Robin Wauters

MonoSphere Introduces Storage Horizon 3.7, Adds Enhanced VMware Support

May 7, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

MonoSphere, a provider of storage capacity management software, yesterday announced Storage Horizon 3.7 boasting a range of new analytical capabilities which should greatly reduce the complexity and time required to manage today’s heterogeneous storage environments. Storage Horizon 3.7 includes enhanced support for VMware environments, a new automated chargeback capability, advanced analytics, advanced analysis of storage consumed by databases, and adds support for EMC Celerra and IBM DS and ESS arrays.

Storage Horizon 3.7 offers enhanced support for VMware server virtualization, helping storage teams understand to what extent and how rapidly applications running on guest operating systems are consuming storage at the array level. The new version visualizes storage abstractions and analyzes how VMware hosts are using storage, allowing IT departments to view storage usage details and the relationships between array LUNs, ESX servers, VMware file systems (VMFS), VMware virtual disks (VMDK), guest operating systems (OS), and guest OS file systems/raw devices, determining when additional storage is optimally required.

Neocleus Reveils Strategy For Its Endpoint Virtualization Approach

May 6, 2008 by Robin Wauters 1 Comment

Neocleus today announced (PDF) its strategy and approach for addressing the security, performance and IT manageability requirements of enterprise endpoints across a distributed network.

According to the company, current endpoint solutions are capable of connecting dispersed employees to the network but result in significant problems in the form of endpoint performance issues, usability complications and critical security vulnerabilities that can render networks defenseless. With corporate dependence on the functionality of these endpoints becoming paramount in their ability to generate revenue and drive enterprise growth, these problems are deemed simply unacceptable.

Neocleus Aims to tackle organizations’ most pressing endpoint issues – performance, manageability, security and cost. The company’s solutions, which include its Type 1 bare-metal hypervisor, enable critical IT tasks to operate in trusted virtual environments that run outside of and side-by-side with Windows while still offering complete access to all the capabilities offered by the underlying endpoint hardware.

“Endpoints are vast storage tanks of information and the gateway to accessing corporate data banks as well. As the variety of endpoints proliferates they become harder to control and more valuable to attackers,” said Charles Kolodgy, research director for Secure Content and Threat Management Research at IDC. “Applying virtualization to endpoints offers organizations significant advantages for securely delivering services, data and applications. Virtualization makes it possible to isolate critical corporate IT functionality without needing to be concerned about the other unauthorized applications residing on the machine.”

Neocleus contributes its technology to the open source community and remains “committed to creating an ecosystem of innovation that facilitates growth for partners and collaborators”. These open source contributions enable software developers to focus on building and maintaining high-performance applications without concern for performance or security issues that result from virtualization initiatives and technologies, and they do so without worrying about the underlying endpoint architecture.

Leostream Picks Up Series A Funding To The Tune Of $3 Million

May 6, 2008 by Robin Wauters 1 Comment

Waltham, Mass.-based hosted desktop connection broker Leostream, has raised $3 million in Series A funding led by Meakem Becker Venture Capital, reports Private Equity Hub, citing a regulatory filing.

CEO Mike Palin said the company plans to release details on the financing in coming weeks. Palin is the former CFO of Sitara Networks Inc., a Waltham, MA-based quality-of-service software developer.

Leostream was founded in 2002 by David Crosbie, who is now listed as the company’s CTO. He had previously founded Adero and Bluesocket, a wireless networking firm in Burlington. In 2001, COLT Telecom Group acquired Adero for an undisclosed amount.

Over the years, Leostream has evolved from basic virtualization management to Connection Brokering for both physical and virtual machines. The company boasts a high number of quality partnerships with companies like HP, Intel, Citrix and Microsoft, among others.

VMware Releases Fusion 2.0 Beta 1

May 6, 2008 by Robin Wauters 1 Comment

VMware has announced VMware Fusion 2.0 Beta 1, the first beta of the second iteration of their virtualization product for the Mac.

The video below gives you a tour of Fusion 2.0 Beta 1’s top new features, including:

Multiple monitor support (up to 10 displays!)
Improved networking and printing
Support for DirectX 9.0 Shader Model 2 (this is experimental, and it might not work on your Mac)
A refined UI for settings and VM management

There are more videos available on the product page.

Fusion 2.0 Beta 1 is available now, and the upgrade to the future version 2.0 will be free to all Fusion users.

ClearCube Spins Off Software Activities Into A New Company, VDIworks

May 6, 2008 by Robin Wauters 1 Comment

ClearCube today announced that its software business is being spun-off and launched as an independent new company called VDIworks. ClearCube will continue to provide solutions for centralized desktop computing, including end-to-end desktop virtualization, while VDIworks will focus on software management platforms for creating, deploying and managing virtual desktop infrastructure. As independent companies, ClearCube and VDIworks intend to maximize their business potential and gain the flexibility to meet the demands of their respective target markets.

VDIworks and ClearCube have signed an OEM agreement whereby ClearCube will continue to market and promote the VDIworks software under the current Sentral VDI Management Software brand. The Sentral management software will continue to be an integrated component of ClearCube’s complete centralized desktop computing solutions. ClearCube customers will continue to be supported in their current license agreements with ClearCube. VDIworks will establish additional OEM relationships with third-party solutions vendors so they can deploy virtual desktop solutions to their customers.

VDIworks will target the emerging market of desktop virtualization. The new company has received seed funding from current ClearCube investors and will be seeking additional funding to support its “rapid growth and high market demand”.

“ClearCube and VDIworks provide solutions within growth markets, and ClearCube’s investors recognized this and decided separating the technologies would allow each entity to fully capitalize on the market opportunities,” said Rick Hoffman, former president of ClearCube and now president of VDIworks. “Both companies immediately offer mature products and can point to successful customer installations. Both companies benefit from established internal development and sales teams. As a result, both companies present superior solutions that can provide rapid return on investment while improving enterprise security and IT management capabilities.”

ClearCube also announced today that former COO Randy Printz has been promoted to president and chief executive officer. His team includes Doug Layne, worldwide vice president of sales and marketing, and Jeana Thomas, senior director of alliances and channels.

In other news, ClearCube has issued a second press release touting its “record growth in 2007 and exceptional financial performance in Q1 of 2008”. ClearCube achieved 38 percent business growth in the second half over the first half of 2007, and 34 percent increase in net revenue in Q1 of 2008 over Q1 of 2007.

SunGard Leverages Virtualization For Disaster Recovery, Teams Up With VMware

May 5, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

SunGard Availability Services today announced a partnership with VMware, leveraging its virtualization technology to create a suite of simple, fully-managed AdvancedRecovery services, including managed virtual recovery services. The offering is expected to be available later this year.

“VMware’s virtualization platform is transforming disaster recovery by helping companies to protect a wide range of applications and data,” said Frank Casey, vice president of product strategy for SunGard. “We are working with VMware to create a faster, centralized and automated information availability service to help organizations of all sizes that need to protect both virtual and traditional IT environments. It is the next stage of SunGard’s commitment to delivering AvancedRecovery solutions to companies with varying IT infrastructure needs, and we are tapping the best minds and technologies in the industry to make this happen.”

Sungard Availability Services operates more than 3 million square feet of hardened facilities. Sungard Availability services range from 48-hour disaster recovery hot-sites to always-on, high-availability infrastructure and electronic vaulting services. It has more than 25,000 customers in more than 50 countries, including the world’s 50 largest financial services companies.

[Source: Data Center Knowledge]