Virtualization.com

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

Robin Wauters

Wipro Builds A Private Cloud For OnStream

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Wipro Technologies has built a private cloud for OnStream Utility Metering Services Limited.

OnStream provides gas and electricity metering solutions in the United Kingdom. OnStream is part of National Grid Group, which is one of the largest energy delivery businesses in the world and the largest investor-owned utility in the United Kingdom.

Wipro initiated the private cloud project for OnStream in October 2010.

OnStream replaced its existing legacy IT infrastructure with a new service driven model using a private cloud approach. This approach aligned the IT architecture to be more flexible in functionality and configuration while at the same time lowering operational cost and improving responsiveness.

NetApp Syncsort Integrated Backup: Super Fast Physical To Virtual Server Migration

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Syncsort, a provider of data integration acceleration and data protection software solutions, today announced enhancements to the NetApp Syncsort Integrated Backup solution that deliver productivity gains and cost savings to customers through 10-minute physical to virtual (P2V) server migration.

NSB leverages snapshot technology to provide rapid return to production for applications during P2V migrations. It converts Windows or Linux-based physical server backups into VMware virtual machines through a simple, automated process that creates the virtual machine with ease.

The solution uses NetApp-based snapshots to start the virtual machines, a process that can take as little as 10 minutes with some variation based on system resources. The full data set from the physical server is then copied to a newly created virtual machine.

When backup copying is complete, VMware Storage vMotion is used to switch the application from the snapshot to the newly created virtual machine, typically with zero system downtime during the process. This results in a full P2V server migration that significantly reduces downtime when compared to traditional migration processes.

NSB also ensures proper data alignment for the disks of the new virtual machine automatically as part of the 10-minute P2V migration process. This eliminates a common concern for customers when migrating applications, and helps them avoid significant virtual machine performance degradation and the lengthy downtime often needed to correct data alignment issues.

CA Technologies Buys ITKO For $330 Million In Cash

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CA Technologies today announced a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held Interactive TKO (ITKO), a provider of service simulation solutions for developing applications in composite and cloud environments, for $330 million in an all-cash transaction.

CA Technologies says the acquisition of ITKO will add a new dimension to modern IT management and extend it to encompass the entire service delivery lifecycle.

In particular, the acquisition should help its customers overcome the limitations of current organizational approaches, breaking down the silos across development, testing and operations.

For the trailing 12-month period ending March 31, 2011, ITKO reported revenue of approximately $39 million, more than doubling the prior 12-month period. For this same period, ITKO was profitable and generated positive cash flow.

The acquisition is expected to be completed within three months, pending regulatory approval.

At the close of the transaction, Shridhar Mittal, president and CEO of ITKO, will join CA Technologies as general manager of ITKO, a division of CA Technologies.

It is anticipated that all of ITKO’s approximately 120 employees will join CA Technologies.

AppSense’s User Virtualization Platform Selected For HP’s Client Virtualization Reference Architecture

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AppSense, provider of user virtualization solutions, today announced that its User Virtualization Platform is now a core building block of HP’s new Client Virtualization Reference Architecture.

Along with Microsoft, VMware and Citrix, AppSense User Virtualization has been recognized by HP as a crucial technology for a successful architecture that meets the goals for client virtualization.

With the HP Client Virtualization Reference Architecture, customers can achieve the goals of IT and workforce agility without compromising performance, operating costs, information security and user experience, which is AppSense’s area of focus.

AppSense User Virtualization is a software solution that enables user management across both physical and virtual desktops.

Former Microsoft Virtualization Director, DABCC Founder Start PaperShare

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David Greschler (co-founder of Softricity App-V, and until recently, director of virtualization and cloud strategy at Microsoft) and Doug Brown (founder of popular virtualization site DABCC) recently unveiled PaperShare, a community site specifically targeting people who are interested in gaining knowledge about the specific topic of virtualization and cloud computing.

Greschler is CEO, and Brown is CTO.

PaperShare aims to connect people with “information, individuals and companies they’re interested in” – creating a place where they find and share knowledge, interact with others, and do business together.

According to IT Knowledge Exchange, Edwin Yuen will replace Greschler as Microsoft’s director of virtualization and cloud strategy.

Like Greschler, Yuen also joined Microsoft as part of the Softricity acquisition, and he’s also been a public face of Hyper-V over the past few years.

Also check out VMblog’s Q&A with David Greschler and Doug Brown

Cloud.com Joins the NetApp Alliance Partner Program

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Cloud.com, a vendor of open source cloud computing software, has joined the NetApp Alliance Partner Program.

As part of this collaboration, Cloud.com CloudStack, an infrastructure as a service (IaaS) platform, seamlessly integrates with NetApp storage systems and simplifies how customers can build, deploy and manage public and private cloud environments, for improved IT flexibility and efficiency.

This integration with NetApp gives Cloud.com the ability to directly integrate with the NetApp OnCommand management software to help automate provisioning volumes on the storage system, create Logical Unit Numbers (LUNs) of administrator-specified sizes, and perform LUN masking.

Cloud.com has also integrated, tested, and validated CloudStack with NetApp unified storage systems, allowing customers to continue to use the NetApp Data ONTAP platform, which effectively creates and manages storage pools and devices requiring ever-increasing capacity and bandwidth.

Cloud.com currently enables over 50 large-scale production clouds in deployment that have been built on its market-leading open source cloud computing solution including KT, Tata Communications, Nokia Research Center, GreenQloud and Profitability.net.

Cloud.com technologies can be deployed on-premise or as hosted cloud services.