Virtualization.com

News and insights from the vibrant world of virtualization and cloud computing

Robin Wauters

IBM Leverages 40 Years Of Virtualization Experience To Secure Decade-Old VMware’s vSphere Platform

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IBM last week introduced IBM Virtual Server Security for VMware vSphere, a software product designed to help organizations secure and protect their virtual server infrastructure. The software will help safeguard virtual server environments and allows businesses a more secure path for transitioning critical assets to virtual enterprise data centers.

IBM has been working with clients to manage this strategic shift and simplify and optimize client infrastructures. While the migration to virtual environments offers many benefits, it also requires businesses to take unique measures to combat the next generation of security threats and compliance challenges. These measures are required because of reduced visibility and control that come with the addition of more information technology layers. Given this changing landscape, traditional security made for physical computing environments becomes inadequate as a sole solution.

The new IBM Virtual Server Security for VMware vSphere helps address these concerns, providing protection for every layer of the virtual infrastructure including the hypervisor, operating system, network, applications, server-based virtual desktops, virtual machine and traffic between virtual machines. By integrating with VMware VMsafe technology, the new software provides clients with better visibility, security granularity and scalability in their growing virtual data centers.

Automatic protection features include:

  • Virtual Network Access Control (VNAC) to limit network access from a virtual server until security posture is confirmed;
  • rootkit detection and prevention to increase virtual server uptime and availability;
  • virtual infrastructure monitoring and reporting to identify vulnerabilities;
  • autodiscovery and virtual network segment protection to provide visibility and control of the virtual infrastructure.

With the data center undergoing dynamic changes, the ability to manage, control and audit the actions of privileged and powerful system users and administrators across traditional and virtual environments becomes even more critical. All of the automatic protection features in the new software product can help clients to more easily meet compliance standards and regulation requirements. Additionally, this new offering complements already formidable IBM capabilities for securing the virtual environment, such as controlling access and monitoring privilege.

IBM Virtual Server Security for VMware vSphere will be available in December 2009.

Pano Logic Hires Former VMware Exec Chris Hammans for European Expansion

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Pano Logic today announced its European expansion and the appointment of former VMware executive Chris Hammans as Managing Director to lead the efforts from the UK.

Hammans will apply his more than 10 years experience in the virtualization industry from both VMware and Citrix to build a world-class organization for Pano Logic to meet the needs of European organizations. In expanding throughout Europe, Pano Logic is responding to rising market demand for its zero client desktop virtualization solution, which has achieved significant traction in education, health, government, manufacturing and service sectors.

A veteran high-tech exec, Hammans was instrumental in developing new markets throughout Europe for two leading virtualization companies, VMware and Citrix Systems. Most recently, Hammans was regional director at VMware, achieving unprecedented growth in both sales and market recognition during his six-year tenure. Prior to joining VMware, Hammans was enterprise director at Citrix Systems.

The Pano System is an all-in-one hardware and software desktop virtualization solution that radically redefines computing and enables users to simplify deployment and management of end user computing while slashing equipment, maintenance and support costs. Unlike any other VDI vendor, Pano Logic centralizes 100% of end user computing power onto the virtualized server.  There is no processor, no operating system, no memory, no drivers, no software and no moving parts in the zero client Pano Device – resulting in absolutely zero endpoint management.  The lifespan of a Pano Device is over three times that of a thin client or PC and it uses less than 3 percent of a PC’s energy.

Sun Microsystems Introduces New Desktop Virtualization Capabilities in Sun Ray Software 5

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Sun Microsystems today announced the availability of Sun Ray Software 5, which brings remarkable enhancements to the virtual desktop experience and helps to increase data center efficiency.

Sun Ray Software 5 is a secure, cost effective solution that delivers a rich, virtual Windows, Linux or Solaris(TM) Operating System desktop to nearly any client device including Windows PCs and Sun Ray thin clients. As part of the Sun desktop virtualization portfolio, many of the features of Sun Ray Software 5 will also appear in the upcoming release of Sun VDI Software 3.1.

A major benefit for new and existing customers of Sun Ray Software is the new Sun(TM) Desktop Access Client. This new software client provides end-users the flexibility to utilize their existing Windows laptops or desktop PCs, as an alternative to Sun Ray thin clients, to easily access data and applications in a centralized virtual desktop environment. With the Sun Desktop Access Client customers now have a simplified, user-friendly means of accessing the Sun Ray infrastructure, which can help to extend the life of current PC assets and reduce the environmental impact of frequent desktop refreshes.

An additional enhancement in Sun Ray Software 5 is improved Adobe Flash performance, which enables customers to experience accelerated Adobe Flash content with synchronized audio and video on Sun Ray thin clients and Sun Desktop Access Client enabled PCs. The new release also includes greater peripheral device support to virtual desktops through USB redirection to Windows, allowing users to deploy a significantly expanded set of USB peripheral devices with Sun Ray technology, including scanners, printers, and more. In addition, Sun Ray Software 5 allows customers to display Windows Server 2008 applications in 32 bit color and includes support for Windows Server 2008 TS Session Broker.

Sun Ray Software 5 is available now for $100 per concurrent user for the perpetual license.

Industry Moves: Ron Oglesby Joins Unidesk as Chief Solution Architect

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Unidesk today announced that virtualization industry thought leader Ron Oglesby has joined the company as Chief Solution Architect.

In his new role, Oglesby will educate enterprise IT organizations, service providers, and resellers on how to slash the operational costs of desktop management and the capital costs of deploying and managing virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) using Unidesk solutions.

Oglesby’s passion for helping IT realize bottom-line results from virtualization investments will be an important asset as Unidesk launches and expands its game-changing management platform for VDI-based desktops and virtualized PCs. His years of desktop experience working with Citrix solutions, his extensive knowledge of Microsoft and VMware virtualization technologies, and his strong rapport with IT professionals equip him to shape not only the Unidesk product family, but also implementation strategies for Unidesk customers. A best-selling author of technical design guides on server-based computing and virtualization, Oglesby will continue to share his insights on how to improve IT operations through his frequent writings and speaking appearances at industry events.

Oglesby was most recently Practice Executive for Virtualization Services at Dell, where he developed methodologies that helped Dell’s strategic customers carry out their virtualization and consolidation initiatives.

Prior to Dell, Oglesby was the Director of x86 and Virtualization Services at GlassHouse Technologies, one of the world’s largest independent data center consulting and services companies, where he oversaw North American consulting operations and directed a large team of engineers on numerous enterprise virtualization projects. Oglesby joined GlassHouse through its acquisition of RapidApp, where, as CTO and Senior Architect, he managed the professional services business and developed unique intellectual property for managing virtualization implementations.

Oglesby brings an impressive set of credentials to Unidesk in addition to his work experience:

  • Best-selling author of advanced technical design guides for VMware Infrastructure 3, VMware ESX Server, and Terminal Services for Microsoft Windows Server 2003.
  • Frequent speaker at industry events, including BriForum, Citrix Synergy, iForum, VMworld, and VMware User Groups (VMUGs).
  • Recipient of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award, given to inspiring individuals for representing the voice of thousands in the community through independent feedback, and for helping customers maximize the potential of their software.

Release: Lanamark Suite 2009 R2

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Lanamark has announced the availability of Lanamark Suite 2009 R2.

The new release is based on a scalable architecture that dramatically extends scalability to 50,000 systems and adds support for the latest OS and virtualization platforms, including: Citrix XenServer 5.5, Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V, Microsoft Windows 7 and VMware vSphere 4.0. Lanamark also introduces aggressive pricing for virtual machines and enhances the Lanamark Storage Design Module to provide deep insight into current and historical usage of local and networked storage resources.

Lanamark Suite enables value-added resellers, system integrators and consultants to accelerate design and delivery of vendor-neutral virtualization solutions to enterprises looking to virtualize applications, desktops and servers. Solution providers can gather vital hardware, software and performance data from up to 50,000 endpoints without installing intrusive agents, analyze desktops, servers and storage to identify most suitable candidates for virtualization, and then design optimal end-to-end virtualization solutions with hardware, software and service components.

Wyse Technology And Citrix Partner on Desktop Virtualization Program

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Wyse Technology today announced the consistent day one support of Citrix XenDesktop 4 and certification as part of the Citrix Ready Open Desktop Virtualization program.

Wyse’s entire Windows Embedded and Wyse ThinOS thin computing portfolio is certified under the Citrix Ready Open Desktop Virtualization program. Wyse anticipates certification for Linux and Windows CE thin computing devices soon.

Wyse will also soar ahead in Citrix’s virtualization program with future certification in its Management, Provisioning, Performance and Virtualization software solutions, including Wyse Virtual Desktop Accelerator (VDA), Wyse TCX Suite, Wyse Device Manager and Wyse WSM.

Citrix’s new, aggressive program enables businesses to easily identify the best virtualization solutions for use with XenDesktop and their IT environment. The open architecture of XenDesktop 4 gives customers the confidence to make the switch to virtualization and their program includes Data Center, Client Devices and Client and System Management categories. Wyse client virtualization solutions fall under the latter two.

The combination of Citrix XenDesktop 4 and HDX technology, and the extreme performance of Wyse client virtualization hardware and software, provides the ideal virtualization solution.