Robin Wauters

Parallels today announced the availability of Parallels Small Business Panel 10, which allows cloud services providers to offer IT-in-a-box solutions to small businesses, increasing revenue through business applications sales, and helping their small business customers transition to the cloud.

Parallels Small Business Panel features a game-changing 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 also introduces the Parallels Partner Marketplace, enabling cloud services providers to offer commercial applications to their small business customers in an easy-to-use storefront.

Parallels Small Business Panel 10 gives users an intuitive user 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. Role-based access enables user organizations to restrict functionality as appropriate for their employees. In addition, Parallels Small Business Panel incorporates the functionality of additional Parallels solutions for free, including Parallels Sitebuilder and Parallels Power Pack.

The largest feature of Parallels Small Business Panel is Parallels Partner Marketplace, which launches with six commercial applications, including Symantec (desktop security), Interspire (email marketing & knowledge manager), Pinnacle Cart (shopping cart), LinuxMagic (Anti-Spam) and Keepit (online backup). Cloud services providers interested in cloud enablement can leverage Parallels Partner Marketplace, to participate in a revenue-sharing model that offers their small business customers the applications they need with minimal effort. The partner marketplace takes care of the ordering, licensing, billing and subscription management aspects.

Parallels Small Business Panel 10 is available in English, German, Japanese, Spanish, French, Chinese Simplified and Russian. The offering is available through retail, lease, or the Parallels Partner Program. As of today, Parallels Small Business Panel is available through Softlayer, Codero, Viux, Robson, Turnkey Internet, Servint, Layershift, Zipservers, KickAssVPS, CCF Consulting and OVH.

StarWind Software, a provider of storage virtualization and a pioneer in iSCSI storage, today announced a release of the fifth-generation of its flagship product StarWind 5.0, an iSCSI SAN software platform which turns any industry-standard x86 or x64 Windows server into a fail-safe, fault-tolerant storage that will be continuously available even in the event of failure.

With this new release, StarWind redefines high availability storage by offering this enterprise-class technology, which was previously only available in high-end storage products, to small and midsize companies at an affordable price. This combination of true active-active high availability and affordable price is unprecedented.

StarWind’s true active-active high availability (HA) architecture provides continuous and non-disruptive access to storage in the event of failure by synchronously mirroring data between two active storage appliances, or nodes, in real time. This technology is important to IT professionals because it eliminates a single point of failure. If a disk, power or even an entire storage node fails, the redundant storage node will take over and will continue actively operating without any disruption, ensuring that storage is available and accessible on the network.

StarWind 5.0 Key Features:

· Synchronous Mirroring with Automatic Failover: mirrors data in real time across a storage cluster, ensuring that storage is continuously available in the event of failure.
· Failback with Fast Synchronization: re-synchronizes data back to the original storage node and restores it to a previous live state before failure.
· Remote Replication across a WAN: replicates data to a remote location. allowing multi-site disaster recovery in the event of a disaster at the primary site.
· CDP & Snapshots: captures instant, point-in-time volume images, allowing a user to rollback and recover an entire volume or individual files and folders.
· Server clustering: supports Windows Server 2008, Hyper-V, VMware ESX and vSphere 4.0 and other applications.
· Redesigned User Interface: allows IT professionals to easily manage all storage from a central management console built on the same tree structure used in Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware vSphere.

StarWind HA is available immediately from StarWind and from authorized resellers in North America, Europe and Asia.

Prices range from $395.00 for the basic StarWind Server iSCSI Target to $5,995, an all-inclusive license for the High Availability edition that includes 2 active-active storage nodes with unlimited capacity and with all enterprise-class features. All licenses include a 1st year of StarWind Premium Support and Maintenance.

LineSider Technologies has announced OverDrive, a network services virtualization platform that enables enterprises and service providers to automate the provisioning and deployment of network services in cloud computing environments.

OverDrive is a software network virtualization solution that automates and orchestrates end-to-end service delivery by virtualizing discreet network services in response to changes occurring to dynamic resources such as users, applications, virtual compute, physical compute and storage. As resources are moved or changed, OverDrive automatically modifies and changes the underlying network infrastructure based on business policies that define the relationship between users, computing, and network resources.

Datacenters, users and applications have all become fluid elements in this new flexible computing model however networks were not designed for this new dynamic reality. They are still static. Every time an application, computer or storage resource changes in the virtual datacenter, there needs to be manual intervention to provision network services or repair broken security and access models. Without OverDrive a single request to move a critical application to a new physical or virtual location could easily require hundreds of separate device-level configuration updates that could take weeks to implement manually across a fully deployed network or data center. With OverDrive the entire process takes seconds, and more importantly the security models are still intact.

OverDrive orchestrates real-time automation and control of network services including access and security across both the logical and physical network based on business policies. Business policies are automatically translated into device-level configurations that dynamically create and adjust network services in real-time as changes in the dynamic computing environment occur.

Key features include:

· Business Policy Driven – OverDrive orchestrates real-time automation and control of network services based on business policies that define the relationship between users, computing, and network resources.
· Automates Device Level Configurations – Business policies are automatically translated into device-level configurations that dynamically create and adjust network services including access and security, in real-time, across both physical and virtual network devices as changes in the dynamic computing environment.
· Automates Network Service Delivery – OverDrive policies control and define the underlying network infrastructure services that provide end user access and security to both physical and virtual resources. These services include: Routing, VPN, Switching, VLAN, Firewall Ports and Protocols, ACL (firewall and switch), DNS, DHCP, Security (ACL / 802.1x), Remote Access / Mobile User, Identity Based Network Access Control
· Ensures Secure Access – OverDrive ensures that underlying access and security parameters remain in effect and will automatically notify administrators if a defined access or security policy is violated.
· Identifies Potential Conflicts – OverDrive understands the complex interdependencies between resources in both physical and virtual computing environments and alerts the network administrator about configuration, access, and security conflicts prior impacting the production environment.
· Ensures Compliance – OverDrive provides a complete solution that satisfies multiple audit controls and reporting requirements for Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPPA, PCI and other federal mandates in regulated industries.
· Integrates into Existing Network Support Platforms

Catbird has announced the launch and immediate availability of its new vSecurity Cloud Edition, the first solution designed specifically to enable both public and private cloud computing providers to instantly deliver SOX, PCI, HIPAA, FISMA, COBIT, DIACAP and other regulatory-based security and compliance policy monitoring and enforcement.

vSecurity Cloud Edition was previewed at last month’s VMworld 2009, for which it was honored with a Best of Show Finalist award, the first security product to win in the Cloud Computing category.

vSecurity Cloud Edition gives service providers the competitive edge with the industry’s only automated monitoring and enforcement solution that covers all seven critical control areas: auditing, inventory management, configuration management, change management, access control, vulnerability management and incident response, in an elegant solution specifically architected to meet the needs of cloud providers.

Catbird is the only virtualization security product offered by Amazon Web Services’ Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) web service, which provides instantly-scalable cloud-based computing capacity to meet evolving enterprise needs. Customers of Amazon’s EC2 now have the option of adding automated, continuous vulnerability monitoring to their Amazon Machine Image with Catbird’s vSecurity Cloud Edition. Organizations regulated by PCI or other policies that demand compliance can take advantage of Amazon’s state-of-the art cloud while remaining compliant, enhancing Amazon’s value proposition and accelerating growth in this increasingly-popular space.

vSecurity Cloud Edition delivers comprehensive coverage to ensure cloud service providers meet their customer mandates, including:

• SOX compliance measurement and reporting across 39 COBIT controls;
• PCI compliance measurement and reporting across 96 test requirements impacted by virtualization;
• HIPAA compliance measurement and reporting across 37 controls negatively impacted by virtualization;
• DIACAP compliance measurement and reporting across all 26 controls affected by virtualization, including the 12 Mac1 controls;
• COBIT compliance measurement across over 40 controls affected by virtualization, and
• FISMA compliance and reporting across 51 controls.

Among numerous protection and enforcement features, vSecurity Cloud Edition provides:

• 24×7 vulnerability management with a fully compliant scanner that is automatically correlated with other virtual machine attributes to provide an accurate assessment of known defects against a specific and customizable compliance framework.
• NAC-based enforcement for continuous monitoring of the virtual machine population, real-time inventory management, and the most accurate real-time VM catalog and virtual machine sprawl prevention
• A multi-tenant management portal that provides compliance intelligence aggregation, management and reporting across physical, virtual, private and public clouds from a single dashboard, while ensuring the privacy of customer or departmental data.

Essential for cloud providers is customizable, real-time reporting on the compliance and security status of the customer’s applications and systems, tailored for the appropriate audience ranging from executive-level managers to technical IT administrators.

Catbird vSecurity Cloud Edition has already been embraced by cloud providers and platform vendors whose customer base demands broad-based security and compliance.

Ideal for both public and private clouds, vSecurity Cloud Edition features a Service-Oriented Architecture that incorporates stateless agents reporting to a separate command center. Full integration with ESX 3.X, vSphere 4.x and up and Citrix XenServer enables seamless deployment in cross-platform environments. Infinitely scalable, vSecurity Cloud Edition allows cloud providers to seamlessly add clouds to existing infrastructure, without additional investment in security and compliance. For public clouds, SLA enforcement provides value-added assurance for clients.

INX’s Architecture Certified Engineer program (A.C.E.) has been developed to create a top tier certification around virtualized data center architecture for existing INX senior engineering staff through training, labs and hands on development. By using existing certifications from Cisco Systems, NetApp, and VMware along with a unique set of INX additional requirements, INX’s A.C.E. certification program creates a strong foundation for architecting virtualized data center and cloud computing architectures for enterprises.

Jonathan Groves, Vice President of Services for INX:

“Most of our key technology manufacturer partners, such as Cisco Systems, VMware and NetApp, have their own set of engineering certifications related to their respective point solutions, but customers need architecture approaches to solving their technology infrastructure requirements. INX has created this new program to ensure that our engineers have the additional training and experience to architect comprehensive solutions that include multiple vendors in a virtualized data center or cloud computing environment. There is no industry accepted multi-vendor high-level certification for virtualized data center or cloud computing architectures in the market today so we created our own.” Groves added, “The A.C.E. program is the most challenging multi-vendor certification program I have seen and exceeds any single vendor’s program requirements in our industry.” The A.C.E. certification for the Data Center Architect includes certifications from Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCDX) and NetApp (NCIE), as well as additional INX written and field experience requirements.

INX will develop additional A.C.E. certifications for other advanced technology infrastructure architectures.

A.C.E. program requirements for Unified Communications and Collaboration architectures will be released in November of 2009.