Robin Wauters

Citrix, Novell Team Up for Enterprise-Class Virtualization and Cloud Computing Solution

February 23, 2010 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Citrix and Novell today announced a collaboration that expands choice for customers through increased virtualization interoperability and new assessment tools to help pinpoint the economically most advantageous approach to virtualization. Through this new partnership, Novell has certified SUSE Linux Enterprise Server as a “Perfect Guest” running on Citrix XenServer and both companies will provide joint technical support to customers.

As a result of this agreement, the more than 4,500 enterprise applications certified as Novell Ready for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server are now Citrix Ready community-verified when running in a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server guest virtual machine on XenServer.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is the only Linux operating system that has been optimized to be the perfect guest on all major hypervisors, with outstanding performance when running on XenServer. Now customers and cloud providers gain the added value of the free XenServer as an enterprise-class virtualization platform for Linux and Windows environments, providing them with an expanded set of technologies and processes to run and manage heterogeneous data centers.

The interoperability between SUSE Linux Enterprise and XenServer, which is YES Certified through the Virtualization Compatibility Program from Novell, is effective immediately.-

Mitel, VMware Announce First Clients to Leverage Voice Virtualization

February 23, 2010 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Mitel and VMware last week announced Virtual Mitel Communications Director (Virtual MCD), part of the new Mitel Virtual Solutions software portfolio as well as the first customers to deploy Virtual MCD.

Virtual MCD is the first real-time voice application designed for the VMware vSphere 4 platform.

As a virtual appliance, Virtual MCD is a software package download that runs on VMware vSphere 4, enabling customers to seamlessly access and install Mitel’s call control software.

The solution leverages VMware vSphere 4 to enable customers to consolidate Mitel’s leading voice applications alongside non-voice business applications in the datacenter. This results in the potential for: capital savings due to the significant reduction in server hardware and real estate; operational savings with the reduction in power and server provisioning costs; as well as productivity improvements and resource efficiencies in datacenter management and risk mitigation for business continuity and disaster recovery plans.

Mitel and VMware already have a number of joint customers that have deployed Virtual MCD including Gallagher, Flynn & Company LLP, an accounting firm based in the US; Ideal Integrations, a technology integrator based in the US; Spalding University, a university in Louisville, KY; and Ashford Borough Council in the UK. These customer sites consist of users ranging from 30 to more than 2,000.

Virtual MCD is the latest application Mitel has introduced in the Mitel Virtual Solutions software portfolio. The next phase will include Mitel Applications Suite (MAS) and Mitel Border Gateway (MBG) as virtual appliances built using VMware Studio to be released 60 days after Virtual MCD.

Parallels Small Business Panel Attracts Go Daddy, The Planet Softlayer, Others

February 23, 2010 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Parallels announced last week that its Small Business Panel has attracted some of the biggest names in the industry within months of release.

Go Daddy, the world’s largest domain name registrar and leading Web hosting provider, began offering Parallels Small Business Panel to its more than 7.5 million customers, many of whom are small businesses.

Other successful adopters of Parallels Small Business Panel include The Planet, Softlayer, Softcom, Codero, Layershift, ServeInt, Arsys, Network Group Europe and Host Europe.

Parallels Small Business Panel features a control panel designed for small businesses, offering simple wizards and productivity tools for collaboration, file sharing and business management. This makes self-service possible for all employees using the solution.

Parallels Small Business Panel 10.1 gives users an intuitive interface designed to connect employees to the right applications, which can be installed with a single click with no need for special training or technical knowledge. In addition, Parallels Small Business Panel incorporates the functionality of additional Parallels solutions for free, including Parallels Sitebuilder and Parallels Power Pack.

Users also have access to over 200 applications that increase productivity, efficiency and creativity but require no prior knowledge of the product to utilize the benefits. Some of the top applications available for free include WordPress, SugarCRM, Droopal and Mumbo.

Viewfinity Raises $9 Million in Series B Funding, Gains New Advisors

February 23, 2010 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Viewfinity last week announced $9 million in B-round funding from Giza Venture Capital, JK&B Capital and Longworth Venture Partners.

This announcement comes in tandem with the expansion of Viewfinity’s advisory team and newest board members, Greg Butterfield and Nilanjana Bhowmik.

Systems management icon Greg Butterfield, former CEO and Chairman of Altiris, is renowned for his business achievements that include the growth and mergers/acquisitions of WordPerfect to Novell, Vinca to Legato, Altiris to Symantec and Omniture to Adobe. Greg’s proven success in the systems management space and his alignment with Viewfinity’s vision and direction will help speed Viewfinity’s growth and ensure that business decisions and technology vision are ahead of the market.

Founded by experienced entrepreneurs, Viewfinity offers cloud-based systems and privilege management solutions that allow IT departments to focus on managing systems and not the infrastructure. The cloud-computing model enables systems management support almost immediately so that administrators can begin managing the environment from anywhere and at anytime, for both local and mobile workers. Viewfinity’s expertise in application virtualization serves as the foundation for new levels of advancement in cloud-based systems management, providing more granularity and control than ever before possible with traditional systems management platforms.

Viewfinity introduces several new business and technology icons to its Advisory Board:

Dwain Kinghorn, former CTO of Altiris and VP with Symantec, Founder & CEO of Computing Edge
Stuart Schaefer, former CTO and Founder of Softricity and Partner Architect at Microsoft
Srinivasa Venkataraman, former CEO of Appstream and VP R&D for ZoneLabs
Benny Schnaider, former CEO and Founder of Qumranet, Pentacom and co-founder of P-Cube

VirtualLogix VLX Software Selected for Low-Cost Android-Ready Smartphone Platform

February 23, 2010 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

VirtualLogix, a provider of Real-Time Virtualization technology for mobile handsets, last week announced that its VLX software solution for mobile handsets has been selected by ST-Ericsson for their new low-cost Android-ready smartphone platform.

Incorporating VLX into ST-Ericsson’s affordable reference platforms extends the relationship announced a year ago. VirtualLogix is providing important functionality which results in greater design flexibility and enables the delivery of Android-based solutions.

VLX virtualization software allows simultaneous operation of a high-level operating system (Android) and a Real-Time Operating System (RTOS), thus enabling easier development of value-added smartphone functionalities on lower cost mobile handset platforms.

RealVNC Debuts VNC Viewer for iPhone and iPod touch

February 11, 2010 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

RealVNC has launched its new VNC Viewer (iTunes link), an application for the iPhone and iPod touch that allows users to connect to and take full control of a computer anywhere in the world.

VNC Viewer makes it possible to run applications, access documents and change settings on any Mac OS X, Windows, Linux or UNIX computer, just as though you were sitting in front of it.

With VNC Viewer, iPhone and iPod touch users can view Flash-based websites and copy and paste text between applications on their mobile device and computer. The new application is also ideal for system administrators who can troubleshoot and manage remote desktops or servers, check logs or install/uninstall and test applications, wherever they are.

Users can apply standard touch, tap and drag gestures to control the computer; for example, pinching to zoom into a specific area or out to see the whole picture. As an alternative to gestures, VNC Viewer has mouse button mode – virtual left, middle, and right mouse buttons, and an imaginary scroll wheel are superimposed on the desktop, giving users precise control. Text can be entered using the iPhone or iPod touch on-screen keyboard and displayed using preview facilities. VNC Viewer also includes special buttons for non-character keys such as the cursor keys and Shift, Ctrl, Alt and Delete.

To connect from VNC Viewer, VNC-compatible technology must be installed and running on the computer to be controlled. The recommended VNC Enterprise Edition provides robust, high?performance connections and unmatched flexibility along with strong security. Connections to VNC Enterprise Edition benefit from additional features such as secure communication encrypted by industry?standard 128 bit AES technology, platform?native authentication, international keyboard support and enhanced performance.