Virtualization.com
News and insights from the vibrant world of virtualization and cloud computing
Alternative Technology, an Arrow Electronics company is launching a suite of virtualization protections solutions with Double-Take Software, an infrastructure software company.
Alternative Technology will leverage its virtualization presence in the North American channel and its education and technical resources to offer a host of Double-Take Software solutions, including Double-Take Virtual Recovery Assistant, Double-Take for VMware Infrastructure and Double-Take Livewire.
Samsung Electronics has announced that its 32 gigabyte (GB) and 64 GB solid state drives (SSDs) have been selected, after extensive testing, for use in the HP ProLiant BL495c virtualization blade server. This represents the first time that an SSD has been qualified for use in a server optimized for virtualization. The server is the world’s first server blade designed specifically to host virtual machines, and is designed for use in virtualized environments that require significant memory, data storage and network connections to optimize server performance.
By using SSDs instead of hard disk drives, HP is able to free up a significant amount of physical space which can then be allocated for additional DRAM capacity—further improving system performance. The BL495c has 16 DRAM sockets.
The HP ProLiant BL495c virtualization blade eliminates performance bottlenecks in virtual machine hosts. Engineered with more memory and I/O than any other two-processor blade server, the new server has a maximum processor speed of 2.3 GHz and a maximum front-side bus speed of 1 GHz, according to HP, and comes with the option of two SATA SSD storage drives (either 32 or 64 GBs).
The Samsung single-level-cell (SLC) SSD has a (sequential) read speed of 100 megabytes per second (MB/s) and a (sequential) write speed of 80 MB/s. The SLC SSD’s power consumption is as little as a miniscule 0.5 watt (one-twentieth that of a conventional 15K enterprise rpm hard drive) in active mode and 0.1 watt in sleep mode.
Marathon Technologies, provider of high availability software for physical and virtual servers, today announced that it has entered into a distribution agreement with the exclusive Citrix XenServer distributor in North America, Ingram Micro.
Under terms of the agreement, Ingram Micro will offer Marathon’s everRun high availability and disaster recovery software to its resellers in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Included in the distribution agreement is Marathon’s everRun VM, the world’s first fault-tolerant, high availability software for server virtualization that is integrated with Citrix XenServer. Citrix XenServer is a dynamic virtualization software platform that virtualizes application workloads across any number of servers in the datacenter as a flexible aggregated pool of computing resources. The combination of Citrix XenServer high-performance, easy-to-use virtualization hypervisor with the proven automated availability of Marathon’s everRun software, enables more organizations to deploy virtualization across a much broader array of applications.
Marathon’s everRun software is for IT professionals who want to prevent outages and data loss in their physical and virtual infrastructures. everRun provides fault-tolerant, high availability for Citrix XenServer and Windows Server to deliver uninterrupted availability, 100 percent data protection, and rapid recovery through a “one-click” operation. Unlike bolt-on failover, cluster, or data replication products that place the burden on the IT professional, everRun software is completely automated. It makes high availability and disaster recovery easy to manage and cost effective for both midsize companies and enterprises.
Xiotech Corporation today announced that it has entered into an alliance with Xcedex, a provider of virtualization consulting services. Under the agreement, Xiotech is now able to offer Xcedex’s proprietary X_Factor Virtualization Readiness Planning (VRP) and Virtualization Readiness Design (VRD) analytics tools to its customers, allowing them to assess their IT environments for the approval, preparation and planning of virtual projects. This added level of detail will pay off for clients in increased control, higher return on investment (ROI) and lower total cost of ownership (TCO) throughout their data centers.
Xcedex’s X_Factor technology performs an assessment of a pre-virtual network by running inside it for a period of time and collecting inventory on servers, storage and network devices. It then assigns a score to each device based on performance characteristics, which can be used to compare proposed virtualization scenarios to make an appropriate selection. Modeling is done to ensure compatibility with design and configuration options, and detailed reports on capacity and statistics are issued. To complete the process, findings are clearly presented along with a roadmap and financial analysis, allowing for conclusions to be drawn and recommendations to be formed. Put together, the entire process will help IT leaders create optimized virtualization strategies.
Xiotech will be introducing Xcedex to its channel partners, who will be responsible for the implementation and support of VRP and VRD. Upon purchase, the tools are available for immediate installation and can be operational within a few days.
Open-E, a provider of unified IP storage management software, today announced that Open-E Data Storage Server (DSS) has been certified for use with Virtual Iron’s server virtualization software. Environments deploying both Virtual Iron and Open-E Data Storage Server will benefit from streamlined virtual infrastructure, improved server and storage utilization and robust business continuity.
Virtual Iron provides easy-to-use, enterprise-class server virtualization capabilities on a next-generation architecture. The platform combines the leading open source hypervisor with advanced virtualization services and policy-based automation capabilities such as LiveMigrate for easy movement of workloads, LiveRecovery for automated virtual machine failover, LiveCapacity for dynamic workload balancing, and LiveSnapshot for hot backup and patch management. These capabilities enable offloaded, space efficient and no-downtime backups on live virtual machines running in production environments.
Smooth integration of Open-E DSS with Virtual Iron provides simple and efficient storage consolidation that supports capital and operational cost reduction throughout the IT environment. DSS brings enterprise-class functionality, enhanced manageability and proven reliability to small and medium businesses that depend on server/storage infrastructure for continued business operations. As a result, companies have a cost-effective avenue toward advanced IT to strengthen their competitive advantage.
The company has also announced general availability of Data Storage Server (DSS) for VMware ESX 3.5. VMware provides TAP program members with tools to develop products that are complementary to VMware virtualization software and help deliver high-value solutions to joint customers. Data Storage Server for VMware ESX 3.5 will provide mutual customers with enhanced capabilities for consolidating storage environments.
As a result of a new strategic partnership with 6WIND, active in embedded multicore networking software, VirtualLogix today announced the industry’s first solution allowing network equipment providers (NEPs) to bring advanced network elements such as 4G wireless base stations or smart media gateways to market faster, ultimately speeding the delivery of Internet Protocol (IP) multimedia services to end-users.
The solution, featuring 6WINDGate multicore networking software suites, together with VirtualLogix VLX virtualization and Linux running natively on Texas Instruments (TI) C6000 multicore Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), allows multi-plane consolidation, resulting in a reduced bill of materials and lower power consumption. It is the first solution of its kind that allows NEPs to easily integrate optimized IP networking protocol stacks into designs based on TI multicore DSPs.
The ability to integrate complete L2/L3 networking functions into a DSP platform becomes critically important as the industry further adopts multicore DSPs. In partnering with 6WIND, VirtualLogix is further strengthening its commitment to developing solutions that address the demand for compressed voice, video and data over IP. The 6WINDGate software suite has been designed to provide a ready-to-use, scalable, modular and portable networking software solution for most advanced hardware architectures including multicore processors.
VirtualLogix’s VLX for Network Infrastructure supporting Texas Instruments Digital Signal Processor allows running Linux and TI DSP/BIOS™ simultaneously on high performance TI DSP processors. With VirtualLogix VLX on TI DSP, network equipment manufacturers can combine the richness of open source software with the real-time capabilities of TI DSP/BIOS getting the flexibility necessary to develop new network elements, such as 3G/4G base stations or smart media servers and gateways. VLX provides the capability to integrate required signal processing applications with advanced platform management, control, and debug solutions – all without adding another specific board or processor.