It is that time of the year again, the last voting was over a year ago where we made it, thanks to you!, to the 13th place. Voting is now open again for the top VMware & virtualization blogs.  It would be nice and a great honor to get us in the Top 10 this year. So if you like our blog please vote VMGuru.nl (Various) using the BIG button on the left.

We all know Eric Siebert from his vLaunchPad were he publishes his VMware Top blogs. Your votes will help determine the new top 50 bloggers on vLaunchpad. Votes are weighted so a #1 vote counts as 10 points, #2 vote counts as 9 points etc down to 1 point for a #10 vote. The total points for each blog will be added up and will determine the top 50 order.

New this year there will be voting in special categories to help distinguish certain types of blogs. The categories are independent of the general voting so first pick and rank your top 10 overall favorite blogs and then choose your favorite blog in each category.

This week our fellow blogger, Sander Martijn, felt he had to vMotion  to a new career opportunity. After working for Centric for 8 years, he has accepted a new challenge and signed a  contract at Nspyre in the Netherlands.

Sander, congratulations from the rest of the VMGuru.nl crew.

Although Sander is going to switch employers, he will continue blogging at VMGuru.nl.

VMware Next Step in End-User Computing roadshow June 2011 from Ton Hermes, Senior SE VMware on Vimeo.

The Future of End-User Computing goes much further than just delivering a vDesktop and vApplications to users. Users today are demanding more and more that functionality is available 24/7, where new functionality can be immediately obtained when needed and that they can use a device of their choice to work with.

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In my new job I meet many, many vendors and almost all of them have a partner program in which we can achieve bronze, silver, gold, enterprise, premier, business or any other partner status.

In reality the meaning of the term ‘Partner’ is interpreted in many different ways.

According to Wiki, a business partner is:

a term used to denote a commercial entity with which another commercial entity has some form of alliance. This relationship may be a highly contractual, exclusive bond in which both entities commit not to ally with third parties. Alternatively, it may be a very loose arrangement designed largely to impress customers and competitors with the size of the network the business partners belong to.

So, it’s an alliance between two business partners. I get that. An exclusive bond not to ally with other parties, hmm NO. In my line of business a partnership doesn’t imply that I can’t have an alliance with an other vendor. IT service providers collect large numbers of partnerships nowadays to impress others. This matches with the third line, it’s a loose arrangement to impress customers and competitors.

The problem I see with many vendors is the ‘loose‘ part.

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After 5 years at Centric Alex has accepted a new challenge and on May 1st he will be following Edwin, Anne Jan and myself to Imtech ICT.

At Imtech ICT his new job will be Solution Architect.

We are very excited that Alex is coming over to join our team and wish him all the best!

Congratulations Alex !!

VMGuru.nl is going strong! A bit too strong for our current colo. So, we will be moving to a new co-locator this weekend. Moving to a new co-locator also means that we will be moving to new IP addresses. We hope we can make the transition as smooth as possible, but you might experience an outage starting Saturday. This should be limited to Saturday only. If we still can’t be reached beyond that, please notify us via twitter

Stay tuned for more news and insights here at VMGuru.nl!

Today a real Valentines article.

I always knew that Anne Jan is really in love with anything virtual and after last week I also knew that Anne Jan extended his love to the physical world with the Cisco UCS.

But tonight between Cisco UCS and VMware he quickly mentioned he asked his girlfriend to marry him this weekend.

The ‘little rascal’ hadn’t informed anyone, no article on his favorite website, no twitter, no MSN message.

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This is one of the last articles for 2010 and what a beautiful year it has been.

• A lot of new products like vSphere 4.1, Zimbra, View 4.5, ThinApp 4.5.
• The vExpert 2010 achievement for three of the VMGuru.nl bloggers.
• A great VMworld 2010 in Copenhagen and a packed VMUG event.
• A new job for Edwin, Anne Jan and myself.

But 2011 also promises to be a great year with the expected release of vSphere 5, many improvements in View and maybe more job opportunities for VMGuru.nl-crew members.

On behalf of the complete VMGuru.nl-crew I would like to wish you all

a very Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and virtually great 2011!

After 12 years it was time for something new, something
exciting, something fresh.

From the 1st of January 2011 I will also be working for
Imtech ICT Infrastructure  Services & Solutions.

I will join Edwin and Erik at Imtech ICT, building the virtualization
solutions they sell.

Of course I will continue blogging at VMGuru.nl, now with real life experiences from Imtech ICT. The main story will still be ‘virtualization’ but the ingredients will differ, NetApp/IBM N-series instead of Dell EqualLogic, IBM servers instead of Dell.

After 13 years at Centric I accepted a new challenge and on December 1st I will be following Edwin to Imtech ICT Infrastructure Services & Solutions in the Netherlands. In my new job as a Solution Architect my primary focus will be on virtualization and storage.

I want to thank Centric for giving me the opportunity to develop from Helpdesk employee to Solution Architect.

Of course I will keep on blogging at VMGuru.nl.

During VMworld Europe 2010 in Copenhagen I will be keeping a diary to show what a blogger’s life is all about.

Thursday 14 October 2010

Alex working very early

6:30

Time to get up my phone is blinking with a reminder for the Zimbra breakfast meeting in the Scandic Hotel. The ritual stuff to be dealt with, washing, shaving and getting dressed. Damn it is early but everything for a good cause.

7:00

Alex and I leave the hotel to the metro station through a light moist dark morning. A lot of activity along the line. Erik and Anne Jan still firm a sleep. We arrive at the metro station in about 15 minutes. Just missed the one on the platform so just will have to wait for the next one in 6 minutes. I must say transportation is very good in Copenhagen. Yes the metro arrived and we get in along the line more and more folks from Denmark join in and get ready for work.

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During VMworld Europe 2010 in Copenhagen I will be keeping a diary to show what a blogger’s life is all about.

Wednesday 13 October 2010

7:30

Alarm clock is buzzing far far away….

7:34

A loud bang on the door, Alex moving towards the door so I can turn over again and fall a sleep…

7:50

ohh crap overslept probably the age as some friend and guest blogger Sander pointed out nicely

7:51

Time for a shower pulling the shower curtain around me now to find that water lever again, still not away while the water is plunging on top of my head. Feels good!

8:06

Breakfast time, I see a lot of sleepy heads of people moving through each other in complete chaos around the food and beverage tables. Gets easier and easier to move swiftly through the mass to my goal.

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During VMworld Europe 2010 in Copenhagen I will be keeping a diary to show what a blogger’s life is all about.

Tuesday 12 October 2010

7:00

The alarm clock is buzzing away happily. Good morning all a nice day ahead again. Time to move away from my bed and get ready. Booting the laptop to check the vmguru.nl stats and see what is happening out there in the world. Stats seem to be frozen so asking Alex if he can check.

7:04

While Alex is checking why the stats aren’t working I start shaving and washing myself. I hear some power words and Alex mumbling loudly that the programmers should make some decent documented manual or troubleshooting guide so you can find out why stats are broken.

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During VMworld Europe 2010 in Copenhagen I will be keeping a diary to show what a blogger’s life is all about.

Monday 11 October 2010

8:10

Just woke up, maybe that phone that keeps ringing in the distance is the one who caused me to awake from my deep sleep… mmmm no its my own phone but where did I put it. Careful not to sit up and jump out of bed or I will be laying down on my face on the hotel room floor 2 meters below   Ahh it is my lovely wife waking me up Careful to get out of the bunk bed and trying to jump onto the small stairs hanging at the bed.

Alex got some fear in his sleepy eyes maybe because some gorilla just jumped onto a small stairs close to his head, morning mate.

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During VMworld Europe 2010 in Copenhagen I will be keeping a diary to show what a blogger’s life is all about.

Sunday 10 October 2010

7:54

I am awake early today. Maybe because it is the day to go on a vRoadtrip to Copenhagen with the VMguru crew J Time to check my e-mail and twitter flow to get up to speed. More and more bloggers, speakers, partners and VMware personal is moving towards Copenhagen. Just follow the flow of tweets…

8:30

Time for a shower and shave I reckon. Ahh that feels good fresh and fruity! Packing my bag with cloths and such I will need next couple of days. Now time to gather all electronic gadgets I will need. AC  adapters, network cables, laptop, mobile phone, business cards and an alarm clock. The bag feels heavy.

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This week our fellow blogger, Edwin Weijdema, accepted a new challenge and signed a new contract at Imtech ICT in the Netherlands.

Of course Edwin will be missed but we all understand him ‘sailing’ to a new employer and we at VMGuru.nl wish Edwin all the best at his new job.

Although Edwin has switched sides he will continue blogging at VMGuru.nl.

When it comes to storage, the EqualLogic PS-series amazes me every time.

Last Tuesday I was at a client site investigating performance issues but when I opened SANHQ and the web interface on the PS 6000E one thing stood out. The performance issues were not caused by the storage device. The PS 6000E is hosting 12 virtualized Citrix XenApp servers en 8 supporting VMs and during heavy load the average latency is 1,2ms with a read/write ratio of 28%/72% and a max of 1100 IOPS.

But yesterday we had to swap SANs, a PS 5000XV for a PS 6000E and the ease with which this can be done amazes me every time. The hardest part was the process of endless firmware updates on the PS 5000XV to get it to a respectable level to get it to join the PS 6000 in the same storage group.

We had to upgrade from firmware version 3.3.0 to 4.3.4 but this is no simple task because you cannot directly apply 4.3.4. First we had to upgrade to 4.0.7, then to 4.1.7, to 4.3.4. Every time uploading the firmware using FTP, updating both controllers, restarting. This took us almost 2 hours to complete.

When this was done, all that was left was to join the PS 6000 in the existing storage group and evict the PS 5000 and this is the process that amazes me every time.

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It was Valentine’s Day, February 14th, the day the boys and girls at Partner Exchange exchange business cards with their business partners.  They draw hearts and flowers and write funny poems.  VMware awoke early and looked over at the stack of cards ready and waiting to be given to friends, including one very special card for Cisco and NetApp, VMware’s best friends.

At the Partner Exchange, VMware was surprised to see that lots of other partners were already there and every desk was piled high with Valentines.  VMware went to work right away, hurrying to leave a Valentine at each desk before the bell rang for the keynote.

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Have you ever wondered what the world of work would look like in 2020? I have. With the huge technological progress, it’s hard to imagine what we will be doing and how the world around will look.

If you look at the way we do our jobs today, it seems to be a lot like factory, blue collar labour. It is somewhat cleaner, but the way we do our work today is just like in the early 1900′s in the Ford factory at the treadmill. The industrial revolution made it possible to automate almost everything with machines. Only the parts that could not be automated, were filled by people. Still we treat them as if they are just a mechanical part of a larger machine.

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hey folks!

First of all, a happy newyear to you all!

With 2009 behind us, we look forward to a new and intense 2010. Personally, I think 2010 will be a very interesting year. With the world economy leaving the ruins of the crisis and alot of new trends and technology introductions ahead, we are in for quite a treat. Also, we are eagerly looking forward to VMworld in Copenhagen, later this year. We hope to see a lot of you in Denmark!

However, a quick look back is in order too. (more…)