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Veeam’s Backup & Replication To Gain Support For Microsoft Hyper-V

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Veeam Software, provider of VMware data protection, disaster recovery and VMware management solutions for virtual datacenter environments, today announced at Tech·Ed North America that it is adding support for Windows Server Hyper-V and Microsoft Hyper-V Server to Veeam Backup & Replication, its data protection solution for virtual environments.

By extending support to Hyper-V, Veeam is providing:

– 2-in-1 backup and replication for Hyper-V
– Changed block tracking for Hyper-V
– Built-in deduplication and compression

Veeam Backup & Replication for Microsoft Hyper-V will be available to customers in the fourth quarter of 2011.

VMware Acquires Shavlik Technologies

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Virtualization software juggernaut VMware this morning announced that it has agreed to buy Shavlik Technologies, a provider of cloud-based IT management solutions for small and medium businesses (SMBs).

Financial terms of the acquisition, which is expected to be completed later this year, were not disclosed, but Mark Shavlik was ‘happy‘ to announce the agreement: “I want to thank all Shavlik employees past and present as well as our partners. Because of your hard work and dedication, we were able to build a great company…Our two companies have a long-term relationship built upon VMware GO™, our joint SaaS based IT Management solution. VMware GO assists SMBs with rapid deployment and management of VMware vSphere, the VMware Hypervisor and general IT management of both physical and virtual computers. VMware GO has attracted over 200,000 registered users creating more than 20,000 VMware Hypervisors and 120,000 Virtual machines. Shavlik and VMware share a vision of IT Management for now and the future. A vision of delivering solid, easy to use IT solutions to SMBs to enable customers to take full advantage of the efficiencies gained with the latest technologies. ”

Shavlik Technologies was founded in 1993 to offer a new approach to security application design and development that enabled us to take big steps in the simplification of computer security while at the same time creating a very trustworthy product. Since then, we have grown to help thousands of customers simplify their IT management.

Shavlik Technologies provides on-premise and SaaS-based management solutions that enable SMBs to manage, monitor and secure their IT environments when moving to virtual and cloud computing IT deployments.

Some view this acquisition as a way for VMware to ‘shield’ their customers from popular configuration management and deployment tools, such as Puppet, Opscode’s Chef, and even Microsoft’s System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM).

According to VMware’s press release, Shavlik currently has more than 3,500 customers using their on premise IT management products.

CommVault Releases Results Of End-User Virtualization Survey

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CommVault last week released the results of its Virtualization Survey, which polled Simpana software customers worldwide to determine the key factors driving adoption of server virtualization and the major challenges associated with managing these environments.

-A total of 479 respondents underscored the continued rise in server virtualization, with 46 percent of those polled citing that between 51- and 85-percent of their total servers were virtualized while 21 percent reported successful virtualization of all or nearly all servers. VMware was listed as the virtualization platform of choice by 83 percent of those polled.

The survey revealed that the top three factors driving server virtualization decisions among the respondents are: the need for improved business cost savings and efficiencies, customer responsiveness and improved service levels. The opportunity to leverage virtualization as an alternative disaster recovery strategy was also cited.

-The majority of CommVault customers polled for this survey are running mission-critical applications on VMs in their production environment. Some industry commentary has suggested that many organizations are reluctant to deploy vital applications on virtualized infrastructures because of data protection concerns. With Simpana software, CommVault continues to address these concerns, effectively alleviating data management difficulties in virtualized environments.

According to those polled, the top three challenges relative to managing virtualized server environments include the inability to backup all virtual machines (VMs) reliably and in a timely manner, additional resource costs and administrative time due to lack of data management automation and the increased demand for corporate-wide virtualization.

VMware Expands Cloud Infrastructure Strategy, Introduces Six New Products

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At VMworld 2010, VMware expanded its vision for modern IT infrastructures and announced six new products and services that help enterprises and service providers achieve the benefits of cloud computing  while maintaining the control and freedom of choice they require.

IT as a Service is the transformation of IT to a more business-centric approach, focusing on outcomes such as operational efficiency, competitiveness and rapid response.  This means IT shifts from producing IT services to optimizing production and consumption of those services in ways consistent with business requirements.  This changes the role of IT from a cost center to a center of strategic value.

Building on the VMware vSphere foundation, VMware’s new cloud infrastructure products and services introduce a hybrid cloud model that bridges private and public clouds:

VMware vCloud Director: A new model for delivering and consuming infrastructure services

By extending the resource pooling capabilities of VMware vSphere, VMware vCloud Director enables IT to create “virtual data centers” (VDCs) – logical pools of compute, network and storage resources with defined management policies, SLAs and pricing.  IT organizations can offer these VDCs – along with catalogs of other infrastructure and application services such as virtual appliances, VMs, and OS images – to users through fully automated self-service access.

Learn more about VMware’s VMware vCloud Director

The VMware vShield product family: Better-than-physical security for VMware-virtualized and cloud environments

VMware is introducing three new products that deliver a security model designed specifically for virtual and cloud environments. Traditional enterprise security depends on agents, dedicated hardware and brittle configurations. The dynamic nature of cloud environments, where applications and services are mobile and leverage shared infrastructure, requires a new approach.

VMware vShield Edge, VMware vShield App, and VMware vShield Endpoint virtualize security and edge services, including firewall, VPN and load balancing, freeing them from the constraints of physical infrastructure and providing a single, adaptive and programmable security infrastructure.

This eliminates the complexity and rigidity of traditional approaches, giving IT teams more visibility and control. When coupled with VMware’s partner solutions, VMware vShield delivers VMware-virtualized and cloud environments that are more secure than traditional, physical deployment models at a fraction of the cost.

Learn more about VMware’s vShield product family

VMware vCloud Datacenter Services: Secure, interoperable enterprise-class hybrid clouds delivered by leading service providers

While public cloud services have created an alternative for delivering compute capacity in a self-service, pay-per-use model, security concerns, uncertain SLAs, lack of compliance and fears of lock-in have limited enterprise adoption.

VMware vCloud Datacenter Services provide a way for enterprises to extend their datacenters to external clouds, while preserving security, compliance and quality of service. Delivered by some of the world’s leading service providers, including Bluelock, Colt, SingTel, Terremark and Verizon, VMware vCloud Datacenter Services will use globally consistent infrastructure, management and security models to make it possible for enterprise customers to move computing workloads from internal virtualized infrastructure to an external cloud and back.

VMware vCloud Datacenter Services offer VMware-certified compatibility and portability, auditable security controls, SAS-70-Type-II or ISO-27001 certifications, and virtual application security including stateful firewall and layer two network isolation, as well as role-based access control and LDAP directory authentication.

Learn more about VMware’s vCloud Datacenter Services

VMware vCloud Consulting Services

To help customers accelerate their journeys to the cloud, VMware’s vCloud Consulting Services include a complete portfolio of professional service offerings.

Based on VMware’s experience helping enterprises and service providers build cloud architectures, VMware vCloud Consulting Services provide assessment, planning, design, and deployment services for IT infrastructure transformation. Leveraged by enterprises and vCloud service providers, vCloud Consulting Services provide a common blueprint for next-generation infrastructure.

Learn more about VMware’s vCloud Consulting Services

Citrix Acquires VMLogix

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Citrix earlier this week announced several key additions to its Citrix OpenCloud infrastructure platform for cloud providers. To further accelerate its OpenCloud strategy, Citrix also announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire VMLogix, a provider of virtualization management for private and public clouds.

The acquisition of VMLogix is expected to close in the third quarter of 2010, subject to the satisfaction of closing conditions.

It will add key lifecycle management capabilities to the Citrix OpenCloud platform, making it easy for cloud providers to offer infrastructure services that extend from pre-production and quality assurance, to staging, deployment and business continuity.

The acquisition will also allow Citrix to add an intuitive, self-service interface to its popular XenServer virtualization platform – a key component of the OpenCloud framework – enabling end users to access and manage their own virtual computing resources in on-premise private cloud environments, much like they set up virtual services in large public clouds like Amazon or Rackspace today.

Citrix also announced plans to expand its OpenCloud platform to include enhanced networking and interoperability capabilities.

These new additions will include the ability for customers to seamlessly manage a mix of public and private cloud workloads from a single management console, even if they span across a variety of different cloud providers. All of these enhancements will be available to the more than 600 service providers worldwide who are now certified to deliver services based on the Citrix OpenCloud platform.

Facts and Highlights:

New additions to the Citrix OpenCloud infrastructure platform include:

  • Open Lifecycle Management – The VMLogix acquisition will add open virtual lifecycle automation and self-service capabilities that support all leading virtualization platforms. These capabilities will make it easier for IT teams to build, share and deploy production-like environments on-demand in both private and public clouds, and migrate virtual workloads between production stages with a single mouse click – even across different hypervisors. By giving users self-service access to a single pool of computing resources, cloud providers can help customers reduce capital expenses and improve flexibility, even across diverse virtualization and cloud environments.
  • Open Cloud Interoperability – To accelerate cloud interoperability, Citrix will also be integrating the Citrix OpenCloud infrastructure platform with OpenStack, the open-source orchestration and management technology it is co-developing with Rackspace, NASA, Dell, and more than 20 other leading technology and cloud service providers. The OpenStack orchestration capabilities perfectly complement the Citrix OpenCloud platform by adding key cloud management functions and enabling cloud providers to give customers open integration as well as a more consistent view of both private and public cloud workloads. In booth #1219 at this week’s VMworld conference, Citrix will be demonstrating the ability to manage workloads across XenServer virtual machines running in an on-premise private cloud, and VMs running in a public-cloud environment using OpenStack – all from a single management console.
  • Open Cloud Networking – The Citrix OpenCloud platform will also be adding powerful new virtual switching capabilities that leverage the Open vSwitch project, and support the OpenFlow protocol, an emerging industry standard that pools the resources of per-host virtual switches to create a dynamic, distributed, policy-controlled cloud fabric. These new capabilities will make it easier for cloud providers using the Citrix OpenCloud platform to create isolated, multi-tenant cloud environments, while offering dynamic, per-flow control, and per virtual-interface policies. They will also enable rich packet processing capabilities at the network edge, including the ability to leverage advanced application networking capabilities in Citrix NetScaler, another key component of the OpenCloud platform.

The Battle Over 3PAR: Dell Bids, HP Outbids, Dell Ponders New Bid, Third Suitor Emerges

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Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few weeks, you’ll be aware that Dell recently agreed to acquire data storage company data storage company 3PAR for for $18 per share or roughly $1.13 billion. Yesterday, HP proposed to acquire 3PAR instead, offering as much as $24 per share in cash, or roughly $1.6 billion.

Dell is obviously studying the situation and, according to a single source cited by Bloomberg this morning, the company is preparing to trump HP’s offer.

3PAR, meanwhile has said a third possible suitor had expressed interest in taking over the company, but that company’s identity hasn’t been revealed.