With VMware’s new cloud infrastructure solutions, you will find unparalleled capabilities that accelerate IT and accelerate your business.
• Run business-critical applications with confidence — Achieve better application performance and eliminate downtime.
• Respond to business faster — Gain built-in automation and resource elasticity to free IT from manual processes and deliver IT services on demand.
• Trust your cloud — Secure your cloud with virtualization-aware security.

 The foundation of VMware’s cloud infrastructure suite is VMware vSphere, the most trusted, widely deployed virtualization platform in the world. Architected to support the broadest range of virtual and cloud infrastructure needs, VMware vSphere is broadly utilized by enterprises, small and mid size businesses (SMBs), public cloud service providers and as a foundation for the growing virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) market. An increasing number of customers are standardizing on VMware vSphere as their strategic IT platform. As such, VMware vSphere has attracted a broad ecosystem of industry leaders that support and extend this foundation.

What’s New in VMware vSphere 5?

• Next-generation ESXi hypervisor delivering industry-leading performance and scalability while setting a new bar for reliability, security and management efficiency.
• ‘Super VMs’ with four times more powerful virtual machines to scale and handle the most resource-intensive applications; virtual machines can now scale up to 32 vCPUs and 1 TB of RAM.
• Simplified and more comprehensive high availability and disaster recovery.
• Intelligent policy management of data centre resources to automate previously manual process (e.g. deployment and patching of vSphere hosts, dynamic placement, balancing and service-level agreement-driven profiles for storage).
• Flexible hybrid cloud management from a single pane of glass.
• Broader industry support from software and hardware providers, including more than 1,400 independent software provider (ISV) partners which support running more than 2,500 applications on vSphere.

for full details visit the site http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/overview.html

As Blackberry advocates, our Business Mobile Phones department has been eagerly awaiting the release of the PlayBook and it’s finally here!

Here’s an over view of what we have got to look forward to…

• The mobility, security and immediacy of your BlackBerry® Smartphone, on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.
• Internet the way it’s meant to be – uncompromised, full-fidelity web browsing, true multi-tasking with Flash & HTML5
• Engaging multimedia experience
• Unparalleled performance and reliability with BlackBerry tablet OS Your world
• Mobility, security and immediacy of your BlackBerry Smartphone with seamless access to you email inbox with full attachment support, calendar and contacts

Blackberry promise an enhanced experience by offering…

• Access all Flash websites and web-based applications
• QNX operating system for reliable, secure and stable multi-tasking
• The only tablet that doesn’t require a tablet data plan
• Micro HDMI-out for connection to external displays; ideal for meetings and presentations
• Compelling package of multimedia capabilities provides an unparalleled, uncompromised experience that your end users will love
• Fully sandboxed and secure access to your corporate intranet
• Access your web-based applications and services through the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet’s world-class browser, including support for Flash-based content
• Run multiple applications seamlessly, simultaneously and fluidly

Would you be lost without your BlackBerry Smartphone?

I know I would! Blackberry has come up with a great new app free to download. Blackberry Protect  is the answer to some common frustrations…

• Lock it – Remotely wipe or lock your phone, change your password. You can even add a lost-and-found message on to the screen
• Track it – Find your BlackBerry Smartphone on our helpful map
• Sync it – Back up the contents & apps on your BlackBerry Smartphone and then move them over to your replacement phone, over-the-air
• Ring it – Activate a loud ringer if you’ve lost or misplaced your BlackBerry Smartphone. You’ll be able to locate it if it’s still in your vicinity.

Microsoft has the Answer – Office 365 The Cloud Solution – gives you anywhere, anytime access to the Office apps and competencies you so heavily rely on:

• SharePoint site – This platform facilitates the creation, access and sharing of files from a single point. Your customised SharePoint site can be easily created and monitored by you, with password protection where needed.
• Office web apps – Access, view, and edit documents directly in your web browser through online versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.
• Email and calendar - Email, calendar, and contacts are readily available from virtually anywhere, at any time, on desktops, laptops, and mobile devices, while protecting you from viruses and spam. All you need is an internet connection.
• Instant Messaging and Online Meetings – Microsoft Lync Online enables you to find and connect with the right person through instant messaging, Lync video calls, or online meetings. Utilise modern conferencing through sharing your desktop with colleagues and partners.

The VMware Cloud Solution

VMware’s cloud solution is based on VMware’s vSphere hypervisor platform. With VMware’s cloud model, customers create VMware virtual machines, which contain an operating system and one or more applications. These VMs run on VMware vCenter servers which are either hosted privately within a company’s data centre or publicly by one of VMware’s hosting partners. In addition, VMware provides an application marketplace where pre-configured VMs can be downloaded for use in a VMware-based compute cloud.

The Microsoft Cloud Solution 

Microsoft’s cloud solution is based on delivering services to the user through a flexible, easily managed infrastructure. There are two infrastructure models that Microsoft customers can use to implement cloud services: private cloud and public cloud. Customers can choose between these infrastructure models based on their application delivery needs, or they can combine the models to provide a flexible infrastructure of computing resources able to scale to changing service requirements.

The Fifosys Verdict

Fifosys have found VMware technologies to be more reliable, particularly in a clustered environment, and more economical in terms of memory and processor usage. Essentially, better performance and utilization lead to higher virtual machine consolidation ratios, which lead to lower capital expenditure costs.

Sam Taylor – Technical Director at Fifosys comments “Our final decision to move toward VMware was made due to the ease of use, installation, setup, reporting and support available from the VMware vSphere product. We recognised virtualisation becoming a large part on what Fifosys do going forward.”

7 for 2011 – Technologies to watch out for

Social Media grew a massive 200% in 2010 and Google wants in on the action. The search engine giant is rumored to release ‘Google me’ in the attempt to give facebook a run for their money. Google currently have over 90% of the search engine market share which prompts the question, should they just stick to what they are good at?

2011 is set to be a big year for Cloud Computing. Microsoft has revealed 39% of SMEs have a move to the Cloud planned for this year. More and more people are discarding their original reservations and learning that Cloud Computing is a secure, reliable solution.

Rumored to be released in July – the iPhone 5. Like the iPad 2, it is said to boast a new A5 processor that’s based on a multi-core Cortex A9 chip, a Qualcomm chipset that would sport CDMA, GSM and UMTS baseband support (which basically means Apple will launch a single Smartphone that will be able to deal with both Verizon’s and AT&T’s network)

It looks like the gap between Web Video for TV and cable will decrease in 2011.  More cable-quality video becomes available over the Web via streaming services every day, encouraging more people turn to the Web when they are looking for something to watch.

The IPad 2 (already released) has set the bar high for tablets this year; competitors are ready to launch their counter attack. Samsung’s ‘Galaxy Tablet’ is tipped to the gadget lover’s second favourite and Microsoft’s Windows 7 tablet also a hot topic. New models from HP, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, Motorola, Dell, Asus, Cisco and others are all expected to rollout this year

Maybe a bit premature to discuss this for 2011 – the next release of Windows will be able to run on chips usually found in mobile phones. The innovation named by Steve Ballmer of Microsoft is “systems on a chip” (SOC)

Intel and AMD displayed one of the coolest tech innovations at this year’s CES (consumer electronics show) – the accelerated processing unit, or APU. Intel’s new line of Core i3, i5 and i7 processors, along with AMD’s new line of Fusion processors, have new processor architectures that integrate traditional CPU functions with an on-board GPU. This results in stunning performance enhancements

In recent years the browser market has become more competitive and products such as Firefox and Chrome have really been giving Microsoft a run for their money! This has prompted the release of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 web browser.

Along with increased speed of 35% the application has 3 key features that Microsoft has brought to our attention:

• Tracking protection – A new tool that prevents users from being tracked as they move from site to site. This will prevent commercial firms from tailoring adds and reduce spam emails
• It keeps a close eye on any downloads to prevent any Trojans or other viruses from sneaking through
• IE9 also has hardware acceleration built in so it can call on the power of a PC’s graphics card to display sites in more detail.

An estimate has come in from the web analysis firm Net Applications that suggests IE has about a 56% share of the global market, with Firefox on their tail with about 22%, Chrome 11% and Safari 6%.

Recently, Microsoft has launched a new initiative to use cloud computing to solve scientific problems.  One of the major problems facing scientists today is, surprisingly, a lack of computing resources.  We’re getting to the stage where we can capture data, but our ability to process it is hindered on what the world’s supercomputers are doing at the time.  Only so many scientific breakthroughs can be made if they’re reliant on this.  From this come the many programs that allow normal people to use their computers to do good and interesting things, like searching for aliens or curing cancer.

Microsoft has taken this idea to another level and is employing cloud computing to help scientists attain their goals more easily.  They’re targeting the “excluded middle” – those scientists who don’t have access to a complex computer or have no idea how to manage it, thus democratising access to high powered computing resources.  Microsoft aims to connect these scientists to the computing resources they need to make more advancements for the better of everyone.

This new system is called the National Center for Biotechnology Information Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (shortened to NCBI BLAST for all of our sanity) and uses Windows Azure.  Scientists who use the service can access any NCBI life science data that Microsoft currently hosts, share private data collections and collaborate with other researchers, and most excitingly use the computational scalability of the cloud to process data.  While this is only one sector, Microsoft is working hard to bring the ability to a whole range of organisations in science, business, and government.

If major scientists using cloud computing isn’t enough to convince you to jump in the cloud, what will?  Leave us your answers in the comments.

However, as we have scaled up our hosted business to meet what has been considerable client demand, we have had to review this part of the platform.

We undertook a great deal of research into the right solution, and are happy to share the findings if you are interested.

Among the reasons we selected VMware were:

• Management of host server resources such as memory and CPUs: if there are 2 virtual machines, with 4GB of RAM each, Windows (on which Hyper-V sits) would immediately allocate 8GB of RAM to them; whereas VMware doesn’t allocate all the resources immediately but on an as-needed basis.
• Flexibility: Hyper-V wasn’t as flexible as we would have liked: we couldn’t, for example, move one virtual machine from one host to another, which VMware allows.
• Scalability: unlike VMware, Hyper-V is limited to 16 hosts within the cluster, which is far too low for the private cloud environment that Fifosys is building for its clients.

In summary, while it may cost more, we felt that moving to VMware was essential to building an effective large-scale hosted solution. While our clients might not notice a difference in performance, they can be assured that their infrastructure is being constantly improved.

The new system will provide enhanced benefits to users, in addition to those they currently enjoy through BPOS.  99% uptime is still guaranteed, and security and support are still included.  Plans vary across different sizes and types of business, so depending on the individual needs of yours you may end up paying between $2 and $28 US per month.  Office 365 also supports workers who need to work from home with a variety of flexible packages designed just for them, allowing them to connect to their own email and stay hooked in to the entire organisation.

Microsoft Office 365 includes Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Lync Online, and the Microsoft Office Professional Plus desktop suite.  That means you should get everything you need with the new package.  If you’re not using BPOS yet but you’d like to get set up for 365 without delay, you can sign up today and receive the upgrade as soon as it’s available; Microsoft advise  you to have your PCs up to their new system requirements before installing to make transitioning as simply as possible.  We can, of course, help you upgrade your systems as and when necessary.

Microsoft’s new system is a natural development in light of the increased competition they’ve had from Google in terms of cloud-based productivity software.  Google’s main selling point for the service, after all, is the fact that the data can be accessed by anyone permitted anywhere with a web browser.  It makes it vastly easier to collaborate.  Now Microsoft is offering the same thing – but with their much more powerful Office suite, already used in millions of businesses worldwide, behind it.  Google’s software’s main disadvantage was simply that it couldn’t do what Word could do, making it difficult for many businesses to switch over – even if they chose to do so, despite the fact that it was cheaper.  If Microsoft can provide enough functionality within their web apps, so that documents don’t lose formatting from the initial build on desktop-based apps to their web counterparts, they may just take the initiative back from Google on this front.

In fact, the truth is that now that Google have built up some enthusiasm for cloud-based documents, including use by organisations, it’s the perfect time for Microsoft to bounce back.  People want to collaborate in real time, but they want to do it with the powerful software they ordinarily use.  If Microsoft Office 365 can deliver on this front, then they may just keep Google’s efforts down for the foreseeable future.

What do you think of Microsoft Office 365?  Will you be implementing it in your office?  Let us know in the comments – and remember to give us a ring if you need any support or have any questions about Microsoft’s online productivity services.

In a recent blog posting, Ray Ozzie, the former Chief Architect of Microsoft said that the software giant needed to imagine a “post-PC” world:

“For the most part, we’ve grown to perceive of ‘computing’ as being equated with specific familiar ‘artefacts’ such as the ‘computer’, the ‘program’ that’s installed on a computer, and the ‘files’ that are stored on that computer’s ‘desktop’… but connected devices beyond the PC will increasingly come in a breathtaking number of shapes and sizes… each individual will interact with a fairly good number of these connected devices on a daily basis.

“there’s one key difference in tomorrow’s devices: they’re relatively simple and fundamentally appliance-like by design, from birth.  They’re instantly usable, interchangeable, and trivially replaceable without loss.  But being appliance-like doesn’t mean that they’re not also quite capable in terms of storage; rather, it just means that storage has shifted to being more cloud-centric than device-centric.”

The Apple i-Pad was not the first tablet PC but has opened many users’ eyes to how much can be achieved without a keyboard or much of a hard drive for storage. Except in certain industries, it hasn’t yet caught on as a business device.

But now BlackBerry have announced the release of the PlayBook, companies are starting to take the device format seriously. Samsung has bought out an Android device called the Galaxy Tab and Toshiba, Dell and Advent are also in the market. And Windows 7 tablets are on their way.

The fact is that people already want to access their business data at different times in different ways. A mobile for checking emails. A PC for writing documents.

Perhaps the tablet might be for reviewing documents, making small changes, composing emails, viewing websites… And potentially for making presentations in one-to-one meetings, or taking notes.  It might well be that for those who work regularly on the road or between different offices, the lightweight tablet becomes the device of choice.

What does this mean for your IT infrastructure?

Simple: all of your information needs to be stored centrally and accessible via the web safely and securely. Companies that are embracing Cloud Computing already are steps ahead – because they are delivering data over the internet to PCs and laptops, taking the step to delivering it to tablets will be simple. Companies with on-premise servers connected directly to PCs will have to rely on VPNs over an ADSL line, resulting in a poor user experience.

The key benefit of cloud computing is being able to access your data anywhere, on any device connected to the internet. As more employees want that device to be a tablet, so these benefits will be realised.