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StackSafe Unveils Test Center at DEMO 08

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I’m currently watching the live stream from DEMO 08 , listening to a pitch from StackSafe which is really compelling. The company was foreseeing enough to publish a press release in conjunction with the product launch.

“StackSafe, Inc., a provider of pre-production staging and testing solutions for IT operations teams, announced today the immediate availability of StackSafe™ Test Center . Test Center is the first virtualized staging and testing solution for IT Operations teams that improves availability and resiliency through enhanced software infrastructure testing. StackSafe’s solution directly addresses incomplete and ineffective IT Operations testing and analysis of changes to multi-tiered software infrastructure stacks.

“If IT Operations teams can test and certify changes to software infrastructures before they go live, then IT services become more available and resilient as well as more repeatable and better documented,” said Donna Scott, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “Comprehensive and efficient staging, testing and analysis are essential to achieving optimum levels of availability.””

Watch the Flash demo here .

These are the key benefits according to StackSafe:

* Reduces the uncertainty and downtime associated with IT changes, thus avoiding costly application and system failure
* Enables pre-production changes to be made safely before they are implemented into the live environment
* Helps IT Operations teams to understand the potential impacts that changes could have on their environment-before they impact production systems
* Enables IT Operations to be more responsive to dynamic and changing business process requirements
* Improves confidence in IT changes, while reducing the percentage of time spent on testing and staging-which can significantly lower IT operating costs

Infinera Launches Bandwidth Virtualization

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Infinera Corporation has launched Bandwidth Virtualization to “meet the needs of the Internet for a faster, more responsive Internet today and in the future. Implemented using an Infinera Digital Optical Network, Bandwidth Virtualization enables service providers to respond quickly and flexibly to market demand with a wide range of services over one optical infrastructure. Bandwidth Virtualization also enables service providers to differentiate themselves by offering innovative new services to their customers.”

From the press release:

“As more consumers spend more time viewing video on the Internet, the demand for higher quality images, comparable to those on traditional televisions, will rise. The major broadcast networks have already begun this trend by insisting on higher-quality images as they make their shows available online. To illustrate this phenomenon and the challenges it poses to technologists and network operators, Infinera commissioned a video, “Bandwidth Virtualization, An Architecture for Today’s Internet,” shot entirely in high-definition or HDTV format. Hosted by Infinera CEO Jagdeep Singh, and featuring appearances by Randy Nicklas of XO Communications and Lane Patterson of Equinix, the video explains the technology behind Bandwidth Virtualization and its application in some of the world’s most advanced networks.”

This is the video they’re referring to:

Webcast: Demonstration of the VMware VirtualCenter SDK

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Richard Garsthagen produced a video (13.4 Mb WMV-file) to demonstrate how VMware VirtualCenter API can be programmed to develop usefull applications for managing virtual infrastructures. Richard focuses on his Virtual Machine Order HOTLINE application.

Could somebody please inform Richard that a shaved head in front of a blue screen results in a egg-shaped performance, that seem to come straight from Star Trek 🙂

Have a look at his otherwise clarifying performance here.

Red Hat announces Integrated Virtualization

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Quoting from the Red Hat official announcement:

Red Hat, the world’s leading provider of open source solutions to the enterprise, today formally announced its ‘Integrated Virtualization’ strategy. During a launch today in San Francisco, company executives detailed plans for creating a Red Hat virtualization environment and working with partners such as AMD, Intel, Network Appliance and XenSource to simplify virtualization deployment for customers.
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Red Hat will tightly integrate virtualization capabilities with its operating system and ensure all aspects of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux platform, from management tools and installation to software management, will enable customers to deploy virtualized environments easily and effectively.
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This month Red Hat will make Fedora Core 5 available, which will contain a preview of Red Hat Enterprise Linux virtualization technology. In the summer of 2006, Red Hat will make Virtualization Migration and Assessment Services available along with an Enterprise Virtualization beta. Red Hat Enterprise Linux v. 5, scheduled for general availability by the end of 2006, will feature fully integrated virtualization…

There also is a 1-hour-long recorded webcast of this press event available here.

Impacts of Application Virtualization and Streaming

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Softricity hosted an interesting webcast with Brian Gammage, Gartner Research Vice President, about desktop virtualization:

Virtualization is widely regarded as the most important technology to hit the enterprise in decades. The potential benefits for the desktop are tremendous, with improvements in the manageability, security and flexibility of personal computing. By reducing complexity, virtualization promises to streamline support, accelerate deployments and reduce the cost of personal computing. But virtualization is occurring at more than one level; decoupling hardware, operating systems and applications. So, what are these different levels of virtualization technology and how are they being used by companies today? How mature is the technology? How does application virtualization differ from machine virtualization and what role does streaming technology play?

Join featured Gartner Research Vice President, Brian Gammage, a recognized expert in desktop virtualization, to learn what application virtualization and streaming really are, and how they can impact your approach to managing user access to enterprise applications.

See it here.

Thanks to Thincomputing.net for the news.