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

SolidFire Scores $11 Million For Cloud Computing Storage Platform

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SolidFire, which is building a ‘next-generation’ cloud computing storage platform, has raised $11 million in Series A funding led by New Enterprise Associates with current investors Valhalla Partners and Novak Biddle Venture Partners joining the round (via TechCrunch).

The startup will be launching a beta product ‘later this year’. SolidFire will be using the capital to expand by hiring new people and the opening of an office in Boulder, Colorado.

SolidFire was founded by Dave Wright, who earlier founded Jungle Disk, which leverages Rackspace and Amazon S3 infrastructures to provides reliable, virtually unlimited scalability for any level of data storage. Jungle Disk was acquired by Rackspace in October 2008. Prior to Jungle Disk, he was Chief Architect at IGN / GameSpy / Fox Interactive Media.

In conjunction with the funding round, NEA General Partner Harry Weller will join SolidFire’s board of directors alongside Valhalla GP Charles Curran, and Novak Biddle GP Phil Bronner. Also joining the SolidFire board is former LeftHand Networks CEO Bill Chambers.

NetApp Completes Purchase Of Akorri Networks

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NetApp has announced that it has completed the acquisition of Akorri Networks. Under terms of the definitive agreement, NetApp acquired Akorri in an all-cash transaction for approximately $60 million.

Akorri extends the NetApp OnCommand management software suite with performance capacity analytics and optimization for greater visibility across the entire IT stack, including applications, servers, networks, and storage.

Akorri’s flagship software, BalancePoint, helps customers identify performance bottlenecks; improve storage capacity planning; and free up the time, people, and budget resources needed to run virtual environments.

BalancePoint is available immediately through existing Akorri channel partners. Customer pricing is available from those partners.

Quest Software Offers Better Data Protection Suite For VMware

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Quest Software has announced the latest release of vRanger Pro, with three key data protection capabilities added:

– Integrated backup and replication, one console with flexible deployment and licensing
– Native cataloging, with integrated restore to easily locate and restore individual files
– Fibre restore: to speed recovery and eliminate LAN traffic by using Fibre Channel infrastructure

vRanger Pro also now includes all of the capabilities of Quest Software vReplicator, which gives organizations VMware protection in one easy-to-use console.

The new version of vRanger Pro features patent-pending cataloging capability that provides a native, full catalog of every image in the backup repository so administrators can quickly and easily find and restore files, even among large amounts of virtual data. vRanger Pro also now features one-step catalog-based recovery, including advanced search options and right-click recovery selection directly from the management console.

vRanger Pro 5.0 is currently available. Also available from Quest Software is vRanger Standard Edition.

Former Salesforce Execs Launch On-Demand Identity And Access Management Service Okta

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Okta recently unveiled a new on-demand identity and access management service that helps enterprises accelerate the adoption of their cloud and web-based applications.

With Okta, IT can address the security and management challenges by integrating cloud applications with existing directory services, controlling access across applications, quickly provisioning and de-provisioning employees, and centrally analyzing usage across all applications.

For end users, Okta provides single sign-on across all of their applications, eliminating password fatigue and improving their productivity.

Led by CEO Todd McKinnon, most recently VP of Engineering at Salesforce.com, Okta has raised $11 million, led by Andreessen Horowitz.

Early Okta customers include Pandora, LiveOps, Enterasys, FusionStorm, and AMAG Pharmaceuticals.

SolarWinds Acquires Hyper9, Launches Application Performance Monitor

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SolarWinds, a provider of IT management software, recently announced that it is entering the application performance and virtualization management markets through the launch of SolarWinds Application Performance Monitor (APM) and the acquisition of Hyper9, a privately-held virtualization management software provider.

SolarWinds’ Application Performance Monitor is an application and server management product that provides visibility into the performance of critical IT services, the underlying application components, the operating system, and the Windows, Unix and Linux server resources on which they run.

Pricing starts at $2,495, with the first year of maintenance included.

Hyper9’s virtualization management offering adds optimization, capacity planning, configuration and chargeback reporting for virtualized server environments to the SolarWinds portfolio. The company expects to offer the virtualization management products at pricing starting at $3000, including the first year of maintenance.

Release: VMware Go Pro For All

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VMware last week announced the general availability of VMware Go Pro, a cloud service that enables small and midsized businesses to consolidate, control, and secure their physical and virtual IT infrastructure.

VMware Go Pro is available by subscription for $29.95 per admin/month.

Later this year, VMware expects to offer the VMware Go Pro service through its global network of channel partners.