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Release: ToutVirtual VirtualIQ Pro 3

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ToutVirtual, which develops software for managing virtual computing products, announced that it has upgraded its VirtualIQ Pro product. The firm’s software is used by system administrators to manage virtual servers from VMware, Xen, Microsoft, and others.

ToutVirtual said the upgraded VirtualIQ Pro 3 product adds new auditing features to track physical asset and non-virtual asset changes; an integrated administration console; analysis of migration from physical to virtual servers; along with other features.

VirtualIQ Pro software supports unlimited number of CPU sockets and unlimited virtual machines. Several pricing levels for VirtualIQ Pro are available based on CPU socket and VM support. As a quick-start or test drive, VirtualIQ Pro for up to 5 CPU sockets or 25 virtual machines is available for free download. Pricing starts at $199 per CPU socket per year.

Release: Vizioncore vOptimizer Pro

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Vizioncore today announced the general availability of vOptimizer Pro, which enables customers to reclaim over-allocated and unused space in Windows virtual machines. vOptimizer Pro also automates storage reclamation from Windows guest operating systems in order to reduce storage requirements and improve virtual machine performance and was a finalist at the Best of VMworld Awards 2008.

Typically 50 to 80 percent of a virtual machine’s footprint is unused space allocated at the initial point of provisioning. vOptimizer Pro allows customers to reclaim this storage capacity by inspecting the virtual machine’s file system and subsequently resizing the partition while also streamlining the guest operating system. Freespace quotas allow administrators to specify the amount of storage headroom required by different categories of virtual machines. These are rules that can automatically reduce and/or increase volume size.

Vizioncore vOptimizer Pro is now available from Vizioncore’s worldwide channel partner network. vOptimizer Pro is available at an SRP of $299 per socket.

Stealth Memory Virtualization Startup RNA Networks Slated For Launch

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NetworkWorld brings us the news of stealth startup RNA Networks, which says it will “offer technology that aggregates memory and shares it across servers, improving performance of online transaction processing and clustered or grid computing.”

From their websites:

RNA networks brings memory virtualization into the enterprise data center.

RNA delivers the consolidation and dramatic cost savings of virtualization for business critical applications. In addition, RNA’s Memory Virtualization Platform (MVP) delivers breakthrough performance at scale, reliably and efficiently.

Memory Virtualization profoundly changes everything about business aligned IT, from economics to use cases.  RNA transforms the data center into a high performance asset where virtualization is fully adopted.  With RNA, your business performance is accelerated.

RNA is reportedly slated for launch in the beginning of February 2008.

CohesiveFT Adds KVM Format To Its Automated Elastic Server Platform

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CohesiveFT today announced support to automate the deployment of Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) servers via the Elastic Server web-based factory. Elastic Server is an automated “factory” that allows IT professionals to assemble, deploy, and manage virtual servers using a simple point-and-click interface. Beginning today, customers can assemble custom servers for deployment to the Kernel Virtual Machine format.

KVM is a Linux kernel virtualization infrastructure licensed under the GNU GPL.  It provides a mechanism for splitting a single physical computer into multiple virtual machines.  KVM’s approach differs from other virtualization formats in that it requires no patching of the kernel and takes advantage of performance improvements available on hardware containing virtualization extensions (Intel VT or AMD-V).

The Elastic Server platform is a complement to virtualization and cloud offerings. Users assemble custom servers by choosing from a library of popular components. Once assembled, these custom application stacks can be configured to a variety of virtualization and cloud-ready formats, downloaded and deployed in real-time. Completed server stacks can be distributed through the Elastic Server platform. There are more than two thousand community users contributing nearly five thousand Elastic Servers to the market. The addition of KVM follows CohesiveFT’s recent addition of Virtual Iron, support for Amazon EC2 in Europe, the Ubuntu operating system, and the industry’s first commercial cloud security solution, VPN-Cubed.

Prison Inmate Sues Intel, Steve Jobs For $5 Billion, Claims Theft Of Virtualization Technology IP

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Some guy called Matthew Robert Young has filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court in Oregon against Intel Corporation and Steve Jobs personally. His filing (court papers – PDF) demands a jury trial and requests an “extrodinary hearing”. How extrodinary? Very extrodinary.

Young is currently a “State prisoner confined in the Oregon Department of Corrections, Snake River Correctional Institution.” He has brought this civil action suit to court claiming he told Jobs about virtualization technology, and when Jobs passed on the technology he told Intel about it.

In 2003, Young wanted Jobs to help him develop and market his intellectual property and patentable invention, or to buy it from him for $250 million. Young claims Jobs never responded to his requests, but instead forwarded the intellectual property to Intel. This, in turn, allowed Intel to make virtualization technology work with Core 2 Duo.

More about the extrodinary story here, here and here.