Containers and virtualization

Serverless technology obfuscates workflows, performance data

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Migrate virtual machines from development to production

Administrators must prepare carefully before moving test or development VMs to production. Check connectivity, security, compliance and licensing before beginning a migration. Continue Reading

By

• Brien Posey

AWS' managed Kubernetes service faces tough competition in GKE

Amazon's native integration of Kubernetes puts all the major cloud providers on the same playing field, but it's not an even match. Continue Reading

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• Kurt Marko, MarkoInsights

Hunt zombie VMs and control virtualization sprawl

VM tagging is an effective tactic for discovering and eliminating zombie VMs. Cut useless VMs, redundant data and confusing configurations to enable efficient resource consumption and limit VM sprawl. Continue Reading

By

• Brian Kirsch, Milwaukee Area Technical College

Select the best container monitoring tools for your environment

Organizations that run containers should monitor them, too. Choose container monitoring that integrates into other systems monitoring tools, or take a different route. Continue Reading

By

• Sander van Vugt

512e disks attempt to bridge the gap between 512n and 4Kn

It's important to ensure that your OS and hypervisor support 512e and 4Kn disks, but there are always alternatives to work around any incompatibilities. Continue Reading

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• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

Microservices management tools harmonize polyglot chaos

IT ops must replenish its toolkit to standardize infrastructure management and let developers experiment with the latest programming languages and application designs. Continue Reading

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• Beth Pariseau, Senior News Writer

Monoliths-to-microservices move refactors IT ops skills

As enterprises seek speed and efficiency with microservices, IT ops pros must learn skills and consolidate tools to deal with increased infrastructure and application complexity. Continue Reading

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• Beth Pariseau, Senior News Writer

Build the Kubernetes home lab that's right for your job

Kubernetes and the growing number of commercial container management tools based on it require specialized skills and experience from the application to the infrastructure. Continue Reading

Follow this Minikube tutorial to brew up a Kubernetes home lab

Set up a Minikube home lab, and begin exploring Kubernetes container orchestration before the coffee in your mug turns cold. Continue Reading

By

• Alastair Cooke

Learn Kubernetes infrastructure in a personal lab

Live servers are not the place to build up Kubernetes skills. Instead, set up a Kubernetes cluster, and start experimenting with it on a laptop in a lab. Continue Reading

By

• Alastair Cooke

Kubernetes 1.10 release hits mature enterprise container market

Kubernetes 1.10 adds incremental feature updates, but enterprises will look to third-party products to integrate upstream code before they embrace it. Continue Reading

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• Beth Pariseau, Senior News Writer

Plan ahead: Build a container network for scalability

Container connectivity is no small problem for enterprises with large Docker and Kubernetes deployments. Bring in tools designed to support the workload. Continue Reading

By

• Tom Nolle, Andover Intel

Considerations for creating a VM for a development environment

Just because admins are working in a test/dev environment doesn't mean they can be lax about creating VMs. There are several items to consider, including licensing and compliance. Continue Reading

By

• Brien Posey

Ten lessons for enterprises deploying containers

The majority of medium to large enterprises surveyed by EMA foresee containers replacing VMs in two to five years. Unsurprisingly, container management and shadow containers are pressing concerns. Continue Reading

By

• Torsten Volk, Principal Analyst

Six simple cloud security policies you need to know

Data protection takes center stage in modern IT. Step through this cloud security checklist to ensure your organization is covering all its bases. Continue Reading

By

• Stuart Burns

Aqua Security 3.0 architecture supports AWS Fargate

Aqua Security's MicroEnforcer deployed without a sidecar container supports containers on public cloud services such as AWS Fargate and Azure Container Instances. Continue Reading

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• Beth Pariseau, Senior News Writer

Azure Container Instances provide an opt-out option for cluster ops

Containers-as-a-service platform Azure Container Instances doesn't support clustering on its own, but features an open source connector tool for increased scalability. Continue Reading

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• Kurt Marko, MarkoInsights

The role of container management software in IT ops

Containers are a useful technology, but give some thought to how you'll manage them. Here's what to know about what's available and how to find the right fit. Continue Reading

By

• Alan R. Earls

Integrate DevOps and containers with simple tool adjustments

Organizations with an established DevOps pipeline can migrate from VMs to containers without tossing out the entire toolstack. Focus on these steps to enable containers in production. Continue Reading

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• Kurt Marko, MarkoInsights

End of general support for vSphere 5.5 forces IT shops' hands

To position themselves for future needs and technologies, many vSphere 5.5 customers may have to move out of their comfort zones and upgrade to version 6.5. Continue Reading

By

• Ed Scannell, Freelancer

Can container tools box out configuration management?

What will happen to your infrastructure programming skills when containers take over? Continue Reading

By

• Tom Nolle, Andover Intel

IT turns to VMware encryption for added VM security

Encryption features in recent vSphere and vSAN updates aim to balance security with simplicity and performance. For VMware shops, there is little standing in the way of adoption. Continue Reading

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• Nick Moore, Assistant Site Editor

What's our future if we don't secure IoT devices?

When everything from the coffee maker to the manufacturing plant's robots to the electric grid is connected, shouldn't security be IT's primary concern? Continue Reading

By

• Mike Matchett, Small World Big Data

Container security tools abound, but IT pros await big vendors

Container security startups peddle unique approaches, but while some early adopters jump on board with fledgling vendors, a majority will watch for industry consolidation first. Continue Reading

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• Beth Pariseau, Senior News Writer

Nutanix Acropolis hypervisor components and capabilities

Nutanix hypervisor components, including controller VMs, and Prism, its management control plane, help simplify management. Learn more about how these components work together. Continue Reading

By

• Stuart Burns

What's our future if we don't secure IoT devices?

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Hype for future of container development gets dose of reality

Realistic timelines have replaced the big promises of container disruption. Virtualization administrators should expect security and microservices features as the market matures. Continue Reading

By

• Jim O'Reilly

VMware NSX integration push ramps up to reinforce IT ties

With tighter integration between its NSX and its cloud and virtualization offerings, VMware aims to reinforce its networking chops with enterprise IT. Continue Reading

By

• Ed Scannell, Freelancer

Preserve Hyper-V security from Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities

Protect Hyper-V VMs from Meltdown and Spectre security vulnerabilities, and install patches from Microsoft. Watch out for future revisions, performance impacts and recalls. Continue Reading

By

• Rob McShinsky

Small business virtualization grows in mature market

Virtualization isn't only for large enterprises anymore. New technology at cheaper prices has made SMB virtualization practical, while increased competition has made it necessary. Continue Reading

By

• Brian Kirsch, Milwaukee Area Technical College

Container adoption stats reveal a ramp up in production

There's a 50/50 chance your IT organization will provision and support container-based applications by 2020. See how organizations approach container deployment, including how much they need to spend. Continue Reading

By

• Dave Bernard

Follow these VM network configuration best practices

Set up and operate a VM network using proven strategies to ensure security and performance. With a little planning, virtualization admins can avoid potential issues down the road. Continue Reading

By

• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

Network security features available in a virtual switch

Virtual switch security is achieved through a number of features. Virtualization admins can create and enforce policies, lock down MAC addresses and block forged traffic from VMs. Continue Reading

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• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

NIC teaming software enables load balancing and failover

Load balancing and failover capabilities help optimize performance and achieve resiliency in your virtual infrastructure. Learn how NIC teaming provides both functionalities. Continue Reading

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• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

Navigate different network ports, from physical to virtual

Physical network ports, virtual network ports, uplink ports and group ports all have different functions in virtual infrastructures. Learn more with this in-depth breakdown. Continue Reading

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• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

VM networking: Physical and virtual switches explained

In order for VMs to communicate, they must utilize VM networking technologies that enable them to emulate and access the existing physical network and provide additional features. Continue Reading

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• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

Unikernels vs. containers: See the lightweight championship fight

The drive to minimize app hosting resources yielded unikernels and containers, the IT equivalent of a tiny house and apartment. Containing only the barest essentials, unikernels pose unique benefits and challenges. Continue Reading

By

• Alan R. Earls

CoreOS acquisition burnishes Red Hat containers profile

Most IT shops don't deploy containers in production, but more might be enticed by the addition of CoreOS tools to Red Hat's OpenShift. Continue Reading

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• Beth Pariseau, Senior News Writer

OpenShift on OpenStack aims to ease VM, container management

In this Q&A, Red Hat's Brian Gracely discusses managing a virtual environment that has both VMs and containers and how OpenShift on OpenStack can help. Continue Reading

By

• Ryann Burnett, Executive Managing Editor

Container orchestration tools ease distributed system complexity

Containers simplify some aspects of enterprise apps, but the deployment process is no walk in the park. Orchestration tools bring standardization and automation to complex hosting scenarios. Continue Reading

By

• Tom Nolle, Andover Intel

How to choose the best hardware for virtualization

Selecting the best hardware for virtualization is the foundation of maintaining or designing a robust, reliable and scalable data center. Continue Reading

Ensure container monitoring and control via smart tooling

Don't try to stick with traditional monitoring tools when your organization matures to containers; they won't do enough. Seek out monitoring and management tools with targeted capabilities. Continue Reading

By

• Clive Longbottom

Docker Enterprise Edition prospects mull vendor strategy

Uncertain about Docker's future business growth, some enterprise IT pros are on the fence about whether to invest in its container orchestration tools. Continue Reading

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• Beth Pariseau, Senior News Writer

Container infrastructure a silver lining amid Intel CPU flaw fixes

Containers aren't immune to Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities, but they could lighten the operational burden of fixes for IT pros. Continue Reading

By

• Beth Pariseau, Senior News Writer

Address bulk VMM agent updates with PowerShell automation

The SCVMM agent upgrade process is a regular, but sometimes laborious, part of VM management. Use PowerShell to make light work of bulk updates through commands and loops. Continue Reading

By

• Brien Posey

Make the case to follow a container strategy at your company

Sorting through container management software can be overwhelming. Determine what your organization actually needs in terms of security and cloud capabilities before leaping in. Continue Reading

By

• Tom Nolle, Andover Intel

Container OS options abound: Make the right selection

There is an assortment of OSes that support containerized applications, so go into the decision with a set of wants, needs and must-avoids. Continue Reading

By

• Tom Nolle, Andover Intel

The future of cloud computing looks foggy

The concept of cloud, while never sharply defined, may be growing even less clear. The intenet of things, for example, means more connected devices are showing up in more places, an unstoppable trend that will affect the future of cloud computing.

These edge devices and related functions further blur lines between what's cloud and what isn't. To be sure, there's a good reason these initiatives are often talked about as fog computing.

TechTarget contributor Alan Earls explores all this in the cover story of this issue of Modern Infrastructure. He speaks with experts and IT professionals about how edge and fog computing make a difference in how business is conducted. The ability to meaningfully process data as close as possible to the source is potentially powerful for certain types of organizations, though not an easy task to execute. Having both data and the capability to process it so widely distributed -- rather than collected and centralized -- is a shift in thinking. It's also an acknowledgement that the future of cloud computing is headed in some unexpected directions. IT infrastructures will need to adapt.

The cloud will be a key component in this evolution, a fact that may further stretch our understanding of what -- and where -- cloud computing is.

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Paravirtualization advantages, disadvantages and use cases

Despite a promising start, paravirtualization comes with significant disadvantages that limit the number of use cases that make sense for enterprise IT, but it still has its place. Continue Reading

By

• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

Microsoft Nano Server

Microsoft Nano Server is a lightweight version of the Windows Server operating system that was introduced with Windows Server 2016 for use as an OS layer for virtualized container instances. Continue Reading

By

• Katie Terrell Hanna
• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

Red Hat Atomic Host

Red Hat Atomic Host is a variant of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux supported, open source operating system, designed to be a minimal OS with optimizations for container hosting. Continue Reading

By

• Jack Wallen

Know how container host machine resources get used?

What's a container's resource limit? How do they scale? What OS does a host machine need? Answer 10 questions to prove your container deployment knowledge. Continue Reading

By

• Meredith Courtemanche, Director of Editorial Training

Docker-supported OS list expands with Enterprise Edition update

Docker Enterprise Edition fired back at Kubernetes with new support for mixed clusters and applications, as well as advanced security features that target large enterprises. Continue Reading

By

• Beth Pariseau, Senior News Writer

Should you run MySQL on VMs or physical machines?

Take stock of your current environment, including instance types, orchestration systems and storage devices, before deciding whether to deploy MySQL to VMs or physical machines. Continue Reading

By

• Walker Rowe

The art of managing IT risk is never quite mastered

Risks abound, and no amount of preparation or caution will eliminate them entirely from our lives. This is as true now as it was in the past, and it likely will remain true in the future.

While technology enables us all to work more effectively and productively, the necessity of managing IT risk remains. Risk follows wherever we go -- from the data center to the cloud, from virtualized workloads to containers. Smart IT organizations are continuously assessing threats and then devising ways to minimize them. That's the goal, at least.

This issue of Modern Infrastructure examines some of the current approaches to managing IT risk, from maintaining security to handling costs.

In our cover story, TechTarget's Beth Pariseau writes about the particular challenges of container security. IT shops have been reluctant to put containers in production in large part because of the uncertainty about how secure they might be. Updates from Docker and more disciplined app development practices are making containers less risky, Pariseau writes. And there's reason to think that containers could be even more secure than VMs.

Getting comfortable with containers is a process not unlike how technology professionals learned how to safely use cloud services. It takes some time and effort, but managing IT risk can bring exciting and powerful new tools safely into the fold.

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Machine learning algorithms make life easier -- until they don't

Algorithms govern many facets of our lives. But imperfect logic and data sets can make results worse instead of better, so it behooves all of us to think like data scientists. Continue Reading

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• Mike Matchett, Small World Big Data

Machine learning algorithms make life easier -- until they don't

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When to use Docker alternatives rkt and LXD

Docker can't meet the needs of every IT scenario. LXD and CoreOS rkt are additional container formats to try out when Docker doesn't make sense. Continue Reading

By

• Tom Nolle, Andover Intel

Note these ops issues before you deploy with Docker containers

Docker regularly updates its containerization offering, but it's not click-to-deploy ready for production. Ops professionals should acknowledge these points before deploying Docker containers. Continue Reading

By

• Tom Nolle, Andover Intel

When the big cloud infrastructure providers aren't the right fit

When a business chooses one of the major providers for its cloud services, there shouldn't be a lot of surprises. You do your homework, consider the available services, select instance types, compare costs and then make a decision. At that point, you should know what you are getting. But what if you don't want what you're getting?

There are scenarios where a business seeks out the services of one of the specialty cloud infrastructure providers. These niche providers compete against behemoths such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform, but not by trying to match them service for service. Nor can they keep pace on price. Instead, these smaller providers focus on particular niches, trying to offer specialized services, customer care and flexibility that the hyperscale providers may struggle to furnish.

The cover story for this issue of Modern Infrastructure delves into the reasons a business might choose a niche player instead of one of the major cloud infrastructure providers. TechTarget's Kristin Knapp reports on how these situations arise and how businesses respond. The right fit, she finds, might not always be found in one of the expected places.

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How well do you know Docker components and services?

With Docker containers moving into more enterprise IT shops, it's imperative to grasp how the technology works. Test your knowledge of Docker components and services with this quiz. Continue Reading

By

• Emily Mell, Former Site Editor

Staring down the security issues in cloud computing

Adoption of cloud computing has no doubt been slowed by worries about the security of those out-of-sight servers and resources. While reasonable, those worries have given way over time to acceptance and even optimism.

In this month's Modern Infrastructure cover story, TechTarget’s Trevor Jones writes about why security issues in cloud computing are not the impediment to adoption that they once were. In fact, some organizations are coming to the conclusion that their workloads run more securely in a public cloud than in an on-premises environment. Cloud service providers possess security expertise and experience at levels that aren’t as readily available on a typical IT staff, and certifications give confidence that providers can actually do all they claim to do.

The public cloud is not a risky place to do business, though its safeguards are different from those you've put in place to protect your own data center. These differences are most clearly seen when looking at the shared-responsibility model, which addresses many of the security issues in cloud computing. Users and providers must each do their part. Otherwise, the risks will become apparent, and cloud computing won't be what you need it to be.

This issue also looks at how a new wave of products in development brings memory and storage technologies closer together. Nonvolatile dual-inline memory modules, for example, combine the speed of memory with the persistent qualities of storage in some interesting ways. Also included is an article on how some IT shops that have adopted flash storage are simultaneously impressed and disappointed with the results. Costly flash products invariably improve performance, but they won't solve every problem or clear every bottleneck.

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Shipyard floats a Docker GUI for easier container management

Deploying new Docker images is the easy part; managing and reporting on those instances is tricky. IT teams can use the Shipyard GUI to stop, start, orchestrate and manage Docker. Continue Reading

By

• Stuart Burns

Application support and maintenance add up to operational ALM

An application isn't fully grown when it moves from development to production -- it still needs nurturing to meet its full potential. Continue Reading

By

• Tom Nolle, Andover Intel

Set up Docker container networking for real production workloads

A technology as old as data centers -- networking -- threatens to derail the next new thing. Smart networking choices make Docker container deployments functional and organized. Continue Reading

By

• Tom Nolle, Andover Intel

The future of containerization goes more abstract

Containers have benefits over VMs in the data center, but the future of containerization is broader than that. Continue Reading

By

• Clive Longbottom

Secure Docker on Linux or Windows platforms

With Docker appearing in businesses of all shapes and sizes, security is a concern for many IT admins. Here's how to secure Docker on the container or the host machine. Continue Reading

By

• Brad Casey

How application scalability works in event-driven vs. IaaS computing

Event-driven computing saves IT admins' time and helps application scalability, compared to managing traditional cloud infrastructure. But IaaS and event-driven computing aren't exclusive. Continue Reading

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• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

How is runtime as a service different from PaaS or IaaS?

What is runtime as a service and how does it differ from platform as a service and infrastructure as a service? Continue Reading

By

• Chris Moyer, ACI Information Group

The real future of IT infrastructure lies in abstraction

Future IT infrastructure will be so abstracted from the applications using it that, while always a misnomer, serverless computing will be a reality. Continue Reading

By

• Keith Townsend, The CTO Advisor LLC

DevOps automation boosts Rosetta Stone's app delivery

The language learning company uses multiple tools to make its DevOps environment run smoothly, but Docker has been the key to streamlining application releases. Continue Reading

By

• Beth Pariseau, Senior News Writer

OpenStack infrastructure turns to containers

OpenStack is far from perfect. In fact, there are a number of hurdles it needs to clear before widespread adoption in the enterprise becomes a reality. However, a recent technology trend might just be what the OpenStack infrastructure needs, and it's one that many originally thought would be OpenStack's death sentence -- containers.

A recent study from OpenStack's user survey showed that containers generated the most interest among the community, a sign that IT is ready to take the leap from virtualization to containers. OpenStack leaders say containers are the central piece to the underlying cloud framework that OpenStack lives on.

Meanwhile, data analytics continues to drive the next wave of IT ops tools by combining input from various platforms to create predictive information for the enterprise. So where does IT go from here? Read on to find out.

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Container orchestration for a new breed of IT

PaaS offerings such as Heroku, RedHat OpenShift and Cloud Foundry have always used containers under the covers, but as containers move toward production use outside of PaaS in the cloud, they're being deployed in clusters of server infrastructure that are orchestrated to automate the deployment of containers. So is container orchestration right for IT? Well, that depends.

Beth Pariseau's feature this month, 'A New Day for PaaS' analyzes the way IT views PaaS, and how it's evolving. On the other hand, IT pros must dish out reality every once in a while to the business side, and often 'live on the edge' according to Alan Earls. But life on the edge can be dangerous, and it isn't just a figurative turn of phrase anymore, it's a physical location.

Both these stories, and much more, including columns from Bob Plankers and Mike Matchett, and what enterprise IT is thinking about VMware in the May issue of Modern Infrastructure.

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How CPU and memory affect application performance

Application performance will change depending on if you want more cores, better clock speed or what you choose for memory. Continue Reading

By

• Brian Kirsch, Milwaukee Area Technical College

Five cons of container technology

Containers promise rapid scalability, flexibility and ease, but they're not right for every workload. Continue Reading

By

• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

Brace your infrastructure for a microservices approach

Before transitioning to microservices, it's crucial to consider the effects on your underlying infrastructure and network -- and to plan ahead. Continue Reading

By

• George Lawton

How virtualization can get you into software licensing trouble

Maintaining proper software licensing in virtual environments can be a challenge. Find a strategy to cope or you could find yourself out of compliance and in hot water. Continue Reading

By

• Brien Posey

What does ‘software defined’ actually mean?

Software defined is a term used to describe a wide variety of products, but it’s often used to catch your attention rather than describe a product’s function Continue Reading

By

• SearchServerVirtualization Advisory Board

Component cloud model powers agile application development

In the future, IT pros see cloud as a place to spin up applications to respond to problems on the fly. The component cloud model is just step one. Continue Reading

By

• Tom Nolle, Andover Intel

Where are Citrix and VMware headed with end-user products?

In this podcast, we shed light on Citrix and VMware end-user product roadmaps with a recent news recap and an interview with VMware CTO Kit Colbert. Continue Reading

By

• Nick Martin, Senior Director of Content Strategy and Member Engagement

Virtual security tactics for Type 1 and Type 2 hypervisors

It's no surprise that Type 1 and Type 2 hypervisors require different security considerations, but we asked an expert to clarify. Continue Reading

By

• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

Optimal BIOS settings for server virtualization

The ideal mix of performance and reliability starts with learning which server BIOS settings you should configure for a virtualized system. Continue Reading

By

• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

Best of VMworld 2012 awards

A panel of more than 10 industry experts selected the best technologies for TechTarget'’s Best of VMworld 2012 awards. And the winners are … Continue Reading

By

• Bridget Botelho, Editorial Director, News

Quiz: The basics of server virtualization

Take this quiz to find out how much you know about the basics of server virtualization. Continue Reading

Host and guest virtual machine: Definitions

We explain the two components of a virtual machine -- the host and the guest -- in this installment of virtualization explained series. Continue Reading

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• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor