A Data Center In The Palm Of Your Hand

An iPhone may seem like a strange platform from which to run your data center, but don't tell Xsigo that. The virtual I/O vendor introduced an iPhone application over the New Year's weekend that let's you add and subtract I/O from you virtual server. You can see engineer Dave Allison demoing the application on YouTube below.

Xsigo isn't the first data center vendor to deliver an iPhone application. DirectThought demoed an application last year for managing an Amazon EC2 Environment from an iPhone. Wyse makes PocketCloud, which allows you to view and manage a virtual Windows desktop from the iPhone or iPod touch. Citrix Receiver enables iPhone and Android users to run any Window apps on XenApp hosted servers.

For ITers looking to monitor their network, Cymphonix iPhone app gives real-time monitoring, allowing users to connect to an Cymphonix appliance to view what is going on with the enterprise Internet connection. R-U-On is another hosted IT monitoring software running from the iPhone. There are also numerous IT utilities for the iPhone and security applications, such as Cisco's Security Intelligence Operations (SIO) To Go.

Xsigo's app, though, is different in that you're not just monitoring an existing implementation, but actually altering it remotely. To put that another way, it's the difference between being able to sip your Pina Colada while on the beach in Maui and actually do something about that network problem instead of having to find someone locally, or worse, head home, to address the problem.

While the iPhone might hardly be the ideal platform for doing this kind of work, there's no question in my mind that many a network manager will appreciate the convenience of carrying their data center's remote control in their pocket.