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

Lostcreation’s Virtualization Mobile Manager Reaches Beta 1.5

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From VMBlog:

lostcreations‘ Andrew Kutz is moving a mile-a-minute right now working on his Virtualization Mobile Manager (VMM) application.  Only a short time since announcing it, he is now ready with Beta 1.5.  The new Beta introduces three important new features thanks to Beta user feedback thus far.

  1. In addition to VMware Infrastructure 3 and VMware Server 2, VMM now supports the management and monitoring of Citrix XenServer 1.5.
  2. VMM now works on ALL mobile devices via its new Lite Mode. VMM will gracefully degrade itself to a zero-Javascript version if a fully-Ajax capable browser is not detected. You can now manage and monitor VMware and Xen from your BlackBerry, Windows Mobile device, or any phone with a web browser!
  3. Beta 1.5 introduces a feature we are calling Accidental Touch Detection (ATD). ATD prevents users from accidentally brushing up against a power button in full mode (as opposed to the new lite mode) and shutting down a VM. ATD requires an intentional touch (measured by a depression of 500 milliseconds)

Citrix Systems And Intel Partner For Development Of Xen Client Hypervisor Technology

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Citrix Systems and Intel are working on developing technology to make desktop-as-a-service computing possible. The two companies said yesterday that they are collaborating to jointly deliver a hypervisor that will sit on end-user devices which will allow customers to have access to their virtual desktop PCs from any device without the need to boot up the device.

Under an agreement with Intel, Citrix plans to produce a new class of virtualization solutions that optimize the delivery of applications and desktops to millions of Intel Core2 and Centrino 2 processor-based devices, considerably reducing the cost of desktop management.

The new Xen-based client hypervisor resulting from the collaboration between Citrix and Intel will be optimized for bare metal virtualization and suited for delivery as an embedded, small footprint component of an enterprise laptop or desktop PC, and can also be installed on existing client systems that already have an operating system installed.

More perspective on the collaboration can be found on eWeek.

Release: RedHat Enterprise Linux 5.3

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RedHat just announced the release of RedHat Enterprise Linux 5.3 which is available for immediate download from Red Hat Network. According to the company, with this update to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, customers will receive a wide range of enhancements, including significantly increased virtualization scalability.

RedHat lists Increased scalability of virtualized x86-64 environments as it’s prominent new feature:

“This includes the industry-leading ability to support virtual servers with up to 32 virtual CPUs and 80GB of memory. Physical server limits have also been expanded to match the size of today’s latest hardware systems, with up to 126 CPUs and 1TB main memory. New features, such as support for Hugepage memory and Intel Extended Page Tables (EPT), dramatically improve the performance of virtual servers. For customers, these enhancements allow more and larger virtual systems to be configured on today’s powerful servers, thereby reducing costs. Additionally, more devices can be allocated to each virtual server (guest), enabling the virtualization of applications with heavy I/O requirements. ”

Amongst other improvements is support for the Quad Core Intel Core i7 (Nehalem) processors and the inclusion of OpenJDK

More info including a Video on their blog.

Egenera Introduces PAN Manager 5.2

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Egenera today announced its next generation software solution for unifying virtual and physical infrastructure management, PAN Manager 5.2.

New features including open APIs enable customers and third parties to integrate PAN Manager commands and functions into their own software suites. By logically abstracting and representing all types of computing assets, both physical and virtual, PAN Manager simplifies the data center environment while ensuring high availability and full disaster recovery.

PAN Manager’s reliable virtualized architecture is based on industry standards and supports popular hypervisors, SANs and server platforms. PAN Manager minimizes data center complexity, and reduces operational and capital expenditures by up to 70 percent.

The major innovations in the latest release of PAN Manager software focus on simplifying manageability through an increasingly granular level of management for both virtual and physical resources. The many major new and enhanced features in PAN Manager software, release 5.2 include:

  • Open APIs enabling customers or third parties to integrate PAN Manager commands and functions into their own software suites;
  • Linux 2.6 kernel compatibility to run PAN Controllers for enhanced performance;
  • Embedded Citrix 4.1 technology enabling Live Migration, support for Red Hat 64-bit operating systems  and  dynamic memory allocation;
  • Support for vLAN technology enabling superior flexibility in designing computing environments within the processing area network – the PAN; and
  • Support for WinPE 2.1 enabling customers to utilize industry standard tools to manage their Microsoft operating system deployments and provisioning.

PAN Manager software by Egenera, release 5.2, is available immediately.

Cisco Plans Bold Move Into Server Business, Enters Arena With HP And IBM

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According to the NY Times, Cisco Systems is planning a big push into the server market, essentially entering into competition with its historical partners HP and IBM (who declined to comment on the story).

A risky move for Cisco, but a very interesting one.

The product — a server computer equipped with sophisticated virtualization software — is a bold but risky move by Cisco into an unfamiliar, intensely competitive market that typically produces far lower profits than Cisco makes from network gear. But it reflects the company’s ambition to grow beyond its roots as the so-called plumber of the Internet to offer everything from instant messaging software to digital stereos.

As The Register points out, VMware technology is likely the foundation of the virtualization part, since Cisco still owns part of the company (about 2%). Cisco is not disclosing any specifics though, but the NY Times learned that Cisco could show off the first of its new systems as early as March.

Acquisition rumors between Cisco Systems and VMware (and even EMC in full) are sure to flare up again.

A good follow-up article was published on Forbes.

Evolve Technologies CEO Dave Sobel Releases Book On Virtualization

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Evolve Technologies today announced that CEO, Dave Sobel, will release his first book on virtualization at Reiter’s Books in Washington D.C. on Thursday, January 22 at 6:00 p.m.

Sobel’s book entitled, “Virtualization: Defined. A Primer for the SMB Consultant,” explores, in depth, the basics of this technology for small to medium-sized business (SMB) solution providers and IT professionals alike.

Sobel’s first book positions virtualization as a valuable, time and money saving asset for businesses in hopes of eliminating the recent hype surrounding the emerging technology. “Virtualization: Defined” is the essential guide for SMB consultants looking to better understand and utilize virtualization technology to grow their business and increase efficiency and productivity.