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Sun Microsystems Acquires Q-layer To Expand Cloud Offerings

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Sun Microsystems just announced it has acquired Q-layer, a cloud computing company that automates the deployment and management of both public and private clouds. The 35 people from the Q-layer organization, based in Belgium, will become part of Sun’s Cloud Computing business unit, which develops and integrates cloud computing technologies, architectures and services.

With this acquisition Sun logically expands its existing cloud building blocks on top of its xVM Virtualization product range. Let’s not forget Sun already bought MySQL and VirtualBox to that effect last year. Sun keeps doing many cool things with technology, but seems to have a persistent problem to generate meaningful revenue from those acquisitions and development. We are curious to see if time will prove their puzzle just took a bit longer to fall together.

The Sun press release goes on to claim the acquired ‘Q-layer technology simplifies cloud management and allows users to quickly provision and deploy applications, a key component in Sun’s strategy to enable building public and private clouds. As businesses continue to rely more on technology to drive mission-critical processes, the agility of the datacenter determines the flexibility of the entire company. The Q-layer software supports instant provisioning of services such as servers, storage, bandwidth and applications, enabling users to scale their own environments to meet their specific requirements.’

“Sun’s open, network-centric approach coupled with optimized systems, software and services provides the critical building blocks for private and public cloud offerings,” said David Douglas, senior vice president of Cloud Computing and chief sustainability officer, Sun Microsystems. “Q-layer’s technology and expertise will enhance Sun’s offerings, simplifying cloud management and speeding application deployment.”

The terms of the deal were not disclosed as the transaction is not material to Sun.

Disclaimer: Q-Layer is the longest running sponsor of Virtualization.com

Insight Enterprises Named First Reseller Partner In U.S. To Serve VMware Service Provider Program

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Insight Enterprises announced today that it has been named the first U.S.-based reseller partner to offer subscription licenses to serve the expanded VMware Service Provider Program (VSPP). With the addition of Insight, VSPP partners can now expect the licensing flexibility they need in hosting environments leveraging the VMware technology, marketing and training they need.

VSPP partners are part of the VMware vCloud Initiative, which delivers an enterprise-class cloud computing platform. The VMware vCloud initiative offers broad support for existing and new applications, and it enables federation between on- and off-premise clouds. The core technology underpinning of the VMware vCloud Initiative is a set of VMware vServices that provide the APIs and technologies to enable this federation and facilitate business needs such as flex capacity, disaster recovery, or test and development for enterprises. VMware vServices also enable cloud providers to simplify how SMBs acquire compute capacity.

With the growth of cloud computing and VMware’s vCloud initiative, Insight can enable service providers to rent VMware licenses to capitalize on the market opportunity in delivering new on-demand cloud-like services for enterprises and SMBs, while preserving their capital.

rPath: Cloud Computing In Plain English (Video)

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rPath recently announced “Cloud Computing in Plain English,” an animated short video (YouTube) which takes a lighthearted look at cloud computing while bringing clarity to what has become a somewhat confusing concept.

rPath plays a key role in this trend by providing an approach that reduces the cost and complexity of deploying and maintaining enterprise applications that run in the cloud and other virtualized or traditional environments.

“Cloud Computing in Plain English” touches on cloud’s foundational technologies — virtualization, utility computing, and software as a service — explaining each in terms that are easily understood by laypeople. The video goes on to clearly yet simply differentiate cloud computing from its component technologies, and finally, underscore cloud computing’s business benefits.

Xeround Puts Out Intelligent Data Grid 2.8

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Xeround, a provider of database virtualization software, earlier this week announced the launch of the Xeround Intelligent Data Grid version 2.8.  Xeround’s vision is to enable cloud computing infrastructures for its customers by delivering data management within a cloud and data federation between clouds.  This release improves upon Xeround IDG’s capabilities for real time, scalable database virtualization that unifies data across multiple networks and businesses while still improving total cost-of-ownership.

Xeround IDG is built on a patented technology that can unify data across multiple networks and businesses in real-time and make that information available across a company’s entire  ecosystem of network elements and applications.  Unlike point products or custom solutions, Xeround IDG is a scalable, reusable, easy-to-implement distributed architecture that increases the efficiency of existing infrastructures.

IBM Launches “Resilient Cloud Validation” Program

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IBM today said it would introduce a program to validate the resiliency of any company delivering applications or services to clients in the cloud environment. As a result, customers can quickly and easily identify trustworthy providers that have passed a rigorous evaluation, enabling them to more quickly and confidently reap the business benefits of cloud services.

Cloud computing is a model for network-delivered services, in which the user sees only the service and does not view the implementation or infrastructure required for its delivery. The success to date of cloud services like storage, data protection and enterprise applications, has created a large influx of new providers. However, unpredictable performance and some high-profile downtime and recovery events with newer cloud services have created a challenge for customers evaluating the move to cloud.
IBM’s new “Resilient Cloud Validation” program will allow businesses who collaborate with IBM on a rigorous, consistent and proven program of benchmarking and design validation to use the IBM logo: “Resilient Cloud” when marketing their services.
IBM has delivered remote technology services to clients for decades and has developed strict standards for service quality — from infrastructure design to process excellence. Through its new Resilient Cloud Validation program, IBM’s Business Continuity and Resiliency Services unit will build on its 40-year history of eliminating downtime in the most demanding business environments to help cloud service providers meet the highest standards of resiliency. In addition, IBM Research has developed end-to-end tools for assessment and discovery within a customer’s configuration, modeling, ROI analysis, optimization and migration to a highly virtualized cloud environment.
IBM announced today that Allscripts, a leader in delivering innovation technologies that improve the health of patients and the bottom line of physicians and other healthcare organizations, is the first company to begin the certification process. The designation is expected to enable Allscripts to enhance the current online data backup service it provides to better serve the needs of the 150,000 physicians who use the company’s electronic health records, e-prescribing and practice management solutions. Next Spring, Allscripts will release a new online backup service, powered by IBM, which will provide a simple, easy to deploy remote data protection service, helping to ensure that sensitive patient information and medical documentation will be encrypted, securely stored away from the customer location, and easily recovered at a moment’s notice.
IBM’s Business Continuity and Resiliency Services have 155 data centers around the globe, and offer a range of capabilities from advisory services to fully-managed resilient infrastructures. These teams are available today to evaluate current cloud architectures against resiliency best practices, identify, quantify, and prioritize gaps and risks, then provide the ongoing design assistance and management expertise to run more resilient infrastructures.
The IBM “Resilient Cloud” program will be available in early 2009.