VMTurbo Releases Operations Manager version 5.3

Posted on 28 August 2015 by GeekFluent

This week, VMTurbo released version 5.3 of their Operations Manager monitoring / management / automation / Quality of Service (QoS) tool.

Yes, I’ll admit that previous sentence is a little confusing, but Operations Manager has so many features and capabilities packed into it that it defies easy classification.

For those who aren’t familiar with VMTurbo or their Operations Manager, I’ll do an overview of it, then I’ll walk through what’s new in version 5.3. If you’re already familiar with VMTurbo and just want to leap right in, you can download a free trial here. Continue reading →

SimpliVity Announces OmniStack 3.0, New OmniCube for ROBO, and a HyperGuarantee

Posted on 26 August 2015 by GeekFluent

Today, SimpliVity announced three new improvements to their hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) solution offering. The improvements can categorized as software, hardware, and programatic:

Software: version 3.0 of their OmniStack software-defined HCI
Hardware: a new, smaller OmniCube, the CN-1200, designed specifically as part of a remote office / branch office (ROBO) solution
Programatic: a five-point performance guarantee that they’re calling the HyperGuarantee

I’ll walk through each of these below. Continue reading →

VMware releases NSX 6.2

Posted on 25 August 2015 by GeekFluent

Last week, VMware released version 6.2 of their software-defined networking (SDN) product, NSX. One of the things that’s interesting to me is that VMware no longer refers to NSX as an SDN solution. Instead, they’re playing a bigger game with it and call it “the network virtualization platform for the Software-Defined Data Center” (SDDC). This is in line with VMware’s overall message lately, positioning themselves as an SDDC solution, not just as one for server virtualization.

I’ll walk through what’s in the new release below. Continue reading →

SimpliVity and Lenovo Announce Hyperconverged Partnership

Posted on 24 August 2015 by GeekFluent

Last week, SimpliVity, a leader in the hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) space, announced that their OmniStack HCI solution will be available on Lenovo hardware. Prior to this announcement, the SimpliVity HCI solution could be deployed in two ways: by using the SimpliVity OmniCube appliances or by running SimpliVity OmniStack on Cisco UCS. This new announcement offers customers a wider choice of options.

I’ll walk through the new solution below. Continue reading →

SimpliVity Closes $175 Million D Round of Funding

Posted on 11 March 2015 by GeekFluent

Yesterday, hyperconverged infrastructure vendor SimpliVity announced that they had raised $175 Million in series D funding.

Waypoint Captial led the round, with previous investors Accel Partners, Charles River Ventures, DFJ Growth, Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers (KPCB), and Meritech Capital Partners joining in. This investment brings SimpliVity’s total venture funding to $276 Million.

SimpliVity’s main product is their OmniStack software-defined hyperconverged infrastructure. Its key is the accelerator card that SimpliVity developed. This card performs inline deduplication, compression, and optimization of all data. SimpliVity can be purchased as the OmniCube, or as OmniStack integrated with Cisco UCS.

What’s most interesting to me is that Waypoint Capital was originally a SimpliVity customer. They were so impressed with the platform that they decided to invest in it.

Expect to see more good things from SimpliVity as they use the additional funding to expand.

Top VMware and Virtualization Blog Survey 2015

Posted on 3 March 2015 by GeekFluent

The blog vSphere-land is holding its annual contest / voting survey for the top 50 VMware- and virtualization-related blogs of 2015. All blogs listed on the vLaunchPad site are eligible.

This blog was added to the vLaunchPad after the nominations for specific recognition categories, but in time to be included in the general voting. It looks like there are about 400 or so blogs eligible, a lot of them ones I read regularly.

I urge you to take a few minutes of time and go to the voting site and make sure your voice is heard for the best blogs. Vote for the ten folks who you find most helpful and most informative. I won’t object if you include this blog in that list, and I won’t take it personally if you don’t — I just urge you to take advantage of the opportunity to be heard and help make sure the best blogs get the recognition they deserve.

PernixData Announces Version 2.5 of Their FVP Software

Posted on 25 February 2015 by GeekFluent

Today, PernixData announced version 2.5 of their FVP software product. This product can provide huge storage performance benefits in VMware environments. Since it’s not something I’ve written about before, and it seems that not everyone has heard of PernixData and FVP yet, I’ll spend a little while explaining what it is and why it’s so interesting before I talk about what’s included in the new version.
Continue reading →

VMware Announces vExperts for 2015

Posted on 5 February 2015 by GeekFluent

Today, VMware announced the list of 2015 vExperts. The “vExpert” designation is not a technical certification, but instead a recognition of community engagement and personal influence within the various VMware and virtualization communities.

I am simultaneously happy, honored, proud, and humbled to have been included among the 1,056 vExperts named for 2015. This marks the fourth year in a row for me.

One of the things I like about the program is that recipients get the title for one year, and one year only. It’s awarded based on things the recipient did during the previous calendar year. If you decide to rest on your laurels or go inactive, you won’t get the title again next year.

My favorite thing about the program is the people involved. All of the vExperts I’ve met — many of whom work in direct competition with each other — are all committed to sharing knowledge, tips, tricks, techniques, and generally helping others learn and improve.

You can see the full list of vExpert 2015 list on the VMware blog site here.

EMC Enters Hyperconverged Infrastructure Market with VSPEX Blue

Posted on 3 February 2015 by GeekFluent

Today EMC announced their entrance into the hyperconverged infrastructure space with a new product named VSPEX Blue. The product is based on the EVO:Rail configurations supported by VMware. The EVO:Rail specifications were announced at VMworld 2014. At that time, only a few hardware vendors had EVO:Rail offerings. More have come since then, with EMC being the latest.

I’ll walk through VSPEX Blue below. Continue reading →

GeekFluent Round-up of VMware Announcements from Monday of Partner Exchange

Posted on 3 February 2015 by GeekFluent

I’m at the VMware Partner Exchange conference now. The pre-conference boot camps have finished up, and the “main” conference is starting. As part of the pre-conference events, VMware made several product announcements, including:

vSphere 6.0
vCloud Air Hybrid Cloud Extensions
VMware Integrated OpenStack (VIO)
VSAN 6.0

I’ll give an overview of each below. Continue reading →

GeekFluent

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