Liquid computing
supports Barcelona
By Shane Schick nine versions of the Quad-Core
n A CANAdIAN SErVEr Opteron, all manufactured
manufacturer says it’s only a using a 65-nm process.
month away from announcing Robert Saric, Liquid
a customer in the local energy Computing’s director of
sector that will make use of the marketing, said the company
quad-core Opteron processor is already demonstrating a
that AMD launched this
month.
Ottawa-based Liquid
Computing said it will
officially release a version
of its LiquidIQ fabric
server based on AMD’s AMd’s Barcelona product line
‘Barcelona’ processor later this Barcelona-based board to
month. The server is designed an energy sector customer. He
to offer managed services in said he expects the processor to
virtualized IT environments offer significant floating point
and is also aimed at govern- and integer improvement,
ment and service provider mar- making firms more comfort-kets, along with commercial able with using AMD-based
enterprises. AMD announced machines.
“We’re hoping to leverage the
fact that now we’re officially a
quad-core house,” he said.
John Fruehe, AMD’s
worldwide business development manager for servers and
workstations, told Computer-
World Canada most organiza-
tions will likely be focused
on dual-core processor
scenarios for at least the
next couple of quarters.
“A lot of applications were
designed for four-way servers
with four processors because
that was the best that people
could hope for,” he said. “For
customers that have highly
threaded applications, they
want more cores. It becomes
more about the efficiency than
the clock speeds.” 075131
Config tools debut
By Shane Schick
n MICrOSOFT ANd NOVEll
may be working together on some
areas of technology, but the
two will soon go head-to-head in the market for
improved enterprise configuration management.
Microsoft has confirmed
that Systems Center
Configuration Manager
2007, its update to Systems
Management Server, will
begin shipping in about two months.
Novell, meanwhile, has already
launched Zen Works Configuration
Management, the latest addition to
its systems management portfolio.
Novell is highlighting Zen Works
Configuration management’s ability
to work natively with both its own
eDirectory and Microsoft’s Active Directory, and in particular its ability to
automate software setup and support
for Windows Vista.
“We think there is a very compelling rationale that says we can take
these great Novell tools and deploy
them to customers who don’t have
eDirectory and Open Enterprise
Server, people who have nothing but
Windows Server and apps,”
said Ross Chavelier, Novell
Canada’s CTO. “There isn’t
the same scope and depth
that you would find for that
in the Windows space.”
Microsoft is more
focused on Windows
Server customers who
are struggling to keep pace
with virtualized server environments.
Configuration Manager 2007 updates
IT managers on changes to virtual
machine images, for example.
“SMS 2003 R2 was a great tool
with respect to bare metal installation
and hands-off type of integration,”
said Derick Wong, a product manager
with Microsoft Canada. “You’ll be
able to facilitate the scanning of a
computer coming onto a network and
ensuring it’s actually meeting compliance standards. If it’s not, it can go
off to another server or a quarantined
area.” 078422
Every child born to a parent with
Huntington disease has a 50%
chance of sharing the same fate.
: evaluation form
By Rafael Ruffolo
staff writer, Computer World Canada
rruffolo@itworldcanada.com
Vmworld 2007
San Francisco, September 11– 13
What were the most important hypervisor emphasizes security
things you learned from this and ease-of-use. During Greene’s
conference? announcement of the product,
I think everybody left with a sense she actually outlined the differ-that virtualization has truly ar- ences between a hypervisor and
rived. Vmware CeO Diane Greene an operating system. Talk about
said in the conference’s opening virtualization 101.
keynote: “A year ago, we were talking about virtualization becoming
mainstream, now we’re talking
about it as an industry.”
Systems’ CeO John Chambers
presented his views on virtualization, which he called the “second
phase of innovation” following the
Internet boom of the 90s. Chambers’ speech was informative, and
unlike other company executives
at events like this, he seemed
more interested in talking about
ideas rather than continually plugging his own company.
upon entering the show, a
massive mural (at least 50 feet
tall) featured comical virtualiza-tion-themed drawings. new York
artist Brian Rea was continually
working on the mural throughout
the event.
COmPle Te COVeRAGe:
Vmare promises data centre
refresh with eSX 3i
070076
VmVworld highlights IT
challenges of virtual sprawl
073969
I could barely move while walking
around the packed moscone Center.
upon arrival to my hotel they moved
me to a half suite because of being
so heavily booked.
Aimed at all the new faces
to virtualization was the eSX
Server 3i. The thinned down, 32mB
What questions or subject areas
did the conference fail to address?
not being one with incredibly deep
technical knowledge of all things
virtualization, I have to rely on
what some users and attendees
told me. Interestingly, many were
concerned that companies sent too
many salespeople to the booths instead of technical people. It seems
that users want to hear about what
product first before they hear
about why they should buy it.
How would you rate the quality
of the show?
First-day keynote speeches by
Greene, as well as AmD’s CeO hector Ruiz were quite inspiring to the
packed crowd. On day two, Cisco
How might the organizers
improve the conference experience for attendees?
The moscone Center wasn’t big
enough for the show. many attendees complained of long lines
crowding the hallways and I felt it
difficult to move around at times.
The meals were also subpar.
The muffins were stale and the
coffee wasn’t very hot. lunch
kits were a bit better, with options like cold cut sandwiches
and chicken salads. As for the
entertainment, I suggest that
next year Vmware look for better entertainment than Smash
mouth.
