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Partnerships

AppSense Teams Up With Enterprise Systems

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AppSense today announced that it is partnering with Enterprise Systems to extend its VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) offerings to customers throughout the U.S. Southwest, particularly those in the healthcare market.

AppSense (previous coverage) is the longstanding policy and personalization management leader in the healthcare market, with customers such as Utah Heartland Health, Wellpoint, Banner Health and Catholic Health Initiatives, among others.

While both AppSense and Enterprise Systems share a strong relationship with Citrix, Rob Piwowarczyk, founder and president of Enterprise Systems, says he wanted to establish a partnership that leverages AppSense’s user environment management expertise for VDI and other delivery mechanisms, as well as its extensive experience with healthcare IT organizations.

AppSense recently reported a 50 percent increase in U.S. revenue for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2008 and is aggressively focusing on the U.S. market. AppSense software facilitates enterprise-scale adoption of VDI by enabling organizations to significantly reduce VDI implementation costs and easily personalize standardized virtual desktops. By decoupling both corporate policy and personalization data from the desktop, managing them independently and applying them on-demand, AppSense’s solution lets IT departments use a combination of desktop and application delivery methods, and transparently migrate users from physical to virtual desktops.

Avnet to Distribute Reflex Security’s “Virtual Security Manager”

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Reflex Security today announced a global distribution agreement with Avnet Technology Solutions, an operating group of Avnet, which will be implemented initially in the U.S. and Canada. Under the agreement, Avnet will distribute Reflex Security’s “Virtual Security Manager” (VSM) solution. The agreement will significantly broaden the market opportunities for Reflex Security, and VARs will benefit from Avnet’s virtualization solutions practice.

While virtualization enables enterprise organizations to optimize IT resources and reduce their costs, there are also critical security implications that need to be taken into account. The first company to introduce a dedicated virtual security solution in the market, Reflex Security provides companies with a simple and cost-effective way to apply an additional layer of security to their virtualized environments.

VirtualLogix VLX Adds Support for Intel-Based Mobile Internet Devices

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VirtualLogix (previous coverage) today announced that its VLX virtualization solution will be supporting the latest Intel Atom processor Z5XX series-based Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs).

Device makers using VLX on these MIDs can simplify hardware designs, reduce costs and enhance the end-user experience through improved quality of voice, multimedia services and stronger security capabilities. VirtualLogix VLX also offers complete power management support for virtualized environments, which reduces MIDs’ overall energy consumption.

The VLX hypervisor integrates transparently into a Windows or a Linux-based MID with no re-installation of the native operating system (OS) and no intrusion into the existing user environment. As a result, customers can use VLX’s flexible software architecture to securely separate critical applications while boosting the quality of service offerings. Additionally, by servicing the virtual appliances while the main application OS and associated hardware resources are not in use, VLX improves power consumption management.

The demand for next-generation devices is expanding. In a recent report, “Mobile Internet Device (MID) & Chip Market Opportunities,” Forward Concepts forecasted MID shipment growth from 305,000 units in 2008 to 39.6 million units in 2012.

Check Point Ships VPN-1 Virtual Edition

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Check Point Software Technologies today announced VPN-1 Virtual Edition (VE) and claims it is the first company to provide unified security management for both physical networks and virtual applications.

Virtualization of multiple servers into a single appliance creates an entirely new type of environment that requires new ways to protect segregated applications and information from one another without the use of physical security appliances. Check Point’s VPN-1 VE restores the separation and security of applications as if they were still located on separate servers. VPN-1 VE also integrates completely into a customer’s overall Check Point security infrastructure, making it possible to manage Check Point appliances and software for open servers, “Secured by Check Point” appliances and VPN-1 VE from a single interface — reducing the cost and strain of management.

Check Point lists the following benefits for VPN-1 VE:

  • Secures virtual environments with a preconfigured solution that is tailored for VMware ESX or ESXi environments to help ensure an easy, optimal deployment
  • Eliminates the need for additional security appliances to protect virtual applications, thereby lowering costs
  • Integrates with the same unified interface as other Check Point security gateways
  • Strengthens auditing, compliance and risk management with unified logging for the entire security infrastructure, including virtual environments
  • Enables quick deployment for provisioning or disaster recovery

Check Point VPN-1 VE is available immediately and can be purchased through the Check Point worldwide network of VARs as well as from VMware directly. Pricing can be consulted here.

Check Point Software Technologies

VMware, Cisco Join Microsoft Server Virtualization Validation Program

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Microsoft’s Server Virtualization Validation Program, which was first announced in November 2007, and launched last June with the patricipation of Citrix, Sun, Novell and Virtual Iron, signed up two notable new members.

Cisco has announced its membership and is already included on the SVVP website, and VMware signed up pretty late so they’re not on there yet (but Chris Wolf had already confirmed the news). Microsoft and VMware had been working diligently for several months on the completion of their support agreement and VMware’s inclusion in the SVVP, and this will evidently drive virtualization adoption even further the coming months and years.

The costs associated with joining the program include membership in TSAnet at Mission Critical level, so that the vendor and Microsoft can share support information, incremental costs, if any, to perform the validation tests, and a nominal expense (currently $250) to qualify each ‘configuration’ that is submitted for validation.

Microsoft

Corticon Technologies Embeds Composite Information Server in EDC-Multi Source

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Corticon Technologies and Composite Software today announced Corticon has embedded the Composite Information Server in the Corticon Enterprise Data Connector (EDC)-Multi Source.

Corticon’s EDC-Multi Source enables access to relational databases, legacy data sources, web services, XML, message queues as well as leading packaged applications such as SAP, Siebel, PeopleSoft and Oracle through Composite Application Data Services.

Corticon’s EDC-Multi Source provides a direct connection from the rules engine to relational databases and other enterprise data sources. This allows it to automatically retrieve data required to execute a decision service or update data sources directly during rules processing, improving performance and simplifying integration. Consistent with Corticon’s model-driven approach, Corticon EDC features code-free modeling in defining data access connections, providing a level of abstraction that accelerates the creation and maintenance of decision services.

Corticon Technologies