News

Shunra Software Releases Shunra VE for VMware Infrastructure 3

October 1, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Shunra Software, provider of network emulation and application performance testing solutions, and VMware Technology Alliance Partner (TAP) program member, today announced it has released Shunra VE for VMware Infrastructure 3.

Both Shunra and VMware have already established close collaboration as members of the SAP Co-Innovation Lab, which provides a hands-on working environment for SAP, its customers and partners. This environment leverages partner technology, from companies including Shunra and VMware, to accurately simulate real-world application performance in a secure environment.

Xiotech Teams Up With Xcedex

October 1, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Xiotech Corporation today announced that it has entered into an alliance with Xcedex, a provider of virtualization consulting services. Under the agreement, Xiotech is now able to offer Xcedex’s proprietary X_Factor Virtualization Readiness Planning (VRP) and Virtualization Readiness Design (VRD) analytics tools to its customers, allowing them to assess their IT environments for the approval, preparation and planning of virtual projects. This added level of detail will pay off for clients in increased control, higher return on investment (ROI) and lower total cost of ownership (TCO) throughout their data centers.

Xcedex’s X_Factor technology performs an assessment of a pre-virtual network by running inside it for a period of time and collecting inventory on servers, storage and network devices. It then assigns a score to each device based on performance characteristics, which can be used to compare proposed virtualization scenarios to make an appropriate selection. Modeling is done to ensure compatibility with design and configuration options, and detailed reports on capacity and statistics are issued. To complete the process, findings are clearly presented along with a roadmap and financial analysis, allowing for conclusions to be drawn and recommendations to be formed. Put together, the entire process will help IT leaders create optimized virtualization strategies.

XIOtech, Inc.

Xiotech will be introducing Xcedex to its channel partners, who will be responsible for the implementation and support of VRP and VRD. Upon purchase, the tools are available for immediate installation and can be operational within a few days.

Open-E Releases Data Storage Server for VMware ESX 3.5, Gets DSS Certified with Virtual Iron

October 1, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Open-E, a provider of unified IP storage management software, today announced that Open-E Data Storage Server (DSS) has been certified for use with Virtual Iron’s server virtualization software. Environments deploying both Virtual Iron and Open-E Data Storage Server will benefit from streamlined virtual infrastructure, improved server and storage utilization and robust business continuity.

Virtual Iron provides easy-to-use, enterprise-class server virtualization capabilities on a next-generation architecture. The platform combines the leading open source hypervisor with advanced virtualization services and policy-based automation capabilities such as LiveMigrate for easy movement of workloads, LiveRecovery for automated virtual machine failover, LiveCapacity for dynamic workload balancing, and LiveSnapshot for hot backup and patch management. These capabilities enable offloaded, space efficient and no-downtime backups on live virtual machines running in production environments.

Smooth integration of Open-E DSS with Virtual Iron provides simple and efficient storage consolidation that supports capital and operational cost reduction throughout the IT environment. DSS brings enterprise-class functionality, enhanced manageability and proven reliability to small and medium businesses that depend on server/storage infrastructure for continued business operations. As a result, companies have a cost-effective avenue toward advanced IT to strengthen their competitive advantage.

The company has also announced general availability of Data Storage Server (DSS) for VMware ESX 3.5. VMware provides TAP program members with tools to develop products that are complementary to VMware virtualization software and help deliver high-value solutions to joint customers. Data Storage Server for VMware ESX 3.5 will provide mutual customers with enhanced capabilities for consolidating storage environments.

Open-E

xkoto Debuts GRIDSCALE for Microsoft SQL Server

October 1, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

xkoto, the database virtualization company, today announced GRIDSCALE for Microsoft SQL Server, a product that improves application performance, scalability and reliability in SQL Server environments.

GRIDSCALE for Microsoft SQL Server is an active-active solution that virtualizes the database infrastructure. It enables businesses to distribute application loads horizontally across multiple instances of SQL Server, resulting in better reliability and performance than that of more costly and complex legacy clustering solutions. With GRIDSCALE for SQL Server, businesses can eliminate planned and unplanned outages, rapidly scale application load across SQL Servers, and implement cost-effective disaster recovery solutions.

With GRIDSCALE, database administrators can perform hardware upgrades and software updates without having an impact on system performance or uptime. Plus, GRIDSCALE eliminates the limitations of clustering configurations, such as shared storage, partitioning and mirroring.

xkoto underwent performance and functional testing of GRIDSCALE for SQL Server in one of Microsoft’s technology centers. Results showed near-linear scalability for read-intensive workloads, such as those used for online commerce applications. GRIDSCALE also received high marks on availability tests, which simulated hardware failures, network outages and site-wide disaster.

Unlike traditional clustering, which relies on multiple databases tied to shared storage, GRIDSCALE employs a shared-nothing architecture with a dynamic number of database servers for continuous availability. Each database server operates completely independent of the others, maintaining its own complete and consistent copy of the database. The GRIDSCALE server appears as a single, fully functional database to all applications, which are unaware that any one of several database servers may be used to fulfill their requests.

GRIDSCALE for SQL Server initially supports ODBC, JDBC, and .NET connectivity. In addition to its support for SQL Server, xkoto added functionality for DB2 in the latest version 4.1 version of GRIDSCALE.

xkoto

Lanamark Debuts Virtualization and IT Assessment Suite Lanamark Suite

September 30, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Lanamark today announced general availability and product packaging for its flagship software solution, Lanamark Suite, after announcing limited availability last June. The company also launched its global solution provider program that will help value-added resellers, system integrators and consultants accelerate delivery of virtualization services across desktops and servers.

Lanamark Suite 2008 is now generally available in Professional and Team editions with per workload per assessment licensing. Licenses are only required for analysis in Lanamark Studio after data about application workloads and server resources has been collected by the Lanamark Explorer. This allows solution providers to accelerate sales cycles by starting virtualization and IT assessments for customers without upfront licensing costs.

Retail product pricing per workload per assessment starts at $40 for Lanamark Suite Professional Edition and $50 for Lanamark Suite Team Edition.

Veeam Goes After European Market With VMware Management Tools

September 30, 2008 by Robin Wauters 1 Comment

Veeam Software today announced its entry into the European market. The company has launched a dedicated sales organisation, headquartered in its new UK-based EMEA headquarters office, for customers seeking to improve the manageability of virtual IT infrastructures based on VMware‘s market leading virtualisation software. The European executive team will be led by Managing Director Colin Wright and comprise a number of executives who have joined Veeam Software from senior positions at VMware. In addition, Veeam is launching two new products, Veeam Monitor Version 3.0 and version 4 of its nworks enterprise management connectors.

A recent study by IDC found that eighty-two percent of European companies are using VMware. The study also found that across Europe, disaster recovery, backup and availability have been the main growth areas for virtualisation over the past year. In order to more effectively address these specific challenges, Veeam Software is establishing a sales organisation that mirrors VMware’s presence in Europe. From today, European VMware users will be able to access the entire Veeam Software portfolio, which includes Veeam Backup, Veeam Reporter, Veeam Configurator and Veeam Monitor. They will also be able to use the company’s nworks enterprise management connectors that enable organisations to manage VMware environments with systems management tools from Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft.

Founded in 2006, Veeam Software’s fifty strong development team quickly created a range of systems management tools for VMware ESX Server environments. Veeam actively sought customer feedback to its early versions, and is now beginning the rollout of its 3.0 releases, offering advanced capabilities and the innovative features customers want most. The company will launch into Europe with two brand new updates.

Veeam Monitor Version 3.0, an easy-to-deploy VMware monitoring solution, provides VMware administrators with performance monitoring, capacity planning and trend analysis, as well as troubleshooting and problem resolution. In addition, Veeam will launch Version 4.0 of its nworks enterprise management connectors, composed of new updates for the nworks Management Pack (MP) for VMware for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager; and the nworks Smart Plug-in (SPI) for VMware for HP Software Operations Manager. Both products offer major new capabilities including hardware and sensor status.