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Meet the LISA '12 Instructors: Ben Lin on vCloud Architecture
Matt Simmons interviews LISA '12 instructor Ben Lin.
One of my daily roles at Northeastern University is to wrangle the CCIS VMware cluster. Virtualization is a technology that refuses to sit still, I think partially because we're still trying to figure it out as a technology. It changes so fast that keeping up with everything is hard, so I was really looking forward to speaking with Ben Lin about his upcoming vCloud Architecture class at LISA'12:
Matt Simmons: You've taught at LISA before. What differentiates vCloud from the previous technologies you've taught?
Ben Lin: The difference for vCloud is the amount of effort placed on building a flexible solution framework for public and private clouds. Automation and coordination of cloud components is a complex problem, VMware is attempting to do so in a simplified yet extensible manner.
Matt: What do you think the driving force is behind companies building private clouds in their enterprise environment?
Ben: The primary business goal for enterprises is to improve operational efficiencies through a centralized broker of IT services. A side effect of that goal is the consolidation of disparate sets of resources into a unified platform.
Matt: What considerations would you recommend when choosing to implement an internal cloud and going with a PaaS provider?
Ben: First off, ensure that the business objectives and technical requirements match the chosen solution. Considerations such as SLAs and support structure become more critical as IT moves toward an internal service provider model.
Matt: Where does VMware stand in terms of market share of the private cloud installations, and what would you say to someone on the fence about whether to choose VMware for their internal cloud needs?
Ben: Not sure about the overall install numbers. When choosing a vendor, consider the maturity of the solution versus the importance of the workloads that will be placed in the environment. One of the benefits of the vCloud Suite is the ease of deployment, compared to other competing solutions.
Matt: In a sentence, why would you recommend taking your class at LISA12?
Ben: Cloud computing is still in its early stages and will continue to evolve over the coming years. New technology has the potential to impact current and future designs. Join us for the latest developments and insights on designing a VMware-based cloud.
Ben Lin is teaching the class along with David Hill from VMware on Sunday afternoon in room Marina 6.
Also read:
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- New at LISA: Training Program Live Streaming
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- William LeFebvre on Using Amazon Web Services
- Geoff Halprin on Infrastructure Provisioning, Agile Software Development, and the One Word that Describes System Administration
- Selena Deckelmann talks about Education vs. Training
- Stuart Kendrick talks about the new Root Cause Analysis class
- Steven Murawski talks PowerShell Fundamentals
- Meet the LISA '12 Lightning Talks Coordinator: Lee Damon
- Owen DeLong Offers Practical Advice for First-Time LISA Attendees
- Mike Ciavarella Offers a Preview of LISA '12