News

ParaScale today introduced ParaScale Cloud Storage software (PCS) R2.0.

The new release targets enterprise storage administrators who must economically scale capacity and performance, and service providers who want to offer a variety of storage cloud services. ParaScale’s open solution leverages any commodity hardware running Red Hat Enterprise Linux OS or CentOS, and can integrate applications directly onto storage nodes. PCS R2.0 also provides integration capabilities into virtualized environments and web services.

This latest release of ParaScale Cloud Storage software reflects the growing realization by global customers that existing approaches to managing their stored data assets prevent them from rapidly delivering a pool of storage that easily scales capacity and performance independently and economically. PCS R2.0 removes these obstacles as a software-only solution that can be downloaded from the web and applied to any standard Linux platform to enable hundreds of commodity servers to be clustered together as a file repository, as a storage cloud with massive capacity and parallel throughput, or as a disaster recovery option for virtualized environments.

One of the key features of PCS R2.0 enables ParaScale to function as a back-up for virtual machines and their respective data. In the event of a failure, the virtual machines can be booted directly from ParaScale and be up and running in seconds without having to move around VM images.

Additional key features of ParaScale Cloud Storage software R2.0 include:

• Web service API expansion through SOAP and REST to provide configuration, administration, and provisioning support – Enterprises and service providers can provide self service options through the web and integrate ParaScale functionality into third-party dashboards, control panels and workflows.
• Synchronous replication based on policy per multi-tenant instance – Administrators can enable protection strategies that include up to eight synchronous copies to different data sets.
• Private cloud multi-tenancy support including metered usage for chargeback – A ParaScale cloud can be partitioned to provide different service levels as well as deliver usage based metrics and pricing to internal and external customers.
• Proactive reporting and monitoring capabilities – Instead of requiring customers to provide detailed information and perform recovery activities, ParaScale R2.0 provides remote monitoring combined with auto healing capabilities.

ParaScale Cloud Storage software R2.0 will be available November 30th. Pricing is based on the physical capacity within the cloud with deployments starting in North America at a list price of 95¢/GB.

Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF), today announced the availability of a new white paper entitled, “Interoperable Clouds – A White Paper from the Open Cloud Standards Incubator.”

This white paper summarizes the current work within the DMTFOpen Cloud Standards Incubator, including usage scenarios for cloud interoperability, the cloud service lifecycle and a cloud reference architecture. The white paper also highlights the incubator’s ongoing activities, including the formation of new sub-groups and upcoming informational specifications.

The “Interoperable Cloud” white paper is the first document released by the DMTF Open Cloud Standards Incubator. It will be followed by a series of informational specifications concentrating on cloud security, infrastructure protocols and data artifacts. The incubator has already formed new sub-groups to begin addressing these areas. The resulting specifications will address the interfaces between cloud service providers and cloud service consumers, and between cloud service providers and cloud developers – collectively known as the cloud provider interface. Cloud interoperability standards that result from this work will be designed to reduce lock-in and increase agility for cloud computing adopters taking advantage of a multi-provider, mixed cloud environment.

DMTF’s Open Cloud Standards Incubator expects the cloud provider interface will encompass several major sub categories that make up the interface between cloud service providers and cloud consumers. These subcategories will ultimately be comprised of profiles that span object models and wire formats. The group anticipates that some profiles will be addressed through integration with other DMTF working groups, and through cooperation with other standards bodies.

The “Interoperable Cloud” white paper, along with the deliverables it outlines, is the culmination of several months’ work within the Open Cloud Standards Incubator. Since its launch in late April 2009, the group has been collaboratively analyzing various aspects of clouds and identifying ways to offer solutions that will accelerate the adoption of interoperable and portable cloud service offerings. The complete white paper is available for download on the DMTF Web site.

Expanding the application of thin clients in new computing environments, HP today introduced a variety of thin computing solutions that deliver affordable, simple computing experiences for business and education, as well as integrated client virtualization solutions that extend the power of the data center to the desktop.

Extending HP’s thin computing portfolio, the new solutions include:

• HP thin client platforms designed to optimize the end-user experience for client virtualization by delivering higher performance and remarkable ease of use.
• HP client virtualization solutions that provide a high-quality user experience and increased scalability and reliability in a secure environment at a breakthrough price.
• HP MultiSeat solution that can double computing seats without expanding IT budgets for smaller computing environments, with simple set up and low energy use.

Thin computing platforms deliver new levels of performance and value

• The new HP t5740 and HP t5745 Flexible Series Thin Clients deliver a superb computing experience for client virtualization deployments. The t5740 Flexible Series Thin Clients feature Intel Atom N280 processors and an Intel GL40 chipset, enabling a power-efficient and rich PC experience delivered with the dependability of a thin client. HP Flexible Series Thin Clients can grow with a business, providing eight USB 2.0 ports and an optional PCI expansion module for easy upgrades. The HP Flexible Series also meets stringent ENERGY STAR, EPEAT Silver and Energy Using Products Directive (EuP) Lot 6 requirements.
• HP Flexible Series Thin Clients support rich multimedia for visual display solutions, including the new HP LD4700 47-inch Widescreen LCD Digital Signage Display. The HP LD4700 can run 24/7 in both bright and dim lighting while maintaining longevity, and can be set in either a horizontal or vertical position. In addition, with the new HP Digital Signage Display (DSD) Wall Mount, users can hang the display on a wall to showcase videos, graphics or text in a variety of commercial settings where an extra-large screen is desired.
• The HP t5325 Essential Series Thin Client is an affordable, power-efficient thin client with a new interface that simplifies setup and deployment. It offers a combination of features unique in its class and enables local web access and basic multimedia support.
• All new HP Thin Clients now include intuitive setup tools that streamline configuration and management into a short series of easy-to-follow steps. The ThinPro Setup Wizard for Linux and HP Easy Config for Microsoft Windows help customers quickly choose the right configurations for their virtual environment in just a few clicks. In addition, HP thin clients also include on-board utilities that automate deployment of new connections, properties, low-bandwidth add-ons and image updates from one centralized repository to thousands of thin clients.

New client virtualization solutions extend the power of the data center to the desktop

HP is extending the power of its Converged Infrastructure strategy to help customers accelerate the delivery of client virtualization with solutions that combine servers, storage, software and thin clients, along with services and support.

• Three new client virtualization architectures that combine Citrix XenDesktop 4, Citrix XenApp or VMware View with HP ProLiant servers, storage and thin clients to provide midsize to large businesses with a range of scalable and affordable offerings that meet the performance and reliability needs of task workers and knowledge workers.
• HP ProLiant WS460c G6 Workstation Blade brings centralized, mission-critical security and reliability to workstation computing by delivering a breakthrough user experience that also allows individuals or teams to work and collaborate remotely and securely. This solution meets the performance and scalability needs for high-end visualization and handling of large model sizes demanded by enterprise segments such as engineering and oil and gas.
• HP Client Automation 7.8, part of the HP Business Service Automation software portfolio and fully supporting Windows 7, allows customers to easily deploy and migrate to a virtual desktop infrastructure environment and manage it through the entire life cycle. It manages traditional and virtual client environments – including all thin clients, virtual back-end infrastructure and traditional PCs – with a common methodology that reduces management costs and complexity. Customers also capture inventory and usage information to help size their initial virtual client deployment and reoptimize as end-user needs change over time.
• New HP Technology Services implementation, support and education offerings help organizations lower complexity and risk with new business value services that provide a reliable path to client virtualization:
  • HP Transformation Experience Workshop helps customers build their strategy for virtualized solutions, identify a high-level roadmap and get executive consensus in a one-day intensive session.
  • HP Business Benefit Workshop allows customers to identify, quantify and analyze the business benefits of client virtualization as well as set return-on-investment targets prior to entering the planning stage.
  • Enhanced HP Solution Architecture and Pilot Service ensures the successful integration of the client virtualization solution into the customer’s infrastructure through a clear roadmap, architectural blueprint and phased implementation strategy.
• HP Enterprise Services extends the value of HP’s client virtualization solutions by hosting the customer’s applications and data in a remote data center.
• Recently announced HP business computing bundles bring end-to-end IT capabilities to small business owners. The bundles, which include HP Thin Clients, HP ProLiant tower servers and Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2, efficiently deliver Windows desktops, business applications and remote access while improving security and reducing total costs.

HP MultiSeat Solution doubles computing seats without expanding IT budgets

The HP MultiSeat Solution stretches the computing budgets of small businesses and other resource-constrained organizations by delivering up to twice the computing seats as traditional PCs for the same IT spend.

HP MultiSeat uses the excess computing capacity of a single PC to give up to 10 simultaneous users an individualized, fully supported and licensed Microsoft Windows 7 computing experience. This not only helps organizations affordably increase computing seats, but also simplifies IT management with setup simple enough for non-technical users and reduces energy consumption by as much as 80 percent per user over traditional PCs.

Pricing and availability

• HP t5740 Flexible Series Thin Client starts at $429 and is currently available
• HP 5745 Flexible Series Thin Client starts at $399 and is currently available
• HP t5325 Essential Series Thin Clients starts at $199 and is expected to be available Dec. 1
• HP LD4700 47-inch Widescreen LCD Digital Signage starts at $1,799 and is currently available
• HP ProLiant WS460c G6 Blade Workstation starts at $3,044 and is currently available

New research from TheInfoPro announced today at Interop New York 2009 outlines where Fortune 1000 (F1000) and midsize enterprises (MSEs) intend to focus their budget dollars and man-hours throughout 2010.

Based on interviews with more than 1,000 information technology decision-makers from more than 800 organizations in North American F1000 and MSE spaces, TheInfoPro’s research outlines where IT departments within these organizations stand in terms of budgets, technology roadmaps, and technology provider choices and ratings.

Key infrastructure areas are covered including: storage, servers, networking, information security, virtualization and cloud computing.

A key theme prevalent in the majority of organizations interviewed is that almost all respondents will see a continued halt on new IT projects, with available dollars being geared toward optimization projects and refresh components of the existing storage, networking and server infrastructures to support growth in virtualization.

Spending

While spending is expected to increase for 2010 and budgets are projected to be more fruitful, TheInfoPro’s studies provide the following themes across all sectors of IT:

• Spending will focus on increasing existing infrastructure needs versus IT departments embarking on new projects or pilots.
• Technology purchases will focus on the optimization of existing server, networking and storage assets, requiring a six- to 12-month ROI.
• Hot new trends in technology will be prioritized if they’re easy to bring on and if they demonstrate a quick ROI.
• Upgrade investments will be made to support virtualization performance demands, especially in the area of networking.

Storage

• After a year of consolidation, F1000 storage pros forecast a positive budget for 2010; however, new application demand remains uncertain.
• In 2009, MSE budgets fared better than F1000 budgets. In 2010, the F1000 budgets are expected to increase more.
• Deduplication, both backup and primary, solid-state disk, and 8Gbps refreshes top end users’ storage hardware priorities, while thin provisioning, archiving and e-discovery top end users’ storage management priorities.
• NAS activity continues to expand for business analytics, application optimization and virtual server adoption.

Servers and virtualization

• Server spending turned net positive, with 30% of respondents indicating increased spending and 22% noting decreases for 2010.
• Companies will need to invest more in hardware, but not all vendors will reap the benefits of those sales; respondents point to Dell and Hewlett-Packard as first-choice vendors.
• Desktop virtualization will see an major increase in pilot programs and installations in 2010.

Networking

• Early projections indicate fewer significant networking budget cuts in 2010 as compared to 2009, with 58% of respondents expecting spending to have flat to 10% growth.
• High-ROI projects like WAN optimization continue to be deployed. To a lesser degree, unification of voice and video onto the enterprise backbone network is also moving forward when it can be accomplished without large infrastructure upgrades.
• Fifteen percent (15%) of organizations are planning future adoption of IP video conferencing solutions. The increased use of this technology is meant to offset travel expenses and improve organizational effectiveness.
• Citations for future adoption of unified messaging remain strong; an additional 29%, or nearly 75% of the current adoption rate, have unified messaging solutions in their plans for the next 12 months.

Cloud

• While nearly 60% of server organizations are not evaluating or planning to use cloud computing, the percentage of these organizations indicating interest in adopting cloud computing has nearly doubled in the past year, going from 20% to 40%.
• Thirty percent (30%) of respondents indicated they would be slow to adopt cloud computing due to immaturity of technology. Concerns over security followed closely behind, with 25% of respondents indicating this as their number one concern for adoption.
• While internal models are favored (53%), there is a substantial number of organizations looking at a hybrid of both internal and external models (34%).