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Virtualization & Cloud Computing Industry News [14.09.09] September 14, 2009

Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Cloud Computing, Data Center Management, File Virtualization, I/O Virtualization, Memory Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, datacenter, desktop virtualization.
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It has been a while that we have posted here … for wich we offer our humble excuses. We’ll do our best to not let you down the following weeks, months, …

  • Microsoft will release MDOP 2009 R2 shortly after the release of Windows 7 on October 22nd, instead of Q1 2010 as previously expected [Full article]
  • VMware released the 1.0.2 (Build 188925) version of their VMware Data Recovery solution [notes] and vCenter Lifecycle Manager solution version 1.0.2 [notes]
  • BriadMadden TV: Dive into PC-over-IP, which will be released with View 4 [Full media]
  • Parallels announced the addition of Microsoft Office Communications Server R2 to its Parallels Automation offering [Full article]
  • Marathon Technologies names new CEO and President: Jim Welch  [Full article]
  • IBM plans to launch the Smart Business Desktop offering in October 2009 with a subscription model, the solution is based on collaboration between IBM, Citrix, Desktone, Wyse and VMware  [more]

EVENTS:

  • October 13th, 2009 – Online – “CitrixLive: Secrets, Lies and VDI” - free virtual event  – [register]

Citrix opens beta of next XenServer April 14, 2009

Posted by Yves Peeters in Server Virtualization.
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Citrix has just opened the beta program for the next version of XenServer. 

The new product is codenamed Project George (but the final name will be XenServer 5.1 according to our sources), and features some interesting capabilities:

  • Active Directory integration. Specify the AD domain to use for authentication by the pool and use your AD credentials to connect to the pool via XenCenter and ssh. You control which AD users/groups are allowed access.
  • Workload balancing. Guest and host performance metrics are used to create star ratings for individual VM placement and balancing recommendations for resource pools to achieve optimal performance.
  • LVHD. Fast cloning and snapshots are now supported on all Storage Repository types through integration of our software VHD stack and LVM-based Storage Repositories (SRs).
  • StorageLink integration. CLI-only support for a new StorageLink Gateway SR that adds native standards-based support for HP MSA, HP EVA, EMC Clariion, and NetApp storage arrays over iSCSI and Fibre Channel with automated initiator/fabric/array management.
  • Expanded guest OS support. RHEL 5.3, Debian Lenny, and SLES 11 Linux guests.

Citrix says that the RTM code is expected for the end of April. It’s clear that the company is anxious to have it ready for the Synergy 2009, to be held in Las Vegas in early May.

You can download the beta via MyCitrix.

Virtualization & Cloud Computing News [09.04.09] April 9, 2009

Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Cloud Computing, Data Center Management, File Virtualization, I/O Virtualization, Memory Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, datacenter, desktop virtualization.
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  • Thin clients from Devon IT Europe have been VMware View certified
  • BlueCat launches its Proteus and Adonis products as virtual appliances for VMware ESX
  • VMware View 3.0 has been arwarded a 7,5/10 by Infoworld Test Center (report), the last test of XenDesktop (version 2.0) resulted in 8.3 (report)
  • Veeam introduces version 4.5 of nWorks Management Pack for integration in vCenter and SCCM (more)
  • Cisco to buy Tidal Software, who have a focus on intelligent application management and automation solutions, which will be integrated into Cisco’s Data Center 3.0 view.
  • StorMagic , who specializes iSCSI SAN management software for virtualized environments, launched an extensive channel program (more

From Citrix XenServer to Citrix Essentials … the implications April 8, 2009

Posted by Roel Gydé in Server Virtualization.
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In March Citrix announced some major changes in the XenServer productline. We provide the following information, so that everything becomes a clear for those active installations and for future installations.

Changes in products:

No much changes within the products on feature-level, although that VM Lifecycle Management, LabAutomation, extended historical performance reporting, StorageLink and workflow orchestration have been added in the new versions of XenServer: Citrix Essentials for XenServer Enterprise and Citrix Essentials for XenServer Platinum.

Full product-feature-overview

Products have been rebranded and have some met the end-of-life date:

  • Exit XenServer Express
  • Exit XenServer Standard
  • Exit XenServer Enterprise
  • Enter XenServer at 0 USD (including multi-server-management, xenmotion, ..)
  • Enter Citrix Essentials for XenServer Enterprise
  • Enter Citrix Essentials for XenServer Platinum

For product information we kindly refer you to a Citrix Solution Advisor. Of course you can always reach us for more information through this blog.

Pricing

Citrix Essentials for XenServer (ENT/PLAT) is available in an ‘annual license’ and a ‘perpetual license’. Seen the fact that XenServer is cloud-ready, annual licenses can be best positioned within cloud-computing environments with a volatile usage. As soon as you are looking for an implementation that will run more than 12 months go for the perpetual license.

The perpetual license includes 1 year ‘Subscription Advantage’ which enables you to connect to the latest version of the Citrix Essentials for XenServer during the SA period. If your edition falls out of SA, you always have the opportunity to move your license again under SA with a small additional fine.

There is a pricing promotion on Citrix Essentials for XenServer Platinum: 3.000 USD instad of 5.000 USD, probably till the end of June, 2009. The financial uplift from Citrix Essentials for XenServer Enteprise to Citrix Essentials for XenServer Platinum has ben reduced to a minimum, one would be ***** not to go for the Platinum edition of Citrix Essentials for XenServer.

The S.A.R-program for Citrix Solution Advisor remains in effect, but only when this partner has been certified.

Support

The free version of XenServer will not be supported by technical support of Citrix without a technical support contract. The contracts are available through Citrix Solution Advisors. For those customers running an old version of XenServer (Std, Ent, Plat) and who migrate to the last version of Citrix Essentials and have an active technical support contract, can get technical support under the old contract for the new Citrix Essentials version.

Upgrades

from Citrix XenServer Standard (purchased before 23/2/9) with SA to Citrix Essentials: can migrate for free to Citrix Essentials for XenServer Enterprise. If you are not interested in the upgrade to Citrix Essentials for XenServer Enterprise you can always opt for the free XenServer edition. For those Citrix XenServer Standard editions purchased after 23/2/9, there is a free upgrade path to the free XenServer edition or a payable upgrade to Citrix Essentials for XenServer Enterprise. There is no direct upgrade path from Citrix XenServer Standard to Citrix Essentials for XenServer Platinum.

from Citrix XenServer Enterprise with SA to Citrix Essentials: are eligible to receive a Citrix Essentials for XenServer Enterprise

from Citrix XenServer Platinum with SA to Citrix Essentials: are eligible to receive Citrix Essentials for XenServer Platinum, there is no downgrade-path to Citrix Essentials for XenServer Enterprise

from Citrix Essentials for Xenserver (Ent/Plat) Annual to Perpetual: not possible

from Citrix Essentials for XenServer Enterprise to Citrix Essentials for XenServer Platinum: yes

We will try to post more on these changes in the following weeks.

Citrix XenDesktop Design Handbook [Part I] April 7, 2009

Posted by Roel Gydé in Data Center Management, desktop virtualization.
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Now that VDI is top-of-mind, more an more people ask us about design consideration, architecture, who can we VDI (if VDI would be a verb), … Most VDI vendors have some sort of guidelines or handbook and now Citrite Daniel Feller (senior architect) and Thomas Berger are “writing” the Encyclopedia Brittanica on XenDesktop: “the XenDesktop Design Handbook”.

The first part (of a multi-chapter handbook) has been released to the support-site of Citrix. This part focuses on ‘operating systems’, application and virtual desktop delivery design decisions. Over the coming months they will expand the series into different design dicision areas.

Some recommendations:

  • Use provisioning services for ‘device collection’ for better organization of the devices and start with a minimum of different vDisks.
  • Configure the SQL database in a fully redundant matter …. XenServer + Marathon Technologies everRun VM
  • What about storage … page 4
  • Where to store the write cache …. page 6

Virtualization & Cloud Computing Industry News [06.04.09] April 6, 2009

Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Cloud Computing, Data Center Management, File Virtualization, I/O Virtualization, Memory Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, datacenter, desktop virtualization.
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  • Sun refuses a bit of 7 billion USD by IBM (more)
  • Citrix joins the DMTF Board of directors (more)
  • Pano Logic adds remote access to their virtual desktop solution with offline VDI on USB stick  (more)
  • Veeam launches a competitive upgrade program for all the current VMware backup products (more)

Virtualization & Cloud Computing News [03.04.09] April 3, 2009

Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Cloud Computing, Data Center Management, File Virtualization, I/O Virtualization, Memory Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, datacenter, desktop virtualization.
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  • SAP certifies Citrix Netscaler 9.0 and Branch Repeater/WANscaler as a complete solution to improve the delivery of the SAP applications. The SAP Portal response times were significantly better with the Netscaler technology (more)
  • Rumours in the market indicate that VMware vSphere will be announced on April 21st

Citrix asks “What is a Service Provider License Agreement (SPLA)?” April 2, 2009

Posted by Yves Peeters in Application virtualization, Cloud Computing, datacenter.
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Microsoft has the best definition as they have been in this business for years now. They define a SPLA in the following way, “A licensing program that enables service providers and ISVs with a hosted offering to license Microsoft products on a monthly basis to provide services and hosted applications to their end customers.”

Some qualifying questions for entry into a SPLA program might be the following:

1. Do you provide software services and hosted apps on a rental, subscription or services basis?
2. Are you a hosting provider, an ASP, a SI or an ISV that provides software as a service?
3. Is one of your primary objectives to avoid up-front license fees and minimum commitments?
4. Is your goal to maximize the number of end-user served from the same underlying software?
5. Will your customers accept not owning the software or having it located at their site?

If you can answer YES to most of these questions then most likely a SPLA program would fit your business model.

According to Microsoft there are many benefits to using a SPLA. Because the license is subscription based over time it will often cost more than a perpetual license for the same software. However, the benefits far outweigh the cost if the business model is structured correctly.

The following is a list of benefits Microsoft uses for their SPLA program:

• No Upfront Costs
• Most Current Product Versions – You have access to the most current versions of the products available in the program
• Pay Based On Usage – Monthly usage-based cost means you pay only for what was made available the previous month
• Worldwide Distribution – Use Microsoft licensed products to sell your services in any part of the world

Please take a look here and vote!

Virtualization & Cloud Industry News [30.03.09] March 30, 2009

Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Cloud Computing, Data Center Management, File Virtualization, I/O Virtualization, Memory Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, datacenter, desktop virtualization.
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Citrix released the technical preview kit for the Apple ICA client to the Apple iPhone App Store, if you are looking for more technical information visit the following review by Michael Keen or go get your ICA client at the Apple Store.

Parallels is launching “Parallels Workstation Extreme”, a desktop workstation virtualization offering developed jointly with HP and NVIDIA (more).

Neterion Launches Third Generation I/O Virtualized X3110 10 GbE Server Adapter to the World-Wide Channel (more).

HP SNMP Agents for Citrix XenServer Retail Available (more).

Gartner predicts that the hosted virtual desktop (HVD) market will accelerate through 2013, reaching 49 million units (read the report)

It is estimated that the hosted virtual desktop (HVD) market will accelerate through 2013, reaching 49 million units.

Virtualization & Cloud Industry News [26.03.09] March 26, 2009

Posted by Yves Peeters in Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage.
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DataCore Software’s SANmelody Wins 2009 Network Computing Award for “Software Product of the Year” (more)

eG VM Monitor Voted First Runner-Up in VirtualizationAdmin.Com’s Reader’s Choice Award (more)

Xen Community / Citrix Announce Project Satori (more)

Citrix Open Sources Their VHD Implementation February 20, 2009

Posted by Yves Peeters in Server Virtualization.
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Simon Crosby announced that Citrix has open sourced their optimized VHD support. This means that XenServer’s robust VHD implementation is now available to any developer under the BSD license. In case you don’t already know, VHD is the same virtual disk technology Microsoft uses in Hyper-V, and which Microsoft is using even more extensively in future versions of Windows.

In my opinion, this is an excellent move. It addresses the perception of failing to give back to the open source community, and it puts what appears to be a valuable piece of technology into the open source world. Making XenServer’s VHD implementation available for other open source developers to use in their projects puts VHD on the fast track to being the de facto virtual disk standard. Assuming that other virtualization platforms adopt VHD support—and I’m not sure why many of them wouldn’t adopt VHD support, except for VMware—we’ve now removed a huge barrier to interoperability. That’s a good thing.

Not being a lawyer, I’m a bit worried about the compatibility of the BSD license—which is generally regarded as quite generous—and the Microsoft Open Specification Promise, but I’ll leave that for others to hash out.

It will be interesting to see if Citrix also open sources some of their other XenServer-related technologies. Time will tell…

More information can be found here.

 

Virtualization & Cloud Industry News [19.02.09] February 19, 2009

Posted by Yves Peeters in Data Center Management, Storage Virtualization & Storage, desktop virtualization.
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Symantec to Release Endpoint Virtualization Suite in Spring (more)

Vizioncore Elevates their Virtualization Monitoring Tool, vFoglight, to a New Level (more)

Citrix puts XenDesktop 3 on every HP Blade PC (more)

DataCore’s Storage Virtualization and Business Continuity Software Solutions are VMware Ready Certified (more)

Virtualization & Cloud Industry News [04.02.09] February 4, 2009

Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Cloud Computing, Data Center Management, File Virtualization, I/O Virtualization, Memory Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, datacenter, desktop virtualization.
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McAfee launches internal division which will focus on SaaS, the division has the goal to increase the number of applications which the company will offer as a SaaS concept.

Citrix releases Citrix HDX with XenDesktop 3.0, which enhances multimedia, video, voice, 3D graphics and “adaptive orchestration” that sense the underlying capabilities in the data center (more)

Clustered Systems is developing a fanless cooling system for servers using a cold plate, which contains a tubing system filled with liquid coolant. By removing fans and dedicating more power to processors, the company says its product will support power densities of up to 80 kilowatts per rack (more)

New release of Citrix XenDesktop imminent February 4, 2009

Posted by Roel Gydé in desktop virtualization.
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Citrix will shortly release (on February 13th) a new version of Citrix XenDesktop, this new release will incorporate the following additional advantages:

Generic USB device support
Smartcard credential support for CAC
Enhanced multimedia support for Windows Media streams
End user desktop restart
Portable Profile Manager (management of centrally stored profiles, consistent enduser experience
Minimed storage when using single image provisioning with persistent images
Improved scalability of XenServer pools for XenDesktop deployment

In short, XenDesktop will reduce the TCO by 40%, it offers centralized desktop lifecycle management, offers increased business agility and security. Project Indepenced, which will offer to capability to take offline a VM, will not be integrated in this release. Pricing starts from 45 USD for an annual license (runtime: 12 months) or 75 USD for a perpetual license.

Community-articles on the imminent release of XenDesktopo 3.0:
[eweek.com article] - [DABBC.com article]

Virtualization & Cloud Industry News [03.02.09] February 3, 2009

Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Cloud Computing, Data Center Management, File Virtualization, I/O Virtualization, Memory Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, datacenter, desktop virtualization.
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It has been a while since we posted the last ‘virtualization & cloud industry news”, our excuses for this, here are the most important announcements:

Following project Independence of Citrix (a baremetal client hypervisor in collaboration with Intel), VMware  released its open source VDI client: VMware View Open Client. VMware hopes to maximize its return by focussing thin client vendors, these thin clients will form an important number of all installed devices according to Gartner. So the battle moves from the server-side to the desktop. (more)

EMC and Microsoft extend their collaboration into 2011 (more)

Following the European Code of Conduct for Data Centers, the Green Grid initiative will be announcing on the 4th plans to develop a new metric for data center productivity and a data center 2.0 design guide.

RNA networks specializing in memory virtualization software (transforming server memory into a shared network resource) announced the launch of its Memory Virtualization Platform (MVP) and first product, RNAmessenger, based on the MVP (more)

The partnership between Xsigo and Dell will result in additional I/O ports on PowerEdge servers on the fly without the need for extra network interface cards, providing increased I/O virtualization. (more)

Parallels will preview its new hypervisor which was initailly scheduled for 2006 on its Summit 2009, furthermore its new orchestration product (Virtual Automation) will also be previewed.

Visionapp has released Remote Desktop 2009 with additional support for Citrix ICA, VNC, SSH, Telnet and HTTPS furthermore there are features of mRemote included in the new release (more)

Lanamark specializing in virtualization capacity planning and IT assessment software, the availability of Lanamark Suite 2009, including support for monitoring Citrix XenServer and VMware ESX, supplements server information with power consumption, form factor, age and warranty metrics, and simplifies capacity planning with significant user experience and reporting automation enhancements. (more)

XenoCode has released Virtual Application Studio 2009 building further in the application virtualization market (more)

Texas Memory Systems and NetApp partner on solid state disk

Virtualization & Cloud Industry News [27.01.09] January 27, 2009

Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Cloud Computing, Data Center Management, File Virtualization, I/O Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, datacenter, desktop virtualization.
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Citrix invests (together with capital investment companies) for 15M USD in Virtual Computer (more)

Sybase releases Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise Virtualization Cluster Edition (more)

Parabon releases version 4 of Frontier Grid Virtualization Platform (more)

VMware released fourth quarter and full year results (more)

VMware & Teradici threaten Citrix? January 26, 2009

Posted by Yves Peeters in Application virtualization, Server Virtualization, desktop virtualization.
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Tom Valovic posted an interesting article about an interview with Stuart Robinson of Teradici on the purported benefits of Teradici’s PC over IP protocol licensed by VMware.  Tom reports on a Teradici claim that PC over IP has a lead over ICA in that it has an ability to dynamically adjust the bandwidth needed by the remoting protocol, in response to available network bandwidth.  Specifically, Robinson (who actually knows better) claims that ICA has no such ability. 

Wrong.  Citrix ICA has had an ability to dynamically adapt its coding algorithm not only in response to availability of network bandwidth, but also in response to available encode/decode capabilities at the server and client side respectively, for over two years.  This allows ICA to deal with complex rendering problems with grace and to deliver high fidelity across a highly disparate set of server/network/client combinations, dynamically adapting as system conditions change. 
 
Of course PCoIP is interesting, but it’s “just another protocol” with small user base.  It’s not even particularly useful as a software based encoding algorithm, which seems to indicate that VMware is rather desperate.  Moreover, in conversations Simon Crosby of Citrix has had with the OEMs who adopted Teradici chips to hard code PCoIP into the server, that approach is proving to be a difficult sell to customers, since it  ties the server forever to a particular (version of a) delivery protocol from a particular vendor in a narrow proprietary architecture, and moreover it is really only useful in tethered enterprise LAN based configurations today.  In contrast, in both XenApp and XenDesktop ICA is an optimized software only solution and runs superbly on any server, meaning that the server can be repurposed at any time.  Moreover, when running Microsoft TS / XenApp virtualized on XenServer, the architecture has been independently shown to be 70% more efficient than any other virtualization platform.    Just the benefits in terms of number of users per server with XenApp on XenServer would completely obviate the need for any hardware based encoding.    Bottom line: if your hypervisor can’t offer the raw performance needed for remote delivery protocols such as TS/ICA, licensing a hardware-optimized protocol in the hope that it will work well in software definitely is not going to change the game much.
 

Citrix Releases Citrix User Profile Manager 2.0 January 23, 2009

Posted by Yves Peeters in Application virtualization.
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The Citrix User Profile Manager addresses profile deficiencies in virtualized environments where simultaneous logins by the same user introduce complexities and consistency issues to the profile. For example, if a user has started sessions from two different XenApp servers, the profile of the session that terminates last will override the profile of the first session. This discards any profile changes made in the first session.

This problem could be alleviated by separate profiles for each application silo. However this results in increased administration overhead and storage capacity requirements. Another drawback is that the user or administrator must replicate settings in all profiles for respective applications or components in multiple silos.
 
The issues that confront profiles in these scenarios may also be improved through mandatory profiles. Mandatory profiles give the user a fixed profile. Mandatory profiles may be customized and modified during the session, but the changes are not saved on logoff. User Profile Manager is a profile optimization service that provides an easy, reliable way for managing user personalization settings. User Profile Manager saves the registry changes (and files and folders within the profile) during logoff to the user store for each user. If the file already exists (the most common case), the changes from the current session are merged with the existing settings.
 
At logon, the user’s registry entries and files are copied from the user store. If a locally cached profile exists, the two sets are synchronized. This makes all settings for all applications and silos available during the session and it is no longer necessary to maintain a separate user profile for each silo. User Profile Manager is also valuable when desktops are delivered through the data center. In such scenarios, multiple sessions can be used in parallel, which leads to the same profile problems as on Citrix XenApp servers. User Profile Manager may be installed on Windows XP or Vista computers to provide the same profile improvements as on XenApp servers.
 
User Profile Manager supports extended synchronization, which allows you to synchronize folders located outside the user’s profile directory. This is useful for applications that are not multi-user aware.
To learn more please check out here.

Is Offline VDI and the Client Hypervisor: Worth The Effort? January 22, 2009

Posted by Yves Peeters in Application virtualization, desktop virtualization.
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Citrix has announced that they’ll be offering an alternative to traditional on-line VDI deployments (ala XenApp) in the form of a client hypervisor (Project Independence, posted yesterday). In essences, a client hypervisor allows a user to run a full-blown virtual machine on their desktop — basically a throw-back to running VMware Workstation/Player in the enterprise before we had all these fancy virtual platforms like Virtual Infrastructure and Hyper-V.

It allows users to work anywhere without concern about having an uplink. On planes, in coffee shops where there’s no Wifi or the connection is too small to reliably delivery a VDI experience. It also paves the way to true application virtualization, where the CPU-based hypervisor can be trimmed down to support running applications directly without the bloated guest operating system.

To learn more and to read the entire article at its source, please refer to the following page, Offline VDI and the Client Hypervisor: Worth The Effort?

Xen-based hypervisors push performance limits – Citrix XenServer 5.0 Top Finisher January 21, 2009

Posted by Yves Peeters in I/O Virtualization, Server Virtualization.
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Tom Henderson and Brendan Allen of Network World Lab Alliance conducted an extensive performance testing of Citrix XenServer 5.0, Novell’s Xen 3.2 and Virtual Iron 4.4. Two other vendors — Sun and Red Hat — were invited to participate but because of varying timing problems, declined to participate.

The testing confirmed that open source Xen is a formidable challenger to the closed code VMware and Microsoft hypervisors. When the performance of business transactions running on top of the hypervisors was measured, Citrix’s XenServer 5.0 was the top finisher in nine out of 12 test runs.

Citrix VMs are tops in transaction processing, Novell’s in I/O speed. 

Read the full article here.

Virtualization & Cloud Industry News [21.01.09] January 21, 2009

Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Cloud Computing, Data Center Management, File Virtualization, I/O Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, datacenter, desktop virtualization.
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Citrix and Intel start project Independence for Local Desktop Virtualization (more)

VMware certifies Qsan powered iSCSI Storage Products (more)

Sun releases Sun Ray Core Services Patch version 01 (more)

Virtualization & Cloud Industry News [20.01.09] [Additions] January 20, 2009

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Intel cuts prices of its processors due to increased competition and econocom downturn (more)

Citrix releases XenCenterWeb-edition (more)

Obama envisions Federal Cloud (more)

Egenera releases PANmanager 4.2 (more)

Replicate Technologies announces Replicate Datacenter Analyzer 1.2

SaaSPlex have launched WorkClouds, the world’s first true SaaS Marketplace. WorkClouds is designed to enable small and medium sized companies to create a ‘cloud’ of SaaS applications to run their business (more)

Virtualization & Cloud Industry News [20.01.09] January 20, 2009

Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Cloud Computing, Data Center Management, File Virtualization, I/O Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, datacenter, desktop virtualization.
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Citrix is working together with Intel on a Type-1 hypervisor, the product is scheduled to be released in 2H2009 in two versions: an open source version to the Xen project and a commercial Citrix product. (more)

Earlybert pointed to us that it is an Type1 hypervisor and not a Type2, he is absolute correct, we have corrected the remark. Thanks Bert.

Igel Technology will release a new productline on January 28th, 2008 with increased flexibility and management.

Virtualization & Cloud Industry News [19.01.09] January 19, 2009

Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.
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Citrix invests in OK Labs together with Chrysalis Ventures and Neo Technology Ventures. OK Labs specializes in embedded hypervisors with over 240 million installations in smart phones (HTC, ..) (more)

DataCore Software today spotlighted the combined benefits of DataCore’s storage virtualization with Riverbed’s optimization solutions for the WAN (more)

Ruben Spruijt has updated his analysis and application virtualization report and bundled them into Application Virtualization – Solutions Overview and Feature Compare Matrix (download)

Microsoft MED-V publicly available as beta. (more)

Quest releases vWorkspace 6.0 (more)

IDC expects Storage-As-A-Service will grow from 174 Petabytes in 2007 to more than 2,1 Exabytes in 2012 (bulk of that space will be used by online backup & archiving services like Mosy) (more)

Veeam release Free FastSCP 3.0 as beta for file management in virtualized environments

LostCreations releases beta 1 of Virtualization Manager Mobile (VMM), a utility providing the possibility to monitor and manage a virtualized datacenter from a handheld. In the current beta there is support for VI3 in a very short future there will be support for Hyper-V and XenServer (more)

BOSaNOVA integrates ThinPrint printing management solution into its thin clients

CNNmoney reports on VMware: Good product, uncertain times … summary: expected decline in first quarter 2009 revenue, only 30% of data centers virtualized, lot of potential, VMware gets competition from Microsoft, customers start asking for discounts … (more)

Virtualization & Cloud Industry News [08.01.09] January 8, 2009

Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Cloud Computing, Data Center Management, File Virtualization, I/O Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, datacenter, desktop virtualization.
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Fujitsu announces availability of PalmSecure LogonDirector, the enterprise edition seamlessly integrates with Citrix Password Manager and has therefore received the Citrix Ready Status (more)

Altough EMC has bought parts of SourceLabs and has an increased focus on ‘the cloud’, they will cut another 2400 jobs (7% of the total workforce), apparently there would be no impact on VMware

Windows server 2008 R2 is publicly available as beta (more)

CohesiveFT adds kernel-based VM-format to its automated Elastic Server Platform.

Artifact updates virtualzation platform with “project portofolio” and “lifecycle management” in their SaaS Lighthouse product. (more)

Nominations for this year’s Data Centres Europe Awards are higher than ever say the organisers, BroadGroup. With entries closing on 31 January, the judging panel look set to consider a wider array of talent and innovation than ever before, with countries across Europe much more significantly represented. (more)

Virtualization according to Dilbert (comic)

Aranxa launches CuroERP Cloud as SaaS, it is aimed at providing sizable economies of scale and vertical solutions to small and medium business.

VirtualLogix appoints Glenda Dorchak as CEO (she comes from Intrinsyc Software)

Virtualization Industry News [05.01.09] January 5, 2009

Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Cloud Computing, Data Center Management, File Virtualization, I/O Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, desktop virtualization.
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Applied Identiy’s Indetispher has been verified as Citrix Ready (more)

So … we roled into 2009 … January 4, 2009

Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Cloud Computing, Data Center Management, File Virtualization, I/O Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, desktop virtualization.
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Even that we have already rolled to the 3th day of 2009, we wish you and your family the very best for 2009 with a lot of entertainment, pleasure and challenges and all of that in good health.

That we will encounter a lot of challenges in 2009 is more than clear, I am not referring to the (perhaps) worse econocomic climate but to the challenges that all of us will encounter when we look at virtualization, cloud computing, …

In the last weeks of december, the number of prediction lists was enormous, it has taken some time to digest them, but when I take some distance from the content the following trends, … are clear:

  • Do more with less and the requirements for green data centers drive virtualization further
  • Break out of the thin client as the user experience is not freely available from the data center
  • Storage will become virtualiztion-aware
  • Orchestration of virtualization across data centers
  • Virtualiation focused security solutions become more common
  • Management tools increase focus on the virtual data center as well as the physical data center, combining the solution for both worlds into one solution.
  • Extension of application virtualization (according to Adam Hawley, Director Product Management, Oracle VM)

David Marshall over at vmblog.com has made it a bit easier if you are looking for predictions of specific brands. Enjoy.

Microsoft aims at VMware with Citrix Management Tools [Project: Encore] December 22, 2008

Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.
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At present Microsoft is not offering ‘live migration’, as of the first quarter of 2009, it will … thanks to Citrix. This will catapult Hyper-V to the same leagues as XenServer and VMware vSphere.

What will happen: the Citrix XenServers management tools will also work with Hyper-V according to Lou Shipley (GM and Group VP of Citrix Management Group). The product is dubbed ‘Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V’, it will likely include a number of xEnServer management features for Hyper-V such as live migration, multiserver management and creation of resource pools, which are standard features of XenServer Enterprise.

Especially the live migration features is much welcomed in Redmond as it has been put on the Hyper-V roadmap for 2010 with 2008 R2.

At the time of writting of this article, no one was available for comment at Citrix or Microsoft. One thing for sure, if the customer has Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V it will clearly a product with which you will be able to manage Hyper-V and XenServer systems. Story to be continued ….

Virtualization Industry News [22.12.08] December 22, 2008

Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.
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Insystek announced that it is making publicly available a beta program for its new Virtualize IT™ for VMWare management and reporting tools. With Insystek  Virtualize IT™ technology, customers will be able to discover and map virtual environments, create virtual machines, track and manage physical and virtual relationships and automate the lifecycle of a large number of virtual servers and desktops.

Citrix Systems has announced its tie-up with Indian Institute of Hardware Technology (IIHT) to launch and deliver the Citrix training programme

Microsoft DPM will protect Hyper-V with SP1

Virtualization Industry News [17.12.08] December 17, 2008

Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Cloud Computing, Data Center Management, File Virtualization, I/O Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, desktop virtualization.
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  • AppDNA releases beta of AppTitude Virtualization Manager for Citrix XenApp (more)
  • VMware appoints Maurizio Carli as General Manager EMEA, he has moved from Google’s EMEA Enterprise business, Adrian Joseph will get in charge of the Google EMEA Enterprise business unit.
  • Virtual Iron and Zyko extend energy savings in new markets (more)
  • Savvis Inc (a cloud provider) allies with SOASTA to provide a testing service for cloud applications
  • Facebook gets 600.000 new users a day, 70% are non US. Facobook is  looking to open new data centers outside US in order to prevent latency. (more)
  • Tungsten Graphics has been acquired by VMware