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Release: Egenera PAN Manager Software on HP BladeSystem

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Egenera today announced the general availability of Egenera PAN Manager Software on HP BladeSystem c-class server blades based on Intel processor technology.

Capitalizing on the advantages of the HP Virtual Connect FlexFabric module, the latest release of PAN Manager Software will offer a ten-fold increase in throughput for PAN Manager Software environments.

PAN Manager now supports HP, Fujitsu and Dell blade server platforms, as well as Egenera’s own BladeFrame offering.

Egenera PAN Manager Software for HP BladeSystem with the Virtual Connect FlexFabric module is immediately available for purchase.

45 Organizations Team Up For Cloud Standards Customer Council for Open Cloud Computing

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OMG, an international, open membership, not-for-profit computer industry consortium, today announced the formation of the Cloud Standards Customer Council (CSCC).

OMG is also announcing that CA, IBM, Kaavo, Rackspace and Software AG have joined the CSCC as Founding Sponsors.

The Cloud Standards Customer Council is an end user advocacy group dedicated to accelerating cloud’s successful adoption, and drilling down into the standards, security and interoperability issues surrounding the transition to the cloud.

More than 45 organizations including Lockheed Martin, Citigroup and North Carolina State University have already joined the Cloud Standards Customer Council. The Council will provide cloud users with the opportunity to drive client requirements into standards development organizations and deliver materials such as best practices and use cases to assist other enterprises.

Membership is free for qualified end-user organizations. Vendors may join as sponsors.

Virsto Debuts Storage Virtualization Software for Virtual Desktop Deployments

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Virsto Software has introduced Virsto VDI, a hypervisor-based storage virtualization solution designed to significantly decrease the costs of virtual desktop deployments while improving end users’ desktop experience.

Initially supporting Citrix XenDesktop and Microsoft VDI running on Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V, Virsto VDI is architected to be storage- and hypervisor-agnostic and enables users to provision and manage thousands of virtual desktops, maximize consolidation of server and storage hardware, and reduce overall storage costs for VDI deployments by more than 70 percent.

Virtual desktop environments differ in significant ways from virtual server environments that are often deployed to meet consolidation objectives and support private cloud initiatives.

Virsto VDI is now generally available. Pricing for Virsto VDI is $2,800 per host, with 1 TB of logical storage per license.

Release: Nimbula Director 1.0

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Nimbula, the “Cloud Operating System Company”, has announced the immediate availability of its flagship product, Nimbula Director.

Based on Nimbula’s technology, Nimbula Director delivers Amazon EC2-like services to both enterprises and service providers.

For deployments on infrastructure up to and including 40 cores, Nimbula Director is licensed free of charge. Customers will be able to purchase an optional annual support package for the free version of the product.

DataCore Survey Suggests Companies Don’t Anticipate Impact Of Storage On Virtualization Project Costs

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A survey commissioned by DataCore (“The State of Virtualization”) finds that a majority of medium- and large-enterprise IT organizations overlook storage when implementing a virtualized operating environment.

The data reveals that nearly half of the respondents (43 percent) had not anticipated the impact that storage would have on their server and desktop virtualization costs or had not started a virtualization project because the storage-related costs “seem too high.” As a result, the rollout of their virtualization projects is delayed.

Of those that have deployed server virtualization, 66 percent cited a substantial increase in storage costs as the biggest problem they are facing. Nearly 40 percent say the storage infrastructure is either slowing application performance or limiting its availability, while more than 20 percent indicate that business continuity has become more difficult.

Over 56% now realize that consolidation creates I/O bottlenecks that prevent them from moving to the next level of virtualization.

The online survey of more than 450 medium- and large-enterprise IT organizations in the North America and Europe was conducted in January 2011. The survey asked a series of questions about virtualization and its impact on storage.