Search Results for: virtualization security

Wyse Technology today announced solutions that will support VMware View 4 and its PC-over-IP (PCoIP) display protocol.

Wyse is announcing support for the PCoIP protocol in existing thin client devices, new devices, and a new zero client. The new Wyse P20 zero client is specifically designed to bring the premiere PCoIP experience to a whole new class of virtualization users whether operating from a datacenter, private or public cloud. These devices are expected to be listed on the VMware Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) and available for VMware View 4 by Nov. 19, 2009 when the solution becomes generally available.

Wyse is launching support for VMware View 4 with integrated support for PCoIP across its line of existing thin clients, including immediate support for Wyse thin clients based on Microsoft Windows XP Embedded and Windows Embedded Standard. Wyse will also support PCoIP on its line of Linux and segment-leading Wyse ThinOS clients in the near future.

Advanced protocols such as PCoIP have the potential to provide a new class of users the benefits of virtual clients, those using applications that have traditionally required powerful PCs or workstations. For this user segment, Wyse introduces the Wyse P20 zero client, its smallest, stateless access device designed specifically for the PCoIP protocol.

In partnership with VMware and with PCoIP support in hardware and software, the Wyse P20 zero client is designed for the most demanding rich media applications, including CAD/CAM, 3D solid modeling, video editing, advanced simulations, and rich media. Customers will receive a true PC experience with a device the size of a book and consuming fewer than 15 watts of power.

The Wyse P20 also resolves the challenges of provisioning, managing, maintaining and securing enterprise desktops without incurring the security risks associated with transmitting data across a network or having data reside in remote PCs. Small firmware located on the client enables users to connect to the VMware View or other PCoIP host. The client does not have a local operating system such as Windows or Linux, so it’s simpler to deploy, requires no local antivirus protection, and seldom needs management. And because the device has no local storage, it is completely secure and virus-proof.

Desktop, mobile, and even handheld support for VMware View 4 will be delivered exclusively from Wyse. In addition to the new Wyse P20 zero client, and the existing Wyse thin client family, Wyse will also deliver day one support for VMware View 4 in Wyse’s breakthrough mobile access software Wyse PocketCloud, making it easy to access a VMware View 4 environment from an Apple iPhone. An updated version of the product will be made available this month. PocketCloud is currently available from the iTunes AppStore.

Citrix Systems today launched the new Citrix Ready Open Desktop Virtualization program to further accelerate large-scale enterprise virtual desktop deployments with Citrix XenDesktop.

The Citrix Ready Open Desktop Virtualization program includes more than 10,000 products from over 200 vendors that have been validated as ready to deploy in production environments with the recently launched XenDesktop 4. The Open Desktop Virtualization program helps make virtual desktops a safe choice for enterprise-wide deployment by eliminating the guess work and ensuring customers that XenDesktop 4 has been tested to work with the software, hardware and services they already uses in their IT environments today.

Products that have been verified to work with XenDesktop 4 include thousands of applications, servers, storage systems, backup solutions, client devices, printers, desktop peripherals, security products, desktop management software and systems management solutions.

Launched on October 6, 2009, (see press release) and now available for download, XenDesktop 4, with its unique FlexCast delivery technology, is the first product in the industry to support every major desktop virtualization model in a single, integrated solution. The FlexCast delivery technology provides the architecture that allows customers to choose from any of the hosted or local virtual desktop delivery models available in one, easy-to-use solution, without locking them into a single, proprietary vendor model.

Built with an open architecture, XenDesktop gives customers the flexibility to run heterogeneous environments, lowering costs and maximizing their return on investment. It also makes it easy for customers to gradually add desktop virtualization capabilities at their own pace, simplifying desktop computing, increasing security and enhancing end-user productivity. With its market-leading HDX™ technology, XenDestkop 4 also helps ensure that every user has a rich, high-definition experience, regardless of where they are, or what type of device they are using.

Mainstream adoption of desktop virtualization requires a solution that is built with an open architecture and leverages an ecosystem of partner products. This combination helps customers implement an end-to-end solution to enhance or replace their traditional desktop computing environments. XenDesktop 4 supports every major server virtualization platform, including Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008, Citrix XenServer, VMware ESX and VMware vSphere. The XenDesktop open architecture further incorporates Citrix Ready and HDX Ready thin clients, Windows, Linux and Mac devices, as well as most major mobile device platforms.

The Open Desktop Virtualization program leverages XenDesktop’s open architecture and verifies interoperability with over 10,000 products across the following categories:

Datacenter Systems

• Virtualization Infrastructure – Hypervisor-based virtualization platforms that host and manage desktops and applications that run in virtual machines. Includes Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware ESX, VMware vSphere and Citrix XenServer
• Servers and Blade Systems – Hardware platforms that power server-side virtual desktops and applications running in the datacenter. Includes Dell, HP, IBM, Fujitsu, Intel and AMD
• Storage and Backup Systems – Software and hardware storage products that drive increased performance, cost savings and reduced storage requirements for desktop images, user profiles and end-user data. Includes CA, Compellent, CommVault, DataCore, Dell EqualLogic, EMC, FalconStor, Fujitsu, HP StorageWorks, Hitachi, IBM, LSI, NetApp, NEC, Pillar Data Systems, RELDATA and Xiotech
• Applications – Enterprise, line-of-business and personal productivity applications that can be delivered more efficiently to end users through desktop and app virtualization. Includes Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, Google, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and over 1,000 additional software vendors across a wide variety of industries

Client Devices

• PCs, Laptops, Netbooks, Thin Clients and Mobile Devices – Devices used by employees and other end users to access virtual desktops and applications. Includes Apple, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Fujitsu, Research in Motion (Blackberry), Sprint, 10Zig, Chip PC, Computer Lab, DevonIT, IGEL, ThinLaunch, VXL and Wyse
• Printers and Desktop Peripherals – Printing solutions and drivers for an extensive range of cameras, scanners, card readers, hard drives, keyboards, speakers and other popular desktop peripherals that have been certified to work in virtual desktop environments. Includes Canon, Dell, HP, Konica, Kyocera, Lexmark, Mita, Minolta, OKI, Samsung, Xerox, ThinPrint, TriCerat, UniPrint and over 7,000 other popular USB desktop devices and driver support software
• Unified Communications – Real-time voice, meeting and communication systems that enable users to collaborate seamlessly over multiple mediums. Includes Avaya, Microsoft, ShoreTel, Citrix GoToMeeting, Citrix Hi-Def Conferencing and Citrix EasyCall

Management Systems and Services

• Client Systems Management – Unified management of physical endpoint devices to virtual environments providing a consistent cost-effective experience for the desktop administrator. Includes CA Desktop Management Suite for Windows, CA Unicenter, HP OpenView, Microsoft System Center, Novell and Wyse

• Profile Management – Software to ensure users’ personal settings are applied to the each user’s virtual desktop and applications. Includes AppSense, RES Software and TriCerat
• Security – Software and hardware products to ensure secure access, business continuity, data security and regulatory compliance for employees working in any type of virtual desktop environment. Includes Kaspersky Labs, McAfee, Novell, RES Software, RSA, Sophos, TrendMicro and Citrix Access Gateway
• Solution and Deployment Services – Services to ensure that all users have the best experience when moving to virtual desktops, both for premise based and cloud hosted environments. Includes Accenture, CSC, Dell, HP Services, Fujitsu and IBM Global Services

A white paper providing more specific information about the partner categories can be found at the Citrix Ready Open Desktop program page.

Parallels today announced the availability of Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac.

This is the latest version of the number 1 Mac system utility, currently enabling more than 2 million users to run Windows, Linux and other operating systems side-by-side with Mac OS X.

According to performance research conducted by Crimson Consulting Group, Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac performs 22% faster than the nearest Windows-on-Mac competitor in standard productivity testing of Windows 7 64-bit on a MacBook Pro. In addition, version 5 is up to 300% faster for virtual machine operations than the previous version. For 3D and graphics performance, tested under the industry standard 3Dmark 2006 Professional test suite the new version performs up to 7 times better.

Users can test this for themselves with a free trial from www.parallels.com/desktop.

There are more than 70 new features in Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac, many of which give users the flexibility to work in the way they want. Users can choose how much or little Windows they want to see, from running Windows in Full Screen mode where Windows completely covers the Mac user interface to the new Crystal view mode which makes Windows completely disappear. Users can even get a Mac-like experience in their Windows applications, using the intuitive Apple Trackpad Gestures technology to pinch, swipe, and rotate as they do in Mac applications.

Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac introduces more than 70 new features and enhancements:

• Full support for Aero in Windows Vista and 7 through Windows WDDM driver, including Aero Flip 3D
• Virtual machine size automatically optimized for best performance with Parallels Compressor
• Improved performance for Linux guest OS from KVM paravirtualization

• A more Mac-like experience in their Windows applications through Apple Trackpad Gestures technology (pinch, swipe, rotate and more), horizontal scrolling and the application of Full Screen active corners and curl page effect
• Copy & Paste fidelity for formatted text and complete layouts including images, even between Windows and Linux guest OSs
• Freedom and flexibility to run Windows and Mac applications across multiple monitors

• 7 times better graphic performance for games and 3D applications than the previous version with Direct X 9Ex with Shader Model 3 and OpenGL 2.1 support
• Superior graphics performance for Linux guests through OpenGL 2.1 support
• Full hardware resources can be utilized with support for 8 virtual CPUs, 64 bit Windows and Snow Leopard Server 64 bit
• Easily move PCs (including Windows 7) and 3^rd party virtual machines to the Mac  with the enhanced Parallels Transporter

Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac is available in English, German, French, Italian and Spanish starting today- Additional localized versions will soon be available in Chinese, Czech, Hungarian, Japanese, Polish and Russian in the coming weeks

The standard retail price (SRP) of Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac is $79.99, including $175 worth of additional software for free: Parallels Internet Security 2009 by Kaspersky (1 year subscription); Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 (Disk Management); Acronis True Image 11 Home (Backup and Recovery Solutions). Current Parallels Desktop users can upgrade their existing software for $49.99. Users that purchased version 4.0 on or after October 1^st 2009 qualify with a proof of purchase for a free upgrade to version 5.

CA today announced 12 new and updated Enterprise IT Management products that will help enterprises and service providers gain increased business value from virtualized environments. CA’s solutions allow organizations to realize greater cost savings, efficiency and flexibility from virtualized computing environments through comprehensive capabilities for IT management, governance, automation and security.

Enterprises are increasingly relying on virtualization, with 31 percent of operating system instances virtualized in 2008 and growing to 54 percent in 2010, according to an independent survey of hardware decision makers in North America and Europe, conducted Forrester Research. By simplifying and automating the management of virtualized and physical environments, CA helps customers to reduce business risks and deploy virtualization more rapidly and confidently in their heterogeneous production environments. Unlike many other providers, CA has specifically architected its technology for virtualization, including solutions for infrastructure management, service management, application performance management, business-driven automation and security management.

New and enhanced products announced today for enterprises and service providers include the following solutions for Infrastructure Management and Business-Driven Automation:

• CA Spectrum Service Assurance is designed to offer a single pane of glass to display the impact of the physical and virtual IT infrastructure on the services it supports. This CA innovation improves IT service quality and predictability by pinpointing the root cause of quality problems and risks to quality. It can also help lower IT costs by reducing trouble-shooting and speeding mean-time-to-repair. The product is designed to provide superior visualization of infrastructure in the context of IT services; a fast, flexible and accurate way to build end-to-end service models; automated analytics to help fix quality problems and proactively reduce risk; clear service reports for making good management decisions and for communicating better with business stakeholders; and integration with the most powerful, scalable domain managers to retrieve infrastructure, application performance and root cause information.
• CA Spectrum Automation Manager r11.7 is designed to help customers streamline their IT processes through centralized application configuration management and dynamic resource provisioning across physical, virtual, and cloud environments. This new version includes rapid physical-to-virtual (P2V) and virtual-to-virtual (V2V) server provisioning to help simplify the adoption and expansion of virtualization deployments and enable quicker server recovery. It will also features extended support across VMware vSphere, Citrix Xen, IBM LPAR, Sun Solaris and other platforms for centralized management of heterogeneous environments—helping to improve cost efficiency, agility, service quality, and mitigating IT and business risk.
• CA eHealth Performance Manager r6.2 is designed to proactively monitor the performance of data and voice networks, physical and virtual systems, databases, and client/server applications across physical and virtual environments. This new version is designed to discover VMware and other virtual environments, collect important metrics needed to maintain optimum performance, be alerted when performance approaches thresholds, and view performance of the virtual infrastructure and report on the collected performance metrics to validate expected service levels. The solution is also planned to feature enhanced environmental and energy monitoring as a valuable complement to CA’s virtualization management capabilities.
• CA Insight Database Performance Manager r11.3 is designed to proactively monitor performance (providing both real-time and historical views) across DB2 for Linux, UNIX and Windows; Oracle; SQL Server and Sybase databases, whether they reside in physical, virtual or cloud environments. The product is designed to share this information with the other CA domain managers to provide end-to-end visibility into database health across IT. New capabilities in this version include continuous monitoring of databases in VMware environments—even across hot migrations performed using VMware VMotion—without user interaction, as well as enhanced support for VMware performance through proactive monitoring of the VMware vCenter Server repository. Other planned features include integration with CA Spectrum Service Assurance; a new enterprise view for “at-a-glance” problem assessment; improved root-cause analysis of SQL performance and a unified browser-based interface for distributed and mainframe databases.

Click here for the full story.

VMware has announced accelerated  momentum for VMware vSphere 4, with more than 500,000 customer downloads since being made generally available on May 21, 2009.

This pace has rapidly increased to an average rate of more than 3,660 downloads per day.

Proven customer results in efficiency, control and flexibility are driving the momentum behind VMware vSphere. VMware customers consistently report significant cost savings, including reduction in capital expenditures (CapEx) by up to 60 percent and average reduction in operating costs (OpEx) of 33 percent when comparing their VMware environment to a physical environment.  With industry-leading performance and scalability, VMware vSphere extends these benefits to 100 percent of applications while delivering twice the consolidation ratio of competitive offerings.

Only VMware vSphere delivers these results through a comprehensive set of capabilities for virtualizing, pooling and dynamic load balancing of servers, storage, and networks.   VMware vMotion was the starting point, enabling seamless virtual machine migration with zero downtime.  With 70 percent of VMware customers indicating production deployment of vMotion,  VMware estimates that vMotion has driven nearly 350 million live migrations from its introduction through 2008, providing an estimated $459 million in IT administration savings.

VMware vSphere has built upon the VMware vMotion success, adding capabilities to provide higher service levels to applications at lower cost and administrative overhead, enabling customers to more fully embrace virtualization for business critical applications such e-mail, database, ERP, and CRM systems. VMware Storage vMotion and VMware vNetwork Distributed Switch enable customers to extend mobility to their storage and network while VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler and VMware Distributed Power Management simplify management and layering on policy driven automation.  These automation tools have delivered for some customers a 47 percent improvement in application performance and a 20 percent reduction in power consumption.  VMware High Availability and VMware Fault Tolerance bring unmatched resiliency for service level guarantees, while VMware vShield Zones adds the ability to manage logical security policies that are tied to applications and not devices. Customers deploying VMware vSphere 4 will be able to quickly take advantage of these capabilities and more, enabling the delivery of efficient, flexible and reliable IT as a service.