PerfectDisk Blog from Raxco.com| Defrag Software

Interop: consolidate; but get the performance management right

                            

Writing in the Information Week Analytics Blog, Art Whittmann writes this week about a panel discussion on the future of the data center at this week's Interop show in Las Vegas. The panel consisted of leaders from Cisco, Brocade, Juniper and Riverbed, and Art points out that they all agreed on an overlying message -- now is the time to be consolidating servers, networking, storage and even data centers. With the result "a highly responsive environment that takes far fewer resources to manage."

Art then gets into the management aspect of the virtualized data center, and asks if the right vendors ("the usual suspects") are the right ones to handle this new virtualized world. Of course, at Raxco we're often pointing out that one aspect of management that sometimes gets overlooked is defragmentation. And virtualization defragmentation is just as important as physical defrag. Actually, for businesses placing more and more emphasis on virtual solutions such as ESX and Hyper-V, it could be argued that it is even more important than ever. Which is why we have virtual aware defrag solutions with PerfectDisk. The old school defraggers won't cut it in this new world.

Consolidate. Go virtual. And keep on defragmenting to get performance right.

                           

Your physical or virtual defrag -- green and lean

                          

As the world commemorates Earth Day 2009 and the entire global community moves environmental discussions to the forefront, it's the perfect opportunity to look at the defragmentation issue from an environmental perspective. Industry reports abound about the tough time PC makers are going through now, with netbook sales doing well, but other PC shipments suffering along with the rest of the economy. As families and businesses do everything they can to squeeze dollars and resources wherever and however they can, a new computer is turning into one thing that gets delayed. And a good defrag helps extend computer life.

With fewer PCs being purchased, fewer are being discarded and recycled. But what about the computer you're running? With a single-pass defrag strategy that in essence "shrinks" the drive, PerfectDisk users save on the computing resources they use. This is in contrast to typical multi-pass defraggers that need to churn and churn away at the problem. You won't want to turn your PC off at night or any other time with a multi-pass defragmenter, because chances are good you won't have a completely defragged drive. And if you've got just one big, nasty fragmented file, PerfectDisk users can quickly and easily defragment that one file and then move on to their other business.

                                    

PerfectDisk is doing its part on the virtualization front as well. As businesses move heavily to the virtual server model, we're helping them get the most out of this setup. As businesses utilize fewer physical servers and look to reduce their energy consumption and carbon footprints, PerfectDisk's exclusive Virtual Aware Defrag helps ensure they'll be as efficient as possible. And of course, the same single-pass strategy applies here as well, ensuring the most efficient use of resources.

Here at PerfectDisk headquarters, besides the "easy" things like using all recycled paper and more electronic software distribution over physical, we've reduced our energy consumption over 25%, despite an increase in heating degree days of 78.7%. More virtual machines, fewer physical machines, resulting in less energy consumed and a smaller footprint. Even as we've grown the business and added employees.

We're all aware of our impact on the environment more than ever now. Every little bit helps.

In its own small way, PerfectDisk is as well.    

                           

IT spending

  Research firm IDC has its latest numbers for IT spending out, and not unexpectedly, the latest forecasts are down from what they were predicting last year. The company forecasts total IT spending  to be $1.44 trillion this year, which translates to an increase of a half percent over 2008. Last summer it was predicting almost 6% growth for this year. Worldwide hardware spending is forecast to shrink by 3.6%.

                              

On the flip side, software sales are expected to increase 3.4%. While this is down from IDC's projections last year, it's still an increase. One of the reasons is likely that companies and people are trying to get more out of what they have. And software like PerfectDisk, which not only improves performance but helps extend the life of computers and servers, fits into that category. Yes, defrag software is a cool thing to have in this day and age. Defrag the old, defrag Vista, or defrag the new Windows 7.

                            

Times certainly have changed.

Business Week snubs PerfectDisk

                            

Sure, how else are we, who pride ourselves in superior customer service, supposed to feel when we don't see our name listed in Business Week's March 2nd cover story on Extreme Customer Service -- In a Tough Year, 25 Companies That Get it Right? Okay, never mind the fact that the 25 companies listed are multi-billion dollar companies. Companies like #1-rated Amazon,com, The Ritz-Carlton, American Express, BMW and Apple. This is the kind of story that really grabs our attention, because customer service really is important to us and we try hard to get it right. And we think we do, most of the time. And when we don't, we try to fix it, whatever it is.

                                 

So we'll just carry on without the cover story recognition. And we'll do what the Business Week champs are doing...."flexing our workforce" (we've added service and support staff), "technology investment" (we're expanding a new CRM system, utilizing direct remote assistance more), and "babying our customers" (just ask them or see the online reviews people post unsolicited). We have a rapidly expanding online user community where users can express views and exchange ideas.

No, we don't always get it right. Which is why we're out there listening and continually trying to improve ourselves. And when we mess up, we hear it. And we try to fix it.

                  

Okay, here's the article if you want to read it. Interesting stuff, even without a mention of PerfectDisk or defrag.

Virtualization defrag for the future -- here today -- Go

                            

The future of virtualization defragmentation arrives today, with the general availability of the world's first and only virtually-aware disk defragmentation utility. The PerfectDisk 10 Virtual Enterprise Edition is now generally available. This newest member of the PerfectDisk family contains patent-pending Virtual Awareness that eliminates resource contention to maintain optimal performance on physical hosts. And it is platform independent on VMware ESX Server and Windows-based physical hosts such as Microsoft's Hyper-V.

                         

Since the Release Candidate of the Virtual Enterprise Edition was made available about a month ago, interest from businesses and agencies has really taken off. What's the big deal? What the competition offers is defragmentation that is always on, always going....but unaware of its environment. So a common scenario in that environment is a virtual machine, or 2, or several, that kick off defragmentation because they are "idle." The problem is that these "idle" guests start going to work and consuming resources. but they don't take into account that another guest under the same physical host may not be idle - and in fact may need to carry out important work. But it's impeded by the "idle" guests that are cranking away, consuming resources at the expense of a critical machine that needs to do other work. 

                     

Enter the PerfectDisk 10 Virtual Enterprise Edition. It's the next generation of intelligence, which not only concerns itself with the resource availability of individual machines, but of their physical hosts as well. Plus all the other extras with PerfectDisk 10, like space management reports, patented optimization, space restoration technology, etc.

                     Also available today is the new PerfectDisk 10 Enterprise Console (formerly the Command Center). The PD 10 console brings new virtualization reporting as well as other new reports and reporting enhancements. Plus - new integration with VMware Virtual Infrastructure Management. This new plug-in allows user to access the PerfectDisk 10 Enterprise Console directly from within the VMware Virtual Infrastructure Client, providing a single point of management for their ESX-based/vCenter managed Windows guests.

                          

And the console also has new integration with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007. The SCOM 2007 management pack allows users to access PerfectDisk 10 Enterprise Console fragmentation statistics - including alerts and warnings - directly from within the SCOM 2007 console, providing a single point of management for their managed Windows environment. Using the PerfectDisk Enterprise Console SCOM 2007 management pack, users can drill down to the drive level to view fragmentation levels, view an aggregate summary of alerts and warnings, connect to PerfectDisk running on a managed computer, and even directly launch the Enterprise Console to deploy, configure and schedule PerfectDisk on their managed computers. And finally, the PerfectDisk 10 Enterprise Console now includes SQL Server 2005 Express Edition for improved performance and scalability.

Virtualization defragmentation with VMware ESX Server, Microsoft's Hyper-V, and more. Total enterprise management of defragmentation.

                  

Now.

Shortening laptop's boot time -- PerfectDisk plus HyperSpace

                     

One of the big benefits of PerfectDiskis faster boot times for laptops, PCs and even servers. There's nothing like the agony of being all ready to get to work - or play - and having to wait for your machine to boot. So defrag helps your normal day-to-day use, but also boot times. And for those laptop users among us, the wait can be even longer. But using PerfectDisk really does help get your machines booted faster.

                             

In the February 23rd edition of Business Week, Stephen H. Wildstrom writes about some new technology that helps you get to work on your laptops almost immediately. HyperSpace from Phoenix Technologies helps you get onto Windows almost instantly. There are a couple of versions, including one that lets you run both HyperSpace and Windows at the same time, with Windows running in "sleep mode" while working in HyperSpace. You can read the article here.                            

And with PerfectDisk also speeding up your boot times, it could be a real winning combination.

Is it love...or not?

                        

Being Valentine's Day weekend, it's time for some defrag love...

The January 26th cover story on Information Week was titled A Measure of Satisfaction -- What Customers hate and love about their vendors -- and what they can do to build better relationships. The article was based on a polling of 350 IT professionals to find out what they think of their tech vendors.

Lots of interesting findings -- people and companies hate it when vendors promise something that isn't there, and misrepresenting integration issues and deployment time (one way we try to avoid this with PerfectDisk is with our free evaluation program). The survey reported that vendors should do a better job of being upfront about how products meet requirements and taking the time to understand companies' requirements. And taking responsibility when there's a misstep. People and companies value capable technical support and reliability in products.

Information Week summed up the article by stating that "the message is clear: IT wants and needs trustworthy partners to help them run their businesses." All great relationships have trust and openness, or bad things happen.

                        

So...how are we doing? Would love to hear from you.

Virtualization Buyers Guide Now Online -- defrag included

                          

Redmond Magazine has a sister publication called the Virtualization Review. Last November, it published its first annual Virtualization Buyer's Guide, covering all kinds of products and topics in the virtualization space. It's a good source whether you're looking at applications, desktop or server virtualization products,power and cooling issues, and a lot more. The management and optimization category covers virtualization defrag and more. I'm calling your attention to it now because the guide is now online, and it can be downloaded at the Virtualization Review's website here.

We're happy that PerfectDisk is the lone defrag solution in the guide, with specific solutions for  virtualization defrag. Because of the timing of the Buyers Guide and the launch of PerfectDisk 10, the new PerfectDisk 10 Virtual Edition, with its exclusive virtual awareness for environments like VMware ESX Server and Microsoft's Hyper-V, is not listed. But PerfectDisk for VMware is, along with our previous ESX defrag solution.  

                         

Wherever you are in your virtualization project -- just getting going or knee deep into it, I would recommend checking out this guide to help you in your product selections.

Did you know? 5 good minutes

I came across this 5-minute video and found it fascinating as well as entertaining. Click here and see if you know. Or how much you didn't.

Did you know?

With all that to think about, better just let PerfectDisk do its defrag thing all by itself.

You've got enough think about.

                             

How green is your defrag?

In its October 27th cover story, eWeek's Cameron Sturdevant writes about How Green IT Measures Up - Especially in tight economic times, green is the color of money. In one of article's callouts on Tips for greening the server room, Sturdevant points out that "CPU throttling can reduce power use by 21 percent. This is the low-hanging fruit for data center operators."

                    

In terms of "lights out" policies, Sturdevant states that "the single most effective energy-saving strategy for user devices is to turn them off when they are not in use," and points to a Ziff Davis Enterprise Research survey that reported nearly two-thirds of companies are either using or planning to incorporate lights out policies in their organizations. And of course virtualization is a key driver of reduced energy costs and greener IT.

                                               

These are some of the reasons that the flexibility of PerfectDisk, with its ability to not only run automatically but also to throttle CPU usage and schedule defrags when necessary, and to optimize virtual environments. is receiving a lot of attention from corporate IT departments.

PerfectDisk, a surprising piece of the green IT puzzle.