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

Release: Citrix Provisioning Services 5.1

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Citrix has released the latest version of Citrix Provisioning Services, version 5.1.  The product also had a name change, now called “Services” as opposed to “Server” to better reflect what PVS really does.

You can download Citrix Provisioning Services from the Citrix Downloads section.

Here is a list of whats new in this Release:

  • Standard Image Mode NIC Teaming
    Ability to use NIC teaming drivers for Broadcom and Intel NICs to setup ‘teams’
    on PVS Target devices.
  • Offline vDisk Maintenance
    Ability to boot PVS VHD files directly within Windows Virtual Server and Hyper-V.
  • User Assigned Virtual Disks
    vDisks are assigned to existing user groups rather than machines.
  • Offline DB Support
    Ability for PVS to continue to boot and run Target devices if the database
    becomes unavailable.
  • Multiple Partition vDisks
    Ability to create vDisks that include multiple partitions (e.g. both a C: and D:
    drive).
  • Server Maintenance Mode
    Ability to initiate failover of all Target devices attached to a particular PVS Server
    to other servers in the PVS farm.
  • Enhanced Logging
    Enhancements to our current logging both on the server and the Target devices.
  • Auditing
    Ability to keep a log of actions performed by system administrators.
  • Read-only vDisk Storage
    Modifications that allow a vDisk to be stored on a read-only file system.
  • XP Embedded Streaming
    Ability to provision MS Windows XP Embedded

Uptime Software Upgrades VMware Monitoring and Reporting Tool

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uptime software has announced the latest version of its systems management software, up.time 5. Through close collaboration with VMware and its vSphere and vCenter Orchestrator offerings, up.time’s new capabilities aspire to change the way enterprises manage, measure, and monitor their VMware infrastructure.

up.time represents a leap forward for companies that need to drive both performance and cost-savings from their VMware infrastructure, while ensuring a consistent quality of service. It does this by providing IT managers with an unobstructed view of the datacenter to efficiently manage distributed applications and global services levels, while maximizing enterprise-wide IT resources. The solution’s ability to span both physical and virtual realms has helped hundreds of customers achieve new levels of performance and render immediate cost savings. QuickPlay Media, a customer dedicated to providing solutions that manage the business of mobile video for the world’s leading communications providers, is one example.

The new capabilities announced today– advanced visibility, deep VMware metrics and reporting, automated problem resolution and incidence avoidance –raise the bar for managing VMware performance with:

  • Increased VMware efficiency though dramatic increases in VM density and optimized VM workloads.
  • Automated incidence avoidance that reduces manual find/fix by automatically heading off reoccurring problems before they happen. Deep and seamless integration with VMware vCenter Orchestrator® makes building out automated problem avoidance workflows easy, providing advanced capabilities for SMB and Enterprise companies. This dramatically reduces Mean-Time-To-Repair and required resources, while increasing performance and productivity.
  • Fast problem isolation and resolution through intelligent alerting, easy pinpointing of root cause, and automated actions that can eliminate recurring outages in the future.
  • Rapid VMware infrastructure growth requiring fewer resources by delivering an easy-to-use consolidation, monitoring, optimization, and automation solution, all while helping reduce VM sprawl.
  • Improved visibility and manageability of the entire infrastructure from a single console, including virtual and physical infrastructures and applications, and across multiple datacenters.

An enterprise version of up.time is available for a risk-free 30 day evaluation download here –  (a Virtual Appliance is also available for download here. uptime software’s world-class support services are free during this evaluation period to help customers drive value in their environments.

VMware Releases Fusion 2.0.5

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VMware Fusion 2.0.5 is a maintenance release of VMware Fusion 2.

It is a free upgrade for all VMware Fusion 1 and VMware Fusion 2 customers, and provides the following enhancements:

  • Supports Mac OS X Server guest operating systems on Macs with Intel Xeon 5500 and 3500 Series processors (based on Nehalem micro-architecture)
  • Provides experimental support for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Server as a guest operating system (32-bit only)
  • Provides experimental support for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard as a host operating system (32-bit only)
  • Supports Ubuntu 9.04 as a guest operating system, including features such as VMware Tools pre-built modules and Easy Install
  • Reduces CPU usage when a virtual machine is idle under VMware Fusion
  • Contains fixes for more than 80 bugs

You can download VMware Fusion 2.0.5 now.

OK Labs Launches Mobile Virtualization Integration Practice (VIP)

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Open Kernel Labs (OK Labs) today announced that the company has launched the industry’s first mobile Virtualization Integration Practice (VIP). The VIP offers a set of consulting and training services that help customers to define requirements, validate design approaches, and support mobile phone product development.

Leading the practice offerings is a collaborative Discovery Service that helps OK Labs OKL4 users integrate virtualization into mobile handset hardware and software architecture. Other VIP Services include Training, Porting, Quick Start, Installation, and Engineering consulting. OK VIP Services help handset OEMs, mobile network operators (MNOs), and semiconductor suppliers to realize significant value from deploying mobile phone virtualization, and to propagate that value across the mobile ecosystem.

OK VIP Discovery service takes into account not only the architecture of mobile hardware and software, but also customer-defined business goals and objectives, and ecosystem relationships. The service delivery is informed by the OK Labs tech team’s understanding of silicon suppliers’ current capabilities and product roadmaps; the evolution of mobile operating systems and other mobile device software; the requirements and service rollout plans of MNOs; and the channels used to deliver handsets, applications, and content.

The VIP Discovery Service starts with detailed requirements gathering, accomplished through an on-site engagement with handset OEM, MNO, or semiconductor supplier technology and business teams. Together with the customer, OK Labs evaluates mobile project design, development, testing, and deployment processes, from both technical and commercial perspectives. Ultimately, OK Labs VIP Discovery Service includes delivery of actionable recommendations for implementation of mobile phone virtualization architecture, integration, training and support.

The VIP Discovery service confers a range of benefits to OEMs and their ecosystem:

•       Aligning mobile phone virtualization with business goals and objectives
•       Building and refining mobile design strategies to maximize ROI from mobile phone virtualization
•       Aligning mobile device features with capabilities and requirements of ecosystem partners and the mobile marketplace

In a study conducted by OK Labs regarding mobile access to enterprise applications, something made possible by mobile phone virtualization, it was found that mobile phone users and corporate IT managers expect that mobile access to enterprise applications growth will outpace the growth of mobile email over the next two years. For OEMs, MNOs and semiconductor suppliers that leverage this opportunity, VIP services enable a quick and efficient path to meet this demand.

OK VIP services are available immediately from OK Labs

Siemens Enters Virtualization Arena

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Siemens IT Solutions and Services today introduced its full-scale Virtualization Services. Based upon three core tenets — Engage, Enable, and Evolve — the package of services is designed to guide customers through what Siemens calls the “Virtualization Evolution”.

The three tenets of the Siemens approach are designed to guide customers through the various stages of the Virtualization Evolution. At the outset, Siemens engages virtualization to simplify technology tools and business processes. By simplifying the IT and process environment, companies can reduce the number of non-value-added tasks and improve business efficiency. This simplified architecture must be housed and enabled in some fashion, and containment is the means.

Containment engages all of the IT components into a centrally managed environment. By using the VMware vSphere 4 platform with Intel Xeo processor-based servers for containment, companies will be able to save power, reduce emissions, and consolidate server space. After simplifying and containing system architecture, the next step is evolving to the optimum state of fully dynamic infrastructure. Emerging client virtualization solutions incorporating Intel vPro technology provide enhanced security and improved manageability with increased end user flexibility. The entire Virtual Evolution is a journey along the road from initial simplification to the fully dynamic use of IT infrastructure.

Siemens IT Solutions and Services is one of the few companies that has demonstrated full scale virtualization of IT services, having implemented it on a global scale for its parent company, Siemens AG. “No one else is doing it on this scale in real time,” said Michael Kollar, Chief Architect. “We’ve implemented virtualization from data centers to the desktop. As such, we have a deep understanding of both the IT and business ramifications. Virtualization is about both content and technology,” he said.

For its Virtualization Services, Siemens has drawn upon its considerable experience in IT transformation to create a process that produces predictable and repeatable results. The five components can be utilized in sequence, individually, or in almost any combination.

Siemens contends that its Virtualization Services will provide customers with considerable financial and operational benefits, including:

  • Infrastructure cost reduction and optimization by managing more workloads without adding additional resources, and reducing power and cooling requirements
  • Server consolidation and infrastructure optimization created by pooling compute resources for improved utilization
  • Improved operational flexibility and responsiveness through managed IT infrastructure, based on standardized services, processes and automation

Siemens’ Virtualization Services are powered by Intel architecture based server and client platforms. The software is powered by VMware vSphere 4. Siemens feels strongly that the relationship between these three partners affords them an innovation advantage in the virtualization market, especially as it applies to cloud computing. Overall, this virtualized infrastructure provides important strategic, economic, and operational benefits, including:

  • Non-stop hardware maintenance
  • Dynamic resource management
  • Instantaneous backups and reliable disaster recovery

RNA Networks Debuts RNAcache For Its Memory Virtualization Platform

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RNA networks today announced it has extended its Memory Virtualization Platform (MVP) product family with the release of RNAcache. MVP transforms server memory into a shared network resource.  RNAcache allows servers to leverage RNA’s unlimited pool of memory by loading entire working datasets into a single shared, virtual memory pool for simultaneous access and processing. RNAcache significantly lowers the cost of supporting business critical, memory-intensive applications without making further investments in costly data center equipment, enabling companies to wring as much revenue potential out of existing servers as possible.

Broadly applicable to a variety of industries, RNAcache provides line speed processing of the most memory intensive and I/O bound applications including predictive analytics and modeling, high volume Internet applications and clustered environments without requiring changes to applications, OS or storage.

An investment management firm using RNAcache said, “With RNAcache, our analytic models that previously took 1.5 hours ran in a matter of minutes – showing a 2,000 percentage performance improvement.” In this case, RNA’s unlimited memory pool held a working dataset of 3 Terabytes across hundreds of compute nodes.

RNAcache works in all network environments including GbE, 10GbE, and InfiniBand. RNAcache removes data center bottlenecks caused by contention for application memory, the most scarce and limited resource in the data center. During customer testing, RNAcache significantly enhanced performance in the following use cases:

  • Predictive Analytics and Modeling: improved predictive modeling capabilities by 20X, delivering results to analysts in a fraction of the time.
  • High Volume, Fast Internet Applications: improved query speed 100X, increased simultaneous user capacity 5X and expanded customer revenue opportunities each business day.
  • Clustered Environments: A high performance cloud provider accelerated processing rates by 30X, without having to scale out their hardware, power or space footprint.

The rate of proliferation and amount of data that must be quickly analyzed, shared and interpreted is growing exponentially. RNAcache makes the benefits of memory virtualization widely available to customers in industries who rely on access, performance and scale to remain competitive – be it video streaming or algorithmic model processing.