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

Citrix Receiver Technology Preview for iPhone Released

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Today, Citrix released the Technical Preview of the upcoming ICA client for the Apple iPhone called “Citrix Receiver” (iTunes link).

Anyone with a properly configured Citrix XenApp environment can download the Citrix Receiver and access authorized company apps from their iPhone today ! Now is the time to start testing the iPhone in your environment, look for ways to increase productivity, and have some fun.

Note: Works with Wi-Fi or 3G connection, Citrix XenApp and XenApp Web Services, Windows applications hosted on Citrix XenApp.  And the Citrix XenApp secure application feature is not supported with this Technology Preview Release.

Also watch this Citrix Receiver video from Chris Fleck.

Xsigo Systems To Support New Intel Xeon Processor Family

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Xsigo Systems today announced support for Intel’s next-generation Xeon processor family. The new Intel processors offer enhanced performance and throughput capabilities that are expected to increase the need for Xsigo virtual I/O as users migrate to high-density computing environments that demand greater I/O capabilities.

The new Xeon processors include architectural enhancements that increase both processing power and memory bandwidth. When users add workload to capitalize on these features, there is an elevated risk of I/O bottlenecks unless there is a commensurate increase in I/O capabilities. Xsigo virtual I/O eliminates I/O bottlenecks with dynamic bandwidth allocation that delivers performance on-demand to I/O connections over a high-speed 20Gbs fabric. Xsigo virtual I/O also incorporates quality of service features that reduce the risk of I/O resource contention, an issue that arises when multiple virtual machines compete for bandwidth on a single I/O link.

Increasing compute density frequently exacerbates I/O issues since high-density devices may lack the physical space to accommodate the needed I/O, particularly when blade systems or compact 1U or 2U servers are deployed. Xsigo virtual I/O eliminates this concern by providing up to 40Gbs of bandwidth to each I/O card or mezzanine card, or 2X to 40X the bandwidth density of conventional I/O.

Customers using Xsigo’s I/O virtualization products can reduce both the operational and capital costs associated with server I/O. Xsigo consolidates the I/O infrastructure and replaces physical network and storage interfaces (NICs and HBAs) with virtual resources that can be deployed on-the-fly. Compared with traditional server I/O, benefits of the Xsigo virtual I/O infrastructure include:

  • 100 times faster I/O configuration management
  • 30 percent less power consumption
  • 70 percent fewer I/O cards, cables, and switch ports
  • Predictable I/O bandwidth to applications via hardware-enforced QoS

This open standards-based solution, interoperable with servers and storage across most leading platforms, is designed to remove the constraints imposed by traditional I/O cards and cables that otherwise limit the flexibility to re-deploy assets. The result is a wire-once infrastructure where configuration changes are completed in minutes rather than days, are executed in software rather than hardware, and can be remotely managed. Eliminating the need to re-cable can help reduce operational costs and remove the risk of cabling errors that may cause unplanned downtime.

Parallels, HP, NVIDIA virtualize GPUs with Workstation Extreme

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Parallels is launching “Parallels Workstation Extreme”, a desktop workstation virtualization offering developed jointly with HP and NVIDIA.

Workstation Extreme is aimed at graphic workstations such as those used on stock trading floors (think: massive multimonitor support) and in 3D animation studios (where several power hungry applications usually don’t like to share resources).

Parallels Workstation Extreme offers desktop virtualization with near-native performance (backed by impressive SPECviewperf numbers) and support for very large VMs (Up to 12 virtual CPUs and 64 GB of RAM per VM). It is built around the latest technology from Intel and NVIDIA. It uses the Intel Xeon 5500 series of CPUs, better known as the “Nehalem” line, which increases the amount of physical RAM that’s supported per machine, and VT-d to allow direct I/O paths to be passed through a hypervisor.

This technology used by the NVIDIA SLI Multi-OS technology incorporated in the latest NVIDIA Quatro cards, also announced today. Using SLI Multi-OS the multiple GPUs available on the system can be virtualized just like traditional CPUs. This allows high-end graphics programs like CAD, CAE and 3D rendering applications to be virtualized and still use the raw geometric number crunching chips provided by the machine. (In traditional desktop virtualization products, the video adapter is emulated, dramatically reducing 3D graphics power.)

Parallels blends this all together with its FastLane architecture, and offers this as a bundled solution on HP Z800 workstations.

Target audiences for this product are digital content creators, design engineers, software developers and testers, sales and training professionals and those working with data modeling in a range of vertical sectors, including finance, government, science, engineering, manufacturing, and oil and gas.

Parallels Workstation Extreme runs on top of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3, Windows XP or Vista (all 64-bit). Supported Guest Operating Systems at the time of release are RHEL 4.7 & 5.3 64-bit, Fedora 10 64-bit and the same 64 bit Windows flavors.

More info can be found on the Parallels website.

Ex-Microsoft Exec Richard McAniff Appointed Chief Development Officer, Executive VP At VMware

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VMware today announced that Richard McAniff has been named Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer. McAniff will report directly to President and Chief Executive Officer Paul Maritz. In his new role, McAniff will be responsible for research and development across VMware’s Server and Desktop Business Units.

“I am pleased to welcome Richard to VMware at a time when the company is poised to expand its technology leadership even farther ahead with its upcoming VMware vSphere generation of products,” said Paul Maritz, president and chief executive officer, VMware. “As the new leader of our R&D organization, Richard brings deep experience in developing industry-leading software. He will play a crucial role in driving product engineering efforts that will help drive and grow our business.”

McAniff, 59, brings more than 28 years of software development leadership experience to VMware. Most recently, he spent 21 years at Microsoft. As corporate vice president for Microsoft Office, McAniff was responsible for several major software tools including Excel and Access. He also oversaw the Business Intelligence effort within Office and development of Web components for the SharePoint Portal Server. In addition, McAniff helped guide the development of Office 2000, Office XP, Office 2003 and Office 2007. Before serving as corporate vice president, McAniff served as general manager of the Visual Basic development system. Prior to joining Microsoft in 1987, McAniff was a member of the technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. During his seven years there, he worked on numerous projects including probability analyses for alternative fuels.

McAniff holds a master’s degree in systems and industrial engineering from the University of Arizona, a master’s degree in resource economics from the University of Massachusetts, and a bachelor of science degree in economics from the University of Massachusetts.

Oh yeah, he also seems to be spending quite some time on Twitter.

PHD Technologies Becomes PHD Virtual, Gives Away Virtualization Tools Free Of Charge

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PHD Virtual Technologies, provider of the esXpress high availability data protection solution for virtual IT, was unveiled today as the new corporate brand for PHD Technologies. Along with the new corporate identity, PHD Virtual is also introducing its new website, featuring free virtualization utility downloads (originally developed by xtravirt).

They 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.

The new PHD Virtual site also provides a full-featured trial download of the company’s award winning, scalable esXpress data protection solution for virtual IT. esXpress enables companies to perform autonomous, fault-tolerant backup and restoration of an entire virtual environment in less time at lower cost with a virtual backup appliance (VBA). These small virtual machines can be deployed in minutes on an ESX server to autonomously conduct hot full or “virtual full” backups of virtual machines. esXpress can be deployed with minimal impact on virtual server, console or network performance and requires no additional hardware or software investment.

Veeam Debuts New Versions Of Reporter And Reporter Enterprise Products

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Veeam Software, award-winning provider of systems management tools for VMware virtual datacenter environments, today delivers new executive management reporting, integration with corporate CMDBs (change management databases), new change management capabilities, and numerous technical enhancements in version 3.5 of its Veeam Reporter and Veeam Reporter Enterprise products. Veeam Reporter is a favorite of virtualization consultants and systems integrators for documenting customer engagements. Veeam Reporter Enterprise is ideal for documenting large ESX and ESXi environments over time for capacity planning and chargeback.

New features in Reporter Enterprise 3.5 include:
  • Executive Management Reporting — documentation of the virtual environment looks better than ever, with new Visio diagram formats, new pre-defined reports, and a new ability to create and save custom report templates, including corporate logo and formatting.
  • CMDB Integration — provides integration of the VMware environment into common configuration management processes by exporting data into an existing centralized CMDB. Reporter Enterprise 3.5 provides a new PowerShell Extension to run scripts to automatically export Virtual Infrastructure data (both for the current state and earlier points in time) into a company’s centralized CMDB. This eliminates the manual work of     creating inventory spreadsheets, and keeps the central CMDB up-to-date automatically. In addition, running PowerShell scripts against the Reporter Enterprise server instead of vCenter allows users to offload script     processing activities from vCenter, providing for better availability of this critical Virtual Infrastructure element.
  • Change Management — because Veeam Reporter Enterprise gathers virtual infrastructure data periodically on a scheduled basis and stores it in a central Microsoft SQL database, administrators can see point-in-time views  or generate reports to analyze changes over time for configuration drift, security auditing and troubleshooting. In addition or instead of that, administrators can simply opt to receive an e-mail with all changes to the virtual infrastructure since the last data collection.

Veeam Reporter Enterprise 3.5 is available immediately, with North American pricing at $375 USD per socket.