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

Forbes Interviews Paul Maritz

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Forbes interviewed newly appointed VMware CEO and Microsoft vet Paul Maritz after last night’s earnings call. To read the full interview, click here. This is the most interesting excerpt as far as we’re concerned:

Microsoft’s Hyper-V hypervisor, software that separates hardware from operating systems and applications inside computer servers, is virtually free. How do you plan to compete with that?

We don’t see the need to lower our price points. But that said, we created lower price SKUs for our customers.

Hyper V is really just one layer and it corresponds to our ESXi. Our customers no longer pay for that. What they pay us for is the software that sits on top of that. Microsoft is not there yet. They don’t have the virtual infrastructure suite that we have.

What strategies from Microsoft will you use at VMware?

When you reach the size that VMware’s reached, in order to capitalize on opportunities, you have to be able to operate on multiple fronts. Find elements [that have made VMware successful], reinforce them and fill in with other tactics and tools. Create the ability to have empowered teams that can execute on multiple fronts. They just need to take their game up to the next level. I spent five years at Intel before Microsoft. I’m well schooled in Andy Grove’s doctrine that only the paranoid survive.

Seanodes Raises $2.4 Million From OSEO

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Seanodes, developer of what they call “Shared Internal Storage solutions”, today announced it has received about $2.4 million in funding from OSEO, France’s national agency for industrial innovation, in the form of a no-interest loan to support ongoing technology development and company growth.

“This additional funding will help to reinforce our R&D team and investments enabling us to accelerate the porting of our solution on VMware and Microsoft’s platforms,” said Christophe Guittenit, CTO of Seanodes.

Exanodes, the Seanodes software platform, allows virtualized infrastructure applications to marry unused disk space found in many server and storage clusters with existing or additional dedicated storage hardware to provide a powerful shared storage pool. Exanodes abstracts the storage layer from the physical devices enabling users to select the hardware and connectivity options that best suit their environment, today and tomorrow.

Seanodes

Verari Systems Claims Blade-Based Solution Doubles VMware Efficiency

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Verari Systems, developer of data center consolidation platforms utilizing blade-based computing and storage solutions, today announced that the Verari Systems’ VB1257 VMware ESX 3.5 certified blade – gasp -delivers twice the number of VMware virtual machines per blade than similar competitive blade offerings while consuming 50% less power.

On a per VMware image basis, the company claims the VB1257 for the BladeRack 2 XL (BR2-XL) platform provides better total cost of ownership than any competing blade server products. VMware provides TAP program members with tools to develop products that are complementary to VMware virtualization software and help deliver high-value solutions to our joint customers.

Verari Systems’ capability to run twice the number of virtual machines per blade provides organizations with compelling benefits including less capital expense through the reduction in the number of servers and the associated ongoing operational and environmental costs such as power, cooling, floor space utilization and management.

The VMware virtualization power of the VB1257 for the BR2-XL means users can combine up to 16 physical machines on to just one blade server, twice as many as competitive blade offerings while requiring only half the power of their offerings – reducing capital expenditure and operational costs by more than 50%. By doubling the number of VMware virtual machines to 16 VMs per blade, the VB1257 solution results in a cost savings of over $40,000 per year in power operational expense and equates to cutting 56,000 kilowatt hours, or approximately 32 tons of CO2 emissions, every year.

Avnet Launches VirtualPath University

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Avnet Technology Solutions, an operating group of Avnet, announced a dedicated training program called VirtualPath University for value-added resellers in the United States. Based on Avnet’s HealthPath University and GovPath University programs, VirtualPath University provides partners with virtualization market understanding, knowledge, technology drivers and tools.

VirtualPath University is designed to shorten the ramp-up time for partners to develop virtualization practices and help them quickly begin generating demand for their expertise. The three-day training program educates partners on:

  • The fundamentals of understanding virtualization and its place in the market
  • Business trends affecting the IT marketplace
  • How virtualization solutions fit into the IT fabric of companies
  • The features and compelling business benefits of virtualization solutions
  • Aligning virtualization solutions with business challenges and pain points

The class work will be supported by a step-by-step interactive toolkit. This toolkit outlines each component of the virtualization sales cycle and includes resource information on how to execute more effectively on the workshop concepts.

VirtualPath University is one of many resources available through Avnet’s VirtualPath Practice, a portfolio of services, programs, technology, and tools designed to provide partners with the resources needed to succeed in virtualization and consolidation.

The first VirtualPath University class is scheduled for September 8-10 in Roseland, N.J.

Reflex Security Introduces Reflex Virtual Security Center

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Reflex Security, a virtualization security management company, today announced the availability of Reflex Virtual Security Center (VSC), which aims to provide heightened visibility and control for virtualized environments. Reflex VSC provides a single authoritative visual interface to secure the virtual data center.

According to the company, its solution is the industry’s first to take the approach that without the ability to visualize both the logical and physical elements of the virtual infrastructure, effective and efficient security cannot be achieved. Reflex VSC increases the visibility of an organization’s virtual infrastructure so it can be properly secured, enabling organizations to align virtualization security solutions with real business objectives.
Reflex VSC invokes best practice methodology by first discovering the entire virtual environment to determine the security controls needed to fully secure the infrastructure with Reflex VSA. This approach dramatically simplifies and automates the security of VMs, while reducing the potential for improper configurations.
Recognizing customer need for cross-functional centralized security controls for their virtual infrastructure, Reflex VSC harnesses the power of virtualization to simplify and automate routine activities such as security deployment, policy configuration, and event correlation and reporting. With Reflex VSC, operations and security teams have a single authoritative visual interface to administer, secure, and monitor the dynamic virtual infrastructure. This results in better network and event visibility for a faster and more effective security response. Through extensive real-time and historical visual reporting, Reflex VSC gives administrators the tools they need to efficiently meet stringent compliance requirements.
Through the combination of visibility and revision control provided by Reflex VSC, Reflex VSA has been enhanced, giving administrators the insight required to understand, monitor and secure dynamic virtual environments. The combined functionality provides a broader view of virtual infrastructure which can stop threats earlier on in the environment. Together, Reflex VSA and VSC provide the ability to view alerts and events in context to the virtual infrastructure.
Reflex VSC is available now and is included in the purchase of Reflex VSA.
[Source: Marketwatch]

Diane Greene’s Potential Payout Nearly $50 Million USD

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Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know Diane Greene was recently abruptly ousted from the top spot at the very company she co-founded, VMware.

Greene, 52, had been CEO of the company since she helped start it in 1998 along with 4 others, including husband and current Chief Scientist Mendel Rosenblum. Her salary, according to a July 2007 employment agreement, was $750,000. Her salary in 2007 was $583,333 and her total compensation for the year was $8.6 million.

Another interesting caveat: according to VMware’s proxy statement, Greene could be paid a bonus of $491,678 and her stock options may vest early, which could increase the value of her potential payout to $47.5 million or even more.

[Source: SF Business Times]

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