Virtualization.com

News and insights from the vibrant world of virtualization and cloud computing

Robin Wauters

Quest Acquires ChangeBASE

by Leave a Comment

Quest Software earlier this morning announced that it has acquired ChangeBASE, a privately-held software provider based in the UK, which specializes in automated application analysis, remediation and conversion for target platforms including Windows 7 and 8, Internet Explorer 8 and 9, Terminal Server/Remote Desktop Session Host, VDI, and Application Virtualization.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

The acquisition represents an expansion of Quest’s product portfolio that allows companies to develop a user-centric management focus for their Windows application, desktop, mobile, and cloud environments.

ChangeBASE offers an entire product portfolio that automates the three most resource-intensive processes around application migration– analysis, remediation and conversion. The products automatically test and fix applications before deployment to new or upgraded platforms, which can speed up packaging delivery by 75 percent while improving accuracy and manageability.

This solution set delivers immediate value to companies that need to assess the application suitability for deployment with their desktop virtualization technologies (Terminal Server, Remote Desktop Session Host, or VDI).

In these instances, ChangeBASE provides an essential on-ramp for adoption and expansion of Quest vWorkspace. Organizations can leverage the two solutions to rapidly assess their application estate, and determine application productivity once deployed from vWorkspace.

Release: rPath Cloud Engine (Application Automation For Private, Hybrid Clouds)

by Leave a Comment

rPath, the application engine provider for the private cloud, has announced the general availability of rPath Cloud Engine, a new software solution that empowers cloud technology vendors and managed service providers with the ability to deliver critical applications with consistency, reliability and speed. I

n addition to end-to-end application management, rPath Cloud Engine also plugs and plays into any cloud technology ecosystem, helping these vendors and MSPs to differentiate their offering to enterprise customers with bulletproof application delivery.

rPath Cloud Engine features a model-driven approach to provisioning and update that is push-button simple. rPath Cloud Engine automatically generates software configurations based on an application’s current run-time environment, eliminating the need for labor-intensive, error-prone approaches to image creation, such as golden images and manual scripts.

The rPath Cloud Engine is available now and can be purchased directly through rPath’s global sales organization and its certified partners.

While rPath Cloud Engine can be easily integrated into any private cloud stack, information on its integration with Cisco Intelligent Automation for Cloud (CIAC) is currently available online.

Desktone Partners With VMware To Deliver Desktop-as-a-Service Offering

by Leave a Comment

Desktone, provider of Desktops-as-a-Service (DaaS), today announced it is partnering with VMware to deliver a new desktop-as-a-service solution.

The solution will make it easy for service providers to offer full-featured, highly cost-effective virtual desktops.

The joint VMware-Desktone roadmap includes:

– Desktone DaaS Platform: Launched more than four years ago for delivering cloud-hosted DaaS. Features such as multi-tenancy, grid architecture, role separation, and cloud economics achieved through substantial use of open source, are what make the Desktone offering attractive.

– VMware View 5 with PCoIP display protocol: Enables service providers to enhance their Desktone-powered DaaS solutions by providing an end-user experience that is comparable to that available with a physical PC.

– VMware vSphere 5 and cloud infrastructure suite: Enables service providers to leverage the industry’s leading cloud infrastructure platform providing security, reliability, high availability, reduced cost and optimal performance for cloud-hosted desktops.

– VMware vCloud technology: Enables service providers to take advantage of common orchestration and automation by integrating the Desktone Platform directly with a hypervisor.

The VMware View-based DaaS offering will be available to service providers later this year.

Release: PHD Virtual Monitor For VMware

by Leave a Comment

PHD Virtual Technologies, provider of virtual machine backup and recovery, and virtualization monitoring solutions, has announced the availability of PHD Virtual Monitor for VMware, extending its portfolio of end-to-end monitoring solutions designed for virtualization environments.

PHD Virtual Monitor provides cost effective, easy to use, end-to-end monitoring of the entire VMware and Citrix XenServer infrastructure including virtual, physical, application, network and storage resources.

PHD Virtual provides heterogeneous support today for VMware, XenServer and Hyper-V environments and plans to extend its monitoring product portfolio to support Citrix XenDesktop and XenApp and VMware View in the near future.

PHD Virtual Monitor is unique and different from other monitoring solutions that typically rely on either agent only or hypervisor only methods of monitoring, which can create “blind spots” in the IT infrastructure. PHD Virtual Monitor eliminates monitoring “blind spots”, providing complete, centralized end-to-end visibility of VMware and XenServer environments.

Cisco, Citrix Join Forces To Deliver Rich Media-Enabled Virtual Desktops

by 1 Comment

Cisco and Citrix Systems have announced that they have entered into a strategic alliance to develop and deliver solutions that help customers simplify and accelerate large-scale desktop virtualization deployments.

Through this alliance, Cisco and Citrix will drive innovations that simplify the deployment of high-definition virtual desktops and applications and improve end-user experiences over a Citrix HDX-enabled Cisco network.

The companies will also continue to enhance and build upon their data center solutions and cloud technologies to help accelerate deployment of cloud services.

In addition, the two companies will invest in joint go-to-market activities that will focus on driving primary product and services demand in high growth market areas such as desktop virtualization and cloud markets.

Actifio Names Former IBM System Storage VP Jim Sullivan As President

by 1 Comment

Actifio today announced that Jim Sullivan has been named president.

In this role, Sullivan leads go-to-market activities for Actifio as it establishes leadership in an entirely new class of storage.

Most recently, Sullivan was vice president, worldwide sales, IBM System Storage.

Actifio has pioneered the industry’s first storage system optimized for managing copies of production data, eliminating redundant silos of IT infrastructure and data management applications.

Prior to it being acquired by IBM, Sullivan served as president of XIV, a market leader of next generation storage arrays.

Sullivan also had an outstanding 12-year tenure at EMC where he executed one of the storage industry’s fastest growths in sales, holding numerous leadership positions and culminating in the role of senior vice president of sales. Sullivan also served on the Board at AppIQ (acquired by HP) and Diligent (acquired by IBM), and is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization devoted to the professional and personal growth of business leaders around the world.

By introducing virtualization into data management, Actifio delivers an application-centric, SLA-driven solution that decouples the management of data from storage, network and server infrastructure and reduces costs by 10X. Actifio is proving to be the best data management solution for the virtual server environment and is being rapidly deployed in VMware environments.