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Dell Invests $1 Billion In Cloud Data Centers, Service Enhancements

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Dell today announced it is increasing its investments in new technology solutions and services.

In its current fiscal year, Dell will invest $1 billion to deliver solutions, services and cloud-based delivery options to help customers capture the benefits from new compute and information delivery advancements.

Over the next 24 months, Dell will build multiple data centers around the world to provide its customers access to public and private cloud technologies and its IT outsourcing capabilities. These new data centers will allow customers to take advantage of Infrastructure-, Platform- and Virtual Desktop-as-a-Service offerings as well as IT outsourcing.

Dell will open 12 Global Solution Centers this year and is planning 10 more over the next 18 months, to better bring open, capable and affordable solutions to organizations around the world. This global network of solution centers will provide a backdrop for customers to learn about Dell’s industry-focused solutions and domain expertise.

Announced today, Dell vStart accelerates and simplifies virtualization adoption by providing an easy way to purchase a complete virtual infrastructure solution delivered ready to run physical and virtual workloads. With vStart, an entire functioning virtual infrastructure solution is delivered ready to run up to 100 or 200 virtual machines from a single management environment – including Intel Xeon-based Dell PowerEdge servers, Dell EqualLogic storage, Dell PowerConnect switches, deployment services, hypervisors, and essential virtualization management extensions.

Dell vStart currently supports VMWare and support for other hypervisors is planned in the coming quarters.

Also today, Dell and Microsoft announced a three-year strategic initiative to help customers quickly deploy and manage virtualization and private cloud technologies. Management solutions will be based on Dell’s Virtual Integrated System, Dell Advanced Infrastructure Manager and Microsoft System Center and will deliver improved integration across the physical, virtual and application layers. Virtualization solutions will be based on Microsoft Windows Server Hyper-V.

Future jointly-engineered solutions based on Dell’s hardware and virtualization management technologies and Microsoft’s hypervisor and systems management technologies will simplify virtualization management, reduce costs and remove barriers to cloud adoption.

Pluribus Networks Raises $17.5 Million

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Pluribus Networks has raised $17.5 million in funding, an SEC filing reveals.

According to the company’s about page, its mission is to:

– Drive 3rd Wave of Virtualization into the Ethernet Hardware Market
– Deliver virtualized switches and distributed Netvisor operating system for true network virtualization with a fully programmable fabric
– Drive the commoditization of ethernet switch market

The company’s co-founders:

Robert Drost, Ph.D., CEO: former Senior Distinguished Engineer and Director of Advanced Hardware at Sun Microsystems

Sunay Tripathi (CTO): former Senior Distinguished Engineer for Sun Microsystems, and the Chief Architect for Kernel/Network Virtualization in Core Solaris OS.

C.K. Ken Yang, Ph.D., VP of Product Engineering: a Tenured Professor of EE at UCLA (on sabbatical)

Investors are Mohr Davidow Ventures and NEA.

(Via FormDs)

FastScale Lands $5.5 million Series B Financing

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FastScale Technology today announced that it has secured $5.5 million in a Series B funding round led by ATA Ventures and joined by prior investors Leapfrog Ventures, Hunt Ventures as well as a new strategic corporate investor. The company’s last round of financing occurred in late 2006, shortly before the launch of their flagship product, FastScale Composer Suite.

FastScale’s technology enables data centers to respond to constantly changing business requirements, server workloads, and server hardware with a server software platform that dramatically increases agility while significantly reducing day-to-day operating complexity and cost – whether the data center is virtualized, not virtualized or a hybrid of the two. The ground-breaking technology is the only solution on the market to fully automate the process of building, managing and deploying heterogeneous server software environments with compact software environments built on-demand, automatic patch and configuration management, lightweight provisioning in only seconds, and an enterprise-class repository for lifecycle management.

FastScale software environments average 95% smaller than traditional images, dramatically decrease memory requirements, and increase virtual server density by 300% or more. With FastScale’s solution, the entire server infrastructure, both physical and virtual, is a dynamic pool of resources able to adapt to constantly changing demands.

“FastScale’s approach to the growing issue of software complexity is breakthrough technology for data centers,” said Hatch Graham, managing director at ATA Ventures. “The technology provides an elegant way for enterprises to manage the complexity while increasing server consolidation and decreasing cost. We’ve seen what FastScale has done for customers, and it’s impressive. We look forward to working with the FastScale team to help drive the next stage of company growth.”

Reflex Systems Bags $8.5 Million in Series A Funding

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Reflex Systems today announced that it has secured $8.5 million in Series A funding lead by RFA Management Company, an Atlanta based private investment firm.

The deal marks the final step in the reorganization of Reflex Security Inc. by creating a new Georgia limited liability company, Reflex Systems LLC. Reflex Systems is exclusively focused on virtual management and security software solutions. The company’s award winning Reflex VMC (Virtualization Management Center) product provides the industry’s most comprehensive management solution with dynamic policy enforcement across the entire virtual datacenter, whether the virtual resources are hosted locally, remotely, or in a cloud environment.

“This funding is testament to the innovation that our management and security solutions are delivering to the rapidly growing virtualization market,” said Pete Privateer, CEO of Reflex Systems. “Organizations are investing in virtual infrastructure to streamline costs and operations during these extraordinary economic times. Likewise, the demand for tools to automate the management and security of virtual datacenters is a rapidly emerging market creating significant growth opportunities for Reflex.”

Teradici Raises $17 Million Series C Financing Round

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Teradici Corporation today announced completion of a US $17 million series C funding round for its PC-over-IP network-delivered computing technology. With network-delivered computing, users can work at inexpensive computer stations at any site, with all operating systems, applications, and data residing in central datacenters.

Teradici will use the new funds to continue to market its ground-breaking enterprise PC-over-IP technology around the world and to develop a new offering for consumers and small businesses. Customers of the future service would be able to sit at any workspace in the office, remote office, or user’s home, log in to access their system and files from the central datacenter. Customers would have the option of using their own equipment or receiving terminals as part of their contracted service. They receive exceptional graphics, multimedia, audio and USB connectivity without having to purchase, manage or maintain a PC.

Investors in the over-subscribed funding round include TELUS Ventures, the venture arm of TELUS, as well as Alloy Ventures, GrowthWorks Capital, Skypoint Capital, BDC Venture Capital, and Alta Berkeley Venture Partners.

Teradici also announced that Kevin Salvadori, Executive Vice President of Business Transformation & Technology Operations at TELUS, will assume a seat on its board of directors. Mr. Salvadori brings to the board extensive strategic and operational experience in Information Technology systems architecture, application development and maintenance, technology operations, and physical and technology security.

The investment by TELUS supports the organization’s efforts to partner with high-potential companies that offer unique technologies and innovative products that will accelerate growth initiatives within TELUS.

Pano Logic Raises Follow-Up Financing To The Tune Of $6 Million

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Pano Logic today announced it has closed an extension to its Series B round of $6 million led by Foundation Capital and Goldman Sachs. This funding brings the total Series B financing to $18 million, and completes a year of expansion for Pano Logic, which experienced quarter-over-quarter growth and has received extensive industry recognition since bringing its first product to market in late 2007.

Over the course of 2008, Pano Logic has significantly increased its install base and signed more than 150 partners including one of the leading distributors, Avnet. Additionally, the Pano Virtual Desktop Solution received a SearchServerVirtualization.com Product of the Year award, the red dot 2008, and Good Design 2008 product design awards. Pano Logic was also named a finalist for the 2008 Red Herring North America 100 Awards, which recognizes startups that will lead the next wave of disruption and innovation.