Virtualization.com

In spite of an ongoing legal dispute with Apple, clone Mac maker Psystar Monday announced plans to license its virtualization tech for Mac OS X to third-party hardware vendors. The new Psystar OEM Licensing Program will allow Intel machines to run Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. The software will allow manufacturers to install Snow Leopard by inserting the disc from Apple — no additional steps would be necessary, the company said. The software supports up to six operating systems on one machine.

Read the rest of the story on AppleInsider

VMware today announced the availability of VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager 4, enabling automated, reliable and affordable disaster recovery.

Part of the VMware vCenter Product Family, VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager provides automated disaster recovery for virtual environments. Now, with added support for Network File System (NFS) based storage replication, compatibility with VMware vSphere 4, and simplified “many-to-one” failover using shared recovery sites, VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager makes it even easier for customers to confidently protect all of their virtual environments.

Disaster recovery is critical for companies to protect corporate data, but has typically been difficult to achieve due to costs and complexity. Disasters in the datacenter — whether they are caused by hurricanes, earthquakes, power outages, or other unexpected events — can result in downtime for business critical applications. Extended downtime significantly impacts revenues, service level agreements (SLAs) and business operations. Traditional solutions for disaster recovery require complex, manual recovery processes, and can be very difficult to set up, test and keep up-to-date. Regulatory requirements can also present challenges to disaster recovery solutions. As a result, organizations only provide disaster recovery plans for the most critical applications.

VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager 4 now provides:

• VMware vSphere 4 Support. Customers can now take advantage of the capabilities of VMware vSphere 4, including Fault Tolerance, for better performance and protection of applications.
• Expanded Storage Support. Lets users leverage iSCSI, Fiber Channel, and NFS storage and replication solutions.
• Many-to-One Failover. Protects multiple production sites with automated failover into a single, shared recovery site.

Devon IT has announced early traction with the general availability of the VDI Blaster software suite designed to extend the useful life of desktop computers.

Over 200 companies from around the world are said to have purchased and downloaded the VDI Blaster software suite, and are utilizing the novel approach to extending the useful life of PCs by transforming them into thin clients to save money, save management time and cut costs. Users download VDI Blaster to old PCs via a USB key or a network install. VDI Blaster deploys Devon IT’s thin client operating system, Devon Terminal Operating System (DeTOS), and Devon IT’s thin client management software, ThinManage, to help IT administrators manage enterprise-wide deployments from a central location. Once VDI Blaster is deployed, users can select to boot into their normal Windows operating system or into DeTOS.

VDI Blaster:

• Extends the useful life of aging PCs
• Uses virtual desktops, simply and cost effectively with no hardware replacement necessary
• Maintains Windows desktop experience
• Centrally manages converted PCs
• Allows Plug and play replacement of PC to a thin client when ready
• Converts back to Windows operating system as needed

Devon IT is working with customers and business partners such as IBM and VMware to make VDI Blaster available to IT administrators and executives worldwide.

VDI Blaster is currently available for an introductory price of USD $19.95 per device right here.

ScaleMP, a provider of virtualization solutions for high-end computing, today announced the appointment of Benjamin Baer as vice president of marketing.

A veteran marketing executive with more than 18 years of experience at both startup and Fortune 500 companies, Baer will be responsible for all aspects of marketing at ScaleMP, and brings extensive experience in the development and execution of programs for worldwide field, branding and demand generation.

Most recently, Baer was an independent marketing consultant for a number of high profile vendors in the cloud computing space. Prior to this role, Baer was the vice president of marketing for desktop virtualization startup Pano Logic. Previously, Baer held the position of senior director of OEM marketing at VMware and spent seven years at Sun Microsystems in a variety of roles including director of marketing for the Partner Operating System marketing group. During his tenure at Sun, Baer worked in a number of different business units including Enterprise Servers (ESPG), Netra telco solutions and Sun’s Volume Systems Products (VSP) group. Before Sun, he worked in a variety of marketing, operations and business development roles at Silicon Graphics, The Market Relations Group (A Regis McKenna Company) and independent PR agency, PRx, Inc. Baer holds a bachelor of arts in international relations from the University of California, Berkeley.

CRYPTOCard, a developer of two-factor authentication (2FA) technology, today announced that virtualisation and cloud computing specialist, Intercept, is the latest company to adopt its managed authentication service CRYPTO-MAS.

Bundling CRYPTO-MAS into its portfolio of virtual application and network services, Intercept is able to deliver added value and security to its customers’ IT infrastructures.

Intercept will be working closely with CRYPTOCard to educate customers on the benefits of access security when building virtual networks to support flexible working based around Citrix and Microsoft environments.

CRYPTO-MAS is a managed service which provides a flexible, affordable solution using two-factor authentication technology to positively identify individuals before giving them access to applications, data and networks. CRYPTO-MAS simply sits in front of a company’s access network – no hardware or software installation is required. High levels of security can be provided in a matter of minutes.