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Microsoft Hyper-V

HDS Comes Out With Hitachi Storage Cluster for Microsoft Hyper-V

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Hitachi Data Systems Corporation, a subsidiary of Hitachi and provider of Services Oriented Storage Solutions, today announced the availability of Hitachi Storage Cluster for Microsoft Hyper-V, a new business continuity and disaster recovery solution for virtualized environments based on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V.The solution combines Microsoft Windows Server 2008 capabilities such as high availability through Microsoft Multipath I/O, server virtualization and clustering with the proven platform capabilities of Hitachi storage virtualization and system-based replication to create a cost effective, highly available and remotely replicated virtual server infrastructure for organizations looking to reduce business risk and associated downtime costs.

Hitachi Storage Cluster for Microsoft Hyper-V extends Microsoft migration capabilities to remote sites, allowing midrange to enterprise customers to replicate and migrate virtual machines within virtualized environments either locally or across geographically dispersed sites. The solution also features breakthrough automated failover and data resynchronization, as well as simplified failback of virtual machines. Additionally, organizations looking to optimize business continuity can use the quick and live migration capabilities of Windows Server for local protection of virtual machines.

According to a recent report by Enterprise Strategy Group, an estimated 85 percent of organizations who suffer a major disaster and do not have a viable business continuity or disaster recovery solution in place are either out of business one year after the disaster or suffer huge financial losses. In addition to the many benefits that server and storage virtualization can provide separately such as consolidation, improved resource utilization, and improved performance, Hitachi Storage Cluster for Microsoft Hyper-V can help organizations reduce downtime and improve data availability, which have important risk-reduction and cost savings implications.

Hitachi Storage Cluster for Microsoft Hyper-V is immediately available through Hitachi Data Systems Global Solution Services (GSS).

Quest Software Releases vWorkspace 6.0

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Quest Software recently announced the general availability of Quest vWorkspace 6.0, its platform-agnostic virtual desktop management solution allowing the management of multiple desktop deployment models and virtual application delivery. Previously branded Provision Networks Virtual Access Suite, Quest vWorkspace offers customers a desktop deployment and application delivery platform that further extends Quest’s EOP capabilities.

New to vWorkspace is full integration and automation with Parallels Virtuozzo Containers, the OS-level server virtualization solution for desktop deployments with native scalable single image management capabilities and minimal storage requirements.

Quest vWorkspace simultaneously supports and fully integrates and automates application delivery, desktop deployment, and management from Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware ESX, Virtual Iron and Parallels Virtuozzo Containers.

Release: Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 Beta

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Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 Beta is the beta release of the stand-alone hypervisor based product Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008, first released in September 2008.

The new Beta contains the same virtualization feature-set as Hyper-V that is part of Windows Server 2008 R2 Beta.  Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 can be downloaded here and now includes:

  • Processor and memory support: Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 Beta now supports up to 8-socket physical systems and provides support for up to 32-cores.  In addition, Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 Beta supports up to 1TB of RAM on a physical system.

  • Updated Hyper-V Configuration Utility: The Hyper-V Configuration utility is designed to simplify the most common initial configuration tasks.  It helps you configure the initial configuration settings without having to type long command-line strings.  New configuration options have been added for R2 Beta including:

    • Remote Management Configuration

    • Failover Clustering Configuration

    • Additional options for Updates

  • Failover Clustering: The initial release of Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 did not include support for failover clustering.  However, with Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 Beta, host clustering technology is included to enable support for unplanned downtime.
  • Live migration: Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 includes support for live migration. Live migration enables customers to move running applications between servers without service interruptions.

With live migration and failover clustering, customers receive high availability and dynamic migration capabilities for both planned and unplanned downtime.

DataCore Introduces SAN Software Starter Packages For SMBs

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DataCore Software has announced an expanded line of new SAN software starter packages priced for small-to-midsize businesses (SMBs).

The high cost and complexity of traditional SAN storage required to support virtual servers and desktops puts it out of the reach for many small and mid-size businesses. DataCore’s new packages firmly reset the industry’s starting price point for business continuity solutions that provide true auto failover/failback high-availability and fault tolerance. These new packages provide a new level of automated storage protection to ensure business uptime, while also significantly lowering the cost and complexity barriers of SAN storage for Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix, Virtual Iron, Parallels, VMware and other server and desktop virtualization environments.

The new software packages, with entry prices starting at under $2,000 per server, include thin provisioning, data migration technology, storage performance caching software, snapshots for fast disk backups, remote site disaster recovery replication and DataCore’s High Availability (HA) data protection. In virtual server and desktop environments, DataCore’s HA is unmatched in automation (true failover/failback recovery), manufacturer independence (storage and server brands), network connectivity (iSCSI or FC, or both) and proven fault tolerance (deployed in thousands of systems worldwide).

DataCore’s new packages fill the gap between low-end, Windows system replication solutions that provide limited single system data protection (e.g. Double-Take Software) for VMs at a cost of thousands and higher-end, enterprise-class storage arrays and SAN that provide necessary protection but are complex and often cost $100,000 or more. With these packages, DataCore has created a new class of SAN solutions that deliver the highest-end data protection capabilities at a SMB price point.

Release: DotNetPanel 2.8.1 And A Hyper-V Hosting Control Panel Module

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DotNetPanel announced earlier this week the release of DotNetPanel 2.8.1 and the new Hyper-V module for creating, managing, and selling VPS accounts. Nearly two months in beta, hosting companies now have access to the first-ever Windows hosting control panel that uses Hyper-V technology.

DotNetPanel offers free 30-day trials of the new Hyper-V module, giving hosting companies the opportunity to experience the benefits of using a remarkably low-priced solution for managing and automating VPS hosting services.

DotNetPanel’s Hyper-V module also complements existing offerings including Virtuozzo. Compared to Virtuozzo, the Hyper-V provides complete VPS isolation, guaranteed memory for each VPS, snapshots management, DVD media library, and networking management.

Novell Offers Solution For Workload Management In The “Mixed IT Data Center”

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Novell today announced significant enhancements to its PlateSpin Workload Management solution. The new PlateSpin Recon, PlateSpin Migrate, PlateSpin Protect and PlateSpin Orchestrate enable customers to profile, migrate, protect and manage server workloads between physical and virtual infrastructures in heterogeneous IT environments. Through these new enhancements, PlateSpin Workload Management is the only solution on the market today to support 32- and 64-bit Windows and Linux servers, as well as all leading hypervisors including Citrix XenServer, Microsoft Hyper-V and Virtual Server, VMware ESX and ESXi and Xen integrated in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.

As data centers increasingly deploy diverse hardware platforms, operating systems and virtualization technologies in heterogeneous environments, the artificial boundaries between physical and virtual machines are being erased by portable workloads – the combination of an operating system, application and data software independent from the underlying physical or virtual platform. PlateSpin Workload Management enables data center administrators to optimize the distribution of workloads to provide the best performance for users and applications across both physical and virtual machines. As a result, customers can transform their IT environment into a more efficient and resilient next-generation data center.

PlateSpin Workload Management has added key functionality that makes PlateSpin a critical component of the day-to-day operation of the next-generation data center. PlateSpin Recon, PlateSpin Migrate and PlateSpin Protect are available now. PlateSpin Orchestrate will be available in the first quarter of 2009.