of the transition – The planning stage

• Sizing/Categorization
• Technology
• Establishing the business drivers

Phase two of transition

• Monitoring/metrics
• Reporting
• The Service
• Integration

Come along and join me for this free session http://www.metron-athene.com/training/webinars/index.html

Rob Ford

Principal Consultant

speaking at CMG events in Ohio and Canada

I’ll be speaking at CMG events in Ohio and Canada this year on the subjects of Cloud Computing, Capacity Management and Virtualization.

My first appearance will be at the Canada Computer Measurement Group conference taking place in Toronto April 19-20 where I’ll be presenting ‘VMware Capacity Management - Now the Dust is Settling’

Most organizations have been through their first one or two virtualization cycles by now, leaving them asking ‘Now what do we do with it?’  It’s been a wild ride rolling the technology out, as it’s so easy to implement. Now our major clients are having to think about how to make it right as it becomes central to on-going business infrastructure, and that’s where our experience and knowledge in capacity management, plus our athene® software can help.

For those of you attending you’ll have the opportunity to hear more from me as I’m also doing a second session at the same event, ‘VMware vSphere - Avoiding an Internal Storm’

This one gives an insight into how to manage internal Cloud Services in a VMware vSphere environment. Infrastructure As A Service (IaaS) offers many threats to on-going business support from a capacity perspective, as well as many benefits.  I’ll be showing how the threats can be managed to ensure a smooth transition and ongoing service utilizing vSphere and Cloud together.

My second appearance (I’m beginning to feel like a rock star!) will be at the Ohio Valley Computer Measurement Group meeting on May 12 where I’ll be covering Cloud Computing and Capacity Management.

I think it’s pertinent to discuss what it will be realistic for the capacity manager to provide to the business in this complex world of interacting services and this will be the focus of my talk.

I hope to catch up with some of you on my travels and hear your views on these areas - if not you can always come along to some of our free webinars which cover similar topics or leave me your comments.

http://www.metron-athene.com/training/webinars/webinar_summaries.html

Charles Johnson

Principal Consultant

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Green IT and capacity management

The goal of Green IT initiatives, enabled by technologies such as Virtualization and Cloud computing, is to do more with less: keep supporting the growing demands of businesses for IT services, while minimizing our carbon footprint.

The risk is that by trying to minimize that footprint too hard, we might under-provision and hit performance and capacity crises. We then incur costs for fixing problems and ‘panic’ buying of resolutions, all of which outweigh any benefits from ‘going Green’.

A sustainable approach to implementing Green initiatives comes from properly planning and managing the capacity of the resources we support. From an infrastructure perspective we provide the ability to do this with athene®.  

Through its server focus, still the point in any processing change where 80%+ of the service occurs, allied with its open interface, allowing all other capacity data to be brought into one data warehouse, athene® provides a complete view of capacity. 

Good practice from a Green perspective is readily identified and managed.

The trick is to understand that usage equates to efficiency, over- or under-usage equates to waste.  For example, a server typically uses more than 80% of the power when idle as it does when 100% utilized.  From a Green standpoint, running one server at 60% is thus much more environmentally friendly than two servers at 30% each.

athene® enables you to identify underutilized resources and do something about them while still  providing the business with the quality of service it needs.

To find out more about capacity management and Green IT join our community and download our white papers or video.

http://www.metron-athene.com/_downloads/_published_papers/index.html

Andrew Smith

Chief Sales & Marketing Officer