RMWTUG Welcome and Comparison Presentation – Dennis Martin
Virtualization has grabbed the attention of many IT professionals and often raises more questions than it answers. We hope to answer a few of these questions by directly comparing two different hypervisor implementations: VMware ESX and Microsoft Hyper-V. In this session, we’ll explore how these two implementations are similar and how they are different, using enterprise-class servers, networking and storage. We’ll explore some of the management capabilities of the two hypervisors, including management of physical and virtual environments, and how they interact with networking and storage devices. We will also discuss when to virtualize and when not to virtualize.
Dennis Martin is the President of Demartek, an industry analysis firm with its own test lab based in Arvada, Colorado. Dennis is also a Microsoft MVP for file systems and storage and is the Founder and current President of the Rocky Mountain Windows Technology User Group. Dennis has been working in the IT industry for more than 27 years in software development and project management for large and small end-user IT shops and engineering and marketing positions for storage vendors such as StorageTek. Dennis has been an industry analyst since 2000. Dennis has hands-on experience on a variety of computing platforms including mainframe, UNIX and Windows environments.
Virtual Storage for a Virtual World – Claudia Castellanos
As server and network virtualization become more mainstream, leveraging a virtual storage infrastructure can ease management, high availability, performance, and data protection within virtual infrastructures. Lewan, Compellent and VMware will present a top to bottom approach demonstrating how network, server, SAN and storage virtualization can be integrated and leveraged to build and support a comprehensive virtualization platform. This session will also deep-dive into the virtual storage layer to demonstrate how the functionality and capabilities in this area can add significant value to a virtualization strategy.
Claudia Castellanos is a Systems Engineer and VMware VCP/VAC with Lewan & Associates, a leading technology integrator in the Denver area. She has been working in the IT industry for 9 years, starting out as a developer and moving on to designing, architecting, and implementing complex solutions for large companies. Claudia Castellanos is also a Citrix CCA in three competencies and an MCSE with extensive experience in desktop, application, and server virtualization.
Designing a Virtualization Architecture – Greg Shields
CA reports that 44% of virtualization deployments ultimately fail. The biggest problems with those implementations relate to poor planning and bad expectations. If you’re considering making a move to virtualization, or even if you’ve already made the jump but into a less-than-stellar result, you need to attend this high-level session with Virtual Architect Greg Shields. We’ll talk about the best practices for designing a world-class virtualization architecture that scales, meets your need, and ensures you get the best bang for your virtual dollar.
Greg Shields, MVP, is an independent author, instructor, and IT consultant based in Denver, Colorado, and a co-founder of Concentrated Technology. With nearly 15 years of experience in information technology, Greg has developed extensive experience in systems administration, engineering, and architecture specializing in Microsoft systems management, remote application, and virtualization technologies. Greg is a Contributing Editor for Redmond Magazine, MCPmag.com, and Virtualization Review Magazine, the Resident Editor for Realtime Publishers’ Windows Server Community, and is the author of five books including Windows Server 2008: What’s New / What’s Changed. Greg is a recipient of Microsoft “Most Valuable Professional” award with a specialization in Windows Terminal Services.
The Changing Face of the Datacenter: Best Managing Your Resources through Virtualization – Jeff Drescher
Gone are the days when organizations thought virtualization was just a mere buzzword. Virtualization technology is rapidly gaining momentum in the datacenter as a cost-effective and flexible solution. Organizations that do not take advantage of virtualization technology will spend significantly more budget and additional management on their storage than organizations running virtualized environments. As the datacenter infrastructure evolves toward virtualization, organizations need a clear understanding of how to manage and co-exist with virtual storage and capture these cost-savings. This session will address how storage products operate in virtual environments, how virtual storage is best managed, and how to engage open source and cross-platform technology in virtual environments.