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Release: Catbird vCompliance, A Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement Service for Virtual and Cloud Environments

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Catbird today announced the immediate availability of vCompliance, a comprehensive automated monitoring and enforcement solution that ensures security and regulatory compliance for virtualized and cloud-based data centers.

Based on Catbird’s vSecurity platform, vCompliance’s real-time continuous monitoring service instantly detects compliance violations and quarantines offending assets to ensure ongoing compliance with leading regulatory standards, such as DIACAP, SOX, HIPAA and PCI.

With the increasing presence of VMware virtualization in regulated industries such as financial services, government, retail and healthcare, comes the attendant need to ensure that these deployments meet or exceed existing compliance requirements. vCompliance is designed specifically for these environments. It unites an automated, 24×7, network monitoring service with information from the hypervisor, including a full vulnerability management solution and network access control. These critical services are mandated by regulatory specifications. Catbird vCompliance provides numerous controls required by the leading regulatory standards organizations and the most common security frameworks.

Catbird vCompliance can actually make virtualized assets more compliant than physical, providing yet another incentive for businesses to move to cloud-based and virtualized environments, in addition to the inherent cost savings and provisioning ease. Designed for deployment as a cloud-based service, vCompliance provides a comprehensive and integrated virtualized compliance product, including:

  • Continuous and automated audit and enforcement to meet the requirements of PCI, HIPAA, SOX, DIACAP, etc.
  • Policy driven automated controls for auditing, inventory management, configuration management, change management, access control, vulnerability management, and incident response
  • Vulnerability scanning from inside the virtual subnets, with 100% visibility of all virtual machines
  • Automated enforcement and quarantine of out of compliance assets
  • Detailed statistics on compliance status for each individual asset, zone, virtual host or physical host
  • Automated, customizable reports (per compliance specification, per asset or per zone) geared for the appropriate organizational audience (management, operations, etc.) that provide a quick overview or deep-dive to help resolve compliance issues, ease remediation and restore full compliance
  • Web-based management

Via Catbird’s integrated security control console, Catbird vCompliance provides a compliance view of virtual systems in the vSphere management application. This integration brings real-time visibility and management of virtual and cloud security to a single web-based management interface, accessible from anywhere. The drag-and-drop dashboard supports automated discovery and hyperlink drill-down for intuitive management and ease of use. The multi-tenant portal provides more flexible administration options to meet the needs of multi-departmental organizations and service providers.

Seamlessly incorporated into the VMware vSphere 4 and VMware vCenter management workflow, VMware administrators can instantly monitor system compliance against standard or customized policies defined by corporate security or governance. Continuous status updates are delivered to the VMware vCenter console by “Catbirds” – stateless, non-invasive appliances deployed on the virtual subnets which act as the eyes and ears of the virtual environment.

In the event of an attempted policy violation, designated personnel are instantly alerted via an array of mechanisms and the offending activity blocked — preventing a compromise of the integrity and compliance of the system. Detailed reporting, accessible directly from the console, provides automated event logs to ease troubleshooting and remediation.

vCompliance is specifically designed to enhance overall data center performance with a minimal footprint and a flexible, fully XML and Web-services based architecture that allows for seamless integration with 3rd party reporting tools, trouble-ticketing and other enterprise-class services in a heterogeneous environment. In addition, Catbird is integrated with McAfee’s ePolicy Orchestrator (ePO) management console, providing customers with a single administrative interface for both virtual and physical security, and both network and end-point security.

Parallels Debuts Switch to Mac Bundle

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Parallels today unveiled a complete solution designed to simplify the process of “switching” from a PC to Mac. Parallels Desktop Switch to Mac Edition empowers users to effortlessly make the move to Mac without the risk of losing familiar and important data and applications on their Microsoft Windows-based PCs.

The product combines a set of easy-to-use tools and interactive tutorials with Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac to help “Switchers” understand how to operate Mac OS X, transfer all PC data and applications, and seamlessly run their Windows applications on their new Macs.

Switching from PC to Mac is on the rise: analyst reports on operating system market share show that Mac OS X market growth comes at the expense of Windows’ market share. While the overall PC industry saw declines of 3% for the quarter ending in June 2009, Apple sales were up 4% year over year. According to Apple’s Q309 report, half of the Macs sold were to customers who had never owned a Mac before.

Parallels Desktop Switch to Mac Edition is an industry-first solution that addresses the challenges facing prospective PC-to-Mac Switchers:

  • Learning Mac OS X — The Switch to Mac learning tools are designed to specifically address any questions or concerns associated with the transition from Windows to Mac. More than two hours of interactive video tutorials help users learn the new interface and functionality of the Mac platform step-by-step, starting with the Mac equivalent of tasks performed on Windows. A quick reference card identifies the most common Windows and Mac command/function differences and puts the correct keystrokes at users’ fingertips.
  • Making the Move — Also important to new Mac users is getting files and media from their old computer to their Mac. Parallels recognizes that many people need help with this process, and developed a “plug and click” method that moves the entire PC (licensed operating system, applications, files and data) to the new Mac. This includes the Parallels High Speed USB Transfer Cable that connects the two machines and the Enhanced Parallels Transporter: simple, wizard-driven software that walks the user through the move in a few easy clicks. The seamless Mac user experience now starts on the PC side.
  • Running Windows and Mac side-by-side — Parallels Desktop Switch to Mac Edition includes Parallels Desktop for Mac 4.0, the number one Mac system utility, currently used by more than two million people to run Windows side-by-side with Mac applications. This award-winning virtualization software provides a fully integrated seamless experience, offering users the greatest stability and performance available for running Windows on a Mac, as recognized in 3rd party industry benchmarks³. Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac incorporates a range of security, backup and power saving features to give Mac users the easiest way to run Windows on a Mac.

Parallels Desktop 4.0 Switch to Mac Edition is available from today at Apple stores, at Apple.com and through other preferred retail partners in English, German and French. The suggested retail price (SRP) of the product is $99.99.

InstallFree Joins BMC Software’s Technology Alliance Program (TAP)

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InstallFree, developer of platform application virtualization solutions for enterprise desktop environments, today announced its membership in BMC Software’s Technology Alliance Program (TAP).

TAP provides resources to enable the InstallFree Bridge – which encrypts and encapsulates virtual applications – to integrate with BMC Configuration Automation for Clients, providing closed-loop change control throughout the Business Service Management (BSM) platform.

The news marks the software industry’s first capability for automated, license-precise, inventory scanning of both virtual and physical applications to meet audit and compliance controls of contents within agentless virtual application bubbles. The integrated solutions provide IT organizations with the cost and management benefits of distributing virtual applications on demand, with added assurance that the BMC Remedy IT Service Management Suite has accurate visibility based on manufacturer data.

In addition to providing comprehensive discovery capabilities within BSM, InstallFree has also virtualized versions 5 and 7 of the BMC Remedy Action Request System to ease migrations to newer operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows 7.

Working together, BMC and InstallFree have identified that 1st Factor Discovery (seeing the application is on the endpoint) is not enough to pass security audits, because the packager may not provide the exact information that matches purchase contracts required for accurate reporting and compliance. InstallFree’s 2 Factor Inventory APIs enable BMC’s client discovery solution to pull and map additional information from the InstallFree agentless client, such as manufacturer-provided Information, into the BMC Atrium Configuration Management Database (CMDB) via existing links and federation.

InstallFree also provides applications’ digital fingerprints to ensure that they have not been tampered with during transport or the delivery process. The result is accurate license compliance controls and identification of malware in virtual environments. This provides for quick remediation and reporting during spot audit checks – minimizing the risk to security, governance, and business continuity – while leveraging current controls, procedures, and existing tools for both physical and virtual applications.

Unisys Debuts Secure Cloud Solution

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Unisys today announced that the Unisys Secure Cloud Solution recently became available to clients. This solution enables enterprise clients to securely move conventional business applications – including those with secure or sensitive data, such as human resources, financial, customer and healthcare information – into a managed, shared cloud service without costly, time-consuming rewrites or other alterations.

The Unisys Secure Cloud Solution is a core component of Unisys cloud computing strategy, which enables clients to choose the type of data center computing services that best meet their business objectives, from self-managed private clouds to Unisys-managed cloud services as well as hybrid solutions.

The Secure Cloud Solution integrates Unisys patent-pending Stealth data protection technology, which cloaks data from detection as it moves through the network. As a result, clients in a multi-tenant environment can share the same IT infrastructure without fear of compromising the security of their data. (Unisys also plans to release a Stealth solution for storage area networks to provide the same cloaking capability for “data at rest.”)

Assessing Unisys cloud computing strategy and Secure Cloud Solution, and the value that the Stealth technology brings, The 451 Group analyst William Fellows wrote, “Establishing a strict chain of custody for data will be a key requirement for running more sensitive workloads in the cloud.”

As a managed public cloud service, Unisys Secure Cloud Solution enables global delivery of multiple new services: Secure Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Secure Platform as a Service (PaaS), My Secure Application as a Service (AaaS), and three Secure Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings: Secure Unified Communication as a Service, Secure Virtual Office as a Service and Secure Document Delivery Service.

The Unisys Secure Cloud Solution, which is based on the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) standard for service management, uses the automation and virtualization capabilities of Unisys real-time infrastructure solutions. Drawing on technologies from key partners as well as Unisys, these solutions enable an organization’s IT infrastructure to respond automatically to changes in the business environment.

Unisys worked closely with Intel to develop the computing architecture that powers the Secure Cloud Solution and collaborated with EMC, drawing on that partner’s storage technology to create the information infrastructure that enables fast storage and delivery of information securely in the cloud. Software from partners Scalent Systems and Enigmatec Corporation enables repurposing and orchestration of IT resources to meet the service levels required for clients’ business.

Unisys Converged Remote Infrastructure Management solution provides end-to-end operations capabilities for the Unisys Secure Cloud Solution. Based on software from BMC Software, the Converged Remote Infrastructure Management capability gives clients a single view of their infrastructure, managing the cloud from the cloud and enabling them to seamlessly integrate request, change, configuration, incident and availability management into their existing service management infrastructure.

A self-service portal enables clients of Unisys Secure Cloud Solution to scale IT resources in real time to meet fluctuating business requirements.

As client needs or data security requirements dictate, the Unisys Secure Cloud Solution can balance workloads across a global network of Unisys data centers certified to key international standards for security and service management. Through these centers, clients can both benefit from Unisys global and local service delivery expertise and comply with laws requiring storage of sensitive business data in-country while leveraging Unisys layered security infrastructure.

A portfolio of Unisys Cloud Transformation Services, also available now, complements the Secure Cloud Solution. These advisory and implementation services assist clients in assessing potential cloud computing options and determining which best suits their needs or financial objectives; modernizing their IT and application environments; and, through the cloud, enhancing productivity while lowering costs and safeguarding their data.

Delivered by a force of more than 800 Unisys consultants worldwide, these Cloud Transformation Services are designed to accelerate clients’ realization of value from cloud solutions.

Rackspace Leverages VMware With Private Cloud Offering

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Rackspace Hosting today announced its new Private Cloud offering, which allows customers to run the centrally managed VMware virtualization platform on private dedicated hardware environments. Rackspace recognizes the demand from enterprises for a more flexible and scalable hosting solution. Although multi-tenant cloud solutions are very flexible and cost-effective, they are not always right for every segment. The Rackspace Private Cloud’s single-tenant architecture offers increased control and security, while still maintaining the scalability, flexibility and resource optimization that make shared cloud offerings so compelling.

Rackspace Private Cloud is an evolution of its popular dedicated virtual server (DVS) offering within the managed hosting business unit. In the last year, revenue from virtualization solutions has grown substantially, driven mainly by the increased flexibility, improved asset utilization and lower capital and operating costs that VMware’s virtualization provides.

The new Rackspace Private Cloud offering provides new pricing and configuration options that further extend the value for customers. The savings for customers can be substantial and further cost reductions can be achieved by the ability to quickly provision, deploy and take down virtualized server instances, using only what is needed. As with all Rackspace products, Private Cloud is backed-up by Rackspace’s Fanatical Support.

TheAdmins Introduces 24×7 Tech Support On All Things Citrix, Microsoft, VMware and Cisco

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TheAdmins, a value-added reseller (VAR) providing virtualization, application delivery, data security, network infrastructure and storage/business continuity services, today announced the introduction of its Continuous Support Offering (CSO).

TheAdmins CSO is a service level agreement (SLA)-based support service designed to supplement IT services staff in resolving technology-critical issues with select Citrix, Microsoft, VMware and Cisco products.

Traditionally, companies have purchased IT services support agreements directly from manufacturers to serve as a lifeline in the event of an emergency. However, the reality is that many of these agreements serve as a mere insurance policy, and if unused, result in lost fees – only to be renewed again the following year. Also, manufacturer support is typically limited to the manufacturing company’s product line only – resulting in very specific and restricted support.

Products currently supported through TheAdmins CSO include:

  • All Citrix products
  • Microsoft (Active Directory, Messaging and Windows Server)
  • VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3 (VI4 support coming soon)
  • Cisco (routing and switching)

Service level agreement response time is as follows:

  • One-hour for telephone support
  • Four-hour for on-site coverage for New Jersey, New York City and Philadelphia

TheAdmins CSO is available now to new and existing TheAdmins customers. The cost of the service is $6,250 annually for 25 support hours, which can be used for telephone or on-site support seven days a week, 24 hours a day.

Upon depletion of the purchased hours, replenishment options are available. Any time remaining at the end of 12 months may be used for other TheAdmins IT services, such as projects, staff supplementation, system management and troubleshooting.