Literally as they were shutting the lights off at HP Discover in Frankfurt, I grabbed Brent Allen and had a quick chat with him to get the latest portfolio updates around HP CloudSystem, which also included HP VirtualSystem.  Brent is always fun to talk and really knows his stuff. 

In this podcast, he talked about enhancements to the family which included support for Red Hat Linux and incorporating the HP 3PAR StoreServ 7000 into the VirtualSystem (VS3).  Here's the podcast with Brent.

If you rather download this as a podcast, right click here and save the MP3 file. You can also subscribe to my podcast on iTunes - go to the iTunes store and search for "Around the Storage Block" or you can open this link and click on the "View in iTunes" button under my picture.

At VMworld, my HP TechCast co-host Jeffery Powers and I did a show focused on some of the news coming from VMworld.  The guests on the HP TechCast were:

• Brent Sullivan, VMware
• Brent Allen, HP
• Janice Owens, Emulex
• Gagan Bhatia, HP
• Jacob Van Ewyk, HP

A few weeks ago on Twitter I saw a partner talking about some testing they had done on the P4000.  I invited Nuno Fernandes to write a guest post here on ATSB talking about what they had done.  Nuno works in Malta for Systetec, an HP partner, and was putting together a solution similar to our HP VirtualSystem but at a bit smaller scale for the market his company serves in Malta.  I thought this was interesting - so visit this article to read what Nuno did.

I dropped in to Microsoft Management Summit last week for an afternoon but got a boatload of content while I was there.  This is the last of my VirtualSystem for Microsoft posts.  I have two podcasts - one with a couple of HP guys and the other with Mark Hassall. 

In the first podcast, I talked with Paul Gavin who is a Microsoft Virtualization Solution Manager at HP and Jose Betancourt, an HP pre-sales architect.  We hit a number of topics but focused on customer requirements for building a Microsoft-based private cloud. 



The second podcast is with Mark Hassall from Microsoft. Mark works in the Windows Server & Management Group and is responsible for the virtualization and management initiative working with HP. Mark and I talk about the work that HP and Microsoft are doing together around virtualization and management. 

I spent the week in Vegas at NAB but I was able to pop over to the Venetian on Wednesday and spend the afternoon at the Microsoft Management Summit.  I had a post earlier in the week called HP at Microsoft Management Summit.  In this post, I have a couple of podcasts focused on the HP VirtualSystem VS3 for Microsoft.

In the first, I talk to Maribeth Marcello, the worldwide product manager for the VirtualSystem VS3.  Maribeth and I talk about positioning of the VS3 and what customers should consider it. 

Here's the first podcast with Maribeth:

Next I talked to Dung Hoang - Dung is an engineer on the VirtualSystem team and was involved in building the MMS Hands-on-lab infrastructure that ran all the HOL during the event.  Dung had told me that they expected to have run 42,000 VMs in total and during the peak usage of HOLs, there were over 3000 concurrent VMs running on the VirtualSystem Monday morning just before lunch.

Here's the podcast with Dung.

This blog post has been re-published due to a technical issue.  You can find it here: http://h30507.www3.hp.com/t5/Around-the-Storage-Block-Blog/HP-VirtualSystem-VS3-for-Microsoft-podcast-at-MMS/ba-p/111635

While I’m in Las Vegas at NAB, less than a mile away Microsoft Management Summit is also happening.  I’ll drop in there later this week but I wanted to share some news with you, hot off the press.  I have a podcast with HP 3PAR product manager Kiran Sreenivasamurthy talking about his presentation at MMS along with a part of the news.  In the podcast, Kiran talks to me about the newly announced integration we have of HP 3PAR with Microsoft System Center 2012. 

Today at MMS, Microsoft announced the general availability of System Center 2012.  HP also has a few things we're announcing.   You'll have to read the blog post to get the details but here's the podcast with Kiran: 

One last session for our recent HP Tech Day, this one focused on the HP VirtualSystem.  The post includes high-level summary notes, a video of the session and other resources to learn more about the VirtualSystem.

On January 17, Microsoft unveiled its private cloud strategy as well as a comprehensive update to System Center licensing and pricing.  Here’s why this is good news for our mutual customers.

Can you really build your own cloud in a 17 inch box?  Lee Johns talks about how to cook up your own cloud in a box using a little HP storage, BladeSystem, networking and software.