In SearchServerVirtualization.com’s new blog-entry series, “Virtualization book club,” I’ll post information related to our author interviews.

In today’s post, I’d like to introduce you to Eric Hammersley, author of Professional VMware Server: Programmer to Programmer, a previous CIO of the Sassi Institute, and a current engineer at defense and space company EG&G Technical Services in Bloomington, Ind.

Professional VMware Server was the first book published on the VMware product. It offers information on how to install and configure VMware Server; tips for creating base images; methods for organizing image libraries and preparing them for use; best practices for using VmCOM, VmPerl and the application programming interface; and integrate VMware Server in an existing environment and more.

Much to his welcome suprise, Hammersley was contacted by Wiley publishers to write the book.

“I was honored to have the opportunity to write Professional VMware Server,” he said. “Thankfully, it was an easy sell, and I was given wide latitude in terms of direction and content.”

Hammersley first fell in love with virtualization when he worked as a government contractor for the U.S. Navy. He was installing multiple servers and switch racks aboard U.S. Navy ships to support the Navy’s Information Technology for the 21st Century initiative (IT-21).

“With the virtualization technology being developed by VMware and impact on space, the recoverability and survivability of the infrastructure could be greatly increased,” Hammersley said. “I do not know if they ever leveraged virtualization technology as part of that program, but the robustness of the technology today would be a great asset to that ongoing project.”

Although Hammersley doesn’t have other books on the market, we should expect to see his name on the IT bookshelves sometime soon. “We always have Vix to expand on,” he said. “We’ll see what happens.”

Ironically enough, the original VMware Server author missed VMware’s IPO this past summer.

“I never get in on those things in time,” Hammersley joked. “I missed the Nvidia spike back in 2000 that I knew was coming but procrastinated, the Google IPO and now the VMware IPO. I suppose I’ll just be content with writing books and putting in my eight hours.”