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Virtualization Roadblock October 24, 2009

Posted by afoote in : Virtualization , 2comments

This week the virtualization hit a major roadblock. The amount of storage space needed for the virtual machines has exceeded the amount allocated. Most students can not access the virtual environment. This is a real problem.  There have been a large number of emails between the IS department faculty and the Office of Information Technology (OIT) over the situation. These emails have been about the details of the problem such as which storage devices are full, what classes are on those storage devices and how the storage devices got that way. There have been a lot of suggestions on how to resolve the problem. Unfortunately there has also been some hurt feelings and blame flying around.    

From my perspective the most striking part of the discussion is how passionately both the IS department and OIT want virtualization to work. Although the conversations may be a little emotional what is very apparent is both groups’ commitment to the long term use of virtual environments. We have had 8 weeks of working in this environment and all of us can see why this is the future direction we need to move towards. Virtualization resolves a number of problems for both the IS classroom and the OIT area. This process got larger than any of us believed it would so quickly.  The process went so well that everyone was using it and we have run out of resources.  What has become clear is that virtualization and the virtual environment are an integral part of the IS program.  The role of virtualization within the IS program is going to expand and planning needs to be done to accommodate it.  Not only is virtualization going to expand within the IS department, but other programs at Stevenson will want to use the environment.  This is the beginning of a major change of how courses are taught at Stevenson.

Although the current situation is painful, there is an incredible excitement about what is about to happen.

Virtualization Continues October 18, 2009

Posted by afoote in : Information Systems, Virtualization , add a comment

After a month of using the virtualization process in the Network Technologies and Java Programming course, there have been some problems and other times when the environment has been a great success. Probably the biggest issue has been the large number of students using the environment and the system performance problems.  Perhaps this environment is too popular and there are too many users? Mr. Steven Engorn, the creator and manager of the virtualization effort, has ordered more hard drive space for the system. Mr. Phil Desroiser has been endless working with the system to help make it work better for us. He will be adding the disk space and hopefully the virtual environment will be working better.

 From the success of the project there is discussion of the environment being expanded to more courses and more students having the opportunity to use it next semester. As the Information systems area goes more online and less dependent on the physical classrooms, there are some benefits not only for the school  by reducing costs, but also students. The will not be forced to work in a physical classroom using the university’s computers. They can do their work for class at any computer that has access to the internet and the Stevenson website. This is very appealing to the IS faculty and students alike.

Working in this type of virtual environment not only helps students while attending Stevenson, but also many businesses are using this idea in the workplace. So these skills that are learned at Stevenson will be valuable for gaining employment and used in the workplace. It seems logical that students and faculty in the Information systems area are excited about the virtual environment and hoping for the project to expand.