Virtualization & Cloud Industry News [02.04.09] April 2, 2009
Posted by Yves Peeters in Data Center Management, Server Virtualization, datacenter.Tags: ESX, Hyper-V, Intel, VKernel, VMware
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DMTF Releases OVF 1.0 Standard (more).
Intel releases new CPUs and NICs with nested page tables and I/O virtualization (more).
5nine Software today announced 5nine P2V Planner for Microsoft Hyper-V (more).
VKernel Ships Virtual Data Center Modeling Tool for VMware ESX Environments (more).
Virtutech Defines Full Systems Virtualized Development With Simics 4.2 (more).
Virtualization Olympics: Vendor bitchslapping event February 3, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Server Virtualization.Tags: ESX, Hyper-V, XenApp, XenServer
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Following our post on December 19th last year on virtualizing XenApp on XenServer, VMware and Citrix are at it again. VMware recently posted an article on the performance of XenApp on ESX and XenApp on XenServer.
It may not be a suprise that the VMware findings were boldly in favor of ESX and not in favor XenServer. It would be one step to far in this world that vendors confirm that their product might not be a good a fit to virtualize a specific application. Following the VMware post, Simon Crobsy (CTO Citrix) took his pen and opened the virtualizing-olympics with the following statement and challenge:
So I’ve decided to issue an open challenge to VMware CTO Stephen Herrod: Steve, it’s time to rein in the monkeys behind the keyboard, end VMware’s indefensible EULA restrictions and allow independent performance comparisons of your products with others, by third parties with a vested interest in accuracy and independence.
Both posts resulted in a flood of responses of the virtualization-community, but there are some general correct remarks in all these responses from the community:
- Why virtualizing XenApp? It obviously performs better natively (even proven by the VMware tests)
- Benchmarking should be done by independent companies/organization like http://www.virtualrealitycheck.net (2 experience system engineers working with Citrix and VMware)
- Selecting a virtualization platform for your XenApp, if you decide to do so it is not only abou performance, decissions will aslo be influenced by investement in the virtualization layer, automation, management, …
One thing however keeps me wondering … why virtualizing everything? Todays server come (in most cases) with 2x 4 cores, offering 8 cores which enables you to provide XenApp to more than a decent number of users. When adding virtualization to the stack for sure you will lose some performance (wether it is hyper-v, xenserver or esx).
I strongly believe that for those users that haven chosen to work with XenApp as a strategy a minimum number of XenApp servers should be physically, use a virtualized XenApp as escape-mode when something goes wrong. Furthermore keep in mind that when it comes to automation you might require an automatic launch system to rollout new servers in second.
Perhaps both CTOs need to read a report released by Aberdeen today on the advantages of virtualization and what about business critical applications, a quote from a researcher: (full report)
“Even though organizations could experience significant cost savings from conducting virtualization projects, these benefits could diminish if they don’t have capabilities in place for effective management of application performance. One of the key challenges for these organizations is that the effective management of application performance in virtualized environments requires a set of capabilities and functionalities that were not required when these organizations were looking to achieve same performance goals in physical environments. Understanding what these capabilities are is making the difference between success and failure of virtualization projects as measured from business prospective,” said Bojan Simic, research analyst, Aberdeen.
Another Microsoft Licensing Policy Update: What’s Good? What’s Left? January 23, 2009
Posted by Yves Peeters in Application virtualization, Server Virtualization, desktop virtualization.Tags: Hyper-V, Licensing, Microsoft, virtualization, VMware, XenServer
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Last Friday, Microsoft’s latest round of licensing changes were released to the public as two documents:
- “Licensing Windows Server 2008 to Run with Virtualization Technologies“
- “Licensing Microsoft Server Products in Virtual Environments“
There is definitely some good news here. CAL requirements for “indirect access to Windows 2008″ were lifted. So organizations will only need CALs for Windows guest OSs and the applications that run within them. The previous policy impacted customers running Microsoft’s Hyper-V hypervisor and did not affect licensing on any other hypervisor.
Is Offline VDI and the Client Hypervisor: Worth The Effort? January 22, 2009
Posted by Yves Peeters in Application virtualization, desktop virtualization.Tags: Citrix, Hyper-V, Microsoft, VDI, VMware, XenApp, XenDesktop
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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.Tags: Citrix, ESX, Hyper-V, Microsoft, Novell XEN, Virtual Iron, virtualization, VMware, Xen, XenServer
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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 Industry Survey – Part 1 [virtualization.info) 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.Tags: Hyper-V, report, VMware, XenServer
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Virtualization.info conducted a research on ‘the state of the sector’ in October last year, they have released the first results on their website:
Seen the number of respondent we must say that it has been an extensive study, approximately there was a 50/50 rule between the US and EMEA. The size of the companies -however- does not always reflect the real world, more than 64% of the respondents was working for a company with more than 1000 users.
One thing was a little bit “surprrising” in the TOP3 of ‘used platforms’ you get VMware, XenServer and Hyper-V, as one would expect. But Hyper-V is way above VMware, which is little strange seen the ‘time’ it has been on the market. Another explanation comes from the size of the companies in the survey.
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.Tags: Citrix, Hyper-V, VMware
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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.Tags: Citrix, Encore, Hyper-V, Microsoft, Vmotion, XenServer
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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 [18.12.09] December 18, 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.Tags: Borland, Data Grid, Dell, DotNetPanel, Egenera, Hyper-V, Igel, JumpBox, McAfee, MokaFive, Sun, VDM, VirtualBoxn, Xeround, xVM
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- XVM has released VirtualBox 2.1 (more)
- Xeround (specialist in database virtualization) puts out Xeround Data Grid 2.8 (more)
- DotNetPanel 2.8.1 has been released, the first hosting control panel using Hyper-V (more)
- Bill Demas leaves MokaFive as CEO, he will be replaced by Dale Fuller (ex CEO McAfee and Borland)
- Egenera signs OEM agreement with Dell
- JumpBox (specialist in creating virtual appliances) has released 38 open source applications in OVF format
- Igel Technology certifies for VDM 2.1
- VKernel moves Capacity Planner from version 2.1 in 3.0, 2.1 has been around for only 1,5 months
- Xen.org today announced that Oracle has joined the Xen Project Advisory Board
- Catbird releases Catbird Compliance Enforcer 1.0 (more)
IDC and Yankee have released their predictions for 2009: the two most important ones are:
- Microsoft will turn the hypervisor-market upside down
- VDI will go mainstream in 2009
Citrix goes all the way for OVF … project Kensho for XenServer & Hyper-V October 15, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Server Virtualization.Tags: Citrix, Hyper-V, OVF, XenServer
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Citrix Drives Adoption of Virtual Appliance Portability Standard for Enterprises and Clouds. Project Kensho is now publicly available, this project offers you portability of VMs based on the OVF standard.
The project consists out of 2 components: the OVF tool (for importing and exporting in OVF format) and a CIM interface for interaction with the XenServer.
The requirements for using Kensho on XenServer: a PC with XP or W2K3, Citrix XenServer 4.1. It also works with Microsoft 2WK8 with the Hyper-V role. As you will be extraing and importing OVF files, you need a share to store them.
Virtualization Industry News and News from StorageWorld October 13, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Cloud Computing, Data Center Management, I/O Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, desktop virtualization.Tags: Hyper-V, Xiotech, EMC, IBM, W2K8, Cisco, StorageWorld, Scalent Systems, RHEL, Compellent, QLogic, Clavister, CorePlus, SourceForge, HostedApps, FalconStore, LSI, Mellanox, FCIA, InMage Systems
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- Scalent Systems announces provisioning of RHEL on bare metal and Xen
- Compellent to Offer Automated Business Continuity with Live Volume (more)
- Cisco teams up with QLogic to offer end-to-end virtualization (more)
- Clavister releases secure OS CorePlus 9.10 with virtualization (more)
- SourceForge released HostedApps (more)
- FalconStore supports Microsoft W2K8 Server Failover Clustering & hyper-V (more)
- LSI Unveils Powerful Next-Generation Software for Centralized Storage Management (more)
- Mellanox ConnectX 10GigE Mezzanine Adapter for IBM BladeCenter Is Blade.org Compliant (more)
- FCIA to Demonstrate 8GFC and Fibre Channel Over Ethernet (FCoE) At Storage Networking World (more)
- Xiotech Expands Family of Application-Driven Storage Management (more)
- InMage Systems Announces New Version of Flagship DR-Scout Disaster Recovery Software (more)
- EMC Introduces its First Switch for Fibre Channel Over Ethernet (FCoE) (more)
- EMC Announces Support for SNIA SMI-S V1.3 Across EMC Symmetrix and EMC Clariion Storage Platforms (more)
Microsoft SVVP … Cisco, VMware October 6, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: ESX, Hyper-V, KVM, SVVP, WAAS, Xen, XenServer
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For those who do not know what Microsoft SVVP means, it stands for Microsoft’s Server Virtualization Validation Program.
Mcirosoft SVVP and Cisco Systems
Wednesday last week, Microsoft and Cisco announced the Microsoft Server on Cisco WAAS. This solution enables branch offices to be equiped with one device offering networking services and basic Microsoft services such as DHCP, DNS, Printing, AD. The appliance will be available at 10.000 USD.
Immediately a lot of comments, postings saw the light within the blogging community. The big question that remains at present is which virtualization solution Cisco will use. When reading the press release it states
“ … Cisco will embed a virtualization component within its Wide Area Application Services (WAAS) appliance family that will help customers to host Windows Server 2008 …”
This sparked the discussion wether it would be Xen, KVM, XenServer, Hyper-V or VMware. When looking at the announcement we strongly believe that VMware will not be onboard this device seen the recent ‘well understanding’ between Microsoft and VMware.
This leaves KVM, XenServer, Xen or Hyper-V. Seen the good relationship between Microsoft and the open source community, we strongly believe that KVM or Xen will not be included, altough that Cisco has indicated its ‘fondness’ of KVM. This leaves Hyper-V or XenServer.
The Citrix Branch Repeater (also a combined development between Microsoft and Citrix) offers (currently) more features than the Microsoft Server on Cisco WAAS and is almost a head-to-head competing product. Based on this simple mathematics we strongly believe that the device will run Hyper-V.
Yet the device will host a W2K8 server to offer the necessary services to the branch. So this device will be the point of entry and exit to the branch or to the WAN. What would be the need to offer the capcity to rollout multiple VMs on an appliance, that has one goal, reducing the number of servers at the branch while reducing maintenance on the branch?
Story to be continued.
Addition 7.10.8 – On a slidedeck used by Cisco when proposing the solution, it shows that it will be a Linux kernel, so there goes Hyper-V, remains: Xen and KVM
Microsoft SVVP and VMware:
A few weeks ago Microsoft announced that VMware ESX had passed the SVVP (so Microsoft Server will run fluently on ESX), however it seems to be that VMware ESX is only certified on AMD processors and not on Intel processors.
XenServer 5 has been certified with a maximum of 8 CPUs, 30GB RAM and both on AMD and Intel processors
Microsoft Hyper-V final version available for download October 6, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Server Virtualization.Tags: Hyper-V, Microsoft
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Microsoft announced the final release and availability of Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008, a new bare metal hypervisor-based server virtualization product. Available as a no-cost Web download at http://www.microsoft.com/Hyper-VServer
Microsoft getVirtualnow – Xendesktop live demo on Hyper-V September 21, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: Hyper-V, Provisioning Server, XenDesktop
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Robin Brandl (Microsoft Technology Evangelist for Citrix) being interviewed by Joey Snow (Technet Edge) during the Microsoft getVirtualnow event. A live demo of XenDesktop running on Hyper-V using Citrix Provisioning Server and Microsoft App-V.
Microsoft Technet Magazine October … all about virtualization September 19, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: App-V, DR, HA, Hyper-V, MSCVMM, Technet
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Topics:
- An introduction to Hyper-V in Windows 2008
- Manage your virtual environments with VMM2008
- Getting started with Microsoft Application Virtualization
- Achieving High-Availability for Hyper-V
- Backup and Disaster Recovery for server virtualization
- Essential tools for planning your virtual infrastructure
Full magazine here.
Hyper-V & MSCVM2008 in video September 18, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: Hyper-V, MSCVMM
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Microsoft Hyper-V Server, a stand alone version of Hyper-V (minus all the usual Windows capabilities), will be available for free by early October. More details are here: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/nov07/11-12HyperVPR.mspx
System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 will also be available by early October (but not for free). More details are here: http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/virtualmachinemanager/en/us/default.aspx
Symantec announced new back-up agent for Hyper-V September 16, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: back-up, Hyper-V, security, Symantec
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Symantec announced a new Backup Exec 12.5 agent supporting Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, as well as support for upcoming releases for Windows Essential Business Server 2008 and Windows Small Business Server 2008. Backup Exec 12 and Backup Exec System Recovery 8 were the first backup and recovery products certified for Windows Server 2008 when they were released in February 2008.
Backup Exec version 12.5 introduces a new Agent for Microsoft Virtual Servers which substantially improves the speed, flexibility and simplicity of backup and recovery for Hyper-V virtual systems. Backup Exec understands the structure of the Hyper-V environment and presents the same logical structure in the backup administrator GUI, so backup administrators can manage backup and recovery functions for their physical and virtual systems via the consol
More info.
Microsoft Backtracks on Live Migration, Again September 14, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: Hyper-V, live migration, Microsoft
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For the second time, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has put off including live migration features in its virtualization technology.
Live migration capabilities enable users to move a virtual machine (VM) either manually or automatically from one physical server, cluster or processor to another, instantaneously, while the VM’s still running. This can help IT prevent overloading of the infrastructure’s physical computing resources.
Microsoft has twice promised that live migration would make its way into its own virtualization products, which would better enable them to compete with rival offerings from vendors like VMware and Citrix, both of which offer the feature.
Company spokespeople did not say what had caused the latest delay.
Full article on InternetNews
Hyper-V gets Linux Integration Components September 13, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: Hyper-V, Linux
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Microsoft is giving Linux virtual machines running on Hyper-V the chance to perform much better with the release of Linux Integration Components. More by David Marshall
Sychron announces support for Microsoft Hyper-V September 11, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: Hyper-V, Microsoft, Sychron
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Sychron, the virtual workspace management company, today announced support for Microsoft Hyper-V™, a hypervisor-based technology that is a key feature of Windows Server 2008. Sychron’s support means that customers using HyperV environments can now deliver and manage fast and cost-effective virtual desktops using Sychron’s OnDemand Desktop, the company’s flagship virtual desktop management solution. This announcement underscores Sychron’s commitment to remain agnostic to the hypervisor layer while providing a feature-rich management environment for virtual desktops of all types.
Full release here
3PAR Announces Compatibility with Microsoft Hyper-V September 9, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: 3PAR, Hyper-V, storage
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3PAR, announced today support for Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V. 3PAR Utility Storage and Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V work together to give IT organizations the ability to deliver software and hardware as a service through server and storage virtualization as part of a complete utility computing environment. 3PAR Utility Storage and Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V are designed to deliver a more agile and resilient infrastructure with significantly enhanced capacity utilization and cost efficiency.
Full article here
Tripwire Announces Planned Support for Microsoft System Center & Hyper-V September 9, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: assessment, change, Hyper-V, SCOM, Tripwire
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Tripwire, a leading provider of configuration assessment and change auditing solutions for virtual and physical infrastructure, today announced its planned support for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager and Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V.
Full article here
CiRBA releases Analysis Templates for Optimizing Hyper-V vs VMware September 9, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: analysis, CiRBA, Hyper-V, VMware
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CiRBA today announced the availability of packaged analysis templates that enable organizations to compare the impact of implementing Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V versus VMware-based virtualization. Using CiRBA’s analysis, organizations can quickly examine the suitability of each hypervisor for a given environment, understand consolidation ratios, longer term management considerations, and financial returns associated with each platform
Full article here
CiRBA announces support for Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V September 9, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: assesment, CiRBA, Hyper-V
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CiRBA Inc., today announced that CiRBA’s Placement Intelligence Technology now supports Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V virtualization platform. Using CiRBA, organizations can assess IT environments for Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V deployment opportunities, design enterprise-class environments and manage capacity on an ongoing basis.
Full article here
Desktone supports Microsoft virtualization technologies September 9, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: Desktone, Hyper-V
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Desktone, Inc., provider of the first solution that enables virtual virtual desktops as an outsourced subscription service, today announced support for Microsoft virtualization technologies as the building blocks of a service provider’s desktop hosting infrastructure. The Desktone Virtual-D Platform enables Microsoft System Center, including System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, and Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V to power a cloud-hosted desktop environment.
Full release here.
Neverfail expands offering for W2K8, Hyper-V & MSCVMM September 8, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: Continuis Availability, high availability, Hyper-V, MSCVMM, Neverfail, W2K8
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Neverfail, a leading global software company providing affordable continuous availability and disaster recovery solutions, today announced expanded offerings for Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008
Neverfail’s Continuous Availability 5.4 product suite supports Windows Server 2008 to provide customers a very cost-effective platform to eliminate planned and unplanned downtime of critical virtualized and non-virtualized applications. Neverfail offers robust high availability and disaster recovery for Microsoft Windows-based applications in physical, virtual and mixed environments.
More info.
Hyper-V available in 30 days and … September 8, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: ESXi, Hyper-V, XenServer
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Hyper-V will be available in 30 days for download and it will be FREE, a nice competitor for XenServer Express, ESXi, …
Some info on the licensing:
- stand-alone product for free
- no CALs required for the product itself
- CALs required for all windows instances running on Hyper-V
- ML-support
More info here.
LeftHand Networks supports Microsoft’s virtualization strategy September 8, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: Hyper-V, LeftHand Networks, storage
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LeftHand Networks, the leading provider of highly available iSCSI SANs that optimize virtual environments, today announced support for Microsoft’s virtualization strategy and set of virtualization solutions. LeftHand Networks iSCSI SAN solutions provide high availability and non-disruptive storage management, capabilities that become vital as customers seek to optimize the efficiencies and cost advantages of virtualized infrastructures.
Emulex announces support for Hyper-V September 8, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: Add new tag, Emulex, FCoE, Fibre Channel, Hyper-V, storage
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Emulex Corporation today announced that its LightPulse family of Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapters (HBAs) and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) Converged Network Adapters (CNAs) support Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008.
More info here.
