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Virtual Bridges Adds VERDE To Win4VDI Product Family

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Virtual Bridges, a provider of desktop and enterprise virtualization solutions for education and business, announced today the release of a new product in its Win4VDI family. Virtual Bridges’ VERDE (Virtual Enterprise Remote Desktop Environment) is a platform for consolidating Linux desktops on x86-based Linux and Solaris servers.

VERDE uses ordinary thin clients for end-points. Organizations benefit from reduced energy consumption, fewer points of failure, and increased security when compared to traditional desktop environments. The VERDE stack further facilitates desktop management through the use of powerful virtual machine technology.

Through Virtual Bridges’ work on virtual desktop computing with hundreds of thousands of users, the company has crafted a product that delivers all of the core features a typical organization would require to accomplish their IT goals. Features like automatic local printing, one-click Windows installation, the ability to integrate with Active Directory, availability of web display or third-party display options, use of write-protected Windows system images for true malware resistance, and integration of RDP support, are just some of the features that combine to put Win4VDI in the lead of the desktop virtualization and consolidation market.

Win4VDI, Virtual Bridges’ Educational/SMB and enterprise product, allows an organization to easily and cost-effectively deliver multiple Windows desktop sessions to PCs, Workstations and thin clients from a non-Windows server such as Linux and Solaris OS.

Maintaining and upgrading desktop computers physically distributed across an organization is a difficult and slow process that is also not effective for users who find themselves with aging computers with degraded performance.  VERDE offers IT organizations the ability to easily deploy “desktop as a service” across the organization for both fixed-function as well as custom desktop users, all from a central location, reducing the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of desktop computing.

VERDE allows organizations to standardize the application environment to users regardless of desktop hardware and operating system – Windows, UNIX, Linux or Mac can be used on the client, but a common application profile can be created and served from VERDE server configurations such as blade servers, rack arrays or large multi-way machines.

The VERDE product is available immediately.

icomasoft UnvilesVI PowerScripter Professional

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icomasoft (earlier coverage) today announced the release of its new icomasoft VI PowerScripter Professional to define the “next generation of integrated, best-of-breed” management of VMware environments. This first release of VI PowerScripter Professional delivers market-leading management capabilities for VMware ESX and VirtualCenter Servers. It allows to rapidly addressing management and compliance requirements across the virtual infrastructure.

VI PowerScripter Professional includes an integrated scheduler for the automation of management tasks in VMware, a functionality that the VMware community has been looking for. Another important enhancement is a built-in wizard that guides users through script management and scheduling tasks, eliminating human errors in routine jobs.

The newest version of this product also includes SSH CmdLet for file copy and command execution on SSH servers, such as VMware ESX, Linux, Solaris, as well as Network and Storage systems. VI PowerScripter Professional is based upon Microsoft’s de-facto standard “PowerShell” and integrates seamlessly into VMware. All authentications and permission are inherited and, therefore, no additional login procedures are required. With VI PowerScripter Professional customers can use native VirtualCenter scheduled tasks functions and execute VI PowerShell scripts through dynamically created context menus. The product is capable of handling VM or host-based scripts locally and from network shares as well as to automate and control VMware Consolidated Backups.

VI PowerScripter Professional is a major enhancement of VMware ESX and VirtualCenter functionality. It includes a templates repository for the most common VI management tasks, such as “setup and delete virtual switches and port groups”, “change of root passwords on ESX hosts”, “restart of host-based VirtualCenter agents”, “disconnect virtual drives”, search and display of VMware log files, various statistics, etc. For compliance purposes all VI PowerScripter activities are recorded in a log file.

According to feedback from the Virtualization Community during the beta phase, IT administrators can save up to two hours per day by using VI PowerScripter Professional for scheduling and automating their routine administration tasks. Moreover, the product simplifies monitoring and analysis, and provides the foundation for accurate billing and accounting. The fact that VI PowerScripter Professional does not require additional login procedures and permission settings adds to the security of the operational environments. Users will experience the familiar look and feel of VMware management console and do not need to get trained. An included templates repository ensures that customers will benefit from a wide range of best-practice scripts and a quick ROI. Custom-made scripts can be ordered from icomasoft’s consulting services.

icomasoft VI PowerScripter Professional is now available and can be purchased directly from icomasoft. The downloadable full version provides a 15-days trial period. The product sells at € 285.00 per administrator console, including 1st-year maintenance and support. Volume discounts are available.

FrontRange Solutions Launches Enteo v6 SR2

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FrontRange Solutions, the developer of business software solutions, has announced the launch of its latest Client Lifecycle solution, Enteo v6 SR2, which helps organizations extend management of their IT systems to include secure zones and software virtualization based on VMware Thinapp.

While Demilitarized Zones (DMZs) have become a key feature of many IT organizations’ operations, managing the IT assets located in this secure area of the network has presented a number of problems. FrontRange Enteo Client Lifecycle Management solution eases the management of these vital systems without the need to change firewall or other security settings. This allows IT staff to maintain and update systems located in the DMZ far more quickly than was previously possible, ensuring a higher level of availability and productivity.

Enteo v6 SR2 also enables virtualized applications to be deployed and managed in the same way as physical operating systems, applications and patches. This enables organizations to more easily take advantage of the benefits of software virtualization, while also eliminating the need to separate configuration management systems to manage both physical and virtual assets.

Enteo v6 SR2 also introduces a wealth of additional new client management features, including support for Windows 2008 Server deployment, integration with the latest FrontRange ITSM solution and the ability to directly import IT asset data from the Centennial Discovery audit solution.

Enteo v6 SR2 is available with immediate effect.

Microsoft Releases System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 RTM

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Microsoft has released System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2008, its enterprise management console for its hypervisor platform Hyper-V. You can download a free trial version here.

From Softie Keith Combs’ blog:

Highlights of System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008

  • Support for VMs Running on Windows Server 2008
    • System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 was designed to fully utilize the foundational features and services of Windows Server 2008 and Microsoft Hyper-V™ Server. This includes Hyper-V’s 64-bit architecture, attack hardened security model, fail-over cluster support (see below) and others.
    • Virtual Machine Manager 2008 (VMM) supports the management of hosts running Hyper-V and VMM can actually enable Hyper-V remotely from the VMM 2008 console.
    • VMM 2008 integrates with new clustering support in Windows Server 2008 to allow for fault-tolerant and cluster aware virtual machines to be created
    • VMM 2008 supports all Hyper-V functionality while providing VMM-specific functions, such as Intelligent Placement, the Self-Service Portal, and the integrated Library.
  • Multi-Vendor Virtualization Platform Support
    • In addition to support for Hyper-V, VMM 2008 integrates multi-hypervisor management into one tool with its support for virtual machines running on VMware ESX infrastructure and Microsoft Virtual Server.
    • VMM 2008 provides comprehensive support for VMware VI3 including moving virtual machines among virtual hosts with no downtime via VMotion, through integration with VMware’s Virtual Center.
    • VMM 2008 specific features such as Intelligent Placement, consolidation candidate recommendations and others can be run against virtualized infrastructure on any supported platform.
    • Windows PowerShell™ scripts for customization or automation are also supported across Hyper-V, VMware ESX or Virtual Server implementations
  • Host Cluster Support for “High Availability” Virtual Machines
    • With greatly expanded support for failover clusters, VMM 2008 improves its “high availability” capabilities for managing mission-critical virtual machines. VMM 2008 is now fully cluster-aware meaning that it can detect and manage Hyper-V host clusters as a single unit.
    • New in this version of VMM is automatic detection of virtual hosts that are added or removed from the cluster – thus easing the burden on the administrator to manage this function.
    • In VMM 2008, creating a high availability virtual machine (HA VM) has never been easier. Gone are the complex multi-step manual processes from before – now, an administrator clicks a simple checkbox which designates a VM as highly available. Behinds the scenes, VMM orchestrates the creation of that HA VA which includes instructing the Intelligent Placement feature of VMM 2008 to recommend only hosts that are part of a host cluster for the newly minted HA VM.
    • Improved HA VM management features of VMM 2008 include the Failover Cluster Management Console for various cluster-related tasks such as designation and management of cluster reserves, letter-less disk drives, guest clusters, among others.
    • VMM 2008 also supports VMware host clusters in which the nodes of the cluster are VMware ESX Servers.

VirtualLogix VLX Now Supports Symbian OS

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VirtualLogix today announced that its virtualization software product, VirtualLogix VLX, is the first to support Symbian OS, the market leading open operating system for advanced data-enabled mobile phones. VirtualLogix will demonstrate a prototype configuration of the Symbian OS running simultaneously with Linux on several mobile platforms at the Symbian Smartphone Show in London, on 21-22 October 2008.

The first product to support Symbian OS on a virtualized mobile platform, VirtualLogix VLX provides new opportunities to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and semiconductor vendors to leverage the benefits of virtualization in their phone product designs. As a member of the Symbian Partner Network, VirtualLogix is committed to developing ground-breaking solutions based on the Symbian platform for the benefit of the mobile industry.
VirtualLogix VLX for mobile handsets separates hardware management and application management on mobile platforms, allowing an application running on the Symbian OS to access a peripheral device managed by another operating system kernel, such as Linux. With additional security for financial and other high-risk transactions, VirtualLogix VLX for Symbian permits handset manufacturers and wireless operators to deliver more reliable mobile phones with advanced features to the mass market.

Open Kernel Labs Hypervisor Embbeded In First Android Phone

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Open Kernel Labs (OK Labs), a provider of systems software and virtualization technology for mobile devices and other embedded systems, announced today that the company’s OKL4 embedded hypervisor is employed on the Qualcomm chipset inside the market’s first-ever commercial Android-powered handset.

Manufactured by HTC, the G1 introduced by T-Mobile in September 2008 is the first handset powered by the Android software platform developed by Google and the Open Handset Alliance. At the heart of the G1 is the Qualcomm MSM7201A, a dual-core ARM family device with hardware-accelerated multimedia, 3D graphics and integrated multi-mode 3G baseband processing.

Android is likely to attract significant attention from third-party developers as a competing platform for reaching a large number of mobile phone users. The combination of open source software, third-party applications, and internet connectivity represented by Android is indicative of next-generation mobile phone deployment environments in which the reliability and security benefits provided by microkernel-based OKL4 are essential.

OK Labs’ OKL4 open source embedded hypervisor helps developers deliver increasingly complex software for mobile devices—in less time and with less effort—without compromising the reliability and security of those devices. Focusing on the specific requirements of mobile phones, using proven high-performance microkernel technology, and building on an open source code base uniquely position OKL4 as the optimal software architecture for next generation mobile devices.

OKL4 is available from OK Labs under open source and commercial licenses.