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News and insights from the vibrant world of virtualization and cloud computing
Virtacore Systems this morning announced that founder and CTO Tom Kiblin has been appointed to the VMware Service Provider Program (VSPP) Advisory Group.
The VMware VSPP Advisory Group will work with VMware to help further the VSPP program, product, licensing and marketing plans.
Virtacore is a Premier-level VMware service provider.
The group will be holding its inaugural meeting at the 2011 VMware Partner Exchange, being held February 8-11, 2011 in Orlando, Florida.
Quest Software has announced the latest release of vRanger Pro, with three key data protection capabilities added:
– Integrated backup and replication, one console with flexible deployment and licensing
– Native cataloging, with integrated restore to easily locate and restore individual files
– Fibre restore: to speed recovery and eliminate LAN traffic by using Fibre Channel infrastructure
vRanger Pro also now includes all of the capabilities of Quest Software vReplicator, which gives organizations VMware protection in one easy-to-use console.
The new version of vRanger Pro features patent-pending cataloging capability that provides a native, full catalog of every image in the backup repository so administrators can quickly and easily find and restore files, even among large amounts of virtual data. vRanger Pro also now features one-step catalog-based recovery, including advanced search options and right-click recovery selection directly from the management console.
vRanger Pro 5.0 is currently available. Also available from Quest Software is vRanger Standard Edition.
Okta recently unveiled a new on-demand identity and access management service that helps enterprises accelerate the adoption of their cloud and web-based applications.
With Okta, IT can address the security and management challenges by integrating cloud applications with existing directory services, controlling access across applications, quickly provisioning and de-provisioning employees, and centrally analyzing usage across all applications.
For end users, Okta provides single sign-on across all of their applications, eliminating password fatigue and improving their productivity.
Led by CEO Todd McKinnon, most recently VP of Engineering at Salesforce.com, Okta has raised $11 million, led by Andreessen Horowitz.
Early Okta customers include Pandora, LiveOps, Enterasys, FusionStorm, and AMAG Pharmaceuticals.
VMware last week announced the general availability of VMware Go Pro, a cloud service that enables small and midsized businesses to consolidate, control, and secure their physical and virtual IT infrastructure.
VMware Go Pro is available by subscription for $29.95 per admin/month.
Later this year, VMware expects to offer the VMware Go Pro service through its global network of channel partners.
ManageEngine, makers of a suite of network, systems, applications and security management software solutions, today announced support for monitoring Microsoft Hyper-V servers is now part of ManageEngine Applications Manager, the company’s server and application performance monitoring software.
ManageEngine started with VMware monitoring last year.
ManageEngine Applications Manager’s new monitoring capabilities help IT administrators gain insight into the health and performance of Hyper-V servers as well as the virtual machines configured in those servers. The software helps Operations teams troubleshoot problems quickly, reduce VM downtime and eliminate performance bottlenecks.
With the help of performance stats and in-depth reports, IT administrators can ensure their virtual systems are performing at optimum levels.
A 30-day fully functional trial edition of ManageEngine Applications Manager can be downloaded from the website. Pricing starts at $1,590 for the Professional Edition with the Hyper-V Monitor.
Acronis, a provider of backup and recovery solutions for physical, virtual and cloud environments, today launched the Global Disaster Recovery Index, a (self-serving) barometer which measures IT managers’ confidence in their backup and recovery operations.
The survey of over 3,000 small and medium-sized businesses conducted by the Ponemon Institute revealed that while attitudes towards backup and recovery differ widely around the world, businesses everywhere want a single backup and recovery solution for physical, virtual and cloud environments.
The vast majority (68%) of IT managers agree that their greatest challenge in a hybrid environment is moving data between the three environments, yet the average business currently uses at least two or three separate backup solutions making disaster recovery more complicated.
On a global scale, U.S. small- and medium-sized companies fell short of the international average, ranking 10th overall for backup and DR readiness. Approximately a third of U.S. businesses reported having no backup and DR strategy in place, citing lack of budget and resources as the primary reasons.
Without these resources and technologies to fortify a DR strategy, more than half (62%) reported they were concerned about their ability to avoid substantial downtime in the event of a serious incident.
With only 40% saying they were confident in recovering quickly, and 38% believing their IT staffs were qualified to handle DR operations in response to an event or disaster. Overall, the findings revealed that the U.S. spent consistently less (10%) on backup and DR than other countries.
To create the Index, each country was ranked based on its average responses from 11 questions about their confidence in backup and DR readiness, capabilities and practices. Questions covered technology, resources, procedures and executive buy-in.
The survey was conducted by the Ponemon Institute across 13 countries in October 2010. Over 3,000 IT practitioners were surveyed in small- to mid-market organizations with no more than 1,000 seats.