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

Seanodes Releases Exanodes VM Edition 1.0 for VMware

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Seanodes, the creator and developer of Shared Internal Storage solutions, today unveiled a new Virtual Machine Edition of its Exanodes software for VMware environments. Exanodes VM Edition 1.0 for VMware is ideal for small to midsized businesses that are transitioning to network storage, and hosted storage services such as cloud computing that need to maximize capacity, reliability and performance at a lower cost than traditional network storage.

Installation, configuration and deployment of Exanodes VM Edition requires no target management, no additional hardware, no need for external SAN storage or fabrics and no specific storage competencies. It provides high performance through improved parallelism and full utilization of hardware at the user’s disposal. Exanodes VM Edition also delivers catastrophic fault tolerance with self-healing capabilities, and takes less then 40 minutes to rebuild a 1TB disk.

Deploying an Exanodes-based storage back end allows companies running VMware for server virtualization to derive the same cost, flexibility, simplicity and other benefits in a fully virtualized computing infrastructure. Like the flagship edition of Seanodes’ Exanodes software, Exanodes VM Edition creates a virtualized storage pool that recovers server-attached storage assets and makes them available as part of a shared, scalable, and resilient storage network and enables companies to maximize the ROI of their current storage technology.

Exanodes VM Edition was recently named a winner of a Best Products and Services Award by Network Products Guide, a world-leading publication on technology solutions. Exanodes VM Edition was praised as an alternative to investment in traditional SANs that are as much as 20 times more expensive, or continually purchasing additional storage capacity.

Exanodes VM Edition is available through solution providers in Seanodes’ network of channel partners.

mindSHIFT Debuts Virtualization-As-A-Service Solution

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mindSHIFT Technologies, a provider of premier IT infrastructure and software services for small and medium-sized organizations, today announced its virtualization-as-a service solution, which provides deployment, management and support for virtualized server architectures as well as a comprehensive data replication capability for disaster recovery (DR).

mindSHIFT’s Server Virtualization Service is unique among virtualization offerings because it combines all the hardware, software and management costs of servers and DR into one single, predictable monthly fee. In contrast, other virtualization services require capital expenditures for the DR solution — either a software license or the more expensive establishment of a secondary redundant site. mindSHIFT’s virtualization-as-a-service provides not only virtual server management but the added bonus of DR — all bundled into a single, predictable monthly fee.

For DR, the mindSHIFT Server Virtualization Service incorporates CA XOsoft(TM) Replication to create a cost-effective, comprehensive and transparent data replication solution that replicates the data on primary production servers to one or more servers located in mindSHIFT’s data center. This automatic, secure data replication is one of the solutions in mindSHIFT’s comprehensive suite of disaster recovery solutions, which includes online backup of desktops and servers as well as redundant network components and connectivity.

With mindSHIFT’s virtualization-as-a-service, customers have the option of an on-premise solution built to address their specific business requirements designed by mindSHIFT’s VMware- and Microsoft-certified engineers, or a solution built in our fully hosted environment in a top-tier data center, which eliminates the upfront costs of software and hardware.

mindSHIFT’s Server Virtualization Service based on VMware is available immediately. A Microsoft Hyper-V-based service is expected to be announced next year.

mindSHIFT is certified as a VMware Enterprise Partner, Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, BlackBerry Alliance Member, Cisco Premier Certified Partner, Dell Certified Partner, HP Business Partner and IBM Business Partner.

NetQoS Expands Partnerships Globally

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NetQoS has expanded its global reseller and system integrator network with new partnerships in Africa, the Middle East, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Latin America. Combined with a dedicated NetQoS international sales team, the partnerships will help NetQoS build and support its growing global client base with products and services that enable large organizations to optimize their networks for application performance.

In Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America, NetQoS is working with MICROmega Technologies (MMT), based in Johannesburg, South Africa. MMT will help NetQoS expand its regional presence through an established network of Cisco Gold Partners and the expertise to deploy and integrate the NetQoS Performance Center in customer environments.

NetQoS is also expanding its presence in Asia Pacific through a strategic partnership with NetFrontier. Working closely with NetFrontier, NetQoS will build on its success in the region by helping companies in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan improve network performance and application delivery.

In addition to new partnerships in emerging markets, NetQoS has expanded its European sales efforts recently with new partnerships in France, Sweden, and the UK. NetQoS complements its reseller network with direct sales staff in the UK, Germany, and Singapore. During the first half of 2008, NetQoS increased EMEA revenues 160 percent year-over-year.

Virtual Bridges Adds VERDE To Win4VDI Product Family

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Virtual Bridges, a provider of desktop and enterprise virtualization solutions for education and business, announced today the release of a new product in its Win4VDI family. Virtual Bridges’ VERDE (Virtual Enterprise Remote Desktop Environment) is a platform for consolidating Linux desktops on x86-based Linux and Solaris servers.

VERDE uses ordinary thin clients for end-points. Organizations benefit from reduced energy consumption, fewer points of failure, and increased security when compared to traditional desktop environments. The VERDE stack further facilitates desktop management through the use of powerful virtual machine technology.

Through Virtual Bridges’ work on virtual desktop computing with hundreds of thousands of users, the company has crafted a product that delivers all of the core features a typical organization would require to accomplish their IT goals. Features like automatic local printing, one-click Windows installation, the ability to integrate with Active Directory, availability of web display or third-party display options, use of write-protected Windows system images for true malware resistance, and integration of RDP support, are just some of the features that combine to put Win4VDI in the lead of the desktop virtualization and consolidation market.

Win4VDI, Virtual Bridges’ Educational/SMB and enterprise product, allows an organization to easily and cost-effectively deliver multiple Windows desktop sessions to PCs, Workstations and thin clients from a non-Windows server such as Linux and Solaris OS.

Maintaining and upgrading desktop computers physically distributed across an organization is a difficult and slow process that is also not effective for users who find themselves with aging computers with degraded performance.  VERDE offers IT organizations the ability to easily deploy “desktop as a service” across the organization for both fixed-function as well as custom desktop users, all from a central location, reducing the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of desktop computing.

VERDE allows organizations to standardize the application environment to users regardless of desktop hardware and operating system – Windows, UNIX, Linux or Mac can be used on the client, but a common application profile can be created and served from VERDE server configurations such as blade servers, rack arrays or large multi-way machines.

The VERDE product is available immediately.

Industry Moves: Rashied Akrum And Carina Rozendaal Join InstallFree

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InstallFree today announced that long time Application and Desktop Virtualization veterans Rashied Akrum and Carina Rozendaal will join InstallFree as the Vice President EMEA and Senior Director of Sales & Marketing EMEA respectively.

Both Akrum and Rozendaal bring a tremendous amount of experience to InstallFree, having previously worked at Microsoft through the acquisition of Softricity  in July 2006. Prior to the acquisition, they established and ran the EMEA Headquarters for Softricity for 4 years and were instrumental in creating the Application and Desktop Virtualization market in EMEA while developing a strong channel presence.
Akrum has over 21 years experience in IT leadership roles and has been successful in building European channels for new emerging IT technologies. He has extensive experience in sales, marketing, technical and management positions in software infrastructure and virtualization technologies including Softricity, Citrix, Terminal Server and MS Virtualization.
Rozendaal is a long time software virtualization pioneer having worked at Microsoft and established the EMEA market for Softricity with Akrum. She has extensive experience in the areas of sales, business development and marketing within infrastructure and virtualization technologies like Softricity, Citrix and Terminal Server. Rozendaal also brings her experience in channels in emerging technologies across Europe, Middle East & Africa with companies like CDG Europe, ASG Europe and Racal-Datacom.

Matrox Announces Multi-Monitor Support for Desktop Virtualization Environments using Citrix ICA and/or Microsoft RDP Protocols

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Matrox Graphics announces that Remote PowerDesk and Remote PowerSpace software are now supported with Matrox P690 Series graphics cards, in addition to the already supported Matrox Epica Series. These multi-display software suites provide extensive desktop management capabilities to improve the user experience with multi-monitor desktops hosted virtually using Microsoft RDP or Citrix ICA protocols.

Previously only available with Epica cards, Remote PowerDesk and Remote PowerSpace provide users of any remote platform with P690 add-in cards a vastly improved remote multi-display user experience. Advanced desktop management features such as Desktop Divider, window maximization to a single screen, window position recall, and virtual workspaces allow users to customize application behavior across multiple monitors.

Best-of-breed 2D image quality, unified drivers, and maximum power consumption ranging between 10W and 12W makes the P690 Series ideal for use in green computing environments, thin clients, fat clients (desktops), and docking stations.

Matrox P690 Series graphics cards are available immediately through their authorized resellers worldwide. Remote PowerDesk and Remote PowerSpace are available free of charge for Epica or P690 customers.