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8 questions to ask prospective cloud vendors (from cio-asia.com)

Taking the time to address those considerations is critical, says Bill Claybrook, principal of Concord, Mass.-based New River Marketing Research Inc. The more information gathering you do at the start, he says, the better your results will be when you finally implement the cloud strategy that best fits your needs. Here, Claybrook shares his list of the top eight questions CIOs should ask prospective cloud vendors.

1. Can I see your data center?
2. How do I move my apps to the cloud?
3. How are my apps and data protected from other users on the same cloud servers?
4. Can I speak with some of your customers?
5. Can I move an existing app from my private cloud to your public cloud without massive reconfiguration?
6. How do I get my data back?
7. How do you address government regulations?
8. What will I really pay?

Read the full article here: http://www.cio-asia.com/tech/cloud-computing/8-questions-to-ask-prospective-cloud-vendors/?page=1

Cloud Computing and the intense relationships with Social Media.

"Understanding Cloud Computing in the spirit of innovation. This is critical because the cloud is the underpinning and architecture of social media. A new framework for understanding is mandated as the world wide web has become the world wide computer", says Vanessa DiMauro who wrote on http://www.businessblogshub.com on "Social Media and Cloud Computing: A Call to Action for IT Leaders". Below is the extract which offer insights into some of the key areas of the such trend:
 

1. Cloud computing offers greater efficiencies for business

Cloud computing is able to offer enterprise greater efficiencies and collaboration around people and the content they offer. Some speakers asserted that the cloud can provide a risk reduction as business are now able to align their technology consumption with their technology needs and, in fast, shatter former models of time to market. By working through the cloud businesses can democratize technology and serve as a powerful enabler to all – staff, partners and clients alike. In many ways, cloud technology is an unstoppable revolution because it advances the performance of the business.

2. The cloud is a pure disruptive technology

The sheer disruptive force of the cloud upon business is not to be overlooked, however. In the past, successful business innovation could largely be shaped by skilled and controlled processes. “If you want to control the outcome, control the process” remarked Andrew McAfee. However, he continued, with social computing, we need to stop trying to impose structured work flow and get new flavors of order.

Social can not be controlled as we can not reign in the universe of social. Controlling social media is akin to boiling the ocean – exhausting and futile at the same time. But its disruptive nature can be shaped to the advantage of business if and when (as it is just a matter of time) they are able to map the right processes to making sense of structured and unstructured social data to help the business succeed. Social computing produces volumes of valuable data for the enterprise – we just need to find the right methods for data mining and social CRM best practice. We need to go to the customers, wherever they are.

3. Social computing can fundamentally change enterprise relationships with clients, partners and staff

The advice heard time and time again was let the good of social shine through and inform the bottom line through better customer care, product development, QA processes, and to help define business innovation needs. Simply put, social brings to organizations a new way of doing business but there is a heavy organizational change required to make sense of the information gathered and the content shared through the social web. The structure of knowledge is no longer predefined as it was in the past through knowledge management systems (or “knowledge coffins”). As my fellow panelist, Joe Vito, CTO of Dunn and Bradstreet so eloquently said during our session on the impact of social on the Information and Media Industry “Cloud computing will soon be our only option to cope with the growth of digital info.”

The role of the new breed of search called “broadcast search” was also examined in depth. “Broadcast search” was defined as communicating your ignorance in order to find what you need, like asking a question of your followers. Social computing combined with the power of information broadcast yields a greater depth of information and access to experts around the globe as people put out their questions and assistive responses on the web. The new search, when social principles are applied, enables a growing body of work to emerge which taps into the wisdom of everybody. This has huge ramifications on how we find and share information and can fundamentally change the way we make decisions.

4. The cloud is changing the IT leadership role

Along with high hopes for the change that social computing brings to enterprise, the cloud also places a great responsibility on the CIO. She is being called to the executive table to drive and inform the business innovation brought about through social computing. We are early in this transformational journey and social computing is still in its infancy. Business and IT need to form strong alliances and alignment to support the bottom line as delivered through the social web. Be it within the internal cloud (or new order KM systems), customer facing and the social CRM that drives the business’ ability to understand and interpret customer needs, there are many technology and business decisions to be made. IT executives need to help shape the culture of their organizations to ensure the right (and right number) of tools are invested in, ensure that the organizations’ ability to use the tools is well understood, and perhaps most importantly, help drive the bus when social innovation is embraced by the business lines through the best practice adoption of the right tools at the right time within the enterprise.

Reading up on VMWare VSphere Virtualization

If you are learning about VSphere, here are the reference guides you should start reading:

Introduction to VMware vSphere
Getting Started with ESX
ESX and vCenter Server Installation Guide
Upgrade Guide (Updated 10/08/2010)
Datacenter Administration Guide
Virtual Machine Administration Guide (Updated 10/11/2010)
vSphere Web Access Administrator’s Guide
ESX Configuration Guide
Resource Management Guide
Availability Guide
Fibre Channel SAN Configuration Guide (Updated 10/08/2010)
iSCSI SAN Configuration Guide (Updated 10/08/2010)
Configuration Maximums for VMware vSphere 4.1

All docs can be found here: http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/

Short Course for ESXi (Free)

http://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrreg/courses.cfm?ui=www_edu&a=one&id_subject=23970

How to ACE your presentation.

Here's Mr Lam's Golden 3E Rule to ace your presentation.

1. Energized. Do you need me to tell you this? In any presentation, you are not only selling your products or services, you are also selling yourself. Review all your communication skills notes to 'perk' yourself up.
2. Efficient. That means a well prepared presentation. Finish all your pre-presentation tasks on time and on target.
3. Effective. To be effective, you must produce results and prove it. Most importantly, your solution should address the needs of whatever  topic you are talking about and create the desired outcomes.

MX 200 info from cisco

update on MX200

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/ps7060/ps11302/ps11776/at_a_glance_c45-669348.pdf

MX 200

MX 200 to be release on 15 June 2011 US time

The MX200 ($21,600) features auto-provisioning and self-configuration for set up in about 15 minutes, according to Cisco. The MX200, which is designed for “team meetings or personal offices” also features:

.1080p30 and 720p60 video resolution and HD content sharing

.1920 x 1080 resolution in a 42-inch display

.HD sound system with two front speakers

Information and picture from
http://www.commercialintegrator.com/article/cisco_mx200_enables_affordable_flexible_telepresence

VMdirectPath Explained

VMdirectPath is a form of PCI Passthrough to give direct hardware access to a VM. It is usually used (on supported hardware) to give access to I/O card (network and storage) for maximun (native) performance.
This is supposed to increase performance in the virtual machine using VMDirectPath, as now the CPU is not doing network device emulation.


http://blogs.intel.com/idf/2008/08/io_pass-through_lets_us_have_o.php
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1010789

Progress on cisco internship (by Chee Hau)

add on, i have done a factory reset on Cisco Cius before, step to do so

1.Power off device

2. Press and hold the Back and Menu keys and power on the device, continuing to hold them during bootup

3.when you see the red LED beside the front camera start to flash, press the Volume Up and Down hardkeys 3 times (vol up, down, up, down, up, down)

if successful the red LED will remain on for approximately 45 seconds while the user data on the device is being clear

Progress on cisco internship (by Chee Hau)

Let me start with my basic daily job
I take care of Cisco CBC area, I was suppose to turn on and off the equipment every morning and evening , setup online survey from for customer, lastly we had to do trouble shooting if anything is down, I will talk about some of the troubleshooting part later

Apart from the wireless access point that I had setup previously, Sean, our manager taught us how to create an order (ship items out and do some procurement), mean while Vblock had been introduced to us, we learn about UCS, blade server and a short brief on EMC Navisphere 6 software, so far had not touch Navisphere 6 yet, will update if we had been task to configure. We were asked to take an ESD and LAB Safety Test in order to gain access of the LAB.

We have been asked to change the domain name of the Demo kit’s server and to install vCenter server on it. Later part the AP that I have configured previously had been down so I had to troubleshoot it, spent some time and find out that the vlan it is connected to is wrong.

Next we had to source for some softwares and install on my company's laptop, such as ultra VNC viewer, PhotoShop CS5, vSphere client, ultra link viewer for accessing KVM, SolarWinds TFTP server and Cisco WebEx.

My fellow intern and I were involved in the Cisco Recycle event, we were tasked to un-mount and consolidate all the obsolete item (router, server, ASA, switch and etc..) from the lab and the store, finally we had to prepare a document to record the list of equipment. After the Recycle event, we are to be in charge of clearing store, we spent 3 week clearing the store, as we are in charge of the store, we will task to collect all the new shipment from the mail room and one of the supervisor will give us instruction whether to mount the item in the lab or keep it in store.

Same period as the recycle event had played a part in a WebEX project, it is to enable the demo WebEX to be able to talk with the outside world. I was tasked to setup a DNS server in the ESXi that I had installed and to ensure it is able to connect to the internet and able to be remote control using RDP and VNC, during this project I was introduced to do patching using patching panel.

Now I will talking about trouble shooting that I had mention earlier, 1^st it is about the CBC area, sometimes we have to access the Digital Media Manager System to check the status of the equipment and reboot it if necessary, go in server using Remote Desktop Connection, VNC, ultra link or using vCenter Server depending on situation, either to reboot the DMP, restart application service once in awhile, it took us awhile to master them. For the lab, we trouble KVM server before, and this is the one that we spend very long time to make it work again, it is a new problem that had not occur before. The solution we discovered is to reboot the main KVM server. Another KVM problem we encountered was a faulty KVM cable which was connected to one of the virtual machines.

During one of the many customer sessions, I was tasked to setup Polycom a 3rd party TelePresence solution, to show that Cisco TelePresence and Tandberg are able to work with other TelePresence product and not just their own.

We were briefed on how to use Cisco WebEx Connect to arrange meetings, setting WebEx space, and SoftPhone(Computer Phone)

As we get use to the working environment, a FSI project have been given to us, our job is to storyboard a scenario that integrates various Cisco products to create a demo. Some of the skills which we applied was what we have been taught in ITSM and SE module like who is the stake holder, use case owner, flow charts, product management etc. so far from the FSI project, we get to talk to some FSI expert to get some idea, we also went to visit some local banks to observe their technology and work flow,a lot of researching is involved. Following the FSI, 2 more projects also come by, one is a mini project of XML programming on IP phone and a web based project (it is to show the CBC room schedule on a screen through DMP). During the same period, we had been taught to use Call Manager to register IP phone or device

we were involved in a demo session with malaysia side through TelePresence where we have to support the malaysian cisco team for the showcase to their customers

we also learned how to book room for meeting, TelePresence Room and Bridge number for TelePresence.

as we are in charge of the store, we are responsible to keeping track of the equipment that people need we loan out,
occasionally it's a tiring process as we need to spend time digging for the required items.

We are also tasked to configure CTS 500 and setup it up for a demo session and involve in a customer demo for a short session. My fellow intern and I was tasked help one of our colleague to configure and setup a new DMP for one of the Tandberg Video Conferncing System, New Cisco 2900 series IP Dome Camera and setup MX200 which will be release on 15 june. Cisco MX200 is a Havn't been released product which is an upgrade of the CTS 500 with better Overall Design, that emphasize on simplicity making setting it up a WHOLE lot easier(No Joke). Details and Pictures will be released after the product has been Officially Launched

CTS 500 configuration

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/telepresence/cts_hardware_options_upgrade/cts_Hdware_O_and_U_500.html#wp1070431

on the CTS 500 and wait for it to show it IP address
change IP phone IP, TFTP and default router and subnet mask
connect computer to CTS IP phone with straight cable
change computer network IP same as CTS
once in the same network, browse in to the CTS IP address using IE
once in, change the IP address and default gateway need to reboot
press unfied C setting and change the TFTP( need to rebot)

So far from what I had learn from the 5 week FYPJ period only flash and android had not been use yet