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Posts tagged Cloud
Microsoft Private Cloud Computing Book Release
Jun 15th
Monday June 18 2012 will be the big day for us. Our book Microsoft Private Cloud Computing will be officially available and even a little earlier than expected. Mid-2011 four MVP’s decided to make a joint effort at writing a practical book on deploying a Microsoft Private Cloud. The four authors are:
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Aidan Finn (MVP Virtual Machine @joe_elway)
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Patrick Lownds (MVP Virtual Machine @patricklownds)
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Damian Flynn (MVP System Center Cloud and Datacenter Management @damian_flynn)
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Hans Vredevoort (MVP Virtual Machine @hvredevoort)
Kristian Nese (@kristiannese) who is also MVP System Center Cloud and Datacenter Management kindly accepted the role of technical reviewer. Kristian has also written a book on Cloud Computing in Norwegian.
Learn the foundation of cloud computing and how to build your own Microsoft private cloud
Written by a team of expert authors who are MVPs and leaders in their respective fields, this one-of-a-kind book is an essential resource for IT administrators who are responsible for implementing and managing a cloud infrastructure. You’ll quickly learn how cloud computing offers significant cost savings while also providing new levels of speed and agility.
Serving as a how-to guide, Microsoft Private Cloud Computing walks you through building a secure, internal cloud and delivering it as a service to your company using Microsoft Windows Server Hyper-V and Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012.
- Walks you through the entire process: understanding cloud computing, understanding the Microsoft concept of a private cloud, deploying a private cloud fabric, deploying services, and building a private cloud, as well as integrating it with Microsoft’s public cloud to create a cross-premises or public cloud
- Discusses fabric management with System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2012
- Examines how to provide network and storage with VMM 2012
- Looks at the VMM library configuration
- Discusses private cloud and cloud service management with Microsoft App Controller
Microsoft Private Cloud Computing is a must-have comprehensive resource that covers all aspects of implementing a private cloud
Aidan wrote the introductory chapters on Private Cloud, Hans dealt with the Fabric Management chapters (Servers, Storage, Network) including Bare Metal Deployment, Patrick wrote the chapters on Service Management (VMM Library, Service Modeling) and Damian contributed chapters on Private Cloud Solutions (VMM Services, Self-Service, App Controller) including the Cloud Services Process Pack.
If you are dealing with the Fabric part you need lots and lots of hardware. Fortunately one of our great customers at INOVATIV as well as my personal friends from XS4ALL (Joey Hofstede, Alexander Rijnbeek) have helped us tremendously. They offered us a remotely accessible lab including HP Blade Servers, HP EVA storage and lots of capacity to test all new VMM 2012 functionality. XS4ALL is a key Dutch Internet Provider, so you can imagine the download speeds if I ever wanted to grab a few ISO’s.
The book can be ordered here and will hopefully soon be found in most large bookstores.
Here are the (earlier) announcement blogs of my fellow authors:
Aidan: http://www.aidanfinn.com/?p=12024
Damian: http://www.damianflynn.com/2012/01/17/microsoft-private-cloud-computing-book/
All-In with System Center 2012: 8 minute video [Dutch]
Jun 7th
The company I work for is All In with Microsoft System Center 2012 and it is no surprise that we spend a lot of effort getting across the message that this Microsoft Management suite is what you really need if you build a Microsoft Private Cloud with a heterogeneous landscape of hypervisors, operations systems and applications.
In my book Microsoft Private Cloud Computing several of the important pieces are covered such as System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 and App Controller 2012.
This 8-minute video explains why System Center 2012 is such an interesting management suite and ought to be considered by every IT manager or CIO looking to efficiently manage a small, medium or large datacenter.
Dutch version: http://www.systemcenter2012.nl/
Please take a look at the list of System Center 2012 References at the bottom of this blog.
System Center References:
System Center User Group [Dutch]: http://www.scug.nl/
System Center Blog: http://www.systemcenterblog.nl/
System Center Central: http://www.systemcentercentral.com/
System Center Microsoft site: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/system-center/default.aspx
System Center 2012 Books: http://www.systemcenterblog.nl/tag/system-center-2012/
System Center Technical Resources: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/systemcenter/
System Center Solution Center: http://support.microsoft.com/ph/16340
Microsoft Private Cloud Computing Book: http://www.aidanfinn.com/?p=12024
How to Participate in the System Center Community:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/11504.how-to-participate-in-the-system-center-community.aspx
System Center twitter hashtags;
http://www.systemcentercentral.com/BlogDetails/tabid/143/IndexID/92725/Default.aspx
System Center Virtual Machine Manager Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/scvmm/
System Center Operations Manager Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/momteam/
System Center Data Protection Manager Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/dpm/
System Center Service Manager Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/servicemanager/
System Center Orchestrator Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/orchestrator/
System Center Configuration Manager Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/configmgrteam/
System Center Cloud and Datacenter Management (CDM) MVP’s:
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/communities/mvp.aspx?product=1&competency=System+Center+Cloud+and+Datacenter+Management
The private cloud explained
Nov 28th
Everybody is talking about the cloud these days. However the term Cloud is completely over-hyped! Suppliers rebrand their products into cloud products even when it has not only one Cloud property. People say that they are using Cloud computing, but they mean virtualization… and so on.
In this article I’ll try to explain the Internal Cloud and what you need for the Internal Cloud. We also will take a look if we can build an Internal Cloud with Hyper-V and System Center.
Let’s first take a look at the Wikipedia definition of Cloud computing:
Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility (like the electricity grid) over a network (typically the Internet).
When you look at this definition I can imagine that you say: Hey we’re already doing this for a couple of years and that can be true. Cloud is just a marketing term!
Ok now we’ve clarified the term Cloud let’s take a look at the difference between an internal cloud and a public (external) cloud. The main difference is that an internal cloud is only dedicated to your company and a public cloud is shared with many. An example of a public cloud service is Office 365. Many companies share this platform with other companies and it’s not possible to get a dedicated Exchange server or Sharepoint server within this service. The opposite is true for a private cloud service. Within a private cloud you can get dedicated servers or dedicated hardware.
However, the question is: when are we talking about a private cloud? Well Gartner made a nice model with required en preferred components for a private cloud:
When any of the required components is missing we’re not talking about a private cloud.
How serious is HP taking Hyper-V Private Cloud?
Jun 3rd
As an invited blogger I will be at HP Discover 2011 next week (6-10 June) at the Venetian in Las Vegas. It is HP’s big Enterprise Business event that covers HP’s entire portfolio products, solutions and services. If you want to follow what is going on please follow the hashtag #HPDiscover
Again I will view the presentations, workshops and exhibitions through the eyes of an architect of private cloud infrastructure. I want to find out if HP has discovered there is more than one hypervisor ready for prime business. Of course I will interrogate HP people about their integration with Microsoft Virtualization, System Center, Hyper-V Private Cloud and Azure.
I have been working with HP (and previously Compaq) servers and storage since day one and I’m looking forward to their newest developments and announcements. We have built many server virtualization platforms based on HP ProLiant (BladeSystem) servers, HP EVA, HP LeftHand and HP MSA, now called P6000, P4000 and P2000. I intend to take a closer look at HP 3PAR (and wonder if this storage array gets a P#### number as well).
Let’s see how far HP has progressed with integrating HP and Microsoft technology. Hopefully it is not a VMware only story as it has been in the past, despite HP’s involvement in Hyper-V Private Cloud, the Fast Track program and the reference architecture built for this purpose. The first proof of real involvement was the Hyper-V Cloud HP built for Microsoft Management Summit 2011, the event I attended three months ago. Never thought I’d see Vegas again so quickly. I am not complaining.
Please also view this: http://www.linkcounter.com/go.php?linkid=326371
HP Technology@Work on Tour 2011 (part 3)
May 6th
Looking back on the business day
It’s always difficult to contemplate when you are right in the middle of something. Now that I have returned from the Madrid edition of HP’s Technology@Work on Tour 2011, I had some time to think what was remarkable, promising, disappointing or difficult to grasp.
As an invited but independent industry blogger it is not directly my intention to make or break what was presented at the event. Some of the things I found remarkable have already been tweeted under the #HPTAW hashtag. In this blog I am happy to use more than 140 characters to further detail my observations.
Before I arrived I was fully aware that the first day of the event would focus on the business side and that the second day would have a more technical focus.
Although I have not counted, I estimated there were approximately 700 visitors on the first day. The second day of technical sessions attracted about 400 visitors. It was difficult to tell whether the visitors of the second day also attended on the first day, but my guess is that business and technically oriented people still don’t mix very well.
HP Technology@Work on Tour 2011 (part 1)
May 4th
I am at HP Technology@Work in Madrid and just before the start of the keynotes. Today will be a business oriented day around the main topics of the conference: Converged Infrastructure, Cloud Computing and specifically HP’s CloudSystem which is advertised as an integrated system to build, secure and manage hybrid cloud.
The keynote will be in three parts:
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HP Converged Infrastructure – enabling your Instant-On Enterprise
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Intel: Cloud Computing – from Vision to Action
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HP CloudSystem: An integrated system to build, secure and manage hybrid cloud services
I am not sure if I can tweet a lot during the day because there very limited wireless internet at the IFEMA, Centro de Convenciones. The #HPTAW twitter hashtag hasn’t been communicated broadly and there is no sign of social media awareness, except for the team of bloggers who have now gathered in the speaking room getting ready for the event.
This afternoon we will have a podcast with Mark Payne, Director ESSN Alliances Europe Middle East & Africa.
You’ll hear more from me on this.
SCVMM 2012 – Bare Metal Deployment of Hyper-V Servers
Apr 20th
Instead of one big article, I decided to split the Bare Metal Deployment blog in a number of smaller pieces to reach the final goal: automating the creation of a Hyper-V cluster. If you go back a few articles you’ll see several other blogs about SCVMM 2012. Although only recently in beta, it is a remarkable piece of software with a great number of new and astounding features aimed at creating and managing what we have come to call the private cloud.
Let me first point out that although SCVMM 2012 is well equipped to manage Hyper-V, VMware and XenServer hosts, some features are currently focusing on Hyper-V as its primary citizen. In the current version Bare Metal Deployment and Cluster Creation can only be done with Hyper-V R2. The primary reason for this is the technology used: boot from VHD which is an R2 feature not seen in VMware or XenServer.
In my previous blogs I explained the concept of Run As Accounts/Profiles, Out of Band Management, adding HP iLO2 to OOB and Host Profiles in SCVMM 2012.
Microsoft Virtual Academy
Apr 4th
I took all four available courses on Microsoft Virtual Academy. Quite a nice crash course about private and public cloud based on Microsoft technology. It took me a few hours to reach a shared first place with 372 points completing all four assessments. I’m looking forward to more content. There are still a few medals to earn …
Learn about Azure at Microsoft Virtual Academy
Apr 1st
Microsoft is offering a number of courses via its recently launched Microsoft Virtual Academy. You can enroll by logging in with your Windows Live account.
Creating a Cloud in 90 seconds with VMM 2012
Mar 25th
In this video Kenon Owens is interviewed by Symon Perriman, talking about creating a Private Cloud with Virtual Machine Manager in less than 90 seconds! Symon is the guy with the stop-watch!
Go and see this cool video (contains a demo towards the end):
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/edge/mms-90-seconds-to-the-cloud-virtual-machine-manager-2012-beta-with-kenon-owens
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