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StackSafe Upgrades Test Center

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StackSafe, a provider of pre-production staging and testing solutions for IT Operations teams, announced today the external infrastructure connectivity upgrade to its staging and testing solution, StackSafe Test Center, which it recently unveiled at the DEMO 2008 Conference.

StackSafe

The solution creates a virtual copy of the software infrastructure, and thanks to this upgrade, the virtualized Test Center environment can now be extended to interact with non-virtualized system components that reside outside of the Test Center environment.

“Virtualization technology offers the potential to deliver time-stressed, resource-thin IT operations staff a low risk way to test and assess the impact of making changes to the IT production environment,” commented Richard Ptak, Founder and Analyst, Ptak Noel & Associates. “StackSafe’s Test Center provides a validation environment that resolves a number of existing application deployment issues.”

According to the company, complex software infrastructure environments may include components that cannot be virtualized into StackSafe Test Center. These include physical storage tiers, large databases, hardware-based network topologies, or distributed components not owned by the IT Operations team. By enabling the inclusion of these components in the test scenarios, users can now have a more complete view of the impact of changes across the entire end-to end IT service.

The addition of external infrastructure connectivity adds the following features:

  • Enabling inbound connectivity from external infrastructure components and services into Test Center
  • Enabling outbound connectivity from Test Center to external infrastructure components and services
  • Customized control of connectivity options

As part of StackSafe Test Center’s subscription licensing model, the updated release of Test Center is generally available to current Test Center users at no charge.

Catbird Delivers Virtual Infrastructure Security Assessment

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Catbird, virtualization security specialist and developer of the V-Agent virtual appliance, announced (PDF) today the industry’s “first and only” Virtual Infrastructure Security Assessment (VSA).

Catbird

Catbird’s VSA helps IT administrators identify and close the potential gaps in security and compliance created in the move from “P to V”. The 30-day assessment includes a security analysis, reports with actionable intelligence and a plan to mitigate risk and protect critical virtual systems, networks, desktops and processes.

The VSA aims to identify the scope and magnitude of the virtualization compliance gap through qualitative and quantitative analysis of the new architecture’s impact on change control, separation of duties, network visibility and segmentation, and secondary validation.

Catbird’s V-Security assessment starts by establishing a scope based on existing controls and best-practices on the physical infrastructure. Once the scope is defined, the team deploys Catbird’s V-Security to passively monitor the networks and check specific assets identified in the scope of work.

Catbird VSA clients receive their first report within 24 hours of setup. For the next four weeks, Catbird’s V-Security monitors and tests all network segments for gaps in security, integrity, management control, configuration and availability. Daily dashboard reports provide snapshots of the test results, which are then aggregated into a comprehensive report presented in an actions workshop by the assessment team. The final report identifies compliance and protection gaps, and contains explicit recommendations based on common best security practices to immediately correct each identified issue.

Catbird’s Virtual Infrastructure Security Assessment is delivered through its partners.

Ceedo Debuts Enterprise-Class Application Virtualization Solution

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Ceedo today launched Ceedo Enterprise, which allows IT administrators to create, deploy and remotely manage desktop workspace environments enabling a number of scenarios including: application portability, remote management, business continuity, and disaster recovery.

Ceedo

Ceedo’s technology, which the company claims has already been deployed on over four million devices worldwide, uses virtualization to generalize the installation process of standard Windows applications without requiring packaging. Ceedo Enterprise includes a Setup Virtualization Engine which uses the original standard setup files of an application to automatically perform the virtualization process.

Ceedo Enterprise

According to the company, deploying Ceedo to enterprise notebooks and desktops enables IT administrators to manage enterprise applications instantaneously and remotely — even install new software and update user files. Installing Ceedo to a USB device enables installed applications to work together and become portable for use on any Windows PC. Ceedo can be deployed from a Web server enabling a complete working application workspace to be delivered to employees or contractors in field.

Ceedo Enterprise Clients are $89 per seat perpetual license, although the company also announced that discounts are available for large volume purchases.

[Source: Marketwire]

Virtual Iron And 2X Hook Up For Strategic Alliance

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2X, provider of Thin Client and Server Based Computing Software, and Virtual Iron have announced a strategic alliance to provide a complete Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and Application Publishing Solution.

Virtual Iron

2X

The 2X / Virtual Iron virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solution hosts individual Windows desktop PCs inside virtual machines running on servers in the data center. According to the join press release, this thin-client architecture is significantly easier to secure, maintain and support and it enables an organization’s complete Windows desktop environment to be securely accessed and serviced centrally.

The joint solution enables a fully isolated, customizable and secure environment where users are able to work with standard desktop operating systems and applications. Virtual desktops can be user-customized and provisioned on demand instantly, providing performance and user experience that are comparable to a desktop personal computer. This allows enterprises to replace physical desktops with virtual desktops for many usage scenarios such as call centers, offshore development, and secure, remote access.

[Source: Marketwire]

Fortisphere Joins Microsoft Startup Accelerator Program

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Fortisphere, a provider of policy-based virtualization management software, today announced that it has been selected to join the Microsoft Startup Accelerator Program. As a member of the program, Fortisphere will receive customized Microsoft support for its software development initiatives and increased access to internal Microsoft resources, ensuring that its policy-based virtualization management solutions are compatible with Microsoft virtualization platforms—including the upcoming release of Hyper-V.

Fortisphere

The Microsoft Startup Accelerator Program is designed to connect high-potential startups committed to the Microsoft platform to an extensive support network that provides access to Microsoft people and programs, guidance on future directions and support to accelerate their success. Fortisphere has also been named a Microsoft Certified Partner.

“Membership in the Microsoft Startup Accelerator Program will deepen our relationship with Microsoft and provide us with more access to its virtualization technology,” said Michael Harper, president and CEO, Fortisphere. “Organizations are deploying heterogeneous virtual infrastructures to take full advantage of the cost-saving benefits of virtualization. Fortisphere provides the tools required to more efficiently manage heterogeneous virtual environments and ensure smart virtualization growth.”

Credit Suisse Enters Virtual Infrastructure Management Software Market With DynamicOps

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Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse Group launched a new spin-out today, aimed at taking an internally developed virtualization management platform to a commercial market.

Credit Suisse

The new company, DynamicOps, is being funded by an undisclosed amount of capital from Credit Suisse’s Next II venture group. Rich Krueger, a former executive at local storage virtualization equipment maker Incipient and CEO of DynamicOps, said the company is being operated “like a venture-backed firm” and that the amount of the funding is “substantial.”

The company’s virtual management product was originally developed internally by Credit Suisse’s Global Research and Development Group in 2005, after the company couldn’t find an external product to manage the firm’s growing virtualization infrastructure, officials said. The company has since rolled the product out to a variety of divisions across the company.

The company’s first product is focused on virtual desktops and server environment, but according to Krueger, who has also had stints at EMC, the firm will eventually move into other network layers, including storage.

Krueger said the 15-employee firm is in the process of building customer relationships with several firms but declined to name specific companies. Industries of focus, he said, include shipping and public utilities.

[Source: Mass High Tech]