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Ericom Adds VDI support for Parallels Virtuozzo Containers

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After announcing support for Oracle VM last May, Ericom has now added VDI support for with its Parallels Virtuozzo with its PowerTerm WebConnect software solution.

Parallels Virtuozzo Containers is an OS-level server virtualization technology that partitions the underlying operating system into multiple isolated containers, so that many workloads or virtual desktops can be run simultaneously on the same physical box.

Ericom’s PowerTerm WebConnect enables organizations to centrally manage and deploy virtual desktops based on Parallels Virtuozzo Containers from within the datacenter and hosting facilities – reducing the cost and complexity of traditional desktop PC management. As a comprehensive solution for virtualized desktop environments, Ericom’s PowerTerm WebConnect increases security and desktop manageability, enables business continuity implementations, and provides a superior, customizable desktop experience.

For PowerTerm WebConnect licensing, Ericom offers both perpetual licensing for Parallels Virtuozzo Containers on-premise implementations and subscription licensing for Parallels Virtuozzo Containers based hosting environments.

Ericom Software

RingCube Unveils vDesk, (Another) Enterprise Desktop Virtualization Solution

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RingCube Technologies today announced vDesk, a high-performance enterprise desktop virtualization solution that delivers employees, contractors and customers anytime, anywhere access to a personalized desktop environment complete with applications, data and settings.

RingCube Technologies delivers enterprise desktop virtualization solutions that can be used to increase user productivity, lower desktop management costs, and eliminate the performance and resource overhead commonly found in legacy virtualization technologies. With the vDesk solution, RingCube now enables customers to rapidly deliver lightweight, high-performance virtual desktops to PCs and portable drives, directly from the network, and from virtualization desktop infrastructure (VDI) environments.

vDesk’s virtualization technology, with 23 virtualization patents pending, separates the user’s desktop environment, including applications, data, settings and system resources from the operating system and encapsulates it into a secure container. vDesk virtualizes components of the host Windows operating system without the need to carry a second operating system inside the virtual workspace. IT organizations use the vDesk Administration Server to create and deploy vDesk workspaces, assign security and isolation policies and provision updates to existing workspaces. vDesk provides users with a list of available workspace masters from which users can create their own personalized workspace instances.

vDesk is available immediately through RingCube.  Pricing starts at $200 per user.

RingCube Technologies

Stand By Your Woman: Mendel Rosenblum Leaves VMware Too

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Reporting on the recent removal of Diane Greene as president, CEO and board member of VMware, we wrote:

“We’re wondering how the VMware troops will react on the news, and what will happen with Mendel Rosenblum, Chief Scientist at VMware and Greene’s husband.”

Now IHT / The New York Times has received confirmation that Rosenblum, co-founder and top executive at the company as well as husband to Greene, has resigned from his position (hat tip to Tarry). He announced his resignation and return to Stanford as a full-time professor in a companywide message on Monday night.

The NY Times also offers some insight about the removal of Greene:

On July 7, she found out just how cold it had become. After Greene made a special presentation to VMware’s board, Tucci, who heads VMware’s parent company, EMC, pulled her aside, according to people familiar with the events, who asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal company decisions.

Inviting Mendel Rosenblum, Greene’s husband and the co-founder of VMware, into the room, Tucci told Greene she was fired, effective immediately. And he said the board wanted Rosenblum, VMware’s chief scientist, to take her seat on the board. Rosenblum declined the offer.

The news comes after the surprising move of Richard Sarwal, former executive VP of research and development at VMware, who returned to Oracle after a brief stint at the company. Another executive to jump ship is Paul Chan, Vice President of Product Development at VMware until recently.

Who’s next?

We’ll update the post should new information come to light.

BlueStripe Software Introduces FactFinder

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BlueStripe Software, provider of Application Service Management (ASM) solutions for virtualized data center environments, today announced (PDF) the availability of its flagship product, FactFinder. FactFinder enables enterprises to stage, deploy, and manage business?critical applications in virtual data center environments with the same degree of confidence and control as traditional environments.

FactFinder delivers three critical elements of application service management for virtual environments:

• Application Discovery & Mapping – FactFinder offers automatic discovery and topology mapping of
the application connections, processes, and interdependencies allowing for unmatched visibility into
both physical and virtual environments.
• Application?level Health Measurement – By enabling simple drill down into performance indicators
of connections, usage, and application access times, FactFinder depicts the relative health of a
business’ critical applications.
• Automatic Triage of Application & Server Problems – FactFinder’s easy to understand performance
indicators highlight areas of concern, showing where to focus efforts to solve problems and optimize
the supporting IT environment.

FactFinder is the only application management solution that enables enterprises to confidently deploy business-critical applications in virtualized environments. This makes it easy for infrastructure groups to gain visibility into application management and performance in virtual data center environments, including service response times, virtual machine utilization, and cross?server dependencies.

Unlike OS?based or network?based monitoring products, FactFinder measures performance across multi?tier and service?oriented architecture applications regardless of whether they are distributed across clusters of ESX hypervisors or a mix of physical and virtual environments. This allows enterprises to measure the impact of P2V conversions on business success and make decisions based on intelligent, accurate, and timely information.

eG Innovations Adds XenServer and Sun LDoms Support to Its VM Monitor

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eG Innovations today announced that its eG VM Monitor now supports Citrix XenServer and Sun Microsystems’ Solaris Logical Domains (LDoms).

The enhancements are part of v4.2 of the company’s eG Enterprise Suite, which already supports VMware ESX and ESX 3i servers as well as Solaris Containers. The new software release also strengthens management of VMware environments. eG Enterprise agents can now be integrated directly within VMware’s Virtual Center. This greatly simplifies configuration of the monitoring for VMware server farms.

Also, the eG VM Monitor software now monitors the VMware Virtual Desktop Manager to provide an end-to-end view of a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) deployment. A new VM Search capability makes it easier to track the status and performance of virtual machines (VMs) as they move from one physical server to another.

The eG Enterprise Suite monitors Citrix XenServers and Sun LDoms in much the same way it monitors VMware ESX servers. eG Enterprise v4.2 offers agent-based and agentless monitoring of CitrixXen server v4.0 and 4.1. For agent-based monitoring, an eG agent on the control domain of a XenServer monitors the hypervisor and all its virtual machines (VMs).
Administrators can also choose to monitor their XenServers without agents, with either a Linux or a Windows system being used to host the remote data collector. Citrix XenMotion activity is tracked to determine when, how often, why and where VMs migrate to.

eG Enterprise v4.2 provides many other improvements and new features. These include: tracking and reporting uptime of individual VMs, ability to share customized views and reports among all or specific administrators, allowing administrators to select a console display “skin” (color) of their choice, providing selectable alert modes (e.g., email and SMS) to accommodate preferences of administrators who work in shifts; and custom monitoring of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

The eG Enterprise v4.2 will be available at the end of September. Pricing for any virtualization platform supported is per server monitored, regardless of the hardware capabilities (e.g., CPU, memory, socket) of the server, or the number of virtual machines or virtual desktops it supports. Pricing for a 25-node environment starts at $50,000.

Kingston Technology Highlights Importance of Memory in Performance of Microsoft Virtualization Technologies

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Kingston Technology Company emphasized the importance of memory in delivering the features and benefits offered by Microsoft virtualization technologies to improve computing environments ranging from the data center to desktop and beyond, during today’s Microsoft “Get Virtual Now” launch event in Bellevue, Wash.

“When deploying virtualization technologies, optimizing system memory is essential. Kingston offers multiple system options with our new 16GB server memory kits and 4GB notebook modules,” said Liesl Schwoebel, branded product memory marketing manager, Kingston. “With adequate memory installed, IT and business professionals can best reap the benefits offered by Microsoft’s portfolio of virtualization solutions, including improvements in computing efficiency, flexibility, continuity and agility.”
“As we fuel the next stages of IT innovation to make virtualization available to as many different types of users as possible, memory is fundamental in all of these scenarios,” said Zane Adam, senior director of integrated virtualization at Microsoft Corp. “Whether it’s virtualization to consolidate servers or to maximize desktop and notebook efficiency, in working with Kingston, Microsoft is confident that customers can take full advantage of the benefits of our full suite of virtualization offerings.”

Kingston memory modules are backed by a lifetime warranty and free 24/7 technical support. Kingston server memory is covered by the exclusive KingstonCare program, an additional layer of customer service that provides on-site spares, service reimbursement, cross-ship RMAs and all the tools necessary to minimize server downtime.