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- Dustin Eastman

Virtualization: What does this idea mean for the businesses of Columbus, Ohio and its Information Technology professionals? More importantly, what will it take to virtualize businesses in Columbus, Ohio; or what is holding them back? These were some of the questions posed at this year's Central Ohio VMWare User Group Regional Conference. The conference was held May 18th at the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) in Dublin. The standing room only keynote addresses and packed annex halls said it all, Columbus, Ohio is ready for virtualization, and is gearing up for it in a big way.

Photo: Dustin Eastman

Who’s who in the world of VMware
This conference demonstrated a mix of vendors and speakers. Of course VMWare was well represented. In addition, there were other "household" names in the IT world such as EMC, HP, and Cisco. Large organizations were not the only companies represented. Smaller companies such as VKernel, FalconStor, and Shavlik were also there to demonstrate a passion for VMWare and its user community in Columbus, Ohio.

Planning makes perfect
The first keynote of the day given by Xangati, entitled ‘Five Tips to Accelerate Virtualization with Confidence,’ provided a cornerstone for the remainder of the message for the day; summed up it was this: “Proper planning can lead to quick results and efficency increases.” Companies accept virtualization of servers, and in some cases welcome it openly. However, virtualizing desktops is taboo conversation. But if they take it slow and plan accordingly, it can position them in a very positive position with respect to the bottom line.

What is all the worry?
The risk of data loss to mass numbers of end users is the largest hurdle for desktop virtualization acceptance. This rationale is likely the reason desktop virtualization appeared as the end step in a plan towards total virtualization during many sessions/discussions during the day.

This conference provided access to some excellent information, and vendors. This conference had excellent speakers, and displayed the myriad of options for virtualization available from virtual server monitoring tools, to new virtual disk management, and DR through virtualization.

Columbus, Ohio is stepping up to the plate of virtualization, and together with such community events and groups we can make Columbus, Ohio a shining example of virtualization adoption.

source: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-50007-Columbus-Information-Technology-Examiner~y2010m5d21-Central-Ohio-VMware-user-group-regional-conference-report