Robin Wauters

Alternative Technology to Distribute and Offer Support for Oracle VM

September 24, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Alternative Technology, an Arrow Electronics company and specialty distributor of thin-client/server-based computing, edge infrastructure, virtualization, storage and security solutions, today announced that they will distribute Oracle VM software and sell Oracle VM server virtualization support for both Oracle and non-Oracle applications.

Oracle VM software is available to download for free and consists of open source server software and an integrated Web browser-based management console. Oracle VM provides an easy-to-use graphical interface for creating and managing virtual server pools, running on x86 and x86-64-based systems across an enterprise. Users can create and manage virtual machines that exist on the same physical server but behave like independent physical servers. Each virtual machine created with Oracle VM has its own virtual CPUs, network interfaces, storage and operating system. With Oracle VM, users have an easy-to-use browser-based tool for creating, cloning, sharing, configuring, booting and migrating virtual machines.

Backed by Alternative Technology and Oracle’s world-class support organization, solution providers now have a single point of support for their customers’ entire virtualization environments including the Linux operating system, Oracle Database, Oracle Fusion Middleware and Oracle Application software. Customers who want to deploy Oracle products in a faster, lower cost server virtual environment can now use Oracle VM and subscribe to Oracle VM support.

Avnet Technology Solutions Introduces Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Solution, Based on VMware Technology

September 24, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Avnet Technology Solutions, an operating group of Avnet, today announced a comprehensive solution to assist partners in targeting the emerging virtual desktop market in the US and Canada. Avnet Technology Solutions’ new solution combines VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) software with the services and enablement resources needed to develop market expertise and effectively implement virtual desktop environments. Partners can use virtual desktop solutions to help their customers improve manageability, increase control and enhance the security of their enterprise desktops. The centralization of desktop management through virtualization also helps companies more effectively leverage their IT resources.

Avnet’s new solution is based on VMware VDI, which includes VMware Virtual Desktop Manager and provides simplified management and secure provisioning of virtual desktops and manages user access to the virtual desktops from a wide range of devices such as Windows, Linux and Mac computers, and thin clients. By deploying the VMware platform, partners can extend business continuity and disaster recovery capabilities to their customers’ desktops and streamline desktop management to reduce operating costs, increase control and deliver complete desktop environments with greater application compatibility.

Virtualization Congress 2008: Cancelled, Or Merely Postponed?

September 24, 2008 by Robin Wauters 6 Comments

When the industry blog Virtualization.info announced its first event, the completely independent Virtualization Congress 2008, back in March, we wrote that it would prove to become one of the most interesting events of the year. The congress was to be held from 14 to 16 October at the ExCel centre in London.

Now it seems the event has been postponed, at least according to the event website. VMblog earlier reported that the event was actually cancelled due to ‘low registration numbers and a tough macro-economic climate’. It couldn’t have helped a lot that there was a similar event going on in London only 2 weeks before Virtualization Congress, namely VM08, which to date has not been cancelled and seems to have much of the same topics and sponsors as the congress did.

We have an e-mail in for a confirmation and more clarity on the matter, we’ll update this post as soon as we get a response.

UPDATE: we got an e-mail back saying “the number of delegates that were registered when we decided to cancel (around 300) was too low to match the sponsors expectations and cover the conference costs expenses. Thus we decided to cancel this edition.”. The event has effectively been postponed, with no clarification on a later date so far.

Whatever the reason may be behind the cancellation / delay, we would like to give Alessandro Perilli, who writes about the industry with great passion and knowledge, a heads-up. Organizing an event of this size is no easy feat. Next to blogging, I organize a conference of my own about the European Web 2.0 industry (Plugg) and I know how stressing it can be and how much effort, time and money goes into the organization prior to the event.

We wish Alessandro all the best for the future.

Teksys Acquires Technology Made Simple Assets

September 23, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Earlier this year, UK-based LAR Teksys was acquired by private equity investors Alan Watkins and Kevin Lewis, who revealed the firm would be making a number of acquisitions to build its business.

Teksys has made good its acquisition spree promise by acquiring the assets of Technology Made Simple (TMS). The acquisition of the VAR, which is a Microsoft Gold Partner, a VMware partner and an HP Platinum Partner was made for an undisclosed sum.

More information is available at Channel Register.

Parallels Readying Attack on VMware Fusion With Desktop 4

September 22, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

AppleInsider has taken a close look at a few features of the upcoming Parallels Desktop 4, which will be Parallels’ answer to the latest release of VMware Fusion 2.0.

“Those aware of the changes say the new release will be Parallels’ first to make good on promise made in early January that it would enable virtualization of Mac OS X Server on Macs already running the operating system, making use of a change in licensing terms with Leopard’s release late last year that permits more than one copy to run at the same time.

Such features have been frequently requested by IT administrators, who on Linux and Windows have already been able to segregate individual apps away from the main operating system in the event of a crash or a security breach.”

Ars Technica adds:

“Desktop 4’s performance will also be beefed up by adding DirectX 9 and OpenGL 2 support, an improved virtualization engine, and support for multiple cores and more RAM.

A makeover for the new version of Parallels Desktop is also in the cards, including a redesigned and simplified interface and more Terminal-based controls. In addition, the team is working on improving the ACPI interface (used for shutdowns and sleeping), and should be adding virtual machine resizing and 64-bit support. Based on those features, the software shouldn’t have a hard time catching up to Fusion, but I hope the team has something else waiting in the wings.”

Parallels

BakBone Software Introduces NetVault: Backup VMware Plugin

September 22, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

BakBone Software, a provider of heterogeneous integrated data protection solutions, announced that it is providing VMware data protection with a solution that protects both individual and entire groups of VMware ESX Servers, requires no scripting and is integrated with VMware technology and techniques.

BakBone’s NetVault: Backup VMware Plugin offers integration through the NetVault: Backup user interface, providing a way to provide VMware data protection. While other solutions on the market require complex scripting to work properly with VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB), BakBone incorporates these capabilities into a point-and-click user interface , the company said.

The NetVault: Backup VMware Plugin gives administrators integration with supported devices, including a VTL, SAN, NDMP or locally-attached drives. It offers granularity for Windows on VMware by allowing customers to backup and restore individual files within virtual machines and empowers storage administrators to create backup policies without the need to understand VCB internals or create complex scripts.