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

Infinera Launches Bandwidth Virtualization

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Infinera Corporation has launched Bandwidth Virtualization to “meet the needs of the Internet for a faster, more responsive Internet today and in the future. Implemented using an Infinera Digital Optical Network, Bandwidth Virtualization enables service providers to respond quickly and flexibly to market demand with a wide range of services over one optical infrastructure. Bandwidth Virtualization also enables service providers to differentiate themselves by offering innovative new services to their customers.”

From the press release:

“As more consumers spend more time viewing video on the Internet, the demand for higher quality images, comparable to those on traditional televisions, will rise. The major broadcast networks have already begun this trend by insisting on higher-quality images as they make their shows available online. To illustrate this phenomenon and the challenges it poses to technologists and network operators, Infinera commissioned a video, “Bandwidth Virtualization, An Architecture for Today’s Internet,” shot entirely in high-definition or HDTV format. Hosted by Infinera CEO Jagdeep Singh, and featuring appearances by Randy Nicklas of XO Communications and Lane Patterson of Equinix, the video explains the technology behind Bandwidth Virtualization and its application in some of the world’s most advanced networks.”

This is the video they’re referring to:

Another Virtualization Company Raises Funding; This Time Pano Logic Is Getting $ 12 Million

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After Virtual Iron and CiRBA , it’s now Pano Logic announcing fresh funding to the tune of $ 12 million. This is the desktop virtualization company’s second round, which was led by New York-based Goldman Sachs.

Other participants included Foundation Capital, which has an office in Menlo Park (where Pano Logic is based).

The company said it uses existing server virtualization technologies to create a new approach to client/desktop computing that lowers total cost of ownership while increasing security, management and mobility.

Founded in 2006, Pano Logic also has an office in Toronto, Canada.

[Via BusinessJournal ]

Cisco Introduces Nexus 7000 Series: Virtual Switches for Future Data Centers?

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Cisco Systems this week starts pitching a new series of switches, called Nexus 7000 , as the first component of its Data Center 3.0 architecture and as the successor to the Catalyst 6500, the most successful product in Cisco’s history. Like the Catalyst 6500, the Nexus is a chassis intended for the enterprise data center, into which customers stack blades for additional interfaces. But whereas the Catalyst 6500 is a jack-of-all-trades that can be a firewall, a load balancer, or a router depending on the blades plugged into it, the Nexus is aimed at just one job: virtualization.virtualization-cisco-nexus-7000-virtualswitches.jpg

The company claims it can:

* copy all the searchable Web in less than eight minutes;
* download Wikipedia’s database in 10 milliseconds;
* download 90,000 Netflix movies in less than 40 seconds;
* run 5 million concurrent high-quality videoconferences between New York and San Francisco;
* or send a two-megapixel digital photograph of CEO John Chambers to every human being on earth in 28 minutes.

InformationWeek puts it this way:

“Cisco’s vision is one in which big companies off-load an increasing number of server tasks to network switches, with servers ultimately becoming little more than virtual machines inside a switch. The Nexus doesn’t deliver that, but it makes a start, aiming to virtualize the network interface cards, host bus adapters, and cables that connect servers to networks and remote storage. At present, those require dedicated local area networks and storage area networks, with each using a separate network interface card and host bus adapter for every virtual server. The Nexus aims to consolidate them all into one (or two, for redundancy), with virtual servers connecting through virtual NICs.”

Meanwhile, All Things Digital’s John Paczkowski jokingly claims the switch is ‘fast enough to create rift in space-time continuum ‘.

Funding For CiRBA and Virtual Iron, Dell Completes Acquisition of EqualLogic

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More interesting news today:

CiRBA Raises $12 Million With Sigma Partners

CiRBA Inc., today announced that it has raised $12 million in its second round of institutional funding led by Sigma Partners . Existing investors including Edgestone Capital Partners and others also participated in the round. The funding will enable CiRBA to further accelerate growth on a global scale, with investments in sales, marketing and product development.

Virtual Iron Capitalizes on Strong Market Momentum, Raises $20 Million in New Equity Financing

Virtual Iron Software, a provider of enterprise server virtualization software, today announced that it has secured $20 million in new venture equity financing. The funding, provided at an increased valuation, will be used to accelerate product development and expand global sales, marketing and distribution efforts. The investment brings Virtual Iron’s total venture funding to $65 million in invested equity capital and includes Highland Capital Partners, Matrix Partners, Goldman Sachs, Intel Capital and SAP Ventures.

Dell Completes EqualLogic Acquisition

Today Dell completed the EqualLogic acquisition, a leading provider of high-performance storage area network (SAN) solutions designed for virtualization and ease-of-use. The purchase extends Dell’s leadership in simplifying IT for customers.

“Customers face extreme challenges with data growth. Storage solutions that use existing infrastructure, install in minutes not days, manage themselves, can grow easily as needs increase and plug into the virtualized IT ecosystem will help businesses with their storage needs. EqualLogic provides these storage solutions and that’s the incredible value that Dell will now be able to deliver to our customers.  With Dell’s PartnerDirect channel, we will unleash the power of iSCSI and virtualization to redefine the economics of storing and processing data.”

VMWare Misses Analysts’ Estimates: While Revenues Go Up, Stock Goes Down

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Yesterday, VMware reported quarterly revenue that fell short of Wall Street expectations and forecast a slowdown in sales growth, sending its shares down more than 26 %.

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The highlights from the official announcement :

Total revenues for the fourth quarter were $412 million, an increase of 80% compared to the year-ago quarter.

GAAP operating income for the fourth quarter was $76 million compared to $37 million in the fourth quarter of 2006.  Non-GAAP operating income was $108 million, representing 26% of fourth-quarter revenues and an increase of 72% over the year-ago quarter.

GAAP net income for the quarter was $78 million, or $0.19 per diluted share, compared to $31 million, or $0.09 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter.    Non-GAAP net income for the quarter was $103 million, or $0.26 per diluted share.  GAAP and non-GAAP net income for the fourth quarter of 2007 include a $0.01 per diluted share benefit from a change in tax rate.

Total revenues for the full fiscal year 2007 were $1.33 billion, an increase of 88% compared to 2006.

GAAP operating income for the full fiscal year 2007 was $235 million compared to $121 million in 2006.  Non-GAAP operating income for the year was $338 million, representing 26% of full-year revenues and an increase of 77% over 2006.

GAAP net income for the year was $218 million or $0.61 per diluted share, compared to $86 million, or $0.26 per diluted share, in 2006.  Non-GAAP net income was $295 million or $0.82 per diluted share.

VMware shares had quadrupled in value after an August initial public offering, but have dropped since November.

The company on Monday forecast revenue growth of 50 percent in 2008, versus 88 percent in 2007. That would suggest revenue of $2 billion, shy of Wall Street targets.

“If you miss your numbers in just your second quarter after going public that suggests the stock was overhyped,” said Trip Chowdhry, an analyst at Global Equities Research.

According to the Server Virtualization Blog ,  the company’s CEO Diane Greene maintained that the company will not lower product pricing in 2008. “We do think we can maintain our pricing,” Greene said on an earnings call with investors. “We anticipate continuing our pricing over the course of the year.”

Internal Memo From VMWare Staff Criticizes Microsoft And Questions Its Partnership With Citrix

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When Microsoft issued a long press release last week on its ‘Vision and Strategy to Accelerate Virtualization Adoption ‘, the internal sales channel at VMWare apparently got a memo downplaying MSFT’s announcements and instructing their commercial team to further question the Microsoft-Citrix partnership and its ability to survive Redmond’s plans with virtualization in front of their clients.

Here are some of the quotes a blogger reposted from an obtained copy of the memo (emphasis ours)

…Microsoft announced a hodge-podge of items related to virtualization in a desperate attempt to make it look like it had a new, coherent vision and strategy for virtualization…

…MSFT includes many recycled items in the announcement to make it look substantive. In actuality, they are just rehashes of old items. Microsoft is not delivering anything new, substituting marketing in place of real substance…

…The new items are a collection of loosely connected pieces thrown together to look like a coherent virtualization plan. Microsoft is still talking vision…

…Microsoft’s announcement introduces new conflicts into the Microsoft-Citrix business partnership and begs the question “When will Microsoft dump Citrix and take all of the business for itself?” Is this just a partnership of convenience for Microsoft until it ships its own product?…

…Tell your prospects that are considering Citrix, that MSFT will soon cut Citrix out of the loop…and Citrix is allowing it to happen…

…New Conflict #1: Microsoft System Center or Citrix XenServer for Management…This declaration hits at the heart of Citrix’s stated business model for virtualization – to generate revenue from the management of Windows VMs with Citrix XenCenter. System Center and XenCenter are clearly competitors…

…New Conflict #2: Calista acquisition creates more direct competition with Citrix SpeedScreen (ICA)..This acquisition strikes at Citrix’s core business since ICA is Citrix’s key differentiator and competes with RDP…

Microsoft and Citrix are longtime virtualization partners, but VMware is using Microsoft’s own advances in the market to argue that the two companies are also becoming bigger competitors with each other — despite their recently announced plan to develop interoperability between Citrix XenServer and Windows Server 2008. As Microsoft prepares to launch Windows Server 2008 — featuring the Hyper-V hypervisor — next month, the battle for VMware’s server virtualization market share lead should grow even more intense. Which makes it all more interesting for us, of course 🙂