VMWare VTSP

OK, so I sat the VMWare VTSP training earlier this week that Ingram Micro subsidised (100% subsidy - this was very nice of them) and passed all of the exams in all 3 streams. So now I'm a certified VMWare Technical Sales Professional. Yay.

OK, so what does this all mean in the SMB world? Not much. Most of the VMWare kit is priced and squarely aimed at the Enterprise and won't be affordable down here where we live, however the functionality some of the higher end toys provide is rather nice.

VMWare does have their VMWare Infrastructure Foundation product that is aimed at SMB. It supports NAS and local storage (SCSI), but has no SAN support and also comes with Consolidated Backup which is nice, however the only other feature it has - Update Manager - requires VirtualCenter Server - a separately licensed product starting at a little over AU$2000. You don't get the ability to run VMotion (also licensed separately) nor HA on VMWare Infratructure Foundation, unfortunately.

So, is this any real benefit? Not sure. Without VirtualCenter Server, you may as well just run 2 instances of ESXi (or Hyper-V) and manually move and manage machines - you'll get no other meaningful management from VMWare without Virtual Center, so why bother with VMWare Infrastructure Foundation? Maybe I'll investigate VMWare Infrastructure Foundation a little more - this wasn't covered in the training as the training was aiming just a little higher. :)

OK, so when I get a chance I'll play and report back...

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie