Virtualization.com

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

VKernel Sets Up Worldwide Reseller Channel

by 1 Comment

VKernel yesterday announced (PDF) the launch of its Global Channel Partner Program for value-added resellers (VARs), systems integrators, and consulting firms.

VKernel

Additionally, VKernel hired Bill Brown as its director of channel sales to build and manage the new partner program. Mr. Brown joins VKernel from Acronis where he was the channel manager for the U.S. East Coast and Canada.

“The rapid growth of the server virtualization market is creating a new lucrative market for systems management solutions to real-world virtual data center issues. Traditional management tools in the physical environment simply cannot address issues in the virtual environment,” said Alex Bakman, founder and CEO of VKernel. “Our growing partner lineup is already reaping the benefits of our unique approach to systems management by offering a suite of virtual appliances that are designed to eliminate complexity, quickly solve problems, and immediately deliver value to their customers.”

“VKernel’s sales strategy is channel exclusive and we are dedicated to making our partners successful,” said Bill Brown, director of channel sales at VKernel. “The virtualization eco-system is currently evolving to include critical management solutions that partners need to fuel their growth and take advantage of a great market opportunity. It is our goal to have VKernel solutions included in each of our partner’s virtualization eco-system offerings.”

[Source: VMblog]

Which Technology Is Cooking In The VMware Kitchen?

by Leave a Comment

In a blog post aptly titled ‘Phwaar’, VMware System Engineer Andrew DugDell reveals absolutely nothing about a new technology that’s internally available, but makes us darn curious in the process.

Dugie writes:

“I’m a bit excited, infact I’m a lot excited. I saw an email today, and then it all hit home. The email was from one of the product teams announcing internal availability of a new technology. It’s one of the technologies that really make me go “phwaar“. (And I thought it was phwaar even before my life here at VMware) — and the phwaar is getting closer, every day.”

…

“It’s kind of like Christmas. You know it’s coming; you can expect [it] all year long, but it’s not until the Christmas decorations go up and the presents start arriving under the tree, that it really sinks in. Then once it arrives, it’s a flurry of wrapping paper, and eagerness, and, and …well you know the rest of the story. Anyway. It’s such a such a simple, (some might mistake it as almost trivial) technology, but it’s so fundamentally exciting that it will change the rules of “traditional computing” [again] completely.”

Anyone have any idea on what gets the man so excited?

VMware’s Financial Results For Q1 Are In, 69 Percent Revenue Increase Beats Wall Street Expectations

by Leave a Comment

VMware today announced financial results for the first quarter of 2008:

  • Revenues for the first quarter were $438 million, an increase of 69% compared to the first quarter of 2007. (Analysts were expecting a top line of $422.4 million, according to Thomson Financial.)
  • GAAP operating income for the first quarter was $48 million, compared to $46 million in the first quarter of 2007. Non-GAAP operating income was $106 million, an increase of 62% over the year-ago quarter.
  • GAAP net income for the quarter was $43 million, or $0.11 per diluted share, compared to $41 million, or $0.12 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Non-GAAP net income for the quarter was $88 million, or $0.22 per diluted share, compared to $0.16 a year ago.

From the press release:

First-quarter U.S. revenues grew 65% compared to the year-ago quarter on increased demand from large enterprises standardizing on the VMware platform and an increase in the number of smaller transactions delivered through VMware channel partners. International revenues, which increased 74%, were driven in part by triple-digit business growth across Australia and emerging markets including Brazil, China, India and Russia.

Software license revenue grew 73% compared to the same period last year to $294 million and service revenue, including support, subscription and professional services, increased 62% to $144 million.

As for the financial outlook:

  • VMware continues to expect 2008 revenue growth of approximately 50% compared to 2007.
  • Second quarter 2008 revenues are expected to increase approximately 55% compared to the second quarter of 2007.

The stock was up $1.95, or 3.5%, to $58.02 in after-hours trading.

“Our product suite has a very high return on investment,” Greene said. “That puts us in a very good position for getting wallet share as the economy gets a little more uncertain.” Large deals, valued at $1 million and up, made up 20% of bookings during the quarter, Greene said in an interview.

Total bookings were not disclosed.

[Source: TheStreet]

Raptor Networks And Pirelli Successfully Complete Chassis Virtualization Testing

by Leave a Comment

Raptor Networks Technology today announced the successful completion of interoperability testing and chassis virtualization testing over distance with Pirelli’s City+ CWDM & DWDM Multiservice platform (PDF). Joint demonstrations of both companies’ technologies are planned for the upcoming Networld Interop Show in Las Vegas from April 22 – May 2, 2008.

Raptor Networks

“We are pleased to collaborate with Raptor Networks to bring to market the value of the first distributed core switching combined with the optical bandwidth efficiency of the Pirelli City+ carrier-class system,” added Pierluigi Franco, senior vice president, Sales & Marketing for Systems at PGT Photonics (a daughter company to Pirelli).

Microsoft Puts Forth System Management As Key Differentiator In Virtualization Technology

by Leave a Comment

Microsoft is targeting system management as a way to differentiate itself from competitors in the virtualization market, the company reportedly stated today, as reported by PC World.

Microsoft

Anticipating that the market for virtualization software, such as Microsoft’s Hyper-V, eventually will be commoditized, the company sees management as the key revenue opportunity for competitors offering server virtualization, said Windows Enterprise and Management Division General Manager Larry Orecklin, speaking to reporters on Microsoft’s campus Tuesday.

Microsoft is apparently so keen on making management the corner stone of its virtualization strategy that it plans to open up management for other virtualization platforms, such as VMware and XenSource, with its System center Virtual Machine Manager tool, which it released last September.

Also interesting to note:

Microsoft plans to outline its virtualization strategy further at its Microsoft Management Summit next week, said Orecklin, who suggested Tuesday that a beta of Virtual Machine Manager with support for Hyper-V and VMware ESX also will be available at that time.

[Source: PC World]

Red Hat Embraces AMD Virtualization Capabilities In HP Servers

by Leave a Comment

Red Hat today announced its support for virtualization capabilities offered by AMD processors in new HP servers.

Red Hat

The company’s Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1 platform supports AMD’s Rapid Virtualization Indexing technology, for more efficient use of memory management on Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors. HP is now offering systems equipped with these processors in its HP ProLiant DL585 G5 servers, Red Hat said. Also, support for virtual guests configured with more than four CPUs has now been added.

“Red Hat and AMD have worked very closely with the open source community to ensure that full support for Rapid Virtualization Indexing is available with the first Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor-based systems to be offered by a leading hardware OEM,” said Earl Stahl, vice president, Software Development at AMD. “We’ve been able to ensure that customers can reap the benefits of this new virtualization technology right away. We have been delighted with the excellent performance that Red Hat Enterprise Linux has achieved. Red Hat, AMD and HP customers now have available one of the fastest and most scalable virtualization platforms on the market today.”

“Red Hat also is offering para-virtualized device drivers to make I/O workloads in virtual guests perform close to the bare-metal performance of the system”, said Doug Shakshober, senior consulting engineer at Red Hat.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1 has been shipping since November 2007.

[Source: Test Center Daily]