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Dell Introduces Storage Solutions “For The Virtual Era”

June 14, 2011 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

At its Dell Storage Forum customer and partner event, Dell recently announced new solutions built on its Fluid Data Architecture to optimize cost, performance and protection as storage scales with a growing organization.

New solutions include its first unified Dell EqualLogic platform, updated Dell EqualLogic software capabilities, a Dell Compellent demonstration of 16Gbps Fibre Channel, and the introduction of Fibre Channel on its PowerVault product line.

The EqualLogic FS7500 adds scalable network-attached storage (NAS) capability to the EqualLogic product line. The EqualLogic FS7500 uses the Dell Scalable File System, a clustered file system based on Dell intellectual property. The EqualLogic FS7500 will be shipping in the third quarter of 2011.

EqualLogic software version 5.1 provides significant enhancements for iSCSI networking via Data Center Bridging (DCB) support. Additional enhancements provide improved performance via automated load-balancing and enhanced integration with VMware environments.

The EqualLogic firmware release 5.1 will be available for download from the EqualLogic support site in the third quarter of 2011. EqualLogic software is included in the cost of the array. Customers with a valid Dell ProSupport agreement can download software updates without paying additional license fees.

The PowerVault MD3600f storage arrays provide 8Gb Fibre Channel connectivity while upholding the common hardware and software features in the PowerVault MD32x0/36 x0 series of arrays. They will be available June 14, 2011.

Citrix Commercializes OpenStack With ‘Project Olympus’

June 14, 2011 by Robin Wauters 1 Comment

Citrix will soon be rolling out a new OpenStack product that would let customers build private or public clouds. The company has added Project Olympus, a new cloud product, to its open cloud computing portfolio to complement its Citrix NetScaler Cloud Gateway and NetScaler Cloud Bridge.

Citrix Systems announced Project Olympus, a new cloud infrastructure product based on the open-source cloud operating system OpenStack, at Citrix Synergy a few weeks ago. It will be the first commercialized version of OpenStack and will begin shipping later this year, Citrix said.

Based on OpenStack, Project Olympus will help customers build real infrastructure-as-a-service clouds that are scalable, efficient and open by design because they use the same architecture, approach and technology behind “some of today’s largest and most successful clouds in the world,” Citrix added.

Project Olympus will be composed of two components, a Citrix-certified version of OpenStack and a cloud-optimized version of Citrix XenServer. It will support a wide range of infrastructure, management and development technologies to make it easy for customers to expand and build on the platform, Citrix said.

Project Olympus will also support Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware vSphere in addition to Citrix XenDesktop.

OpenStack began as a joint effort between Rackspace and NASA back in July 2010. The effort has since expanded to include more than 70 industry partners, including Citrix. OpenStack supports multiple virtualization hypervisor platforms, including Hyper-V, KVM and Xen.

Release: Citrix GoToManage Monitoring for XenServer

June 14, 2011 by Robin Wauters 1 Comment

Recently at the Citrix Synergy event, Citrix Systems announced Citrix GoToManage Monitoring for XenServer, a new integrated offering for IT professionals and SMBs who need to monitor and manage a range of devices in support of increasingly distributed, remote and mobile workforces.

GoToManage consists of a real-time remote support module and a monitoring module, which provides detailed real-time server monitoring, inventory and software discovery, and network tracking.

The addition of GoToManage Monitoring for XenServer offers a new single view to track the health and performance of all key physical and virtual IT infrastructure. The service is cloud-based, enabling SMBs to tackle the complexity of managing their servers without the added expense of deploying expensive hardware and software probes.

The XenServer functionality is included at no additional cost for all GoToManage Monitoring customers. Also, GoToManage Monitoring has a free version that allows anyone to monitor two servers and inventory and track up to 18 other devices (e.g. computers, switches, routers).

Release: Trilead VM Explorer 3.5

May 23, 2011 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Trilead VM Explorer is a management tool that eases management, backup and disaster recovery tasks in your VMware ESX environment.

Backups can be stored on ESX, Windows, Linux and FreeBSD based storage platforms or directly to a SAN.

VM Explorer has only to be licenced once for your infrastructure, you don’t have to pay any fees per ESX Server, CPU, or anything similar.

The main new features of VM Explorer 3.5 are:

– Built-In Scheduler Service
– Advanced Email reporting
– Advanced scheduled task reporting
– Added “On error execute next task” functionality in order to perform next task, within a scheduled task, in case of errors
– Added “delete backup” functionality in file explorer
– Added more configuration options for incremental backup
– Added possibility to power on the VM after restore process
– Backup Explorer
– Many minor improvements for incremental and full backups.

Dell Chooses Ixia For Performance Testing On Its PowerEdge Server Line

May 23, 2011 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Ixia, a global provider of converged IP network test solutions, today announced that Dell has selected the company as one of its key partners for performance testing on its PowerEdge server line.

Dell’s PowerEdge series includes the large-scale blade servers used by service providers and enterprises for virtualized data centers, which require extensive benchmarking and testing.

Dell chose Ixia’s platform because of its ability to match the scale, performance, and flexibility necessary to test large rack servers.

Ixia’s solutions thoroughly test high-capacity virtualized data center networks and storage infrastructures by addressing key challenges, such as service availability, infrastructure elasticity and provisioning, capacity, end-to-end application and services delivery, and performance across all layers.

As enterprises migrate their data and applications to the cloud, and leverage virtualized server infrastructures, it is essential to measure application performance through all stages — on-premise physical servers, virtual machines, and eventually a fully-hosted cloud.

VMware Launches An Official Publishing Entity With A Little Help From Pearson

May 20, 2011 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Pearson, the world’s leading learning company, and VMware have announced VMware Press, a newly created technical imprint that will serve as VMware’s official publishing entity.

The newly formed press will provide a suite of virtualization technology and certification products in multiple languages and formats, and will focus on three types of content:

– Technical books, ebooks and videos that concentrate on specific applications of virtualization.
– Decision Maker books, ebooks and videos that focus on the business aspects of virtualization.
– Official certification materials that support VMware’s complete certification program.

The majority of the new products will target VMware technology, primarily VMware vSphere, VMware View, VMware vCenter and VMware vCloud, which comprise the basic platform for all of VMware’s products and services.

Working in conjunction with VMware, Pearson plans to leverage the user group community programs and social channels to further engage the VMware community and offer exclusive promotions and access to the certification and technology products endorsed by VMware.