Virtualization.com

News and insights from the vibrant world of virtualization and cloud computing

Kbox

KACE Introduces Virtual Kontainers

by Leave a Comment

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 Releases New Version Of KBOX Systems Deployment Appliance

by 1 Comment

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

by 1 Comment

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

by Leave a Comment

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

Kace Integrates Virtual Systems Management Tool Kbox Into VMWare Infrastructure

by 1 Comment

Kace announced today what it calls the first virtual systems management appliances to run natively within the VMware infrastructure. Kace’s Virtual Kbox appliances offer users a software product that runs on the user’s existing hardware. Earlier versions of the Kbox appliance required the installation of separate hardware to deploy and manage IT resources.

virtualization-kace-kbox.png

The Virtual Kbox appliances family is now shipping and fully supports physical and virtual machines across Windows, Mac, Linux and Solaris environments.

“Unlike a generation of virtual appliances preceding it, the Virtual Kbox family provides a systems management and deployment solution that is fully integrated from a highly optimized and hardened operating system through an easy-to-use, Web-based application,” Rob Meinhardt, cofounder and CEO of Kace, told TechNewsWorld.

virtualiztion-kace-kbox-21.gif

The virtual appliance aims at delivering the benefits of a hardware appliance, including fast deployment times with low costs and ease of use. It also provides the benefits of virtualization, such as improved resource utilization, reduced energy and cost savings, improved maintainability and support and the ability to quickly scale. While the product’s name implies that it is an actual hardware device, it is a software product that runs on the customer’s computer. The virtual appliance product will do all that a physical appliance will do, he said. It provides the full range of features found in physical appliance management devices.

Virtualization is exploding in popularity in many enterprise categories. Organizations are seeking new ways to leverage this technology, also according to Meinhardt. “We’ve seen an incredible ramping up for virtualization. This gave us an opportunity to deliver our Kbox products for virtual appliance management,” said Lubos Parobek, Senior Director of Product Management for Kace.

Kace, which started in 2003, is targeting companies with from 100 to 1 000 employees. It currently has 450 customers worldwide, mostly in the SMB category, according to CEO Rob Meinhardt.”That gives us up to 100 000 companies worldwide as potential users,” he said.

Technorati Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Company Index: VMWare

[Source: TechNewsWorld]