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Ottawa Linux Symposium Issues CFP For Mini Summit on Virtualization

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The Ottawa Linux Symposium today announced its Mini Summits that will be taking place on the Tuesday before the actual Symposium. One of these summits is the “Virtualization Technology & Management” Mini Summit which has just issued a Call for Presentations.

There will be two types of presentations

  • Full Presentations: These presentations will consume an entire 40 minute time slot. It is suggested that the presentation be planned for 25-30 minutes which will allow for a 10-15 minute period of dicussions with the audience.
  • Lightning talks: These talks will be scheduled for 5 minutes.

    • And the suggested topics are :

    Virtualization Technology: Review and/or provide deep insight into the fundamentals of specific virtualization technologies. Exploration of project development opportunities. Discussion of ideas to improve the technologies.

    Layered Tools and New Opportunities: How can virtualized environments be made manageable? What’s worked and not worked in the past? What new ideas are cropping up?

    Virtualization Deployment Experiences: What’s the “Good, the Bad and the Ugly”? What has gone right? What has gone wrong? What are end users’ thoughts about the whole experience? Are folks meeting goals and saving money overall? What are the unexpected benefits?

    Meet us there!

    Linux Kernel 2.6.25 Released, KVM x86 Emulator Updated

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    Linus Torvalds has released the latest version of the “stable” Linux kernel, version 2.6.25, which includes changes to Wi-Fi support, virtualization, real-time scheduling and file systems.

    The kernel, which was released approximately 10 weeks after its predecessor, includes an updated KVM x86 emulator with more instructions and components, designed to improve performance and compatibility. Virtual prototyping platforms framework Virtio has also been updated, while paravirt_ops now works on the x86-64 architecture.

    [Source: ZDnet Australia]

    Blue Lane Releases VirtualShield 4.2

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    Blue Lane Technologies today announced the general availability of VirtualShield 4.2, which it claims to be the first virtualization security solution to include inter-VM flow analytics and enforcement, application-aware partitioning (VMwall), and a robust set of application, protocol and vulnerability security policy controls.

    VirtualShield

    These capabilities in the latest release of VirtualShield, enhanced by VMware VirtualCenter integration, allow Blue Lane’s layer 7 architecture to apply granular application/protocol/port-based policy enforcement on the flows between VMs. According to the press release, VirtualShield’s accuracy, comprehensive protection and minimal processing requirements make it the first IPS capable of protecting virtualized production data centers from network-based attacks.

    VirtualShield 4.2 includes:

    • Advanced flow analytics and policy enforcement by cluster, host, VM, data center, OS, application or protocol;
    • VMwall – Blue Lane’s Integrated application-aware firewall enforcement by cluster, host, VM, data center, OS, application or protocol;
    • A rich array of inbound/outbound application policy controls for intra-flow policy;
    • Protocol integrity check for aligning ports with appropriate protocols and services; and
    • A vulnerability policy framework to proactively protect VMs from attacks like SQL injections, cross-site scripting and http smuggling.

    Blue Lane VirtualShield 4.2 will be available May 15. Current VirtualShield customers will receive the upgrade as part of their support plan.

    VMware Publishes An Official Guide For Creating VI Client Plugins

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    VMware has shown a great deal of commitment by publishing an official (yet experimental) guide to creating VI Client plugins.

    “With the release of VirtualCenter 2.5, VMware offers third-party developers and partners the ability to extend the VMware Infrastructure Client (VI Client) with their own product-specific menu selections or toolbar icons that provide access to external, Web-based functionality. These extensions, or VI Client Plug-ins, comprise the set of configuration files, URLs, icons, and Web-server-hosted resources that work together to display extended menu items, icons, and other user interface (UI) items in the VI Client and provide access to the external functionality.”

    In related news, Andrew Kutz (who also posted his thoughts about the guide and how it relates his own unofficial guide) is publishing a book with O’Reilly on “Programming and Managing VMware Infrastructure“.

    Parallels Sells 1 Million Copies of Parallels Desktop, Says Apple Should Be Thankful

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    Next Wednesday, Parallels will announce that it has sold the 1 millionth copy of Parallels Desktop for Mac. In one breath, they’re linking this number to the global Apple Mac market share, which has climbed from approximately 3% to nearly 7% in just under two years since Parallels Desktop for Mac was released.

    Parallels

    Coincidence? We don’t think so. Parallels Desktop for Mac has basically eliminated the wall that previously existed between PCs and Macs. Now, everyone who wants a Mac can buy one without compromise and still run all their favorite Windows applications — something to keep in mind as Apple prepares to release quarterly results on Wednesday.

    “Parallels Desktop not only broke down the barrier between the Mac and PC worlds, it also broke down the barrier that kept desktop virtualization from becoming a mainstream technology for consumers and professional users,” said Serguei Beloussov, CEO of Parallels. “We will continue innovating to extend our position as the desktop virtualization leader and provide our users with the fastest, easiest and most seamless solution available.”

    Marketing Director Ben Rudolph told us at VMworld Europe that they were nearing 900 000 sold copies just 2 months ago (video interview here, around the 1:15 mark), which means their sales should average about 50 000 units per month.

    Impressive sales figures, indeed. But linking these results publicly with Apple’s growing market share (coincidentally, right before Apple intends to release its quarterly results) is nothing but a bold statement that can hardly be proved by factual evidence.

    Maybe Parallels is actually fishing for an acquisition by Steve Jobs himself? 🙂

    VMware Certified Professionals Come At A Price

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    Excellent idea by Joe Foran over on the Server Virtualization blog: he took a look at the salary demands for VCPs 6 months ago according to job search aggregators Indeed and ITjobswatch.co.uk and has now analyzed the evolution of the salary demands today. Here’s how they stack up:

    October 2007

    April 2008

    From Joe Foran’s post:

    Since I last covered this topic, the following shifts occured:

    • The VCP gained $3,000
    • The A+ climbed $6,000
    • Network+ declined $1,000
    • MCP gained $1,000
    • MCSE gained $2,000
    • CCA lost $2,000
    • CCEA picked up $2,000
    • RHCT picked up $3,000
    • RHCE picked up$2,000
    • RHCA lost $1,000

    The big gain in VCP salaries over a period of less than six months shows that this technology is still very much an in-demand skill set and a hot certification to show off. It’s a new year and salaries did jump overall, so this is reflected in the data.

    Full post here.