08.10.06
Oddities of Virtualisation – Part 1
I’m sure that this topic (oddities of virtualisation) will continue to come up again and again over time, so we’ll go with Part 1 now…
For those of you who have read some of my previous posts, you may remember that within our project, our entire IT infrastructure is built upon VMware’s ESX Server. We’re in the category of “early adopters” here, but the benefits are being seen (especially by us!) and more people are becoming interested in converting their physical infrastructure into virtual infrastructure.
In speaking to people from both our organisation and others, something which continually strikes me (and makes me giggle) is the politics of who “owns” a server. Because of the traditionally physical nature of IT infrastructure, departments and groups have been able to have a sense of ownership over their servers. People can walk into a server room, point at a big black box and say “that’s mine!”. They’ll defend the right to keep that root password secret, to the death (well almost). Virtual infrastructure sort of blows that idea away. You can hardly walk into a server room and point at a few components of a SAN and say “that’s mine, no wait, maybe that bit is mine, no wait…”. Some people seem to find that very unsettling.
The nature of IT is continually changing – however up until now, it’s been based more around software development. Not to say that hardware development hasn’t occured, but with the advent of virtualisation, an entire large organisation is no longer “sized” by the number of black boxes in a room. Yes, the “oomph” that those black boxes have is still important. But now, with the efficiency and stability of systems being of primary importance, the significance of the number of boxes fades into the background.
Definitely a shift, but a good one. By being able to provide better redundancy, along with better use of resources, we’re providing customers bases with better service. Those organisations that have been using virtualisation for a relatively long time can clearly see the outcomes of those benefits.
More on the oddities of using this sort of technology later…
Around the world in 80 days
I said there’d be some posts on here about travel-ish type ideas, so I figured I’d better make good on that promise. If you’re here wanting to read about IRs and IT, then I’d suggest you stop now and come back next time a new post appears…
As I’ve said before, I love to travel. I love the eye-opening experiences that a person can have while on the road. I love the challenges (although not always at the time) of being stretched to the limits of my resources, emotionally and physically. No, I’m not a sports-nut who spends every waking hour in triathalon training (I can hear those of you who know me personally laughing raucously).
I have developed a theory (yet to be proven / disproven) that it’s possible to pick a person who has not only traveled but “traveled” within a few minutes of conversation. On the other hand, I can also pick someone who has traveled along the yellow brick road – the traditional tour-guided holidays. And then there’s a third category of those who haven’t travelled at all – and this can be split into two areas – those who are happy with that, and those who aren’t.
I’m slightly ashamed to say that I’ve actually covered more ground overseas than I have in my own country. I’m seeking to remedy that, but it may take a while. I strongly believe though, that travelling is one of the best things that someone can do for their own personal development. Along with that, I would also strongly support the idea of everyone taking some time to travel alone. A petrifying thought for many people, however the benefits can be huge.
Why am I so passionate about people traveling to an unknown place, where people speak an unknown language and the ways of that culture are completely different? Simple – comfort zone. It is possible in our western culture (I can’t speak for other cultures as I don’t have that background) to spend our entire lives in a very small comfort zone from which we’re never compelled to move. We can spend our time there and for some, it’s satisfactory. But for others, there’s the feeling of missing out on something. Of something having passed by without us having caught it. I can’t say what that something is for everyone, but I can say that unless we get out there and look for it, it won’t come back a second time.
Getting out of our comfort zone – whether it be by traveling, or by taking up a new hobby – stretches us beyond our normal comfort zone. We are compelled to learn more about ourselves. Not all of that is fun – in fact, a lot of this discovery can be downright uncomfortable. But in the end, it does us good – it’s “character building”, as my grandmother used to say.
So for readers of my blog (I know some of you are out there…), I’d encourage you to look at your comfort zone. Of course, there are life’s responsibilities to take into account – not all of us can just up and leave to go live in a Nepalese monastery for a year. However, we can take the step to broaden ourselves, stretch ourselves. Learn what it’s like to put a toe outside the comfort zone – or, take a big leap outside it!
I’m afraid my enthusiasm for this sort of posting isn’t going to fit into one post.. so I shall continue my rant in further posts… but now, back to IRs and IT!
