EMC recently launched (with the support of technology partners and distributors) VSPEX, a reference architecture that will initially include 14 validated designs comprising EMC VNX or VNXe storage and EMC backup solutions, as well as virtualization management, servers, and networking. We see this as a great announcement and move on EMC’s part. VSPEX allows customers [...]

Cook County Health and Hospital System (CCHHS) in Cook County, Illinois, wanted to boost the efficiency of their data center, but more importantly, they wanted their physicians to be able to quickly access patient data. We were excited to design, deploy, and support their new $3M unified virtual data center, which I’m pleased to announce [...]

Kudos to Datalink for achieving the Cisco Cloud Infrastructure designation within the Cisco Cloud Partner Program. By earning this designation, Datalink has demonstrated that we have the required competencies to sell and implement cloud-ready infrastructure across security, networking, compute, storage, and virtualization solutions from Cisco and approved third-party technology partners. This certification along with our [...]

Congrats to Datalink for being the first NetApp partner to achieve its Data Center – FlexPod specialization. This was no small feat for field and corporate-based teams that are beyond busy doing their normal gigs. The press release has the full details. But in a nutshell, we’re the first of NetApp’s top partners to meet [...]

As I continue to work with customers, the discussion around data center cloud strategies is definitely heating up. Many organizations are well on their way to creating a cloud / virtual data center strategy while many others are realizing an urgent need to define and execute a strategy. One thing I’ve noticed is that most organizations [...]

More than 300 employees just wrapped up Datalink’s Tech Summit event in Las Vegas last week. It was a grueling (albeit interesting) schedule. Three days were filled with a host of general sessions and more than 60 breakout sessions about data center trends, innovations, and best practices. Primarily led by practice managers (like me) and [...]

Giving away a $50 Amazon gift card for answering a trivia question that could have been easily Googled was nearly impossible – though it did eventually happen (to a colleague, who writes here as well), even if it took weeks longer than expected. But I’m not letting that deter me… in fact, I’m going to try [...]

The drumbeat around enterprise cloud computing continues to get louder. More and more organizations want to have a conversation about how cloud can impact their businesses. Some because they need a defensible position on cloud for c-level bosses. Others because they want to be proactive and apply the benefits of cloud computing to drive their [...]

When we talk about building an internal private cloud, we’re referring in the most pure sense as enabling IT as a Service. This will consist of a unified infrastructure that is provisioned into a pool that business owners can self-provision as business and application needs arise – implying that we need a layer of management to [...]