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

Release: Hyper9 Virtualization Optimization Suite

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Hyper9 today announced the release of its flagship Virtualization Optimization Suite (VOS) giving IT managers and administrators better business insights into their virtual infrastructure. The product combines usability and dashboard features with in-depth analytics and reporting to help users find, reclaim and right-size virtual resources – and stem the tide of “VM Sprawl”.

A recent survey of Hyper9 customers concluded that at least 20 percent of existing VMs are deemed superfluous – and that organizations are spending significantly more than necessary on their virtualization strategy.

Lack of visibility into the virtual infrastructure, manual processes that circumvent best practices and standardization, multiple disconnected management tools and data sources, and undetected elements of VM sprawl – such as suspended VMs, VMs that are powered on but not being used, orphaned files, redundant snapshots, out of compliance software licenses and thin provisioning – are all contributing factors to the escalating costs and inefficiencies in virtual environments.

Hyper9’s Web-based Virtualization Optimization Suite provides a tops-down, cross-functional view into the virtual infrastructure by inspecting myriad data sources and displaying the results according to what a specific user – or group of users – cares about most. Key features and capabilities include:

  • Targeted Insights — My Environment and At-a-Glance views into the virtual infrastructure, such as VMs, VCs, hosts, guests and clusters
  • Hyper9 Active Links — one-click access to data, out-of-the-box reports and common tasks, such as “find VMs”, “run reports”, and “solve VM sprawl”
  • Hyper9 VMDNA — analyzes historical performance and configuration data, including visual comparisons of VMs over time and to each other
  • Workspaces — helps users organize and share content, and gain visibility into VMs and their usage
  • Visual Launch Pad and Tutorials – step-by-step guides and processes to solve virtualization challenges, such as VM sprawl
  • My Content — ability to build, save, organize and bookmark searches and reports for reuse
  • Customized Searches – for drilling down into the virtual infrastructure, including pre-built filters that support further data segmentation
  • Automated Monitoring and Alerting – proactively track changes, rogue VMs, VM sprawl and other key events
  • Community Support – provides access to resources, answers and advice from virtualization industry experts

“2009 Cloud Consensus Report” Shows Federal Government Cloud Computing Progress

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MeriTalk and the Merlin Federal Cloud Initiative (an alliance with Merlin International, NetApp, Riverbed, and VMware) today announced the results of its study, the “2009 Cloud Consensus Report – Bringing the Cloud Down to Earth.” The study reveals that though cloud computing is considered the hot technology topic today, neither the private nor the public sectors have a clear understanding of what cloud computing fully encompasses. Only 13 percent of private- and public-sector IT executives report that their organization or agency is using cloud computing, while 44 percent report using applications that rely on the cloud.

The “2009 Cloud Consensus Report” provides snapshots of industry and government cloud progress, details the issues stalling the Federal cloud transition, and provides recommendations to enable agency cloud-readiness. On track with industry, most Federal agencies claim to be in cloud learning mode, which presents an opportunity for the Federal government to lead by creating a unified cloud definition and standards that can be universally employed across all agencies and into industry. While government and industry are in early adoption, the future looks promising. Forecasting ahead, 76 percent of IT and government managers believe that the cloud is here to stay.

Federal Civilian and Department of Defense agency respondents cited savings as the top benefit to cloud computing – 63 percent of all Federal respondents believe this technology is the key to reducing IT expenses. Today’s economy, the increased emphasis on agency cost savings, and President Barack Obama’s technology initiatives of transparency, collaboration, and participation all make the promise of the cloud appealing to those looking for the panacea for Federal IT woes. The new administration is placing special emphasis on transitioning to the cloud to tap into the cloud’s potential to allow agencies to save without sacrifice. The National Institute of Standards and Technologies (NIST) has offered a working definition of cloud computing. But what is holding up the transition?

Seventy-eight percent of respondents claimed that concerns over security in the cloud are the biggest barrier to cloud adoption, while 41 percent also cited privacy concerns. To build cloud confidence, Federal IT executives need security assurance and examples of cloud implementation success stories to clear the way for widespread cloud adoption. In the interim, agencies can take advantage of the benefits of the private cloud to centralize and virtualize their IT infrastructures and comply with Federal mandates, such as continuity of operations (COOP).

TheAdmins Introduces 24×7 Tech Support On All Things Citrix, Microsoft, VMware and Cisco

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TheAdmins, a value-added reseller (VAR) providing virtualization, application delivery, data security, network infrastructure and storage/business continuity services, today announced the introduction of its Continuous Support Offering (CSO).

TheAdmins CSO is a service level agreement (SLA)-based support service designed to supplement IT services staff in resolving technology-critical issues with select Citrix, Microsoft, VMware and Cisco products.

Traditionally, companies have purchased IT services support agreements directly from manufacturers to serve as a lifeline in the event of an emergency. However, the reality is that many of these agreements serve as a mere insurance policy, and if unused, result in lost fees – only to be renewed again the following year. Also, manufacturer support is typically limited to the manufacturing company’s product line only – resulting in very specific and restricted support.

Products currently supported through TheAdmins CSO include:

  • All Citrix products
  • Microsoft (Active Directory, Messaging and Windows Server)
  • VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3 (VI4 support coming soon)
  • Cisco (routing and switching)

Service level agreement response time is as follows:

  • One-hour for telephone support
  • Four-hour for on-site coverage for New Jersey, New York City and Philadelphia

TheAdmins CSO is available now to new and existing TheAdmins customers. The cost of the service is $6,250 annually for 25 support hours, which can be used for telephone or on-site support seven days a week, 24 hours a day.

Upon depletion of the purchased hours, replenishment options are available. Any time remaining at the end of 12 months may be used for other TheAdmins IT services, such as projects, staff supplementation, system management and troubleshooting.

StorMagic SvSAN Configuration Guides Now Also Available For Intel Server Platforms

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StorMagic, a developer of iSCSI SAN management software for virtualized server environments, today announced the availability of a validated configuration for StorMagic SvSAN and VMware Infrastructure 3 for ESX 3.5 software on the Intel Server Board S5520UR.

This server configuration was developed jointly by StorMagic and Intel engineers through the Intel Enabled Server Acceleration Alliance (Intel ESAA), a collaborative program that streamlines technical certification and validation of Intel-based server products and enables Intel OEMs and channel partners to quickly deliver reliable, high-quality server solutions to their customers.

With the StorMagic SvSAN, IT administrators can turn unused storage capacity into a virtual SAN, benefiting from high-end features of the VMware platform such as VMware VMotionT, and building a high-availability shared storage solution for less than US$2,000. The StorMagic SvSAN also works with VMware vCenter Server to enable administrators to quickly and easily configure and manage the entire virtual environment from a single management console.

VISI Launches Virtual Dedicated Server (VDS) Product Based On VMware Infrastructure 3

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VISI, Minnesota’s largest cloud computing, data center services and managed hosting provider, is proud to announce the launch of its new Virtual Dedicated Server (VDS) product based on VMware’s industry-leading virtualization and management suite, VMware Infrastructure 3.

VISI’s VDS product was designed to provide a higher level of security, reliability and performance than you can get with traditional hosting products. VISI has leveraged VMware’s High Availability (HA) feature to maximize customer’s uptime by rebooting a virtual server on another physical host in the event of hardware failure.

VMware’s Infrastructure 3 allows VISI to offer customers greater control and flexibility by providing them their own operating system (OS) instance. Customers are able to select the amount of CPU, memory and storage they need. Data is stored on a SAN-based storage system for enterprise-class reliability.

As a member of the VMware Service Provider Program (VSPP), VISI is well positioned to deliver knowledge and expertise to customers from initial pre-sales and consulting engagements to post sales support and implementation services. VISI has attained the following credentials as part of its VMware practice: VMware Sales Professional (VSP), VMware Technical Sales Professional (VTSP), and VMware Certified Professional (VCP).

3PAR Performs Well For Managed Health Care Associates

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3PAR announced today that Managed Health Care Associates has saved 50% on storage CAPEX by consolidating onto a single, highly virtualized 3PAR InServ F-Class Storage Server.

With 3PAR, MHA has doubled storage performance and improved VMware server performance while the hyper-efficient design of the InServ F-Class has also lowered MHA’s OPEX, reducing datacenter power consumption by 30% and storage administration time by 80% as compared to MHA’s previous storage environment.

By consolidating onto 3PAR, MHA has gained the scalability to meet anticipated growth without compromising performance. With the move to utility storage and more specifically the InServ F-Class, MHA has seen a 100% performance increase in storage performance and also a dramatic improvement in VMware performance. MHA’s virtual machines (VMs) — all of which leverage 3PAR Utility Storage — run faster with 3PAR than they did with MHA’s traditional storage arrays. This has allowed MHA to better serve the needs of their member pharmacies, which utilize MHA’s services to assist in the purchase of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies and for network access to major national and regional prescription drug plans.

Since deployment, the InServ F-Class has also saved MHA on OPEX by reducing the amount of storage administration time required by their current IT staff by approximately 80% — from several hours per day to only a few hours per month. Additional savings have come in the form of a 60K-BTU reduction in energy consumption over the past year as compared to MHA’s previous storage system — a 30% savings in cooling costs alone.

The InServ F-Class mid-range array has saved MHA a significant amount on storage footprint and up-front capacity costs — a savings of 50% over the purchase of storage from the other vendors they evaluated. A major reason for this savings is that, with 3PAR, MHA no longer has to overpurchase storage capacity because they are unable to predict their future storage needs. For example, when converting physical servers to virtual machines using VMware, MHA was previously forced to purchase more storage up front than was actually required for those VMs. The Thin Built In capabilities of the F-Class, combined with 3PAR Thin Provisioning software, have given MHA the ability to overallocate storage to their virtual servers, thus allowing MHA to reduce their of up-front capacity purchases. In addition, the high port connectivity of the InServ F-Class array has eliminated the need for MHA to invest in additional Fibre Channel switching equipment that would have been required with storage arrays purchased from another vendor.

MHA has also seen a reduction in storage footprint due to the native tiered-storage capabilities of the F-Class. MHA has configured its 3PAR array with both high-performance Fibre Channel drives for performance-intensive production workloads and more cost-efficient Nearline (SATA) drives for disaster recovery from remote 3PAR arrays. MHA’s lab management and testing environments as well as their VMware environment also take advantage of the more economical Nearline drives while other servers use the higher-performance Fibre Channel drives.