Virtualization.com

Citrix Systems recently announced it is working with SignaCert, a provider of IT compliance solutions based on whitelisting methods, to include Citrix Systems software measurements in the SignaCert Global Trust Repository (GTR).

This collaboration will provide objective, third-party validation of Citrix-built software for IT security, compliance and systems management of virtual infrastructures, enabling Citrix customers and partners to explore innovative uses for Citrix desktop and server virtualization products such as XenDesktop, XenApp and XenServer, including dynamically managing applications and packages in workloads. Additionally, SignaCert will license the Data Exchange Format (DEF) to customers at no charge to help them leverage the whitelist data method for custom uses in their Citrix environments.

The SignaCert Global Trust Repository uses known-provenance and vendor-independent software measurements, or whitelists, to enable new enterprise IT security methods. These whitelists provide a standardized way to enforce security and compliance of third-party software for enterprise computing environments, as well as more advanced uses such as software attestation in high-assurance platforms. The technology permits virtual machines (VM) and their applications to be securely authenticated, so that when a VM is moved – between the enterprise data center and a cloud, for example – the user can be confident that the workload originated with their enterprise customer and it has not been altered outside of policy in any way, and that there have been no file and structure changes, additions or deletions to the application stack.

Eucalyptus Systems, creator of an open source private cloud platform, today announced the company’s first commercial offering: the Eucalyptus Enterprise Edition (EEE).

EEE enables customers to implement an on-premise Eucalyptus cloud with VMware’s  virtualization technologies, including vSphere, ESX and ESXi.

EEE is the only on-premise cloud computing solution available today for vSphere customers, providing a robust, affordable cloud computing solution that leverages their investment in VMware technologies.  EEE also supports other hypervisors typically found in a data center, such as Xen and KVM, providing customers the flexibility to configure cloud solutions that best meet their infrastructure needs.

“Eucalyptus Systems’ mission has been to support the open source Eucalyptus on-premise cloud platform while also delivering solutions for large-scale enterprise deployments, and we are proud to launch the Eucalyptus Enterprise Edition as our first commercial offering for the enterprise,” said Dr. Rich Wolski, Eucalyptus Systems co-founder, CTO and former director of the Eucalyptus research project at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB).   “EEE represents the first step toward broader Eucalyptus-enabled cloud interoperability that leverages multiple virtualization environments and technologies.”

EEE is built on Eucalyptus — an open source software infrastructure for implementing on-premise cloud computing using an organization’s own information technology (IT) infrastructure, without modification, special-purpose hardware or reconfiguration.  Eucalyptus turns data center resources such as machines, networks, and storage systems into a cloud that is controlled and customized by local IT.  Eucalyptus is the only cloud architecture to support the same application programming interfaces (APIs) as public clouds, and today Eucalyptus is fully compatible with the Amazon Web Services cloud infrastructure.

For EEE, Eucalyptus leverages vSphere, ESXi, and ESX virtualization technologies to provide an on-premise cloud in the data center.  EEE also includes an image converter that helps users develop VMware-enabled Eucalyptus applications that are compatible with Amazon EC2.  Moreover, Eucalyptus supports popular open source hypervisors such as KVM and Xen, enabling EEE customers to choose the most appropriate software stack for each cloud application while maintaining a single cloud API that is Amazon compatible.

Eucalyptus Enterprise Edition is available today and is licensed based on the number of processor cores on the physical host.

Lanamark recently announced that it has signed a distribution agreement with interAct, the value-added distributor specializing in data center and virtualization solutions.

“Virtualization is a fast-growing market. This is why we were looking for a solution that would be a strategic asset in our portfolio and serve as an enablement platform for helping our resellers deliver desktop and server virtualization solutions that maximize the value to their customers. Lanamark offers the perfect software solution and we are excited to become the first specialized distributor for Lanamark Suite,” said Rudi Lenaerts, CEO at interAct.

Lanamark Suite is a virtualization sales and services automation software platform that enables solution providers to accelerate design and delivery of vendor-neutral desktop virtualization, server virtualization and storage solutions. The partnership enhances the availability of the Lanamark Suite in Belgium and Luxembourg.

Egenera and Dell recently reached an important milestone in their partnership with the worldwide availability of Dell PAN System 2.1, available on Dell 11g blades and utilizing Dell PowerEdge R710 servers for its PAN controllers.

Major enhancements in this release include:

—  Integration of PAN Manager Software by Egenera with Dell management technology for expanded monitoring capabilities;
—  Expanded portfolio of operating environments including VMware virtualization products and Citrix XenServer 5.3 technology with support for Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and Novell SLES 10-64-bit virtual machine guests;
—  Enhanced GUI to further ease scalability;
—  Open APIs enabling customers and third-parties to integrate with PAN Manager commands and functions; and
—  Support for WinPE 2.1 so customers can utilize industry-standard tools to manage their Microsoft operating system deployments and provisioning.

LoginConsultants is opening up the Beta of its VSI 2.0 application.

Login VSI 2.0 is the second iteration of Login VSI 1.0, the free and specifically designed benchmark for SBC and VDI environments. VSI 2.0 introduces completely new workloads, and an improved and more accurate index called VSImax.

LoginConsultants said that overall, “VSI 2.0 will be a much smoother experience, many best practices and lessons learned from project VRC are now included in this release.”

There will be two versions of VSI 2.0, a free and fully functional version called Login VSI 2.0 Express, and an advanced version called Login VSI 2.0 PRO.  These are the same download, however the PRO version will have additional features that are activated with a license file.

Download the Beta of Login VSI 2.0 here.