I sincerely appreciate receiving these awards, and thank Microsoft and VMware for their faith in me. I also sincerely appreciate the contribution and feedback I get from the technical community around me, and thank you just as much for these awards. I would not have received them without the readers of my blog, the attendees at my seminars, and the vast community that I interact with on a daily basis. Thank you!
VMware PSP and SATP in Plain English
June 6, 2011 By 2 Comments
I am often questioned during my Storage for Virtual Environments seminar presentations about VMware’s Pluggable Storage Architecture (PSA). This system is fairly straightforward and concept: VMware provides native multipathing support for a variety of storage arrays, and allows third parties to substitute their own plug-ins at various points in the stack. But the profusion of acronyms and third-party options makes it difficult for end-users to figure out what is going on.
Dragon Dictate for Mac: Utterly Frustrating
May 27, 2011 By 9 Comments
For the last few months, I’ve been experimenting with dictation software on the Mac. Previously, I had used the built-in dictation software in Windows Vista and Windows 7, but it was annoying to launch a virtual machine every time I wanted to dictate something. On the Mac and purchase an (expensive) copy of Dragon Dictate for Mac. So far, my experience has been less than positive.
I Don’t Care If You Claim It Works (The Support Matrix Blues)
April 28, 2011 By 1 Comment
As an IT professional, I subscribe to a simple rule: I won’t recommend a solution that’s not listed in the support matrix or HCL. “I don’t care if it works, only that it supported,” is really a cynical overstatement of this position. Of course I care whether or not a solution works! But merely claiming that something works is not sufficient for me to recommend it. I need to be able to demonstrate that it’s a supported configuration. Show me the listing, and I’ll start recommending it.
Granularity: The Hidden Challenge of Storage Management
April 19, 2011 By 2 Comments
Many storage challenges focus on the conflict between data management, which demands an ever-smaller unit of management, and storage management, which benefits most from consolidation. Developing data management capability that is both granular enough for applications and scalable enough for storage is one key to the future of storage.
Back From the Pile: Interesting Links, April 8, 2011
April 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment
vSphere 5 To Include vStorage API for Token Ring Integration
April 1, 2011 By 1 Comment
VMware shocked the world today, pre-announcing an important addition to the vStorage family of APIs found in their marquee vSphere family of products. The vStorage API for Token Ring Integration (VATRI) promises to ease the transition to converged networks featuring the emerging Fibre Channel over Token Ring (FCoTR) storage protocol. According to a recent report by The D’Plata Group, FCoTR is set dominate the enterprise storage market, and this integration is a confident step in that direction.
Back From the Pile: Interesting Links, March 4, 2011
March 5, 2011 By Leave a Comment
I spent this week at the 2011 Microsoft MVP Summit in Redmond, WA. It was an excellent trip, full of great information that I can’t talk about: Microsoft is the only company I have an NDA with! But I can say that no one should count that company out. Although Apple, Google, and Facebook (?!) get all the attention, Microsoft is making some good moves. The Kinnect and Windows Phone 7 show that innovation and creativity is alive and well in Redmond!
Introducing Storage for Virtual Environments (From My Seminar)
March 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Next Thursday I will present my new-for-2011 Storage for Virtual Environments seminar. I hit on an interesting twist while working on the content: Virtual environments pose a challenge but also create an opportunity for storage people. Virtual environments are very demanding of storage features and performance, but we have the necessary tools in our arsenal. We just have to use them!
Get Dragon Dictate 2 for Mac, Just $129 Today Only!
February 23, 2011 By 1 Comment
I’ve been wanting to pick up a copy of Dragon Dictate for Mac for a while, but it’s an expensive proposition at $199 (list price). Amazon has been marking it down to $149 regularly, but even that’s fairly expensive. As a paid writer I can justify the cost as a business expense. But as a bargain hunter, I hoped that some day Amazon would drop the price further.
