The Trouble with Virtualization - Cranky IT Staffs

lgmac writes "A new survey on the results of Enterprise use of virtualization shows that the process is seeing wide and appreciative use. Technical hurdles are obviously the biggest problem facing corporate IT shops. Just the same, political squabbles among IT staffers fighting for turf after being forced to work together in new ways seems to be a going concern as well. 'Technical woes rank higher--to be expected when CIOs deploy a new technology such as virtualization. However, the politics pain many of you. Remember, virtualization not only asks people to cede some control over their physical server kingdoms, but also asks IT experts from different realms to work more closely together.'"

Ha!

[east coast]

[Virtualization] also asks IT experts from different realms to work more closely together.

Oh yes, there will be blood.

Re:34% on desktops?

[pilgrim23]

As with many articles in that rag...the points it seems to make are all on the boss's hair. I am sure my lack of understanding comes from my lack of righ-sized, value added, synergy.

Re:34% on desktops?

[OnlineAlias]

On a go forward basis, you need step up to the plate and reach out to someone to get your thought processes in alignment. Perhaps a little thinking outside the box or brainstorming session would help to get someone to take ownership of this problem. Anyway, thanks for running this up the flagpole but lets take this conversation offline. I'll touch base with you later to discuss some of these basic action items.....

Re:as a systems engineer

[spun]

Are you crazy, man! Every DNS, NTP, and DHCP server out there needs it's own quad core with 8GB RAM! Our departmental wiki needs a whole load balanced cluster.

Windows on LINUX? Or LINUX on Windows?

[Danathar]

You want to watch a fight? Get the Windows Server sysadmins and the UNIX/LINUX sysadmins and ask each group which server OS should be the "Native" operating system under which the other runs....fun...

Re:Skirts the problem

[blhack]

But the IBM commercial told me that i could replace my entire datacenter with a single server! Are you telling me that those two youngish looking racially diverse guys having a conversation at a coffee shop about sloshing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of hardware around even though neither of them really seems to be sure what all of it does were LYING TO ME!?

Re:Windows on LINUX? Or LINUX on Windows?

[Anonymous Coward]

You want to watch a fight? Get the Windows Server sysadmins and the UNIX/LINUX sysadmins and ask each group which server OS should be the "Native" operating system under which the other runs....fun...

And get a third group, all with 5+ years doing it. They all would run Linux as the native host OS.

Re:Backup problems

[niew]

The software solution for virtualization is Microsoft Virtual Server.

Hmmm, funny... I would have have considered that the problem... ;)

Re:as a systems engineer

[gbjbaanb]

lol. Shows you don't have what it takes to work at a consultancy...

"We want you to virtualize this system. How much will it cost?"
"Okay... um, what are the hardware specifications?"

no, no no nonononono.

"We want you to virtualize this system. How much will it cost?"

"Okay... um, quite a small amount that, amortised over the duration of the contract and combined with our leading edge technical capacity and skill-based best-of-breed approaches to migration technologies will end up saving you significant sums compared to your current total cost of ownership. Oh, and there will be a small, tiny, insignificant, additional cost based upon actual usage of capacity going forward, nothing to worry about that last bit. really. honest."

Re:34% on desktops?

[syousef]

Office Space, meet Slashdot.

- They said I'm allowed to troll at a reasonable volume.

- Now Milton, don't be greedy, let's pass along the karma and make sure everyone gets a piece.

- Excuse me? Excuse me, senor? May I speak to you please? I asked for an overlords joke, and they brought me an in soviet russia joke.....and I said no trolling, NO trolling for the replies, but it lots of trolls, big stupid trolls

- Oh, and remember: next Friday... is MS bashing shirt day. So, you know, if you want to, go ahead and wear an MS bashing shirt and jeans.

- I can't believe what a bunch of nerds we are. We're looking up "social engineering" in a dictionary.

- Just remember, if you hang in there long enough, good things can happen in this world. I mean, look at me.

- Looks like you've been missing a lot of work lately.

CIO Magazine?

[Anonymous Coward]

When I was working for the largest school district in Colorado we got a new CIO. She did not show up at work for the first 6 months do to medical reasons and then came in sporadically. She began pushing out all the male veterans (mainframe types with 20+ years of experience). She replaced them with her friends and neighbors all at 6 figures plus and no IT experience. One of her first initiatives was to replace are old sun mail server that had cost less than 15k over ten years and was very reliable with a 4 million dollar installation of exchange. This because she did not want to use a mail client that she was not familiar with. The next thing she did was write a glowing review of her "revamping" of the district IT department. CIO Magazine printed it with out as much a question to anyone else about weather or not it was true. She has since been demoted due to her many failures and CIO Magazine has not printed anything to update their story. Anyone can write a "story" for this mag and they will print it with no questions asked. I won't even waste my time reading a story from such a rag.