Justifying VDI – Part One

As Chris Murphy explained in his video blog post, EMC IT began last year to implement a virtual desktop infrastructure based on VMware View. The VDI concept is pretty straightforward, and sounds compelling: reduce desktop management complexity, more cost-effectively update aging desktops (and their operating systems), and give users greater platform choice—and “anywhere, anytime” universal access.

Can VDI really deliver its user experience promise? How much it would really benefit our company in cost savings and in increased flexibility? EMC IT came up with answers to those questions—and got a “green light” for deploying a production VDI environment during the second half of this year.

To Vblock, Or Not To Vblock

I recently had a conversation with Paul Divittorio, EMC IT’s Director of Enterprise Systems and Application Hosting Architecture. He’s the guy responsible for designing the next generation hosting platforms being installed in our production data centers here at EMC. When Paul is talking with EMC customers about our IT organization’s journey to Private Cloud, he’s often asked about Vblock. Where does EMC IT think it makes sense to use it? Where is EMC IT using it now?

Why EMC IT Is Going “All In” On Private Clouds – Part 5

This is the final part of a series of posts outlining how our IT organization started its aggressive journey to private clouds. Previously, I described IT’s strategy shift, the trigger for its urgency, navigating through “cloud fog,” and the unusual path IT decided upon.

In this post, we’ll take a look at EMC IT’s overall strategy for actually making this journey.

Why EMC IT Is Going “All In” On Private Clouds – Part 4

This is the fourth of a multi-part series exploring why our IT organization is aggressively transforming EMC’s corporate datacenters into Private Clouds. Previously, I described IT’s strategy shift, its newfound sense of urgency, and navigation through some “cloud fog.”

In this post we look at the unusual course EMC IT charted for its Private Cloud journey, and how the team approached selling its plan to our top execs.

Integrating RSA Security in EMC’s Private Cloud

Join Nirav Mehta, Senior Manager of Product Management at RSA, as he describes RSA’s view on virtualization security and how EMC’s security division is participating in EMC IT’s Journey to the Private Cloud. It includes some examples, such as ways EMC IT is using RSA technology to secure virtualized desktops.

David Freund also provided some background in this post.

Security: Don’t Leave (Physical) Home Without It

A lot of ink has been spilled recently in the press about cloud security, and even virtualized-server security. Many lead off with alarming headlines like this recent example that declares, “60% of virtual servers less secure than physical machines, Gartner says.”

What A Difference One Year Makes

A year ago, a bunch of us at EMC, VMware and Cisco were in the early days of talking publicly about our shared vision of private clouds, and were still working out a lot of architectural and process issues. Meanwhile, EMC’s IT department was merely another customer in the eyes of… well, all three of our companies.

Calculating Desktop Virtualization Costs/Savings

One of the initiatives we have underway in EMC IT is virtualizing our desktop infrastructure. And like most IT organizations, ours needs to be able to calculate a reasonable cost/benefit ratio before continuing beyond the pilot stage. Naturally, there are many consultant-provided cost and savings models available. Just as naturally, most focus on hardware equipment costs and savings. Then there’s the usual rule of thumb that says operational costs are between double and triple the equipment costs.

But every IT shop has to verify that they either follow the rule, or are an exception. And that means lots of number crunching.

Chronicling EMC IT’s Private Cloud Journey

We at EMC have been talking about private clouds from the perspective of an IT vendor for quite some time. But EMC is also an IT consumer. Our IT organization supports over 40,000 internal users in 61 countries (and 20 languages), and many hundreds of business applications on over 6,000 server instances spanning five data centers worldwide. Never mind the thousands of terabytes of storage, tens of thousands of devices, and hundreds of thousands of network ports used to conduct business every day.

It comes as no surprise, then, to be asked: “is EMC’s IT organization doing this?” when discussing private clouds with enterprise customers. My answer: “of course.” That’s not hubris. EMC IT began its journey a few years ago. The evolution in EMC IT’s thinking and plans—leveraging virtualization as a technology building block, then taking it to the next level—reflects the evolution in thinking and plans that led us to our vision of private clouds and the VCE coalition.

Virtualizing the Desktop

Join Chris Murphy, EMC’s Director of International IT Operations, as he discusses VDI and how it will enable EMC’s desktop of the future. Listen in as he explains the context around EMC’s complex desktop environment and the issues that need to be addressed. You’ll gain an understanding of:
• EMCs complex environment
• EMCs VDI strategy and deployment plan
• Tools EMC has chosen to achieve our VDI goals
• People, process, and funding challenges

EMC IT’s Journey to the Private Cloud

Interested in learning what EMC IT is doing with virtualization? Join us each month as EMC IT documents its own virtualization journey. Join Sanjay Mirchandani, EMC Senior Vice President and CIO, as he introduces this exclusive, inside-look at EMC’s virtualization status from challenges faced through improvements made to future plans. This documentary series focuses on five key initiatives:
• Server virtualization
• Optimized storage and networks for a virtual environment
• Closed looped automated configuration management and monitoring
• VDI
• Cloud
The series is an ideal venue for customers and prospects to follow and learn best practices directly from EMC IT.