Partnerships

CA Technologies and Cisco earlier this week announced they are expanding their relationship through collaborative technology integration.

Their latest work is designed to enable organizations to achieve greater agility, automation and scale in their data center operations, while accelerating the move toward cloud computing-based services. Launched today is the release of CA Service Assurance and Service Automation solutions designed to support the Cisco Unified Computing System.

The integration of Cisco’s Unified Computing System™ data center platform with the CA systems management suite enables customers to accelerate the deployment of new applications, streamline operations, reduce costs and provide reliable service delivery in public and private cloud computing environments.

• The ability to manage the Cisco Unified Computing System natively from CA Technologies’ leading management software provides unified management capabilities to help customers see and control the platform infrastructure and application stack.
• CA Technologies and Cisco today are announcing the integration of three CA management tools with the Cisco Unified Computing System. Utilizing the Cisco UCS Manager open XML API (Application Programming Interface), CA Technologies has integrated management of the Cisco Unified Computing System platform into the following solutions:
  • CA Spectrum Automation Manager – A policy-based server provisioning and automation tool
  • CA eHealth Performance Manager – A performance management solution that monitors device health across an organization’s entire infrastructure
  • CA Spectrum Infrastructure Manager – An integrated management solution for fault isolation and root cause analysis, and network configuration management
• CA Technologies has integrated operating system provisioning on top of Cisco Unified Computing System service profiles natively within the CA Spectrum Automation Manager interface, enabling IT organizations to manage resources according to predefined service-level agreements for each business application.
• The CA Service Assurance tools—CA eHealth Performance Manager and CA Spectrum Infrastructure Manager —also discover Cisco UCS server and network topology and gather performance and status statistics for reporting and analysis. CA’s ‘OneClick’ management interface further simplifies operational processes, improving staff responsiveness and productivity.
• The integrated solution enables the deployment of new computing approaches within existing processes, with reduced operational overhead.
  • Users of existing CA tools and CA-based policies and processes manage the Cisco Unified Computing System platform directly from this same management suite, enabling accelerated adoption of benefits such as unprecedented flexibility, power savings, extended memory and virtualized I/O.
  • Standard x86 application stacks can easily and reliably be run anywhere within a Unified Computing System environment, with familiar CA Technologies solutions.
• Cisco is working with industry-leading companies such as CA Technologies to build a comprehensive ecosystem of data center partners to help ease customer transitions to virtualized and cloud environments; the systems management area is one of the key technology areas being addressed in this industry ecosystem.

VMLogix has announced that it is working with Citrix and Carpathia Hosting to bring development and testing workloads to the cloud.

As part of the agreement, VMLogix LabManager will integrate with the Carpathia InstantOn enterprise cloud offering which is powered by Citrix XenServer. The joint InstantOn Virtual Lab solution will deliver an easy-to-use virtual lab management solution to cloud environments and provide a smooth transition from preproduction to production environments while significantly reducing lab costs when compared with dedicated development and test labs.

In 2009, VMLogix announced an OEM agreement with Citrix to bundle VMLogix LabManager into XenServer to add application lifecycle management (ALM) capabilities to the solution as well as the ability to develop and test software in virtualized environments. This new agreement with Citrix and Carpathia will incorporate VMLogix virtual lab automation and ALM functionality into the InstantOn Virtual Lab solution. This full-featured development and test solution supports complex topologies including firewall, load balancers and complex networks consistent with network production deployments.

The software development and test use case has traditionally been the first workload to move to emerging technology infrastructures. With virtualization, dev/test organizations led the adoption in their preproduction environments. Market analysts again expect that these workloads will be the first to migrate over to cloud environments.

The InstantOn Virtual Lab solution will be generally available in Q3. To learn more about VMLogix virtual lab automation solutions on Carpathia InstantOn and Citrix XenServer, visit http://www.carpathia.com/virtual_lab

Matrix42 has announced the global offering of a co-branded virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solution that enables medium-sized businesses to cost-effectively leverage the benefits of virtual desktops.

The product is called VDI-in-a-box.

The decision to offer the product globally came after excellent reception from initial customers in the German market.

Kaviza VDI-in-a-Box is a turnkey solution delivered as a virtual appliance that enables organizations to be up and running with virtual desktops in less than two hours, using inexpensive commodity hardware. In addition, all virtualization components are fully integrated and Kaviza automates desktop provisioning, management and high-availability.

Kaviza VDI-in-a-Box can be deployed on a PC replacement budget without the need to purchase expense hardware components or hire specially trained IT staff.

Xsigo Systems, a data center I/O virtualization company, today announced the technology integration of the Xsigo VP780 I/O Director with the Microsoft System Center suite of IT management solutions.

The integrated solution works with System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) and System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) to help IT managers better monitor and control their server connectivity and resolve issues quickly without the need to physically enter a data center. With these tools, IT managers can monitor I/O resources and receive automated alerts in the event of an anomaly. Alerts may include PROtips that recommend corrective actions, which the IT manager can choose to automatically implement via the Microsoft SCVMM, thus minimizing exposure to downtime and maximizing management productivity.

The Xsigo I/O Director is purpose built to deliver dynamic server connectivity, allowing data center users to connect any server to any network or storage device in seconds, without the restrictions of I/O cards, cables and switch ports. Benefits of the solution include:

• Dynamic I/O management: Deploy virtual Ethernet and Fibre channel connections to live servers
• Scalable I/O: Up to 64 virtual NICs and HBAs per server with just one cable
• Broadly interoperable: Proven with all leading X86 servers and FC, iSCSI, and NAS storage
• Future-proof: Add new I/O capabilities without modifying server cards or cables

Quest Software has announced a new release of vWorkspace, a single virtualization solution for application delivery and desktop deployments.

The new release includes major functionality enhancements including EOP Xtream to speed WAN performance, and integration with Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Remote Desktop Services to automate deployment and administration, and simplify use.

With the new, patent-pending EOP Xtream, Quest vWorkspace dramatically reduces the effects of network latency to deliver a smooth and enhanced user experience close to that of a physical PC across WAN and Internet/VPN connections. Developed in conjunction with a number of major enterprise customers, EOP Xtream delivers faster screen updates and smoother interaction on high latency connections. These improvements drive user acceptance and will accelerate adoption of desktop virtualization in enterprises, as well as DaaS from the cloud.

Quest vWorkspace provides a consolidated management experience in a single console for the many components in the Windows Server 2008 R2 Remote Desktop Services stack. The automation and advanced management functions in the latest release of vWorkspace make deployment of desktop virtualization on Windows Server easier and faster, and deliver greater reductions in the total cost of ownership (TCO). In particular, vWorkspace eases setup and use of the services provided in the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system, including the Remote Desktop Connection Broker. Quest vWorkspace integrates with the Remote Desktop Connection Broker to publish applications and desktops from different host platforms, including the Hyper-V-based Remote Desktop Virtualization Host and the Remote Desktop Session Host, through interfaces including RemoteApp and Remote Desktop Web Access.

Quest vWorkspace automates and accelerates virtual desktop creation by rapidly cloning virtual hard disks using Hyper-V differencing disks in conjunction with System Center Virtual Machine Manager. Advanced load balancing of user connections between Hyper-V hosts delivers an improved user experience and optimizes server utilization.

Available now, the new Quest vWorkspace version 7.1 supports multiple centralized desktop platforms, including Microsoft Hyper-V-based virtual desktops, Remote Desktop Session hosts (formerly known as Terminal Servers) and physical/blade PCs.

vWorkspace securely and efficiently delivers advanced management capabilities including connection brokering, desktop provisioning and user experience optimizations, and provides support for Microsoft Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V.