Archives for January 2010

Devon IT today announced its Teradici PC-over-IP® (PCoIP) protocol-enabled TC10 thin client is now VMware Ready Certified for VMware View 4.

This designation indicates the TC10 has completed the VMware Hardware Certification Program testing criteria for use with VMware View 4 and is now listed on the VMware Hardware Compatibility Guide.

The TC10 is among the first thin clients to run Teradici’s patented PCoIP® protocol on hardware-to-hardware and hardware-to-software displays after becoming the first thin client ever to run PCoIP in 2007. PCoIP enables customers operating remotely to deploy rich functionality and full multimedia user experiences.

VMware View 4, the industry’s only purpose-built desktop virtualization solution, has enabled new quality, cost and scale standards and helped users eliminate critical functionality barriers that previously restricted customer adoption.

The VMware Hardware Certification Program enables VMware Technology Alliance Partner (TAP) program members to provide mutual customers with jointly supported hardware solutions. Passing the extensive certification testing helps ensure that Devon IT is compatible with VMware technology and ready for deployment in customer environments.

The VMware Ready program is a VMware co-branding program for qualified partner products and is a benefit of the VMware TAP program. With more than 1,000 members worldwide, the VMware TAP program works with best-of-breed technology partners to provide them a comprehensive set of VMware technical and marketing services, support, tools and expertise to deliver enhanced value to joint customers.

California-based NComputing has launched a USB-connected virtual desktop (model U170) at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas today.

The USB virtual desktop is based on the simple fact that today’s PCs are so powerful that the vast majority of people only use a small fraction of their PC processor’s capacity. The U170 thin client taps this unused resource so that a computer can be simultaneously shared by many users.

• The U170 plugs into a standard PC’s USB port, and with vSpace (NComputing’s virtualization software, which is included) enables another user to share that PC.
• The U170 has connections for the additional user’s own peripherals, including keyboard, monitor, and mouse.
• Up to nine U170’s can be connected to a single PC and still provide a high-definition multimedia experience for every user.
• The U170 is extremely easy to set up and is ideal for schools, businesses, small offices, branches, and anyone that needs very low cost computer access.

Over 2 million NComputing virtual desktops have been sold around the world. In addition to lower purchase costs, NComputing also lowers ongoing operating expenses. For example, NComputing devices only use 1 to 5 watts of electricity (compared to 110 watts or more for a stand-alone PC), resulting in a 90% cut in electricity costs. NComputing also shrinks the crippling cost of PC obsolescence by reducing the number of PCs that need to be replaced every few years.

The U170 will be available through NComputing’s global dealer and reseller network in February and will be priced under $99 (prices may vary by country).

Gartner has announced that right at the end of 2009, it acquired competitor Burton Group for approximately $56 million in cash, reports TechCrunch.

Gartner financed the acquisition through the use of cash on hand and borrowings under its existing line of credit.

Burton Group is a Midvale, UT-headquartered research and advisory services firm that focuses on providing advice to IT professionals. According to the statement, Burton Group has approximately 41 research analysts, 40 sales and client service associates, and projected 2009 revenue of $30 million.

Gartner expects the acquisition of Burton Group to be accretive to its revenue, earnings and cash-flow over time. On a GAAP basis, the transaction is expected to be dilutive to income per share by ($0.12) – ($0.10) in 2010 and accretive to income per share by at least $0.00 – $0.03 in 2011.

Iomega, an EMC, today announced the launch of Iomega v.Clone software, an application that empowers individuals to create and carry on an Iomega hard drive an image of their primary PC which can be run on virtually any PC in the world.

Iomega’s v.Clone technology, to be demonstrated this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, will be available later this month as a download for purchasers of Iomega portable and desktop hard disk drives. In addition to being available by download, v.Clone software is expected to begin shipping with Iomega USB 2.0 portable hard disk drives beginning the first quarter of 2010.

Developed in conjunction with EMC and incorporating VMware virtualization technology, v.Clone makes a virtual clone of a primary computer’s operating system, applications and personal settings and stores that content on an Iomega external hard drive (USB interface only). Attach the Iomega external drive with v.Clone software to virtually any PC and the user now has access to everything that was on the primary computer. Data is not left behind on the secondary computer when the user is finished (only the application itself), and v.Clone also syncs your data back when you return to your primary computer.

What makes Iomega v.Clone software novel is its ability to keep the virtual image updated with changes made to the user’s primary PC, and to synchronize changes back to the primary PC when the Iomega USB hard drive containing the v.Clone image is reconnected. These capabilities give users the freedom to move between the physical computing environment on their primary PC and a virtual computing environment virtually anywhere they connect their Iomega external hard drive with Iomega v.Clone software.

With v.Clone technology, you can essentially run your virtual PC on another PC until you remedy the new OS or upgrade issues with your primary PC.

The Iomega v.Clone Software will be demonstrated at CES. Iomega expects v.Clone software to be available for downloads later this month, by purchasers of Iomega external hard drives.

Later in Q1, 2010, the Iomega v.Clone Software will ship pre-installed on Iomega portable hard disk drives, including Iomega® eGo(TM) Portable Hard Drives (USB), Iomega eGo Encrypt Plus Portable Hard Drives, Iomega eGo BlackBelt Portable Hard Drives, and Iomega Prestige(TM) Portable Hard Drives.

Yahoo is reportedly close to selling its Zimbra unit to VMware, according to several sources ‘close to the situation’ told AllThingsDigital blogger Kara Swisher.

Her sources said the deal could be announced soon, and that the price for the open-source email unit, though still unclear, will likely be much lower than what Zimbra fetched when Yahoo bought the  startup in late 2007 for $350 million in cash.

Swisher also writes Yahoo has been unsuccessfully trying to sell Zimbra for several months now. Still according to ATD, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz personally approached VMware boss Paul Maritz after the web giant failed to attract substantial bids from other outfits.

If the report turns out to be correct, why do you think VMware would be interested in buying the open-source e-mail unit, and do you think it’s a good move for them to make?

According to Briefing.com (via The Register), Oracle is sniffing around Citrix Systems and may be interested in acquiring the company. As El Reg says, such an acquisition – which has been rumored before – would make sense:

That Oracle would be interested in buying Citrix is totally plausible. Oracle has its own implementation of the open source Xen hypervisor, which was based largely on the work done by Red Hat as it commercialized Xen in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5. When it became clear that Red Hat was going to shift to the KVM hypervisor when it bought Qumranet for $107m in September 2008, Oracle looked around for another set of Xen tools and snapped up Virtual Iron, which had its own variation on the Xen theme. But in August 2007 Citrix bought XenSource, the controller of the Xen project, for $500m – a very large sum for a company that had only $1m in sales at the time.

Oracle likes to be in control, as it soon will be with Java, so why not with x64-based server virtualization as well as application streaming and desktop virtualization? Oracle is a good fit for Citrix. But then again, Novell and Citrix could also merge.

Full article here, but what do you think?