Virtualization.com

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

LeftHand Networks Delivers Entry-level SAN for Virtualized Environments

by Leave a Comment

LeftHand Networks (an HP company) today announced an entry-level storage area network (SAN) solution that improves performance and reduces storage costs within virtualized server environments for midsize businesses.

The LeftHand SAS Starter SAN helps customers efficiently deploy their first virtualization projects by simplifying the process of creating, accessing and managing shared storage resources.
As customers deploy virtual server environments, they frequently encounter unforeseen system performance bottlenecks. To further complicate matters, server virtualization increases the number of required connections to a SAN. This increased system complexity makes it more difficult and costly to troubleshoot when bottlenecks do occur. The LeftHand SAS Starter SAN reduces costs and mitigates these performance issues by automatically balancing data volumes across all disk drives, network connections and processors.
The SAS Starter SAN includes management tools that provide replication, thin provisioning and snapshot capabilities. These capabilities help ensure data availability even as the environment becomes more complex. In addition, customers can purchase only the capacity they need, easily increasing both the capacity and performance of their system without experiencing any disruption. The SAS Starter SAN can scale to more than 80 network ports and 320 disk drives to accommodate business growth.
LeftHand also introduced a higher capacity SATA Starter SAN that offers a 25 percent reduction in the cost per gigabyte (GB) of disk drive capacity than the previous generation. The solution’s storage capacity has increased 33 percent to 12 terabytes (TB) while maintaining its current list price. The SATA Starter SAN is ideal for customers who want to consolidate storage for Microsoft Windows or Linux servers.
The SAS Starter SAN and the higher-capacity SATA Starter SAN are available immediately through LeftHand Networks’ resellers and value-added resellers in the United States as well as value-added distributors throughout Europe.
Pricing starts at $35,000 for the 4.8 TB SAS Starter SAN and $30,000 for the 12 TB SATA Starter SAN.

EMC/VMW Acquisition By Cisco Imminent?

by 2 Comments

Great field work on Virtualization.info today about the fact that investors are buying heaps of VMware stock, signalling that something is up.

A small excerpt:

Monday’s SEC filings shows that Cisco posted a prospectus on raising $4 billion in senior bonds. The book building is run by all the major investment banks and is closing on February 17.
Cisco must be really confident for such a major issuance in these market conditions, but Standard & Poors is giving the senior unsecured notes an A+ rating with a stable outlook.
Cisco will use $500 million of the $4 billion to repay short term debt.  When combined with sizeable cash holdings, this leaves them with with $4.7 billion in cash at the US parent company. According to CNET that amount excluded cash holdings at subsidiaries overseas.

LynuxWorks Debuts LynxSecure 2.0

by Leave a Comment

LynuxWorks today announced the availability of LynxSecure 2.0, a next-generation separation kernel and embedded hypervisor for high assurance systems, on the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processor-based systems.

LynxSecure takes advantage of Intel’s latest hardware-enhanced Intel Virtualization technology (Intel VT) to provide a standards-based, secure software platform for applications with low, medium and high assurance requirements running concurrently on a single system. This meeting of two new technologies generated much interest when previewed with multiple operating systems being run simultaneously on a single Intel chipset with real-time performance and security applications being demonstrated.

LynxSecure was designed from the ground to up to offer a reliable, secure and extendable platform to meet the demanding needs of embedded software developers building complex systems that require application separation. Designers of military, aerospace, medical and financial systems can utilize the safety and security features offered in LynxSecure, and combined with Intel’s latest processors gives very low latency when compared with traditional multi-cpu systems. LynxSecure 2.0 works closely with Intel VT to enable multiple, heterogeneous operating systems (OS) to coexist on the same platform, enabling developers to build a diverse array of applications on a single processor, reducing hardware costs and allowing for easier reuse of legacy software.

The latest generation of Intel Core2 Duo processors offers a number of new features and enhancements that are applicable to embedded developers. Intel’s enhanced virtualization provides hardware-enhanced I/O virtualization and facilitates interactions between the embedded hypervisor and the guest operating systems running on it. There are some new integrated security features which include integrated TPM building blocks and a network outbreak containment block that improve network security with new packet filtering capabilities. Enhancing of both the on-chip power management features and the graphics capabilities offers better performance at lower power, a real benefit for embedded applications.

LynxSecure, with its extremely small code size, maintains hard real-time characteristics and determinism for real-time applications. The software is the first separation kernel & hypervisor to bring multi-core processor support to the high assurance world, providing scalability from deeply embedded applications up to workstations and servers.

LynxSecure is designed to run on any 32-bit or 64-bit processor with a memory management unit (MMU) and provides 100% application binary compatibility between a standalone OS and its virtualized version. Like all LynuxWorks’ products, LynxSecure is based on open standards, but it also offers the highest real-time, safety and security capabilities, conforming to the MILS standard and certifiable to DO-178B level A.

Leostream (Finally) Ships Connection Broker 5.3

by Leave a Comment

Leostream Corporation, a developer of virtual hosted desktop software, has finally gotten around to updating its Connection Broker software to version 5.3.

To get an idea of what changed, you can check the release notes here (PDF).

Here’s a quick run-down:

  • Citrix XenApp support when used with Leostream Connect (Windows and Linux® version) and Wyse thin clients.
  • Remote upgrade feature for Leostream Connect client
  • New > Status > Downloads page with links for downloading the Leostream Agent, Leostream Connect, and Leostream Documentation
  • New ability to specify multiple authentication server addresses inside one record on the > Users > Authentication Servers page
  • New Domain option on the Test Login option on the > Users > Users page
  • Allow additional special characters on smart card logins
  • Enhanced USB support in policies when used with Leostream Connect version 2.2
  • Context sensitive help for Connection Broker forms
  • The Templates pool has been removed from the > Resources > Pools page. Please, use VMware® VirtualCenter to view the templates you use for provisioning
  • Bulk upload feature, to import users, desktops, and clients from a CSC-file.
  • Additional columns available on the > Users > Users page to list Active Directory attributes for users

Doyenz Launches Automated Virtual IT

by Leave a Comment

Doyenz today announced the availability of Doyenz Automated Virtual IT, a managed service for IT consultants that leverages virtualization and cloud services to automate the delivery and management of IT infrastructure.

Designed to improve the quality and efficiency of SMB IT, Doyenz provides an SaaS platform that can be used to automatically configure and manage servers and desktops as virtual appliances. Automated Virtual IT is a hybrid solution that can be used to deploy virtual appliances either on-premise or in the cloud, allowing seamless migration from one to the other. The new solution offers unparalleled business continuity and uptime to the SMB at a lower cost, and a new IT services delivery model with better profits to the IT consultant that serves them. Doyenz has received significant angel funding from private investors from Microsoft, Google and others, and is now seeking Series A funding to support its rapid growth and high market demand.

Doyenz Automated Virtual IT addresses SMB challenges by enabling IT consultants to leverage automation, virtualization and cloud services to remotely configure, test, deploy and manage their customers’ servers as virtual appliances.

The Automated Virtual IT managed service capabilities include (a) automated creation and deployment of new servers with best practices, (b) a virtual test-lab with the latest copy of the production server for testing, e.g., patches and upgrades, and performing complex operations such as migrations with limited or no production downtime, (c) remote monitoring and management of Tier 1 alerts, and (d) an automated off-site disaster recovery with local fail-over on premises or in the cloud.

While Doyenz does not host the customer’s production environment, the Doyenz generated virtual appliances can run either on the customer premises, or hosted in the cloud, providing the bridge necessary for the SMB to migrate safely to the newest technologies and take advantage of enterprise-class tools.

Built on the Doyenz Automated Virtual IT Platform, the Doyenz Automated Virtual IT service is an affordable SaaS subscription offering that requires no hardware or software investment, allowing IT consultants to build a recurring repeatable revenue stream and grow their profits, while lowering costs and improving service to their SMB customers.

Vucci Emerges As Virtual Utility Computing Services Company

by Leave a Comment

Utah-based Vucci Technology Solutions is working to change the way businesses interact with IT. Offering virtual utility computing services, managed service applications and virtual desktops, Vucci takes the traditionally cost-inefficient sector of IT and turns it into a profit center.

Vucci is an IT solutions provider that offers innovative technology services for enterprise-level businesses, healthcare, education and government. Vucci’s solutions allow businesses to consolidate, virtualize, and assess IT needs in a more cost effective way turning IT into a profit center for stronger return on investment (ROI).

With a strong list of clients that include The Generations Network, J.P. Morgan, University Health Care and Utah Valley University (UVU), Vucci leverages its IT expertise to enterprise-level businesses by providing virtualization technology designed to simplify IT.

Vucci services include:

  • Virtualization
  • Architecture Design & Implementation
  • Data Center Transformation
  • Capacity Planning & Server Consolidation
  • Business Continuity & Availability

Vucci provides the experience and the proven expertise to train its customers on how to be more efficient with consolidated information technology resources to drive overall productivity and increase revenue and agility within an organization.