Virtualization.com

NetApp today introduced new tools to help customers deploy and manage virtual desktops through VMware View 4.

VMware View and NetApp storage together enable customers to rapidly provision virtual desktops and storage to keep up with their business needs and help drive down costs.

With the release of NetApp Rapid Cloning Utility version 3.0, which provides support for VMware View 4 and VMware vSphere, customers can simplify the way they provision VMware virtual machines and streamline their business. Rapid Cloning Utility is a VMware vCenter Server plug-in that allows customers to replicate a single image hundreds of times in minutes while using almost no additional storage capacity.

Rapid Cloning Utility complements VMware View Composer linked clones by providing advanced cloning capabilities for individual desktops and manual desktop pools. Now VMware View customers can automate and reduce administrative requirements for virtual desktops and complete projects faster, all while keeping storage costs at a minimum.

NetApp Rapid Cloning Utility version 3.0 will be available in January 2010. Pricing for Rapid Cloning Utility is available from NetApp sales or reseller partners.

Embotics today announced the release of a whitepaper that identifies the costs and causes of virtual sprawl, as well as recommendations to mitigate it. The study helps companies move beyond estimating possible costs associated with virtual machines (VMs) to enacting a plan to resolve the issue of sprawl.

Embotics’ research indicates that because of a lack of insight and automation in virtualization management systems today, organizations must devote excess time to administration, manual management and troubleshooting. With little to no time to proactively ensure the virtual environment is optimized, virtual sprawl results and quickly negates the benefits of virtualization.

Customer audits consistently show that up to 30 percent of VMs in any given environment are redundant, absorbing administration time and resources. The study helps companies address the bigger issue that virtual sprawl represents, not by simply attacking sprawl itself, but by attacking the fundamental weaknesses in virtualization management infrastructures that cause it.

Thierry Koehrlen pinged us with the news that Ulteo is introducing its open source virtual desktop OVD 2.0. This new release delivers both Linux and/or Windows applications as complete virtual desktops and also via a web portal.

Thierry Koehrlen CEO & co-founder of Ulteo says . “Users can now log into their corporate portal and simply click a link to launch a remote Windows and/or Linux application, or they can click an icon to open a document with an associated remote application.”

Ulteo OVD 2.0 provides more implementation choices to IT departments
“OVD 2.0 is about providing more choices from an architecture perspective as well” adds Gaël Duval, Ulteo CTO and co-founder.

Users now can have shared directories, more supported databaes, single sign on, support for different Windows Server versions, etc. OVD also offers the choice on where to deploy their Virtual Desktop infrastructure For example, OVD can now run on Amazon’s EC2 cloud computing environment. This ability was made possible with the help of the Open Source community which allows us to deliver an impressive list of features much faster than on our own.”

Ulteo OVD: a flexible Open Source Virtual Desktop solution for public and private organizations of all sizes, and also for telco and cloud companies

Their full press release can be found here , and Ulteo, Open Virtual Desktop 2.0 can be downloaded from their main page

Apparent Networks, a provider of network fault and performance management solutions, today announced that it has released an updated version of PathView Cloud, its popular hosted network management service.

The new version includes unique features for managing end-to-end network performance in virtualized environments.

With PathView Cloud’s virtualization-enabled analytics, IT and operations teams can, for the first time, understand network performance from the perspective of applications running on virtual machines. With this extended visibility, PathView Cloud lets IT teams quickly find and fix network performance problems, regardless of whether they occur in physical or virtual infrastructure.

PathView Cloud is a hosted, next-generation network management service. It measures the performance of complete network paths from source to destination, regardless of who owns or operates each of the network segments in that path. PathView Cloud is unique in its ability to test network performance to any endpoint in a virtualized infrastructure, including physical hardware resources and VMs. Other virtual machine management products on the market today focus only on monitoring how VMs interact with their virtual operating systems. Unlike those products, PathView Cloud provides information about the networking aspects of VMs.

Along with the ability to test to a virtual target, PathView Cloud can now also test the performance of network paths from a virtual machine. Specifically, the PathView Cloud component that conducts network path tests can be installed on virtual machines. This capability is initially available for VMware ESX and ESXi hypervisors. With no hardware required, this feature makes deployment of PathView Cloud easier, more flexible and less expensive.

In developing the new release of PathView Cloud, the Apparent Networks development team took into consideration the results of recent research conducted by the company. That research consisted of a survey distributed to roughly 30,000 network managers at companies of all sizes. Results of the survey validated that network performance implications remain a major concern that curbs or delays the roll-out of virtual environments. Sixty percent of respondents said that virtual machine performance and infrastructure bottlenecks are the biggest issues they are facing with regard to virtual infrastructure, yet less than ten percent have adopted tools specifically designed to help with these issues.

The latest version of PathView Cloud is available immediately. Apparent Networks is offering a free, five-path version of PathView Cloud. Pricing for additional paths is $4.95 per path per month.

LiveTime Software, a provider of Web based ITIL 3 Service Management and Help Desk software, today announced the release of the LiveTime Virtual Appliance 6.0.

The new virtual appliance has been specifically designed for SaaS-based Service Management providers, offering full isolation and a simple menu driven interface. Each appliance can operate in as little as 512Mb of RAM and can scale the number of virtual processors and memory to meet the needs of any customer.

As a standalone platform, the LiveTime Virtual appliance also includes an auto update facility so customers can automatically remain current with the latest LiveTime release. Simply choose the update option and LiveTime will automatically download and install the latest release direct from the console.

Designed around open standards the LiveTime Virtual Appliance includes Apache 2.2, Tomcat 6.0, Java 6 and LiveTime 6.0, optimized for LiveTime service delivery. Version 6.0 includes an updated kernel and support for VMware vSphere 4.0 and Citrix XenServer 5.5 with guest tools for each environment. In addition, LiveTime supports the Open Virtualization Format (OVF) and Microsoft’s Hyper-V environment.

Organizations can now leverage LiveTime’s highly scalable ITIL Service Management software with the ease of installation of traditional software. The virtual appliance provides the necessary scalability and security that is difficult to achieve when deployed on existing hardware and operating systems. Since the system has been hardened at the operating system layer, LiveTime provides Just Enough Operating System for its needs. This makes the system easy to update and maintain and provides a very small footprint and a 200Mb download.