tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29064942859363591882023-11-16T05:55:51.200-05:00Bob's BlogBob's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07302019095778136064noreply@blogger.comBlogger47125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2906494285936359188.post-84403878085624905292012-05-12T09:50:00.001-04:002012-05-12T09:50:45.047-04:00Last day of OLOAToday is the last day! I can't believe it's over already. We have one little event called the skid pad at TireRack.coms main site where we started. Derek and I drove thru rush hour Chicago traffic yesterday. It was a short. 270 mile trip but took over 5 hours. <br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/12/1158.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/12/s_1158.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />I met some amazing guys and caught up with a few old ones as well. Topspeed Motorsports is going to win again! This will be there third year in a row. Doug and Leh have been awesome the entire event. All the advice even when people are trying to take them down for the championship, they still take time out to help us newbies. Man can they build a car and have it last as well as go crazy fast.<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/12/1159.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/12/s_1159.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />We are in 8th place overall out of 75 teams that started. I have to say this was and will be a great event for years to come. I met some awesome people!<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/12/1160.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/12/s_1160.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Look at all the GTRs!<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/12/1161.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/12/s_1161.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Derek did eat again today! I can't believe we missed three dinners this week. <br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/12/1162.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/12/s_1162.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Can you say warranty is up! <br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/12/1163.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/12/s_1163.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Us with Matt Farah from TheSmokingTire.com <br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/12/1164.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/12/s_1164.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Last event today! I wish we could keep doing this. <br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/12/1165.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/12/s_1165.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Posted by Bob using Blogpress<br /><p class='blogpress_location'>Location:<a href='http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Paxson%20Dr%20S,South%20Bend,United%20States%4041.725193%2C-86.247576&z=10'>Paxson Dr S,South Bend,United States</a></p>Bob's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07302019095778136064noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2906494285936359188.post-28229898266857307762012-05-10T19:39:00.001-04:002012-05-10T19:39:41.583-04:00Day 6 and on the road again.Well today started early and the jettison pod needed a good bath after 660 miles last night. Bugs the size of a penny kept hitting us at speeds we dare not say! <br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/10/3161.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/10/s_3161.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />After the wash we went to the track for some much needed breakfast. <br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/10/3162.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/10/s_3162.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />This track has the longest straight away with a banking right hand turn. I hit speeds in the 160 MPH range and you can't let off the gas at all or you let your competitors inch up on you. After this session I found out only a few of us had the nerve to stay on the gas and make a high speed turn. <br /><br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/10/3164.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/10/s_3164.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />I came in 6th place this morning and felt real good about it. The afternoon session not so good. I went off track on the smaller SCCA setup. I was coming in at 130 MPH hit the brakes hard and the car just could not slow down enough. All 4 wheels were off and I just floored it and turned left hard and was back on the track. I needed to make up for the mistake and went as hard as I could and managed a 8th place finish. WOW! Didn't think I could go that hard. <br /><br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/10/3165.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/10/s_3165.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />I was trying to remember the tracks because you see a new 1 or 2 every day! <br /><br />This is a rare picture of the ghost from BIR we captured.<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/10/3167.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/10/s_3167.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />If you know what this is, then you in my age bracket.<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/10/3168.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/10/s_3168.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Leh Keen is a professional race car driver and is winning this event along with Doug Wilks from Topspeed Motorsports out of Atlanta, Ga. Leh/Doug are the ones that told me about this event a year ago. So today I wanted to make sure I got a picture as I did a year ago. Leh left today as he has a race in NJ and couldn't stay. <br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/10/3170.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/10/s_3170.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />The drag strip came next after these two events and I knew this is what I am good at. We prep the car for low ET and off we went!<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/10/3171.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/10/s_3171.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/10/3172.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/10/s_3172.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />With the wing off we went to the line. Lights turning I brought the engine RPM to 4000 and on green launched the car. The car went fine until 2nd gear and the transmission controller gave an high temp error and put us in LIMP mode! 2000 rpms all the way down the track! 56th place!<br /><br />We then went bracket racing and I pulled a 8th place. The drag really hurt me today. I was 9th overall but after today I was pushed to 10th. <br /><br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/10/3174.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/10/s_3174.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />Doug and I relaxing in the pits! <br /><br />We are now in route to Road America in Wisconsin. Only 2 days left of this event. I can't believe it happens so quickly. <br /><br />I will post about tomorrow when I can. <br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/10/3176.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/10/s_3176.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Posted by Bob using Blogpress<br /><p class='blogpress_location'>Location:<a href='http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Pine%20St,Monticello,United%20States%4045.300963%2C-93.797573&z=10'>Pine St,Monticello,United States</a></p>Bob's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07302019095778136064noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2906494285936359188.post-43405215340675855892012-05-10T08:00:00.001-04:002012-05-10T08:00:28.893-04:00Day 6 Feeling a bit sad this is going to end soon.After a long drive into the night we were able to get something to eat. Food is not your friend after 6 days of racing and eating anything quick and hot. We were able to at least sit and eat tonight.<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/10/648.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/10/s_648.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />We are in Minnesota and really looking forward to the next 2 tracks. What is really great for us is to switch back to E 85 gas!! We have been using 91 Octane for the last 4 days. The car just does not respond like it should with 91 Octane. <br /><br />Guys out here seem to forget sometimes what they are doing, so they come up with ways to remember.<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/10/649.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/10/s_649.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /> I will post a little later on.<br /><br /><br />Posted by Bob using Blogpress<br /><p class='blogpress_location'>Location:<a href='http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Dellwood%20Dr,Brainerd,United%20States%4046.370130%2C-94.243063&z=10'>Dellwood Dr,Brainerd,United States</a></p>Bob's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07302019095778136064noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2906494285936359188.post-77057727547916376292012-05-09T17:00:00.001-04:002012-05-09T17:00:22.432-04:00Start of Day 5Today was a great start to a new track that we haven't see or heard about. We got up early to meet the film crew. I walked to track (whew) and was ready for the first run.<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/09/2576.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/09/s_2576.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />With my first run complete I felt good about what I did, however the 13th place finish was not what I expected. I really thought it was a top 10 finish. <br /><br />I am getting ready for the final run today and after that Derek will be taking over for the autocross event. He will do great. I will post once we get the results! <br /><br />I had a better time in the afternoon. But right before I was to go on track we had a major wreck! <br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/09/2577.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/09/s_2577.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />That is not a suicide door! He was in the autocross course and hit a guard rail after spinning out. Not fun! He is out of the event. <br /><br />Derek is racing the autocross event and he is a little nervous but I know he will do well. <br /><br />A ladybug was on my chair and once again we are in the middle of nowhere. <br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/09/2578.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/09/s_2578.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />This ladybug reminds me of my son Josh and he is an animal whisperer. I think this was a sign he was with me today. <br /><br />As I was getting ready a Honda 70cc came up and I promised my other son Ryan I would get a picture on it. So Ryan here you go buddy. <br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/09/2579.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/09/s_2579.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />We have a long wait til we autocross and then we are out of here to Brainard Minnesota 620 miles away. 5 hour energy drink anyone? <br /><br />Scores just posted for the afternoon session. I came in 10th place! I move up from 12th place over all to 10th over all. Yes yes yes! So happy with the car/driving so far. <br /><br />We are waiting on Derek's autocross time right now but he had the second fastest time with a 29.4. He almost beat Leh Keen. <br /><br />I will update you all once I know more.<br /><br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/09/2580.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/09/s_2580.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Posted by Bob using Blogpress<br />Bob's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07302019095778136064noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2906494285936359188.post-24629792917579299182012-05-08T18:31:00.001-04:002012-05-08T18:31:37.135-04:00Beginning of day 4So today we woke up to the sound of a garbage truck at 5:45 AM. Now it's not that big of deal but just 15 more minutes sure helps from all the driving. I wanted to get a quick swim in but the pool was not operational. <br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/08/2800.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/08/s_2800.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />We headed out to get something to eat but, not a single place to eat could be found. We were on our way to the track and saw this.<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/08/2801.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/08/s_2801.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />I thought I was on the set of Last of the Mohicans. At the track they had no food as well. Went to the bait bag and grab what we could and ate. <br /><br />First run came and I did OK 14th out of 75, but the big thing was I went off the track at about 50 MPH. It killed my time!<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/08/2802.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/08/s_2802.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='187' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Afternoon came and after losing it the first time ever and needing to make up time, I went as fast as the track would let me. The other cars were throwing debris all over the track. Guess what? I went off again and this time the car just lifted and slid off. Nothing I could do but hold on and pray. I managed to get back on fast with just a little slow down. <br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/08/2803.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/08/s_2803.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='187' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />After running off the track from grass at turn 6-7 I went in with my head down. Derek kept telling me that, there was nothing I could of done and that's racing. The car is fine from what we can tell now. <br /><br />Scores were just posted and for the afternoon session I came in 10th out of 75 even going off the track! Explain that one to me? Goes off track and gets passed but improves time by 3 seconds???? We are in route to the hotel for a relaxing night of hmmmmmm sleep!!!!! <br /><br />We are halfway done and I must say this has been such a blast to this point. <br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/08/2804.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/08/s_2804.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />High Plains Raceway! <br /><br /><br /><br />Posted by Bob using Blogpress<br />Bob's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07302019095778136064noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2906494285936359188.post-24598457518108382922012-05-08T01:31:00.001-04:002012-05-08T01:31:58.837-04:001/4 star hotel/townJust a quick update! We are in a town and I have to say its one of the worst! Hotel is really bad and the towns people are not all there!<br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/07/4729.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/07/s_4729.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />This is the wall where you pick your prize stock and they kill it and bag it.<br /><br />Also in the same store, I ask for a sub but HAD to fill a form out first as they would not take my order over the counter. We were the only two customers in the enter store.<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/07/4730.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/07/s_4730.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />We also were looking at getting power bars for tomorrow, however these we're expired with dust all over them.<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/07/4731.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/07/s_4731.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Last but not least here is the hotel tonight! <br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/07/4732.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/07/s_4732.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/07/4733.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/07/s_4733.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Our big screen TV that they advertise is about the size of my laptop.<br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/07/4734.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/07/s_4734.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Posted by Bob using Blogpress<br /><p class='blogpress_location'>Location:<a href='http://maps.google.com/maps?q=N%20Main%20St,Byers,United%20States%4039.716781%2C-104.219428&z=10'>N Main St,Byers,United States</a></p>Bob's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07302019095778136064noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2906494285936359188.post-1808223744965829152012-05-07T19:32:00.001-04:002012-05-07T19:32:53.909-04:00Day 3 almost overToday was a great racing day for team AOKNetworking. We started the morning session with cloud cover that stayed the entire time. We have never stepped foot on this race track before. We trained and trained online (YouTube Videos) to only find out last night we had to run it counter clockwise! <br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/07/3553.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/07/s_3553.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />The morning session was fun and I really worked the car around the course as best I could. I came in 6th out of 75 cars. <br /><br />The second session in the afternoon was better as I drop a whole second off my time. I ended up coming in 7th place out of 75 cars. <br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/07/3554.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/07/s_3554.jpg' border='0' width='187' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />I was in 18th place at the start of the day. With a strong 6th and 7th place today I jumped up to 12th overall for the event. <br /><br />We are now headed to Byars Co. It's a short 618 miles away from the race track we just left. <br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/07/3555.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/07/s_3555.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />Tomorrow will be a fun track! I will keep you posted! <br /><br />Posted by Bob using Blogpress<br /><p class='blogpress_location'>Location:<a href='http://maps.google.com/maps?q=WaKeeney,United%20States%4039.009255%2C-99.868306&z=10'>WaKeeney,United States</a></p>Bob's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07302019095778136064noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2906494285936359188.post-52364087573752677422012-05-07T12:07:00.001-04:002012-05-07T12:07:37.560-04:00First GTR wreck of the One LapA competitor that has a gray GTR, hit the wall of tires on turn 2 at Hallett raceway. Derek and Ty are working hard to get them back out for the second session. <br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/07/1592.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/07/s_1592.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />We are waiting for the times to be posted currently. I was in the third run group in the morning session.<br /><br />More pictures of the GTR damage. <br /><br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/07/1594.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/07/s_1594.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /> <br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/07/1597.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/07/s_1597.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Posted by Bob using Blogpress<br /><p class='blogpress_location'>Location:<a href='http://maps.google.com/maps?q=E%2055%20Rd,Jennings,United%20States%4036.222042%2C-96.591698&z=10'>E 55 Rd,Jennings,United States</a></p>Bob's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07302019095778136064noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2906494285936359188.post-44760852694198864612012-05-07T07:22:00.001-04:002012-05-07T07:22:04.192-04:00Start of Day 3Well last night was uneventful except for the fact we didn't eat dinner. We had the late McDonalds lunch but we were hungry about 9 PM local time. There is a diner across the street but as we were getting ready to go over the open neon sign was turned off. So we just went back to the room and had beef jerky! <br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/07/521.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/07/s_521.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />This is our hotel for the night. I would rate it as 1/2 star and I am giving it that because they have air conditioning. <br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/07/522.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/07/s_522.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />We are off to Hallett today and this race will be run counter clockwise. I hope to do well. I will keep you all posted! <br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/07/523.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/07/s_523.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />My blogging desk.<br /><p class='blogpress_location'>Location:<a href='http://maps.google.com/maps?q=W%20Caddo%20St,Cleveland,United%20States%4036.306134%2C-96.478292&z=10'>W Caddo St,Cleveland,United States</a></p>Bob's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07302019095778136064noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2906494285936359188.post-4914590433548015762012-05-06T23:02:00.001-04:002012-05-06T23:02:09.150-04:00One Lap Day 2I had a good start to day one and my friend from the military came out to see me at some events. I have not seen Keel for about 8 years. It was awesome!
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Today started with a not so pretty day. We woke up a 4:30 AM to the sound of our hotel room door being blown open by 80 MPH winds from tornado that touched down a little ways away. We did not get much sleep last night. We were able to get about 4 hours sleep last night and that's all. We headed out to the track early as we had nothing else we could do. (Side Note) this was what we ran into as we came down the stairs this morning.
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Now this track was not to hard but it was wet. It's a bit different when you are racing at 150 MPH down a race track and it's wet compared to a normal highway. This was by far the worst run I did. I learned later, it's hurry up and wait like my military days. We waited to 1 PM and started our second run. The track was FINALLY dry. I went out and gave it my all today. I did not hold back on the last event.
Once we were done we hurried up and packed the car and headed out. We had about 85 miles of gas left so we headed to the gas station to fill up. Once we did that we wanted to get some McDonald's and eat! In the drive thru the lady handed me coke and the lid popped off and coke went everywhere in my car!!!!! I was livid!!!! It hit my iPhone and all the electronics we have in the car. So MAD! So what do I do? I drove the entire 472 miles to Oklahoma! Poor Derek, he knew I was mad and just left me alone!
We made it to the hotel in record time to say the least but this was BY FAR THE BEST PART OF THE TRIP! We could not get coverage and just talked and laughed and made fun of things we saw along the way. I will try and get Derek to do his sound bites on what I do when I pass traffic.
We are in Oklahoma today and will race tomorrow AM at Hallet and then off to (Almost) Denver Colorado.
Recap of the event so far.
Day 1 Wet skip pad 67 out of 75
Day 1 Oval 11th out of 75
Day 1 Autobahn CC 9th out of 75
Day 2 Mid America Motorplex (Morning session) 21 out of 75
Day 2 Mid America Motorplex (Afternoon session) 7th out of 75
I just want to say thank you for all my Family and friends that have been watching It really means a lot to me. I am sorry for the bad cell coverage. We are at a hotel in Oklahoma and the Internet keeps going in and out.
On a side note the K-9 Police department is here for annual training and are all super nice. Car is safe for tonight!Bob's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07302019095778136064noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2906494285936359188.post-81844209067031175662012-05-05T15:25:00.001-04:002012-05-05T15:25:49.838-04:00Day 1 Offical start.OK the big day has arrived! We are off and running. First off last night was tough. I did not fall asleep until 3:45 AM with a 5:30 AM wake up call. I was able to catch a little sleep but truth be told I was to hyped up to sleep. I am feeling it now. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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My first ever wet skid pad was awesome. Although I was not the fastest nor did I have the most G forces, I still finished without wrecking and wiping out. I finished way back in the pack at 67th place out of 75. Not the start I was looking for but I am not complaining about it. Everything here happens to dang fast!
OK with that out of the way, it was time to get the Oval. We packed up and made it to the South Bend Speedway in about 10 minutes. This is something I always wanted to do. I was asked by a competitor to race him in the Oval with his GTR. I said "might as well" SO I lined up and we were 2nd in line. Off we went before I knew it the event was over. I raced around the track 3 times and it was over. The scores were added up and we finished in 11th place. Not bad! Not bad at all!
We packed up and drove the 140 miles to Autobahn Country Club in Joilet, IL. Were we now sit and wait for the 4 PM est time racing. I will keep you all posted.Bob's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07302019095778136064noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2906494285936359188.post-59024741307225337822012-05-04T18:21:00.000-04:002012-05-10T19:56:33.598-04:00Day 1Day 1: And One Lap has begun! What a crazy start to our morning. Derek's eyeglasses broke somehow in the middle of the night. He does not have a spare pair in the event these get toasted. I think it was the One Lap ghost that came into the room and broke them. <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_IgvmwI2EEGDNg_PmWwHJtOZjI2O9FhGCWBN_MvM6J-llnafF1RitnuKFfWwB3ACn8HbyRzKKjemjpboyNKL6Masktg1MYYO_vVX2g4U5xKvJs8NmcqeaPlkdL1mr89YLJYTZZ-SItD8/s1600/IMG_4498.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="200" width="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_IgvmwI2EEGDNg_PmWwHJtOZjI2O9FhGCWBN_MvM6J-llnafF1RitnuKFfWwB3ACn8HbyRzKKjemjpboyNKL6Masktg1MYYO_vVX2g4U5xKvJs8NmcqeaPlkdL1mr89YLJYTZZ-SItD8/s200/IMG_4498.jpg" /></a></div><br /><br /><br />We came out of the hotel this morning felling refreshed from a great night sleep. One problem.... No one was at the hotel and all the drivers were already at the TireRack registration tent. Ummmm, I am an old military guy and showing up on time means your late! Derek and I raced over to the tent about 6 miles away to see a bunch of drivers already going through tech and putting the stickers on the car. We decided to join them. It took about 3 hours to get everything on and in order. Some teams had professional detailers/installers come out and install for them. Awesome work! <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit31rBlWUnA-xnmBEYHq7OPfxL4JWpVqqnJGCVJCaUcfj7hAViuN9Il92jjOi9gMB-Gw1aDIzHFV23hyphenhyphenMlnLMXogstHFn30JQ-GV_F2KkhhJZIsJCNiycfPGYwsduu52W2UEPockPsBjU/s1600/IMG_4500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="200" width="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit31rBlWUnA-xnmBEYHq7OPfxL4JWpVqqnJGCVJCaUcfj7hAViuN9Il92jjOi9gMB-Gw1aDIzHFV23hyphenhyphenMlnLMXogstHFn30JQ-GV_F2KkhhJZIsJCNiycfPGYwsduu52W2UEPockPsBjU/s200/IMG_4500.jpg" /></a></div><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTzzocA9Z5jpjn_M1L6kMLpb5eevozsnhmNFIrENUbh1rKK0LbXDS7MzRIgYbDnqFioAEFj6ErhQYnPyZOkGUCs-ahvx-dEOyjZWy5DQ_lqOgrsGlk2EY7aVcyktQAdh8RFewax78o-S4/s1600/IMG_4501.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="200" width="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTzzocA9Z5jpjn_M1L6kMLpb5eevozsnhmNFIrENUbh1rKK0LbXDS7MzRIgYbDnqFioAEFj6ErhQYnPyZOkGUCs-ahvx-dEOyjZWy5DQ_lqOgrsGlk2EY7aVcyktQAdh8RFewax78o-S4/s200/IMG_4501.jpg" /></a></div><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0YgcDefaLmGEtXrnJQmljfJ_en7w19B4e3JcCIK-BSQaoOfHAAbjeBBgAQ5vVeU3UfZZlKjFX_Nc-xnYTlk1jcNdg6ihDjFNvFBfXDYlkwPZiULUfZs35ZoBAQElZqNI5Sti_JORTPLk/s1600/IMG_4502.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="200" width="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0YgcDefaLmGEtXrnJQmljfJ_en7w19B4e3JcCIK-BSQaoOfHAAbjeBBgAQ5vVeU3UfZZlKjFX_Nc-xnYTlk1jcNdg6ihDjFNvFBfXDYlkwPZiULUfZs35ZoBAQElZqNI5Sti_JORTPLk/s200/IMG_4502.jpg" /></a></div><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg77_DMv7ZmTejViLYF7CQDhcdSjizhf82DbgNUrLxsWbJWEyzc0esTliNUKD8cuK625QNjvrY_SGoVyVTRhkqOa-6AElqvOWiAmOYiQ_KmTnaEkszxJ5f5wuXveReDTFnXFkOlBPRLtys/s1600/IMG_4507.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="150" width="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg77_DMv7ZmTejViLYF7CQDhcdSjizhf82DbgNUrLxsWbJWEyzc0esTliNUKD8cuK625QNjvrY_SGoVyVTRhkqOa-6AElqvOWiAmOYiQ_KmTnaEkszxJ5f5wuXveReDTFnXFkOlBPRLtys/s200/IMG_4507.JPG" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><br />I had a good friend Blake Hutchinson from WannaGOFAST.com send me some shirts to wear at the event. If you want to drive down a airplane runway in your own car for a 1/2 mile this is the event to do it in. He recently posted an event this past week and it SOLD OUT IN 24 HOURS! This is one not to miss if you can do it! Thanks again for the shirts Blake! <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqMrm3fLdUxkvfHHnAMhPbXy7bAvapPm7pDgaXGHcMB7HdqT4UYXxXJna9u4V-SmqnQIpnvcW_73ixqw029GGx5oi4w7qh_db5WHNh-LohW83-FGghnedJvnz5Bjgac2MPPwLI57Qbv6E/s1600/IMG_4504.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="200" width="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqMrm3fLdUxkvfHHnAMhPbXy7bAvapPm7pDgaXGHcMB7HdqT4UYXxXJna9u4V-SmqnQIpnvcW_73ixqw029GGx5oi4w7qh_db5WHNh-LohW83-FGghnedJvnz5Bjgac2MPPwLI57Qbv6E/s200/IMG_4504.jpg" /></a></div><br /><br /><br />Some of you might know and some not, that we have been picked to be a team on a possible reality TV show. The producer needed to mic us up and interview us today. This was really fun to do. I know I have the business Bob hat on sometimes, but my close friends know I am a character and love to crack people up. Now which way do you think I went? It was fun to do the first interview. Kirsty (producer) was super nice and we had fun. Isn't that what it's all about? <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNhtWLDKo6cvQR_q1SzJ2pNEp1kEHuQEsLy6KaDBusNxfmMHkjQF2lbQQ4q0XiHoUHJpp1ypzdBCL2Pc-ApLDfNTiMXQ_AZZ2cDUqrdtefXUX8TOc5HuVapZdHRMag2EerH8zITHkZZ98/s1600/IMG_4515.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="150" width="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNhtWLDKo6cvQR_q1SzJ2pNEp1kEHuQEsLy6KaDBusNxfmMHkjQF2lbQQ4q0XiHoUHJpp1ypzdBCL2Pc-ApLDfNTiMXQ_AZZ2cDUqrdtefXUX8TOc5HuVapZdHRMag2EerH8zITHkZZ98/s200/IMG_4515.JPG" /></a></div><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiprBcsQnszdh6dCoM644PaCnUO0AJmk2XQWZGlBPE5hQiiJtmm9Z6Ptv6c1CIWcuKkU8ngFJOfZlcqaoFLEj62cd3LVCUfzOtVDsgzGn8vGhWuXVSuppAtRv-nPCgvJ7nlW5kW0Zh6O6A/s1600/IMG_4513.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="150" width="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiprBcsQnszdh6dCoM644PaCnUO0AJmk2XQWZGlBPE5hQiiJtmm9Z6Ptv6c1CIWcuKkU8ngFJOfZlcqaoFLEj62cd3LVCUfzOtVDsgzGn8vGhWuXVSuppAtRv-nPCgvJ7nlW5kW0Zh6O6A/s200/IMG_4513.JPG" /></a></div><br /><br />We then headed off to the first driver meeting. It was very informative and laid back. It's all about safety here. This is why I like this event. I know I am not a professional race care driver, so I am learning and this is my journey. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic7Vhi6bmd7cwOWTRBAY2OHUB-q5QQto3t0hvcLhlUhK95Uozy98FUtkAJGyzS9x8I4YI2Gx03Mitrwp4q8orr2V-yjqcu260FCeJJ_ol3F-ho8T5RAspg994RbgTA1ztUC0fZ1D0LiBY/s1600/IMG_4520.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="150" width="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic7Vhi6bmd7cwOWTRBAY2OHUB-q5QQto3t0hvcLhlUhK95Uozy98FUtkAJGyzS9x8I4YI2Gx03Mitrwp4q8orr2V-yjqcu260FCeJJ_ol3F-ho8T5RAspg994RbgTA1ztUC0fZ1D0LiBY/s200/IMG_4520.JPG" /></a></div><br /><br />After the drivers meeting we had to go to the rookie meeting. This is Brock Yates Jr. He is the one who put on the event and has great staff with him. All very helpful. <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjELmMck4NybUSbeGni6rx-svqT0M5ocWMIIRs1aWr0PIPv7-O5bpO_3l4D0tN42ezoqDyvhmtOPAvqZLZp2VOyik7gG2lu52HUbrHBG1F6lWZyAsssAELAdMevyJVeLf8boBHpqIwVMoI/s1600/IMG_4522.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="200" width="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjELmMck4NybUSbeGni6rx-svqT0M5ocWMIIRs1aWr0PIPv7-O5bpO_3l4D0tN42ezoqDyvhmtOPAvqZLZp2VOyik7gG2lu52HUbrHBG1F6lWZyAsssAELAdMevyJVeLf8boBHpqIwVMoI/s200/IMG_4522.jpg" /></a></div><br /><br />Rita, here is your daily update on Derek. Yes he ate again! <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgevkQwfLNGZXW2b8zID0x06TjBlQ-FdEDLaKlyphKwcd5SqDrTKlg6Mbv41jdGaRJgzzA0kIdxhJQyTPTj_mLRBAbelO_KDEV8vTdKu5p40b-Rjc9GsGsnPHHrKlxOLHg4xt0oz7scRlU/s1600/IMG_4517.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="200" width="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgevkQwfLNGZXW2b8zID0x06TjBlQ-FdEDLaKlyphKwcd5SqDrTKlg6Mbv41jdGaRJgzzA0kIdxhJQyTPTj_mLRBAbelO_KDEV8vTdKu5p40b-Rjc9GsGsnPHHrKlxOLHg4xt0oz7scRlU/s200/IMG_4517.jpg" /></a></div><br />Bob's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07302019095778136064noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2906494285936359188.post-16479986146678548912012-05-03T21:28:00.000-04:002012-05-03T21:28:08.732-04:00Diary of a wanna be race car driver.Update. Many friends have been asking me to update them on the progress of the One Lap and what's it like out here. This is my sad attempt at writing it and posting it. I will keep this updated as well as have Live Video/Audio of the event. The event is May 5th - May 12th.
I wanted to post to tell my friends and family about One Lap and exactly what it is. So what is it?
The One Lap of America is a motorsports event in the United States that has been held since 1984. It is the successor to the Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, an underground auto race of the 1970s. The premise for both is to drive cross-country, but the One Lap of America respects speed limits.
Competition occurs as time trials held at various race tracks around the country. The competitors drive from race track to race track, (often driving 24 hours at a time) without the benefit of support crews. The field of competitors is divided into several classes based primarily on original manufacturers suggested retail prices and number of doors. Competitors may make any modifications to their vehicles as they see fit but must run on a single set of tires throughout the entire event. Race track events are time trials with up to eight cars on track at a time. Competition is for fastest time rather than wheel-to-wheel racing.
Now that you all know what it is, I want to introduce my co-driver in the event and master mechanic Derek Heim. He has been the most important person in this process. Without his motor head knowledge and attention to detail, I would not be able to even register for this event. Derek owns EI Racing in Central Florida.
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Prior to the event I was called by a person named Kirsty Robson from Los Angeles CA. She is a TV Producer and interviewed Derek and I about being rookies in One Lap. We just told the truth and she picked us to be one of 6 teams to have camera's and mic's in the car for the event as well as interview us before/after the event. This should be fun or really bad. Just a reminder about the event. THERE ARE NO SUPPORT CREWS! It's bring what you can fit in your car and that's it. You blow a tire on the race track
Now that you know it's just us two and no support crews and the one set of tires for the event we are finally off.
Day 1: Leaving Orlando, Fl to get to South Bend IN. Now it's just under 1200 miles to get to South Bend and we loaded the car in the trailer and were ready as ever and set off. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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SNAP! Something happen 5 miles into the trip! The rear axle on the trailer had issues. Me not being a car/trailer guy asked Derek what happened? He said we lost the ball bearings on the trailer's right side. Ummmmm What are we going to do I said? We thought of getting another trailer but just didn't have time. So we took the escape pod (the car) out of the trailer and loaded it down with all our gear including a 5 gallon gas can. We made the decision to drive the 1200 miles in the GTR to make it in time. As we drove late into the night and our schedule/distance is all off, we needed to sleep. We called 3 hotels and no luck. Was this the start to a crazy 14 days? We called one last place a local Hilton in Marietta Ga and was able to get a room. It wasn't the nicest but hey last minute hotels are sometimes hard to find. (hehe).
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We drove almost halfway the first night so we were a little a head of schedule. With this thought and great timing we wanted to see if we could make it all the way the next day to South Bend, IN. It was just over 700 miles and we woke up early and took off. We are not in Florida any longer!
Day 2: I drove all just before Nashville, TN and Derek took over after that. I wanted to post this sign picture as my Aunt and Cousin live in Nashville/Knoxville so I wanted to show them I was thinking of them. Love ya guys!
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Derek's wife Rita told me I HAD to take care of Derek and make sure he eats something! He can go for days on one grape. So Rita here is the picture ensuring he is eating.
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Farm land for days when Derek took over the driving.
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Arrival! Day 2 over and the POD is dirty. We needed to eat/sleep. If this is what we have coming to us the next 8 days, we are in trouble.
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Day 3: We wake up and go outside and what do we see?
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Not a big deal. He was making sure all the cars are safe.
Now some of you on this blog/facebook/twitter/linkedin don't know cars and could care less, but some might think what car is that? Well it's a Nissan (yes Nissan) GT-R. The car currently has just under 600 HP. It does 0-60 in 2.8 seconds. Yeah it's that fast. To date I have had it up to 187 MPH. I am blessed to own this car and blessed even more to have such a great wife to put up with me and all the late nights and weekend trips to Derek's to work on it. The reason I bring this up is there is a company in West Chicago called AMS Performance. Eric (sales manager) and I have talked a few times on the phone and I have purchased products from them as well. They are the God Fathers of the GTR. They had the first 10 Second/9 Second/8 Second, 1/4 mile GTR. They also did a record run at 233 MPH in the Texas Mile this past weekend. Ivan was the driver and when he pulled the chute the entire car came off the ground and he was able to get it under control! WOW search Youtube for AMS performance and you can see if for yourself.
I asked Eric if we could come up and meet the guy's and look at the shop. Eric and the WHOLE crew were awesome. The oil we use in the GTR needs to be changed every 3750 miles. We had driven almost 1500 miles already and with One Lap starting this Saturday we needed the oil changed. Eric (far left) was super nice and got the car on the lift and changed the oil for us. We will be looking at the Alpha 9 plus package this year and getting even more power. We also met Brian the Marketing Guru from AMS, super nice guy as well and even showed us the Alpha 12 car.
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On the way back we had to stop for lunch at the one and only Portillo's.
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After lunch Derek and I were laughing at all the signs on the road about what you can and can't do. Here are some pictures we captured along the way.
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Well it's late and I am off to get some sleep, as well as get ready for registration tomorrow. I think I might take a quick jump in the hotel pool.
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Update will come tomorrow. Stay Tuned!Bob's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07302019095778136064noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2906494285936359188.post-37963229342937347912010-05-11T13:57:00.000-04:002010-05-11T13:58:02.888-04:00VMware vCenter Chargeback™Model, Measure and Assign Costs Associated with Virtual Machines<br /><br />Get accurate cost measurement, analysis and reporting with VMware vCenter Chargeback, part of the VMware family of management products. Create cost transparency and accountability so business owners and IT can understand the actual cost of the virtual infrastructure required to support business services.<br /><br />VMware vCenter Chargeback is fully integrated with VMware vCenter Server and gives you the ability to map IT costs to business units, cost centers, or external customers — enabling a better understanding of how much resources cost and what can be done to optimize resource utilization to reduce overall spend on IT infrastructure.<br /><br /><br />Accurately Measure and Analyze Costs of Virtual Machines<br />Make better resource utilization and allocation decisions by ensuring accurate measurement of the true costs of virtualized workloads. Identify opportunities to reduce deployment of low-priority or under-utilized workloads that don't justify their costs. Help the business make informed decisions about service levels with better visibility in to their associated costs.<br /><br /><br />Drive Transparency Between IT and the Business<br /> <br />Allow the business to understand the cost of deploying and maintaining business services. <br />Eliminate the perception that virtual machines are "free" <br />Drive better decision making and planning for infrastructure budget requirements <br /><br /><br />Simplify Cost Accounting for a Shared Virtual Infrastructure<br /> <br />Accurately account for resource ownership across business units <br />Automatically assign costs for usage of server, storage, and network resources <br />Schedule and distribute reports on a periodic basis to communicate usage and costs to business owners <br /><br /><br />Use Comprehensive Datacenter Cost Modeling<br /> <br />Track costs for power, cooling, real estate, software licenses, and maintenance associated with virtual infrastructure deployments <br />Distribute costs for shared business services across organizational units <br />Integrate with existing IT Financial Management or Asset Management systems for complete cost visibility across physical and virtual resourcesBob's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07302019095778136064noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2906494285936359188.post-47411541811427242052010-04-27T13:25:00.001-04:002010-04-27T13:25:44.931-04:00AOKNetworking's Newest Team MemberCurtis Hill<br />Network Engineer <br /> <br />Speciality: SonicWALL, Cisco, Windows System, Linux & Blackberry EnterpriseBob's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07302019095778136064noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2906494285936359188.post-15460203099069644952010-04-27T13:24:00.000-04:002010-04-27T13:25:21.605-04:00VMware vCenter AppSpeedManage the Performance of Virtualized Multi-Tier Applications<br /><br />Guarantee performance SLAs to the business and perform "Assured Migrations" as you measure performance both before and after virtualizing an application. VMware vCenter AppSpeed inspects traffic flowing over the vSwitch, discovers and maps the environment, monitors performance against SLAs and enables root cause analysis.<br /> <br />Ensure Performance Levels for Virtualized Multi-Tier Applications<br />Analyze the performance of applications in your environment and find ways to improve it. AppSpeed measures the latency experienced by the application end users and correlates that latency to the different tiers of the underlying physical and virtual infrastructure. Gain powerful capabilities to discover and map each tier of the infrastructure, identify application performance bottlenecks and enable root cause analysis. Model how applications would perform in virtualized environments and eliminate uncertainty about virtualizing business-critical applications. <br /><br />Get a Real-Time View of Actual End-User Application Performance <br />Discover the relationship between VMs and applications shortly after installation. Group VMs into logical units with dependency mapping and gain an end-to-end view of application performance. Out-of-the-box views and dashboards identify the worst performing applications, applications with declining performance and applications experiencing high network error rates.<br /><br />Identify trends and gain insight into root cause analysis through AppSpeed's timeseries data. <br />Create performance thresholds based on automatically calculated performance baselines. <br /> <br />Dramatically Reduce Troubleshooting Time and Finger Pointing<br />Determine whether network, infrastructure or application issues are at the root of performance concerns, then use a comprehensive set of tools for triaging and troubleshooting. View latency from the broad applications level all the way to the finest level of detail (transaction or database query). Break latency issues down to contributing components (infrastructure, network and application). Work with your networking and application owner counterparts to quickly resolve performance issues and eliminate endless triage, blame, and finger pointing. <br /><br />100% Non-Intrusive Performance Management<br />Unlike other performance management tools on the market, AppSpeed does not require agents, code insertion into applications or the creation of synthetic transactions. AppSpeed is able to monitor application latency non-intrusively by inspecting packets flowing over a host's vSwitches.<br /><br />Reduce Barriers to Virtualizing Business-Critical Applications<br />Eliminate performance concerns about virtualizing enterprise applications and realize dramatic OPEX and CAPEX savings. Show concerned application owners application performance measurements before and after migration to a virtualized environment and easily demonstrate that performance is not negatively impacted by virtualization.Bob's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07302019095778136064noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2906494285936359188.post-74178531732545670552010-04-20T13:07:00.001-04:002010-04-20T13:09:11.853-04:00Virtualizing Enterprise ApplicationsUpgrade to the Best Platform for Business-Critical Applications<br /> <br />Give Your Applications a More Dynamic Infrastructure<br />Application architectures are rapidly evolving towards highly distributed, loosely coupled applications. Multitier applications, now the norm, will become more even important with the move to SOA, Web 2.0 applications and other emerging application frameworks.<br /><br />The conventional x86 computing model, with applications tightly coupled to physical servers, is too static and fragmented to efficiently support these complex and dynamic applications. In fact, in these environments more than 70% of IT budgets are used just to manage existing applications and IT services. Less than 30% is allocated to innovation and competitive advantage.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8DQoGJBOx7oQJij-q1J4hOFCsO8u8dPoEbAsRO8rqwB45JUNPGrWKDhHaV_eINdE0v225BvxzFnT9D_c7RN8FPGasz99XT66ag-V4p8gkDW6kCrVtvd_O9EOPMCg4WUxeYXSqQ2QF6k4/s1600/Business+Critical.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 76px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8DQoGJBOx7oQJij-q1J4hOFCsO8u8dPoEbAsRO8rqwB45JUNPGrWKDhHaV_eINdE0v225BvxzFnT9D_c7RN8FPGasz99XT66ag-V4p8gkDW6kCrVtvd_O9EOPMCg4WUxeYXSqQ2QF6k4/s200/Business+Critical.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5462267800746636322" /></a> <br /><br /> <br />Deliver Applications Dynamically in a Cost-Efficient Private Cloud<br />As the first cloud operating system, VMware vSphere transforms IT infrastructures into a private cloud delivering IT infrastructure as an easily accessible service. Free existing and future application loads from the constraints of a static, dedicated infrastructure, by utilizing a collection of internal clouds that federate on-demand to external clouds.<br /><br />Exceed the Performance of Applications on Physical Servers<br />More than 95% of applications, including large databases, enterprise business suites, and email, will match and even exceed the performance achieved on physical servers when run on VMware vSphere. Each virtual machine can scale to 8 vCPU, 256 GB of memory and support IO intensive applications. Your applications achieve far greater scalability per physical host by scaling out on multiple virtual machines-often the only way to leverage the capacity of the latest multicore servers.<br /><br />Minimize Infrastructure Costs<br />Achieve 5X to 10X consolidation ratios for demanding applications such as Exchange and SAP. Eliminate the need to provision dedicated testing, staging, training, and DR servers. In production, give applications exactly the capacity they need, when they need it and eliminate the need to overprovision.<br /><br />Accelerate Application Delivery<br />Create pre-configured vApps that can be provisioned on demand, test multi-tier applications quickly and efficiently and automate release cycles with VMware vCenter Stage Manager. Deploy standard, pre-configured application stacks at the click of a button, ensuring consistency across production applications and minimizing manual configuration overhead and configuration errors.<br /><br />Guarantee Application Quality of Service<br />Ensure end-user QoS by automatically providing the right levels of application availability and scalability with the vSphere Application Services. Dynamically dial up or down application availability and scalability levels as business requirements evolve so you can meet QoS requirements in the most cost-effective way.Bob's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07302019095778136064noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2906494285936359188.post-8928574477471635482010-04-13T13:14:00.000-04:002010-04-13T13:15:29.985-04:00Business ContinuityImprove Business Continuity with Virtualization<br /><br />While disasters and unplanned downtime get the big headlines, planned downtime for hardware maintenance and backups is the cause of most service interruptions. VMware's server, desktop and application virtualization products let you eliminate planned downtime, ensure data protection, deliver high availability and be better prepared for disaster recovery. Virtualize your datacenter and make it easier to deploy: <br /> <br />Data protection, including non-disruptive automated backup and restore processes <br /> <br />High availability through reduced planned and unplanned downtime <br /> <br />Protect your Business-Critical IT Infrastructure <br /> <br />Get Full Data Protection for your IT Infrastructure<br />Simplify backup and recovery of your data and systems with virtualization. Easily recover important data within your recovery time objectives using your existing backup tools and methodologies. Benefit from a simpler data protection plan, encompassing all systems and applications and leveraging the benefits of a virtualized datacenter.<br /> <br />Eliminate Planned and Unplanned Downtime <br /> <br />Make sure your applications have the highest level of availability with built-in service-levels that are easier and more cost effective than traditional solutions. The live migration of virtual machines eliminates the need for planned downtime, allowing IT to perform maintenance on physical servers anytime, without user or service disruption.<br /> <br />Build Reliable and Efficient Disaster Recovery Plans <br /> <br />Eliminate the cost and unpredictability of traditional disaster recovery solutions by taking advantage of the inherent flexibility of a 100% virtualized datacenter. Utilize this foundation to build highly effective disaster recovery plans and test your plan in a non-disruptive manner-eliminating the issue of failure due to hardware differences between the primary and backup datacenters.Bob's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07302019095778136064noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2906494285936359188.post-40310261051084657172010-04-06T13:11:00.000-04:002010-04-06T13:12:15.680-04:00Virtualization for Small & Medium BusinessesEnabling Always On IT for SMBs<br /> <br />Small businesses face many of the same IT challenges as larger businesses, trying to accommodate increasing demand for new IT capabilities and services. Small businesses often place even greater emphasis on cost savings and on protecting business critical systems and data, since shrinking IT staff and budgets and a "do more with less" mantra make it extremely difficult to simultaneously maintain day-to-day business operations (keeping the lights on) and invest in new strategic projects that can yield longer-term efficiencies to help the business grow. <br /><br />VMware vSphere for small business is the most cost effective way to enable Always On IT - the high availability, reliability, and manageability of enterprise-class operations optimized for small and midsized businesses<br /><br /> <br />Always On IT<br /> <br />Virtualization technology simplifies IT so that companies can more effectively utilize their storage, network, and computing resources to control costs and respond faster. The virtual infrastructure approach to IT management creates virtual services out of the physical IT infrastructure, enabling administrators to allocate these resources quickly to the highest priority applications and the business needs that require them the most. <br /><br />With virtualization, hardware management is completely separated from software management, and hardware equipment can be treated as a single pool of processing, storage, and networking power to be reallocated on the fly to various software services. In a virtual infrastructure, users see resources as if they were dedicated to them - while administrators gain the ability to efficiently manage and optimize resources to serve the needs of the business.<br /> <br />VMware equips SMBs with technology solutions that allow them to cost effectively optimize the use of their existing IT assets and resources as well as protect the systems, data, and applications that run the business, ensuring Always On IT. With analysts predicting the adoption of virtualization among SMBs to double in the next 24 months, these benefits are making this compelling technology a mainstream mandate for SMBs. <br /><br /> <br />Benefits <br /> <br />Slash capital costs through consolidating servers and containing additional hardware spend. VMware virtualization delivers improved utilization of their servers, resulting in fewer resources to manage, power, store, and buy - enabling SMBs to increase utilization rates for x86 servers from 5-15 percent up to 60-80 percent.<br /><br />Enhance staff productivity. VMware vSphere solutions are easy to deploy, use, and manage. They provide IT professionals with the freedom to be released from menial tasks, enabling them to take a more strategic role in the enterprise. <br /><br />Improve business continuity. VMware solutions offer complete data protection, truly continuous application availability and automated disaster recovery across physical sites. VMware virtualization helps SMBs protect critical data and applications that keep the business running with zero-downtime hardware maintenance, eliminating the need for maintenance windows.<br /><br />Improve business responsiveness through improved efficiency, flexibility, and responsiveness. Managing a virtual infrastructure allows IT professionals to quickly connect and manage resources to meet ever-changing business needs. VMware virtualization can result in faster provisioning of new applications in minutes, not weeks, and can accelerate change request response times from hours or days to just minutes.<br /><br />Improve application quality and deployment. With VMware virtualization, SMBs can test more applications by optimizing pre-production staging environments, resulting in less downtime for the applications that run and drive the business.<br /><br />Strengthen security. VMware virtualization enables automated patch management of server hosts and virtual machines and an integrated firewall that maintains security policies across the mobile, flexible environment and decreases operational costs of managing them.Bob's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07302019095778136064noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2906494285936359188.post-91326351367064241952010-03-30T13:23:00.001-04:002010-03-30T13:23:30.250-04:00Server ConsolidationReduce IT Costs While Maintaining Control and Offering Choice<br /> <br />Don't let server sprawl and platform dependencies prevent your organization from achieving its goals. Cut capital and operating costs while increasing IT service delivery without being locked into limited choices of operating systems, applications, and hardware. <br /><br /><br />Reduce hardware and operating costs by as much as 50% and energy costs by 80%, saving more than $3,000 per year for every server workload virtualized <br />Reduce the time it takes to provision new servers by up to 70% <br />Decrease downtime and improve reliability with business continuity and built-in data disaster recovery <br /> <br />Deliver IT services on-demand now and in the future, independent of hardware, OS, application or infrastructure providers <br /><br />Reduce Costs by Consolidating Hardware & Increasing Server Utilization<br />By consolidating your server hardware, your organization can:<br /><br /><br />Increase utilization of existing hardware from 5-15% up to 80% <br />Reduce hardware requirements by a 10:1 ratio or better <br />Our Professional Services team can help you assess your IT environment to identify consolidation candidates and to calculate the potential savings from using virtualization.<br /><br />Manage Your Virtual Infrastructure from a Single Point of Control<br />While most vendors offer only single-point solutions for server virtualization, VMware gives you the power to manage an entire virtual infrastructure from a single point of control. Using the production-proven VMware vSphere, your organization can:<br /><br /><br />Accelerate provisioning time by 50-70% <br />Manage virtual machines from a central location <br />Monitor the performance of virtual machines and their hosts <br />These and other benefits have enabled more than 85% of our customers to use VMware virtual machines in production environments for a wide range of applications.<br /><br />Automate your Virtual Infrastructure for Peak Performance<br />Deliver levels of performance, scalability and availability that are not possible with a physical infrastructure. Using VMware vCenter Server in combination with our VMware VMotion and VMware DRS (Distributed Resource Scheduler) products, your organization will be able to:<br /><br /><br />Avoid planned downtime with live migration of virtual machines <br />Enable dynamic policy-based allocation of IT resources with automated load balancing <br />Eliminate many repetitive configuration and maintenance tasks <br />VMware Professional Services and our partners can help your organization leverage these unique capabilities as part of an ongoing strategy.Bob's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07302019095778136064noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2906494285936359188.post-20127119396382842302010-03-30T13:22:00.000-04:002010-03-30T13:23:06.756-04:00Did you Know?Beyond our Proactive Care & Virtualization Services, AOKNetowrking provides:<br /> <br /><br />Strategic Planning<br />AOK is well aware of the scalability of the systems and we can work with you to make the most or enhance your current operations. <br /> <br /><br /> <br />Server Setup & Maintenance<br />One, two, twenty? AOK has the capacity and expertise to construct and support even the most complicated network environments. <br /> <br /><br />Continuous Data Storage<br />No one can afford to lose valuable data and it's our job to keep your assets completely secure with off-site backup. <br /> <br /><br /> <br />Hardware & Software<br />We stand behind the products we recommend and provide valuable savings with our high-volume buying power. <br /> <br /> <br />Remote Access<br />We can create a virtual connection so you can work from anywhere on almost anything <br /><br /> Hacking<br />We test your system both internally and externally to identify and repair vulnerabilities.Bob's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07302019095778136064noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2906494285936359188.post-6682520663990386132010-03-23T13:20:00.001-04:002010-03-23T13:20:22.818-04:00VMware Disaster RecoveryBuild a Rapid, Reliable & Cost-Effective Disaster Recovery Solution<br /> <br />Traditional disaster recovery solutions are often costly and complex-and can't meet your recovery objectives even after doubling hardware (and cost) for protected applications. Testing them can be a nightmare because the steps are tedious and the documentation is hard to keep up to date. Likewise, keeping two sets of hardware in sync is nearly impossible. VMware vSphere lets you recover to any machine, not just specific duplicate hardware, reducing hardware costs and maintenance budget and lowering the complexity of maintaining a backup site. Even if you haven't virtualized all production servers, virtualize target servers for your data recovery to allow greater simplicity, reliability, and cost savings. <br /><br /><br />Recover from disasters rapidly<br />Ensure reliable disaster recovery<br />Reduce the cost of disaster recovery<br />Automate disaster recovery<br /><br />Recover Rapidly from Disasters<br />Traditional disaster recovery plans require many manual, complex steps to allocate recovery resources, perform bare metal recovery, recover data and validate that systems are ready for use. How optimized is your disaster recovery plan? Answer 40 simple questions about your backup and recovery, high availability and disaster recovery setup and plans and our DR Assessment will suggest ways to improve backup, recovery and availability of your business critical applications. You'll get a personalized assessment, peer-to-peer comparisons and an optimization roadmap. After getting your assessment, you can download our white paper on Building a Comprehensive Disaster Recovery Plan.<br /><br />Then see how VMware virtualization simplifies IT environments. -hHardware configuration, firmware, operating system install, application install- all become data stored in just a few files on disk. Protect these files using your backup or replication software and you've protected the entire system. These files can then be recovered to any hardware without requiring any changes because virtual machines are hardware-independent.<br /><br /> <br /> Ensure Reliable Recovery<br />Traditional recovery plans are often difficult to test, difficult to keep up to date, and depend on exact execution of complex, manual processes. In a virtualized environment, testing is simpler because you can execute non-disruptive tests using existing resources. Hardware independence eliminates the complexity of maintaining the recovery site by eliminating failures due to hardware differences. <br /><br />Reduce the Cost of Disaster Recovery<br />Reliable disaster recovery solutions traditionally require duplicating your entire production infrastructure-and with it your costs. With VMware vSphere, you can provide rapid and reliable recovery without requiring identical hardware. With hardware independence, you can repurpose existing servers for disaster recovery rather than needing to buy duplicate servers for rapid recovery. Server consolidation also lets you slash the cost of server infrastructure needed both for production and disaster recovery.<br /><br />Automate Disaster Recovery<br />Eliminate the need to perform numerous manual steps, difficult or impossible to automate and prone to human error. Virtualization opens the door to disaster recovery automation by turning physical servers into data and recovery procedures into software. Automate your disaster recovery process with VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager and ensure rapid and cost-effective execution of disaster recovery plans. Easily test your disaster recovery plan to ensure the highest levels of reliability and availability of your entire IT infrastructure.Bob's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07302019095778136064noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2906494285936359188.post-36338430229661585882010-03-23T13:19:00.001-04:002010-03-23T13:19:50.318-04:00VMware vSphereVMware vSphere is the next evolutionary step in IT computing; enabling customers to bring the power of cloud computing to their IT infrastructures. <br /><br />Building on the power of VMware Infrastructure, VMware vSphere dramatically reduces capital and operating costs, and increases control over IT infrastructures while preserving the flexibility to choose any OS, application and hardware. <br /><br />Maximize application throughput and operational efficiency<br />Increase control through service level automation<br />Empower IT departments with choiceBob's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07302019095778136064noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2906494285936359188.post-8236986651777580112010-03-16T13:26:00.001-04:002010-03-16T13:26:38.768-04:00Two-monitor virtualisation better than one.Pano Logic has followed last year's UK launch of its tiny 'zero' virtualisation cube device with a new dongle to enable it to display output from two monitors at once. <br /><br />In the world of virtualised devices it's much harder to get two video steams to one monitor than it sounds, more so in Pano's case because it has no processor, memory or software at all. The Pano Device gets its 'zero' client status from this utter simplicity. It is no more than a connectivity box for a keyboard, a monitor and sound. <br /> <br />The new Pano Dual Monitor comes in the form of a USB dongle which plugs into the back of the Pano Device, and which allows the two screens to be displayed correctly without the need for any additional software. <br /><br />The only other requirement to get such a setup working is for customers to upgrade to a new version of Pano's server software, System 2.8, which does the heavy graphics lifting to divide the data streams into two. <br /><br /> <br />"There was a fair amount of work on the back end," admits Pano's president and CEO, John Kish. "The part nobody thought we could do is to keep the processing away from the endpoint." The demand for dual video came from healthcare, education and government, he said. <br /><br />Kish criticised thin virtualisation clients from rivals such as Wyse (which Kish once headed) and HP, saying they still had too much hardware in the client. The point of virtualisation was to remove every piece of processing from the client to fully remove management completely to the data centre. <br /><br /> <br />Existing customers would get the server upgrade automatically, he said.Bob's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07302019095778136064noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2906494285936359188.post-62896821417969467022010-03-10T13:24:00.000-05:002010-03-10T13:27:16.427-05:00Best of Tests(Network World) We tested more than 100 products in 2009 in a wide variety of categories, but 15 of those products were head and shoulders above the rest and earn our Best of the Tests Award. Here are the categories and winners:<br /><br /> <br />1. Operating Systems<br />Vendor: MicrosoftProduct: Windows Server 2008 R2<br />We tested a raft of operating systems in 2009, including SUSE Linux, Ubuntu, and Apple Snow Leopard. But the operating system that stood out was Microsoft's Windows Server 2008 R2. This product delivers advancements in speed, security and management. Windows Server 2008 R2 boasts new server administrative roles for better security, an improved Server Manager program, revamped Internet Information Server (IIS) Web management functionality, better Active Directory controls, and redesigned Windows Terminal Services. Also, Windows Server 2008 is also significantly faster than Windows Server 2003. And while Windows Server 2008 R2 certainly stands on its own, the fact that it's integrated so nicely with Windows 7 is an additional bonus for IT execs.<br /><br /> <br /> <br />2. Management software<br />Vendor: Research in Motion<br />Product: BlackBerry Server 5.0<br />There's no keeping end users from their BlackBerries, but there is a way for IT to manage those devices -- Research in Motion's BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0. We found BES to be an easy-to-use, Web-based tool that provides centralized administration, high availability and the ability to set rules and policies on a granular level. With BlackBerry Enterprise Server, an administrator can publish and push updates and applications to one user or groups of users. The administrator can also identify unauthorized applications and prevent users from downloading, using or updating prohibited programs or applications. When a BlackBerry device is activated, the new security policy supersedes any previously installed programs or policies. Can your iPhone do that?<br /><br /><br /> <br />3. Server Hardware<br />Vendor: IBM<br />Product: BladeCenter Server HS22<br />Two eight-core Intel 5570 Nehalem processors, two 10Gigabit Ethernet network interface cards, 50GB SSD drives, 150GB 15k hard drives and 48GB of RAM. Not to mention energy efficiency and strong management features. And all for around $10,000. What's not to like? In our tests, the Nehalem-based blade delivered a 10x increase in performance when compared with Intel's Core-based Xeon processor. In terms of total overall power consumption, the Nehalem processors consumed 17% more power than the Xeon-based system, which is a pretty good bargain when you're gaining a 10x boost in performance. Bottom line: The combination of Nehalem processors, 10G Ethernet, and lots of RAM make the HS22 a great choice for data center virtualization.<br />IBM BladeCenter delivers speeds, power savings<br /><br /> <br /> <br />4. Security <br />Vendor: McAfee<br />Product: Web Gateway<br />McAfee's Web Gateway bested the competition in every one of our performance tests. We attacked each vendor's product with 100 malware instances. Web Gateway turned aside 99. We fed each gateway 1,000 e-mails - 500 phish and 500 non-phish. Web Gateway came in first with a 90% success rate. And in our latency tests, Web Gateway exhibited the lowest latency - 28 ms. Web Gateway sports an easy-to-use, intuitive browser-based interface that's especially responsive. Reports are quick and informative, and the Web Gateway dashboard is completely customizable. And the McAfee Web Gateway installation was the slickest. A USB memory stick containing a configuration program accompanies the device. Insert the memory stick in a Windows machine, run the program, save your configuration, move the memory stick to the Web Gateway before boot time and - voila! - the Web Gateway uses the IP address and other configuration data you've specified. This is the second time around for McAfee's Web Gateway. The product was a Best of the Tests winner back in 2006 as well<br /><br /><br /> <br />Runnerup: Vendor: Trend Micro<br />Product: Interscan Web Security<br />Trend Micro's combination of Interscan Web Security Virtual Appliance 5.0 and Interscan Messaging Security Virtual Appliance 7.0 is our runnerup. The Trend Micro software delivered a 96% success rate in blocking malware and an 84% success rate in blocking phishes. Trend Micro's tool gave us consolidated threat reporting and corporate policy management across our network. We easily varied security policies by network segment, company division and company department, at our option. We particularly liked Trend Micro's unified view of network security across an entire enterprise.<br />Also, you install the software on your own computers, thus giving you fine control over the speed and capacity of your gateway. Installation is a snap.<br /><br /> <br /> <br />5. Server Virtualization:<br />Vendor: VMware<br />Product: VMware vSphere 4.0<br />VMware created the market for x86 server virtualization in 2001 and has been the leader ever since, although Microsoft's Hyper-V and Citrix XenServer are strong competitors. In 2009, VMware raised the bar with the introduction of vSphere, a cloud-focused product that is faster than its predecessor, ESX 3.51, easier to manage, and designed for provisioning fleets of virtual machine farms. The basic components of what VMware calls the vSphere 'cloud operating system' are an improved hypervisor and VMware's VirtualCenter management application, along with options like vMotion (live VM inter-server migration), vSphere Zones (network security aggregation), distributed resource allocation, and even a distributed network switch. These improvements allow vSphere 4.0 to manage and automate provisioning of internally-controlled VM farms and infrastructure with hosting platforms located outside an organizations traditional computing 'perimeter'.<br /><br /><br /> <br />6. Desktop virtualization <br />Vendor: Parallels<br />Product: Parallels Desktop for the Mac<br />Want to run Windows on your Mac? Check out Parallels Desktop for the Mac. In our testing, Parallels was strong in features and usability, and its 64-bit guest virtual machine support provides flexibility for developers. We could run Mac OS X Leopard client or server as a guest. We were able to import VMware or Virtual Box files (guest VM snapshots, or rapidly mountable VM guest operating systems) easily. Parallels Transporter let us convert other formats of VMs into the Parallels format. Windows XP (this test took place before Windows 7 was released) installed easily for us, with no interaction except for entering the username and product key. Parallels has preformatted settings for XP. Another useful Parallels feature was the ability to mount a Windows VM guest's NTFS file system into the Apple MacOS 10.5 Finder application. We could access all the files directly like an external hard disk. We could easily drag and drop files and folders between Mac and XP VMs. It's even possible to have the Apple Spotlight application index the VM Windows guest drive, a feature that wasn't available in the other hypervisor products we tested.<br /><br /><br /> <br />Runnerup: Pano Logic<br />Product: Pano Cube<br />Pano Logic's Pano Cube is a very small 'designer'-looking cube containing three USB jacks, VGA and audio/mic jacks. It has no CPU or memory/storage inside, permitting it to be used strictly as a KVM+ access device. The Pano Manager provisions desktops through ESX/vCenter and also enables policy controls about what IO can go through the Pano Cube. It's possible to restrict printers, and so on for any particular session. The Pano Gateway in turn, sets up connection brokerage relationships for VPN and proxy access from branch to 'home'. Pano Device setup was very simple. Pano Manager allows for persistent and non-persistent VMs to be used. VMs can be organized into collections, which can host a number of VMs in which the Pano Cubes connect as a single logical unit The Cube Clients, we found, are extremely fast. They logon in just seconds, and were able to reproduce multimedia very well - even when we loaded the hosted VMware server down (a local host with 8GB of RAM) with all 10 Cubes sent to us. The Pano Manager and Cube require VMware, but it's a decent investment. And Pano Cube's simplicity is bliss.<br /><br /> <br /> <br />7. Category: software<br />Vendor: Microsoft<br />Product: SharePoint Server 2010<br />Our policy is to not test beta versions of products. There are lots of reasons for this, but mostly it comes down to the notion that we're trying to give readers information to help them make buying decisions. And that means we test the actual product that customers would buy. But there's an exception to every policy - and it's SharePoint Server 2010, which we tested in beta, and which came out on top in this year's software category. Interest in this product was so high that we felt we had to write a review as soon as we could get our hands on the product. And we weren't disappointed. We tested beta versions of SharePoint Server, and two related apps, Visual Studio and Office 2010, in a virtualized environment and found that SharePoint Server 2010 is faster and more intuitive than the previous version. SharePoint 2010 allows IT departments to run applications such as enterprise search, content management, collaboration and business intelligence on a single platform. Together with improved Internet site capabilities, SharePoint 2010 means companies can avoid the licensing and training costs associated with separate apps. SharePoint 2010 also offers improved developer and administration capabilities, which will likely speed application creation while easing server management.<br /><br /> <br /> <br />8. E-mail<br />Company: Microsoft<br />Product: Exchange<br />Yes, 2009 was quite a year for Microsoft, with major releases of Windows, Windows Server and Exchange, Microsoft's e-mail platform. So, is Exchange 2010 an overgrown, bloated hog of an undocumented application, requiring enormous resources and costing a fortune? Or has Microsoft finally gotten it right, building the speed and reliability we need into a mailbox server that goes beyond simple e-mail and raises the bar for collaboration tools? The answer to both question is "yes." It all depends on how you use it. The core of Exchange is finally where we want it: reliable, fast, and resource-stingy. Exchange 2010 is also heavily Web-focused, supporting the inevitable march towards a clientless e-mail, calendar and address book experience. Of course, Exchange 2010 also has the expected bloat. Obscure inter-server communications pathways, connections to VoIP PBXs, obscure digital rights management, and an edge server that is best described as "not entirely useless," all are part of the Exchange experience, too. Still, Exchange is here to stay and if 2010 is the direction we're going, then the good far outweighs the bad. Two steps forward and one step back still adds up to one step forward!<br /><br /> <br />Runnerup Zimbra<br />Product: Collaboration Suite<br />Want the benefits of Exchange, without actually running Exchange? We tested six alternatives, most of which closed in pretty well on the essence of what a collaboration server should be. We preferred Zimbra for its broad cross-platform support and powerful mail server. Sure, inside, it's a complicated maze of interlocking scripts held together by strings of commands that only a few select people truly understand. But when it works, which it did very well in our testing, Zimbra does what you want on the platform of your choice, and the price is slightly less than Microsoft Exchange. Plus, VMware seems to believe in it, since they announced they're buying Zimbra from Yahoo.<br /><br /><br /> <br />9. Storage<br />Vendor: Compellent<br />Product: Storage Center 4.0<br />The best of our SAN systems test was the Compellent Storage Center 4.0. The product offers a compelling mix of high performance, great ease of use and wide feature set, at a price that isn't over the top. It has all the features you'd expect in a SAN system, such as synchronous and asynchronous replication, snapshots and thin provisioning, as well as some features that other systems don't have - particularly the data progression feature, which automatically migrates the most-used data on the system to the fastest storage. This feature makes the best use of the fastest storage on the system, whether 15k drives or SSDs, with little or no effort on the part of the administrator. Mature, easy to use and operating at the block level, it is more usable than the recently released and widely publicized LUN-level automated storage tiering from one of the big names in SAN technology. The biggest differentiator for Compellent may be its ease of use. While most SAN systems offer similar functionalities, a system that can set up remote replication over the Internet to another SAN in six mouse clicks is noteworthy. Add to that a good value and high performance, with support for SSDs, 8Gbps Fibre Channel and 10Gbps iSCSI and you have a winner.<br /><br /><br /> <br />10. Wireless<br />Vendor: CACE Technologies<br />Product: AirPcap Ex<br />Our extensive WLAN testing in 2009 results in several products which received a perfect score of 5.0. But the best of the best is the AirPcap Ex tool from CACE Technologies. This comprehensive yet simple packet-capture tool is perfect for those all-too-common situations faced by practitioners and operations professionals alike when it's necessary to dig into the dialog between client and access point to really understand why performance is so unexpected, why security is now so tight that no one can in fact connect, or why erratic client behavior is just that. It's based on the very popular WireShark tool, and integration is seamless. It's available at a bargain price, and developer tools are available.<br /><br /><br /> <br />11. Networking<br />Vendor: Cisco<br />Product: ASR router<br />With enterprises looking to consolidate data centers and devices, Cisco's new ASR 1000 series router offers a compelling message: Do more with less.<br />In our exclusive test, the ASR not only moved traffic at 20Gbps but also did so while running QoS, security and monitoring functions on 120 million flows from hundreds of concurrent routing sessions. The ASR also proved a capable performer when handling multicast and IPSec VPN traffic. And with a 40-core processor, the ASR has enough headroom to run firewalls, load balancers and other services without requiring additional hardware. That's not to say the ASR isn't still a work in progress. Its data-plane capacity still needs to grow, and Cisco hasn't yet rolled out all the services that ASRs eventually will support. But this is a strong effort, well worth considering for the many enterprises looking to replace tiers of aging Cisco 7200 routers with a single more powerful system.<br /><br /><br /> <br />Runnerup: 3Com<br />Product: H3C switch<br />3Com says it has an alternative for network managers considering high-end switches from Cisco and others. And our exclusive test of this core switch backs up 3Com's claim. The chassis-based, 288-port device delivered line-rate throughput in all performance tests, supported more Open Shortest Path First routing sessions than we've ever set up and consumed remarkably little power all the while. While the device doesn't have all the features of some competitors (for example, the switch doesn't yet support hitless upgrades), its strong performance and low power consumption make it a viable option for large and midsized organizations in the market for core and aggregation switches.Bob's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07302019095778136064noreply@blogger.com0