Partnerships

Likewise, the leader in delivering integration and authentication software for mixed networks, today announced a technology licensing agreement with VMware, enabling Likewise software to be directly integrated and included with VMware vSphere.

The integration will enable VMware vSphere users to manage privileged user access with Microsoft Active Directory, providing large enterprises with a scalable means to improve authentication and access control in virtualized environments to help meet IT security audit requirements.

Likewise is a member of the VMware Technology Alliance Partner (TAP) program.

Citrix and Novell today announced a collaboration that expands choice for customers through increased virtualization interoperability and new assessment tools to help pinpoint the economically most advantageous approach to virtualization. Through this new partnership, Novell has certified SUSE Linux Enterprise Server as a “Perfect Guest” running on Citrix XenServer and both companies will provide joint technical support to customers.

As a result of this agreement, the more than 4,500 enterprise applications certified as Novell Ready for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server are now Citrix Ready community-verified when running in a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server guest virtual machine on XenServer.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is the only Linux operating system that has been optimized to be the perfect guest on all major hypervisors, with outstanding performance when running on XenServer. Now customers and cloud providers gain the added value of the free XenServer as an enterprise-class virtualization platform for Linux and Windows environments, providing them with an expanded set of technologies and processes to run and manage heterogeneous data centers.

The interoperability between SUSE Linux Enterprise and XenServer, which is YES Certified through the Virtualization Compatibility Program from Novell, is effective immediately.-

Parallels announced last week that its Small Business Panel has attracted some of the biggest names in the industry within months of release.

Go Daddy, the world’s largest domain name registrar and leading Web hosting provider, began offering Parallels Small Business Panel to its more than 7.5 million customers, many of whom are small businesses.

Other successful adopters of Parallels Small Business Panel include The Planet, Softlayer, Softcom, Codero, Layershift, ServeInt, Arsys, Network Group Europe and Host Europe.

Parallels Small Business Panel features a control panel designed for small businesses, offering simple wizards and productivity tools for collaboration, file sharing and business management. This makes self-service possible for all employees using the solution.

Parallels Small Business Panel 10.1 gives users an intuitive interface designed to connect employees to the right applications, which can be installed with a single click with no need for special training or technical knowledge. In addition, Parallels Small Business Panel incorporates the functionality of additional Parallels solutions for free, including Parallels Sitebuilder and Parallels Power Pack.

Users also have access to over 200 applications that increase productivity, efficiency and creativity but require no prior knowledge of the product to utilize the benefits. Some of the top applications available for free include WordPress, SugarCRM, Droopal and Mumbo.

App-DNA has today signed a global agreement with Citrix covering its AppTitude application compatibility testing product.

The agreement gives Citrix Consulting Services access to AppTitude, and will be used to help Citrix customers accelerate implementation of on-demand applications in a virtual desktop deployment.

By undertaking a thorough runtime analysis of file permissions and performance data, as well as a static binary analysis, AppTitude determines the optimum methodology for migrating applications, and provides a roadmap for modifications and further testing. The information provided is a solid foundation for accurately assessing the cost and schedule impact of the overall migration program.

Many enterprise-class customers are keen to exploit the compelling operational, environmental, cost and performance benefits offered by desktop virtualization along with on-demand application delivery, especially as they migrate to Windows 7. In preparing recommended program plans for customers, Citrix consulting services using AppTitude, can rapidly present a migration strategy that addresses the steps needed to virtualize the entire applications portfolio and delivering them on-demand for both physical and virtual desktops.

This agreement builds on an already strong relationship between the companies. For the last two years, there has been extensive cooperation in the development of AppTitude’s capabilities, aimed at helping migrate applications to Citrix’s desktop virtualization solutions. Under the agreement, App-DNA will also provide exclusive access for Citrix Consulting Services to a web portal that offers:

• Fully configured virtual machine and full-install AppTitude product
• Multi-level training system to meet the needs of individual Citrix staff

Terracotta, the leader in simple scalability for Java applications, and Eucalyptus Systems, creators of n open source private cloud platform, today announced a partnership to provide enterprises with an open source solution that maximizes data scalability and application performance in a private cloud environment.

Under the agreement, the two companies will provide tighter integration between Terracotta technology and Eucalyptus software as well as engage in joint sales and marketing activities.

Enterprises adopting cloud architectures can face challenges related to the elastic provisioning of compute clouds on existing data center infrastructure and the inability of the data layer to scale at the same rate as the compute layer. Now, the combination of Eucalyptus and Terracotta allows large-scale enterprises to provision private clouds on the Amazon AWS-compatible Eucalyptus private cloud platform and easily capitalize on the elasticity, latency and flexibility of the cloud.

Terracotta provides customers access to a seamless scalability continuum through data virtualization. With simple configuration changes, applications can scale from a single server using industry-standard interfaces such as Ehcache to many nodes, even in highly virtualized environments such as private clouds. Terracotta provides users with optimum data tier scalability and performance by addressing the biggest bottleneck in deploying private clouds; relational databases that cannot scale to meet the demand of the expanding application and are ill-suited for cloud architectures.

Eucalyptus is an open source software infrastructure for implementing on-premise cloud computing using an organization’s own information technology (IT) infrastructure, without modification, special-purpose hardware or reconfiguration. Eucalyptus turns data center resources such as machines, networks and storage systems into a “cloud” that is controlled and customized by local IT. Eucalyptus is the only cloud architecture to support the same application programming interfaces (APIs) as public clouds, and today Eucalyptus is fully compatible with the Amazon AWS public cloud infrastructure. The Eucalyptus design gives users the flexibility to seamlessly move applications from on-premise Eucalyptus clouds to public clouds, and vice versa. Eucalyptus also makes it easy to deploy “hybrid” clouds, which use public and private cloud resources together to get the unique benefits of each.

Xsigo Systems today announced that Xsigo Systems Japan partnered with Itochu Techno-Solutions Corporation (CTC) and Hitachi to jointly offer I/O virtualization solutions to the Japanese market.

The companies offer immediate availability of a jointly developed solution that will allow enterprise customers to rapidly implement cloud computing environments. The combined solution includes Hitachi storage and integrated system management software; the Xsigo I/O Director; and pre-configured templates that facilitate deployment in as little as half the time required for custom made systems.

This joint offering is the first product of an ongoing agreement among the three companies to develop, sell and support solutions designed specifically to meet the needs of cloud infrastructures. CTC, a leading systems integrator, will develop and sell the solutions; Hitachi will provide storage, system operation management software and technical support; and Xsigo will provide I/O virtualization products and technical support. The three companies will also cooperate on marketing, technical verification and training.

Xsigo’s virtual I/O technology addresses multiple server I/O issues encountered in cloud computing deployments. When servers run large numbers of virtual machines, server I/O can become a bottleneck, slowing system response time and degrading memory and CPU utilization. Compared with alternative Ethernet approaches, Xsigo virtual I/O provides:

• Two to four time more bandwidth to each server, thus optimizing the use of server resources
• Dynamic bandwidth allocation that delivers performance on-demand to I/O connections
• Embedded quality of service features that enhance application performance by reducing the risk of I/O resource contention
Cloud architectures also require that all data center resources be available to whichever servers require those assets. Xsigo virtual I/O delivers the needed “any-to-any” connectivity while eliminating the constraints of traditional I/O cards and cabling.

The combined Xsigo/CTC/Hitachi solution facilitates rapid deployment of an enterprise cloud environment with pre-certified configurations that include Hitachi storage, integrated system management software, and the Xsigo I/O Director. Templates allow users to install the platform up to 2X more quickly than is possible with custom made systems. The fully virtualized infrastructure also reduces equipment costs by up to 50% when compared with traditional I/O.

Other solution benefits include:

• End-to-end support, from design, to installation, to operation
• Comprehensive training programs