Latest News from VIRTUALIZATION JOURNAL

Cloud Computing Pioneer to Present at SYS-CON's Cloud Computing Expo

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:00:00 EDT

David Young, Co-Founder & CEO of cloud-computing specialist Joyent, is the latest Cloud Computing pioneer to join the distinguished Speaking Faculty of SYS-CON's pathbreaking "Cloud Computing Expo" being held November 19-21, 2008 in San Jose, California. He will speak on "The Open Cloud: Building a Customer-Centric Cloud Computer" - a session in which Young willl explore the essential characteristics of building a cloud infrastructure that gives customers the freedom to change vendors while exploiting the values of cloud computing.

Virtualization Conference & Expo - Corel May Get Sold

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:15:00 EDT

It said late Wednesday night that it is in talks with an unidentified third party regarding a potential sale of the company, but that there’s no agreement yet or even the assurance of an agreement. The statement followed a Reuters report that Corel had received “multiple preliminary offers from private equity firms and strategic buyers” late Wednesday afternoon.

Research Center Chooses Attune Systems for their File Virtualization Solution

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 08:15:00 EDT

Attune Systems and Cambridge Computer announced that Vanderbilt's Mass Spectrometry Research Center (MSRC), a core facility for research and clinical infrastructure serving the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, has chosen the Attune Systems file management solution. The MSRC has selected the Maestro File Manager in a high-availability cluster configuration to address the center's need to improve the usage of their existing storage environment and enhance their planning based on their increasing requirements for more cost-effective storage.

A Brief History of Cloud Computing: Is the Cloud There Yet?

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 07:35:00 EDT

In order to discuss some of the issues surrounding The Cloud concept, I think it is important to place it in historical context. Looking at the Cloud's forerunners, and the problems they encountered, gives us the reference points to guide us through the challenges it needs to overcome before it is adopted.

Six Considerations Before Taking Virtualization into Production

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 07:20:00 EDT

Data center managers are quickly realizing the benefits of virtualization, including reduced power consumption, improved server utilization, increased availability by reducing planned downtime, and reduced costs. However, with these benefits comes a new layer of complexity. Heterogeneity is common in data centers and most include multiple operating systems (both virtual and physical), different virtual machines, and storage and tape vendors. Interoperability is critical to managing this heterogeneity.

Virtualization - Extending the Role of Systems Management

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 07:18:00 EDT

The discipline of systems management is composed largely of managing the computing endpoint. The 'endpoint' is traditionally a computer that takes the form of an application/process server or an end-user desktop/laptop. This definition doesn't cover all endpoint types or devices but does represent a large enough population size for the purposes of this discussion.

Virtualization - Security Should Not Take a Backseat

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 07:15:00 EDT

There's no question that advances in server virtualization technology are becoming popular among corporations that want to save money by consolidating resources and improving operational efficiency. Virtualization enables a dramatic increase in cost savings in ongoing maintenance and the cost required to keep physical assets afloat.

Cloud Computing: Who Can Help Me Get an Application onto EC2 and Storage onto S3?

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 02:30:00 EDT

OK, I have a budget, a computing task, a storage task, and even some smart people around me. I don't want to run these tasks on a server in my basement, at the university, or on my existing providers. My existing provider offers quick and virtualized services, but not quick enough - or enough. I want more storage - ran out. To get more from my current U.S.-based provider, I need to provision a new server, take it offline for part of a day, and buy all sorts of new services. I just want more storage than my laptop has. At the same time, I would like to move more media processing from local computers to computers elsewhere. I know if I was a university researcher I could get access to the grid. I would need a computer science degree to figure it out, but there are a few folks like that around too.

vmSight Releases User Activity Control for Desktop Virtualization

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 11:43:00 EDT

vmSight announced that its vmSight 3.5 product suite now includes a user activity control feature for virtual desktops that is in addition to its existing monitoring capabilities. This newly added capability allows virtual desktop administrators to block unauthorized user and application activity on virtual desktops for improved performance or security. The feature is available immediately in the vmSight virtual appliance that directly integrates into an organization’s virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) platform.

Cloud Computing: Amazon Launches the Amazon Elastic Block Store for Amazon EC2

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 11:30:00 EDT

Amazon Web Services launched the Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS), a new persistent storage feature for the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). Amazon EC2 is an infrastructure service that provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud. With Amazon EBS, storage volumes can be programmatically created, attached to Amazon EC2 instances, and if even more durability is desired, can be backed with a snapshot to the Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3).

DNS Arrow Announces Virtualization Distribution Agreement with Xsigo In UK

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 10:27:00 EDT

DNS Arrow has signed an agreement with Xsigo to be a strategic distributor across the UK. The agreement will help organizations to realize the full benefits of virtualization with integrated solutions that incorporate server, storage, and I/O virtualization technologies.

Cloud Computing Expo: Introducing the Cloud Pyramid

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 05:10:00 EDT

The term 'Cloud Computing' is much too vague. People want and need 'slots' or 'segments' where they can group things. This is how the mind operates through categorization and ordering. So, to possibly help with this, I would like to propose a 'Cloud Pyramid' to help differentiate the various Cloud offerings out there.

Avnet Announces Services To Help Sun Microsystems Partners Capitalize on the Growing Virtualization Market

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 20:30:00 EDT

Avnet Technology Solutions announced services designed to assist Sun partners in targeting the virtualization market and creating incremental revenue opportunities. The services will focus on enabling Sun partners to demonstrate how virtualization solves key business challenges and the benefits it provides. Avnet Technology Solutions' services include Avnet OneTech server assessments, seminars, technical and financial support, partner training and enablement, business development, demand generation, continuing education, and solutions partnering and development.

Microsoft To Funnel Up to $100M More to Novell

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:45:00 EDT

Microsoft is going to pump up to $100 million more into Novell for additional certificates that it will sell or give to customers to redeem for SUSE Linux support. Novell should get the money on November 1 right before the second anniversary of the widely loathed Microsoft-Novell pact that indemnifies SUSE users against infringing Microsoft patents under a so-called covenant not to sue and got the open source community’s knickers in a twist.

Baking Company Preserves Tradition With Acronis' Recipe for Disaster Recovery

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:34:00 EDT

Specialty Bakers recently deployed IT backup and recovery software from Acronis resulting in uninterrupted customer service and protection of information that keeps the business running. To reduce downtime during system recovery, Specialty Bakers replaced its time-consuming, file-based tape technology with both Acronis True Image Workstation and Acronis True Image Server for Windows.

Entisys Honored as a Top Performing Citrix Virtualization Solution Advisor Partner in the 2008 "Go for the Green" Program

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:48:00 EDT

Entisys Solutions announced that it has been named a winner of the 2008 Citrix Systems "Go for the Green" program, ranking #1 in North American sales revenue and influence for Citrix XenServer and Citrix Desktop virtualization software solutions.

Adexis Deduplication and Virtualization Tools Now Online for Business Community

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:05:00 EDT

Adexis achieved NetApp's highest professional services partner status -- Authorized Professional Service Partner (APSP). "This designation means we have the experience, resources and credentials that customers can trust when it comes to providing professional services for NetApp," said Adexis Vice President of Operations and Storage Consulting Nick Cellentani. NetApp creates innovative storage and data management solutions that accelerate business breakthroughs and achieve cost efficiency.

Avnet Expands Virtualization Portfolio

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:33:00 EDT

Reflex Security announced a global distribution agreement with Avnet which will be implemented initially in the U.S. and Canada. Under the agreement, Avnet will distribute Reflex Security's "Virtual Security Manager" (VSM) solution. The agreement will broaden the market opportunities for Reflex, and value-added reseller partners will benefit from Avnet's virtualization solutions practice that includes the products, services, tools and training needed to successfully target the virtualization market.

Internet Research Group Publishes Research Study on Microsoft Virtualization

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:20:00 EDT

Internet Research Group (IRG) announced the release of its latest report on technology infrastructure, "Why Microsoft Virtualization is Different (and possibly better)." With this summer's launch of Hyper-V, Microsoft began shipping its long awaited entry into the server virtualization market in competition with VMware's ESX, the market leader. This new research report compares Microsoft's quite distinct virtualization strategy to that of VMware as the two companies battle to win enterprise customers.

VirtualLogix Delivers Virtualization Support for Intel-Based Mobile Internet Devices

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:00:00 EDT

VirtualLogix announced that its VLX virtualization solution will be supporting the latest Intel Atom processor Z5XX series-based Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs). Device makers using VLX on these MIDs can simplify hardware designs, reduce costs and enhance the end-user experience through improved quality of voice, multimedia services and stronger security capabilities. VirtualLogix VLX also offers complete power management support for virtualized environments, which reduces MIDs' overall energy consumption.

AppSense Teams with Enterprise Systems to Fuel U.S. Adoption of Virtualization Environments

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 09:45:00 EDT

AppSense announced that it is partnering with Enterprise Systems to extend its VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) offerings to customers throughout the U.S. Southwest, particularly those in the healthcare market.

Sun Microsystems Annouces Demand for Sun's Virtualization Products

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 09:26:00 EDT

Sun Microsystems announced the company nearly doubled shipments of its Sun Ray thin clients during the fourth quarter of Sun's 2008 fiscal year, compared to the third quarter of its 2008 fiscal year. Sun Ray unit shipments are growing fast, underscoring the increased appeal thin client and desktop virtualization solutions are experiencing among businesses and organizations. Contributing to this growth is strong market demand for Sun Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Software 2.0, which now ships on approximately 25% of Sun Ray units since being introduced in March 2008, in addition to the unparalleled choice Sun Ray thin clients offer customers, enabling them to display Solaris, Windows or Linux desktops on the same device.

JOT Servlets 3.0 Java Web Framework Released

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 21:00:00 EDT

JOT Object Technologies has released version 3.0 of the JOT Servlets Java web components framework. JOT Servlets is a software development framework for dynamic content web applications. This release includes new demonstration applications that illustrate JOT Web Components. The demonstration applications are included and can also be launched from the website.

MESH-Solutions Uses Parallels Virtualization Automation Software to Offer Hosted Microsoft Exchange

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 18:30:00 EDT

Parallels announced that MESH-Solutions is using Parallels Automation software to offer business-class email based on hosted Microsoft Exchange. The offering is aimed at European resellers looking for a hosting partner that provides customization and branding of the Hosted Exchange infrastructure.

iStor Networks Introduces Virtualization Technology

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 18:30:00 EDT

iStor Networks announced that it has started shipping its new management interface, integraSuite/MC Management Center. integraSuite provides smart and simple setup, storage provisioning and allocation. The intuitive interface requires no storage expertise freeing the network administrator to focus on user needs

Rochester General Hospital Runs Mission-Critical Applications on The VMware Virtualization Platform

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:10:00 EDT

VMware announced that Rochester General Hospital (RGH) has deployed VMware Infrastructure 3, the datacenter virtualization and management suite, to optimize the availability, scalability and performance of nearly every application it has in production. RGH, a community-based teaching hospital that includes a premier heart institute and cancer center, offers innovative surgical procedures and care to the region and beyond.

Open-E Experiences Strong Channel Growth to Address Growing Market for Next-Generation IP Storage Management Software

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 10:15:00 EDT

Open-E announced that the number of companies using its comprehensive NAS/iSCSI software offering has grown by more the 30 percent since its entry into the U.S. market this year. The company has established a worldwide presence with 220 OEMs, resellers and integrators located across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific regions, and is positioned to outpace first-generation solution providers. With over 10,000 installations, in over 93 countries, Open-E data storage solutions are used by Fortune 500 customers worldwide.

New Microsoft Licensing and Support Eases Path to Virtualization

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 10:00:00 EDT

New licensing, expanded product support policies and a worldwide series of events from Microsoft help business customers create more dynamic datacenters and enterprise IT systems with virtualization software. Beginning Sept. 1, 2008, customers will be able to move any of 41 Microsoft server applications between servers within a server farm as often as necessary without paying additional licensing fees, and they can take advantage of expanded specialized technical support.

LeCroy Protocol Tools Help Demonstrate Single Root I/O Virtualization During Intel SR-IOV Lab

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 09:00:00 EDT

LeCroy is participating in the Intel IDF Single Root-I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) lab to demonstrate the application of its Summit Protocol Analyzer and Protocol Test Card (PTC) for PCI Express in the testing of SR-IOV capable add-in-cards. SR-IOV is a PCI-SIG workgroup extension to the PCI Express standard that makes it possible for a single PCI Express adapter to behave simultaneously as several independent devices using a shared PCI Express physical link, and to allow multiple virtual machines to use the link more efficiently.

Nixon Peabody Turns to Fortisphere to Help Manage Their Virtualization IT Infrastructure

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 23:15:00 EDT

Fortisphere announced that international law firm Nixon Peabody has selected Fortisphere Virtual Essentials to more efficiently manage its virtual infrastructure. As one of the largest multi-practice law firms in the United States, Nixon Peabody has offices in 18 cities and employs more than 700 attorneys. The law firm will rely on Fortisphere’s policy-based management solutions to help track and control their virtualized infrastructure.

NetApp Helps Burt’s Bees Boost Data Center Virtualization Sustainability

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 23:00:00 EDT

NetApp announced that Burt’s Bees, in keeping in line with its goal of sustainable computing, has enhanced its IT infrastructure with the recent deployment of NetApp storage solutions. Thanks to NetApp, Burt’s Bees has been able to streamline its storage environment with the use of several power efficiency and space-saving storage technologies such as deduplication and virtualization.

Check Point Extends Security to Protect Virtualization Applications

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 23:00:00 EDT

Check Point announced VPN-1 Virtual Edition (VE), which delivers the same best-of-class security for virtual applications that Fortune 500 companies depend on to secure their corporate networks and data centers. Check Point is a company that provides unified security management for both physical networks and virtual applications.

The Critical Role of Automation in a Virtualized World

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 23:00:00 EDT

Virtualization is today's "green" knight in shining armor, drastically slashing power, hardware and real estate costs. However, with all this efficiency comes a vast increase in complexity that threatens mission-critical business processing. Is there a way to slay that dragon as well? Enterprise schedulers provide automation capabilities that provide a solution.

Strong Demand for Continuous Availability Virtualization Solutions Drives xkoto's Growth in First Half of 2008

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 22:00:00 EDT

xkoto reported continued growth in the first half of 2008, as more businesses requiring continuous availability and scalability for business-critical applications chose GRIDSCALE over costly traditional database clustering technologies. In the second quarter alone, company revenues grew more than 400 percent over the same quarter last year. xkoto continued to increase its customer base with a number of new customers including: Comdata Corporation, HSBC, Independence Blue Cross, Norfolk Southern Corporation, and PUMA AG International.

Tidal Software Joins VMware Virtualization Program

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:15:00 EDT

Tidal Software announced it recently joined the VMware Technology Alliance Partner (TAP) program. The VMware TAP program helps technology vendors integrate their products with VMware virtualization software and deliver timely, joint solutions to mutual customers.

Corticon Embeds Composite Software’s Data Virtualization Technology

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:00:00 EDT

Corticon and Composite Software announced Corticon has embedded the Composite Information Server in the Corticon Enterprise Data Connector (EDC)-Multi Source. Corticon’s EDC-Multi Source enables seamless access to relational databases, legacy data sources, web services, XML, message queues as well as leading packaged applications such as SAP, Siebel, PeopleSoft and Oracle through Composite Application Data Services.

KACE Virtual Appliances for Systems Management Earns VMware Virtualization Validation

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:00:00 EDT

KACE announced that its KBOX family of appliances are now available as virtual appliances through the VMware virtual appliance marketplace at www.vmware.com/appliances/. The Virtual KBOX appliances offer customers an innovative way to deploy and manage critical IT resources.

Chocolatier TCHO Uses VMware Fusion Virtualization

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:30:00 EDT

VMware announced that TCHO, an emerging and innovative manufacturer of premium chocolate, has deployed VMware Fusion across the company’s Macintosh desktop systems to provide its staff with the flexibility to move seamlessly between native Macintosh applications and virtualized Windows-based applications.

Expand Networks Outperforms WAN Optimization Market and Continues to Dominate in Virtualization

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:45:00 EDT

Expand Networks has demonstrated it is continuing to drive the global WAN Optimization market with its impressive Q2 revenue results signifying a record 47% increase quarter over quarter. Expand's ability to accelerate all applications in IT projects for virtualization, satellite and server consolidation has resulted in one of the largest install bases in the WAN Optimization market.

Cenzic Launches Its Strategic Advisory Board to Guide Virtualization Growth

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:45:00 EDT

Cenzic announced the formation of the Cenzic Web Application Security Strategic Advisory Board. Industry notables Lloyd Hession, former chief security officer at British Telecom Radianz, John Mitchell, professor of computer science and electrical engineering at Stanford University, Dr. Sachar Paulus, senior vice president of product security at SAP, Dan Schoenbaum, senior vice president of marketing and corporate development at Tripwire, and Craig Weinstock, partner at White Pine Consulting Group, have signed on to provide strategic and business guidance as company growth accelerates.

NEC Soft and DataCore Renew OEM Agreement to Capture Virtualization Opportunity in Japan

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:00:00 EDT

NEC Soft and DataCore announced the renewal of their OEM relationship under which NEC Soft builds and markets its MelodiousStor storage virtualization appliance. The growth of server virtualization vendors – VMware and Microsoft in Japan – signals that Japan is poised for broad, mainstream adoption of virtualization. NEC Soft’s Powered by DataCore solutions pair DataCore’s storage virtualization software with NEC Soft’s highly respected hardware and solution integration. These solutions are tailored to bring the additional storage flexibility, protection and performance critical to customer satisfaction when virtual machines are deployed in place of physical servers.

Ericom's Virtualization Solutions Now Available on Symbio Technologies' New Boot Appliance

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:30:00 EDT

Symbio Technologies said that it has added Ericom's PowerTerm WebConnect client to its Symbiont Boot Appliance and Symbiont Boot Stick after signing technology licensing and reseller agreements with Ericom Software. Ericom's PowerTerm WebConnect provides secure local and remote access to enterprise mission-critical applications running on a broad range of Microsoft Windows Terminal Servers, Virtual Desktops (VDI), Blade PCs, and legacy hosts.

View "Virtualization Power Panel" Live on SYS-CON.TV

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:00:00 EDT

Red Hat CTO Brian Stevens, Citrix CTO Simon Crosby, Egenera CTO Pete Manca, Allen Stewart, Group Manager, Windows Virtualization at Microsoft, and Brian Duckering, Sr. Director of Products and Alliances at Symantec were the top industry executives who joined Jeremy Geelan in the 4th Floor Reuters Studio overlooking Times Square for a special SYS-CON.TV 'Virtualization Power Panel' recorded on June 22, 2008, the day before the opening of SYS-CON's 3rd International Virtualization Conference & Expo - which was held 23-24 June 2008 in New York City.

Heterogeneous Virtualization – the Real Benefit Is Choice

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 13:00:00 EDT

Anyone working in IT could be forgiven for suffering a little green-fatigue. IT vendors are eager to throw "greenwash" around, highlighting the power-saving features of their existing technologies. However, this is not necessarily all bad. There are many existing technologies that have a greater power-saving potential than some of the dedicated "green" solutions designed for that purpose.

Intel Brands Nehalem

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 12:45:00 EDT

Intel Corporation says its upcoming Nehalem desktop chips, due to start rolling out in Q4, will be branded Intel Core processors. The first members of the new architecture family, including an Extreme Edition, will have a telltale “i7’ handle attached so they’ll officially be Intel Core i7 processors.

VMware Lab Manager 3.0 Released

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 05:15:00 EDT

Prior to this version, physical hosts running VMware ESX had to be configured for either VirtualCenter or Lab Manager, but not both. This also meant that Lab Manager couldn’t take advantage of VMotion, VMware DRS, VMware HA, etc., as all these functions were managed by or configured by VirtualCenter. With that barrier now removed, software development environments can now utilize these functions in conjunction with Lab Manager, and there is no longer a need to segregate VMware ESX hosts into separate farms based on whether they were being managed by Lab Manager or by VirtualCenter.

Hardware and OS Virtualization: Multiple Solutions May Be the Answer

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 17:30:00 EDT

Finding the appropriate virtualization technology to fit an organization's requirements depends on the needs of the environment, combined with the feature sets of each virtualization architecture. Oftentimes, organizations find that a single approach doesn't complete the picture and multiple virtualization technologies are required.

Open Cloud Computing: OpenNebula Engine for Data Center Virtualization Released

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 17:00:00 EDT

Virtualization has opened up avenues for new resource management techniques within the data center. Probably, the most important characteristic is its ability to dynamically shape a given hardware infrastructure to support different services with varying workloads. Therefore, effectively decoupling the management of the service (for example a web server or a computing cluster) from the management of the infrastructure (e.g. the resources allocated to each service or the interconnection network).

Deploying into the Clouds: Concepts, Benefits, and Experiences

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 20:00:00 EDT

Cloud Computing offers significant benefits over traditional solutions for deploying production systems as well as for conducting development and testing activities. Dr Thorsten von Eicken, CTO of RightScale, Inc., will be giving a session at SYS-CON's 'Cloud Computing Expo' (November 20-21, 2008) - an adjunct to the 4th International Virtualization Conference & Expo being held at The Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, CA.

Chi-Chi Cloud Computing IPO Fails and Drops 20%

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 19:30:00 EDT

Rackspace Hosting, the rare high-tech IPO these days and a chi-chi cloud purveyor at that, failed to hold up its end after it debuted Friday in a Dutch auction and dropped 20% to $10.01 from its offering price of $12.50, the low end of its $12-$16 range. Fifteen million shares were sold – all but 2.3 million coming from the company – and raising a total of about $187.5 million. It wants to expand outside the US. It started pushing toward $11 Monday. Rackspace, which is backed by Sequoia and Norwest Venture Partners, was going to go public in 2000 then thought the better of it.