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News and insights from the vibrant world of virtualization and cloud computing

ParaScale Demonstrates Enterprise Cloud Storage Product at Parallels Summit 2010

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ParaScale demonstrated the ParaScale Cloud Storage 2.0 platform at the Parallels Summit 2010 conference.

The next generation of cloud storage represents a new class of enterprise storage that eliminates silos with a single, multi-purpose platform for cloud, NAS, back-up target functions with access via standard protocols, and no rewriting of apps.

“One of the driving trends behind cloud storage 2.0 is the desire to bring the processing to the data with specialized application services to ease processing and cope with exploding content,” said Sajai Krishnan, CEO, ParaScale. “ParaScale’s ability to run storage in parallel enables enterprises to easily address performance and capacity issues with no bottlenecks.”

Carpathia Hosting, a long-time ParaScale customer, underscored the next generation of enterprise cloud storage with their recent partnership announcement with Citrix to provide secure, reliable and compliant IT infrastructure and management of blended cloud resources.

NetApp Survey: Virtualization Top Priority IT Investment For 70% Of IT Pros

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A survey conducted by data management and storage vendor NetApp has revealed that overwhelmingly virtualization (70%) is the top priority for IT investment in 2010, and that awareness of cloud computing is on the rise. The majority of IT professionals (74%) now claim to have partial understanding of cloud storage, placing the technology firmly on the IT and business agenda.

The survey of more than 100 professionals revealed cost savings (22%) and a pay-as-you-go model (23%) as the most appealing benefits of cloud storage, as well as perceived security (29%) and integration (22%) issues as the biggest barriers to adoption.

“What this tells us is that cloud is here and top of mind for businesses,” said Dave Allen, UK MD, NetApp. “Just as virtualization has gone full circle from an abstract concept to a technology that more than 70% of IT professionals plan to implement this year, we will see cloud follow the same pattern over 2010. The basic knowledge foundations have been laid, the next step is for businesses to overcome barriers and understand exactly how cloud could work for specific data and applications.

Pano Logic Raises $20 Million, Unveils Zero Client Reference Architecture

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Pano Logic today announced it has secured $20 million in a Series C round of financing led by venture capital firm Mayfield Fund. Pano Logic also announced that Mayfield’s Chaddha is joining Pano Logic’s board of directors. Chaddha is a veteran entrepreneur and venture investor, ranked on the Forbes Midas List of top 100 dealmakers at No. 11 in 2009 and No. 10 in 2008.

The funds will be used to support continued technology innovation and global market expansion of Pano Logic’s breakthrough zero client virtual desktop computing platform, which is redefining the economics of endpoint computing. Unlike all other virtual desktop solutions, the Pano System removes 100% of the processing power from the desktop to the data center, fully centralizing management and eliminating endpoint complexity with one complete solution.

Pano Logic, which tripled sales in 2009, solves major challenges inherent in the current PC-based, client-server computing model, while providing end users with the same, familiar PC-like Windows experience. Its technology radically reduces computing total cost of ownership, by as much as 67 percent, by eliminating endpoint device management, support and obsolescence. Instead, end users connect to their virtual machine with a zero client that contains no processor, no operating system, no memory, no drivers, no software and no moving parts. This represents a major shift from highly complex and costly PC and thin client computing solutions.

In other news, the company today openly published its hardware specifications for the industry’s only true zero client device. Pano Logic unveiled its Zero Client Reference Architecture, proving there is absolutely no processor in its device, and challenged other vendors claiming to offer zero client solutions to publish their own specifications.

Pano Logic also announced it will license its patent-pending Pano Direct and Pano Management software and connection broker technology to OEMs seeking to bring to market new zero client solutions based on its reference architecture.

HyTrust Raises $10.5 Million Series B Round From Cisco, Others

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HyTrust, Inc., the leader in policy management and access control for virtual infrastructure, announced today that it has secured $10.5 million in Series B financing. New investors Granite Ventures and Cisco Systems participated in the round of financing, as did existing investors Trident Capital and Epic Ventures. Len Rand, partner at Granite Ventures, will take a seat on the HyTrust Board of Directors. HyTrust will use the capital to drive development, sales and marketing, and fuel the company’s next stage of growth.
Thanks to its numerous benefits and proven return on investment, virtualization has taken the IT world by storm. However, IT organizations in industries such as banking, retail, government and healthcare are appropriately reluctant to virtualize systems that handle critical sensitive data and are subject to compliance. HyTrust changes the game, enabling them to maximize their return on investment and broadly adopt virtualization, with assurance that controls are firmly in place. By enabling a single point of control over the entire virtual infrastructure, HyTrust empowers customers to confidently virtualize additional servers—even those subject to compliance—by delivering enterprise-class controls for access, accountability, visibility and configuration.
“HyTrust delivers a new paradigm in security and compliance for the virtualization platform, which is why we chose to add the company to our portfolio,” said Rand. “HyTrust set out to solve a real and growing problem faced by a lot of enterprises. By doing so, it paves the way for organizations to virtualize more of their infrastructure with full visibility and control.”
“HyTrust continues to demonstrate the importance of this emerging market,” said Eric Chiu, president and CEO of HyTrust. “Our ability to raise such a significant round of funding and attract top-tier, strategic investors in a still precarious economy is a testament to the quality of our team, the strength our offering, and the gravity of the problem that it addresses for our customers. The continued support of our customers, partners and investors is critical to our success as we continue to transform the virtualization marketplace and capitalize on the opportunities ahead of us.”
“We are excited to welcome Cisco not only as a HyTrust partner but now also as a strategic investor,” added Chiu. “It’s great validation for HyTrust when the worldwide leader in networking places its confidence, via financial backing, in our approach to policy management and access control for virtual infrastructure. We look forward to deepening our relationship with the Server Access & Virtualization business unit at Cisco, tightening our existing integration with Cisco Nexus 1000v and Unified Computing System products, and working closely with Cisco’s Security business unit to address the needs of our joint customers. We feel strongly that policy management is key to enabling the ‘next generation data center’ and we couldn’t be more excited to have gained the backing of the company that coined the phrase.”

HyTrust announced today that it has scored $10.5 million in Series B financing.

New investors Granite Ventures and Cisco Systems participated in the round of financing, as did existing investors Trident Capital and Epic Ventures. Len Rand, partner at Granite Ventures, will take a seat on the HyTrust Board of Directors. HyTrust will use the capital to drive development, sales and marketing, and fuel the company’s next stage of growth.

Thanks to its numerous benefits and proven return on investment, virtualization has taken the IT world by storm. However, IT organizations in industries such as banking, retail, government and healthcare are appropriately reluctant to virtualize systems that handle critical sensitive data and are subject to compliance.

HyTrust changes the game, enabling them to maximize their return on investment and broadly adopt virtualization, with assurance that controls are firmly in place. By enabling a single point of control over the entire virtual infrastructure, HyTrust empowers customers to confidently virtualize additional servers—even those subject to compliance—by delivering enterprise-class controls for access, accountability, visibility and configuration.

Release: Parallels Server for Mac Bare Metal Edition

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Parallels, worldwide leader in Cloud services automation and virtualization software, today announced that it is extending its server virtualization offerings for Apple environments with the introduction of the world’s first bare metal hypervisor solution for the Apple Xserve: Parallels Server for Mac Bare Metal Edition. The new edition offers greater performance for applications running in virtual machines on the Xserve, enabling businesses to standardize on the Apple platform, and opening a new opportunity for cloud services providers to offer profitable Mac OS X services. The addition of Parallels Virtual Automation provides comprehensive management tools for monitoring and maintaining the virtual environment.
“The 33% year-on-year increase in sales of Macintosh computers reported by Apple this quarter indicates a growing interest in Apple hardware. Virtualization solutions can help make this a practical reality for users, giving them the ability to run the Windows and Linux applications they need on the Apple system they want,” said Serguei Beloussov, CEO of Parallels. “Parallels Server for Mac Bare Metal Edition provides a high performance solution that enables IT professionals and developers to capitalize on the power of Mac OS X Server while having the flexibility to run Windows and Linux workloads both on-premise and through the Cloud.”
“The Xserve offers unbeatable performance, and Mac OS X Server is the world’s easiest to use server operating system,” said Ron Okamoto, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations. “With the Mac more popular than ever, and Parallels’ new virtualization tools, there has never been a better or easier time for entire organizations to switch to Mac.”
Parallels Server for Mac Bare Metal Edition builds on Parallels’ market leading virtualization portfolio for Apple environments, most notably the existing server virtualization solution, Parallels Server for Mac.  Launched in June 2008, Parallels Server for Mac brought virtualization to the Apple Xserve for the first time, enabling organizations to standardize on the Mac platform and integrate into existing IT infrastructures.  The new edition builds on this with a new architecture that represents the first ever “bare metal” hypervisor for Intel-powered Apple systems, offering users greater performance and the ability to migrate systems without needing to go completely offline (“hot migration”).
Hypervisor server virtualization enables users to create multiple simultaneously executing, isolated virtual machines on the same physical server, each of which runs its own operating system.  With Parallels Server for Mac Bare Metal Edition users can run Windows, Linux and Mac OSX operating systems side-by-side.  For end-user organizations, this provides the ability to standardize their IT environment on the Apple platform, consolidating their server resources, consolidating and supporting legacy OSes and applications and streamlining server and application operations. This reduces the maintenance and management burden, which is further simplified with the management capabilities of Parallels Virtual Automation.
Micah Baker, District Technology Coordinator at Oregon City School District deploys Parallels desktop and server virtualization solutions to provide a mixed Windows and Apple environment across the schools in his district. He is excited to see the introduction virtualization solution designed for large scale projects: “With the integration of Parallels Virtual Automation Server and its true enterprise capabilities Parallels Server Bare Metal Edition is taking Apple virtualization to a whole new level.”
Parallels Server for Mac Bare Metal Edition is not only suitable for on-premise deployments; it also represents an opportunity for cloud services providers to diversify their offerings into new growth areas, capitalizing on Apple’s increasing popularity. The new solution integrates seamlessly with Parallels other technologies, creating an easy addition to existing Parallels environments.  For Parallels’ service provider partners, this means they can quickly and easily offer profitable Mac OS X services, including Virtual Private Servers and application hosting as a cloud service.
Hosting company Go Daddy has announced plans to offer Mac OS X services based on virtual private servers built on Parallels Server for Mac Bare Metal Edition. “Go Daddy is always looking for ways to enhance our customer experience, and provide simple solutions,” said Go Daddy Chief Operating Officer and President Warren Adelman. “We do this by offering the products our customers want and need. Together with the innovative minds at Parallels and the usability experts at Apple, we have opened the door to a line of Mac OS X hosting products.”
Further information on the features and capabilities of Parallels Server for Mac Bare Metal Edition is available at www.parallels.com/products/server/mac.

Parallels, today announced that it is extending its server virtualization offerings for Apple environments with the introduction of the world’s first bare metal hypervisor solution for the Apple Xserve: Parallels Server for Mac Bare Metal Edition.

The new edition offers greater performance for applications running in virtual machines on the Xserve, enabling businesses to standardize on the Apple platform, and opening a new opportunity for cloud services providers to offer profitable Mac OS X services. The addition of Parallels Virtual Automation provides comprehensive management tools for monitoring and maintaining the virtual environment.

Parallels Server for Mac Bare Metal Edition builds on Parallels’ market leading virtualization portfolio for Apple environments, most notably the existing server virtualization solution, Parallels Server for Mac.  Launched in June 2008, Parallels Server for Mac brought virtualization to the Apple Xserve for the first time, enabling organizations to standardize on the Mac platform and integrate into existing IT infrastructures.  The new edition builds on this with a new architecture that represents the first ever “bare metal” hypervisor for Intel-powered Apple systems, offering users greater performance and the ability to migrate systems without needing to go completely offline (“hot migration”).

Hypervisor server virtualization enables users to create multiple simultaneously executing, isolated virtual machines on the same physical server, each of which runs its own operating system.  With Parallels Server for Mac Bare Metal Edition users can run Windows, Linux and Mac OSX operating systems side-by-side.  For end-user organizations, this provides the ability to standardize their IT environment on the Apple platform, consolidating their server resources, consolidating and supporting legacy OSes and applications and streamlining server and application operations. This reduces the maintenance and management burden, which is further simplified with the management capabilities of Parallels Virtual Automation.

Parallels Server for Mac Bare Metal Edition is not only suitable for on-premise deployments; it also represents an opportunity for cloud services providers to diversify their offerings into new growth areas, capitalizing on Apple’s increasing popularity. The new solution integrates seamlessly with Parallels other technologies, creating an easy addition to existing Parallels environments.  For Parallels’ service provider partners, this means they can quickly and easily offer profitable Mac OS X services, including Virtual Private Servers and application hosting as a cloud service.

NComputing Announces Support For Windows MultiPoint Server 2010

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NComputing, the global leader in virtual desktops with over 15 million daily users, today announced that the company’s full product line will support the new Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 operating system from Microsoft Corp. (MSFT). NComputing virtual desktop kits are based on the company’s vSpace desktop virtualization software and are available in three product lines which are designed to bring ultra low-cost computing to customers ranging from enterprises to small businesses, as well as schools, NGOs and governments.
Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 works with vSpace as an economical platform to deliver virtual desktops to low-cost thin clients with pricing and performance that will be attractive to a wide range of customers.
California School Sets Up NComputing / Windows MultiPoint Server Lab
Rheem School in Moraga, California set up a lab based on Windows MultiPoint Server with NComputing vSpace software and U170 (U-series) clients to the delight of faculty, staff, administration and teachers.
–       The new shared PCs run considerably faster and more reliably in the new lab than the four year old PCs run in the older lab.
–       The 30-seat lab was set up in a matter of hours because of the simplicity of installing the Windows MultiPoint Server operating system on 5 shared PCs and the NComputing USB plug-and-play clients.
–       The Windows MultiPoint Server and NComputing combination is the most cost-effective way to give Rheem’s students a state-of-the-art Windows 7 user experience.
The NComputing Product Line
NComputing has three product lines, which are based on how the thin clients connect to the PC/server.
–       The X-series, which connect through a PCI card, and which deliver superb multimedia at the lowest possible cost.
–       The U-series, which is the simplest solution to connect, because they just snap into standard USB ports. They deliver top-notch multimedia at very low prices.
–       The L-series, which connect through standard Ethernet networks, and as such deliver the most flexible architectures and configurations.
Quotes
“The strong support we’ve already seen from NComputing will be instrumental to the development of valuable, innovative solutions for the Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 platform,” said Ira Snyder, general manager, Windows MultiPoint Server at Microsoft.  “The creation of shared resource computing solutions like NComputing’s  using Windows MultiPoint Server will provide even more policymakers, teachers, and students with access to affordable, security-enhanced, and easy-to-use technology.”
“In just three years, NComputing has established itself as the only desktop virtualization company that delivers ultra-low cost, with great performance, and in a variety of models that allow customers to buy the perfect solution,” said Stephen Dukker, CEO and chairman of NComputing. “The new Microsoft and NComputing partnership is helping us deliver even more choices for our customers. This will expand the market even faster than it has been growing.”
“We researched many virtual desktops over the past year,” said Courtney Guinn, Director of Instructional Technology. “We were impressed by the simplicity of the NComputing and Windows MultiPoint Server solution and the fact that it required no new infrastructure.”
“The thing that kills us over time is that PCs have to be replaced every four years or so. So even if we get a good budget one year in ten, it creates an obligation that we can’t afford to keep up with. By sharing PCs with Windows MultiPoint Server and NComputing, we’ve drastically reduced the amount of money we need to keep up,” said Guy Seltzer, district Network Administrator
Tags
NComputing, desktop virtualization, virtual desktops, thin clients, educational computing, enterprise computing, Microsoft, Windows MultiPoint Server
Links
NComputing website Windows MultiPoint Server page: www.ncomputing.com/wms
Video
A video about the Rheem deployment is located at : www.ncomputing.com/wms
About NComputing, Inc.
NComputing, Inc. is the fastest growing desktop virtualization company in the world with millions of users in 140 countries. The company’s award-winning, patented technology lowers desktop computing costs, improves manageability, and reduces both energy consumption and e-waste. It is the perfect solution for leveraging the power and potential of PCs and cloud computing. To learn more about NComputing, visit http://www.ncomputing.com.
The NComputing solution takes advantage of the fact that today’s PCs are so powerful that the vast majority of users only need a small fraction of the computing capacity. NComputing taps this unused capacity so that it can be simultaneously shared by many users. Each user’s monitor, keyboard and mouse are connected to a small and highly reliable NComputing thin-client device, which is then connected to the shared PC. NComputing’s award-winning vSpace desktop virtualization software provides each user with a rich multimedia computing experience and their own computing session. Organizations typically save at least 50% on hardware costs, 75% on support costs, and 90% of electricity costs by installing NComputing.

NComputing today announced that the company’s full product line will support the new Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 operating system from Microsoft.

NComputing virtual desktop kits are based on the company’s vSpace desktop virtualization software and are available in three product lines which are designed to bring ultra low-cost computing to customers ranging from enterprises to small businesses, as well as schools, NGOs and governments.

Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 works with vSpace as an economical platform to deliver virtual desktops to low-cost thin clients with pricing and performance that will be attractive to a wide range of customers.

NComputing has three product lines, which are based on how the thin clients connect to the PC/server.

–       The X-series, which connect through a PCI card, and which deliver superb multimedia at the lowest possible cost.

–       The U-series, which is the simplest solution to connect, because they just snap into standard USB ports. They deliver top-notch multimedia at very low prices.

–       The L-series, which connect through standard Ethernet networks, and as such deliver the most flexible architectures and configurations.