Robin Wauters

Egenera BladeFrame Systems Now Come With VMware Virtualization

April 14, 2008 by Robin Wauters 2 Comments

Egenera today announced the general availability of VMware virtualization on Egenera systems with full support from Egenera and its resellers. Under the companies’ original equipment manufacturing (OEM) agreement announced in 2007, customers can purchase VMware Infrastructure 3 with the Egenera BladeFrame system, a platform designed to support large-scale virtualized deployments of critical applications with high levels of availability and scalability.

The Egenera BladeFrame system combines diskless server blades with PAN Manager software, an infrastructure virtualization product that virtualizes data center infrastructure and delivers a highly available, flexible computing platform. Using VMware virtualization, customers can create and run virtual machines on the BladeFrame system to partition Egenera Processing Blade modules and run multiple OS’s and applications on a single blade.

“VMware and Egenera offer complementary technologies. We’re pleased that customers can now deploy VMware virtualization on the BladeFrame platform with the peace of mind that their investments are fully supported by Egenera,” said Brian Byun, vice president of global partners and solutions, VMware, Inc. “As our relationship grows, we see additional areas for collaboration in managing both physical and virtual assets. We hope to further extend the business value of VMware virtualization and continue providing joint solutions that enable customers to reduce operating expenses, improve business continuity, strengthen security and go green.”

Egenera recently inked an OEM deal with Dell. Dell has agreed to resell and ship Egenera’s Processing Area Network (PAN) Manager I/O virtualization software on its PowerEdge servers by June of this year.

[Source: Marketwire]

Pano Logic Expands Virtualization Offering, Adds Support for WAN And VMware Virtual Desktop Manager (VDM)

April 14, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Startup Pano Logic today announced a major new software release for its desktop virtualization solution. By leveraging existing virtual infrastructure and integrating hardware at the desktop with software in the data center, Pano Logic aims to provide the most complete and easiest-to-use virtual desktop solution on the market.

The new release, Pano Virtual Desktop Solution (VDS) 2.0, can be deployed in new environments and network topologies, providing support for wide area network (WAN) deployments, dual monitor requirements, and offering certified support for wireless bridges and USB devices. Also, as a further extension of the partnership between Pano Logic and VMware, Pano VDS 2.0 fully integrates support for VMware Virtual Desktop Manager (VDM), giving users even greater deployment flexibility.

“Desktop virtualization solutions that leverage existing server virtualization infrastructure represent an opportunity for IT organizations to extend the value of their investments. Hosting virtual desktops on servers enables IT departments to eliminate the PC for portions of their userbase, thereby significantly reducing help desk support costs,” said Michael Rose, an IDC research analyst covering virtualization software. “We are seeing these virtual desktops increasingly being made accessible to users on the edge of the network, and as such the new WAN support available in Pano’s VDS 2.0 can help provide a more realistic and flexible environment for many users leveraging Pano Logic’s devices.”

The new features in Pano VDS 2.0:

Optimization for wide area network (WAN) deployments – enabling organizations to deploy Pano Logic at remote offices while keeping the desktop virtual machines and data storage secure in the corporate or regional data center.
Support for VMware Virtual Desktop Manager (VDM) – allowing for easy integration into existing desktop virtualization deployments which use the VDM interface for management, ensuring that users can leverage existing investments and use the management tools familiar to them.
Dual-monitor support – enabling easy administration of dual-monitor groups, providing users with the ability to easily roam to and from a dual-monitor workstation while optimizing their display settings.
Certification for wireless bridge and USB devices – allowing for wireless bridge certification which enables and certifies compatibility with a number of low-cost and widely available third-party wireless to Ethernet bridges, as well as extending support for composite USB devices such as personal digital assistants, cell phones, and combination printer/flash card readers. This new support enables Pano devices to replace PCs in critical support intensive point of service and point of sale environments.

[Source: eWeek]

Smart Marketing: Marathon Technologies Shares Tips On Server Virtualization

April 14, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Marathon Technologies, who recently announced availability of its everRun VM virtualization tool set, has issued a press release today, offering “top tips to know before starting with server virtualization”. Smart marketing as far as we’re concerned; we’ll let you be the judge of the quality.

You can find all 5 tips on Marathon’s blog, so we won’t spoil it for them and only give away the headlines:

Make the business case for server virtualization
Consider the license and support implications
Afford to spend the time to plan
Assess levels of application availability and risk to business continuity
Demonstrate that virtualization won’t impact end users

You can find the whole list with explanation on ‘Are you available tonight?‘, the company’s blog.

Marathon also has a webinar recording available with John Humphreys, Program Vice President, Virtualization Software for IDC, “Making the Case for Server Virtualization,” in which John provides essential guidance in making your business case.

[Source: Marketwire]

Phoenix Buys TouchStone

April 14, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Phoenix Technologies recently announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire TouchStone Software Corporation, a company specialized in computer diagnostics and development of PC update technology. Under the terms of the agreement, TouchStone shareholders will receive $1.48 in cash for each share of TouchStone common stock, representing a 29% premium over the closing price of TouchStone’s stock on April 9, 2008.

According to the press release, Phoenix Technologies’ acquisition of TouchStone will enable the company to develop a strong online presence and infrastructure for web-based service delivery. Phoenix will offer services based on TouchStone technology to PC OEMs/ODMs, SMBs and consumers, as well as incorporate the technology into its own products.

“Following close on the heels of our BeInSync announcement, this acquisition is yet another giant leap forward in our effort to simplify all aspects of the PC user experience,” said Woody Hobbs, President and CEO of Phoenix Technologies. “Our PC 3.0 vision is all about simplifying PC users’ lives. With the acquisition of TouchStone, we are taking PC management technology to the ‘one-click’ level as well as strengthening our ability to support online delivery models. We are also broadening our opportunities for new market share gains and new sources of revenue via the web.”

The acquisition, which is expected to close in Q2 of 2008, is subject to customary closing conditions, including approval by the stockholders of TouchStone. special meeting of TouchStone’s stockholders will be scheduled as soon as practicable following the preparation and filing of proxy materials with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

You might remember Phoenix Technologies was the company that reportedly put pressure on Microsoft by filing a complaint with regulators sometime after early November 2007, arguing that Microsoft should open the less-expensive versions of Vista to virtualization (which it did).

[Source: VMBlog]

Reading Tip: “Do Hypervisors Need A Supravisor?”

April 14, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Check out this article on IT-Analysis.com from Clive Longbottom, Head of Research at Quocirca.

After a good overview of the current virtualization market, he asks himself and readers if there is a need for a ‘supravisor’ on top of existing hypervisors, by which he means a way of providing a high-speed, ultra-transparent means of abstracting the abstraction layer, giving a fully standardized platform under which different hypervisors can operate.

Well worth the read, here’s an abstract:

“What it all points to is the likelihood that an organisation will end up with a heterogeneous virtualised environment, with 2 or more main virtualisation technologies creating issues for management, provisioning and auditing of the environment.

One of the main needs here will be for image management. A function or application that is needed has to be provisioned into the virtualised environment. The best way of doing this is from virtual images. Unfortunately, a virtual image saved on a VMware platform (often known as a virtual appliance) cannot be easily deployed under a different virtualised environment, as the images are dependent on the proprietary form of the specific virtualisation engine.”

…

“This supravisor need not be massively intelligent itself—it may be that all that is required is a means of carrying out fast V2V image translations and ensuring that a management console understands what the underlying environment is before provisioning. It may be something more—something that means that a single image can be used directly on top of a standardised layer. It may be that as time goes on, a supravisor subsumes the existing virtualisation technologies already in use. The ones who could do this are the systems management vendors—the likes of IBM Tivoli, CA, HP and BMCs and Microsoft—but will they?”

Read the full article here.

HP To Support Citrix XenDesktop Across ProLiant Servers And Compaq Thin Clients

April 14, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

HP today announced it plans to support Citrix XenDesktop upon its availability next month across its HP ProLiant server and HP Compaq thin client product lines.

Citrix XenDesktop, currently in beta, is a complete desktop virtualization solution that makes desktop delivery simple, secure and cost-effective. HP, one of the world’s leading thin-client providers, is delivering integrated access to XenDesktop deployments to provide customers with thin clients that enhance the user experience and reduce IT costs through what the company dubs “simplified lifecycle management”.

“HP offers a broad range of desktop solutions that make virtualization a reality for a very wide range of worker and IT infrastructure types,” said Roberto Moctezuma, vice president and general manager, Desktop Solutions Organization, HP. “The combination of HP virtualization and Citrix’s XenDesktop will provide IT departments with an excellent solution for simple and secure management of their desktop base while providing users an optimal computing experience.”

The addition of XenDesktop support also builds on HP’s recent introduction of HP ProLiant iVirtualization powered by Citrix XenServer. This combination allows HP customers to easily take advantage of Citrix’s full application and desktop delivery solutions to help make their IT infrastructures more flexible and dynamic from the desktop to the data center.

[Source: press release]