Robin Wauters

VKernel, provider of virtualization management tools for VMware and Hyper-V environments, today announced the addition of over 380 new IBM, HP and Dell server templates in its latest release of their free Capacity Modeler product. The move underscores the need for accurate virtual machine modeling in public and private clouds as well as heterogeneous datacenters.

Capacity Modeler was first offered as a free product to draw attention to the limited capabilities of VMware’s capacity planning solution – Capacity IQ. Capacity Modeler allows users to quickly test and validate hundreds of “what if” VM deployment and resource allocation scenarios based on the actual specifications of their target physical servers.

More accuracy in planning enables users to deploy more virtual machines on servers and storage, saving money while assuring robust performance.

Emulex Corporation today announced that its OneConnect 10Gb/s Ethernet Network Adapters are certified and fully supported with VMware vSphere 4.

Utilizing Emulex’s 10Gb/s Ethernet Network Adapters, VMware vSphere 4 users will benefit from improved asset utilization, superior networking efficiency, investment protection and reduced infrastructure costs.

The OneConnect 10Gb/s Ethernet Network Adapters (OCe10102-N) support VMware NetQueue, a multi-queue performance technology that significantly improves performance in 10Gb/s Ethernet virtualized environments, enabling improved server consolidation, reduced hypervisor overhead and a dramatic increase in the number of virtual machines that can run on virtualized servers.

As part of Emulex’s single-chip, high-performance OneConnect Universal Converged Network Adapter (UCNA) product family, the OneConnect 10Gb/s Ethernet Network Adapter provides unparalleled network convergence investment protection with field enablement options for full hardware protocol offload support for Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE).

The Emulex OneConnect UCNA architecture allows IT administrators to converge their physical networks, while maintaining their application, server, storage and security administration domains. This allows companies to reduce their costs for adapters, switch ports, cabling, power and cooling without disrupting their current management structure or network segmentation configurations.

Emulex OneConnect Network Adapters, LightPulse 8Gb/s Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapters (HBAs) and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) CNAs are key components of the virtualized infrastructure, providing efficient, high-performance Storage Area Network (SAN) and Local Area Network (LAN) connectivity in VMware vSphere 4 environments.

Today, Emulex is a VMware Technology Alliance Partner (TAP) Program member and a participant in the VMware I/O Vendor Partner program.

Parallels, today launched its new Cloud Services Certification Program to help its Partners become more profitable.

The program is available to all Parallels partners and individuals and will provide dedicated training for its panel, virtualization and automation products.

Attendees to the Parallels Summit 2010 can receive a discount of up to 30% on the costs of training depending on the level of Partnership.

Parallels Certification training will provide many benefits including:

• Tier 2 Support that delivers faster response times from professional engineers;
• More Highly-Skilled Employees trained as self-sufficient Parallels product experts;
• Expert Recognition through the placement of the Parallels Certified logo, website badges and icons ensuring companies are validated as leaders in hosting and cloud services.

Registration is limited to 15 students per class and will be held at the Fontainbleu Hotel, Miami Beach on February 25 2010 so sign-up today and take advantage of this special offer.

Pano Logic, zero client desktop virtualization (VDI) provider, today announced a surge in sales of its zero client computing platform in 2009, with customers rewarded with as much as 67% savings in computing total cost of ownership.

Pano Logic sales tripled last year, with strong momentum in sales among both existing and new customers for 2010. New and existing resellers realized significant financial rewards of increasing demand for Pano Logic’s innovative approach and the widespread adoption among organizations looking to reap the benefits of virtualization at the desktop that only Pano Logic can provide.

Innovative organizations are adopting Pano Logic’s zero client computing platform because it provides an easy, secure and cost-effective way to leverage virtualization and completely centralize desktop computing. Organizations in health care, education, government, manufacturing, banking, professional services and many other industries are achieving drastic reductions in management and energy costs, while eliminating desktop security breaches, all resulting in dramatic savings in TCO. In addition to cost savings, Pano Logic significantly increases end user productivity by delivering an optimal user experience and greater mobility from the ease with which users can log in and log out of their virtual machines from any zero client Pano Device within the organization.

The zero client design also uses 97 percent less electricity than a PC, resulting in dramatic reductions in energy costs and demands on the power grid. Winthrop & Weinstine, a Minneapolis-St. Paul law firm, is transitioning its PCs to Pano Logic virtual desktops and estimates it will save $10,000 annually on energy costs once their upgrade plan is complete.

Unlike any other VDI or thin client vendor, Pano Logic centralizes 100% of end user computing power onto the virtualized server. All of the processing power is managed at the server; the zero client Pano Device is completely dumb and simply connects the end user to the computing resources. With a Pano Device at the endpoint, there is no processor, no operating system, no memory, no drivers, no software and no moving parts — resulting in absolutely zero endpoint management. Also unlike any other vendor, Pano Logic provides an entire solution, including the clients, the virtualization software and management tools for deploying and managing virtual desktops. This eliminates the need to cobble together a myriad of solutions from several vendors and create complex workarounds to meet individual needs.

The growing interest and demand for Pano Logic’s solution follows a broader industry trend toward more widespread adoption of virtual desktops. Gartner predicts the worldwide hosted virtual desktop (HVD) market will accelerate through 2013 to reach 49 million units, up from more than 500,000 units in 2009, and that worldwide HVD revenue will grow from about $1.3 billion to $1.5 billion in 2009, which is less than 1 percent of the worldwide professional PC market, to $65.7 billion in 2013, which will be equal to more than 40 percent of the worldwide professional PC market.

Drawing organizations to Pano Logic’s desktop virtualization solution are a number of benefits in addition to lower overall TCO. The Pano Logic zero clients can be installed in the harshest working environments, from factory floors to toxic testing sites, and its rugged design withstands the elements while giving workers access to their personal virtual machine from any device. Security is also enhanced because of the nature of the zero clients — no processing power or local storage — and the centralized controls to manage access rights to computing, as well as to local USB drives, printers or scanners.