From the Xen blog:
“Fifth release candidate is tagged as 3.4.1-rc5 in the usual place. Please test!”
Andreessen, Horowitz Back Cloud Computing Startup WebappVM
A new cloud computing startup funded and advised by legendary entrepreneurs turned investors Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz plans to help enterprise companies deploy and manage applications in the cloud. Other webappVM team members have experience at Cisco Systems, Tellme, and Juniper Networks, according to the company’s web site.
WebappVM is the name of the Redwood City company, and they’re building a “self-monitoring application cloud” for web applications that will provide enterprise-style app management capabilities to public and private clouds.
The company is backed by Shasta Ventures and Sierra Ventures as well as Andreessen and Horowitz, who recently raised $300 million to fund early-stage investments.
webappVM was previously known as OSS-1701, and was founded in May 2008 by CEO Issac Roth and CTO Tobias Kunze Briseño. Roth most recently worked as director of product management at the Wily Computing business of Computer Associates, while Briseno was a senior development manager at Lycos Europe.
Roth recently demonstrated webappVM’s technology at Sun’s CommunityOne event, describing it as “a special kind of virtual machine” that allows developers to build an app on a local machine, upload it to the cloud (in this case Sun’s OpenCloud) and immediately begin running the application with built-in management tools.
(Via Data Center Knowledge)
Phoenix Technologies Announces $13.05 Million Registered Direct Common Stock Offering
Phoenix Technologies has entered into definitive purchase agreements with selected new and existing institutional investors to sell 5,800,000 shares of its common stock, at a price of $2.25 per share in a registered direct offering. Federated Kaufmann Fund was the lead investor in the offering.
The per share purchase price represents an approximate 22 percent discount to the three day volume-weighted average price of Phoenix’s common stock. The company expects to receive gross proceeds from the offering of $13.05 million and net proceeds of approximately $12.0 million, after deducting placement agent’s fees and other offering expenses.Phoenix intends to use the net proceeds from this offering for general corporate purposes. The offering is expected to close on or about July 2, 2009, subject to customary closing conditions.
The shares of common stock are being offered by the company pursuant to its existing shelf registration statement, which as amended, was declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission on June 26, 2009. A prospectus supplement describing the terms of the offering will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which forms a part of the effective Registration Statement.
Needham & Company, LLC served as exclusive placement agent for the offering. The shares of common stock may be offered only by means of a prospectus.
Virsto Raises $7 Million For Virtual Storage Solutions
Virsto Software, provider of storage solutions for virtual servers, announced today it has completed its Series A round of funding, raising $7 million. The round was led by August Capital and includes Canaan Partners.
Canaan Partners was also a seed investor in Virsto in 2008. Virsto will use the funds to launch its new storage solution for virtual servers. The company will also focus on building its customer base and engaging new partners. Maha Ibrahim, General Partner at Canaan, will remain on Virsto’s board of directors and Vivek Mehra, General Partner at August Capital, will join the board.
Virsto was founded in the fall of 2007 to address the growing need for cost-effective and efficient storage for virtualized data centers.
Virtualized data centers are transforming IT infrastructures by reducing costs, improving performance and increasing efficiency. Server virtualization platforms from VMware, Microsoft, Citrix, Oracle, Red Hat, and others are being rapidly adopted as the technology matures.
Most data storage systems in use today were designed before server virtualization came about. The older storage techniques and technologies used for physical servers are not optimal for virtual servers. While existing vendors have tweaked storage solutions to work better for virtual servers, the products are inadequate, expensive and complex. Later this year, Virsto will launch a new type of storage solution designed for the unique needs of virtual servers.
Release: PDH Virtual Patch Downloader 6.0
PHD Virtual Technologies, provider of the esXpress data protection and recovery solution for virtual machines, today announced availability of Patch Downloader 6.0, a new freeware solution to simplify patch downloading for various VMware ESX versions. Patch Downloader is the fifth free virtualization utility to be offered by PHD Virtual as part of its longstanding commitment to the virtualization community.
Patch Downloader v6.0 eases the pain of downloading patches for various ESX versions from the VMware support site by automating the process for users that cannot use the VMware Update Manager. Now, rather than downloading each patch manually through a Java Download manager, VMware administrators can simply select the version of ESX from the Patch Downloader drop down menu, and select the file repository (including folder, drive map, SMB share, etc.) to download the patches to. The new freeware solution will list all of the available patches and information about the patches including severity of the problem it corrects, what the impact on VM/Host uptime is, and a description of the problem fixed.. Downloads of selected patches are performed with a simple click making it easy to keep the ESX patch repository up to date.
Patch Downloader joins PHD Virtual’s suite of other free VMware ESX utilities which include:
· VMNetBac 1.2.0 – VMNetBac allows customers to backup and restore the network configuration of a virtual machine. VMNetBac is a quick recovery tool to minimize the risk of losing network configurations when intrusive or mass-upgrade type tasks are performed.
· Virtual SAN 1.0.0 – This Virtual SAN appliance for VMware ESX 3 Server provides the benefits of shared VMFS storage without the cost of a SAN. It utilizes, otherwise unused, local storage in the ESX server to facilitate enterprise-level features such as vMotion, DRS and HA.
· SnapHunter 0.5.3 – SnapHunter is an ESX 3 Service Console utility which reports back on the Snapshot status of virtual machines from multiple ESX Servers.
· KS QuickConfig 1.3.0 – KS QuickConfig is a Windows GUI utility that reduces the time needed to deploy and configure VMware ESX 3 servers, and to eliminate inconsistencies that can arise with manual operations.
Also available on the PHD Virtual website is a full-featured trial download of the company’s award winning, scalable esXpress data recovery and data protection solution for virtual IT. esXpress v3.5 uniquely uses the virtual environment to backup itself without requiring any additional hardware or software, making it the most scalable and cost effective VMware backup solution on the market.
SourceFire Presents New Virtual Appliances
Open source innovator and Snort creator Sourcefire announced Sourcefire 3D System 4.9, with the new Sourcefire Virtual 3D Sensor and Sourcefire Virtual Defense Center. These new virtual appliances will enable users to deploy the company’s leading security solutions within their virtual environments, increasing protection for both physical and virtual assets. Available during the second half of 2009, the Sourcefire 3D System 4.9 also features the industry’s first Policy Layering capabilities that deliver increased customization for large or multi-organizational networks, including cloud or virtual implementations.
With the new Virtual 3D Sensor and Virtual Defense Center, Sourcefire is enabling customers to:
- Secure virtualization – Protecting virtual infrastructure from internal and external attacks with virtual security appliances
- Virtualize security – Leveraging cost- and energy-saving benefits of virtual security appliances to improve security efficiency
As part of the Sourcefire 3D System 4.9, the new virtual appliances allow organizations to inspect traffic between virtual machines, while also making it easier to deploy and manage sensors at remote sites where resources may be limited. They also enable Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) and cloud computing companies to easily implement Sourcefire’s leading security solutions for increased protection. MSSPs can configure multiple Virtual Defense Centers to support multiple customers from a single VMware server, increasing the efficiency of management efforts.
Users can deploy Virtual 3D Sensors on VMware ESX and ESXi platforms to inspect traffic between two or more virtual machines (VMs), while also using physical Sourcefire 3D Sensors to inspect traffic going into and out of a VMware virtual environment. Deployed as software running within VMs, the Virtual 3D Sensor also makes it easier for users to inspect traffic on remote segments of the network where local IT security resources may not exist (e.g., retail stores, remote offices) or where little rack space remains in the datacenter.
The Virtual 3D Sensor will provide simultaneous execution of Sourcefire IPS, RNA (Real-time Network Awareness) and RUA (Real-time User Awareness) functions. Customers can deploy the Virtual Defense Center to monitor any combination of up to 25 virtual or physical 3D Sensors. They can also opt to monitor their Virtual 3D Sensors from the same physical Defense Center they use to monitor their physical 3D Sensors.
In addition to the new virtual appliances, Sourcefire 3D System 4.9 delivers new policy management capabilities that allow organizations to easily customize security to support the varying user requirements of expansive multi-department/organization networks, as well as virtualization and cloud computing implementations. With the industry’s first Policy Layering capability, Sourcefire users can create policy “building blocks” to capture specific Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) requirements by organization, by site, by department, or even by user.
Sourcefire is enhancing its market-leading dashboard to include new custom query widgets, providing users with increased control over the way data is presented. With Sourcefire 3D System 4.9, Sourcefire is also improving the overall manageability and detection accuracy of RNA to include new application and service detectors, auto-configuration and simplified packet-level forensics.
The Sourcefire 3D System 4.9 release, including the Virtual 3D Sensors and Virtual Defense Center, will be available during the second half of 2009.