Web Cast (Oct. 22nd): Virtualization of the Test and Development Environments

I don't know about you, but for the last 2 years I have done 100% of my development and testing (yes, I test my code even though it doesn't look like it) in Virtual Machines. I use Microsoft Virtual PC (for obvious reasons. I work for Microsoft, it's free and it works well with Vista), but there are other products on the market that will do as well. My reasoning is simple, it's safer that way. I don't have to worry about the version of Visual Studio I have installed and if they will conflict (they don't btw :)). If I want to use Visual Studio 2005, I just fire up my Virtual PC that has VS2k5 installed on it, if I want Visual Studio 2008 Beta, I fire up a VPC with VS2k8 Beta on it. If I want to do SharePoint development, I will fire up my VPC with Windows Server 2003, Visual Studio, SQL Server and SharePoint on it.

I have to admit, I have outfitted my machine with as much RAM as I it will take, so that I can run as many VPC's as I want on it, simultaneously. Sometimes, I will have a Developer VPC (with Visual Studio running) a Database box (with SQL Server running on a Win2k3 OS) and a Web Server (with just IIS) to test a production environment.

I love it!

If you want to learn more about Virtualization of Test and Development Environments, and their impact on Existing Applications, then register for this web cast live on October 22nd @ 9:30AM PST and available for recorded viewing within 24 hours of the live broadcast, if you can't make it for the live viewing.

Here's the registration (live) or recorded viewing (after the 22nd) link: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032352800&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

Here's the description:

In this session, we look at virtualization solutions starting with moving existing applications and infrastructure servers into a virtualized environment. We follow two fictitious companies, Contoso and Fabrikam, through their virtualization path. Contoso has a number of application servers that they wish to consolidate, while also providing new services to clients without having to grow their data center. Some of these servers run previous applications that Fabrikam operates in a distributed world, with a number of infrastructure workloads at different offices that they wish to consolidate. First, we look at Contoso as it starts to move previous servers into the virtual world, and discuss the requirements and steps to install and move an existing image. We also look at the impact of virtualizing test and development environments, and some of the tools available that make this process easily manageable. You also get a glimpse of Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager, a tool that both companies have decided to use to assist in their deployments.

~Robert Shelton