Roger Strukhoff

Gloom and doom are the oxygen of journalism and conference presentations. After all, if everything worked just perfectly, there wouldn't be much to discuss, would there?

Thus, you can find no end of great discussion about all the challenges facing Virtualization and Cloud Computing in all its forms at the upcoming Cloud Expo at the Javits Center in New York April 19-21.

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Three good examples are provided here from the virtualization tracks at the event:

* "Top 10 Private Cloud Pitfalls" is a presentation from Surgient VP Brian Wilson. In it, he promises to "provide a practical framework to assess principle private cloud requirements and map those to design elements including infrastructure pooling, resource allocation, and service policies." Brian is responsible "for Surgient customer success," he says, "from initial cloud design and deployment to ongoing customer support." He has a Bachelors of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas and a Masters of Science in Industrial Engineering from the University of Alabama.

* "Virtualized Infrastructure: The Server is Not Enough" is another hot-button topic; this session's abstract states, "Virtualization is one of the foundation technologies for cloud computing. While servers and storage are the most fundamental targets of virtualization, the broader scope of virtualization includes desktop virtualization, a changing approach to systems management, and optimization of shared application components in virtualized environments." This session "will cover the role and impact of virtualization from desktop to data center," according to its abstract.

* "The Dynamic Datacenter: Where Static Virtualization Tools Don't Work" is the title of a session to be led by Dave McCrory, CTO of Hyper9. "Today, enterprises are virtualizing more of their IT infrastructure than ever," he writes, "leading to a whole new set of operational challenges. From rising data volumes and complexity to lack of cross-domain visibility and shifting data center roles and responsibilities, today's virtual environments are too dynamic for traditional (think: "static") management approaches.

Dave, who has been working with virtualizaiton technology "for nearly a decade," he says, adds, "Even new approaches targeted for virtualization management contain hard wired static reports and management views. It's time for a more mature approach to virtualization. Join this session to learn about the new wave of virtualization management, including the Top Five things to consider when virtualizing business critical applications."

Dave's worked with the VMware ESX Server and Microsoft Virtual Server since they were in Alpha.  He drives the technical vision for Hyper9. Previously he served as chief scientist at Surgient.