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

Dell Introduces PowerEdge C5000 Line Of Microservers

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Designed to help hosting and Internet companies achieve greater efficiencies in their data centers, Dell has introduced its third generation of microservers, the PowerEdge C5000 line, including the PowerEdge C5125 and C5220.

Packing up to 12 nodes into a 3U chassis, this new series of microservers allows applications to run on individual dedicated physical servers “without compromising on price, power or density”.

Microservers are a new class of server designed for those use cases where multi-core CPU architecture and extensive virtualization are overkill. What these systems provide are multiple low-cost dedicated servers where one CPU is perfect for running single applications.

The PowerEdge C5125 and C5220 come with up to 12 server nodes in 3U chassis supporting both AMD and Intel architectures, respectively. Additional features on both microservers include 4 x DDR3 UDIMMS, 2 x 3.5-inch or 4 x 2.5-inch HDDs, 2 x GbE ports, IPMI 2.0 management, iKVM, individually serviceable nodes, as well as a shared power and cooling infrastructure.

Desktone Announces New Cloud-hosted Virtual Desktop Webinar Series

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Desktone has announced a new weekly webinar for managed service providers (MSPs).

The webinar, “Profiting from Cloud-hosted Virtual Desktops: How MSPs can Leverage the Desktone Cloud,” takes place on Wednesdays, 2:00PM – 3:00PM EDT.

Participants will learn about the Desktone Cloud, a solution for delivering virtual desktops in the cloud. Desktone will discuss how MSPs can expand their businesses by providing a compelling cloud computing offering to small and mid-sized organizations, and will cover partner benefits, requirements and the sales process.

For more information about the Desktone MSP webinar series, or to register, click here.

2011 Will Be the Year of Platform-as-a-Service: Gartner

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All the leading enterprise software vendors, as well as large cloud specialists, will introduce new platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offerings this year, making 2011 the year of PaaS, according to Gartner.

“By the end of 2011, the battle for leadership in PaaS and the key PaaS segments will engulf the software industry,” said Yefim Natis, vice president at Gartner. “Early consolidation of specialized PaaS offerings into PaaS suites will also be evident. New vendors will enter the market through acquisitions or in-house development. Users can expect a wave of innovation and hype. It will be harder to find a consistent message, standards or clear winning vendors.”

PaaS is a common reference to the layer of cloud technology architecture that contains all application infrastructure services, which are also known as “middleware” in other contexts.

PaaS is the middle layer of the software stack “in the cloud.” It is the technology that intermediates between the underlying system infrastructure (operating systems, networks, virtualization, storage, etc.) and overlaying application software. The technology services that are part of a full-scope PaaS include functionality of application containers, application development tools, database management systems, integration brokers, portals, business process management and many others — all offered as a service.

Today’s PaaS offerings come in a over a dozen of specialized types; however, during the next three years, the variety of PaaS specialist-subset offerings will consolidate to a few major application infrastructure service suites, and, over a longer time, comprehensive, full-scale PaaS offerings will emerge as well.

Gartner believes that during the next five years, the adoption of PaaS in most midsize and large organizations will not lead to a wholesale transition to cloud computing. Instead, it will be an extension of the use patterns of on-premises application infrastructures to hybrid computing models where on-premises application infrastructures and PaaS will coexist, interoperate and integrate.

Gartner predicts that by 2015, most enterprises will have part of their run-the-business software functionally executing in the cloud, using PaaS services or technologies directly or indirectly. Most such enterprises, will have a hybrid environment in which internal and external services are combined.

vcopious Launches ‘Virtual Spaces’ Application Server Appliance

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vcopious, a virtual environment software company, has announced the launch of VC2, a “virtual spaces” application server appliance.

The vcopious VC2 application can reside both within network enterprise deployments or hosted environments and offers immersive networking, socializing and tracking tools as well as a proprietary content management system (vCMS) to enable self-service virtual environment building tools in either 3D or 2D.

The VC2 application can be hosted behind a company’s firewall to ensure all data remains secure.

The VC2 server appliance is available in a Professional Solution, capable of handling 5,000 concurrent users and eight environments or, in an Enterprise Solution, which can handle 30,000 concurrent users and up to 20 environments.

Cloud Services Provider Virtustream Opens New York Office

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Virtustream, a provider of cloud services and infrastructure solutions, has announced a new office in New York to support the development and delivery of Virtustream’s suite of Cloud Platform Services as well as regional sales.

Companies are selecting Cloud Services, delivered through Virtustream’s xStream cloud platform, to achieve the benefits of pooled resource efficiencies and elasticity without sacrificing security, availability and application performance.

xStream features a unique unit-based utility pricing model and provides guaranteed resources backed by industry-leading service level agreements.

Ed Franklin, Virtustream executive vice president, Global Cloud Platform Services, recently joined Virtustream and will lead the New York office. Prior to joining Virtustream, Franklin was vice president, Global Solutions for Verizon. Previously, Franklin created and led the IT Services organization of MCI Communications.