5 Things You Need to Know About Hybrid-Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is a relatively new trend in the Information Technology Industry. Because it is still a growing field, its precise definition is still a bit ambiguous. Generally speaking, cloud computing gives you the ability to deploy applications, systems and IT resources as services that reside in a global connected network known as the “cloud.” You can pull resources from the cloud whenever you need them, and you only pay for what you use.

A hybrid cloud is a cloud computing environment in which an organization provides and manages some resources in-house and has others provided externally. For example, an organization or company might use a public cloud service to store archived data but will continue to use in-house storage for operational data. Thus, let us look at the essential benefits of hybrid cloud solutions.

1. Cost efficiency - Hybrid cloud computing can maximize cost efficiency, especially capital expenditure. A hybrid cloud gives companies the leverage of accessing IT resources without an initial capital investment. Because a hybrid cloud uses both private and public clouds, it allows users access to significant economies of scale without exposing too much of their important data and vital applications. Thus, cloud computing shifts a company’s IT investment from capital expenditure to an operational expense.
2. Exit Strategy - Hybrid cloud computing can help a business build an exit strategy. One of the main concerns that companies have with a public cloud is the low level of data security. By using a hybrid cloud, businesses can maintain an in-house storage of operational data in their private clouds while using public clouds to store archived client information and data.
3. Speed - When it comes to running your business, it’s all about efficiency and speed. The elastic and rapid nature of a hybrid cloud may be one of the best attributes that contribute to the success of running a business. There are services available through the hybrid cloud that are less expensive than maintaining in-house IT departments. A hybrid cloud strategy will make it easier to bring on new resources more quickly and efficiently.
4. Stretch the Risk - From the perspective of cost, performance and rapid recovery, internally managed Disaster Recovery (DR) cannot touch the capabilities of a cloud or hybrid cloud system. Thus, using multiple providers to distribute the responsibility can help. Businesses can have one provider assume full responsibility, in case the other is compromised. This will give them the flexibility to switch to one from which they can operate efficiently post-disaster.
5. Bidding - Your hybrid strategy can allow you to accomplish bidding deals with vendors, allowing you to manage service levels through competition. You set the criteria, and a pre-reviewed list of capable suppliers bid on the services you require according to the vendors own flexibility and asset availability.

Therefore, hybrid cloud computing can help your business function more efficiently, by decreasing risks and costs while providing more secure space for all of your business data.

Product Highlight: VCP-Cloud Official Cert Guide

Looking for a better job in the information technology industry? The IT industry has vast job and career opportunities for certified professionals. Getting certified as an IT professional is no longer a daunting task. In fact, becoming certified as a VCP Cloud professional has never been easier! We at VMWare Certification Marketplace bring you the VCP-Cloud Official Cert Guide.

The VCP-Cloud Official Cert Guide is part of the official learning path from VMware. It focuses specifically on the objectives for the VMware Certified Professional – Cloud Exam, giving you all the skills needed to pass the exam. The guide includes simulation and hands-on cloud training from authorized VMware instructors along with self-study materials. Experts Tom Ralph and Nathan Raper share preparation hints and test-taking tips. While this will definitely help you identify areas of weakness, it will also help improve both your conceptual knowledge and hands-on skills.

Material in the guide is presented in a concise and organized manner to help increase your understanding of the subject. Each chapter begins with “Do I Know This Already” quizzes that help you gauge how much time you will need to spend on each section. In addition, chapter-ending exam preparation tasks help you further understand the concepts presented in each section. The concepts covered in the book include:

• Installing vCloud Director and vShield Manager
• Learning the differences between roles and privileges and the principles of role-based access controls
• Coverage of the vCenter Chargeback Manager product, introducing the concept of chargeback and why it is needed in a cloud environment
• Understanding and troubleshooting vCloud Connector, including identification and functionality of the different components
• Constructing different types of vCloud networks and network pools and the requirements for each
• Creating and modifying vCloud Director organizations
• Allocating and managing vCloud resources
• Monitoring a vCloud implementation

In addition to the guide, the included DVD contains a powerful practice test engine that will help you focus on specific topics, or take a complete timed test. The assessment engine also tracks your performance and provides feedback to help you focus your study where it is most needed.

Do not wait any longer! Get certified today, and take advantage of the infinite opportunities the IT world has to offer.

How Virtualization Improves Your Company’s Security

Virtualization can offer many solutions and benefits to companies, but the issue of system security has always been an ominous cloud hanging over the ultimate decision of whether or not it is right for your business. Since the initial success of using virtualization as a tool for companies, security professionals have doubted the risk-reward ratio for implementing virtualization strategies to businesses. However, the truth is that virtualization technology actually has inherent security advantages. Some of those built-in virtualization security benefits include isolation, segmentation, and service insertion and chaining.

Isolation
By default, virtual networks are separated from the underlying physical infrastructure of a network as well as other virtual networks. This principle of isolation is the foundation of most network security and one of the core features of network virtualization. Virtualization provides isolation for the physical network, meaning that any attacks on the virtual network will not compromise the underlying physical infrastructure.

Isolation also means that virtual networks operating on the same hypervisor (or virtual machine manager) can have overlapping IP addresses, which allows for isolated development, testing and production of virtual networks. Even though the term “isolated” may be misleading, the isolation feature simply means that virtual networks can work simultaneously with less security risks.

Segmentation
The idea of segmentation is similar to isolation, except in the case of segmentation, the isolation takes place on a smaller scale where different tiers within a multitier virtual network are segmented from each other. Virtualization offers the big advantage of built-in segmentation. Traditional methods of achieving network segmentation is extremely time-consuming and highly prone to security breaches due to human error. Since network segmentation is a core capability of network virtualization, the need for segmentation configuration and maintenance of the physical firewall is eliminated.

Insertion, Chaining & Steering
All of the fancy terms like “insertion”, “chaining” and “steering” really just mean one thing: easier implementation of more advanced, third-party security services. The many inherent security advantages of virtualization are not always sufficient means of IT protection for certain businesses. In many cases, clients will choose to leverage a more advanced, third-party security service to protect their company.

Despite this, virtualization can make adding those third-party security services easier and more effective due to the inherent ability to distribute and enforce those services throughout the virtual network. In other words, virtualization technology enables security services, like next-generation firewalls, to be available locally on every hypervisor (VMM) in the network.

The security benefits of virtualization, discussed here, are not a fully exhaustive list, as there are even more ways that virtualization technology can reinforce your company’s system security. Virtualization can secure IT systems on the server, network and desktop level, making it a common software solution for many companies. VMware Certification Marketplace can provide you with all of the materials and information you need to become your company’s go-to virtualization expert — so get started at www.vmwarecertificationmarketplace.com today!

Product Highlight: Virtualization Microsoft Business Critical Applications

Do you work for a company that relies heavily on virtualization of Microsoft’s enterprise applications on vSphere to drive down costs? Have you been wanting to learn the fundamentals of delivering mission-critical applications and services to a variety of devices? Look no further than Virtualizing Microsoft Business Critical Applications on VMware vSphere. This course covers the best practices and knowledge needed to implement Microsoft business critical applications on the vSphere platform. You can drive down costs for your company by virtualizing Microsoft’s enterprise applications on vSphere and migrate towards a more flexible and low-cost private cloud architecture.

This guidebook bridges the gap between Microsoft and VMware. It covers topics such as Microsoft CAL licensing for VMware environments, running a VMware exchange server and administering other business-critical applications in the VMware platform. In addition, it also covers topics including:

• Evaluating the benefits, risks, and challenges of virtualizing Microsoft business critical applications
• Identifying strategies for success associated with people, processes and technology
• Reviewing VMware vSphere features most important to virtualizing business-critical applications
• Planning, designing, and developing virtualized SharePoint Server 2013 environments
• Designing and configuring vSphere High Availability clusters to run Windows enterprise applications
• And much more

The course is presented by Libowitz and Fontana, who are experts in this field. Furthermore, it covers all parts of virtualizing Windows Server 2012 AD domain controllers and failover clusters, Exchange Server 2013, SQL Server 2012, and SharePoint Server 2013. You will also find up-to-date guidance on licensing and other issues related to ensuring full support from both Microsoft and VMware.

What are you waiting for? Get the guidebook now, and delve into the fundamentals of the Microsoft and VMware worlds!

How is Virtualization Different than Cloud Computing?

For the majority of us who aren’t experts in the world of IT, there’s a lot of confusion about cloud computing and virtualization. A common misconception is that these two strategies are interchangeable and synonymous with one another. While it’s true that they are related in several ways, it’s very important to understand the fundamental differences between cloud computing and virtualization - especially when making important decisions for company or organization.

A square is a rectangle, but a rectangle is not a square. Everyone is familiar with this geometric principle, and as it turns out, it is a great analogy for the differences between cloud computing and virtualization. Keeping that in mind, these definitions should help better your understanding:

• Cloud computing: the delivery of shared computing resources, software or data as a service via the Internet
• Virtualization: refers to the act of creating a virtual version of a computer hardware platform, operating system (OS), storage device or computer network services

In this situation, the square-rectangle comparison is relevant because virtualization can be used as a tool to provide cloud computing, but cloud computing itself is not the same thing as virtualization. Virtualization is a specific element of cloud computing. In other words, virtualization is a square, and cloud computing is a rectangle. Let’s break it down even further:

Virtualization

The director of product marketing at VMware, Mike Adams, described virtualization as the “software [that] makes it possible to run multiple operating systems and multiple applications on the same server at the same time.” This means that virtualization software allows users to overcome physical hardware incompatibilities. In other words, virtualization software provides the physical infrastructure that allows cloud computing to be executed.

See the diagram (Source: VirtualCommand.com) to the right: the virtualization software, called a hypervisor or a virtual machine manager (VMM), runs on the physical hardware of your computer and manipulates it to allow you to run virtual machines (VMs) that would otherwise be incompatible with your computer or operating system.

Cloud Computing

The ability to access and operate virtual machines through virtualization software is one form of cloud computing. For example, it is not possible to run certain Microsoft applications on the Mac OSX. One way to overcome this obstacle would be to install a form of virtualization software, which would allow you to virtually run the Microsoft Windows operating system on a Mac computer. The service (having the ability to run MS applications on your Mac) is what we call cloud computing. More basic forms of cloud computing include internet storage services, like Dropbox, and webmail services, like Gmail. These services allow you to access stored data and information (in the “cloud”) from a remote location via the internet.

Adopting a cloud computing strategy at the enterprise level is much more complex and integrated than basic webmail, which is why virtualization software is usually a great option for businesses. You can learn more about the fundamentals of virtualization with this DVD training program from VMware, or read more about how virtualization can save you money, here, on the VMware Certification Marketplace blog.

VMware vSphere Virtualization Fundamentals LiveLessons

The IT world is one that is ever evolving, with new concepts being introduced on a regular basis. Being an IT professional is not an easy task. It is important to be up-to-date with the newest methods that are being used, while also being informed of the basic concepts of the past. This not only makes work easier, but also makes you a more sought after, educated IT professional. One course that can help with this is vSphere Virtualization Fundamentals LiveLessons, offered by VMware Certification Marketplace.

The course is offered by bestselling author and VMware certified trainer, Bill Ferguson, and covers all topics needed for creating virtualized data centers. Virtualization is one of the most important and leading feilds in the IT world today. Most IT professionals have basic knowledge about virtualized data but would like to learn more and gain experience in this field. This LiveLesson course is the best place to start learning more about virtualization. The videos start with the fundamentals of virtualization and move on to talk about topics that relate to the creation, management, and control of a VMware vSphere virtual data center.

From the core concepts to the very specifics, this course offers everything any IT professional will need to know about virtualization. It offers lessons with regard to vSphere, virtual machines, and virtual resources. In addition, the course also offers lessons in regard to management and control of virtual data centers. By the end of the course, IT professionals will have a great understanding of the basics of vSphere.

With eight lessons and numerous hours of video tutorials, this package course comes in an affordable price of only $149.99. The best part about this package is learning by seeing and hearing a real person – not by reading a heavily technical book. Do not wait any longer. Quick start you career in virtualizations today!

How Virtualization Can Help Firms Save Money

These days, we have all swapped our address books for cloud-based contact management, and our albums stuffed with 4x6 photos for iCloud albums. Virtualization is also one of the most buzzed about trends in IT departments, and is often touted as being able to save significant funds and resources for a company. Today, we will explore what virtualization is and whether it’s the best choice for your company.

The two important types of virtualization to distinguish between are server and desktop virtualization. Typically, server virtualizations are implemented first,  dividing the server’s memory and processing capacity from separate machines into one physical machine that simulates the former operating system. Desktop virtualization creates an infrastructure where all client data and desktop software is stored on a server, as opposed to on each individual machine. This allows administrators to centrally manage these machines while users are able to use their own computers and operating systems.

The primary savings — drivers influencing a company-wide virtualization — are hardware, maintenance, energy, facilities and downtime savings. While the servers that power your virtual work environment are more costly than the previously used machines, having one virtual server is still cheaper than having many physical servers. Additionally, having multiple machines not only takes up considerable space in an office but also requires periodic maintenance, allowing employees that were previously occupied repairing the machines to respond to other tasks. The servers themselves are also an energy drain and can save money with utilities costs.

Clearly, a company can realize many cost-saving strategies with server virtualization, but each employee can realize tangible time savings if desktop virtualization is implemented. Because information is cloud based, the business can create backup shapshots of an application and duplicate it elsewhere. If a computer fails, instead of sending the machine out for repair, it can often be repaired via the virtualized desktop in a matter of hours, saving productivity.

While virtualization can streamline many processes for a company and drive efficiencies in the long-run, it requires certain initial implementation costs. Take a look through our helpful guide below to see if the benefits of virtualization might make it the right decision for your organization.

Is server virtualization right for my company? (Source: GCN)

• Are key infrastructure resources such as data center space or power capacity nearing limits?
• Are you planning a server consolidation project?
• Is your average server CPU usage rate below 30 percent? Is there an increasing rate of new server provisioning?
• Do you need to run legacy applications that require obsolete hardware environments?
• Do you need to run application management in a test or development environment?

Is desktop virtualization right for your company? (Source: GCN)

• Is my organization facing challenging in providing individual PCs?
• Does my organization have a mobile workforce?
• Does my organization maintain a close partnership with contractors and outsourcers?
•  Do frequent updates to custom software require manual installation?
• Is there significant turnover, mobility or reassignment in the end-user community?
• Do users require access to tools supported only on different desktop operating systems?

If you’ve answered yes to a majority of these questions, then perhaps virtualization is right for you, and there is no better place to start on your pathway to being a virtualization expert than www.vmwarecertificationmarketplace.com.