16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A skeptic's look at Virtualization (and this book about it), November 6, 2008
This review is from: Virtualization For Dummies (Paperback)
OK, I've been in this business too long: The first time I hear a new, impressive-sounding IT buzzword, I flinch.
Part of my problem is that I've seen way too many stale old ideas rebranded by slapping fancy labels on them, an effect that often seems to happen about every four years. My suspicion is that four years is the optimal time for suckering a new generation of buyers fresh out of college into thinking they are getting something new. I still recall diving into a supposedly semi-autonomous "agent-based application" and discovering that its "agents" were actually nothing more than calls to ordinary functions.
I've also seen too many cases where a single-vendor idea that succeeds in a narrow market niche gets generalized into a "trend" that then is applied blindly whether it works or not. Gartner has labeled this kind of overgeneralization the "Hype Cycle," for good reason. When good ideas are generalized by those who do not understand their original context, they seldom work well, and in the worst cases they can turn into truly spectacular IT disasters.
Thus it when I first heard the term "virtualization" some time ago... I flinched. My thoughts went something like this:
"Yeah, right. Sounds to me like someone borrowed an impressive computer science word to help sell a product that will end up sitting on a shelf in the IT room. And by the way, isn't 'virtual' pretty much a synonym for insanely slow? The kind of stuff that they show in demos in university labs, but which in the real world would bring even the largest data center down to its knees?"
So what, one might well ask, was this curmudgeon's reaction when I picked up a copy of Bernard Golden's book, "Virtualization for Dummies"?
Somewhat to my own surprise, it was favorable. I found the book to be both solid in approach and highly relevant to the situation in which many service providers, large and small, find themselves these days. However, if someone asked me to pick a title that I thought more accurately describes the contents and purpose of this book, I would have suggested something like this:
"How to Stay Profitable While Your Service Market Goes Nuts"
or perhaps if focusing on LAN admins:
"How to Stay Employed While Users and Budgets Are Both Exploding"
That is, this entire book is a practical, step-by-step instruction manual on how to get the most out of your installed hardware, even as the assumptions that guided the original procurement of that hardware seem to be flying out the window. You can call that virtualization, I guess, but in my mind "preserving one's own hide" would seem a bit closer to the mark.
The term "virtualization," in case you are as baffled by it as I once was, is computer-speak for using clever software (and often hardware) to make more effective use of your existing servers. The implication is that previously dedicated servers become "virtual" servers for entirely new sets of applications and users.
Those other users typically will be the cranky ones whose most beloved application has become slow and unreliable as of late. By using virtualization, you may even convince them that you forked over money for a new server, when all you really did was "virtualize" an old one that had been badly underutilized.
What's really nice about "Virtualization for Dummies" is that Golden works hard not to play "magic wand" with this technique. He emphasizes that it requires hard work, a lot of planning, and careful selection of options. He also points out that it doesn't apply in every case, and that if you don't stick to it, you may end up right back in the same sticky spot from which you started.
Golden provides a detailed, easily understood checklist approach for determining virtualization is even relevant for you, a question that too many advocates of this or that technology often seem to neglect entirely. He also runs the reader through the many different types of virtualization and how their benefits differ, again with a focus on helping the reader understand what is mostly likely to be suitable for a specific situation. The reader comes aways at the same time with a better feel for which approaches might actually make a situation worse instead of better.
What I like most about Golden's book, though, is that if you take it seriously, it begins to change your entire outlook on how to provide services. You can look at the klutzy mix of hardware and locked-in applications there now, and begin to see the potential over time for something very, very different: a suite of hardware that is remarkably uniform, yet still capable of addressing the unique needs of all users. Those users may even experience the unique feeling that for a short time the entire capacity of your server bays has been focused onto their unique needs. And it may even be true!
This is a future that makes a lot of sense, and Golden's detailed discussions of software and hardware already in use makes you realize that it is a future that is most definitely obtainable.
For the nearer term, Golden helps readers identify cases where specific virtualization techniques could make a difference quickly. He describes a range of specific tools, and describes how they fit into the overall virtualization problem. Some of these tools are powerful, cheap, and even free. In the right situations they can enable significant virtualization without requiring any new acquisitions. That potential alone makes virtualization a topic worth exploring, and Golden's book provides an excellent, practical path for understanding this topic.
So, my bottom line: I recommend this book highly for anyone who is frustrated by having to deal with hard-to-control, highly heterogeneous server environments, and who wants a better approach. Golden provides that approach, and he does so in a way that is readable, practical, and above all, doable.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Primer for Beginners, March 30, 2008
This review is from: Virtualization For Dummies (Paperback)
"Virtualization for Dummies" is intended to provide the non-technical or para-technical reader (e.g. technology procurement analysts, technical writers, project managers) with a thorough but still high-level understanding of virtualization technology. The initial chapters describe the `nuts and bolts' of the technology itself including it's benefits and limitations, the main products in the field, and how it actually performs its magic. While parts of this can get a little technical, the author does an admirable job of demystifying the basic concepts and practices of Virtualization.
The remainder of the book expands into a variety of sub-topics that include such things as hardware evaluation and selection, cost-benefits analysis, and implementing virtualization using various, industry-standard products. Readers can choose the chapters and sub-chapters that best suit their needs and skim through the balance.
Bernard Goldman is clearly very experienced in both virtualization technology itself and general IT process management. Although he does get a little beyond the book's original objectives at times, this results in a good deal of insight about the reality of deploying a virtualized environment. Using anecdotal stories and frequent, humorous observations he's produced a highly readable and very instructive volume.
Two things that might improve its impact are some strategically placed diagrams to illustrate some of the more abstract concepts; and a short glossary explaining some of the technology terms that invariably creep into any computer publication. Otherwise this is a surprisingly capable primer and I give it a solid 4 stars for its content, organization, and readability.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Book Review, November 7, 2008
This review is from: Virtualization For Dummies (Paperback)
I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of Virtualization for Dummies and its worthiness. Virtualization gives the impression that it's akin to theoretical physics -- no doubt an important subject, but the nitty gritty is hard to explain. Golden demystifies virtualization and provides lucid explanations of many heretofore thorny topics, such as LUNS and RAID, two breathtakingly interrelated subjects. He also does a yeoman's job of detailing the benefits and explaining the details of setting up virtualization projects and doing "P2V" (physical to virtual) deployments. In a world increasingly fascinated by cloud computing, this is a very timely book.
One of the most striking things about the book is the wide range of input from virtualization industry players (from IBM, HP, VMware, Xensource, Platespin, Novell, Red Hat, and others). My favorite parts of the book were the real world use cases for various types of virtualization.
Read my complete review here: www.newsoftwarepathways.com/blog/?p=49.
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