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Citrix Releases XenServer 5.5

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Citrix yesterday announced the availability of Citrix XenServer 5.5, a new upgrade that it says raises the bar once again for “free, enterprise-class virtualization”.

Today’s announcement comes just 75 days after Citrix changed the game in server virtualization by making XenServer available for unlimited production deployment at no charge. Unlike basic hypervisors that have been free for years, XenServer sets an entirely new standard for free virtualization with powerful features such as centralized multi-node management, built-in storage and full live motion.

In the short period of time since its release, more than 100,000 customers have downloaded XenServer from hundreds of download sites in over 50 countries worldwide with overwhelmingly positive feedback. The new XenServer 5.5 release, available for download today, provides these customers even more value by adding a wide range of new enterprise management capabilities at no additional charge.

The XenServer 5.5 release available for download today adds a wide range of new features that enable easier virtualization management and broader integration with enterprise systems. The latest version now includes features such as consolidated backup, enhanced conversion and search tools, Active Directory integration and expanded guest support for virtually every version of Windows and Linux operating systems. With the new 5.5 release, XenServer provides all the functionality that typically costs up to $5,000 per server with other leading virtualization products.

Also available today is the new 5.5 release of Citrix Essentials for XenServer and Hyper-V, providing advanced virtualization management capabilities for customers using Citrix XenServer or MicrosoftWindows Server 2008 Hyper-V.  Citrix Essentials 5.5 enhances both of these high-growth virtualization platforms by adding expanded storage integration, automated lab and stage management and dynamic workload balancing.

In addition to the availability of the 5.5 product releases, Citrix also today announced the XenServer Central community website, a new resource for all things XenServer to help users enhance their use of the free enterprise-ready virtualization platform.  The XenServer Central website will feature the latest product information, tips and tricks, access to the Citrix KnowledgeCenter and web-based support forums. Offers from Citrix Ready partners for free or discounted licenses for complementary products will also be featured, as well as the latest XenServer content on CitrixTV, Twitter and the blogosphere.

XenServer Central will go live on June 19 at http://www.citrix.com/xenservercentral.

The new XenServer 5.5 release is immediately available for download here. Citrix Essentials 5.5 for XenServer and Hyper-V are also available immediately for purchase or a 30-day trial version on this website.  Suggested pricing for Citrix Essentials starts at $2,500 per server, regardless of the number of processors.

EMC Introduces Business Continuity Services Suite for VMware Environments

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EMC today announced a full range of new consulting, implementation, education and managed services that leverage EMC’s expertise in virtualization and business continuity. EMC Global Services can effectively integrate VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager into customers’ EMC business continuity environments to automate recovery of virtual environments.

Business continuity is a critical requirement in virtualized data centers as more mission-critical applications are virtualized. As a top-tier member of the VMware Partner Network with hundreds of VMware Certified Professionals (VCPs), and years of business continuity experience, EMC Global Services has the deep expertise to help customers address their availability and recovery challenges for virtual environments. EMC’s end-to-end solutions methodology applies best practices from both enterprise business continuity and virtualization disciplines to provide cost-effective recovery strategies for VMware environments. This approach leverages integration of EMC’s full portfolio of replication technology with the automation capabilities of VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager to provide a robust solution that mitigates risk. The following new EMC services help customers design and implement a consistent recovery strategy for x86 virtualized environments across the enterprise:

  • EMC Consulting services for VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager automate and provide a recovery strategy for virtualized infrastructures to integrate VMware vCenter Site Recovery manager into enterprise business continuity programs.
  • EMC Design and Implementation for VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager delivers a customized design and complete integration of VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager with customers’ existing business continuity plans.
  • EMC Education Services for VMware environments offers training modules including, VMware Integration with EMC Storage and Replication Technologies training for both EMC Symmetrix(R) and EMC CLARiiON(R), and VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager, to be proficient in installing, configuring, and operating VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager, as well as the testing of EMC disaster recovery plans.
  • EMC Residency Services for VMware environments provide the infrastructure management resources and expertise to manage the day-to-day operations of the virtual infrastructure.

VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager, when deployed in conjunction with EMC’s industry-leading portfolio of replication software including EMC SRDF (Symmetrix Remote Data Facility), EMC Celerra Replicator, EMC MirrorView and EMC RecoverPoint, enables customers to rapidly and efficiently bring their virtualized servers and mission-critical information online at a secondary site.

Customers who work with EMC Velocity2 Authorized Services Network (ASN) partners will also be able to accelerate the business benefits of integrating their EMC business continuity environments with VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager. Velocity2 ASN partners are trained, certified and field tested to provide value-add services in VMware environments, and channel partners who also VMware partner can further provide value to customers through their deep technical knowledge of EMC and VMware products.

EMC Global Services provides the strategic guidance and technology expertise organizations need to address their business and information infrastructure challenges and derive the maximum value from their information assets and investments. With over 13,000 professional- and support-service experts worldwide, plus a global network of alliances and partners, EMC Global Services leverages proven methodologies, industry best practices, experience and a knowledge base derived from EMC’s 30-year information-centric heritage to help customers reduce risk, lower costs and speed time to value. .

NextIO Raises $15 Million In Fourth Round Of Financing

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NextIO today announced that the company has received a $15 million round of Series D funding. NextIO is the industry leader in providing intelligent, rack-optimized I/O virtualization (IOV) solutions based on high-performance PCI Express (PCIe) switching technology.

NextIO received support not only from existing VCs and strategic investors, but participation from new strategic investment sources as well. The new funding will be used to expand NextIO’s sales, marketing and support and will allow the company to accelerate the delivery of its second-generation of Express Connect products.

Through I/O virtualization, NextIO products deliver an unprecedented combination of low cost, lower power consumption, greater ease of use, and greatly reduced maintenance requirements. For example, server rollouts that previously required days or weeks can be accomplished in less than 30 minutes, and routine server maintenance time is reduced from hours to minutes.

NextIO’s second-generation products build on the success of the company’s existing Express Connect products, which are at revenue and are currently being deployed in the U.S. and Europe. NextIO solutions are currently in use in a number of different markets for applications such as simulation, adding graphic processors to commodity computing environments, expanding I/O, speeding up existing I/O, and delivering new data center technologies.

Open Kernel Labs Introduces OK:Android

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Open Kernel Labs (OK Labs), provider of virtualization software for mobile phones and broadband internet devices, today introduced OK:Android, an off-the-shelf paravirtualized version of the Android smartphone platform.

Using Secure HyperCell Technology, OK:Android enables Android to be used as a guest operating system running in a secure hypercell on top of the OKL4 microvisor, the OK Labs mobile phone virtualization platform. OK:Android gives handset manufacturers (OEMs) a short path to developing and delivering new designs with Android. The combination of OK:Android and OKL4 also extends new levels of security and robustness to the increasingly popular smartphone OS from Google and the Open Handset Alliance (OHA).

To date, Android-based handsets have been delivered by Taiwan-based HTC, with additional designs announced by Motorola, Samsung and other handset OEMs. Although Google and the OHA have been successful in engaging device suppliers and building a developer community, semiconductor suppliers, mobile OEMs and mobile network operators (MNOs) still face the significant challenges involved in porting and hosting Android on current chipsets and on new mobile hardware. By providing a flexible framework for Android integration with specific handset hardware and a straightforward way to reuse legacy software in new Android devices, OK:Android helps reduce time to market for a new wave of Android devices.

Since its introduction in 2008, Android has enjoyed a rapidly-growing market presence and bullish prospects for new deployments. One million Android-based handsets have shipped in 2008 as indicated by HTC; and research and consulting firm Strategy Analytics projects nine times that number in 2009. “Virtualization technology is being evaluated by many handset OEMs today, primarily for its significant time-to-market benefits for new phone designs,” noted Andreas Constantinou, lead analyst at VisionMobile. OK Labs virtualization technology already ships in over 300 million mobile handsets, including Android-based devices where OKL4 runs on the baseband processor. With OK:Android and the OKL4 microvisor, OK Labs can further accelerate Android adoption for new designs.

The impact of OK:Android starts by helping OEMs bring designs to market faster, and further extends its impact by incorporating a range of benefits across the emerging Android ecosystem. In particular, OK:Android enables OEMs, MNOs and ISVs to:

  • Offer new options for creating and prototyping Android-based devices and applications with embedded virtualization.
  • Create more secure and robust mobile devices, applications and services with Android and OKL4.
  • Run Android together with other mobile OSes and/or deploy multiple instances of Android on a single device.
  • Consolidate hardware (e.g., base band and application CPU cores) for more aggressive price-points for Android-based handsets.
  • Create new Android-based devices enabled for mobile-to-enterprise virtualization (M2E). M2E is a set of joint solutions developed by Citrix Systems, Inc. and OK Labs for delivering enterprise applications to mobile devices.

OK:Android and OKL4 are available immediately from OK Labs and its global channel partners.

CA Buys Large Part Of Cassatt

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Remember our post about data center management software firm Cassatt Corproation being “close to the end” as quoted by the company’s founder and CEO Bill Coleman?

Well Computer Associates just announced the acquisition of certain data center automation and policy-based optimization expertise and assets from Cassatt, a provider of innovative cloud computing software that makes data centers more efficient. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Cassatt’s Rob Gingell, executive vice president of Product Development and Chief Technology Officer, and Steve Oberlin, Chief Scientist and co-founder, have joined CA, along with their team of developers, engineers, and other key employees. In addition, CA has acquired several Cassatt patents and patent applications, as well as other intellectual property.

CA’s business-driven automation solution helps customers reduce capital and operating costs and improve service quality by enabling dynamic, real-time response to changing business demands. The solution is instrumental in increasing business agility, service quality and control, as well as helping to reduce risk and human error, lower costs, and improve IT efficiency. By this optimization of value, CA automation helps customers achieve Lean IT.

Industry Moves: IT Veteran Don Bules Appointed CEO At Unidesk

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Virtual desktop management software maker Unidesk today announced that Don Bulens has joined the company as President and CEO.

Bulens is known for building and scaling IT infrastructure companies, as demonstrated most recently at EqualLogic, where he led the company to success in the networked data storage market and its $1.4 billion acquisition by Dell, and, earlier, at Lotus, where his channel development leadership was instrumental in the success of Lotus Notes. Bulens’ expertise in guiding companies and bringing transformational products to the global market is ideally suited for Unidesk as it begins to build its leadership position in the desktop virtualization and PC life cycle management software categories.

Bulens fortifies an executive team that has an impressive track record of delivering innovative IT infrastructure management solutions. His appointment enables Unidesk Founder Chris Midgley, who had been the company’s acting CEO, to focus full-time on his CTO role leading the company’s technical strategy and product vision. Bulens has also joined Midgley on Unidesk’s Board of Directors.

Bulens was most recently President and CEO of EqualLogic, provider of networked data storage systems that simplify how IT organizations store and protect information. Under his leadership, EqualLogic achieved stellar growth, doubling revenue each year and achieving the second largest market share in the fastest growing segment of the storage industry. In November 2007, while in the final stages of filing for an IPO, EqualLogic was acquired by Dell.

Bulens arrived at EqualLogic with extensive experience in early-stage and industry-leading companies. He was CEO of Trellix, a leading provider of web site publishing tools, through its sale to Interland, the largest provider of web hosting for small businesses. Earlier, at Lotus, Bulens led the creation of the channel and developer community that contributed to the extraordinary market growth of Lotus Notes.