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Citrix Aims To Make Creation of Hypervisor-Independent Application Workloads Easier with Project Kensho

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Citrix today announced “Project Kensho,” which will deliver Open Virtual Machine Format (OVF) tools that allow independent software vendors (ISVs) and enterprise IT managers to easily create hypervisor-independent, portable enterprise application workloads. These tools will allow application workloads to be imported and run across Citrix XenServer, Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and VMware ESX environments.

Citrix boasts this implementation will solve a multitude of interoperability issues between virtualization platforms while allowing automated provisioning and management of applications, rather than just virtual machines. Users will be able to easily install and use any OVF packaged application workload regardless of which virtualization platform they use – whether it be XenServer, Hyper-V, or ESX.

“XenServer delivers the benefits of fast, free, ubiquitous and compatible virtualization, whether from Citrix, Microsoft or VMware,” said Simon Crosby, CTO of the Virtualization and Management Division, Citrix Systems. “Project Kensho highlights the Citrix commitment to interoperability for virtualization, while maximizing price/performance and richness of features at the virtual infrastructure level.”

The OVF specification was originally co-authored by Citrix and VMware, with contributions from Dell, HP, IBM and Microsoft. The companies then jointly submitted the draft to the DMTF standardization process.

Project Kensho will support the vision of the Citrix Delivery Center product family, helping customers transform static datacenters into dynamic “delivery centers” for the best performance, security, cost savings and business agility. The tools developed through Project Kensho will be integrated into Citrix Workflow Studio based orchestrations, for example, to provide an automated, environment for managing the import and export of applications from any major virtualization platform.

A technical preview of Project Kensho tools is expected to be available for free download in September 2008.

Phoenix To Integrate HyperSpace into NEC Notebooks

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Phoenix Technologies announced that NEC will be among the first PC manufacturers to integrate Phoenix HyperSpace, a virtualized operating environment that enables instant-on applications running independently and alongside Windows. NEC has signed an agreement with Phoenix which will allow it to deliver “unprecedented levels of security” for its notebook customers, enabled by HyperCore, Phoenix’s firmware-based hypervisor.

The Phoenix HyperSpace environment includes ManageSpace, which enables security applications to operate before, during and after Windows Vista boots up and shuts down. As a result, NEC notebooks will be secured before malware gets downloaded by Windows applications. This is possible because virus definition files are updated in ManageSpace while preventing Windows access to the network.

FastScale Ships New Release of Composer Suite, Adds Windows and RHEL 5.2 Support

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FastScale Technology today announced (PDF) the newest release of its flagship product, FastScale Composer Suite, which it claims to be the only technology on the market today to fully automate the process of building, managing and deploying server software environments for enterprise class data centers and Web farms, whether the infrastructure is physical, virtual or both. The new release adds support for Windows Server 2003 environments, new capabilities in lightweight application provisioning, and delivers a range of scalability and usability enhancements.

The new features in detail:

  • New platform support – including deployment of Windows Server 2003 and RHEL 5.2 environments.
  • Lightweight application provisioning – for just-in-time, virtualized deployment of modular, enterprise class applications, enabling increased infrastructure performance and stateless server configurations.
  • Increased scalability & usability – with streamlined configuration settings, enhanced Web and command line interfaces, and easier navigation for large enterprise deployments.

FastScale Composer Suite with support for Windows is available now. Pricing starts at $30,000.

BitLeap LeapServ Backup Software Goes Virtual

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Offsite backup provider BitLeap today announced it has extended its LeapServ software platform to customer provided VMware environments.

The new LeapServVM product will consist of a custom built VM system file supplied to the customer, which can be loaded into existing VMware environments to perform all of the services typically provided by a dedicated LeapServ network appliance.

The LeapServVM will be a licensed copy of BitLeap’s LeapServ technology when bundled with data backup or e-mail archiving services. While active, the software and its performance will be fully managed by BitLeap just like any traditional physical LeapServ appliance.

BitLeap’s CEO Guy Suter:

“The ability to setup a LeapServ on virtual machines will greatly expand the implementation and deployment options available to our customers. We have created a system to custom build LeapServ software to specific customer needs, which will enable us to support a wide range of VMware environments. We are excited to offer this new option and to see the innovative ways it will be put to use.”

One of the major benefits to the LeapServVM is that its core backup methodology is agent-less, allowing users to backup data from virtually all systems through standard network protocols. The LeapServVM product can also be beneficial when customers would like to phase in or evaluate offsite data backup technology from BitLeap.

The LeapServVM software license and file creation fee for up to 500 gigabytes of backup storage is $500 and for up to 1 terabyte of backup storage is $750.

[Source: MarketWatch]

Clusterscale Releases ClusterLoad ESX, Virtual Appliance for Traffic Management and Load Balancing

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ClusterScale, provider of load balancing, open source, traffic management and database clustering appliances, today announced (PDF) the launch of its new virtual appliance, ClusterLoad ESX Virtual Appliance.

ClusterLoad ESX VA offers all the functionality of its hardware counterparts, while lowering demands on the data center, with the added environmental benefits that come with this. The virtual appliance manages application traffic, inspecting, transforming and routing requests as it load balances them across the application infrastructure. The product has passed VMware’s VA Certification program. The product has additional management tools to make installation and configuration quick and easy.

ClusterLoad ESX VA allows you to package a fully configured and optimised software stack in a virtual server format that can be quickly deployed on top of VMware ESX. The software is simple to install on Windows, Mac and Linux and does not have any adverse effects on the host operating system, providing greater flexibility and maximum system utilisation by consolidating multiple environments into a single server, workstation, or PC.

With fewer systems required for the same tasks, ClusterLoad ESX VA claims it delivers:

  • Simplified resource management increasing IT efficiency.
  • Decreased disaster recovery time.
  • Greater systems reliability and availability reducing corporate risk and real-time losses from downtime.
  • Lower hardware acquisition costs with increased utilisation of the machines you already have.

ClusterLoad ESX VA runs on true 64 bit processors with a VT (Virtualisation Technology) extension and is fully optimised for VMware ESX and VMware Server.

Prices for the product start from £3,995 for a single virtual appliance and £5,595 for the pair.

[Source: VMblog]

Clusterscale

Goldman Sachs Predicts IT Spending Downturn, Virtualization Uprise

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Goldman Sachs predicts IT spending will slip from 7 % growth to 5 % growth in 2008. Not a downturn of catastrophic proportions, but still bad news for the industry. On the upside, server virtualization and server consolidation were ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in terms of spending priorities for this and next year. No. 3 was cost-cutting in general, followed by grid computing and on-demand computing finishing the priorities list.

Expectations of budget growth remain down significantly on a year-over-year basis, with many CIOs limiting their purchases to projects with a high and fast ROI. We continue to believe that 2008 IT spending will decelerate to 5 percent from 7 percent in 2007….Demand for discretionary IT projects dropped to its lowest point in the history of our survey, with caution beginning to spread to the offshore providers. CIOs have emphasized to us that they are buying on a need versus want basis, are often downsizing deals to fit with current budget constraints…. In fact, contrary to general tightening in spending, purchases with an especially compelling ROI are being accelerated in the current environment.

[For more on the report, including graphics: The Open Road]