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Showing posts from December, 2015

Lies, Damn Lies, and Virtualization

Having used virtualization in a variety of scenarios over the last 10-15 years, I still find some misconceptions about the value proposition and how to use it. At best these are just marketing misconceptions, but at worst they can lead to counterproductive activities that HURT your solution. So, not in any order, here three things I hear people say that are just normally not true. Yes I understand that there are some scenarios where they are, but for the most part in my experience these ideas have been taken too far and now create problems. Virtualization helps me scale my solution I hear this so much I really just get tired of reexplaining how this isn't true. While based on a grain of truth, in the general sense at the datacenter level, it's completely false. For a single application it is easier to add cores to a virtual machine than it is to buy new hardware...but...people forget that the hypervisor is running on real honest to goodness hardware and adding a new Vir

Sideways customer service

After reviewing my credit card statement, I realized I was paying every month for efax (a service I used twice in 2006, one more time in 2013, and subsequently just missed on my billing statements every month for the last...yes...9 years...). The following is the somewhat surreal interaction I had when I cancelled... Greg Curtis: Thank you for providing the information. Please allow me a moment while I pull up your account. In the meantime, please type the number corresponding to your reason for cancellation: 1) Moving to another provider 2) Bought a fax machine 3) Business or role changed 4) Short term project completed 5) Financial reasons 6) Problems with faxing or billing 7) Dissatisfied with quality of service 8) Too costly me adding my own answer Michael Mainguy: 9) only needed it once 2 years ago and forgot to cancel :) Greg Curtis: As we'd like to keep your business, I can offer you a discount and also waive your subscription fee for 1 month. The discounted m