“Size [and speed] does matter” according to Bil Simser, Microsoft MVP from Alberta

We came across a blog called “a different take on organizing virtual disks” by Bil Simser. In this Bil writes and proves to be quite an advanced user of virtual machines. In addition, Mr. Simser specializes in .NET, Agile, XP, TDD, and computer game programming and is the lead developer maintaining the CDX development library for C++ game programmers. He is also the Microsoft MVP for SharePoint Portal Server in Calgary and a member of the MSDN Canada Speakers Bureau.

So we sent him a note about VM Optimizer and asked that if he tries it, that he blog about the trial and send a note about his experience.

Below is an excerpt from his experience and if you’d like to visit his site please follow this link.

Finally got around to trying out the product and it’s pretty slick. It basically rips through your VMs and shrinks them down without affecting the OS inside of them. VM Optimizer 2.0 will work with files from both VMWare and Virtual PC/Virtual Server vhd files (although in my test I tried shrinking an identical file of both types and for whatever reason, the Virtual PC file showed better compression).

There’s a 30 day trial available which is a full version so you can try out all the features and see if it works for you. Check it out as it’s a cool product and doesn’t seem to have any adverse effects on VMs, other than making them smaller. And remember, size matters.

A Microsoft MVP is “Jumping on the Invirtus bandwagon”

Recently, Robert McLaws, Microsoft MVP and a dotnet heavy weight, tried and bought VM Optimzer. Later he blogged about the reason why he gains value from the product. To read his blog here.

Another great blog about the goodness of VM Optimizer. Keep ‘em coming.

“Invirtus VM Optimizer Rules!”

Scott Van Vliet weights in on VM Optimizer at his blog.

Says he, “I recently obtained a copy of VM Optimizer, and ran a few of my Virtual PC images through the gauntlet. I’m not sure if the version I tried a few months back was different than the one I used this time, but the results now were fantastic. On a base Windows Server 2003 Enterprise SP1, I reduced the image from 2.56 GB down to 1.52 GB – which eventually compressed to ~650 MB in RAR format! ”

Scott’s results represent the minimum of what you could expect with VM Optimizer. Many customers report 70% and even 80% reductions.

Important note: VM Optimizer has nothing to do with ZIP or RAR compression and does not use compression techniques to achieve reductions.

Review by JCooney - “VM Optimizer - great”

Just a few days ago, Joseph Cooney evaluated VM Optimizer. On his blog, Joseph writes “Recently I downloaded the 14-day trial to see if this technology really worked. I was able to cut down my 6GB XP+Weblogic VPC image to around 1.8 GB. I’m optimizing a few other VPC images now to see if I can get the same gains again. Overall a very nice and easy-to-use product, that makes backing up, moving around and sharing virtual machines very easy. To read the complete entry please see http://jcooney.net/archive/2005/11/17/8184.aspx

A review by a Microsoft MVP, Laurent Kempé

Mr. Laurent Kempé , a Microsoft MVP in France, recently downloaded the evaluation of VM Optimizer and blogged about his experience.

It’s very gratifying that enthusiast/power users are getting good results with VM Optimizer!

In a recent email to me Laurent wrote “I had a really good experience and have shared my thought about the tool with the community on my blog. Your tool is awesome and really easy to use!”

Amazing Review by a Microsoft MVP

“The results are clear… I really like this software” says Lorenzo Barbieri on his most recent Blog.
Lorenzo first blogged about his pre-release experience with VM Optimizer a couple days ago and had a comment from an individual saying in essence “I don’t get it. Can’t you get good results with off-the-shelf compaction?”
In this test Lorenzo took a 3.84Gb XP2 VHD and ended up with a 466MB VHD using VM Optimizer. Off-the-shelf compaction gave him a 1.61Gb VHD. The results acheived with VM Optimizer are out of this world fantastic! Furthermore, Lorenzo used WinRAR after using VM Optimizer and ended up with a 257MB archivable VHD! That is absolutely incredible!!!

Imagine, 2 VHDs on a single CD-R. Is that excellent transportability?

A Blog about VM Optimizer

Lorenzo Barbieri, a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT, MCSD.NET, MCDBA) in Italy, today has written an article about his pre-release experience and success with VM Optimizer. In his article he says such things as “…really impressive!” and “I’m really amazed of this product, everything is automatic, guided step-by-step, and the results are incredible.” and lastly “the time that I gain when I need to backup, copy or move them is priceless.”

We at Invirtus are honored that Lorenzo Barbieri has had such a wonderful experience with our product. This is exactly the results that we were thinking of when we researched, designed and developed the software!

Pre-release Review by J.W.

Dear J.W.
Question 1. Describe the improvements you experienced using VM Optimizer to create a smaller VM compared to “off-the-shelf” compaction.

Your Answer: “Off-the-shelf” compaction 2,638,503 KB compared to Invirtus of 1,483,149 KB

Continue reading Pre-release Review by J.W….

Pre-release Review by T.C.

Dear T.C.
Question 1. Describe the improvements you experienced using VM Optimizer to create a smaller VM compared to “off-the-shelf” compaction.

Your Answer: It works as stated. This tool rocks! Others don’t have the results that make compacting worth while.

Question 2. Describe/explain the time, cost and/or convenience you are able to recover in transmitting, backing-up or sharing the VM compared to whatever previous process you may have used.

Your Answer: Anytime you can reduce the size of a file there is a cost savings and the convenience is time.

Question 3. Do you have possibilities and/or capabilities that didn’t previously exist because VM Optimizer enables you to have smaller/faster VMs? (e.g. Because your VMs are 3-5x smaller as a result of using VM Optimizer you’re now able to easily share VMs with co-workers which increases capacity/effectiveness.) Continue reading Pre-release Review by T.C….

Pre-release Review by L.B.

Dear L.B.
Question 1. Describe the improvements you experienced using VM Optimizer to create a smaller VM compared to “off-the-shelf” compaction.

Your Answer: It’s really easy, you start the program, it prepares everything for the compaction, then you start the Virtual Disk Wizard and do the final step. It’s much better than finding the right files to delete, defragment the virtual hd, pre-compact it and the do the final step.

Question 2. Describe/explain the time, cost and/or convenience you are able to recover in transmitting, backing-up or sharing the VM compared to whatever previous process you may have used.

Your Answer: I can fit many more VMs in my notebook hd, without using an external one. I can also fit more VMs inside a DVD-R for Backup. I also succeeded in compacting a VM and fitting it into a CD-R.

Question 3. Do you have possibilities and/or capabilities that didn’t previously exist because VM Optimizer enables you to have smaller/faster VMs? (e.g. Because your VMs are 3-5x smaller as a result of using VM Optimizer you’re now able to easily share VMs with co-workers which increases capacity/effectiveness.) Continue reading Pre-release Review by L.B….