News

VMware today kicked off VMware Partner Exchange 2010, the company’s third annual global partner conference.

This year’s event comes on the heels of a successful 2009, during which VMware experienced steady growth in the VMware Partner Network and continued investment in programs such as solution competencies, VMware Partner University, and certification training — helping partners deliver virtualization solutions to customers on the journey to cloud computing.

In 2009, VMware experienced steady partner program growth:

• The VMware Partner Network grew to 25,000 partners worldwide
• As part of the VMware Partner Network, the VMware Service Provider Program (VSPP)grew to more than 1,700 service provider partners from around the world, signaling increased interest in virtualization and cloud computing from customers

VMware also experienced momentum in its solution competency program. Through VMware Partner University, VMware partners can earn solution competencies in infrastructure virtualization, business continuity and desktop virtualization to demonstrate and differentiate their expertise to customers.

Since solution competencies were introduced in 2009, more than 50 percent of Premier- and Enterprise-level partners have achieved their first competency in infrastructure virtualization or are well on their way to achieving it. Moreover, the desktop virtualization solution competency has gained popularity as a strategic asset among VMware partners:

Other certifications offered through VMware Partner University also gained momentum in 2009, further demonstrating the value of VMware training:

• Introduced in 2008, the VMware Technical Sales Professional (VTSP) certification grew 427 percent year over year, with more than 19,000 individuals earning this certification in 2009
• The popular VMware Certified Professional (VCP) certification grew 85 percent year over year, with nearly 12,000 individuals earning this certification in 2009

Leostream today announced that its vendor-neutral connection broker now provides greater flexibility, simpler deployment and more efficient management of hosted virtual desktop infrastructures (HVDI). The most effective connection management technology of its kind, the Connection Broker enables companies to deploy enterprise-class virtual desktop environments while minimizing complexity.

The Leostream Connection Broker is the software management layer that ties desktop images in the data center to the appropriate end user devices — thin clients, laptops, workstations, or Web pages — delivering an end-user experience as good as or superior to that of a conventional desktop. The Connection Broker is vendor-independent, providing HVD support for VMware, Citrix, Microsoft, and Xen.org hypervisors, as well as for hosted applications and sessions, physical desktops, dedicated blades and other systems.

For IT managers, the Connection Broker deploys quickly, provides a rich set of policies for the exact implementation of business rules for users and machines, and consolidates resources into a “single-pane-of-glass” view. The Connection Broker 6.3 is a major point release with features that continue to streamline the deployment, scaling and ongoing management of HVDs.

It integrates easily with existing management infrastructure and adds only the HVD-specific policies necessary to complement established corporate policies. No changes to certified systems such as authentication services and SSL VPNs are required.

For IT decision makers, the Connection Broker provides key strategic flexibility to mix and match various solutions within their HVDI without fear of vendor lock-in. This flexibility is becoming increasingly vital as HVDI technologies develop and mature, and as new vendors continue to enter the rapidly expanding market.

More here.

Vizioncore today announced that the company closed-out 2009 with a record fourth quarter.

Vizioncore has also now provided virtualization solutions to more than 19,500 customers based on results through the end of 2009.

2009 was filled with many highlights and proved to be an instrumental year in the evolution of Vizioncore:

• Shipped the fastest growing product in the history of Vizioncore—vOptimizer Pro, the award-winning storage optimization and reclamation tool.
• Introduced the Virtualization EcoShell Initiative (VESI), a freeware development program that enhances virtualization administration by extending automated virtualization management capabilities through a graphical scripting engine. Also launched an initial freeware campaign involving multiple products at VMworld.
• Launched the company’s blog site—Vizioncorum—to share the wealth of knowledge the Vizioncore staff has with the virtualization community.
• Launched the latest version of vRanger Pro 4.0 Data Protection Platform (DPP), the market-leading virtualization backup-and-recovery solution that Vizioncore re-designed to offer organizations of all sizes reduced backup windows; additional scalability and flexibility; and smarter backup options to protect critical data on virtual machines. This award-winning solution also garnered several key awards in 2009 including a Best of VMworld Gold award for Data Protection, a Silver Virtualization Product of the Year award, and a Finalist Storage Product of the Year award from TechTarget editors. vRanger Pro also received a Reader’s Choice Award from Virtualization Review for Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery.

• Received Best-In-Class for Customer Satisfaction for Virtualization Management Vendors from VendorRate.

• Shipped the newest version of vFoglight, which has now been purchased by more than 5,000 customers since its initial launch and has become the market-leading monitoring and capacity planning tool.

Layered Technologies, provider of on-demand and cloud computing IT infrastructure, today announced that it has received a growth equity investment provided by a group of investors led by Accel-KKR, a technology-focused private equity investment firm. Layered Tech’s two primary existing investors, Enhanced Equity Fund, L.P., and Pangloss International, also participated.

The investment will be used to fund continued growth and expansion of Layered Tech’s industry-leading managed services, cloud computing and virtualization product offerings, as well as to further capitalize the business to support its existing customer base.

Founded in 2004, Layered Tech is a leading global provider of managed dedicated hosting, on-demand virtualization/cloud computing and Web services. With eight top-tier data centers around the world, the company’s infrastructure powers millions of Web sites and Internet-enabled applications including e-commerce and software as a service (SaaS). Layered Tech has seen rapid growth in recent years, and in 2009 was ranked in the top 15 percent of Deloitte LLP’s Technology Fast 500, and was also named to the Inc. magazine list of the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies.

Wind River, a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel, today announced it will add the Virtutech product line to its embedded software product portfolio after the completion of Intel’s acquisition of Virtutech signed earlier this week. Virtutech, founded in 1998, is based in San Jose, Calif. and operates a development center in Stockholm, Sweden.

Wind River will sell and support Virtutech’s flagship development platform, Simics, as a stand-alone product and will continue to support all current architectures including ARM, Intel, MIPS and PowerPC. Simics will allow Wind River to offer a market-leading virtual systems development solution in a growing market segment of virtualization and simulation tools for device software development.

Simics provides binary-compatible hardware simulations that operate completely within a virtualized environment running on standard laptop or desktop PCs. This strategy allows OEMs to undertake critical software development activities on a virtual platform, independently of any hardware development schedules, semiconductor availability constraints or other limitations. This also allows semiconductor manufacturers to redefine complex system-on-chip development with greater ecosystem support and customer engagement. Virtutech therefore enables customers to manage complexity, drive improved quality and achieve higher productivity, all while lowering capital expenditure and shortening total development time.

Acquired by Intel last year, Wind River develops operating systems, middleware (software found between an OS and software application), and software design tools for a variety of embedded computing systems. Its main products include VxWorks, the market-leading proprietary and multicore-ready real-time operating system, and commercial-grade Linux software platforms. The company also provides design services and software expertise, including custom-built solutions, development tools and device testing products. With thousands of customers, Wind River technology is relied upon by most major computer and networking communications companies, and is used by corporations and government agencies such as Alcatel-Lucent, BMW, Boeing, Bombardier Transportation, Mitsubishi, Motorola, NASA, Sony, Verizon and many more.

Intel’s acquisition of privately-held Virtutech is expected to be completed this quarter. Terms of the deal are not being disclosed.

Phoenix Technologies, provider of core systems software, security solutions and instant-on operating systems, today announced it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against DeviceVM.

In its complaint, filed today in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, Phoenix alleges DeviceVM is infringing on Phoenix’s United States Patent No. 6,519,659.

The patent, filed in 1999 and issued in 2003, is titled “Method and System for Transferring an Application Program from System Firmware to A Storage Device.” Phoenix’s complaint seeks unspecified damages and a court-ordered injunction against future infringement by DeviceVM.

A copy of the complaint can be found here.