Jaime Gmach, President of Evolving Solutions, attributes much of the company’s success to its employees, who have demonstrated commitment to growing the company during a challenging economy and have consistently supported Evolving Solutions’ business vision. Gmach states that investing in the business did not stop during the recession. Instead, they took the opportunity to “double down” and invest in more people, processes and technology to enable growth.

Other factors contributing to ongoing business success include broadening solution offerings for increased value-add and listening to feedback from employees, clients and strategic partners to help guide investment decisions.

As a NetApp Authorized Professional Service Partner, Evolving Solutions has access to proven service delivery methodologies, which allows them to offer in-depth performance analysis and capacity planning services to customers.  With these resources focused on increasing the productivity and effectiveness of data centers, Evolving Solutions is able to offer value-added services that strengthen customer relationships and increase revenue opportunities.

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Evolving View comprises three core service offerings – Discovery, Optimization and Tracking – that leverage data center diagnostics to improve overall productivity and performance.

Evolving View does not require the installation of an agent on your network; it is completely non-intrusive. Discovery is the keystone of Evolving View and is implemented either independently or as the first phase of the Optimization and Tracking services.

The Discovery service provides the client with a detailed audit of their current physical inventory, so that they can better determine where to make improvements in day-to-day operations.

With Optimization and Tracking services, Evolving Solutions looks for ways to improve data center productivity and performance.  Optimization provides insight into system performance and utilization to help clients get more from what they have.  Tracking monitors the data center environment over time and looks for trends in usage.

“Evolving View enhances our capabilities to provide our clients an end-to-end data center management solution,” said Jaime Gmach, President, Evolving Solutions.  “We use diagnostic data to design IT solutions for real business challenges – and that’s where our clients see true value.”

Learn more about Evolving View services from Evolving Solutions.

In today’s economic climate, cost efficiency is top of mind for the vast majority of C-level executives—and they are not just looking to drive down overall costs, but to put their available dollars to better use. Organizations are also focused on managing and mitigating risk—while still supporting business goals—and addressing various regulatory, organizational and industry-based compliance drivers.

In order to meet rising service-level expectations and cost saving objectives, IBM believes that it is time to start thinking differently about infrastructure. IBM’s strategy for dynamic infrastructure enables organizes to move beyond addressing simple daily operational challenges to becoming proactive about accelerating service delivery, reducing costs and managing risk.

Some ways in which Evolving Solutions is leverage the IBM Dynamic Infrastructure are:

• Integrated service management and data center automation to accelerate the delivery of IT services
• Energy efficiency initiatives
• IT infrastructure optimization via virtualization technology
• Information infrastructure initiatives for managing complex data growth
• Workload optimization to deliver better performance, scale and efficiency
• Flexible delivery choices (including cloud computing)
• Integrated risk management strategy

At the core of IBM’s strategy to transform IT and the data center is support for smarter business and IT service delivery. The Dynamic Infrastructure is all about achieving business goals.

A dynamic infrastructure aligns business and IT assets to support overall business goals while taking a more streamlined approach that leverages new technologies, focuses on optimization and manages and mitigates risk.

With datacenter demands growing, many businesses require a more flexible and smarter infrastructure that does not increase the burden on IT staff. The premise of the Dynamic Infrastructure Certification is having the knowledge and ability to create an IT infrastructure that is easy to manage and provide agility, speed and superior performance.

To be part of the IBM Dynamic Infrastructure Program, Evolving Solutions demonstrated that we are able to design IT solutions that optimize the datacenter environment and achieve greater results without adding additional staff. In-depth experience and additional technical certifications to validate those skills is also a part of being certified for Dynamic Infrastructure.

Contact Evolving Solutions to learn more about how we can use IBM’s Dynamic Infrastructure strategy to optimize your data center.

AIX Basic System Administration – Level 1
July 7 & 8, 2010
Cost: $1,000
This class is designed for administrators that are new to AIX and the IBM Hardware, or administrators that have had very brief exposure (migrating from architecture to AIX). Basic functions, such as operating system installation, update (patching), and backups are covered as well as an introduction to the HMC (Hardware Management Console) and LPAR’ed environments. Some troubleshooting basics are also covered (disk replacement, adapter hot-add, etc).

AIX Intermediate System Administration – Level 2
July 12 & 13, 2010
Cost: $1,000
This class is designed for administrators that have AIX experience, but have not virtualized their environment as of yet, as well as administrators that want a review of intermediate level functions. Implementing NIM (Network Install Manager) is a subset of this class. Discussion of Dual VIO is covered, as well as additional ways to make your systems more robust and resilient. Setting up initial performance monitoring is also covered.

AIX Advanced System Administration – Level 3
July 15 & 16, 2010
Cost: $1,000
This course is designed for seasoned AIX administrators. Experience is a must, because it is assumed that the student already knows basic tasks and concepts. This class requires advanced systems (P6, or P7) for the labs. Live partition mobility is covered in this class, as well as NPIV, Zoning Lun Allocations, etc. Available tools for AIX (IBM and Shareware) are covered in this class.

For more information or to register, please email Joanna Puklich at Joanna.p@evolvingsol.com

CAMP is designed to to provide IT staff and asset management personnel with a single source database for managing multi-vendor technology assets.  Now our customers can access the IT information they need – when they need it.

Our mission is to make it easier for our customers to access and track IT assets under contract.  CAMP was created to significantly improve IT efficiencies.

Read the full press release

 Knowing how important data is to companies, our professional services group developed a migration assessment for TSM 6 to facilitate a smooth transition.  Our senior TSM Consultants and Account Executives meet with clients at their location to conduct the assessment.  This assessment provides insight into the current environment as well as evaluating the needs and challenges they may be facing in the future.  If the environment would benefit from the enhancements available with TSM 6, we develop a robust migration strategy, customized to meet their needs prior to beginning the migration to TSM 6.

With its scalability, additional reporting capabilities and de-duplication functionality, TSM 6 is a solution to consider when looking at managing backups and data more efficiently.

Details Virtualization Challenges

At Evolving Solutions, we build IT solutions for companies that improve data center and business efficiency.

Server virtualization, a solution reducing the number of physical servers in a data center by consolidating them into a virtual environment, helps achieve these objectives.  Utilizing fewer physical servers ensures data centers run more efficiently and more affordably, as costs needed to power and cool servers are reduced.

In several posts, particularly in our Data Center Leaders Interview Series, we expound on the benefits of server virtualization – and they are vast.  That being said, the implementation of any new solution will present its share of initial challenges. We would be remiss in only sharing the benefits of server virtualization while not alerting you to these challenges.

NetworkWorld recently detailed the challenges to be aware of with server virtualization in the excellent whitepaper, “Seven Key Challenges You Can’t Ignore,” available now for complimentary download.

Bottom-line, when companies implement a data center solution, they are looking for three things:

•    Performance
•    Affordability
•    Simplicity

In one way or another, everything can be said to relate to these three bullets.

So, bottom-line, does virtualization support these bullets?  If planned, implemented and deployed properly – yes.

Courtesy of NetworkWorld, here’s how:

•    Performance – when moving from physical to virtual software, application networking resources can be depleted at a faster rate, causing initial issues with server performance.  To improve performance, application networking resources can be offloaded onto a purpose-built appliance.
•    Affordability – From new software licenses to new hardware, initial costs of virtualization can threaten to overshadow its eventual cost-saving benefits.  Contain these costs by planning ahead, especially in regards to making the most of existing resources during deployment.  The smoother, more gradual the deployment, the more initial costs will be contained.
•    Simplicity – Anytime you introduce a new IT solution, there will be initial challenges felt as your team learns to manage the data center, new components and all, as a cohesive unit.  By managing virtual machines, your application network and storage network together, your organization can significantly reduce complexity – and simplify administration – by dynamically provisioning resources.

Each of the challenges and solutions above, plus more from the latest whitepaper by NetworkWorld, should be a part of the virtualization plan developed by your data center consultants.  Your consultants should also present these challenges and solutions in regards to how they specifically relate to your company.

If ever you’re unsure about something, the key is simply to ask, and armed with a copy of “Seven Key Challenges You Can’t Ignore” you will be more empowered to ask the right questions.

In the meantime, pose any of your additional questions about the benefits and challenges of server virtualization via a comment below.  We’ll ensure our data center consultants review and provide feedback to each.

Presents Virtualization Webinar

Several posts we’ve published, including those in our Data Center Leaders Interview Series, offer server and storage virtualization as one of today’s top data center cost avoidance strategies.

As an IT architect who has helped hundreds of clients launch server and storage virtualization initiatives, we are compelled to share the success possible with virtualization.  That being said, we are far from the only source touting its benefits.

Launched this month, and available through June 2010, is the complimentary webinar Unleashing Virtualization’s Full Energy Savings.  Sponsored by APC, the webinar is presented by Aaron Goldberg, VP, Market Experts Group, Ziff Davis Enterprise, and Victor Avelar, Strategic Research Analyst, APC. One of the primary takeaways for attendees who attend this webinar will be how to choose and implement a high-density data center strategy.

By definition, a high-density data center strategy is a plan empowering a data center to do more with less.  For example, more data capacity with fewer pieces of hardware.  Essentially, the purpose of using fewer piece of data center hardware is saving on data center power costs, particularly those stemming from heating and cooling.  Power and cooling costs are necessary expenditures for data centers that must regulate temperatures for multiple servers and increase with the more servers in use.

Server virtualization, which reduces the quantity of physical servers in a data center by consolidating them into a virtual environment, is a key tactic in any data center high-density or cost savings strategy.  Ultimately, this should secure interest in server virtualization for a high percentage of data center managers.

According to survey results published by The Data Centers Users Group and reported by SearchDataCenter.com, 47% of data center managers list energy efficiency as their second highest concern.

These survey results differ markedly from a survey conducted four years ago where energy efficiency was not even listed by data center managers as a top 3 concern.  This helps the energy efficient data center stand out as a symbol of an industry whose tide is quickly turning in much different direction than ever before. Of course, with any quickly turning tide, it’s vital that you truly understand it before you hop on for a ride.

We encourage readers of this blog to learn more about server and storage virtualization by registering for the webinar, Unleashing Virtualization’s Full Energy Savings, or by submitting any questions you have via a comment below.