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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]

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 Industry News [02.04.09 - Update] April 2, 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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  • IBM announced yesterday their first move to cloud computing with a SaaS offering for contact management, instant messaging and file sharing program in their own data centers. The fee per user per month will be between 10 USD and 45 USD, general availability of the suite is foreseen for April 7th and it will be marketed under the brand LotusLive Engage  (more)
  • VMware changes the number of supported virtual CPUs to 20 virtual CPUs per core across a board. The maximum number of vCPU remains unchanges: 192 (ESX) and 170 (ESXi Update 3) (more) 
  • Cloud Security Alliance formed to promote security best practices a cloud computing environment. Founding members include eBay and ING, furthermore PGP, Qualys and vScaler are also member (more)
  • VDI Connection Brokers have been analyzed (more)

Cisco Project California [Part III - the release] February 18, 2009

Posted by Roel Gydé in Server Virtualization.
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Cisco has been working on entering the servermarket for over the past months with their project California. The final product will probably be released to the public on March 16th in the States, this news surfaced in the shades of rumours about Cisco taking over EMC or VMware (recently Cisco has increased it capital with 4 billion USD through external financing).

Specs of the new blades servers that surface: include Intel Core i7 processors, 192GB Memory, PCI Express connectivity (providing access to Cisco Unified Fabric Architecture with direct communication between the blades and the storage servers. There will be a tight integration with VMware (Cisco owns around 1,6% of VMware at present), but it remains unclear if the VMware solution would be OEMed in the product

More on the following pages   [InternetNews]

Virtualization & Cloud Industry News [27.01.09] [Update] January 28, 2009

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BLADE Network Technologies Delivers Industry’s First Migration-Aware Ethernet Switches for Virtualized Data Centers (more)

RingCube vDesk Wins Product of the Year Award for Desktop Virtualization (more)

IBM User Group Survey Says Virtualization, Cloud Computing on the Rise (more)

How to save money on storage for SMBs? Some reflections … January 19, 2009

Posted by Roel Gydé in Storage Virtualization & Storage.
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Drew Robb posted an article on “How to save money on storage for SMBs”, he comes to three tips or evolutions that will save money when it comes to storage for SMBs:

  • Cheep storage through Storage-As-A-Service

This is probably correct, however research by IDC has shown that storage-as-a-service is mostly used as archiving solution or online backup. The data on these systems is in most cases located off site as a vault for later if something goes wrong. Personally I see more in storage-as-a-service when it comes to online data that is immediate available for use in business-apps, like the Amazon Hosted Public Data Sets which offers data that is immediate available (more). If we look at SaaS as Drew Robb looks at it, it is completely no reduction in cost it is just an additional backup/archiving cost, afterall the SMB still needs his storage inhouse for immediate access.

  • The use of storage virtualization

As storage virtualization offers the capacity to look at storage as 1 big pool with central management, it offers great advantage. But in that case it is mandatory that the solution offers cross-vendor management, cross-technology management and a solution that does not come with some special financial strings attached when looking at DR, HA, … and there are not that much vendors in that space (like Datacore)

Storage Virtualization has the other advantage that an SMB can create a SAN himself with off-the-shelf components from HP or IBM, without the investment in exteremely expensive storage hardware while he is using commodity server components.

  • Solid State Disk

SSDs are indeed a good solution for SMBs as they have a lower “mean time before failure” as they do not have any moving/rotating parts. One point however is the pricing-scheme, a 80GB SSD comes at a volume-discount price of 595 USD that is still much much more than a normal 80GB HDD. When looking at an SMB (which is very conservative when it comes to investing), SSDs might be a technological step forward it will be in very small steps due to the investment level.

Virtualization Industry News [18.11.2008] November 18, 2008

Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Cloud Computing, Data Center Management, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, desktop virtualization.
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Product-news:

  • IBM announced it plans to acquire Transitive Corporation a specialist in cross-platform virtualization and a pioneer in developing technologies that allow applications written for one type of microprocessor and operating system to run on multiple platforms.
  • Arista a nnounced interoperability with host adapters from industry leading vendors: Chelsio Communications, Intel, Mellanox Technologies, Myricom, Neterion, NetXen, and ServerEngines
  • NetApp releases 2 new systems to the midrange storage FAS3160 and V3160,furthermore it will support 8Gb FC
  • VMware, Intel dismiss AMD cross-platform live migration plan (more)
  • LynuxWorks has announced the immediate availability of LynxSecure 2.0, a next-generation separation kernel and embedded hypervisor for high assurance systems (more)
  • CA and VMware Expand Relationship with Integrated Management Solution for Enterprises and Cloud Service Providers (more). CA and VMware have signed an agreement to make CA Data Center Automation Managerinteroperable with VMware Stage Manager
  • Microsoft will be using SCVMM and Visual Studio 2010 for Lab Automation
  • Intel has reveiled the i7 CPUs with Intel Virtualization Technology
  • Tidewaylaunched the beta version of Tideway Foundation Community Edition
  • Verari Systems Incorporates Quad-Core AMD Opteron Processors in BladeRack 2 X-Series Platforms
  • EMC Updates Storage Management Software (more)

HR-news:

  • Stephen Pollack, founder of PlateSpin joins Advisory Board of Embotics
  • Symantec CEO, John Thompson, will retire at the end of the fiscal year in March
  • Yahoo CEO, Jerry Yang is stepping down, a new CEO has not yet been found (more)
  • Rick Faulk joins Virtual Computer

Virtualization Industry News [17.11.08] November 17, 2008

Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Cloud Computing, Data Center Management, I/O Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, desktop virtualization.
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News:

  • DevonIT and CentriServ announce the genearl availability of the Virtualization Starter Kit. The kit comes with DevonIT thin clients, connects to XenDesktop or VMware VDI and CentriServ enterprise assessment and consolidation services
  • Microsoft is preparing new virtualization certifications – general Windows Server Virtualization exam is available now, while the exam for SCVMM will come available mid-December
  • 3Leaf Systems announced that the company will showcase new silicon enabled virtualizationtechnology enabling dynamic resource utilization using commodity servers from SuperMicro Computer
  • VMware ESX is going exclusively 64bit (more)
  • OpenQRM 4.2 has been released
  • Cisco will start Nexus 1000V beta program in December
  • Adaptec RAID Controllers with Intelligent Power Management Matched with Hitachi Ultrastar Hard Drives and Supermicro Server Deliver Green Enterprise-class Storage Performance, savings up to 40% (more)
  • Computer Associates expands Software-as-a-Service offering with 3 new offerings:  CA Clarity PPM On Demand, CA GRC Manager On Demand and CA Instant Recovery On Demand.  (more)
  • Marvell Technologies introduced the Marvell Prestera CX family of high performance 40GbE and 100GbE switches. The Marvell Prestera CX family is designed to break new ground in integration, performance and features by providing 40GbE support, fiber channel over Ethernet (FCoE) support, Data Center Bridging (DCB), Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE) features and a low latency mode.  (more)
  • Emulex has announced that its LightPulse LP21000 family of Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) Converged Network Adapters (CNAs) have been tested and found to be compatible for use with IBM Systems x3650(, x3655 and x3755 series servers. (more)
  • Pano Logic announced Pano Virtual Desktop Solution (VDS) 2.5 (more)
  • Parallels announced Virtuozzo Containers supports the new HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 10Gb Ethernet module and HP ProLiant BL495c virtualization blade server (more)
  • EMC has taken its Mozy and Pi holdings – Pi being the stealth-mode mystery start-up it bought to acquire ex-Microsoft kingpin Paul Maritz before it fired Diane Greene and put him in charge of VMware – and Mozy being its year-old $76 million online consumer backup acquisition – and put them in a new cloud concern called Decho Corporation. Decho promises to introduce “new cloud-based services for individuals over time.” (more) and (more)
  • Windows Azure has been in CTP sinds PDC2008, the solution is still in PDC but available to take the load. Pricing remains a mystery as well as the fact that only .NET applications can be ported to Azure. Furthermore the solution keeps on focussing on developpers, altough that there is information for business use (more).

HR news:

  • Rich Green (Head of Software) leaves Sun
  • James Urquhart becomes Marketing Manager/Technology Evangelist for Data Center Virtualization at Cisco Systems
  • At Sun, Senior Vice President, Dave Douglas, has been appointed to lead the Company’s cloud computing efforts. 

Virtualization Industry news November 11, 2008

Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Cloud Computing, Data Center Management, I/O Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, desktop virtualization.
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Product news:

  • BlueStripe software releases FactFinder 1.1 enabling enterprises to stage, deploy and manage business critical applications. (more)
  • EMC shows the next generation of storage in the cloud as ”Atmos,” the software portion is designed to manage petabytes of information across tens or hundreds of geographic location. It runs with VMware or with EMCs Hulk (x86 server with high-capacity-low-cost SATA discs) (more)
  • IBM will release IBM Lotus Foundation that can integrate with VMware
  • Lanamark releases VReady, a virtualization readiness assessment service without upfront costs. The service enables customers to capture desktop and server workload trends, measure data center utilization and determine warranty coverage of existing servers (more). The free service is limited to 500 nodes (desktops running MS or LX and MS servers) per customer
  • Veaam releases Veaam Configurator 2.0, helps to ensure that an ESX server configuration complies with corporate policies and standards across a VI3 (more).  The product is licenses per socket with a maximum of 4 cores per socket. Pricing starts at 250 USD with a special release price of 150 USD till the end of 2008
  • Asigra Televaulting Teams with Virtual Iron’s Server Virtualization Software, bringing agentless information recovery to virtual server environments
  • Egenera ships PAN vmBuilder 2.1 – the software seamlessly integrates with Citrix XenServer virtual machine (VM) management technology, allowing administrators to fully manage virtual and physical server environments unencumbered by the complexities of individual management tools. The software is available as an add-on to PAN manager 

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.
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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)

IBM slashes storage for VMware VDIs September 18, 2008

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IBM has developped a component that slashe storage with up yo 80% compared to the standard VMware VDI solution.  This technology, the Virtual Storage Optimizer (VSO), uses an algorithm developed by IBM Research, and will form part of IBM’s Virtual Infrastructure Access (VIA) services, in which IBM experts virtualize clients’ IT infrastructure.

IBM’s VSO leverages the snapshotting capability of VMware’s VDI to create an ultra-efficient storage system. It takes the same approach as incremental backup — a master image of a clone is created and stored on the back end, each user gets a personalized workspace with all relevant applications, and only changes made by users are saved. (personal note: This sounds like Citrix Provisioning Server)


VMware Studio 1.0 … OVF September 10, 2008

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VMware released VMware Studio 1.0 which provides the possibility to create OVF images. altough the final release of Open Virtualization Format (OVF) is not yet available, this is a major step ahead for those companies running on different systems from different vendors (as most companies do), do keep in mind that OVF is initially developped for ISVs running their own appliances.

Citrix and IBM are working together to deliver OVF capabilities and management tools to XenServer, probably this quarter.

If you are looking for someone with experience on OVF and VMware Studio 1.0, visit the LatogaLabs blog by Greg Lato.

Why Microsoft Virtualization is Different (and possibly better) by IRG September 9, 2008

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Internet Research Group (IRG) today 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.

“As the old saying goes, if all you have is a hammer then everything is a nail,” noted Peter Christy, co-founder of IRG. “VMware has built a very successful business around the hypervisor and virtual machine, and not surprisingly expresses its strategy that way. Microsoft has a much broader set of products, and sees virtualization just as one element in their effort to improve IT effectiveness. Is this all just marketing spin or is there real substance here?”

This report compares the business value focus of Microsoft and VMware as they continue to develop market opportunities for their virtualization products.

Vendors directly impacted by Microsoft’s virtualization market entry include: Citrix, HP, IBM, EMC, Parallels, Virtual Iron and VMware. One step removed most IT participants are impacted by virtualization and this business competition.

More information here

ScaleMP announces support for IBM iDataPlex with vSMP Foundation June 18, 2008

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ScaleMP announced that its patent-pending virtualization software, vSMP Foundation Standalone, is available for the IBM iDataPlex system. vSMP Foundation Standalone aggregates multiple x86 systems into a single virtual x86 system, enabling them to share a common operating system and memory. More info here.

IBM releases new storage virtualization software June 11, 2008

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As part of IBM’s “Project Big Green” offerings, IBM today announced new storage virtualization software that helps clients more efficiently manage and consolidate volumes of business data, providing clients with a storage solution designed to help improve utilization rates, energy efficiency, availability, and scalability of critical applications. More here