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SpringSource Partners Up With VMware For Spring-Powered Enterprise Virtualization Offering

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SpringSource today announced at SpringOne Americas 2008 a new relationship with VMware that will help organizations to seamlessly develop and deploy Spring applications in VMware virtualized environments.

The collaboration with VMware, a SpringSource Certified Solutions Partner, includes integration between SpringSource Tool Suite, an Eclipse-powered development environment for building enterprise applications using the Spring Portfolio, and VMware Workstation to enable the dynamic creation of virtual machines on developer desktops.

SpringSource is also developing two open source application-server virtual appliances – the SpringSource tc Server and dm Server virtual appliances. When run on VMware Infrastructure, these appliances will enable the portability of enterprise Java applications across desktop and data center environments. SpringSource dm Server is a completely modular, OSGi-based Java server designed to run enterprise Java applications and Spring-powered applications with a new degree of flexibility and reliability. SpringSource tc Server is the enterprise version of Apache Tomcat – the most widely used Java application server – hardened for enterprise use and coupled with mission-critical operational capabilities and support that systems administrators require.

SpringSource Tool Suite integration with VMware Workstation will enable development and QA professionals to quickly and easily specify virtual server configurations for different development and test scenarios. These virtual appliances will allow developers to select a variety of build targets with different operating systems and application server configurations without needing additional physical hardware – dramatically accelerating software development times and reducing hardware costs. Virtual appliance configuration, deployment and debugging will be integrated with the SpringSource Tool Suite, and ready-to-use virtual images will be provided for dm Server, tc Server and Apache Tomcat.

The first SpringSource/VMware commercial offerings are scheduled for availability in January 2009.

Tideway Releases Foundation 7.2

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Tideway today announced the availability of Tideway Foundation 7.2. The latest version of Tideway’s automated discovery and application dependency mapping software aggregates critical hardware reference and software end-of-life data traditionally spread across multiple vendors and asset management systems. The new features give organizations a single platform from which to analyze power consumption statistics for business applications, view their carbon footprint, and ensure end-of-life, unsupported software is not being used in production applications.

Foundation 7.2 also delivers enhanced capabilities to track end-of-life dates to manage data center software through the entire lifecycle, from introduction to retirement, and reduce the support costs and business risks for aging software. It combines automatically discovered data about software versions in the environment with known end-of-life information from vendors to track software aging on an ongoing basis. Users can ensure standardization and compliance and avoid costly fees by having end-of-life, end-of-support and end-of-extended-support information easily accessible and mapped to precisely where the software exists in the data center.

Both the expanded hardware reference data and end-of-life tracking in Foundation 7.2 are powered by Tideway’s Knowledge Update Service (TKU), a continuously updated, community-directed library of configuration information that catalogs software and hardware assets and business applications running in data centers.

Additionally, Foundation 7.2 includes new dynamic discovery extensions that enhance the flexibility of the platform. Users can build custom extensions to Foundation independent of Tideway product release cycles to address their own unique IT environment. Foundation 7.2 ships with a pre-built extension for database discovery. This extension identifies the structures and data within any JDBC-supported database, understands dependencies on specific database tables, and dynamically references non-discoverable data held in database tables, such as physical locations or ownership.

Tideway Foundation 7.2 will be generally available in January, 2009.

Beta Release: Virtual Computer NxTop

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“We are celebrating a major milestone at Virtual Computer this week, as we now have our first NxTop beta customer up and running.”

Those are the first words of the blog post announcing the first NxTop beta integration from Virtual Computer, a startup that was in stealth mode until they launched last August.

You can register for the beta program here if you would like to learn more.

Kaseya Announces Upgraded Backup / Disaster Recovery And Endpoint Security Modules

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Kaseya announced today the release of two new versions of its popular Kaseya Endpoint Security (KES) and Backup and Disaster Recovery (BU-DR) modules. The new releases offer significant automation capabilities for fast deployment and efficient utilization of IT resources.

The endpoint security module provides integration for unified deployment and management of anti-virus, anti-spyware and rootkit protection for Microsoft OS-based servers, workstations and mobile computers. KES is integrated at both the user interface and database levels with Kaseya’s complete suite of IT automation software, providing for seamless operation and eliminating complexity.
This allows users to automate IT management and have full visibility of all deployment, configuration, status and operations of endpoint security, all within Kaseya’s unified and consistent Web-based console.
The new backup and disaster recovery functionality now includes Incremental Forever and Synthetic Full Backups for efficient offsite replication and user-defined archival capabilities. In addition, new features for Instant Virtualization allow any backup to be converted to a VMware, ESX or Virtual PC virtual disk remotely and automatically within minutes. This is an enormous time-saver that significantly eases the restoration process. With just a few clicks, customers can instantly have a key system up and running in a virtual environment. This makes it possible to recover files and folders in real time to an existing machine, to a “bare metal” machine, or to a virtual machine.

Kaseya Endpoint Security 2.0 and Backup and Disaster Recovery 3.0 are available immediately.

Gartner Analysts: Virtualization Will Be Disruptive For Server And Storage Vendors

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This comes from the 27th Annual Gartner Data Center Conference, which opened at the MGM Grand Conference Center in Las Vegas: virtualization is proving to be a disruptive trend for server and storage vendors, according to Gartner analysts.

“Virtualization should be seen as not just a tool for (server) consolidation, but as a modernization catalyst,” said Thomas Bittman, a Gartner VP and Chief of Research for its Infrastructure and operations area. “It’s changing how we deal with the business.”

As DataCenterKnowledge points out, Bittman foresees the emergence of a “meta operating system” – a virtualization layer between applications and distributed computing resources that will play a central role in the next-generation data center.

[Read more…] about Gartner Analysts: Virtualization Will Be Disruptive For Server And Storage Vendors

VMware Releases VMware View 3 For Virtual Desktop Environments

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VMware today announced the general availability of VMware View 3. With VMware View 3, IT organizations can “decouple” a desktop from specific physical devices or locations to create a personalized view of a user’s desktop, applications, and data – called “myView” – that is securely accessible from almost any device, at any time. By hosting these virtual desktop images in the datacenter using the industry-leading virtualization and management platform, VMware Infrastructure 3, VMware View 3 enables IT personnel to provision and manage thousands of virtual desktops simply, securely, and with substantially lower operating costs.

VMware View 3 is a major step in VMware’s vClient Initiative, announced at VMworld 2008 in September, to solve the “desktop dilemma.” As described by VMware President and CEO Paul Maritz, the desktop dilemma is the business choice of whether to provide thick or thin clients for employees. Thick clients, or fully loaded PCs, give employees a rich set of applications in their desktop environment, but are a management nightmare because applications can be distributed across thousands of PCs that must be provisioned, updated, patched and secured individually.

Thin clients are cheaper, more secure, and more cost-effective to manage, but traditionally have not been able to deliver the richness, flexibility, or compatibility of a thick client. Most businesses provide thin clients only for employees such as call center staff who can be productive in a more stripped-down environment. VMware View 3 solves this dilemma by combining the benefits of both approaches – delivering rich, personalized virtual desktops to any device (whether thick or thin), while simplifying management and securing endpoints with virtual desktops hosted in the datacenter.

VMware View 3 is a family of products available in two editions:

  • VMware View 3, Enterprise Edition: includes VMware Infrastructure Enterprise Edition and VMware View Manager 3, a flexible desktop management server enabling IT administrators to quickly provision and tightly control user access.
  • VMware View 3, Premier Edition: includes VMware Infrastructure Enterprise Edition, VMware View Manager 3, VMware ThinApp for agentless application virtualization and VMware View Composer, a new product that enables IT staff to create multiple virtual desktops from a single image, increasing the speed of provisioning desktops and reducing storage requirements.

With the following new products and technologies, VMware View 3 is the only enterprise-class solution that delivers simple, end-to-end management of virtual desktops and virtual applications from the datacenter to the client:

  • VMware View Composer is a new product that uses Linked Clone technology to create virtual desktops rapidly from a master image while consuming up to 70 percent less storage space. Automated image preparation and provisioning take only seconds and are centrally controlled by View Manager. In addition, View Composer can reduce management costs by enabling IT to update thousands of individual virtual desktops by simply updating the master image with a patch or application update and then applying the changes to each desktop cloned from the master image. View Composer provides this one-to-many image updating while preserving user data, settings, and preferences so patching is seamless to end users.
  • VMware ThinApp is bundled with VMware View 3 to enable simplified application packaging and deployment to a virtual desktop environment. ThinApp and View Composer work together to provide streamlined virtual desktop image creation and updating. ThinApp enables applications to run independently of the host operating system version or patch level. This simplifies updating and patching applications, and provides additional storage reduction for virtual desktops by centralizing and compressing applications. ThinApp’s unique architecture does not require an agent on the user’s desktop, a major advantage compared to other techniques for virtualization applications.
  • Offline Desktop, an experimental feature, provides the flexibility to intelligently and securely move virtual desktops between the datacenter and a local laptop or desktop, increasing user productivity while providing secure mobility. Users can “check out” a virtual desktop onto an ordinary PC, such as a laptop, run the virtual desktop locally and then check it back in to the datacenter. Offline Desktop allows a user to keep using his virtual desktop when no network is available, or simply to take advantage of local resources for the best virtual desktop user experience available.
  • Unified Access, a new feature of VMware View Manager 3, provides desktop administrators with a single management platform for multiple types of sessions. VMware View Manager 3 connects to desktop environments hosted on VMware Infrastructure, or user sessions running on Windows Terminal Servers or even physical PCs such as a blade PC. Individuals have a single point of access to seamlessly connect to their desktop environment, while administrators have a single point of administration.
  • Virtual Printing provides end users the ability to print to any local or network printer without installing specific printer drivers. Virtual Printing technology provides compression for print jobs and auto detection of local printers from the client. This eliminates printer driver issues and the need for printer configuration. End users get high quality printing with enhanced performance across the WAN.
  • Multimedia Redirection improves the user experience with rich multimedia playback capabilities. The multimedia processing tasks are intelligently redirected from the server to the end user device where the multimedia stream is decoded, taking advantage of the local processing power.

VMware View 3 is available immediately through VMware sales and the company’s extensive network of OEM partners and more than 20,000 channel partners. VMware View 3 Enterprise Edition is priced at $150 per concurrent connection and the VMware View 3 Premier Edition is priced at $250 per concurrent connection.