Just how important has virtualisation become to organisation’s IT deployment? Is there anything that can’t be virtualised?
It’s the vital question for me as I plough my way through Microsoft’s Virtual Academy in the next stage of my MVA Challenge. If you recall, I’m going through the different tracks of the free programme, diving deeper and deeper into Microsoft’s virtualisation technology.
My guess is that most people out there who have taken the step towards virtualisation have been tempted to VMware but the Microsoft programme is aimed at both VMware users looking for an alternative and IT managers new to virtualisation. I’ve been viewing the videos and taking the self-assessment tests to fill my head with virtualisation technology and am hoping some of you will be taking the courses with me – there’s a De Longhi coffee machine and Lenovo laptop to be won for the student with the highest score. And, if you have any comments on the MVA please email them to me on
The answer to the questions posed at the start appear to be “very” and “no” judging by the responses from Cory Hynes, one of the co-presenters of the Microsoft training programme.
He was speaking in answer to a query about how much virtualisation he personally was running. When he revealed that very little of the IT in his personal set-up was physical and that his whole IT world was constructed around the idea of virtualisation, the whole concept of the training course was put into perspective.
But it’s not just about the deployment of virtual machines, the Microsoft Virtual Academy has dealt with other issues too and does look at some more practical considerations.
For example, this week’s track has focused on two particular products: As I’ve mentioned before, the MVA does lack the opportunity to test some of the products and deploy them in anger, so it’s hard to gauge a sense of what Hynes is talking about.
But his counsel on virtualisation and its prevalence will strike a chord with every IT manager out there and provides a real foundation to the underlying theme of the MVA programme.
Follow Maxwell on Twitter @maxcooter
Don't forget that you can sign up for the Microsoft Virtual Academy Challengeand take on Cloud Pro editor Max Cooter.
Useful links
Microsoft Virtualisation for VMware professionals
Differentiating VMware and Microsoft
Downloads
Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1
System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R3
System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2
System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 SP1
System Center Configuration Manager 2012 Beta 2
System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 Beta
If you want to take things a bit further than the Microsoft Virtual Academy then Microsoft also offers IT Pro courses for more advanced certification.
Check out:
70-659: TS: Windows Server 2008 R2, Server Virtualization (Hyper-V+VMM)
70-400: TS: Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007,
Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1
System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R3
System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2
System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 SP1
