Attendees will learn how to bring these solutions together via a trademarked methodology that has been developed to build strategic business and technology roadmaps, while providing cost-effective server virtualization solutions. They will learn how to use the Virtual Oriented Architecture® (VOA) methodology to implement cost-effective server virtualization solutions aimed to meet their IT needs of today and tomorrow.

Above and beyond the General Session's keynote speakers and panel, there will be multiple tracks offered, Live Demonstration Labs, Table Tops, White Paper and Case Study Bar & a Gaming Room which will allow attendees to compete for prizes!

WHO SHOULD ATTEND VSX 2012?

VSX offers multiple tracks geared towards a wide audience: from senior level executives who own budgeting and business strategy to experienced technical IT architects wanting to broaden their knowledge of virtualization and learn from the top partners in the industry. Questions as to "Why Virtualize, and Why Cloud," while defining IT solutions via platform and ecosystem partners will be among the hot topics discussed. Focus around identifying why IT organizations struggle to keep pace with the demands of business will be other topics addressed at VSX. Content of the sessions will focus around virtualizing the datacenter, identifying key end point strategies as well as understanding internal and external cloud strategies as a major priority for CIO's around the world. Industry experts agree the time is right to upgrade the datacenter and virtualize and move forward with efficient workforce mobility solutions. To ensure a proper transition, a long-term business strategy must be in place to avoid expensive pit falls. At VSX 2012, you'll be a part of the solution and involved in discussions with the top virtualization market drivers and end users.

Pre-Register Now

VMworld is the place for SMB IT pros to get the tools and training you need to master new virtualization and cloud computing innovations that are pushing system and software delivery to the next level.  Use this guide to choose activities and sessions focused on the SMB IT pro.

Bookmark this link to stay on top of conference updates and everything SMB and VMware 2012 related. Hope to see you all next week at the conference. You can reach me on Twitter during the VMworld 2012 if you want to meet up.

A VSA VM runs on each host in the cluster (up to 3 hosts), acting as the pass-through device to the hard drives on each host.  It then sets up a type of NFS mirroring across each host to make sure your data is online and available, even in the event of a host crashing or needing maintenance.

Jeff even quoted out a deployment and the price point is defiantly something of taking note with small customers and getting them on the proper path to virtualization.

You can read the whole story here.

This guide is for people bringing a Mac into a small-business environment that’s predominantly Windows based and most likely using Windows Small Business Server. The guide is also for users replacing a Windows computer with a Mac, and for system administrators supporting Mac users.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to integrate a Mac within your organization’s network environment, including how to configure your Mac to work with Active Directory and how to take advantage of network services, file sharing, printing, instant messaging, emailing, calendars, and contacts.

You’ll also learn about security at the user, local network, and remote networking levels. You’ll learn about data management, both migrating your data from a Windows computer as well as backing up your important data. Finally, you’ll learn how to run Windows programs directly on your Mac, giving you total compatibility and interoperability with your colleagues who use Windows.

You can download the guide here

How has your business evolved during the past five or more years? Staying agile in a dynamic world with an SMB solution that transforms the way you work might be easier than you think.

Click here to read more

This morning I came across very intersting page in a sea of pages on the VMware website.

VMware: Get the Facts - Not The Microsoft Hyper-Bole

The page is dedicated to solidifying VMware to its current and future customer base that it is still the proven leader and technology in the virtualization market space and cloud infrastructure in regards to its up and coming competitors, specifically Microsoft Hyper-V. 

When it comes to virtualization and cloud infrastructure, VMware’s competitors are playing catch-up, often making bold unsubstantiated claims. Check out the facts for yourself and learn how Microsoft’s marketing fluff falls short of reality. You will find that VMware remains the proven leader, providing customers higher value for their virtualization and cloud infrastructure investment.

The site lists Case Studies, Customer Stories, and a list of 5 facts as evidence to the "technology jury". Whether you are a soldier of VMware or Microsoft, it is defiantly worth the time to check out to add some ammunition to the ongoing debate.

Microsoft announced today new offerings within its Windows Azure Ecosystem.

Some of Windows Azure new features include:

Windows Azure Virtual Machines (IaaS)

Windows Azure Virtual Machines offer customers maximum flexibility in managing applications and infrastructure, Microsoft Windows Azure extends the functionality of the new IaaS. With this you can now run local virtual machine images to a Windows Azure and move virtual hard disks (VHD) between local and cloud environments. Microsoft also has expanded the list of supported operating systems, which include Windows Server (2008 R2, 2008 R2 with SQL Server 2012 Eval and 2012 RC) and Linux (OpenSUSE 12.1, CentOS-6.2, Ubuntu 12.04, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2).

Windows Azure Virtual Network

Windows Azure Virtual Network allows you to configure virtual private network (VPN) in Windows Azure, and manage and securely tie them to the local IT infrastructure. The network is based on IPSEC protocol and gives administrators control over network topology, including IP addresses and routing tables.

Windows Azure is an open and flexible cloud platform that enables you to quickly build, deploy and manage applications across a global network of Microsoft-managed datacenters. You can build applications using any language, tool or framework. And you can integrate your public cloud applications with your existing IT environment.

Click here to access the updated offerings pricing calculator

I had the opportunity to chat earlier this week with Editor in Chief Hailey Lynne McKeefry from Point2Security about future cloud transformation and cloud adoption in the SMB space. A few points we talked about:

Take time to plan before implementation. Think carefully about security, use, and other issues. "We spent two years strategizing our move to the cloud," Paine said. "Many small organizations rely on managed services or a VAR to implement cloud. The channel tends to want to sell a certain technology, so an SMB needs to have a strategy laid out, especially if they don't have their own IT department."

Stabilize the foundation of your technology. Western Precooling invested in new switches and implemented Citrix Acceleration. "Once we got the environment stabilized and had invested in the technology, we could demonstrate value to the organization." The company also used Varonis software for managing and updating data permissions to enhance data security and get ready for a public cloud environment.

Remember that the speed of technology continues to accelerate. "This is the fastest I've seen infrastructure technology take shape," said Paine. "It's moving so quick that you have to be in pre-analysis phase and keep a finger on the pulse, so you can continue to grab the opportunity as it arises."

Keep your eyes on the horizon. "While we alleviate pain points now, we have to look forward two or three years for what will help us drive business processes, be more competitive, and stay flexible. If we see an opportunity for a new application, we want to have done our due diligence and be ready to use it when the time comes."

Ask the hard security questions, and wait for the right answers. Talk to service providers about their commitment to security and about how data is handled. "Some SMBs worry that security is an issue in the cloud, but we have to understand that, even if it is an issue today, it won't be an issue down the road," he said. "We want to be ready to make the jump when it is not just cost effective, but also transparent to the users."

I recently worked with Microsoft, Avnet, and Enitsys/Agile360 in producing a case study on our choice to deploy Microsoft System Center 2012 into our organizations environment. With a solid and stable heterogeneous network foundation in our private cloud data center (Citrix, NetApp, VMware, Microsoft, Cisco), we came to a conclusion that System Center 2012 would be the best option for our particular infrastructure. We also wanted to make sure that we had a mechanism in place that when the time is right, we had a "facilitator" in place when looking into moving private cloud services into the public cloud with as much transparency as possible to the organization. A few key results we gained from Microsoft System Center 2012:

• All IT components managed through a single dashboard. 
• Met growing IT demands without increasing without increasing administrative costs. 
• Freed up IT resources to focus on more strategic, business-critical issues. 
• Increased speed of service response by a factor of three to five. 
• Provided a foundation to move applications to public cloud.

You can read the rest of case study here

Varonis, the leader in comprehensive data governance software, today confirmed that it is helping Western Precooling eliminate security concerns surrounding folders open to global access groups. As Western Precooling was planning to move several services to the cloud, cleaning up permissions became a priority. Using Varonis DatAdvantage and Varonis IDU Classification Framework(R), Western Precooling is able to clean up permissions, audit access activity, identify stale data, and provide support for its recently acquired NetApp NAS device -- all without impacting business activity.

Western Precooling uses Varonis DatAdvantage to automate access and permissions management on both NetApp devices and file servers, providing visibility into existing access controls, data access auditing, and recommendations for tightening up access and group membership.

With DatAdvantage, Western Precooling has the ability to identify folders open to the "Everyone" group, and see which of these folders are accessed the most, allowing it to prioritize accordingly. DatAdvantage simulation capabilities provide the ability to model, or sandbox, permissions and group membership changes before committing them to production. This is a key feature to clean up permissions without disrupting regular business processes.

Brian Paine, Director of IT for Western Precooling, explains, "So far we have put about 20 hours into clean-up and have cleaned up 75% of home drives. DatAdvantage also provides us the ability to commit changes to production as well as rollback functionality. This allows my department to incrementally clean up the permissions and closely monitor the response they get from production."

DatAdvantage's complete audit trail provides Western Precooling the granular record of access activity when it needs to know what data has been accessed by each user. Now, if someone leaves the organization, it can be certain of exactly what data they accessed and what they did with it. In fact, with DatAdvantage alerting capabilities, it can identify any anomalous access patterns and take appropriate action prior to an employee's departure.

In addition, the automated analytics and execution capabilities within DatAdvantage have allowed Western Precooling to ensure that permissions are both accurate and up to date, and that sensitive data is locked down. It no longer has to worry about data being exposed to the entire organization.

Brian concludes, "When I started looking for a solution that could clean-up excessive permissions and provide granular auditing capabilities I considered bringing in a team of consultants to correct the problem. However, I was concerned that this approach wouldn't solve the problem of how to maintain the environment after the clean-up process, and a team would not provide the auditing needed. I was really concerned about the impact the clean-up process might have on business activity. Thankfully, with Varonis, I have a complete bi-directional view into the permissions structure and can clean them up without affecting the daily operations of the company."

About Varonis Systems Varonis is the leader in unstructured and semi-structured data governance software. Based on patented technology and a highly accurate analytics engine, Varonis solutions give organizations total visibility and control over their data, ensuring that only the right users have access to the right data at all times, all use is monitored, and abuse is flagged.

Varonis makes digital collaboration secure, effortless and efficient so that humans are free to work -- to create and share content easily with whom they must -- and so that organizations can be confident their human generated content is protected and managed efficiently.

Voted one of the "Fast 50 Reader Favorites" on FastCompany.com and winner of the SC Award for Best Network Security, Varonis has more than 4,500 installations worldwide and is headquartered in New York, with regional offices in Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Varonis, the Varonis logo, DatAdvantage and DataPrivilege are registered trademarks of Varonis Systems in the United States and/or other countries and Data Classification Framework and Metadata Framework are under a registration process in the United States and/or other countries. All other product and company names and marks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners and are mentioned for identification purposes only.