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App-V, The “Microsoft Application Virtualization” Formerly Known As “SoftGrid”

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Microsoft Application Virtualization, the name the software giant has given the app virtualization solution it acquired when it bought Softricity back in 2006, got a new calling name today to match the Hyper-V branding: App-V (instead of SoftGrid).

From the SoftGrid App-V blog:

“Really it only matters to you because from now on we’re going to do our best to stop calling this product SoftGrid and start calling it App-V. Or Microsoft Application Virtualization if we’re feeling formal. This blog will eventually go from being the SoftGrid blog to the App-V blog, the SoftGrid forums will probably become the App-V forums, etc. and I want to make sure all of you are ahead of the curve just so there’s no confusion when you start seeing this name thrown around more and more over time.”

On a sidenote: looking for App-V references, we also found out a German snatched away the app-v.com domain name a few days ago.

[Source: ThinComputing.net]

VMware Releases Stage Manager 1.0

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Almost a month after its original due date, VMware has released Stage Manager 1.0.

From the news release:

With VMware Stage Manager pre-production server sprawl, configuration drift and failed or delayed production releases are a thing of the past. VMware Stage Manager allows IT operations, service administrators and application owners to:

  • Visualize services, system configurations and release processes
  • Transition applications across the stages of the release process with a single mouse click
  • Accelerate the completion of change requests to production systems
  • Reduce server sprawl and resource requirements in pre-production
  • Enforce IT policies and regulatory compliance
  • Create and deploy clones of production systems for patch testing
  • Archive and restore any environment at any stage for auditing purposes.

Download the data sheet (PDF) for more information or try it for yourself by downloading an evaluation copy of VMware Stage Manager.

[Source: Virtual Enthusiasm]

Scalent Systems Releases Scalent V/OE 2.5

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Scalent Systems today announced general availability of Scalent V/OE version 2.5, with enhanced workload and image portability functionality. Scalent claims to be the first company to deliver portability of Windows and Linux server images and associated provisioning of network connectivity & storage access across virtual andphysical machines in real time, without costly and time-consuming conversions.

Scalent Systems

With Scalent V/OE, IT organizations can dynamically provision for average demand and shift available resources as needed, in real time, to match business needs. Specific business systems can be redeployed as dictated by business priorities, time of day, or other policy-based criteria – so less hardware, software, and other resources are needed.

“Our customers consistently reduce their server populations by over 50% without sacrificing performance,” said Ben Linder, CEO of Scalent Systems. “Scalent V/OE allows IT organizations to extend the benefits of virtualization by rapidly provisioning servers, network, and storage at the physical level to quickly react to changing business needs.”

Wind River Releases Proprietary Hypervisor For Hardware Virtualization

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Wind River Systems, the California, US-based provider of Device Software Optimization (DSO), today introduced a multicore software solution for device development, which aims to help companies solve complex business challenges by taking advantage of multicore processing and virtualization.

Wind River Systems

In connection with today’s announcement, Wind River announced that it will introduce a scalable hypervisor that aims to enable virtualization for devices across a broad range of vertical markets, including networking, industrial and consumer devices. The ability to virtualize hardware allows multiple operating environments to share underlying processing cores, memory and other hardware resources.

Wind River’s hypervisor will incorporate the same design practices and technology that Wind River uses for its products, such as Multiple Independent Levels of Security (MILS). The hypervisor will be tightly integrated with VxWorks and Wind River Linux, and can support a variety of other operating systems. It will be available for early access in August 2008.

VirtenSys and Neterion Demonstrate PCI Express Based I/O Virtualization Utilizing Standard 10Gb Ethernet I/O Adapter

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VirtenSys has developed the first PCI Express based I/O technology that virtualizes and shares I/O adapters among multiple physical servers without the need for adapter, device driver, or server modifications. The press release touts VirtenSys’ PCI Express I/O virtualization products to dramatically improve I/O utilization to greater than 80 percent; enhance throughput, and reduce I/O cost and power consumption by as much as 50 percent.

Neterion

VirtenSys

As a part of the VirtenSys go-to-market strategy, the company is demonstrating its technology to a number of server and storage Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and System Integrators (SIs). Later this year, VirtenSys aims to launch products that virtualize and share off-the-shelf Ethernet, Fibre Channel, and SAS/SATA PCI Express based I/O adapters. The products will be available in both rack-mount and blade server form factors.

VirtenSys collaborated with Neterion to provide virtualized 10GbE connectivity. VirtenSys developed, tested, and validated its virtualized I/O technology using the Neterion 10GbE Xframe E adapter. The two companies are working to speed the adoption of I/O virtualization.

Andrew Kutz Upgrades VMware Infrastructure Plug-in SVmotion

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Andrew Kutz, author, developer and one of the leading experts on x86 server virtualization, has released version 1.0 of his populair VI plug-in SVmotion. The plug-in is available at SourceForge and includes new features like:

  • No longer counts RDM files against datastore size, fixing the bug that plagued the last version.
  • SVMotion operations against templates are not supported since VMware does not support them.
  • Added tool tips that explain why a relocation cannot take place
  • Automatically registers itself upon installation so you don’t have to enable it inside the VI client.
  • All SVMotion events write out a log, enabling better understanding of what went wrong in case of an error.
  • Aside from the library that loads the plug-in, all of VMware’s internal code has been replaced with the VI Toolkit for .NET.
  • The project is now supported by almost 20 unit tests, helping to ensure fewer bugs and greater stability.
  • The unit tests can be expanded to include testing for a system-resource supported number of servers since they use mock testing designed to work with the VI Toolkit for .NET.
  • The project is now built using NAnt, which allows nightly builds of the source, creates distributions, and builds the MSI installer.

SVmotion

Update: also read this Virtualization Admin article, and Andrew’s comment on this post.

[Source: VMBlog]