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Blog Entries in virtualization.info

Friday, October 24th, 2008 - 11:38 am EDT

Asking the right questions to ensure the right solution

Posted by: Gary Phillips

As a result of economic turbulence, companies of all sizes continue to explore virtualization as an option for shedding costs. With the growing number of virtualization options available, it’s important not to let your organization fall victim to virtualization buzzwords. Not all vendors offer the benefits of virtualization, yet many claim they do.

With that being said, when deciding which solution to implement within your organization, IT decision makers should be prepared with an arsenal of questions to ask each provider – doing so will eliminate the typical “fluff” vendors use to sell their supposed virtualization solutions. Having all your questions answered will ensure that you get the most appropriate and highest quality solution for the applications you wish to protect. The following is a list of questions that might assist IT professionals in making their virtualization-related decisions, and some other considerations we offer:

  • Should I start to deploy on a small scale or implement everything at once? Answers will vary depending on the size and flexibility or your organization. It’s important that the vendor understand the nature of your business and the value of your critical data before making a suggestion. Whether you are a small, nimble organization with the ability to deploy on all critical apps, or a large enterprise with procedural requirements that prevent you from total deployment, the implementation strategy should be tailored to your needs. There is not a “one size fits all” virtualization strategy.


  • How much should I consolidate? We usually suggest phased deployment – start from scratch with the applications and environments that aren’t so mission critical, and then continue deploying as you see appropriate. It’s important to make sure that the vendor you have chosen can support your initiative.


  • If I do decide to consolidate, does the server virtualization option I have chosen also meet my application availability needs? Since the implications of downtime in virtual environments have become greater, understanding solutions used to protect business critical applications is crucial. Some important things to consider are:
    • Is the solution a “one-size-fits-all” approach, or does it offer flexible protection?
    • Does it support different levels of availability for your applications?
    • What will my cost savings be?


  • How am I going to manage the virtualization solution? The manageability of virtual machines is a different dynamic, especially if this is your first time dealing with virtual machines. The IT processes and management needs are very different. A plan for management must be in place in order to have a successful solution – otherwise you’ll find a lot of redundancy and the need for unnecessary maintenance.


  • What do I need for security? As higher applications are moved to the virtualization environment, security disciplines need to move as well.

These are just a few examples that should help get the conversation going. Has anyone deployed a virtual environment that wasn’t the right fit? What were the repercussions and what needed to be done to correct it?

If anyone has any questions they wish they had asked prior to purchasing, please leave them in the comments below and we will be sure to add them to the list.

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Availability  Downtime  Marathon  Virtual Machine  Virtualization  Virtualization.info 

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Thursday, August 7th, 2008 - 5:03 am EDT

Virtualization Congress 2008: Discount for Customers and Business Partners

Posted by: Brian Mullins

As many of you may know, we will be attending virtualization.info’s Virtualization Congress 2008 in London, October 14-16. We highly recommend European IT executives attend the event to gain from vendors and peers lessons learned on planning, implementing, maintaining and maximizing virtualization investments.

Marathon CTO Jerry Melnick will be on hand at the event as a keynote speaker and will be discussing why the XenServer and everRun combination is so resilient. This won’t be the typical “marketing fluff” event you’re probably use to; instead presenters will be sharing real life case studies to illustrate how their products and services have helped deliver on the promises they’ve made to their customers. Additional keynote speakers of note include: virtualization.info founder, Alessandro Perilli, and Citrix CTO, Simon Crosby.

As a Gold Sponsor for the event, we have been given the privilege of providing our customers and business partners attending the event with a 25% discount for registration. To receive the discount simply visit the event registration page and enter the discount code: PartnersAtVC2008.

For those that have already signed up, Alessandro has made the event agenda available here. If you have any additional questions regarding our involvement in the Virtualization Congress or surrounding the event itself, don’t hesitate to contact us directly or leave a comment here on the blog. Hope to see you there!

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Events  EverRun VM  Marathon  Simon Crosby  Virtualization  Virtualization.info  XenServer 

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Wednesday, July 16th, 2008 - 5:17 am EDT

Consolidating With Confidence

Posted by: Brian Mullins

With Microsoft’s Hyper-V announcement a few weeks back, the buzz around virtualization continues to rise. In this Network World podcast, our CTO Jerry Melnick discusses what Microsoft’s announcement means for the virtualization industry. Jerry believes that Microsoft’s moves will bring virtualization within reach of many companies who have been hesitant about adopting it before now – giving Microsoft the opportunity to swim in uncharted waters where VMware hasn’t been able to go.

The podcast also highlights Jerry’s take on the thriving virtualization industry and how the growing virtualization ecosystem is creating solutions that “fill in the blanks” e.g. everRun VM allows customers of all sizes to “consolidate with confidence” with reliable availability for virtual servers.

Do you think availability is a critical factor for a successful virtualization deployment?

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Availability  EverRun  EverRun VM  Marathon  Podcast  Virtualization  Virtualization.info  VMware 

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Monday, December 3rd, 2007 - 3:24 pm EST

Are You Watching? CIO Says You Should Be

Posted by: admin

On Friday, CIO Magazine included us in its "10 Virtualization Companies to Watch in 2008." Considering that the virtualization movement itself is something to watch in 2008, we couldn’t be happier. So, we know what you are all asking. What can we expect from Marathon in 2008? Well, that’s a topic for another post, but here is what you can expect from the blog in 2008.

1) Marathon Technologies “Are You Available Tonight?” blog will continue to keep you updated on all things Marathon and more. We’ll introduce a few guest bloggers now and again to keep things fresh and stimulate the minds of our readers.

2) We’ll link to Tarry Singh at least a few times because we think Tarry is insightful and we think our readers will like him to. (Read his post on the CIO Article, here)

3) We’ll avoid unnecessary “link love.” Although there are a lot of bloggers we enjoy reading, there is no need to link to them here, here, here and here.

4) Maybe, if you’re good, we’ll add a few pictures to really enhance the experience… but only if you’re good.

5) We’ll take requests… we mean for blog topics, please send your requests for Taylor Hicks to Ryan Seacrest.

So, that’s what you have to look forward to. It’s going to be a big year for the blog and we’re glad to have you aboard. Congratulations to the other 9 companies featured in the CIO article. We’ll be watching.

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CIO  Featured  Marathon  Virtualization  Virtualization.info  VMblog 

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Monday, September 24th, 2007 - 2:03 pm EDT

A Busy Month for Virtualization and Availability

Posted by: admin

September has been a whirlwind of activity for the Virtualization and High Availability space…

  • The success of VMworld (which saw attendance increase to 11,000 from 7,000 last year according to Allesandro Perilli at Virtualization.Info)
  • AppCon 2007 to discuss the needs of mid-market IT Professionals responsible for assuring high availability and disaster recovery of business-critical applications
  • And more importantly, the glamorous stuff that comes with a growing industry… Like TV Appearances (Gary Phillips on NECN) and Magazine Interviews (Steve Keilen in Processor Magazine)

It’s been a great month in terms of connecting with the best and brightest and discussing the future of the Industry. Every day we encounter news coverage and blog postings that provide an inside look into how the space is evolving and the opportunities that exist to improve the way we all do business.

For example, David Marshall’s post on VMblog discussing IDC’s report on the migration to next generation platforms in Asia/Pacific and Japan. As Virtualization grows in popularity and adoption levels increase, priorities will change based on the size of the organization, technological needs, and geographic region to name just a few.

We’re all continuing to learn what’s important and why when adopting Virtualization technology. That’s why these events, conversations and the activity this month are so important… it’s not just about the TV and Magazine coverage.

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Appcon  High Availability  Virtualization  Virtualization.info  VMblog  VMware  VMworld 

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