Virtualization.com

NetApp today announced that it will provide the storage infrastructure to support BT’s new Virtual Data Centre (VDC).

BT, one of the world’s leading providers of communications solutions and services, is offering a multi-tenanted service aimed at mid-sized and larger businesses that are looking to move all or part of their IT resources onto a pay for use platform. BT already hosts data and applications for a wide range of UK businesses. VDC aims to move customers from tailored hosting arrangements to a service where organisations can buy the exact capacity they require. BT has added the ability to configure an entire data centre from a single console with the ability to provision servers, storage and network resources with built-in resilience and business continuity.

A blade service architecture, combined with NetApp storage systems and virtualisation software, allows BT customers to have their infrastructure and Windows-based applications up and running on the VDC in just five days. Once the system is up, existing VDC customers will be able to deploy a virtual server in as little as 15 minutes.

Because the NetApp storage infrastructure takes care of so much of the basic storage management, from snap-shotting and off-site replication to de-duplication, the storage infrastructure is largely self managing, needing little in the way of day-to-day support. The core storage infrastructure for VDC is based around NetApp FAS6080c clusters.

BT chose NetApp hardware due the strong partnership the two companies have had for several years. BT already uses NetApp equipment extensively in its existing data centres.

The partnership with NetApp allows BT to provide the storage element of VDC in a highly cost effective way, which also provides the day-to-day storage management resources needed as part of the package. This will allow BT’s engineers to focus their time and energy on revenue generating activities.

NetApp will provide FAS6080c clusters with iSCSI connectivity utilising Fibre Channel and SATA drives. A NetApp, software suite, including ONTAP 7.3, SnapMirror, Multistore, iSCSI, Snaprestore, Snap Vault and Protection Manager has been integrated with BT’s own software technology to create a management portal BT’s customers can use to design, configure and upgrade the system. The initial infrastructure is based around iSCSI and SATA drives, although Fibre Channel could be introduced to support higher performing applications.

IGEL Technology today launched its Universal Desktop Converter, which allows customers to convert old PCs, thin clients and select third-party hardware to a remotely managed IGEL Universal Desktop. By installing the company’s Universal Firmware, customers will experience a smooth transition to a server-based computing or desktop virtualization environment without the expense of replacing the entire client hardware. This enables companies of all sizes to extend the lifecycle of their existing infrastructure, reduce the cost of investing in new hardware and eliminate client maintenance costs.

IGEL’s Universal Desktop Converter is the extended software-based version of the company’s successful PC to TC Conversion Card.  To upgrade third party hardware into IGEL Universal Desktops, customers simply plug in and boot from the USB token.  Afterwards, the IGEL Universal Firmware is installed automatically onto their system. The Universal Desktop Converter comes with three Digital Service Pack options – Entry, Standard, or Advanced – so businesses only pay for what they need by selecting the software platform that best suits their requirements.

In addition to IGEL customers, the Universal Desktop Converter is an option for companies using select third-party thin client hardware, such as HP, Neoware and DELL that want to migrate their existing environment to a homogenous and fully managed IGEL client infrastructure.  IGEL’s Universal Management Suite is also included with the Universal Desktop Converter, allowing businesses to remotely manage thin clients and reduce the time and money spent on hardware support and administration.

Pricing for the Universal Desktop Converter starts at £24.50 +VAT.

From the Xen blog:

“The HXEN development team has released a new version of the solution for the 32-bit windows platform.

You can obtain the source code and binary distribution here.  The 64-bit version is close to being release but there are some compiler issues that are being investigated.”

AppSense, provider of User Environment Management solutions for enterprises, today announced full support for Citrix XenDesktop 4, a new Citrix product designed to make virtual desktops a mainstream reality for hundreds of millions of corporate employees for the first time ever.

AppSense, a Citrix partner of over 10 years with some 4000 joint customers around the world, provides technology solutions that enable low-cost, standard desktop images to be delivered to employees as fully personalized desktops. This ensures maximum user adoption from just a few corporate base images, reducing cost, complexity and risk. Their User Environment Management solution is the only technology to provide on-demand desktop personalization across all delivery methods and operating system versions.

Based on this unique level of customer experience, AppSense is well positioned to work in conjunction with Citrix FlexCast™ to provide centralized management of the user personality for task workers, knowledge workers and power users in both server and client-hosted desktop environments.

DeviceVM today introduced Splashtop for Business, its newest product offering for small-medium business and enterprise use.

In addition, the company announced that the product will be available from the world’s three largest PC vendors by the end of 2009. An extension of the award-winning Splashtop product family, Splashtop for Business is the first instant-on solution designed specifically for business use, enabling companies to increase employee productivity by offering fast, secure and reliable access to cloud content and services.

Splashtop for Business is an innovative software solution that enables users to access the corporate network, and public web without requiring full Microsoft Windows boot-up. A traditional operating system can take many minutes to boot up, frustrating employees and impacting productivity. Splashtop for Business instant-on technology brings measurable benefits to organizations of all sizes – enabling mobile employees to:

• Enjoy fast and secure cloud access with the touch of a button.
• Access private corporate and public virtualized cloud resources over LAN, Wi-Fi and 3G – anytime and anywhere.
• Remotely connect to the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) based on technologies from Citrix and VMware.
• Access cached Windows Outlook email, calendar, contacts and task information using the QuickInfo feature
• Access Yahoo Mail, Google Mail, and MSN Hotmail including Microsoft Exchange email via Outlook Web Access.
• View and edit Microsoft Office compatible documents such as Excel, PowerPoint and Word as well as Adobe Acrobat^.
• Text or video chat with colleagues and customers using Skype as well as AOL Instant Messenger, Google Talk, MSN Messenger or Yahoo Messenger services

When deployed as the corporate OS using VDI, Splashtop for Business can reduce the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for PCs by eliminating costly OS licensing fees and reducing IT management tasks. When deployed as a companion OS to Windows, it can improve productivity and reduce employee down-time by providing instant access to the corporate cloud as well as acting as a back-up in case of hard disk or windows failure. Splashtop for Business offers companies:

• Increased Productivity: Splashtop offers fast and reliable remote access to web-based content, email and corporate applications. Because Splashtop operates independently of the computer’s primary operating system, employees can still get online in the event of OS or Hard Disk failure, improving uptime. Splashtop also provides convenient access to mission critical applications and communications functions. Support for the latest version of Java virtual machine and Adobe Flash Player 10 is also included.
• Enhanced Security and Compliance: Splashtop is a locked-down environment that is both tamper proof and malware/virus resistant – making every boot clean and secure. By providing Citrix Receiver and VMware View virtual desktop clients in addition to Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), access to sensitive corporate data is kept in the data center, reducing the risk of data breaches due to PC loss and helping companies meet their compliance requirements. Additionally, employees cannot change system settings or install non-corporate approved plug-ins or applications, so companies get all of the VDI hardware device benefits without the additional cost.
• Improved Virtual Desktop Mobility: Splashtop supports the most popular virtual desktop technologies from Citrix and VMware. When deployed as a dedicated corporate OS, a Splashtop for Business laptop offers a cheaper and more flexible alternative to fixed function hardware devices. By offering instant virtual desktop mode in a laptop form factor, employees have greater mobility options at a lower cost.
• Lower TCO: Splashtop comes pre-integrated with the PC platform. This approach results in a high quality product with no additional vendors to call and no new maintenance contracts to buy or renew. Employees can now get online instantly with minimal support. An IT controlled update mechanism ensures that only changes based on IT policies are executed. IT can now conserve resources as they need only be responsible for managing the Splashtop corporate workspace, with Windows available as the user’s personal workspace.
• Greener IT: Because Splashtop turns on in seconds, there’s no need to keep the system always on, or in sleep mode consuming power. Companies will save millions of dollars in energy savings while also protecting the environment.

OpSource today announced that OpSource Cloud, the first Cloud to bring together the availability, flexibility and community of the public Cloud with the security, performance and control the enterprise requires, is now in public Beta and available for on-line purchase.

OpSource Cloud is designed to allow IT departments to manage their security as they would within their internal IT infrastructure. Upon sign-up, each customer receives a Virtual Private Network and sets the degree of public Internet connectivity they wish to grant, from totally private to fully available. OpSource Cloud also provides user customizable security with a compliant, high-performance multi-tier Cloud architecture and full user control over firewall settings. In addition, other enterprise quality controls include user level login and passwords, operational permissions and departmental and sub-department reporting, all backed by a 100% SLA. OpSource Cloud is built on the same standard technology already being employed by enterprise IT. This ensures out-of-the-box trust, compatibility and productivity. With virtualization playing such a key role in Cloud computing, OpSource has selected VMware for virtualization and application portability between the Cloud and Enterprise.

For users weaned on the public Cloud experience, OpSource Cloud offers online sign-up, pay by the hour usage, and rich online communities. And immediate availability and flexibility ensure that developers and enterprise IT alike have access to enterprise quality computing capability when they need it, paying for it only when it is being used. This is the promise of Cloud computing and OpSource Cloud delivers it.