Virtual Desktop Pilot

Education application of virtual desktops shows positive results. ...

... "They've actually been using Netbooks and VDI for a proof of concept project in the classroom. Kids and teachers like it, and she says the financial models are pretty compelling. " ...

Via InformationWeek: VDI And Netbooks

Reaching for the Cloud creates Business Value

Amazon CTO provides his take on cloud computing and the type of cloud that would appeal to CIOs and increase adoption. Amazon has introduced a virtual private cloud that can be used to extend an enterprise architecture. Interesting note: some CIOs are capping the growth of their traditional data center in favor of growing the cloud portion of the architecture. This offering plays to that emerging trend. ...

... "The cloud let its users focus on delivering differentiating business value instead of wasting valuable resources on the undifferentiated heavy lifting that makes up most of IT infrastructure. " ...

Via All Things Distributed: Extending the Data Center to the Virtual Private Cloud

Operational Efficiency at Citigroup

Citigroup plans to eliminate thousands of positions in effort to streamline operations. Its list of information technology actions can have a significant impact. They seem late to the party with leveraging these efficient IT enablers - regionalized data centers, virtualization to increase capacity utilization, and a standard enterprise architecture. ...

... "Continue to rationalize operational spending on technology. Simplification and standardization of Citi's information technology platform will be critical to increase efficiency and drive lower costs as well as decrease time to market. Examples of this are: consolidation of data centers; improved capacity utilization of technical assets and optimizing global voice and data networks; standardizing how the company develops, deploys and runs applications; and maximizing value by limiting the number of software vendors to operate at scale. " ...

Via Citigroup: Citi Announces Actions to Streamline Organization, Reduce Expense Growth and Drive Future Expansion

Virtualization Projects: Standardization Drives Benefits

Server consolidation and virtualization projects offer opportunity to standardize software and reap the benefits of a common infrastructure. ...

... "Software and personnel savings can be increased by standardizing the environment and reducing complexity as part of the consolidation initiative (i.e., reducing the number of operating system versions, eliminating redundant software tools, etc.). Many claims of savings on software costs for consolidation projects are actually a result of the standardization ... " ...

Via Virtual Strategy Magazine: Server Consolidation

Virtual Infrastructure: Grid Perspective

Grid-computing provider discusses the characteristics of managing a successful distributed computing infrastructure, which is of interest to companies that are aiming for a more lights-out, virtual infrastructure. ...

... "It is in the interest of application providers to meet the demands of their customers, and some of their largest customers are demanding grid-enablement as part of their overall IT strategy in the data center. " ...

Via Grid Today: Read