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New VirtualBox Bible: Thou Shalt Be Named ‘Teleportation’ and Forget About vMotion

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Sun Microsystems today announced a new version of  Sun VirtualBox, its cross-platform virtualization software.

Their open source hypervisor is being downloaded an impressive 40.000 times a day and remains free for personal use. As a happy VirtualBox user, I also applaud Sun for providing the free bandwidth on that VirtualBox install file, which is between 42 Mb and 76 Mb (depending on the OS).

However, Sun also takes the opportunity to introduce ‘Teleportation’ to the virtualization industry with this VirtualBox 3.1 release and boldly claims the first Cross-Platform Live Migration of Virtual Machines. Sun’s ‘Teleportation’ capability is inspired by a Star Trek classic and allows “running virtual machines to be moved, uninterrupted between disparate hosts – including those on different operating systems, different classes of computer (e.g. server to client) and even different CPUs (e.g. Intel to AMD)…”

Most virtualization professionals have known this sexy feature for years… ever since VMware labeled it vMotion. Live Migration has also been added to Xen quite some time ago. It seems rather depending on your definition of ‘Cross Platform’ whether this really is a first, or rather an enhanced feature of what has been available for other hypervisors on other platforms…

Feel free to use the comment section below to list Sun’s Teleportation features which are not supported by your Virtualization vendor today.

Sun’s press realease continues: “By adding Teleportation and significant performance increases to its already impressive SMP and large workload capabilities, VirtualBox 3.1 now exhibits a full complement of enterprise hypervisor features. Teleportation helps virtual machines achieve high availability. When physical hardware needs to be taken down, the virtual workload can simply be teleported to another physical host. VirtualBox 3.1 also improves execution speed, with optimized memory handling delivering performance increases of 30% over the previous VirtualBox release; network performance, delivering increased throughput, while reducing CPU cycles, through a new high-speed, paravirtualized network driver; and display performance via a new 2D Video Acceleration feature for Windows guests. In addition, VirtualBox 3.1 offers new more powerful snapshotting features that help administrators move a virtual machine back or forward in time to any arbitrary snapshot state.

VirtualBox is open source software and popular: surpassing 20 million downloads worldwide since October 2007, with in excess of 40,000 downloads a day. VirtualBox software is free of charge for personal use. For wider deployments within an organization, enterprise licenses or subscriptions are also available, starting at $30 (USD) per user per year”.

Crossbeam Systems CMO Shares 2010 Virtualization Predictions

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“Virtualization holds enormous promise as the solution to the cost and complexity of managing security. In addition to a significant reduction in hardware and maintenance costs, as well as energy consumption, security virtualization also provides a flexible architecture that can help companies meet growing bandwidth demands, support cloud computing environments and effectively protect sensitive data from attacks.

But for all the benefits of virtualization, there remain key challenges when it comes to these high-performance, latency-sensitive applications. IT staff are wary about betting too much of their performance- and risk-sensitive IT infrastructure on a still-emerging technology. Also, because fewer people are virtualizing their security infrastructure, there is a general lack of experience—from both the vendors and the users—about the issues involved and know-how about how to solve them.

Securing network traffic in virtualized environments is extremely difficult for IT security staff to enforce and maintain as virtualized applications pass information back and forth and cross virtual “trust boundaries.” In an effort to enforce security policies between virtualized applications, IT staff end up creating virtual machine (VM) sprawl – caused by sets of security VMs for each boundary transition on the same servers – which has the potential to introduce even higher levels of risk to the organization as well as further degrade network performance. In short, IT has inadvertently transferred their problems from managing physical appliance sprawl to managing virtual appliance sprawl.”

Read the rest of this guest post by Jim Freeze, CMO at Crossbeam Systems over at VMblog.

VMware Beefs Up VMware Ready Program, Includes Application Software

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VMware today announced an important enhancement to its VMware Ready program, expanding the program to allow middleware and application software to qualify for the VMware Ready logo. The logo simplifies the purchase and deployment process for customers and prospects by signifying that qualified applications deliver outstanding performance and reliability when deployed on VMware vSphere — the industry’s leading virtualization platform.

Nearly 1,000 of the most widely used applications from independent software vendors (ISVs) support the VMware vSphere platform. Each month, dozens more applications are added to the supported list. These solutions include business applications such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) and human resource management (HRM) software, industry-specific applications such as electronic medical records and financial processing software, and middleware such as application servers and databases. As an extension to this rapidly growing list, ISVs whose applications qualify for the VMware Ready logo will benefit by gaining access to customer-focused branding from the undisputed leader in virtualization. ISVs will also be highlighted in the VMware Partner Product Catalog.

Customers who are making application purchase decisions for their VMware vSphere environments will see the VMware Ready logo and know these applications have been tested and are supported on VMware vSphere. The logo also means that these applications can take full advantage of VMware vSphere service-level controls for availability, security and scalability.

Adding application software to the VMware Ready program rounds out an already-robust program. Today, customers may select from more than 1,000 servers, 400 storage devices, 800 I/O products, and 450 operating system versions that have earned the VMware Ready logo. VMware is the only virtualization solution provider that offers customers such breadth and depth of certified and validated products from its partner community.

Instructions and requirements for participating in the VMware Ready Application Software program can be found at http://www.vmware.com/partners/programs/isv-center/vmware-ready-logo.html.

Additional information for ISVs that would like to partner with VMware is available in the VMware ISV Center at http://www.vmware.com/go/isvcenter.

IBM Leverages 40 Years Of Virtualization Experience To Secure Decade-Old VMware’s vSphere Platform

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IBM last week introduced IBM Virtual Server Security for VMware vSphere, a software product designed to help organizations secure and protect their virtual server infrastructure. The software will help safeguard virtual server environments and allows businesses a more secure path for transitioning critical assets to virtual enterprise data centers.

IBM has been working with clients to manage this strategic shift and simplify and optimize client infrastructures. While the migration to virtual environments offers many benefits, it also requires businesses to take unique measures to combat the next generation of security threats and compliance challenges. These measures are required because of reduced visibility and control that come with the addition of more information technology layers. Given this changing landscape, traditional security made for physical computing environments becomes inadequate as a sole solution.

The new IBM Virtual Server Security for VMware vSphere helps address these concerns, providing protection for every layer of the virtual infrastructure including the hypervisor, operating system, network, applications, server-based virtual desktops, virtual machine and traffic between virtual machines. By integrating with VMware VMsafe technology, the new software provides clients with better visibility, security granularity and scalability in their growing virtual data centers.

Automatic protection features include:

  • Virtual Network Access Control (VNAC) to limit network access from a virtual server until security posture is confirmed;
  • rootkit detection and prevention to increase virtual server uptime and availability;
  • virtual infrastructure monitoring and reporting to identify vulnerabilities;
  • autodiscovery and virtual network segment protection to provide visibility and control of the virtual infrastructure.

With the data center undergoing dynamic changes, the ability to manage, control and audit the actions of privileged and powerful system users and administrators across traditional and virtual environments becomes even more critical. All of the automatic protection features in the new software product can help clients to more easily meet compliance standards and regulation requirements. Additionally, this new offering complements already formidable IBM capabilities for securing the virtual environment, such as controlling access and monitoring privilege.

IBM Virtual Server Security for VMware vSphere will be available in December 2009.

Pano Logic Hires Former VMware Exec Chris Hammans for European Expansion

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Pano Logic today announced its European expansion and the appointment of former VMware executive Chris Hammans as Managing Director to lead the efforts from the UK.

Hammans will apply his more than 10 years experience in the virtualization industry from both VMware and Citrix to build a world-class organization for Pano Logic to meet the needs of European organizations. In expanding throughout Europe, Pano Logic is responding to rising market demand for its zero client desktop virtualization solution, which has achieved significant traction in education, health, government, manufacturing and service sectors.

A veteran high-tech exec, Hammans was instrumental in developing new markets throughout Europe for two leading virtualization companies, VMware and Citrix Systems. Most recently, Hammans was regional director at VMware, achieving unprecedented growth in both sales and market recognition during his six-year tenure. Prior to joining VMware, Hammans was enterprise director at Citrix Systems.

The Pano System is an all-in-one hardware and software desktop virtualization solution that radically redefines computing and enables users to simplify deployment and management of end user computing while slashing equipment, maintenance and support costs. Unlike any other VDI vendor, Pano Logic centralizes 100% of end user computing power onto the virtualized server.  There is no processor, no operating system, no memory, no drivers, no software and no moving parts in the zero client Pano Device – resulting in absolutely zero endpoint management.  The lifespan of a Pano Device is over three times that of a thin client or PC and it uses less than 3 percent of a PC’s energy.

Sun Microsystems Introduces New Desktop Virtualization Capabilities in Sun Ray Software 5

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Sun Microsystems today announced the availability of Sun Ray Software 5, which brings remarkable enhancements to the virtual desktop experience and helps to increase data center efficiency.

Sun Ray Software 5 is a secure, cost effective solution that delivers a rich, virtual Windows, Linux or Solaris(TM) Operating System desktop to nearly any client device including Windows PCs and Sun Ray thin clients. As part of the Sun desktop virtualization portfolio, many of the features of Sun Ray Software 5 will also appear in the upcoming release of Sun VDI Software 3.1.

A major benefit for new and existing customers of Sun Ray Software is the new Sun(TM) Desktop Access Client. This new software client provides end-users the flexibility to utilize their existing Windows laptops or desktop PCs, as an alternative to Sun Ray thin clients, to easily access data and applications in a centralized virtual desktop environment. With the Sun Desktop Access Client customers now have a simplified, user-friendly means of accessing the Sun Ray infrastructure, which can help to extend the life of current PC assets and reduce the environmental impact of frequent desktop refreshes.

An additional enhancement in Sun Ray Software 5 is improved Adobe Flash performance, which enables customers to experience accelerated Adobe Flash content with synchronized audio and video on Sun Ray thin clients and Sun Desktop Access Client enabled PCs. The new release also includes greater peripheral device support to virtual desktops through USB redirection to Windows, allowing users to deploy a significantly expanded set of USB peripheral devices with Sun Ray technology, including scanners, printers, and more. In addition, Sun Ray Software 5 allows customers to display Windows Server 2008 applications in 32 bit color and includes support for Windows Server 2008 TS Session Broker.

Sun Ray Software 5 is available now for $100 per concurrent user for the perpetual license.