virtualization

New Linux Kernel: More Support for Virtualization

July 16, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Nearly three months in the making, the new Linux kernel (version 2.6.26) announced by Linus Torvalds through a mailing list, boasts read-only bind mounts, “big-iron” KVM ports, USB webcam support, 802.11s mesh WiFi, built-in support for remote kernel debugging, and a host of embedded architecture improvements, among other enhancements.

Among the most significant improvements are changes to the Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) virtualization software, first included in the kernel in February of last year. KVM normally uses the technique of full virtualization, which simulates all the underlying hardware necessary to run a given client system, with the support of virtualization technologies built into AMD and Intel chips. The latest kernel update adds limited support for paravirtualization, a technique that only partially virtualizes the hardware in order to improve performance.

KVM has also, for the first time, been ported to non-x86 hardware platforms Intel IA64 and IBM PPC and S/390, developers said.

[Source: ZDNet UK]

Leostream Puts Jack Hembrough In Charge Of Sales and Marketing

July 16, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Leostream, the young hosted desktop connection broker that recently announced it had raised $3 million in Series A funding, today announced it has appointed Jack Hembrough to the position of Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Hembrough has spent over 20 years in the hardware and software business, creating successful start-ups and running profitable businesses.

Hembrough comes to Leostream from Application Security, a venture-backed software security company, where he served from its inception as President, CEO, and later as Chairman of the Board, growing the company to over $20 million in annual sales.

Prior to joining Application Security, Hembrough was Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales for Authentica, and as the fourteenth employee at Raptor systems, Hembrough was part of a highly successful IPO, subsequently leading Raptor’s expansion as Vice President and General Manager of the European operation, based in Amsterdam.

Additionally, he has held senior executive positions in sales and management at Information Resource Engineering (now SafeNet), and Motorola Corporation.

[Source: MarketWatch]

VMware Formally Releases ThinApp 4.0 Into The Wild

July 16, 2008 by Robin Wauters 1 Comment

Only a few days later than anticipated, VMware has released ThinApp 4.0, its first application virtualization solution (formerly called Project North Star) after snapping up Thinstall earlier this year.

ThinApp 4.0 (build 2200) is the next major release of the former Thinstall solution called Application Virtualization Suite 3.2, and has certain new features, such as:

Application Sync: enables you to deploy application updates. Application Sync automatically checks for and installs updates to your packaged applications. Updates might include changes such as a new version, service pack updates, or configuration changes in the package.ini file
Application Link: connects deployed applications. For example, you can establish a relationship between a deployed instance of Microsoft Office 2003 and a new Microsoft Office plug-in. Application Link enables you to establish a link between applications without having to encapsulate them into the same executable package

A trial download is available here.

ThinApp comes bundled with VMware Workstation under the name ThinApp Suite. The company offers a starting package for 50 concurrent clients at $6,050 (including a 12×5 Gold Support yearly subscription), with additional clients starting at $47.19 (including a 12×5 Gold Support yearly subscription).

VMware

Citrix Aims To Make Creation of Hypervisor-Independent Application Workloads Easier with Project Kensho

July 15, 2008 by Robin Wauters 2 Comments

Citrix today announced “Project Kensho,” which will deliver Open Virtual Machine Format (OVF) tools that allow independent software vendors (ISVs) and enterprise IT managers to easily create hypervisor-independent, portable enterprise application workloads. These tools will allow application workloads to be imported and run across Citrix XenServer, Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and VMware ESX environments.

Citrix boasts this implementation will solve a multitude of interoperability issues between virtualization platforms while allowing automated provisioning and management of applications, rather than just virtual machines. Users will be able to easily install and use any OVF packaged application workload regardless of which virtualization platform they use – whether it be XenServer, Hyper-V, or ESX.

“XenServer delivers the benefits of fast, free, ubiquitous and compatible virtualization, whether from Citrix, Microsoft or VMware,” said Simon Crosby, CTO of the Virtualization and Management Division, Citrix Systems. “Project Kensho highlights the Citrix commitment to interoperability for virtualization, while maximizing price/performance and richness of features at the virtual infrastructure level.”

The OVF specification was originally co-authored by Citrix and VMware, with contributions from Dell, HP, IBM and Microsoft. The companies then jointly submitted the draft to the DMTF standardization process.

Project Kensho will support the vision of the Citrix Delivery Center product family, helping customers transform static datacenters into dynamic “delivery centers” for the best performance, security, cost savings and business agility. The tools developed through Project Kensho will be integrated into Citrix Workflow Studio based orchestrations, for example, to provide an automated, environment for managing the import and export of applications from any major virtualization platform.

A technical preview of Project Kensho tools is expected to be available for free download in September 2008.

Phoenix To Integrate HyperSpace into NEC Notebooks

July 15, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Phoenix Technologies announced that NEC will be among the first PC manufacturers to integrate Phoenix HyperSpace, a virtualized operating environment that enables instant-on applications running independently and alongside Windows. NEC has signed an agreement with Phoenix which will allow it to deliver “unprecedented levels of security” for its notebook customers, enabled by HyperCore, Phoenix’s firmware-based hypervisor.

The Phoenix HyperSpace environment includes ManageSpace, which enables security applications to operate before, during and after Windows Vista boots up and shuts down. As a result, NEC notebooks will be secured before malware gets downloaded by Windows applications. This is possible because virus definition files are updated in ManageSpace while preventing Windows access to the network.

Michael Borman Joins Avocent as CEO

July 15, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Avocent, provider of hardware, software and embedded technologies for managing IT infrastructures, announced that its Board of Directors has named Michael Borman to serve as the Company’s Chief Executive Officer. He will start effective July 15, 2008, and was also elected as a member of the Company’s Board of Directors.

Borman, 53, most recently served as Vice President, Worldwide Sales, IBM Software Group. His previous roles at IBM included General Manager of the i-Series and p-Series server product lines as well as other executive positions in general management, including overseas assignments in Asia. Michael Borman also served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Blue Martini Software.

Ed Harper, who is currently serving as interim Chief Executive Officer, will continue to serve as Chairman of the Board.

[Source: AP]