Robin Wauters

Cobweb Automates Hosted CRM Solutions With Parallels

April 16, 2008 by Robin Wauters 1 Comment

Parallels has been deployed by the European provider of hosting services Cobweb as the first service provider to use Parallels Automation with the hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.

Developed as a fully integrated customer relationship management (CRM) system, Cobweb has purchased the Parallels Automation solution to automate the delivery of several new hosting offerings and service bundles. Using a single login, service providers can deliver integrated offerings that include multiple services such as hosted Microsoft Exchange, hosted Windows SharePoint Services and hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Serguei Beloussov, CEO of Parallels noted, ”We are pleased that Cobweb is using the full potential of our Parallels Automation solution to centrally manage a wide variety of hosting services. This deployment demonstrates how Parallels Open Platform is helping service providers deliver advanced business applications using the software-as-a-service (SaaS) delivery model.”

Dan Germain, Chief Technical Officer of Cobweb added, ”Using Parallels Automation, Cobweb can manage a wide variety of hosted offerings from a single, centralized system and can create unique service bundles using Microsoft Exchange, Windows SharePoint Services, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, ZANTAZ Email Archiving and shared web hosting. Parallels Automation connects the underlying technical services together in a manner that delivers real business benefits and solutions to our customers.”

Parallels Automation for Dynamics CRM includes pre-defined deployments, installation services and marketing support for service providers that want to deploy hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Pricing includes a one-time implementation fee and monthly licensing fees based on active users.

[Source: The Hosting News]

Dell Now Offers Five Server Platforms Based On Quad-Core AMD Opteron

April 16, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

AMD today announced that Dell is now offering five server platforms based on Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors. This news follows last week’s announcement that Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors are generally available, and brings the number of available global OEM platforms based on the new processors to 13. Additionally, AMD is announcing today that VMware has completed qualification of Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors for use in VMware ESX and ESXi hypervisor deployments, enabling customers to leverage the latest in VMware virtualization on these server systems.

Dell servers now supporting Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors include the PowerEdge SC1435, 2970, M605 blade server and 6950 platforms, as well as the new PowerEdge T605 tower server. The T605, aimed at SMEs or remote locations, offers features such as hot-plug hard drives, remote management and redundant power supplies, resulting in high-availability systems that help prevent data access loss and increase uptime.

“Dell is delivering on its vision to simplify IT by providing customers with a seamless and simple upgrade path to Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors on PowerEdge servers,” said Brad Anderson, senior vice president, Dell Business Product Group. “The combination of AMD’s most advanced processors running on Dell PowerEdge servers provides an optimal balance of performance and energy efficiency across a variety of customer solutions, from general purpose and remote office to high-performance compute clusters and virtualized data center environments.”

[Source: Hardocp]

What’s The ROI Of Virtualization?

April 16, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Cost reduction is always mentioned as one of the benefits of virtualization, but there are little case studies featuring actual numbers available to prove it. That’s why this post on Server Virtualization Blog by Eric Siebert was a refreshing read. Eric writes:

In today’s world the cost of just about everything has been on the rise. Fuel costs in particular have a ripple effect on just about everything we buy which also affects computers. That’s why virtualization is a great way to offset those increased costs. Providing power and cooling to a data center can be a very big expense, virtualizing servers can dramatically reduce this cost. PlateSpin provides a nice power savings calculator on their website. If we plug in the following numbers:

200 physical servers

average usage of 750 watts per server

average processor utilization of 10% before virtualization

target processor utilization of 60% after virtualization

The average power and cooling savings a year comes out to $219,000 with a consolidation ratio of 5:1 based on a cost per kilowatt hour of 10 cents. As the cost of power increases the savings become even greater, at 12 cents the cost savings become $262,800 per year and at 15 cents the cost savings become $328,500 per year.

Of course savings will vary based on a number of factors including how well utilized your physical servers are before virtualization, your consolidation ratio which can sometimes be as high as 15:1 and also your location. Different parts of the country average different costs per kilowatt hour, California and New York tend to be the highest at 12 – 15 cents per kilowatt hour where Idaho and Wyoming are the cheapest at about 5 cents per kilowatt hour. Power costs tend to rise a lot more then they go down so the argument for virtualization from a cost perspective becomes much easier when you factor in the potential savings.

Full post here.

VirtualLogix’ VLX for Network Infrastructure Now Available for Power Architectures

April 16, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

VirtualLogix today announced that its VLX for Network Infrastructure is now available for Power Architecture based processors. Using VLX virtualization software, multiple operating systems may run simultaneously on shared hardware, “enabling networking and telecommunication equipment manufacturers to inject new functionalities into existing product lines and extend product lifecycles – while slicing costs by consolidating existing products into a multifunction system”.

According to the company, VLX for Network Infrastructure, supporting Power Architecture, speeds the adoption of rich open source software by combining Linux with real-time operating systems on shared hardware without compromising the system’s deterministic realtime behavior.

“This seamless integration is due to the advanced capabilities of VLX that allow multiple guest operating systems to run simultaneously in a number of different configurations based on performance and security criteria. As a result, users can extend the lifetime of existing designs by adding extra partitions to run upgraded or new features and consolidate functionality. By simplifying the hardware design, organizations reduce bill-of-materials and development costs, and reduce power consumption.”

New VLX for Network Infrastructure, supporting Power Architecture, features include:

Real-Time Virtualization – allows developers to run a combination of guest operating systems including Linux and a customer’s choice of real-time OS while keeping the real-time performance characteristics of their overall system.
Consolidation of hardware platforms – developers can consolidate Linux and mission-critical environments onto a single hardware platform, reducing system complexity and product bill-of-material costs.
Introduces support for Freescale’s popular PowerQUICC processors – includes support for the Integrated Communications and Host Processors from Freescale as well as the 32-bit PowerPC microprocessors from IBM.

[Source: VMblog]

xkoto Presents New Management Team

April 16, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Xkoto, a provider of data virtualization solutions that ensure availability and scalability for mission-critical data and applications, today announced it has strengthened its executive management team.

Joining xkoto are John Hamilton (Senior Vice President of Sales and Services), Dermot O’Grady (Chief Financial Officer) and Charlie Ungashick (Vice President of Marketing).

“The management team we have assembled puts us in excellent position to take a major share of the data virtualization market,” said David Patrick, President and Chief Executive Officer. “We are now geared up to build on the vision of our co-founders, Albert Lee, Ariff Kassam and Jeff Heisz, who identified the need for a product that would dramatically improve application availability by virtualizing the database infrastructure.”

Prior to joining xkoto, John Hamilton was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Trigence, an application virtualization software company. Dermot O’Grady joins xkoto from Convoq, where as CFO he was instrumental in raising $23 million in venture capital, according to the press release.

Finally, Charlie Ungashick joined xkoto from Deltek, where he was Vice President of Field and Product Marketing and a “key contributor to its successful IPO”.

CEO David Patrick said the team is ramping sales of xkoto’s GRIDSCALE software platform.

VKernel Announces Availability For ESX Virtualization Capacity Bottleneck Analyzer

April 15, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

VKernel Corporation, a provider of virtual appliances for managing virtual server environments, today announced general availability of its Capacity Bottleneck Analyzer Virtual Appliance. Other than being a mouthful, the Capacity Bottleneck Analyzer immediately identifies current and future capacity bottleneck issues in VMware ESX environments, which can lower the cost of each virtual machine while ensuring
higher performance.

From the press release (PDF):

“VKernel’s patent-pending technology continuously monitors CPU, memory, and storage utilization trends in VMware ESX environments across hosts, clusters, and resource pools. VKernel’s quick-to-install virtual appliance model gives users a simple, single-screen management dashboard that displays detailed capacity information to effectively plan for the addition of new hosts, clusters, and resource pools. By customizing capacity thresholds, users can receive alerts via email and SNMP.”

“When properly detecting capacity bottlenecks, organizations can increase performance and reduce downtime problems that lead to escalating business and IT costs and negative perceptions of virtualization within business units,” said Alex Bakman, founder and CEO of VKernel. “The real challenge for IT staffs is finding a solution that helps them identify capacity bottlenecks without wasting countless man-hours sifting through hundreds of management reports. Within minutes, our Capacity Bottleneck Analyzer can show exactly where capacity bottlenecks are today and where problems are likely to occur to maximize virtual machine utilization.”

The VKernel Capacity Bottleneck Analyzer Virtual Appliance is currently available with pricing starting at $199 per CPU socket. You can download a full production 14-day trial version of the VKernel virtual appliance here.

[Source: Server Virtualization Blog]