The Ultimate

Let’s play with this a bit, shall we. Pretend we’re hired by Sun Microsystems to come up with a catchy slogan for the Sun Modular Datacenter (which is, no lie, a data center that comes installed in a standard shipping container).

The “MD” is an amazing idea that Sun describes as “the ultimate consolidation and virtualization platform.” A datacenter that comes on a flatbed truck, gets hoisted by a crane onto a foundation, gets wired and supplied with water and is just about ready for action.

It takes up an eighth of the space and reduces cooling costs by a cool 40 percent. And companies can deploy these things in a tenth of the time it takes to build a regular sprawled-out data center.

So. What would you do if you were the “creative” assigned to the ad campaign? Maybe something along the lines of “To think outside the box, we went inside the box.”

Maybe not. For more information, please visit www.electronicdatagirl.com

Free Stuff

It’s not often that a press release brings a smile. They serve a purpose, but it ain’t entertainment.

Still, a flicker of a smile came to my face when I read a recent Sun Microsystems press release. It said a certain product is available “without the hassle of payment.” Indeed, paying for stuff is such a hassle, isn’t it?

In simpler terms, the product – VirtualBox – is free. It’s open source, and can be freely downloaded.

VirtualBox, created by innotek, a company recently acquired by Sun, brings virtualization to the desktop. In other words, “without the hassle of payment,” you can simultaneously run different operating systems including Windows, Linux, Mac, Solaris, even DOS, and easily switch between them.

VirtualBox joins (the not-so-free) Sun xVM Server as part of Sun’s big push toward computing consolidation and virtualization. For more information, please visit www.electronicdatagirl.com

Consolidation

For all the great computing advances of the 1990s, it turns out we were racing toward a brick wall in terms of data center design.

As Sun Microsystems explains on its Web site, the goal of most ’90s IT architects was –– to “decompose applications into separate components.” That sounds like what happens in a compost pile, but we’ll leave that one alone …

Actually, they’re talking about the way most applications were replicated for availability, hosted on separate, dedicated servers and supplied with more processing power than necessary.

So we made a bunch of inefficient, power-hungry, land-hogging data centers that now cost a fortune to operate.

That’s why Sun’s virtualization and consolidation efforts are important. Through virtualization technology, companies can make multiple applications share servers. There are many other benefits to consolidation and virtualization, so – tough as it might be – it really is time to kiss the ’90s goodbye.

For more information, please visit www.electronicdatagirl.com

A Model Purpose

Motorcycle enthusiasts get accustomed to model names with lots of letters. While many people – even those with limited motorcycledom awareness –have heard of an Electra-Glide, only a few know an FHLTCU when they see one.Of course, IT companies are no different. But at least Sun Microsystems had a purpose when it decided that the “umbrella term” for its virtualization and management programs will be xVM.Those letters aren’t just there to look cool. The “x” stands for “cross,” the “V” refers to “virtualization” and the “M” means “management.”It’s pretty revolutionary, actually. Sun is not only helping enterprises gain efficiency through virtualization; it’s also helping them manage that often complex effort. CIOs might want to think about that as they ride to work on their CBR1100XXs.For more information, please visit www.electronicdatagirl.com

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Webinar – Virtualization: Driving Greater DataCenter Efficiency

04/10 – Webinar – Virtualization: Driving Greater DataCenter Efficiency.
Sun and IDC host this discussion, where you can learn how other companies have
improved economics and efficiency as much as 60%. Register Here.

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Tags: webinar, data center, virtualization