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Mitchell Ashley
How To Run Windows 7 Virtualized on Mac OS X
Written on Tue, 12/08/09 - 2:12pm
Windows 7 is my primary desktop but lately the amount of iPhone work I've been doing has prompted me to swap hardware so I could have my Mac Xcode development environment with me when I'm mobile. Thus, came the need to figure out: 1) what would it take to set up a MacBook Pro with Windows as a virtualized...
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Can You Work On A Virtualized Windows Desktop?
Written on Mon, 12/07/09 - 4:20am
I’m using a Macbook Pro laptop running OS X and I have Windows 7 installed on the Bootcamp partition. Normally this kind of setup only lets you boot up either Mac OS X or Windows, but with VMware Fusion 3 for Mac OS X I can run the bootcamp partition (Windows 7) as a virtualized guest operating...
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Productivity Hazards of Windows Updates
Written on Mon, 11/30/09 - 10:22am
Patch Tuesday. Windows updates. Microsoft Office updates. It's a necessary evil, making sure your Windows computers are up to date with the latest vulnerability patches. Patch "whatever day" for Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and others are now simply part of our normal IT process. Next to anti-malware and...
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Podcast: Virtual Machine Manager + Hyper-V Live Migration = Enterprise Ready
Written on Mon, 08/31/09 - 3:11am
Hard to believe it's only been a few years since Microsoft launched Hyper-V. Even more amazing is the progress it has made in that short period of time. With the Windows Server 2008 R2 update we're seeing not just an improved Hyper-V, but Hyper-V with Live Migration. Live Migration is the one feature...
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Virtualization Day: Virtual Machine Manager R2 RTM and Windows 7 XP Mode
Written on Mon, 08/24/09 - 2:13pm
It must be Virtualization Day at my office as right in the middle of test out XP Mode on Windows 7 with some VoIP software, Microsoft announces System Center Virtual Machine Manager R2 is RTM (released to manufacturing). We have a number of projects in the office centered around virtualization, including...
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Ozzie, Services and Virtualization Will Get The Cloud Started Too
Written on Fri, 05/22/09 - 11:07am
In an interview Ray Ozzie indicated that email and collaboration, a.k.a. Exchange, SharePoint and online Outlook, is what enterprises will turn to first as apps are put in the cloud. I don't disagree, and I think that's probably true as far as enterprises go. Enterprises are generally the toughest...
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Sorry…The EC2 Cloud Is Full, Come Back Later
Written on Mon, 05/04/09 - 2:52am
We all envision the cloud to be an on demand resource where at anytime we can add computing and storage capacity at the drop of the hat. Simply bring on as many virtual servers or as much disk storage as needed, when needed. That’s one of the most important value propositions of cloud computing and...
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Virtualization: The Race To Give Away The Most Software
Written on Tue, 02/24/09 - 8:26am
Simon Crosby previously said on my podcast that the hypervisor should be free and now we know he really means it, and more. (Check out Simon's most recent podcast appearance.) Just as Microsoft's Hyper-V Server is free, Citrix XenServer now too is free.
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You May Be Buying Your Next Business Computer, Not Your Employer
Written on Fri, 02/13/09 - 11:54am
Simon Crosby, CTO Virtualization at Citrix, joined me on my podcast this week to talk about a new initiative Citrix has initiated called Project Independence.
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Top 5 Features Missing From Windows 7
Written on Tue, 01/20/09 - 9:44am
Overall the reports about the Windows 7 public beta are quite good. What do people like? It's stable, especially for a beta. And it easily outshines Windows Vista in its stability, polish and simplicity. There are fewer crashes, it's lighter weight (less junk comes with it) and it gets high marks...
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VISA PCI Might Kill Your Virtual Servers
Written on Tue, 12/09/08 - 11:08am
Did you know the VISA PCI security auditing process guidelines don't recognize virtualized servers, one way or another.
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New SaaS platform embraces ISVs
Written on Tue, 09/30/08 - 9:31am
Savvis announced Monday its new SaaS Hosting Platform initiative directed at attracting independent software vendors moving to the SaaS model. While the Savvis announcement isn't entirely new territory, it is one of the first pure-play hosting companies to make a major move to wrap a complete program...
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Microsoft Licensing & Costs Still Hamper Virtualization
Written on Fri, 09/19/08 - 8:23am
Gartner has weighed in on Microsoft's changes to the Vista Enterprise Centralized Desktop (VECD) and the research firm likes them. But it's still only a small step needed for software licensing to catch up with the capabilities of virtualization. With the changes to Microsoft VECD, Virtual...
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Cisco still foggy about cloud services
Written on Wed, 08/20/08 - 10:56am
NWW Cisco Subnet has a post about bloggers writing prolifically about Cisco and cloud services. Setting the Cisco WebEx acquisition aside for the moment, Cisco could and probably will offer some type of software-as-a-service or cloud software service themselves. I would expect the best SaaS opportunities...
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Podcast: Simon Crosby - Why Simon Loves Hyper-V
Written on Thu, 07/17/08 - 4:59pm
In part 2 of my interview with Simon Crosby, Citrix CTO Virtualization, we delve deeper into Microsoft Hyper-V, why Simon is so excited about Microsoft's launch of Hyper-V, how Hyper-V is based on Xen as its reference model, why Simon sees Hyper-V as a good solution for SMBs, whether Red Hat's...
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Live Mesh & Virtualization Saves Gas
Written on Mon, 07/07/08 - 12:52pm
I came across an interesting blog post by Brian Loesgen over the weekend about his experiences with Live Mesh. What caught my eye was his own use case of Live Mesh for software development. Besides sharing personal files, Brian uses Live Mesh to share his software development files between home computers...
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7 skills for IT fame and fortune
Written on Tue, 07/01/08 - 11:52am
With the economic downturn on everyone's mind, assumptions about job security come under question, and everyone starts reexamining their skills. There are lots and lots of valuable jobs performed in IT, but some skills are valued even more highly than others. With all the upheaval we're experiencing...
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Parallels - Two Divergent Paths for Macs & Windows
Written on Mon, 06/23/08 - 4:44am
More virtualization news following on the heels of Red Hat's announcement of its own virtualization technology, oVirt. We all know Parallels as that software that lets you run Windows XP or Vista on a Mac OS X desktop. Since being bought and combined with company SW Soft (maker of Virtuoso and...
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Sun Hydrazine - Rocket Fuel vs. Live Mesh
Written on Thu, 05/08/08 - 2:13am
At the JavaOne 2008 conference this week, Sun "sort of" announced something called Project Hydrazine, Sun's hinted at answer to Microsoft Live Mesh. I have to wonder how much of Sun's Project Caroline makes up Project Hydrazine. Not much detail squeaked out about Project Hydrazine...
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Hypervisors - Repeat of the Blu-ray Wars
Written on Wed, 05/07/08 - 2:21pm
Things are heating up in the hypervisor and virtualization software space with Microsoft's release of the Hyper-V within Windows Server 2008 and adding VMware support to Microsoft System Center products. (The standalone Hyper-V release is a few months out.) My son Phill is working with Windows...
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About Converging on Microsoft
Mitchell Ashley has a diverse background in software development, network engineering, information security, mobility, collaborative technologies, and IT management and operations. An early adopter of social media in business, he began blogging about security and information technologies in 2006 at theconvergingnetwork.com. Mitchell is VP of Information Technology at CableLabs in Louisville, CO, and previously held positions as CIO, CTO and VP Engineering at prior companies.
 

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