virtualization

Virtutech Announces Simics: Checkpointing for SystemC Based Transaction-Level Modeling

July 28, 2009 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Virtutech, specialized in virtualized systems development (VSD), today announced that its Simics platform now provides full-system checkpointing for SystemC based transaction-level modeling (TLM). OEM and semiconductor developers now can save, restore and share the precise and full-system state to bypass lengthy system boot and restart steps, share the system among engineering team members, capture and duplicate bugs, parallelize testing and offer product training from virtual platforms.

Virtutech is the only vendor to enable full-system, mixed-architecture checkpointing that reaches far beyond a simple save and restore function for individual elements of a SystemC virtual platform. The Simics checkpoint captures a snapshot of the complete system and can be restored at any point or location, on any host and by anyone so that software development, integration or test efforts can continue as if they had never been interrupted. Simics checkpointing works with mixed modeling languages to enable unique capabilities such as language freedom, portability across model versions, differential saving of memory and disks, the ability to easily change the level of model abstraction and to archive multiple target setup configurations.

In the past decade, checkpointing has become one of the most utilized and valuable capabilities within Virtutech Simics. The addition of SystemC checkpointing complements existing support for models written in C, C++ and Python to provide developers with a seamless, robust simulation solution for software, hardware and systems development bringing benefits that are difficult or impossible to achieve using physical hardware.

NextIO Strikes Partnership with Avnet Technology Solutions

July 28, 2009 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

NextIO today announced that it has entered into an agreement with Avnet Technology Solutions, the operating group of Avnet. Under the terms of the agreement, Avnet will act as NextIO’s primary integration partner and exclusive distributor of NextIO’s I/O virtualization solutions to its IBM reseller partners in the United States and Canada.

The NextIO Express Connect product provides an all-encompassing I/O solution for today’s dynamic data center. NextIO provides customers with the largest breadth of server I/O choice for any-to-any connectivity without the need to change existing infrastructure and lays the foundation for I/O virtualization in any server environment. Express Connect enables servers to access many more I/O devices than are available by default. Server I/O devices are contained in the NextIO Express Connect appliance and are accessed by multiple servers as a flexible and dynamic pool of I/O resources.

NextIO provides customers with cost savings, flexibility and manageability, while protecting their existing infrastructure investments. As the industry leader in next-generation I/O virtualization solutions, NextIO provides enterprise-class servers with faster installations, network transparent I/O upgrades, minimal service disruptions, and less operational management overhead.

Fujitsu Launches Enterprise-Grade Infrastructure as a Service in the UK

July 28, 2009 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Fujitsu has today announced the availability of a range of new on-demand Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offerings including a storage service and a development infrastructure service. The new services will benefit organisations looking for the flexibility and cost effectiveness associated with cloud computing but who are nervous about the security and reliability of the public cloud.

As well as the new offerings themselves, Fujitsu will provide consultancy and integration services to help customers make the most efficient use of IaaS.

Fujitsu’s storage service provides tiered information management capabilities in four critical areas; storage capacity with block or file access, data protection and archive infrastructure, all available as a service using the right storage infrastructure to achieve optimum cost efficiency.

Fujitsu will be hosting the services using its own high-security UK-based data centres – a significant factor as organisations become increasingly concerned about the legal ramifications of allowing their data to be stored outside the UK. For top security and high performance systems Fujitsu also offers a private service on the customer’s premises using their own retained data centres.

In response to the tight timescales and unpredictable workload peaks of development projects, Fujitsu’s new development infrastructure service reduces the cost and risk of project delays by providing server and storage infrastructure on a weekly basis. This will eliminate wasted resources and allow project teams to scale-up with fast provisioning of additional resources. Fujitsu is finalising a service designed for live production business systems, which will be available later this year.

Fujitsu’s storage and server services use advanced technology from leading brands, EMC, Cisco and Fujitsu, providing enterprise class performance and functionality that is trusted by major corporations around the world.

There will be a further announcement detailing the full Infrastructure as a Service suite in the Autumn.

Earnings: VMware’s Q2 2009

July 23, 2009 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

VMware today announced financial results for the second quarter 2009 (emphasis ours):

Revenues for the second quarter were $456 million, flat from the second quarter of 2008.
Non-GAAP operating income for the second quarter was $96 million, a decrease of 14% from the second quarter of 2008. GAAP operating income for the second quarter was $38 million, a decrease of 38% from the second quarter of 2008.
Non-GAAP net income for the quarter was $80 million, or $0.20 per diluted share, compared to $92 million, or $0.23 per diluted share, for the second quarter of 2008. GAAP net income for the second quarter was $33 million, or $0.08 per diluted share, compared to $52 million, or $0.13 per diluted share, for the second quarter of 2008.
Cash and cash equivalents were $2.3 billion and total deferred revenues were $934 million as of June 30, 2009. Compared to the same period a year ago, cash increased 48% and deferred revenue increased 30%. Since the beginning of 2009, cash increased 24% and deferred revenue increased 7%.
Non-GAAP operating cash flows for the quarter were $233 million, an increase of 19% from the second quarter of 2008. GAAP operating cash flows were $243 million, an increase of 62% from the second quarter of 2008. For the trailing twelve months ended June 30, 2009, non-GAAP operating cash flows were $910 million and GAAP operating cash flows were $1 billion.

US revenues for the second quarter declined 3% to $234 million from the second quarter of 2008. International revenues for the second quarter grew 3% to $222 million from the second quarter of 2008.

Services revenues, which include software maintenance and professional services, were $228 million, an increase of 32% from the second quarter of 2008. Driven by the challenging macro economic environment, license revenues were $228 million, a decline of 20% from last year.

Recent Strategic Announcements and Highlights:

On May 21, VMware announced the general availability of VMware vSphere 4 with the support of an extensive partner ecosystem and customers around the globe. In June, VMware vSphere 4 was named the Best of Interop 2009 Grand Prize Winner and won the Best of Interop Award in the Cloud Computing and Virtualization category at Interop Las Vegas.
VMware announced record storage performance for VMware vSphere 4, outperforming any virtualization solution on the market and nearly quadrupling its previous record. According to data collected with VMware Capacity Planner, most demanding databases usually require a few thousand IOPS in storage performance. For example, an Oracle database averages 1,280 IOPS for a 4-way Oracle virtual machine. VMware vSphere 4 exceeds this requirement from a single server — and can power up to: 700,000 Microsoft Exchange mailboxes, 273 4-way Oracle databases.
VMware and HP expanded the companies’ strong relationship with VMware signing an OEM agreement to integrate HP Discovery and Dependency Mapping software into the VMware vCenter(TM) suite and working with HP on new datacenter management initiatives. In addition, HP has integrated VMware ThinApp(TM) with the HP Client Automation policy-based management platform. Both of these initiatives will help customers seamlessly and cost-effectively manage their physical and virtual datacenter and desktop initiatives.
On July 13, VMware announced advancements in virtualization management with the general availability of two new products: VMware vCenter AppSpeed and VMware vCenter Chargeback. VMware also announced a major release of VMware vCenter Lab Manager 4. These new management products simplify and automate key IT processes such as application performance monitoring, chargeback, and management of dev/test environments to increase IT productivity in the datacenter — delivering more value to customers as they scale out their virtual environments.

Earnings: Citrix’ Q2 2009

July 23, 2009 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Citrix today reported financial results for the second quarter of fiscal 2009 ended June 30, 2009. In the second quarter of fiscal 2009, Citrix achieved revenue of $393 million, compared to $392 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2008.

Non-GAAP net income in the second quarter of fiscal 2009 was $72 million, or $0.39 per diluted share, compared to $71 million, or $0.38 per diluted share, in the comparable period last year.

Non-GAAP net income excludes the effects of amortization of intangible assets primarily related to business combinations and stock-based compensation expense and the tax effects related to those items. In addition, Non-GAAP net income for the second quarter of 2009 excludes charges recorded in connection with the restructuring program that the company implemented in January 2009, and the tax effects related to those items.

In reviewing the second quarter results for 2009, compared to the second quarter of 2008:

Product license revenue decreased 15 percent;
Revenue from license updates grew 9 percent;
Online services revenue grew 18 percent;
Technical services revenue, which is comprised of consulting, education and technical support, grew 3 percent;
Revenue increased in the America’s region by 3 percent, decreased in the EMEA region by 12 percent, and decreased in the Pacific region by 4 percent;
Deferred revenue totaled $538 million, compared to $476 million on June 30, 2008;
GAAP operating margin was 10 percent for the quarter, and non-GAAP operating margin was 22 percent for the quarter, excluding the effects of amortization of intangible assets primarily related to business combinations, stock-based compensation expense and costs associated with the restructuring program;
Cash flow from operations was $86 million; and
The company repurchased 1.3 million shares at an average price of $30.32.

During the second quarter of 2009, Citrix:

Announced the availability of the Citrix Receiver application on the Apple App Store. The app gives iPhone and iPod touch users access to their Windows applications and documents from anywhere;
Unveiled Citrix NetScaler VPX, a new software-based virtual appliance version of its industry-leading NetScaler MPX hardware appliance product line;
Announced upgrades to Citrix Essentials for XenServer and Hyper-V that adds advanced virtualization management capabilities to two of the industry’s fastest growing virtualization platforms;
Announced nCore technology that allows its high-end Citrix NetScaler appliances to deliver rich Web 2.0 applications and cloud services for more users with no new hardware investments required;
Announced the addition of three new appliance models to its powerful Citrix NetScaler product line – NetScaler MPX 9500, MPX 7500 and MPX 5500;
Announced that LG-Nortel will distribute the Citrix NetScaler product line to enterprise customers in the Korean market; and
Unveiled Citrix Dazzle – a self-service “storefront” for enterprise applications. Dazzle gives corporate employees 24×7 self-service access to a broad array of applications, desktops and content, allowing them to choose exactly what they need, when they need it.

PHD Virtual Extends esXpress Support To VMware vSphere 4

July 23, 2009 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

PHD Virtual Technologies, provider of the esXpress data protection and recovery solution for virtual machines, today announced that esXpress has been extended to support VMware vSphere 4.

This new release of esXpress version 3.6 also includes significant enhancements for all versions of VMware’s ESX platform version 3.0.2 and above. An optimized deduplication engine dramatically increases backup speeds and fuels performance for file-level restores, as well as VMDK restores and data archival via a Windows Share.

esXpress, with new support for vSphere 4, performs backup and recovery using the virtual environment itself. By creating virtual backup appliances (VBAs) – small virtual machines – the solution can be deployed in minutes on VMware servers, and provides the most scalable environment for backing up virtual machines. New performance enhancements include:

Improved file level restore speeds are now up to four times faster
Data Restoration and Archival via Windows’ Shares are now up to four times faster
Improved PHDD deduplication image-level restore speeds up to twice as fast
Accelerated deduplication engine provides initial backups that are seeded at double the previous rates

esXpress continues to support up to 16 concurrent backup/restore streams per host and all backups can be self-restored without using esXpress or other proprietary virtual machine infrastructure. esXpress’ block level backups are de-duplicated source side, ensuring data is compressed and deduped before it every leaves the host. This ensures that network traffic is kept to a minimum even while backing up over a WAN link.