Wednesday, February 11, 2015

2014 Recap of Virtualization Technologies

2014 was another banner year in data center virtualization innovations for storage, networking and integrated resource management. Advances were also made in response to demands for higher security, support for hybrid cloud and virtualization services, and the pervasiveness of enterprise workforce mobility. Here are ten of last year’s most important developments.

2014 in Review
  1. VMware embraced OpenStack, the leading IaaS (infrastructure-as-a-service) solution in cloud computing for controlling pools of storage, networking and processing resources. Their OpenStack distribution, labeled VMware Integrated OpenStack or VIO, allows customers to migrate to an open source base while retaining the ability to manage through VMware’s vCenter.

  2. VMware expanded their leadership in the software-defended data center (SDDC) space via PaaS EVO Rail and EVO Rack hyper-converged infrastructure packages for small and large organizations, respectively. These cross-provider hardware and software packages are designed specifically to streamline deployment in support of SDDC expansion. Already, OEM partners Supermicro, EMC, Inspur, Fujitsu, Dell and Net One Systems Co. are certified to offer single-point integrated systems.

  3. Companies are racing to virtualize their mission critical applications and data in the public cloud as they become familiar with new security and privacy solutions. The advantages of dynamic scaling and infrastructure efficiency by utilizing the public cloud for the largest applications has become impossible to ignore.

  4. Virtual Desktop Infrastructure made a big leap forward this year in engineering graphics applications. For example, VDI technology from Citrix paired with NVIDIA’s most powerful GPUs and Dell computing hardware allowed Boeing to efficiently design the 787 Dreamliner using a global engineering and design team accessing a single database.

  5. Mid-year, VMware brought a new level of capability to VDI and DaaS technology with its release of Horizon 6.0. It supports enterprises that rely on a mix of VDI and non-VDI machines. End-user software is containerized, deployed in the public or private cloud or on the desktop. Users can access enterprise apps via Workspace from any device whether they exist as a public or private cloud service or a desktop application.

  6. VMware announced a new suite of products based on a more scalable architecture under the brand name vRealize. This major release allows single-console visibility of an entire enterprise’s network, storage and computing devices plus state-of-the-art analytics, alerts and support for problem detection and remediation.

  7. Virtualization within the ‘Internet of Things’ leapt forward in 2014. For instance, Wind River®’s release of a new virtualization profile within its VxWorks® OS supports embedded virtualization by allowing any combination of VxWorks, Windows® or Linux OS to share memory and processing cores.

  8. Nearly 100 percent of technology companies have implemented bring-your-own-decive (BYOD) initiatives as of the end of 2014. Furthermore, well over 50 percent of IT companies have identified support for mobility and BYOD as top spending priorities in the years ahead.

  9. Network-as-a-Service or NaaS, began a new chapter with the Metro Ethernet Forum’s announcement of a Third Network Initiative based on the forum’s Ethernet 2.0 specification. Service coordination, APIs, network protocol independence and clarity around physical and virtual service endpoints will be included. The goal is to provide on-demand, secure and scalable network service across multiple network providers while meeting existing SLAs.

  10. 1As containerization technology grew from a niche into common knowledge, the implementation of virtual micro-services and the architectures to support them went mainstream in 2014. This development is leading to increased economic advantages for both large and small players, especially in mobile cloud and virtualization services.

In the near future, 2014 may be seen as a watershed year for virtualization technologies and services as they become imperatives for IT companies going forward. Keep an eye on 2015 to see how these new developments play out.

Monday, February 2, 2015

Product Highlight: Official VCP5-DCV Practice Exam

You’re studying for the VCP5-DCV exam, and you’ve mastered all the concepts but have no clue how these concepts will come across in a real-world exam setting. The Official VCP5-DCV Online Practice Test is a complete, timed practice exam that helps solve this problem. It includes 255 questions similar to the ones you’ll see on actual exam day, comprehensive answers and references, a timed certification mode and an instant score report.:

VCP5-DCV Practice Exam by MeasureUp

Candidate Experience
The candidates who have the best chance of passing the actual exam are usually infrastructure personnel who have had about 6 months of firsthand experience installing, configuring and administering vSphere 5. They should also know how to install and configure ESXi hosts, maintain and troubleshoot virtual machines by using VMware vCenter and typically already have other general IT certifications or about 2-5 extra years of similar experience.

MeasureUp
MeasureUp has been a trusted source for certification guides and other preparation materials since 1997. Offering you the freedom to prepare for your exam the way it suits you, MeasureUp’s practice exams provide open and timed assessment modes and promptly deliver exam scores.

A vast amount of information and industry knowledge of virtualization has been streamlined into this comprehensive VMware Certified Professional 5 – Data Center Virtualization Practice Test from MeasureUp. With over 200 VCP510 study questions and detailed answers to train you, this practice exam is designed to lead you to success!

Practice Exam Topics
While there’s an immense amount of information you should expect to encounter, general topics (and number of questions per topic) will include:

  • Establishing and Maintaining Service Levels – 52 questions
  • Planning, Installing, Configuring and Upgrading vCenter Server and VMware ESXi – 45 questions
  • Deploying and Administering Virtual Machines and vApps – 40 questions
  • Performing Basic Troubleshooting - 38 questions
  • Planning and Configuring vSphere Networking 31 and vSphere Storage - 34 questions
  • Monitoring a vSphere Implementation and Managing vCenter Server Alarms - 15 questions

With the help of MeasureUp’s Official VCP5-DCV Practice Test, you’ll pass the exam with confidence and be ready to step into your new role as a VMware Certified Professional on Data Center Virtualization in no time.