Virtualization, A Beginner's Guide [Paperback]

Nelson Ruest (Author), Danielle Ruest (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 007161401X | ISBN-13: 978-0071614016 | Publication Date: February 17, 2009 | Edition: 1

Migrate to a dynamic, on-demand data delivery platform

"If you're looking to hit the ground running with any virtualization project, large or small, this book is going to give you the start you need, and along the way will offer you some cautionary tales that will even take some seasoned virtualization veterans by surprise." --From the foreword by Chris Wolf, Senior Analyst, Burton Group

Transform your IT infrastructure into a leaner, greener datacenter with expert guidance from a pair of industry professionals. Through clear explanations, examples, and a five-step deployment plan, Virtualization: A Beginner's Guide shows you how to maximize the latest technologies from Citrix, Microsoft, and VMware. Consolidate your servers, set up virtual machines and applications, and manage virtual desktop environments. You'll also learn how to implement reliable security, monitoring, and backup procedures.

• Select a virtualization platform and develop rollout plans
• Perform pre-deployment network and workstation tests
• Configure virtual machines, storage devices, and workloads
• Set up and secure a fully virtualized and highly available server environment
• Manage a centralized, on-demand application delivery framework
• Handle volatile and persistent desktop virtualization
• Use hypervisors to facilitate workload delivery
• Implement failsafe system backup and recovery strategies

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Danielle Ruest is a senior enterprise workflow architect and consultant, and a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for the Virtual Machine product line.

Nelson Ruest is a senior enterprise IT architect and a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for the Windows Server product line. Together, they are the coauthors of Microsoft Windows Server 2008: The Complete Reference and other titles.

Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media; 1 edition (February 17, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 007161401X
• ISBN-13: 978-0071614016
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #754,210 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read book as you consider Virtualization!, July 6, 2009

By 

G. Hargett "SQL Dude at Dell" (Austin Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Virtualization, A Beginner's Guide (Paperback)

As I look at corporate IT today I realized the technology industry is being dramatically impacted by Virtualization technology! How we use and manage servers and storage hardware, and how we deliver business services through software applications will change over the next 3-5 years. It's a daunting task to understand virtualization and the many different solutions out there. Let me say "finally" a book that will truly help you understand the What's and How To's you will face when considering a virtual environment. The author's have put together a great guide that takes you step-by- step through the process of evaluation, implementation and the potential challenges you will encounter. The process of understanding how to plan and move to virtualized infrastructure is both complex and confusing; this guide is very helpful in achieving a successful strategy. This book is the right resource you will come back to time and again, just like I have!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Hard to take credibly...., July 3, 2011

By 

P. Oh (CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Virtualization, A Beginner's Guide (Paperback)

While i haven't completely finished the book it is clear from reading the first few chapters that this will be a challenge to complete. The authors trip over themselves repeatedly talking about 'their' methodologies or 'their research' which could be presented simply as a summarized list of common sense items. They also introduce new terms that are not used industry wide to further differentiate themselves which ultimately end up confusing you. The writing is also very disjointed jumping from technical to business topics and items that were never introduced properly. Subjects are also intermingled haphazardly with desktop and server virtualization repeatedly addressed in the same paragraph and 'green' computing taking a prominent part of the first chapter - is this a book on virtualization or Real Simple Magazine? If i had read this in a store after a first few pages I would not have bought it as the authors and editors do not know how to present the topic in a clear manner. As it is I'm hoping to get some technical value out of the book even though most of the articles i have read online have provided better and more concise information.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good value for money!, October 25, 2009

By 

kclam (Hong Kong, China) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Virtualization, A Beginner's Guide (Paperback)

This book offers a good technical review of virtualization and its infrastructure. It is exciting to know that a dynamic data centre can offer centralized on-demand application delivery platform through desktop, application and profile virtualization.

By the way, hardware virtualization is the enabling technology of many cloud infrastructure vendors offerings including Amazon Web Services. The Amazon solution is an extension of the popular open source Citrix Xen virtualization system. I reckon it is essential reading for IT professionals who want to know how to build/manage a virtualization infrastructure and understand cloud computing platforms on the market.