Archive of posts: 'virtualization' tag

Server virtualization is one of the most important IT trends of the past decade. According to Gartner, server virtualization has recently surpassed 50% of all server workloads, and the number of virtualization workloads is likely to grow fivefold by 2015. Drivers for this rapid adoption include reduced hardware costs, improved resource utilization, radically streamlined provisioning and more – all leading to improvements in data...

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Although virtualization is a cost-effective move for many organizations, it can also be a network management nightmare if the right steps aren’t taken before and during the deployment process. Even if network performance appears healthy, the strain of supporting a VDI deployment might prove otherwise. In these cases, it is not uncommon for companies to point the finger at the...

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Remember when data, video and voice networks were separate? Before cloud was a buzz word, cellphones were only for calls, virtualization was in its infancy and what’s an iPad? Considering all of these changes, it seems an impossible job for network teams to maintain high functioning networks and applications with the flood of changes we have experienced throughout the IT...

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2011 could be considered the year that network performance management “came of age.” In this past year, IT and network managers in organizations of all sizes and industry segments have become aware — if they weren’t already — that the performance of the network is the foundation of user experience and business success. Why was 2011 such a pivotal year...

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The countdown to 2012 continues with Network Performance Management Prediction #2 – Mixing Business and IT!  Productivity is dependent on a functioning network. If the phones are down, then so is business. Therefore, network performance solutions must provide actionable and easily understood information that can be interpreted by more than network engineers. Of course, there will be data that requires...

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Server virtualization and cloud computing are often talked about – even by service providers — as if the terms were interchangeable. This is, in part, because both were developed to solve a similar business problem: more computing with less resources. Virtualization is amongst the technologies used to provide cloud computing services. The core difference is management of the hardware; virtualization...

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It is a long accepted practice to build three-tier data center LANs based on access, distribution and core switches. But now data center LANs are being re-architected to meet the demands of virtualization, SaaS and cloud computing. The question now is, what architectures and technologies are appropriate  for this new purpose? For example, what is the best alternative to the...

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The benefits of virtualization are clear cut – massive financial savings in the long run. Virtualization enables organizations to use inexpensive hardware as terminals for multiple desktops which lowers costs in energy, hardware, maintenance and licensing. From a daily user’s standpoint, the convenience of accessing their personal desktops from any device effectively accelerates their time-to-value. However, the transition to virtualization...

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From the largest regional medical centers to small provider offices, today’s healthcare organizations depend on network sensitive applications. Electronic Health Records (EHR), ePrescriptions, web-based clinical records, online medical registries, desktop virtualization, VoIP, IP storage, cloud–based system, Software-as-a-Service — all of these critical applications rely on network performance. When bandwidth, latency and other key parameters fall below acceptable thresholds, network dependent services abruptly become...

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There’s no question that the healthcare sector is rapidly embracing cloud computing. Recent studies by IDC and CDW both show that one-third of healthcare organizations are already implementing or maintaining cloud-based systems – ranking third among sectors polled, just behind large enterprises and higher education. Healthcare IT organizations estimate spending  21% of their budgets on cloud computing over the next...

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Particularly in technology, this consolidation can be witnessed in the jump in virtual desktops and virtual servers, both of which leverage resource sharing and economies of scale to save on space, power and ultimately, cost and complexity. At the same time, we are seeing more and more technologies standardize their protocols and use of network infrastructures. Unified Communications and Collaboration...

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It is a sign of the times that I need to clearly define the term “cloud services” if I am going to use it as an entry point to this blog. And since I wouldn’t dare assert my position to be expert enough to properly define this term (any attempt would surely bog down this entire effort), I will turn...

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As applications evolve, so does the infrastructure that supports them.  In terms of network dependent applications, the applications of today are dramatically more performance sensitive than the ones of yesterday.  Voice over IP, video conferencing, and virtual desktop infrastructure all rely heavily on high bandwidth, low latency networks to perform without hiccups and service interruptions.  So how well does a...

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When companies were using virtualization technology to consolidate IT infrastructure that wasn’t truly real-time in nature, the network performance of these virtual machines was not a major concern. Generally, all they had to do was put a Gig E card into the host and everything would work itself out fine. All of the VM monitoring and management tools focused on...

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As you may have seen from a press release earlier today PathView 2.0 is very near to release, and I wanted to give you a glimpse into what’s new in this major release. This is just a brief overview and there will be more detail on key features in this blog and on the ApparentTools.com site in the coming days...

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Our legacy blog entries tell the AppNeta story from the early days…Read on! As the IT climate accelerates toward more cost-effective, on demand services and cloud-based applications, managing your network performance and virtual service delivery is becoming more and more challenging. As Loki noted in a previous blog post, “The problems of network growth and complexity forecast some serious challenges...

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Retire network diagrams, you say?  How will you know where the servers are? What about the network connecting everything together? Isn’t this stuff important? Yes, absolutely! All of the above is important, but the details are becoming increasingly less important to you. Network diagrams are a great for documenting the details of all the pieces that come together to delivery...

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