Today I started VMware design class, which is shaping up to be a fascinating journey. The class really is affirming many design conclusions that I previously came to on my own. It also is bringing back many of the concepts taught in the ‘Install and Configure’ and ‘Deploy, Secure, Analyze’ classes, which is good to see. My assumptions and research have not been far off, which was good news for me.
One concept that the instructor keeps bringing up is to Know Thy App. What this means is that any successful virtualization project begins with a thorough understanding of the applications that are being virtualized. I never really gave it thought, but this is the most important part of being a VMware engineer: the understanding of many, many, many different applications.
An exceptional systems engineer knows three or four applications, and probably only one or two of them inside and out (obviously there are exceptions to this). An exceptional VM engineer really needs to know every application that would come in contact with his environment in extreme detail. For example, when an application developer comes and claims that virtualization is making their application slow, the VM engineer needs to have the knowledge to analyze their application on all levels and find the issue. The solution may or may not be at the fault of the virtual environment (my guess is it it’s not, but I’m obviously biased).
So, KNOW THY APP.
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