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Archives for February 2009

EMC/VMW Acquisition By Cisco Imminent?

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Great field work on Virtualization.info today about the fact that investors are buying heaps of VMware stock, signalling that something is up.

A small excerpt:

Monday’s SEC filings shows that Cisco posted a prospectus on raising $4 billion in senior bonds. The book building is run by all the major investment banks and is closing on February 17.
Cisco must be really confident for such a major issuance in these market conditions, but Standard & Poors is giving the senior unsecured notes an A+ rating with a stable outlook.
Cisco will use $500 million of the $4 billion to repay short term debt.  When combined with sizeable cash holdings, this leaves them with with $4.7 billion in cash at the US parent company. According to CNET that amount excluded cash holdings at subsidiaries overseas.

LynuxWorks Debuts LynxSecure 2.0

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LynuxWorks today announced the availability of LynxSecure 2.0, a next-generation separation kernel and embedded hypervisor for high assurance systems, on the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processor-based systems.

LynxSecure takes advantage of Intel’s latest hardware-enhanced Intel Virtualization technology (Intel VT) to provide a standards-based, secure software platform for applications with low, medium and high assurance requirements running concurrently on a single system. This meeting of two new technologies generated much interest when previewed with multiple operating systems being run simultaneously on a single Intel chipset with real-time performance and security applications being demonstrated.

LynxSecure was designed from the ground to up to offer a reliable, secure and extendable platform to meet the demanding needs of embedded software developers building complex systems that require application separation. Designers of military, aerospace, medical and financial systems can utilize the safety and security features offered in LynxSecure, and combined with Intel’s latest processors gives very low latency when compared with traditional multi-cpu systems. LynxSecure 2.0 works closely with Intel VT to enable multiple, heterogeneous operating systems (OS) to coexist on the same platform, enabling developers to build a diverse array of applications on a single processor, reducing hardware costs and allowing for easier reuse of legacy software.

The latest generation of Intel Core2 Duo processors offers a number of new features and enhancements that are applicable to embedded developers. Intel’s enhanced virtualization provides hardware-enhanced I/O virtualization and facilitates interactions between the embedded hypervisor and the guest operating systems running on it. There are some new integrated security features which include integrated TPM building blocks and a network outbreak containment block that improve network security with new packet filtering capabilities. Enhancing of both the on-chip power management features and the graphics capabilities offers better performance at lower power, a real benefit for embedded applications.

LynxSecure, with its extremely small code size, maintains hard real-time characteristics and determinism for real-time applications. The software is the first separation kernel & hypervisor to bring multi-core processor support to the high assurance world, providing scalability from deeply embedded applications up to workstations and servers.

LynxSecure is designed to run on any 32-bit or 64-bit processor with a memory management unit (MMU) and provides 100% application binary compatibility between a standalone OS and its virtualized version. Like all LynuxWorks’ products, LynxSecure is based on open standards, but it also offers the highest real-time, safety and security capabilities, conforming to the MILS standard and certifiable to DO-178B level A.

Leostream (Finally) Ships Connection Broker 5.3

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Leostream Corporation, a developer of virtual hosted desktop software, has finally gotten around to updating its Connection Broker software to version 5.3.

To get an idea of what changed, you can check the release notes here (PDF).

Here’s a quick run-down:

  • Citrix XenApp support when used with Leostream Connect (Windows and Linux® version) and Wyse thin clients.
  • Remote upgrade feature for Leostream Connect client
  • New > Status > Downloads page with links for downloading the Leostream Agent, Leostream Connect, and Leostream Documentation
  • New ability to specify multiple authentication server addresses inside one record on the > Users > Authentication Servers page
  • New Domain option on the Test Login option on the > Users > Users page
  • Allow additional special characters on smart card logins
  • Enhanced USB support in policies when used with Leostream Connect version 2.2
  • Context sensitive help for Connection Broker forms
  • The Templates pool has been removed from the > Resources > Pools page. Please, use VMware® VirtualCenter to view the templates you use for provisioning
  • Bulk upload feature, to import users, desktops, and clients from a CSC-file.
  • Additional columns available on the > Users > Users page to list Active Directory attributes for users

Doyenz Launches Automated Virtual IT

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Doyenz today announced the availability of Doyenz Automated Virtual IT, a managed service for IT consultants that leverages virtualization and cloud services to automate the delivery and management of IT infrastructure.

Designed to improve the quality and efficiency of SMB IT, Doyenz provides an SaaS platform that can be used to automatically configure and manage servers and desktops as virtual appliances. Automated Virtual IT is a hybrid solution that can be used to deploy virtual appliances either on-premise or in the cloud, allowing seamless migration from one to the other. The new solution offers unparalleled business continuity and uptime to the SMB at a lower cost, and a new IT services delivery model with better profits to the IT consultant that serves them. Doyenz has received significant angel funding from private investors from Microsoft, Google and others, and is now seeking Series A funding to support its rapid growth and high market demand.

Doyenz Automated Virtual IT addresses SMB challenges by enabling IT consultants to leverage automation, virtualization and cloud services to remotely configure, test, deploy and manage their customers’ servers as virtual appliances.

The Automated Virtual IT managed service capabilities include (a) automated creation and deployment of new servers with best practices, (b) a virtual test-lab with the latest copy of the production server for testing, e.g., patches and upgrades, and performing complex operations such as migrations with limited or no production downtime, (c) remote monitoring and management of Tier 1 alerts, and (d) an automated off-site disaster recovery with local fail-over on premises or in the cloud.

While Doyenz does not host the customer’s production environment, the Doyenz generated virtual appliances can run either on the customer premises, or hosted in the cloud, providing the bridge necessary for the SMB to migrate safely to the newest technologies and take advantage of enterprise-class tools.

Built on the Doyenz Automated Virtual IT Platform, the Doyenz Automated Virtual IT service is an affordable SaaS subscription offering that requires no hardware or software investment, allowing IT consultants to build a recurring repeatable revenue stream and grow their profits, while lowering costs and improving service to their SMB customers.

Vucci Emerges As Virtual Utility Computing Services Company

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Utah-based Vucci Technology Solutions is working to change the way businesses interact with IT. Offering virtual utility computing services, managed service applications and virtual desktops, Vucci takes the traditionally cost-inefficient sector of IT and turns it into a profit center.

Vucci is an IT solutions provider that offers innovative technology services for enterprise-level businesses, healthcare, education and government. Vucci’s solutions allow businesses to consolidate, virtualize, and assess IT needs in a more cost effective way turning IT into a profit center for stronger return on investment (ROI).

With a strong list of clients that include The Generations Network, J.P. Morgan, University Health Care and Utah Valley University (UVU), Vucci leverages its IT expertise to enterprise-level businesses by providing virtualization technology designed to simplify IT.

Vucci services include:

  • Virtualization
  • Architecture Design & Implementation
  • Data Center Transformation
  • Capacity Planning & Server Consolidation
  • Business Continuity & Availability

Vucci provides the experience and the proven expertise to train its customers on how to be more efficient with consolidated information technology resources to drive overall productivity and increase revenue and agility within an organization.

PHD Technologies / esXpress Doing Fine, Thank You For Asking

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PHD Technologies, provider of the esXpress VBA data protection solution for virtualized infrastructures, today reported stellar results for 2008 .

In 2008 PHD achieved 200% revenue growth, strong profitability, and was recognized with SearchServerVirtualization.com’s 2008 Products of the Year Gold Award in Data Protection and Best of VMWorld Gold Award in Data Protection. Currently more than 1,400 customers use esXpress. Customer growth has been accelerated by PHD’s expansion of its network of worldwide distribution partners, including the recent global reseller additions in Asia-Pacific, Datastor and ECS Technologies.

esXpress is a horizontally scalable solution with customers that span multiple verticals and company sizes. The award-winning product is used by Fortune 500 companies such as ADP, Dell, Hess, IBM, Intel and Lockheed Martin; Mid-size companies such as Budd Van Lines and Panera Bread; Higher education institutions such as Indiana University, Oxford University and Yale University, as well as Service companies such as Ernst Young and Hewitt Associates.

esXpress’ growth demonstrates the success of the product’s differentiated VBA technology and flexible per host pricing model. This pricing model provides a significant cost advantage to customers because it requires no additional hardware or software.