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Archives for August 2009

CloudStorm European Tour launches from Brussels to showcase “real” Cloud Computing Solutions

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CloudStorm, a European focused cloud computing event has announced that Brussels’ will be the inaugural venue of its tour around major European cities. The event, funded equally by its 10 participants, provides a showcase of cloud computing solutions covering a wide range of areas including application development and deployment, infrastructure, storage, video management and SAAS from leading European technology vendors.

Participants, who have just 10 minutes each to present their cloud based offering to the audience, follow a highly interactive “un-conference” format to encourage audience participation with a no-holds bared question and answer section at the end. The sponsors, in alphabetical order, include:

  • A-Server, a specialist in cloud computing platforms for service providers.
  • B-Virtual, an emerging leader in cloud storage solutions.
  • Calamares, Video Management Systems as a cloud compatible service.
  • ContactOffice, one of the first cloud-based collaboration providers.
  • Microsoft Azure, a platform for a wide range of internet services.
  • SaaSforce, a cloud based software-as-a-service distributor.
  • Sun Microsystems, a technology provider for public clouds
  • REP42, a provider of a mobile cloud services platform.
  • WDC CloudSphere, a European cloud computing service for medium enterprises.

In October, London will be the second stop for the tour with further events planned for later in the year in Paris and Munich with the same core sponsors plus additional regional cloud computing specialists. Patrick De Schutter, CEO of ContactOffice explains, “We are pleased to be involved with CloudStorm and look forward to helping to showcase real world examples of how Cloud computing can help improve a wide range of business and IT activities for a diverse set of customers.”

Attendance to CloudStorm is entirely free but the small venue means that places are limited.

Is The Virtualization Market “Up For Grabs”?

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Read-worthy article from InternetNews writer Stuart J. Johnston, claiming that the virtualization market is up for grabs based on a report by Information Technology Intelligence (ITIC), who surveyed 700 corporations worldwide and found that server virtualization deployments “have remained strong throughout the ongoing 2009 economic downturn.”

Among its conclusions are that Microsoft, despite a late start in most virtualization markets, is becoming the come-from-behind favorite, at least in the area of application virtualization.

“Thanks to the summer release of the new Hyper-V with live migration capabilities, with Hyper-V 2.0, Microsoft has substantially closed the feature/performance gap between itself and VMware’s ESX Server,” the report states.

Another top level take away for Microsoft: “Three out of five — 59 percent of the survey respondents — indicated their intent to deploy Hyper-V 2.0 within the next 12 to 18 months.”

“With Hyper-V, Microsoft has a very credible, competitive offering,” DiDio toldInternetNews.com. “Hypervisors, in general, have been commoditized” due to Microsoft’s commodity approach to virtualization.

For instance, Citrix is the market leader in desktop virtualization with a 19 percent market share.

In the same market, Microsoft holds a 15 percent share and VMware has 8 percent.

That doesn’t mean, however, that Microsoft will have the whole pie.

Full report is here.

DataCore Software Adds Support for Fibre Channel over Ethernet

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DataCore Software, a provider of storage virtualization, business continuity and disaster recovery software solutions, today announced support for native Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) connectivity for its SANmelody and SANsymphony storage virtualization solutions.

The company has added the Emulex and Brocade FCoE converged network adapters (CNAs) and Cisco Nexus 5000 Series switches to its FCoE-qualified support list. Additional FCoE CNAs will be announced over the next year. FCoE software drivers are currently available for Microsoft Windows and VMware ESX / vSphere.

FCoE is changing the way customers can use Ethernet in their data centers. DataCore customers can transition to an FCoE infrastructure while still supporting existing Fibre Channel investments – meaning greater choice and flexibility while building out their storage networks. Customers can run both FCoE and IP traffic through the same port and on the same wire, eliminating the need and expense for separate SAN and LAN adapters and cables. The ability to run FC protocol over existing Ethernet cabling is significant for network administration. It means that administrators do not need to have a separate network for running Fibre Channel protocol.

FCoE is primarily used to consolidate back-end cables in a data center – enabling network administrators to use the Ethernet infrastructure for FC and IP protocols. What is needed to make it work is a converged network adapter (CNA), which serves as an FCoE card, along with a network switch. For storage, this connects to DataCore-powered SANs using Ethernet networks – thereby connecting application servers to the virtual storage pool as easily as you would connect your desktop to a printer.

Release: Veeam Backup & Replication 4.0

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Veeam Software, provider of systems management tools for VMware virtual datacenter environments, today announced version 4.0 of Veeam Backup & Replication, a backup solution for VMware environments.

With version 4.0, Veeam will be the first to support new VMware vSphere 4 vStorage technology. With this new release, Veeam extends its leadership in the VMware backup market with the most innovative features and the most customer value. Backup & Replication 4.0 will be demonstrated in Veeam’s booth, #1202, at VMworld 2009 in San Francisco next week.

Only Veeam Backup & Replication offers full native support for new VMware vSphere functionality, and version 4.0 takes full advantage of the VMware vStorage API. This includes:

  • Support for thin-provisioned disks, which enables faster full backups and restore of virtual machines
  • The ability to leverage ESX4 changed block tracking for much faster incremental backups
  • Support for virtual applications (vApp), resulting in more flexibility when setting up backup jobs

The vStorage API is a VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB) replacement that enables local area network-free backups directly from storage area network (SAN) storage, without affecting an organization’s production ESX or ESXi hosts.

Veeam Backup & Replication 4.0 also includes a new Enterprise Management Server that enables enterprise customers to manage multiple installations of Veeam Backup & Replication through a single web console. This allows customers to centralize backup and decentralize restore processes according to their administrative, business, geographical, and security requirements and boundaries. Native support for this distributed architecture offers the ability to easily scale VMware backup infrastructure as the virtual environment grows, while also providing centralized management and reporting capabilities.

Additional new features in Veeam Backup & Replication 4.0 include:

  • Near real-time replication leveraging new vSphere ESX4 functionality to provide five-minute increments to achieve better recovery point objectives (RPOs)
  • Hot VM copy capability to mirror production environments to test lab storage, for datacenter migrations or for ad-hoc backups
  • Backup storage space monitoring with alerts for advanced backup storage capacity planning
  • Replica seeding for the initial replication using removable storage to minimize traffic over WAN

Veeam Backup & Replication 4.0 is expected to be generally available in early October. North American pricing for the new version starts at $599 per socket, but the previous version’s price of $499 per socket will be honored on orders placed by Dec. 31, 2009.

Release: Leostream Connection Broker 6.2

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Leostream just released an update to its VDI connection broker.  The company focused on adding support for Citrix in the last major update, and now, with this release, they’ve focused on support for Microsoft technologies.

Features of the Leostream Connection Broker 6.2 include:

Installation & Management

  • Easy installation as a virtual application: Connection Broker 6.2 virtual application provides native installation on a Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V or Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 hypervisor;
  • Native support for Hyper-v based virtual machines: Simplified discovery and machine power control.

End-user Experience Pack – Connection Broker provides a complete set of features to create an optimal end-user experience with Microsoft desktop virtualization software, including:

  • Windows 7 support: Full support for Microsoft’s new Windows 7 operating system;
  • RDP 7 support: Full support for the new remote desktop protocol (RDP) 7, with its high-performance enhancements such as bi-directional audio and rich graphics;
  • Multimonitor support: Leostream supports multiple monitors with RDP and a wide range of additional protocols;
  • USB management: USB pass-through policies allow administrators to manage classes of devices or individual devices, depending on need. USB policies can be combined with other Leostream policies, such as location-based ones, to support the exact implementation of business rules;
  • Location-based printing: Administrators can specify a list of network printers to connect to a particular group of clients based on their location. End-users can select local printers when connected to remote desktops;
  • Single Sign On for RDP: Provides seamless access to all versions of Windows virtual desktops from any client device, including Windows 2000, 2003, XP, Vista, and RDP 7;
  • User profile support: Consistently offers the same desktop to the user who travels or changes physical location;
  • Extensive flexibility in assigning users to resources such as desktops, applications and sessions: Leostream’s powerful policy capabilities are natively available in Microsoft environments.

Release: VMLogix LabManager 3.8

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VMLogix today announced the newest version of their flagship product, VMLogix LabManager 3.8.

The new release adds capabilities for network policy configurations and deployment within IP zones across multiple virtual hosts. This release also adds support for VMware vSphere 4 virtualization infrastructure and integration with VMware vCenter Server, formally VMware VirtualCenter, as well as extended support for Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2.

VMLogix LabManager allows development, test and support teams to build, snapshot, share and deploy production-like environments on-demand across virtualization platforms. With LabManager, customers can consolidate and automate lab IT infrastructure in order to deliver and maintain software applications more quickly, cost-effectively and reliably. Companies can dramatically reduce the manual effort, time and IT resources required to develop and maintain higher quality software applications by using comprehensive automation capabilities, advanced team management and seamless integrations with leading solutions from HP and IBM.

New features of VMLogix LabManager 3.8 include:

  • Support for VMware vCenter Server 4.0 and VMware vSphere: integrating with VMware vCenter Server 4.0, LabManager supports a lab with VMware vSphere or VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3 hypervisors on the virtual hosts. The support for vCenter Server in LabManager allows administrators to benefit from platform management capabilities such as vMotion, DRS, HA and resource pools.
  • Updated support for Microsoft Hyper-V (Windows Server 2008 R2): extending platform support functionality, taking advantage of Hyper-V R2’s new shared cluster capability.
  • Network policies in configurations: allowing users to set custom firewall rules on the soft router in a configuration that allows virtual machines from within a LabManager configuration to connect to external IP addresses, outbound and inbound.
  • IP zones across multiple hosts: enabling IP-zoned LabManager configurations to be deployed across multiple virtual hosts.

VMLogix LabManager 3.8 is now generally available.