2. Centralized computing might be an old idea, but the way that idea is implemented keeps changing. Dumb terminals, thin clients, network computers — they all separate processing from user devices. ClearCube is different because, unlike the others, the user experience is virtually indistinguishable from that of a regular PC. Quick response times, enhanced graphics, and now multimonitor capabilities — who would want multiple box PCs cluttering their work area when they can get the same experience with a PC blade?

3. Enterprises must find new ways to deal with remote and mobile workers. The old monolithic headquarters where everybody worked for the same eight hours in the same place every day is a thing of the past. Whether you’re dealing with outsourced development teams, traveling consultants, satellite offices, or employees who work from home, your business depends on providing people access to information through the devices they prefer and on their schedule.

Flexibility is the name of the game these days, and ironically enough, centralized computing — once though inflexible by its very nature — now offers one of the most flexible ways for companies to meet the growing and ever-changing needs of its user base. .

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“PC Blade Daily has been publishing for over six months now. Listed below are our top 5 most popular posts.”

Computerworld: Mergers go smoother with a well-prepped data center

“Nemertes’ Burke suggests that one major step to M&A success is to make sure your data center has virtualization tools running on both servers and storage.”

San Jose Mercury News: VMWare IPO shows virtualization market is emerging as a reality

“‘Some of the technology has been around for years. What’s new is server virtualization, and how it’s being used not just for consolidation but for disaster recovery and higher availability,’ Humphries said.”

Yahoo: Independent Research Analysis From virtualization.info Details Challenges of Virtualization Technology

“Virtualization Industry Challenges is an up-to-date research analysis detailing major challenges that companies usually have to face once they decide to adopt virtualization technologies.”

Blade Watch: Interview with an IT Manager

“We conducted the conversation over lunch last Friday and here are the results, it was informal and apologies to ‘Mike’ if I have missed anything we discussed.”

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1. Centralized Computing Means Happier IT Staff. It’s the best gift you can give desktop support (short of a raise).
2. Virtualization and Security. We have nothing to fear but fear itself, and also patch cycles and potentially vulnerable hypervisors.
3. The IT Manager’s Lament. Long hours, wide-ranging responsibilities, capricious regulatory oversight, and bosses who don’t know how to plug in a USB cord. If this sounds like a dream job, you might have a future in IT management.
4. Moving Away from Box PCs. A PC blade is not a thin client, and a thin client is not a PC blade. End of story.
5. Blades Go Hollywood. Lights! Camera! (PC Blade-related) action!

Do you have a favorite post? Tell us about it in the comments below.

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“At this point, laptops have proven themselves too valuable to worker productivity for businesses to ever consider eliminating them simply because they present certain security vulnerabilities.”

p2vd.com: Guide to installing VMware ESX3 on Workstation 6

“Xtravirt.com has created a white paper to do something that most people have wished for sometime now…run ESX in a VM (on VMware Workstation 6), with full functionality.”

Computerworld.com: First American Corp. uses virtualization, quake technology to bolster business

“Virtualization for First American has resulted from a comprehensive $100 million IT upgrade first planned in 2004, which began with a data center consolidation and has led to voice-over-IP technology and other changes…”

Windows Virtualization Blog: Webcast: Microsoft Server Virtualization Licensing with Coffee Cups!

“Jump to 18:24 to see an interesting analogy using coffee cups and moving VM instances between hosts, aka VMware VMotion or Microsoft Quick Migration.”

Scott Lowe: Cisco Switches on VMware

“I’m not a Cisco expert, but I’d love to have the ability to run Cisco-based switches on ESX Server (assuming the overhead isn’t too significant).”

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Take, for example, the necessity for IT to accommodate the rise of what Thomas Jankowski calls the neo-nomad: in other words, the mobile worker. These users require greater connectivity and cheaper, lighter laptops so that they can work from the road. They also require the same corporate-level security they’d enjoy from their home office. Jankowski observes that virtualization can make that possible:

“Almost any setup, be it a laptop, a desktop, or even a server, can be packaged into a virtual image and then redeployed on a machine of one’s choice without disrupting the host system. In effect, my protected company laptop can be made to run ‘inside’ of my own laptop.”

Foster’s EMEA uses the virtual desktop principle in its disaster recovery strategy. According to this article on ZDNet, mobile workers can access “an up-to-date virtual replica of their lost laptop” from any of Foster’s European offices in the event of theft or malfunction.

At this point, laptops have proven themselves too valuable to worker productivity for businesses to ever consider eliminating them simply because they present certain security vulnerabilities. That said, it would be foolish for companies not to take measures to protect their physical assets and their data as effectively as they can.

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“Whether your business is in Ho Chi Minh City or a highly fortified bunker, you might think about using PC blades for everything from user equipment to grid computing.”

Byte and Switch: School Board Teaches Katrina Lesson

“The Parish’s most critical data was held within its data center, which also needed to be retrieved in the aftermath of the storm.”

David Ziembicki on Infrastructure Architecture: TechReady Day 2: BillG and Virtualization

“Consumers are driving a big portion of the tech industry today and that makes its way eventually into the corporate market. Both are extremely important to Microsoft for obvious reasons.”

Virtually Speaking: Virtualization’s impact on Market Research

“Each layer of virtualization technology has a different impact on the counting process. Some of the layers easily could change the perception of shipments and market share.”

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For example, Fosters uses virtualized desktops to provide disaster recovery for remote and mobile employees. Hollywood effects studios, from Industrial Light and Magic to Pixar, rely on blades and blade-compatible technologies (like multicore processors) to render stellar special effects.

ClearCube itself has helped a wide variety of organizations accomplish some very different things with PC blades. We’ve helped GMP Securities, an investment bank, to support complicated banking industry regulations and security mandates. We’ve also helped National Car Parks, a parking lot operator in the UK, to improve systems availablity and IT management. And we helped NORAD overcome some pretty significant — and unique — spacial constraints when they were looking for a high-availability computing solution.

Furthermore, PC blades have demonstrated the potential for great success in education, government, and hospitals. We would particularly recommend them to the IRS.

Whether your business is in Ho Chi Minh City or a highly fortified bunker, you might think about using PC blades for everything from user equipment to grid computing. As we’ve shown, blades are surprisingly flexible.

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“IT departments have a number of options on the technology side, from virtualization to high-density blade configurations. As Peter Rumsey points out, your competition is probably already looking into these options.”

InformationWeek: Intel Quad-Core Xeon MP To Fuel Blade Server Consolidation

“If you’re a manager charged with consolidating your IT infrastructure while increasing your CPU capacity and at the same time reining in energy costs, I can see where a 16-core board might be the beginning of an appealing tale.”

Between the Lines: Amazon makes IT spending cool

“The message: Spend all you want on capital spending. Just make sure there’s a payoff so Wall Street can fawn over you later.”

The Data Center Journal: Balancing Act - How Data Centers Can Meet Demands for Increased Power and Greater Energy Efficiency

“According to Gartner, 50 percent of all data centers will lack sufficient power and cooling capacity to meet the demands of the new high density computer equipment by 2008. And the picture doesn’t improve over time.”

Virtually Speaking: Application streaming and why your organization should care

“Wouldn’t it be nice if only the features a person needs were on the system and other features would live up on a server somewhere on the network? That way, seldom used features (for that specific staff member) could be made to come down the network as needed.”

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It’s no secret that data centers tend to run hot, even in the best of weather. More IT departments are now looking for ways to minimize their own energy footprint. Quocirca’s delightfully named Clive Longbottom wrote in silicon.com yesterday about the measures that some companies are taking and the challenges they face:

“Let’s look at a typical office building. Within the IT data centre, the biggest expenditures are on power and cooling, alongside human resources. Strangely enough, the rest of the building also spends a lot on heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) - much of it for hot water.”

He suggests redirecting heat from the data center into other areas that need it and trying to minimize waste. But this still leaves the question of what to do when both data center and the rest of the building need to stay cool.

This discussion between Greener World Media’s Matthew Wheeland and Peter Rumsey, founder and principal of Oakland-based Rumsey Engineers, details various methods a company can use for lower-impact cooling. Rumsey observes that

“simple improvements in energy efficiency within data centers are going to be required just to keep up with your competitors. But if you want to be out in front of your competitors you really need to look at ways to significantly improve the energy performance in your facilities.”

IT departments have a number of options on the technology side, from virtualization to high-density blade configurations. As Peter Rumsey points out, your competition is probably already looking into these options. Shouldn’t you?

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“A centralized computing solution means centralized maintenance for IT staff, which translates to lower overhead down the line. It can also be a tremendous boon to branch campuses, which no longer need dedicated staff to manage them.”

Scott Lowe: Live Migration vs. Quick Migration

“To help alleviate the bad press over the lack of live migration in a product that is already pretty far behind the competition, Microsoft now started spewing stuff about quick migration…”

Between the Lines: Offshore outsourcing rates headed higher

“The upshot: If you’re an offshore outsourcing customer don’t be surprised if your supplier approaches you soon. At least now you’ll know why.”

Interop News: On the rPath to virtual containerization

“It’s becoming increasingly clear that the most important use of virtualization is not to consolidate hardware boxes but to protect applications from the vagaries of the operating environments they run on.”

silicon.com: Data breach rules ‘creating uncertainty for execs’

“Mullock told silicon.com: ‘We’ve got a situation where different obligations are put on some companies but not on others depending on the sector they are in, and that creates a lot of uncertainty.’”

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