Did VMware Just Reinvent Itself?
I was fortunate enough to speak at and attend this year’s VMworld USA conference in Las Vegas last week. I caught a small announcement there that I found absolutely intriguing, and feel it could be a revolution in the world of VMware and on-premises virtualization.
Last week, they quietly announced that Amazon Relational Database Services (RDS) will soon be able to be used on your on-premises VMware environment. Very few other details were released, but the RDS web page has a signup form for preview program.
The power of the cloud is largely in the automation that it provides. Our experience has shown that most organizations have fantastic on-prem virtualization but lack the automation to provide a solid end-user self-provisioning platform. The automation in the cloud is one of the primary drivers for cloud adoption.
Did VMware Corp. just expand to become the on-premises extension of Amazon to allow corporations to gain the power of Amazon cloud automation but on their existing on-prem IT investment?
Is this the first service of many to be offered?
Microsoft Azure Stack was an absolute game changer when it launched. I love every bit of it, and we use it in a number of shops to contribute to DevOps initiatives to help IT move as fast as the business. The only downside to Azure Stack is that it must be deployed for production purposes on certified hardware, and that list is small and rather pricey. Consistent hardware is a bonus when keeping the experience constant and predictable, but most organizations are not able to leverage their current IT platform investments to deploy Azure Stack because it is not completely certified for Azure Stack. The expense of a new investment in equipment is most likely hurting adoption.
I’ve been thinking about this for years now. I actually thought that this would happen in a daydream over two years ago. What if the Amazon automation deployment doesn’t require special hardware to run when on-prem? What if it will run on a certified and supported VMware deployment, of which there are millions of such deployments worldwide? How does this change the private cloud game?
Only time will tell. We’re eagerly watching this one. I can’t wait to see if anything new will be announced at Microsoft Ignite in a few weeks!
Heraflux and CRN at VMworld 2018
Heraflux is proud to have contributed to a few news releases from CRN at this year’s VMworld conference in Las Vegas. David Klee was there presenting on SQL Server on VMware related topics, was interviewed by CRN for his thoughts on the current state of VMware, and contributed to the conversation around networking.
Networking has been historically fragmented,” he said. “So, if you can turn it around…lock it down better, make it more streamlined and more automated, especially around NSX, then we can be closer to a more secure environment.
Read more on this release here.
Next, the interview talked more about networking here.
Finally, David spoke about the announcements that came from this year’s conference.
This was an exciting conference, and we are thrilled to work with CRN on these announcements!
VMworld 2018 USA Direct Playback Links
VMware has prepared and released the video recordings from this year’s VMworld 2018 USA conference that was held in Las Vegas last week in an incredibly short time. William Lam (@lamw) has prepared the links into one consumable format at GitHub so you can watch them as you find the time. Check them out!
Podcast - Database Protection in the Cloud Era
We’re proud to announce that we were part of a podcast recording with Rubrik recently where we discuss database protection in the public cloud era.
Today, companies are on a journey to modernize their infrastructures and meet the changing demands of businesses. The cloud is becoming a strategic part of this initiative due to its potential to unlock cost savings and increase agility. However, the cloud also brings a new set of migration and data protection challenges.
In this episode, Michael Fal (Rubrik), David Klee (Heraflux Technologies), and John Morehouse (Denny Cherry & Associates) explore the database landscape in the cloud era and share protection best practices.
The podcast is hosted over at SoundCloud. Check it out!
SQL Server Sessions at VMworld 2018 USA
We hope to see you all at this year’s VMworld 2018 USA conference where we are fortunate enough to have been selected to present four SQL Server-themed sessions!
The first is an all-day boot camp (VAP3768WU) with Oleg Ulyanov from VMware Corp. and David Klee from Heraflux where we take participants through a comprehensive journey of understanding how to manage, performance tuning, and business continuity planning for high performance SQL Servers on the VMware virtualization platform. It’s the Sunday before VMworld officially ramps up, and if you have infrastructure engineers attending this conference, please tell them to register for this boot camp.
Next, Thomas LaRock from SolarWinds (@sqlrockstar) and David will be presenting a session called “Performance Deep Dive for Demanding Virtual Database Servers” (VAP1425BU). We’ll be discussing advanced performance-related topics such as CPU scheduling and vNUMA, “right-sizing” for both performance and licensing, virtual disks and performance discrepancies, and general operational efficiency.
Next, Michael Corey from LicenseFortress (@michael_corey) and David will be presenting a session called “Database Virtualization (Monster VMs) with VMware vSphere: Doing IT Right” (VAP1296BU), which is an updated version of the continued track of performance-related tips and tricks. Come see us laugh our way through over a hundred slides packed full of things you can take back to your environments!
Finally, David has a solo session called “Database vDisks and You” (VMTN5520B), where he’ll talk about all of the various layers of queueing between the SQL Server database and the enterprise SAN, and how to measure and monitor these layers, plus discuss ways to performance tune each layer.
As always, it’s going to be a great show! Contact us if you want to meet up in person while at the show, and let’s geek out and talk shop! Register for this conference here, and make sure to enroll in the SQL Server on VMware boot camp!
SQL Server on VMware Boot Camp at VMworld 2018
Heraflux is extremely proud to announce that we are presenting in conjunction with VMware Corp. an all-day boot camp for advanced SQL Server operations, performance tuning, and business continuity strategies at this year’s VMworld 2018 USA in Las Vegas on Sunday, August 26th, at the Mandalay Bay conference center.
David Klee from Heraflux will be joining Oleg Ulyanov from VMware Corp. to present this all-day intensive workshop.
Workshop Abstract: Learn the essential skills necessary to run SQL Server implementations on VMware vSphere. VMware expert Oleg Ulyanov will be joined by Microsoft MVP David Klee from Heraflux to cover best practices and optimal approaches to deployment, operation, and management of SQL Server on VMware vSphere. This technical workshop delivers real-life, instructor-led, live training and incorporates the recommended design and configuration practices for architecting business-critical databases on VMware vSphere infrastructure. Subjects covered in depth will include performance, monitoring , high availability and disaster recovery with failover cluster instances or availability groups, and advanced storage architectures.
Register for this exciting workshop as part of your VMworld conference admission ASAP, as seats are filling up! SQL Server is not a trivial business-critical application to manage in a virtual environment, and come learn many real-world tips and tricks for making these databases run as fast and smooth as possible.
Free Webinar - DBAs vs. SysAdmins in Cloud Availability
SIOS and Heraflux are proud to host a joint free webinar entitled “DBAs vs. SysAdmins in Cloud Availability” on Thursday, April 19th, at 1pm Eastern. This webinar is hosted by MSSQL Tips.
Database and system administrators have historically had different perspectives on many topics such as high availability, disaster recovery, and performance tuning. Since one silo generally does not have full visibility into the other silos, the age-old shouting match exists when an availability challenge occurs. “Your systems must have the issue, not mine!” is a constant theme during these situations. However, moving these critical systems to the cloud presents some new challenges. Availability becomes an even more critical topic, as outages can occur more randomly than with on-premises systems, and the two sides must work more closely to achieve system availability that meets their organization’s SLAs. Come learn tips on how to work with your system administrators to achieve a higher level of ability for your critical SQL Servers in the cloud.
Register today for this exciting interactive webinar!
Speaking at SQL Saturday Chicago
Heraflux is proud to contribute to this year’s SQL Saturday event in Chicago on March 17. Not only is our own Bob Pusateri one of the primary event coordinators, David Klee is presenting a new session called “Level Up Your Cloud Infrastructure Skills“.
Session abstract: Think infrastructure in the cloud is still just for sysadmins? Think again! As your organization moves into the cloud, infrastructure skills are more important than ever for DBAs to master. Expert knowledge of cloud-related infrastructure will help you maintain performance and availability for databases in the cloud. For example, know what an IOP is? How many does your database consume during a given day? Properly sizing a cloud database depends on your knowledge of this metric. Failure to properly configure storage performance at the time of deployment will slow down your SQL Server considerably. Come learn many of the key cloud infrastructure points that you should master as the DBA role continues to evolve!
Register for this exciting event today, and we look forward to meeting you there!
Guest Post at Pure Storage - VVols and SQL Server are a Game Changer
Heraflux is thrilled to have contributed a blog post on how SQL Servers, VVols, and Pure Storage’s unique implementation of VVols combines to make SQL Server DBA jobs better over at Pure’s blog. Pure’s implementation of VVols is simplifying our world and improving our ability to support our businesses.
Foreword in HPE and ScaleArc Performance Whitepaper
Heraflux is proud to have contributed an industry perspective to a recent whitepaper highlighting scale-up architectures using HPE’s Superdome X and ScaleArc. Sometimes database-specific workloads do not scale out well because of years of legacy design and engineering, and in those occasions you need to scale up. Scaling up a business-critical applications, just like scaling them outwards, is not a trivial task. Leveraging modern scale-up technologies such as the HPE Superdome X servers and ScaleArc’s database acceleration and availability solution can help you scale your applications up without dramatic and costly modifications to your code.
Check out this reference architecture for Superdome X and ScaleArc here!