NetApp - The Virtual Storage Guy

Need more on VDI, stay tuned…

I want to thank everyone who has contributed to the conversation around VDI. Wow, for a blog which was posted at 8:00 PM EDT on a Friday evening, to attract this much attention in 24 hours, I believe that I may have struck a nerve.

At present time, it appears that my friends at EMC are a bit perplexed as to the capabilities and integration of NetApp technologies with VMware VDI. I noticed in his most recent post that Chad has begun to turn this discussion towards performance. I’m not the least bit surprised that when the conversation around functionality falters the dialog turns to speeds and feeds.

I bring this up because I don’t think we are done with the conversation around manageability and administration of VDI environments. I’d really like to share more with you right now, unfortunately I will have to defer until after we present the NetApp breakout session on VDI Thursday morning (session ID VD2387 @ 9:30 AM PDT).

Adjust your VMworld schedule if seats still remain… looks like we might need a bigger room.

The used car salesman approach

Ever feel like someone is telling you everything you want to hear while their true raison d'être is for their own gain?

Maybe I’m off base here, so I‘ll ask you to help me decide

I believe we all agree that a few of the core goals with implementing VMware are simplifying operations, and to drive down infrastructure costs.  So am I missing something with this post from Chad?

The Challenge of VDI

VDI is a great means to drive down the operational cost associated with providing and servicing an end user environment.  The challenge to VDI is that the environments are very large.  I mean moderate installations are commonly 1,500 seats and at the high end we have customers looking at 50,000 – 100,000 seats.  At this scale it is easy to understand why the storage infrastructure cost can be a large hurdle facing an organization considering the adoption of VDI.

VMworld 2008... less than 100 hours away

Many of you will begin your travel to VMworld 2008 within the next couple of days.  I have to admit I am really excited for this years show.  I’m on my way in tonight, so if you’re in town look me up!  We’ll be working during the day (as NetApp is the storage provider for eight Hands on Labs), but our evenings are free.

I apologize for my absence from the blogosphere, but I’ve been burning the candles at both ends along with the rest of my team as we wrap up our content for the show.  If you’d like to read about what we have in store for you check out Nick’s blog.

I hope to see you there.