Virtualization.com

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

Acresso Announces AdminStudio Beta Support for Streamlining Microsoft App-V Deployments

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Acresso Software today announced at the Microsoft TechEd EMEA 2008 IT Professionals Conference that the AdminStudio application readiness solution will provide beta support in early 2009 for Microsoft’s Application Virtualization (App-V) solution. Today’s announcement makes Acresso the first and only vendor to offer built-in application virtualization preparation and packaging for the much-anticipated Microsoft App-V platform, enabling enterprise IT organization to further reduce application management costs.

AdminStudio automates processes so that IT teams can get up and running with application virtualization projects in less time. AdminStudio simplifies decision making regarding which applications are appropriate for virtualization, and enables rapid conversion of existing packages to the virtual format. In recent third party application virtualization benchmark tests, AdminStudio demonstrated up to a 60% time savings for preparing virtual applications for deployment compared to not using a professional packaging tool. Additionally, AdminStudio includes time saving management functions such as project tracking and application cataloging.

AdminStudio will be the first product to support a true conversion into the App-V format without the use of the native Microsoft Sequencer tool. Combining this capability with advanced support for the current industry-standard MSI format will offer enterprise IT organizations the flexibility they need to address current and future projects. The thousands of current AdminStudio customers will be able to fully support current application packages, and adopt virtualization at their own pace, using familiar tools and processes.

Reflex Security Rebrands To Reflex Systems

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Reflex Security today announced it has changed its company name to Reflex Systems.  The new moniker was given “to more appropriately convey the award-winning comprehensive virtual infrastructure management offering that the company is now known for in addition to the virtual security appliance solution that Reflex pioneered”.

Reflex Virtualization Management Center (VMC) dramatically increases the visibility, management and security of an organization’s virtual infrastructure. Purpose-built on a strong security foundation, VMC provides the essential tools needed to bridge the gap between management and security in virtualized data centers. Reflex VMC provides infrastructure discovery and visualization, revision control, application/services discovery, network security, performance, lifecycle management and policy enforcement.

AppSense Releases Management Suite Version 8.0

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AppSense, provider of user environment management solutions for the enterprise, announced today the immediate availability of AppSense Management Suite Version 8.0.

This release includes the recently announced Environment Manager 8.0, as well as upgrades to Application Manager and Performance Manager. It represents a significant step forward in delivering a complete solution to managing all aspects of the user experience regardless of desktop and application delivery mechanism. AppSense technology enables corporate policy and personalization data, known as the ‘user personality’ to be abstracted from the desktop and managed independently.

This personality can then be dynamically applied ‘on-demand’ to any user environment. Whether applications and desktops are delivered locally, published, streamed or virtualized – or combinations thereof – user environment management ensures that all user settings are correctly applied and persisted across desktop sessions.

AppSense Management Suite Version 8.0 consists of three products (Environment Manager, Application Manager and Performance Manager) that provide policy and personalization management, application entitlement and resource control to create a predictable, compliant and responsive environment for users. Enterprise scalability and intuitive management controls provide a high degree of automation for IT, enabling cost savings through optimal use of resources as well as high levels of service quality.

RightScale Supports The Smell Of Saunas

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Today RightScale Inc. announced they will team up with the Eucalyptus team have their platform available with Eucalyptus so they can deliver an Easy to Mange Open Source Cloud Computing platform.

They have announced that starting today, November 4, 2008 they will have the RightScale Cloud computing management platform ready for use with the Eucalyptus Puclic Cloud (EPC).


“We are honored to collaborate with the talented UCSB Eucalyptus Project Team to accelerate the advancement of cloud computing technology,” said Michael Crandell, CEO at RightScale. “Now anyone — from those just becoming familiar with cloud computing to organizations evaluating a massive application for deployment on Amazon’s EC2 — will be able to easily test their applications on the Eucalyptus EC2-compatible, open source cloud infrastructure using RightScale’s management platform.”

RightScale was already supporting Amazon’s EC2, FlexiScale and now GoGrid and sends a big message to the Cloud Community that Eucalyptus is a valuable platform to support.

Earlier this year Elastra also announced support for Eucalyptus. May we wonder why the Eucalyptus folks went with RightScale and not with Scalr ? Afterall integrating Scalr with Eucalyptus seems like a good way to achieve a fully featured opensource platform.

And on a final note .. if RightScale titles their Press Release “RightScale and the Eucalyptus Team Join Forces to Deliver Easy-to-Manage Open Source Cloud Computing” , when will they show us the code ?

We Support Obama Because He Supports Virtualization

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Since we’re based in Europe, the editorial team at Virtualization.com is not afraid of showing some last minute support for Barack Obama in his presidential campaign. Pretty logical if you think of it, as “change” in the computing industry through Virtualization is what we have been preaching for years now. So we went over to Silicon Valley and went looking for trails of the 2008 presidential campaign. To our great surprise, John McCain was nowhere to be found in San Francisco, or maybe we have been looking on the wrong side of town (or state).

This campaigner on Market Street does a good job and even knew Obama’s opinion on our beloved Virtualization technology.


Barack Obama in favor of Virtualization. Vote for change in a datacenter or on a desktop near you. from Toon Vanagt on Vimeo.

Anyway, today you can make yourself and us happy by casting your vote (for change, preferably). If you’re not a US citizen, than do it here.

Sun Microsystems Updates Solaris, ZFS

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Sun Microsystems has introduced a new version of its Solaris operating system offering enhancements to virtualization support and the company’s ZFS file system. The open source version of the platform has also been demonstrated on IBM mainframes for the first time.

Available now on Sun systems and as a download, Solaris 10 10/08 includes numerous enhancements over the core Solaris 10 code. These include tighter integration of Sun’s large-scale ZFS file system, enabling systems to boot from the software and operate it as the sole file system. ZFS also now offers increased data integrity and integrated disaster recovery capabilities.

Sun has also worked with Intel to ensure that the new Solaris release is optimised for the latest Xeon processor chips as well as Sun’s own Sparc architecture.

Sun and IBM have also demonstrated OpenSolaris, the open source version of Solaris, running on an IBM System Z mainframe. The move follows a joint announcement in August that IBM was expanding support for Solaris.