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iPhone 3.0 Hits and Misses

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Today was day 2 of major announcements in technology, Apple’s iPhone 3.0 Software Preview (video of full announcement should be up on that link soon).  For me, the past two days have been quite busy on multiple fronts with all the announcements being just one of them.  When days like this occur I end up finding interesting sites and leaving browser tabs open until my computer starts to scream “no more!”.  So I’m hitting things in reverse and posting some thoughts on the Apple announcements before I post my thoughts on yesterday’s Cisco announcement (then I can close some of my browser tabs).

First, if you don’t want to sit through the video of the Apple Preview, check out the archive of live comments from engadget (scroll to the bottom on work up) or Don MacAksill’s live twittering.

Second, I have to classify myself as a business-geek users of my iPhone and my comments will flow from this classification.  I use it primarily for business items like monitoring exchange email, moving between meetings in my exchange calendar, and doing more calls that I care to admit in a day.  But I love it for the fact that I can all my geek stuff on it as well because it is an application platform (much like my old Palm Treo was).  Using applications like a Twitter client, WordPress client,  Webex client, Netflix client, and others social networking clients allow me to interact will all the web services I want or need.  And then all the photo applications to allow me to extend my photography addiction to the phone.  All that being said, it’s the business side of stuff that really drives my use (not to mention pays the bills for the iPhone).

So, here is a list of the major pains that I was hoping would be fixed in 3.0:

  • The ability to click on a phone number in emails and outlook calendar invites to dial a number!  Since copy/paste has never been available, I always expected at least this feature, especially considering my blackberry could do this…
  • Landscape mode in email and all apps I need to type in.  I have fat fingers, the portrait mode keys on the iPhone are small.  And the spell correction can be annoying with the combination of both.  (Fixed)
  • Fix the lag with larger Contact databases.  There are times when opening or working with my contacts just hangs.  When 2.0 was released I heard that it was because the system wasn’t designed for large contacts lists.  I work in sales, I have thousands of contacts in my phone and I never know which ones I may need.
  • Fix the contact search feature.  This scrolling to find someone is such a waste of time.  The search feature works much better because after typing 3 characters I usually see the person I’m looking for (see previous bullet item).  But the search area scrolls off the screen.  Allow me to lock it to the screen so it is my default view.  My Treo excelled at this.
  • Tethering:  there are still times when I need to have my laptop connected to the internet to accomplish something while I’m out and mobile (though less frequently now that the WebEx client is available), give me this safety net.

So, from what I can tell…25% of what I want is in 3.0.

Here are the other items I think are important from this release:

  • Copy/Paste.  I don’t buy the excuse of “security was an issue” as to why it took so long to have this.  This has always been a black eye on the iPhone.  BTW:  I still want clickable phone numbers in calendar invites…and I want it to auto dial the passcode for conference lines (since I’m asking).
  • Landscape mode (as mentioned above)
  • universal search.  But what would be nice is if you could build search filters that could be linked to a button on the spotlight home screen.  Maybe I want to search just contacts and calendars when I type something in to cut the huge list of results.  Would be nice if I could just have a customized filter button below my search window..type the text and then my custom filter button to see my results.
  • Voice Memos:  this is nice, but will need to see how this is different from other voice recording apps currently available (Jott, Evernote).  Now this is where Apple needs to be careful not ot add built in apps that will alienate their app developers.

I should be interesting to see how app developers use the new APIs and features..I can already see some interesting things coming with the peer to peer capability.  Can’t wait for the free upgrade.

Desktop Virtualization Sizing & Scoping

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I have been doing quite a bit of work lately on Desktop Virtualization, obviously with VMware View.  As a number of analysts and non-analysts had predicted, 2009 is definitely the year that desktop virtualization is taking off.  Partially because of the technology has reach a level of maturity where it is usable for most use cases and partially driven by the cost savings potential that it can provide.  As I have indicated in previous posts, there are real conversations happening within corporate desktop IT discussing getting rid of corporate owned laptops or desktops all together.

While reading Chris Wolf’s descriptiong of the demo he saw of PCoIP at VMworld in Europe, it struck me that the sizing metrics used to describe dekstop virtualization tend to vary.  Chris mentioned in his post:

“…with a virtual desktop consolidation density ranging from 30-60 VMs (densities commonly found by our clients piloting or running VDI today).”

While there are times when we need to simplify measurements to keep complexity in check, it can be misleading to talk about virtualization densities without mentioning the units for that density.  I’m assuming that Chris was referring to VMs per Server, that would make sense given the number.

I would have to argue that this is the wrong unit to use for desktop virtualization, the proper unit that should be used for desktop virtualization density is VMs per Core. As the number of Core’s per CPU socket keep increasing and as the size of servers, measured in number of sockets, keep increasing in the data center we should be measuring virtualization density in VMs per Core.   This is the best metric to guage technology advancements against.

When talking with my customers about VMware View deployments, we are always talking about the density in VMs per Core and cost of solution per desktop for a given use case (common population).  The cost can be impacted by playing around with how you package those cores in the data center. As long as the server can contain as much memory as needed by the total number of VMs your golden.  And the memory limitations won’t be as great of a limitation for much longer.

The use case is the other key aspect.  When looking at a desktop virtualization solution, I have found that you need to keep the solution contained to a single use case which describes a single virtual desktop size.  Call center desktops have their own unique size (hard drive space, memory, and hard drive usage) while a knowledge worker desktop has a different unique size.  Each use case’s different size will impact the costs and ROI/TCO model.

So, when analyzing virtual desktop solutions, keep in mind your sizing metrics and keep your use case scopes focused.  Like any solution, desktop virtualization should be taken in bites and these two suggestions will help keep in that task.

What Are IBM Plans for Transative?

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I have been hearing rumblings lately that IBM has stopped direct sales of the Transitive Solaris SPARC Binary Translator solution the purchased late last year. (see IBM Virtualizes Sun Out of Market).  This is a rather curious move.  While it sounds like it was the OEM division of IBM that drove the acquisition of Transitive (IBM OEM’d the product), it is strange that people who want to spend money on the solution are being turned away.

I tried to find which product within IBM’s vast portfolio of products included the Transitive solution, but I wasn’t able to.  I’m assuming that their own OEM’s version is still available to customers, but I’m also assuming that it’s not a straight OEM but embedded in some larger solution and thus has a higher price point that the Transitive stand-alone solution.

I was really expecting IBM to leverage this aquisition to help put a stake in Sun’s heart.  Maybe they are being a bit more stealthy in their attack and are going to leverage the binary translation technology to go after more than just Sun…time will tell.

Until then, customers who wanted to leverage Transitive to quickly get rid of their SPARC servers will have to take the long road.