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Release: New Version Of KACE Virtual Kontainers

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KACE, a systems management appliance company, today announced a new version of its application virtualization technology, KACE Virtual Kontainers.

New functionality, including easier patching and expanded application compatibility, positions the company at the forefront of application virtualization innovation and offers users an even easier to implement and maintain solution, leading to significant time and money savings.

Application virtualization, which allows users to run applications without the need for a traditional installation, is notoriously known for high-costs and complexity. KACE Virtual Kontainers 2.0, offered via a single, integrated Web-based console, provides users with an easier, faster and significantly less expensive alternative for creating, deploying and managing virtual applications.

This major new technology release includes considerable improvements in the areas of application compatibility and support for updating and patching virtual applications. And with the ability to publish applications via self-service user portal, KACE Virtual Kontainers 2.0 reduces administrative overhead even more.

KACE Virtual Kontainers 2.0 pushes traditional application virtualization technologies to a new level by extending the benefits beyond the features typically associated with these solutions. Some of the new features in the new KACE Virtual Kontainers release include:

  • Improved application compatibility by way of a new signature update service which allows for KACE to respond more rapidly than any other application virtualization product when it comes to adding support for changes to Windows, middleware and challenging new applications;
  • The ability to easily update, patch or modify an existing virtual application package directly, without the need to start over with each required change;
  • Self-service user portal support so administrators can provide virtual applications via a simple Web-based interface, saving time associated with ad-hoc deployments and keeping user desktops uncluttered with software they do not need;
  • Command line support for administrators that prefer to script operations themselves, including the ability to create a Kontainer package from the command line.

KACE Virtual Kontainers 2.0 is available immediately. Pricing starts at $3,995 per 100 computers. Volume discounts are available.

KACE saves its customers both time and money. Systems managers are increasingly forced to wear many hats throughout the day to work on a myriad of IT functions. KACE helps consolidate these functions by providing a single appliance for all projects, while delivering easy-to-use, comprehensive systems management that is affordable. The KBOX family of systems management and deployment appliances fulfills all of the systems management needs of an enterprise, from initial computer deployment to ongoing management and retirement.

KACE Introduces Virtual Kontainers

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KACE today announced KACE Virtual Kontainers to help companies dramatically simplify the distribution and management of applications. This announcement comes on the heels of new Forrester Business Data Services (BDS) research that reported a whopping 74 percent of small- to medium-sized businesses are looking to desktop and application virtualization to solve their costly PC management challenges.

Application virtualization solutions are notorious for their high cost and complexity. KACE Virtual Kontainers, the first technology innovation resulting from KACE’s acquisition of Computers in Motion, provides users with an easier, faster, and significantly less expensive alternative for creating, deploying, and managing virtual applications. What’s more, KACE offers all these functions via a single, integrated Web-based console. KACE Virtual Kontainers is the newest addition to KACE’s award-winning KBOX family of systems management and deployment appliances and the latest technology innovation that saves customers significant time and money.

With KACE Virtual Kontainers, KACE pushes traditional application virtualization technologies to a new level by extending the benefits beyond the features typically associated with these solutions. Some of the new features of KACE Virtual Kontainers include:

  • Application Isolation – isolated applications eliminate the need for traditional application installation and removal to avoid the decay that occurs when installing and removing application files over time;
  • Simple and Fully Automated Creation – KACE Virtual Kontainers are easily created without the need of specialized skills so experienced (and more expensive) personnel need not waste time learning yet another way of doing business;
  • Centralized Appliance-Based Management – centralized management provides an intuitive Web-based console that allows management of the entire application lifecycle from anywhere via an easy-to-deploy appliance;
  • Active Metering and Control – in order to better manage the use of applications across a corporate network, active metering enables complete control of where and when applications may be executed based on location, hours used, and even on the number of available licenses to enforce concurrent license limits.

KACE Virtual Kontainers will be generally available in April.

KACE Study: Virtualization Gains Momentum With SMBs

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KACE today announced the results of a new study that revealed more than three quarters of medium enterprises have adopted some form of virtualization. In addition the research showed the fastest growing area for virtualization is application virtualization, with 64 percent of medium organizations reporting they have either deployed or plan to do so in the next year. Also uncovered is the need for an integrated solution for systems management and virtualization. Seventy-one percent prefer to combine their systems management tools for both virtual and physical systems in a single, integrated product and many prefer their systems management tools offer integrated application virtualization management capabilities.

The research, consisting of an online survey of more than 500 respondents, the majority from medium-sized enterprises, was conducted by King Research and commissioned by KACE to gather data about the current state of virtualization adoption among medium enterprises. Focusing on hot-button issues such as growth of adoption, barriers to deployment, the importance of managing mixed physical and virtual IT environments, and specific areas of virtualization growth, the research revealed adoption of virtualization among the medium enterprise proved to be as rapid as enterprise adoption.
A summary of the key findings from the study include:
— 64 percent reported they have adopted or plan to adopt application virtualization in the near future, making application virtualization the fastest growing virtualization segment among medium enterprises surveyed;
— 85 percent of respondents revealed they have deployed virtualization technologies or plan to do so within the next twelve months;
— A reduction in hardware requirements was cited by 82 percent as the primary benefit they have achieved with virtualization;
— Over half reported cost savings as the most important consideration when justifying the cost of virtualization;
— 71 percent of respondents who have deployed application virtualization technologies cited they prefer systems management tools for virtual and physical systems offered in a single, integrated product;
— 86 percent felt that virtualization has had a positive impact on them personally — almost half cited they could do more with their budgets due directly to virtualization.
Survey metholodogy
A database of IT professionals was emailed and invited to participate in a Web survey on the topic of virtualization. A total of 519 respondents completed the survey representing hands-on IT professionals (36 percent), IT managers (32 percent), IT executives (2 percent) and others. This survey focused primarily on the responses of the 291 participants (56 percent) from mid-sized companies, those with 100-5000 employees.
The survey was conducted using Zoomerang, an online survey tool. Respondents were not compensated for participating in this survey except to be offered a copy of the final report. This survey was sponsored by KACE, a provider of IT automation appliances.

KACE Releases New Version Of KBOX Systems Deployment Appliance

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KACE today announced the latest version of KBOX Systems Deployment Appliance. The new release, now shipping, enables enterprises of all sizes to smash cost and complexity barriers by providing centralized and automated provisioning of remote systems. The new appliance works in both physical and virtual settings and offers new virtual remote appliance features including integrated virtual infrastructure and bandwidth throttling for even easier deployment of systems at remote offices, as well as new packaged post deployment scripts that eliminate manual work.

Remote provisioning of laptops, desktops, and servers can be a costly and complex task for IT organizations. KACE makes remote provisioning easy by automating the entire deployment process, eliminating time-consuming and error-prone manual tasks. The new KBOX Systems Deployment Appliance deploys software at a fraction of the price and complexity of software-only solutions from vendors such as Altiris, LANDesk, and also Microsoft.

KACE continues to separate itself from costly software-only solutions by offering the only all-in-one, complete management solution. Software-only solutions require separate servers for all major functions, such as reporting, database, and deployment. The KBOX Systems Deployment solution performs all of these critical functions from the ease of a single appliance. In addition, KBOX has the ability to manage multiple remote offices without the need for dedicated hardware at those locations through the KBOX Virtual Remote Appliance. These capabilities dramatically reduce the resources necessary to manage PCs at a multi-site organization, thus eliminating the need for additional hardware and software, and also dedicated staff. Disparate systems can be managed remotely from a single appliance helping customers cut down on cost and complexity – a key differentiator software-only solutions cannot touch.

KACE saves its customers both time and money. Systems managers from medium enterprises are often forced to wear many hats throughout the day to work on a myriad of IT functions. KACE helps consolidate these functions by providing a single appliance for all projects, while delivering easy-to-use, comprehensive systems management that is affordable. The KBOX family of appliances fulfills all of the systems management needs of a medium enterprise, from initial computer deployment to ongoing management and retirement.

KACE Buys Into App Virtualization Market With Computers In Motion Acquisition

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KACE (previous coverage), the systems management appliance company, Tuesday announced its entry into the application virtualization market with its acquisition of Computers in Motion. Financial details of the acquisition are not being disclosed. The company intends to release products around this acquisition by year-end.

Established in 2001, Austin-based Computers in Motion provides technology focused on making applications easy to distribute and secure through application virtualization technologies. With this acquisition, KACE plans to revolutionize the application virtualization market by extending the benefits of virtualization to other desktop management areas such as application security and data management. The technology and development staff of the Computers in Motion team will form the foundation of KACE’s application virtualization products.

A preview of KACE Virtual Kontainers will be offered at KACE’s booth at the upcoming VMworld Conference in Las Vegas.

The Computers in Motion acquisition fits in squarely with KACE’s strategy of lowering the total cost of ownership for IT organizations through its appliance-based systems management and virtualization technology. This acquisition also builds on the product momentum KACE has made throughout the year in the virtualization market, including the recent launches of the Virtual KBOX Systems Management and KBOX Virtual Remote Appliances offerings.

KACE

KACE Releases Virtual Appliance Enabling Remote OS Provisioning

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KACE, a management appliance company we covered earlier this year, today announced the industry’s first virtual remote appliance to deliver remote operating system (OS) provisioning. As part of its KBOX family of appliances, the new KBOX Virtual Remote Appliance allows a central KBOX to extend full systems provisioning to remote offices, helping organizations to eliminate the cost and time associated with manual imaging approaches.

Consisting of an easy-to-deploy virtual appliance that resides in an organization’s remote offices, Virtual Remote Appliances work in conjunction with a central KBOX Systems Deployment Appliance to push out entire OS deployments to offices outside of a corporate network, oftentimes hundreds, or even thousands, of miles away.

By automating machine provisioning at remote offices, KACE gives IT administrators a centralized way to execute deployment tasks, such as hardware independent network OS installation, disk imaging, software distribution, configuration management, and recovery at any location.
Virtual Remote Appliances allow the KBOX to provision systems in any remote office, including the ability to:
  • Provision from a centralized deployment library of operating systems, disk images, drivers, and applications;
  • Perform hardware independent network OS installation (scripted installation);
  • Deploy disk images;
  • Utilize a GUI-based pre-installation environment for the recovery of corrupted systems;
  • Deliver full reporting capabilities for system history, installation, and images.
Virtual Remote Appliances are available now and included at no additional cost with the purchase of a KBOX Systems Deployment Appliance.
KACE