One Million IOPs From A Single VM

I sometimes get questions from customers or partners about the capabilities of our VMs to be able to handle workloads that have a large amount of disk IO.  Last year we published the results of a 1 million IOPS from a single vSphere 5.0 host.  I talked to Chethan who was involved in that testing in one of the VROOM! Videos earlier this year.  

To further show that high IOPS can be achieved with vSphere we just recently published the results from a new test with a vSphere 5.1 host running a single VM that was able to exceed 1 million IOPS.  There is a short blog on VROOM! with a video that shows IOMeter running during the test and 1 million plus IOPs.

Cool stuff! 

End of vRAM Licensing and Beginning of vCloud Suite - VMworld 2012 Day 1

Short summary of VMworld day one.

We're sorry about that vRAM licensing thing and we are going back to "regular" licensing.  

It is now much easier to and simpler to get and use our products together with vCloud Suite.

VMworld sessions fill up fast, so show up early.  There are a lot of people here.

The social media surrounding the event and embedded into the event continues to get better every year.  The VMworld android app is much better than previous years.  The socialcast VMworld 2012 app is very cool. Tweetups and Tweetvites and the way that events are organized.

Overall, everyone I've talked to has been impressed with new CEO for VMware Pat Gelsinger.  I thought it pretty impressive that after only a few weeks on the job he was able to get up in front of all his new customers and talk about things in fairly compreshensive manner.

Dell and HP Numbers Show Post PC Era Has Begun

The recent quarterly reports from Dell and HP show a sharp decline in the traditional PC business.  This article from Larry Dignan at ZDnet summarizes these results and includes statements from both companies regarding said results.

Dell reported a 22% decline in revenue for it's consumer based PC sales from 3.3 Billion to 2.6 Billion from the same time last year (It's actually worse than this because it achieved a 3.7 billion quarter in between these - which is a drop of over 1 Billion dollars in revenue). Dell explains that they have decided to not participate in the low end of the market - which accounts for some of the drop.

HP reported a 10% decline year over year for it's personal systems group from 9.6 Billion to 8.6 Billion as compared to the same time last year, which is better than Dell in terms of percentage but is still a decline in revenue of a Billion dollars.  The groups and numbers are broken out is a bit different between the two companies - so HP's strictly consumer PC business could be a bit different than these numbers show.

The real reason for these big holes in revenue is the failure of both of these traditional PC companies to successfully move into the post PC era.  Both made attempts at tablets / phones but were unsuccessful.  If those attempts had been successful there would not be nearly such huge holes in their balance sheets.

The Dell Streak and HP TouchPad are the most high profile examples of the product misses by the two companies.  Both companies have recognized that new products are needed and reacted by attempting to create radically different products from their traditional PC business, but have so far failed to execute successfully.

The Post PC Era is here.  If you are only selling traditional PCs you are going to miss out on a large portion of the market.

Apple, Samsung, Motorola (Google), HTC, Asus, and many more smaller companies are rapidly producing new innovative products that are beginning to replace PCs for some people.  The numbers are showing this is happening.  (Especially if you look at Apple's iPad numbers).

Attempting To Be Fully Prepared for VMworld

There are things that you can do to prepare for VMworld:

• Pre-register for the sessions that you are interested in
• Read the press about new products that are going to be announced.  
• Dedicate blocks of time to spend in the Hands on Labs
• Get comfortable shoes
• Pre-register for after hours events
• Join the VMworld Socialcast and get connected 

Kong and I have also talked about preparing for VMworld on the last two episodes of So Say SMEs.

But when the whole things start rolling on Sunday night, and then the conference really officially starts on Monday morning, the best plans only go so far.  So don't get too caught up in planning and just be prepared to go with the flow (which means cram in as many sessions, blogs, tweets, meet-ups, beers, videos, and expo surfing as possible).

Going Back In Time For Air Travel

I took a trip back in time last week.  It was amazing.  I was going on a trip and arrived at the airport just 45 minutes before my flight was to depart.  I went straight to the American Airlines ticket counter and checked in.  There was a problem with my seats on the second flight, but the American Airlines person at the counter noticed it before me and was able to fix our seats so that they were together before I even asked about it.

We then went through a very quick and painless security check and sat down and waited for about 20 minutes before the flight boarded.

It felt like what flying was like 15 years ago.

The reason is that we were flying out of Roswell, New Mexico.  There is only one terminal and one gate.  There are three flights a day and they all go to Dallas/Ft. Worth.  It's a very simple operation, but it is well run and all of the staff was very nice and professional.

There used to be a very big base in Roswell, so runways are nice and big.  Some of the biggest airplanes the Air Force had were flown from this airport in the past - B52s and B37s included.  It is still used for some military flights as I saw a large military cargo plane taking off just before us, but there are also now the commercial American Airlines flights and private aircraft using the airport as well.

Even High Tech Can't Save You From The DMV

My driver's license was about to expire, so the state of Texas sent me a nice letter letting me know it was time to renew.  No problem. I jumped on the website and went to renew my license remotely from the comfort of my home.  No lines and no hassle.  After putting in a bit of information I find out that I have to - gasp - go the the DMV office in person to renew.  And stand in line.

I think that the last time I renewed it person was at least 10 years ago, maybe longer.  I know that I have done at least one renewal online and maybe two other times by snail mail and a paper check.

I look at my picture from my old license and I realize that is the reason I must go in person.  I'm not that young kid in the picture anymore.  Wouldn't it be cool if the DMV could somehow get a new verified picture over the web.  While this would be really cool - it's actually a lot easier for them to just require you to show up in person once every decade or so.  If they had a Software Defined Verified Picture As A Service - SDVPaaS - that would be awesome.

The day before my birthday (which is when my license was set to expire) I got up early and was at the DMV a little bit before it opened at 8 am.  There was a line of about 40 people, which was mostly teenagers looking to take their driving test.

I waited in line for about 40 minutes.  I smiled for the camera and paid the renewal fee.  Almost painless.

Maybe in 10 years they will have some new tech that will save me from another trip to the DMV.