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AspenTech Releases aspenONE 2006.5, Integrates Microsoft Application Virtualization

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Aspen Technology, provider of software and services to the process industries, today announced that aspenONE version 2006.5 uses the latest Microsoft technologies to simplify IT rollout and management. The integration of aspenONE with Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Office Excel, and SoftGrid Application Virtualization supports IT standards, speeds time to deployment, and extends the reach of aspenONE within operations for improved manufacturing performance.

AspenTech

“aspenONE makes it possible to solve the difficult challenge of optimizing manufacturing performance in complex process industries such as energy, chemicals and pharmaceuticals. By incorporating the latest Microsoft technologies into the integrated suite of aspenONE applications, AspenTech enables process manufacturers to take full advantage of our combined technology solutions across the enterprise,” said Chris Colyer, Microsoft Director of Worldwide Manufacturing Operations.

aspenONE Process Engineering now supports Microsoft Application Virtualization, an engine that turns applications into centrally managed virtual services delivered on-demand. This enables IT departments to accelerate the deployment of engineering applications by more than 50 %. The applications are installed only once, rather than once per desktop, and can be deployed to groups of users more quickly and maintained more easily. In addition, for project-based companies and departments, virtualization also allows different versions of the same applications to run concurrently on the same machine.

[Source: press release (PDF)]

Google And Microsoft Set To Battle In The Clouds: App Engine vs. Red Dog

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Lots has been written already about Google’s new initiative called App Engine, a preview-release developer platform for Python applications, and now Microsoft seems to be throwing itself in the ring – where Amazon and Salesforce are also to be found – in order to get at least a piece of the cloud computing buzz momentum. LiveSide spotted a job posting with clear mentions of the Microsoft Utility Computing Platform, code-named Red Dog, and it sounds very much like a platform for building a Google App Engine type service.

LiveSide’s take:

“The posting itself is a little dense, written to appeal to seasoned developers looking for new challenges. But to paraphrase a bit, here’s what the (CIS) team is building with Red Dog:

  • an “efficient, virtualized” environment
  • a “fully automated service management system” (like the Google App Engine, you won’t have to worry about managing the system)
  • on “highly scalable” storage services (you only use the storage you need)
  • the service will “scale to millions of machines” across Microsoft’s data centers (geo-located, easy to maintain data centers, remember?)
  • “will lead the marketplace as the best platform for rapid development, deployment, and maintenance of internet services and applications”
  • SDK and tools will be included for external and internal customers
  • V1 for external customers in the coming year

Meanwhile, Gartner analysts Daryl Plummer and Thomas Bittman reportedly stated at the Gartner Emerging Technologies conference in Las Vegas that it will be another year – 2009 – before companies will start using cloud computing services extensively. “In the meantime, folks will have to define and sort out a lot of mumbo jumbo about the cloud.”

Interesting times!

Hyper-V Release Candidate Now (Optional) Part Of Windows Update

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In a post on the WSUS Product Team Blog, Program Manager Cecilia Cole lets us know that the Hyper-V RC is now an optional part of Windows Update.

Today, April 8, the Windows Update team is making the Hyper-V Release Candidate package available as an “Optional Update” via Windows Update for all Windows Server 2008 SKUs. It will also be published as an “Optional Update” to WSUS. For more detailed instructions, please refer to How to Install Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V Release Candidate.

For more information about the availability of new and changed updates available for WSUS, please visit our TechNet site under “WSUS Updates”.

[Source: Dugie’s Pensieve]

Citrix Releases XenServer 4.1, Simplifies Pricing Policy

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This sure took a while: Citrix finally upgraded XenServer yesterday with the 4.1 release, adding some 50 new features for the first major version upgrade since Citrix acquired XenSource last August.

Citrix XenServer 4.1

Some of the most compelling new capabilities:

  • XenMotion: Seamlessly move virtual machines without downtime
  • XenCenter: Unified virtualization management interface, including servers, storage and networking
  • Native 64-bit hypervisor: Scalability and support for enterprise applications
  • Resource Pools: Efficient configuration, allocation and authentication for virtualization resources
  • XenAPI: Integration with existing management invesments, infrastructure and processes

But it’s the change in pricing policy, which it dubs ‘groundbreaking‘, that deserves a closer look the most: with the release of 4.1, the company is moving away from counting sockets to charging on a per-physical server basis for all XenServer editions. Citrix claims this should let customers have an unlimited number of virtual machines or guest operating systems running on a server for the same price.

XenServer starts at $ 600 per server for an annual license, and $ 900 per server for a perpetual license. Customers using the old pricing structure will need to wait until their current licenses run out before making the change. The new pricing applies to all industry standard 64-bit servers with up to four CPU sockets.

Curious to see if VMware will change its pricing strategy too, and if Microsoft will adapt accordingly (both VMware as Windows Server 2008 Data Center edition with Hyper-V will be charged on a per-processor basis).

Microsoft Heading Forward With Container-Based Data Centers

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Not entirely related to virtualization as such, but hugely relevant as far we’re concerned: Microsoft is getting serious about embracing containers as the key to building scalable, energy-efficient cloud computing platforms. The company’s bold move is an affirmation of the potential for containers to address the most pressing power, cooling and capacity utilization challenges facing data center operators. Microsoft’s new Chicago facility is part of the company’s fleet of next-generation data centers being built to support its Live suite of “software plus services” online applications.

DataCenterKnowledge quotes Microsoft Director of Data Center Services Michael Manos:

“The entire first floor of Chicago is going to be containers. This represents our first container data center. The containers are going to be dropped off and plugged into network cabling and power.” The second floor of the immense facility will be a traditional raised-floor data center, Manos said. “It’s a bold step forward. We’re trying to address scale with the cloud level services. We were trying to figure the best way to bring capacity online quickly.”

Manos added that the facility will accommodate between 150 and 220 shipping containers, which will be shipped and dropped off by trucks. That approach led Microsoft to consult with parking lot operators to address the design logistics of enabling large trucks to navigate within the facility.

In 2006, Sun Microsystems introduced Project Blackbox (now the Sun MD S20), the first effort at a “data center in a box” incorporating a high-density computing environment into a 20-foot shipping container. The containers can travel on trains, ships or trucks.

We were thinking about adding a joke about containers containing containers (you know, the software ones), but it’s getting late and we’ve had quite a busy, interesting day already.

Microsoft To CIOs: “Virtualization Is Too Expensive”

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At the European CIO summit, Barbara Gordon, Microsoft’s EMEA VP for Enterprise Sales stated that Microsoft sees price as a differentiator in the virtualization market.

“What I hear is that users need to take out cost from their environments and virtualization is the credible approach. You have to ask if virtualization today is delivering cost effective value? And that it justifies the costs that are being charged?” She added, “Price is a differentiator. Existing players are quite expensive. Microsoft can add value to this market with a server play and an application play.”

Asked if the Microsoft Hyper V would have different versions that would offer different levels of functionality similar to those offered by VMware Gordon would not be drawn, according to Australian PC World.

“The time of individual point products is lessening. Our approach will be take a look at the environment, and make sure that the right virtualization functionality fits that environment. The fact is that it is the technologies that work well together and have good functionality that will let the user spend time adding value. So we’ve got a very broad offering.”

Martin Niemer, Senior Product Marketing Manager at VMware (yes, also the one that said Dell would soon start shipping servers with VMware ESX Server 3i included free of charge, said:

“We’re not seeing any signs that customers don’t understand all of the issues associated to moving to virtualization. They understand that what it comes down to is that even the hyper visor is zero cost, which Hyper V won’t be, the question is how many virtual machines can you run on a server. If you can’t run that many you still have to run it on two servers and that doubles your cost. That’s really going to be the decision point. It depends on what users want. If you want basic partitioning you can buy a server with a Vmware ESX 3i integrated hyper visor or buy a foundation version of ESX. And if you want additional functionality such as high availability you can buy a slightly more expensive licence.”

Niemer said he didn’t foresee Vmware being forced to adjust its pricing when Hyper V came to market.

We’ll see.