News

Analyst Says Virtualization May Have Impact on Desktops … In 2010

March 5, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Tim Luke, an analyst from investment bank Lehman Brothers, claims the impact of virtualization technology on desktops won’t be significantly felt until at least 2010 although he acknowledges its impact may already be limiting growth in the server market (then again, Gartner says it performed just fine in 2007).

As for the mainstream desktop market, Luke forecast the virtualization trend there may remain “subdued” in the near term. According to the analyst, the economic case for desktop virtualization is not as compelling and also cited user reluctance. Luke estimated about 1 % of desktops will be virtualized by 2010, and 4 % by 2012. However, Luke said that the virtualization of individual desktop applications “may see better traction in the medium term.”

[Source: CNN Money]

Event: Virtualization Congress Announced

March 4, 2008 by Robin Wauters 1 Comment

Virtualization.info just announced what promises to be one of the most interesting virtualization events of the year: Virtualization Congress bills itself as the world’s first vendor independent virtualization event and will be held from 14 to 16 October at the ExCel centre in London.

From the about page:

It is not a secret that virtualization technologies are changing companies’ data centers. The immense popularity that these technologies are obtaining is equal only to the need for knowledge about them. And as we try to build that knowledge, virtualization is already changing. There are many new products each month, and hundreds of new features each year.

At virtualization.info, we have covered the market evolution for a long time. We know how fast the landscape is evolving, and how complex it can be keeping up the pace. Thus, we decided to shape an event with unique characteristics, different from the typical conference, which can bridge the gap between innovation and implementation in a more effective way.

Congratulations to Alessandro Perilli and watch out for extensive coverage on Virtualization.com!

EMC Updates SAN Virtualization Solution Invista 2.1

March 3, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

EMC has introduced the latest version of Invista 2.1 (demo), its flagship SAN virtualization solution. Invista is an enterprise-class, network-based storage virtualization that combines EMC application software and hardware with intelligent SAN switches from Brocade and Cisco.

The new version of Invista features higher availability for improved data protection, expanded scalability for stronger performance, and enhanced management for better utilization, all of which help organizations keep their infrastructures up and running through both planned and unplanned events. Invista has enhanced high availability through the new distributed control path cluster (CPC) which allows nodes of the CPC to be separated by campus distances, providing for Invista to continue operating in case of localized failure. The number of virtual volumes and storage elements supported has doubled, and there is a five-fold increase in the number of simultaneous mobility sessions supported. Invista’s new heterogeneous pooling and mirroring functionality provides maximum flexibility in creating tiered storage pools and supports mirrored copies across different tiers.

EMC Invista has now been tested, optimized and certified for use with VMware ESX Server 3.0.2, thus enabling organizations to improve their ability to manage, share, and protect the growing amount of information that is being supported by VMware Infrastructure environments. EMC Invista version 2.0 is now available; version 2.1, which includes heterogeneous mirroring and storage pooling, will be available later his month. Invista support for VMware ESX Server 3.0.2 is expected to be posted to the VMware SAN Compatibility Guide before the end of 2007.

[Source: IT-Director]

Bull Introduces All-in-one Virtualization Server Powered By VMware

March 3, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Last week, Bull unveiled an all-in-one virtualization server certified ‘Virtualized with VMware’, which it said will simplify, secure, and reduce implementation costs of virtualized infrastructures.

The NovaScale VMBox virtualization server offers storage sub-systems and pre-loaded software, as well as Bull’s Calypso backup product. Bull said configurations are pre-integrated to enable faster deployment and lower costs. The first two NovaScale VMBox configurations support VMware ESX Server 3.5, with the VMware VirtualCenter Foundation management platform hosted on a separate NovaScale server.

Olivier Gaumont, director of enterprise server business unit at Bull, said: “As a pre-integrated and tested solution, NovaScale VMbox provides high availability through a complete redundancy of components and a total compliance with VMware recommendations.”

PINS Virtualizes Its Data Center With Q-layer and VMWare ESX Server

February 29, 2008 by Robin Wauters 1 Comment

PINS, a Dutch hosting and managed services provider, today announced that it has entered into a partnership with Q-layer, enabling the hosting provider to launch a Virtual Private DataCenter solution, based on Q-layer’s virtualization technology and using VMware’s ESX server technology.

With the Virtual Private DataCenter (VPDC) software from Q-layer, PINS’ customers are now able to build and manage a virtual environment including virtual servers, firewalls, switches, storage and software appliances. The virtual private datacenter comes with a “drag & drop” web interface. The Q-layer datacenter abstraction layer translates this environment into actual resources in the datacenter and executes instant provisioning using customizable workflows.

“PINS is renowned for being the first to launch winning new technology.”, said Jan Willem des Tombe, CEO of PINS, “The Q-layer Virtual Private DataCenter concept allows us to provide a new level of flexibility to our customers and partners, while leveraging the performance and stability of VMware ESX.”

From the press release:

PINS already offers web and application hosting based on VMware ESX. The VPDC offering based on Q-layer is the next step in the evolution and overcomes the complexity of automating the provisioning of the whole hosting stack including servers, network and storage. This is needed to build a real-time infrastructure.

PINS will bring the VPDC model to market in three flavors: one for end-users that require full self-service provisioning of servers and other services, one for resellers enabling them to setup server environments with the click of a button and one for managed customers where PINS engineers will build the environment for the customer.

“We are proud to have been chosen by PINS for its next-generation hosting platform.”, said Niko Nelissen, VP Business Development of Q-layer. “Both companies share a vision on how datacenter services will be operated in the future and how virtualization helps in building a real-time infrastructure with instant availability of all services”.

Virtualize Your BlackBerry With The Bayalink Liberty USB Key

February 28, 2008 by Robin Wauters 2 Comments

Software developer Bayalink Solutions recently announced the general availability of Bayalink Liberty, a virtualization solution for BlackBerry smartphones from Research In Motion (RIM). Liberty is a Bluetooth-enabled USB key enabling you to view RIM smartphone applications and documents on a PC screen and type with a full-size keyboard.

Once the necessary software is installed, Liberty allows you to access your BlackBerry mailbox and other applications like contacts and calendar information—in their native formats—and both Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers on a much larger screen, as well as type messages or commands using a normal sized keyboard. The Liberty key uses the BlackBerry data connection to access e-mail and the Web, so users can connect via most Windows-based PCs with USB ports, regardless of whether or not they’re in range of a LAN or Wi-Fi network. That means enterprise BlackBerry users who access the Internet through BES servers and connect to corporate systems via Virtual Private Networks don’t need to mess with any special VPN software when connecting with their laptops.

You can watch a demo here.

The hardware + software kit doesn’t exactly come cheap: ordering makes you $ 99 lighter, renewable at the same price every year, although the relatively high pricing isn’t likely to stop enterprise users from purchasing the handy utility. Unfortunately, Bayalink Liberty only works with PCs running Windows 2000/XP/Vista, so Mac or Linux users are out of luck for the time being. Furthermore, the software is only available for BlackBerry 8700 series devices with OS 4.2.1.101 or higher; BlackBerry Pearls; BlackBerry Curves; and BlackBerry 8830 World Edition smartphones.

[Source: Advice CIO]