Robin Wauters

An Update On The New Virtualization.com

February 25, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

After having soft-launched the new Virtualization.com, here’s a few updates on what we’ve been up to so far:

Videos

We’ve started our Virtualization Video Series featuring interviews with Matt Rechenburg (openQRM), Frank Kohler (Suse Novell, now Citrix XenSource), Werner Fisher (Thomas-Krenn.AG), John Abbott (The 451 Group) and Tarry Singh (Avastu Research). Loads of new video interviews coming after VMWorld Europe!

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Track us elsewhere

We have our own Twitter account, and you can also join our Facebook Group.

Careers in virtualization

Our job board is taking shape, you can already start posting open positions.

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Interested in advertising on Virtualization.com? Get in touch and learn more about our special launch promotions.

Video: Interview with Tarry Singh, Real-time Analyst at Avastu Research

February 24, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

The interview below is part of our Virtualization Video Series, a recurring theme we want to implement on Virtualization.com featuring interviews with key players from the industry, event reports, etc.

This interview was recorded at the Profoss 2008 event on Virtualisation and features Tarry Singh, Real-time Analyst at Avastu Research being interviewed by Toon Vanagt on what’s happening in the virtualization industry.

PART 1

PART 2

Video: Interview with John Abbott, Chief Analyst & Research Director at The 451 Group

February 24, 2008 by Robin Wauters 1 Comment

This interview was recorded at the Profoss 2008 event on Virtualisation and features John Abbott, Chief Analyst & Research Director at The 451 Group.

PART 1

PART 2

Former Microsoft Executive Paul Maritz Joins EMC To Head Cloud Computing Initiatives

February 22, 2008 by Robin Wauters 3 Comments

Microsoft’s cloud computing team will not be happy to learn about this: Paul Maritz, former senior executive at Microsoft, is to become president of EMC‘s cloud computing initiative, which competes directly with the Redmond-based software giant.

Maritz is rejoining the corporate world after seven years of dabbling in startups and philanthropy, now that his company Pi Corporation, a Seattle-based information management provider, has been acquired by EMC. The 100-person company will continue to operate as a standalone entity, similar to the way EMC lets VMWare run independently.

When the deal is finalized, Maritz will become president and general manager of EMC’s new Cloud Infrastructure and Services Division reporting to CEO Joe Tucci.The release reads:

“He will continue to directly oversee development and operations for Pi, along with other key elements of EMC’s cloud computing strategy, which include the EMC Fortress SaaS infrastructure, the Mozy online backup service and other upcoming EMC cloud infrastructure systems and software offerings under development.”

EMC wouldn’t say how much it paid in the all-cash deal, but said it should be done within the first quarter of 2008 and will “be dilutive by $.01 per diluted share in 2008.”

[Source: The Seattle Times]

A Look At Cloudo, Another Attempt To Popularize The WebOS

February 22, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Recently, a new web-based operating systems (WebOS) launched its private beta suite in another attempt to bring the desktop to the browser. Its name is Cloudo, it was made in Sweden and it was previously a part of Xindesk which has now separated itself into two entities, the other being an open widget platform dubbed WidgetPlus.

There are a number of web-based operating systems already on the market, e.g. G.ho.st, Jooce, YouOS, eyeOS and DesktopTwo to name but a few, and Cloudo doesn’t bring a lot of new things to the table yet: it features file hosting, virtual desktop widgets, applications, e-mail and contact management and eventually a full suite of programs you’d expect from a regular desktop OS. You can sign up for the beta here.

Virtualization may be big in the business market, but is a web-based OS really something consumers are waiting for?

[Sources: Web 2.0 weblog and TechCrunch (trackback)]

Gartner: Server Market Doing Fine Until Further Notice

February 22, 2008 by Robin Wauters 1 Comment

A new report from Gartner shows the server market did great during all of 2007, including the fourth quarter. Server shipments rose 11 % during the fourth quarter, while revenue rose almost 3 %. The world’s server vendors combined to ship 2.4 million boxes during the fourth quarter and brought in $ 15.5 billion for their efforts. In all of 2007, shipments rose 7 %, while revenue jumped 4 %. For the entire year, vendors moved more than 8.8 million units and generated $ 54.8 billion in revenue, according to Gartner.

The rise of virtualization and the general economic slowdown, combined with trimmed budgets at the financial services companies, has left a lot of analysists proclaiming a big slowdown and even downfall in hardware sales. But so far, the sky seems blue.

Out of the top vendors, Hewlett-Packard enjoyed the strongest fourth quarter in terms of shipments. It grew 12 % year-over-year, while Dell grew at 9 %, IBM grew at 7 % and Sun declined by 6 %. Fujitsu-Siemens also enjoyed a super quarter with 18 % growth.

Vendor	Q4 Shipments	Gain/Loss
1) HP	702,100	12%
2) Dell	499,687	8.8%
3)IBM	372,701	7.4%
4)Sun	84,778	-6.3%
5)Fujitsu/Siemens	75,882	17.9%

Almost all of the vendors saw their revenue rise during the fourth quarter. IBM stood out as the lone laggard, despite it talking an awful lot lately about how strong its server business is.

Vendor	Revenue	Gain/Loss
1) IBM	$5.3bn	-0.8%
2)HP	$4.4bn	7.6%
3)Dell	$1.6bn	4.1%
4)Sun	$1.49bn	1.0%
5)Fujitsu/Siemens	$616k	2.1%

For the full year, HP stood out with 17 % growth in shipments, leading the herd. Sun was the biggest loser, dropping 8.3 %. In revenue, Dell was the main gainer, showing sales growth of 13.2 %. HP notched 9 % growth as well, while the rest of the vendors were in the low single digits.

Everyone moved a ton of x86 boxes and benefited from double-digit growth in terms of shipments. HP, Fujistu-Siemens and Sun had double-digit revenue growth as well, while Dell came in at 4 % and IBM hit 7 % growth.”Blade servers continue to be a high-growth segment with a revenue increase of 44.5 % and a shipment increase of 19.9 % for the year,” Gartner said. “HP was the 2007 leader with blades at a 41.7 % shipment share, with IBM being in second place at 30.9 %. These two vendors continued to dominate this form factor and totaled almost 78 % of the worldwide blade revenue share for 2007.”

[Source and tables: The Register]