Virtualization.com

News and insights from the vibrant world of virtualization and cloud computing

virtualization

KPIT Cummins and VaST Partner to Deliver Virtualization Tools and Services to Automotive Industry

by Leave a Comment

VaST, specialized in electronics virtualization, and KPIT Cummins Infosystems, product engineering partner to the Automotive industry, today announced a partnership to deliver electronic virtualization tools and specialized services to global automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers and ODMs. The combination of tools, software IP, and services accelerates cost reductions and quality improvement.

Increasingly automobiles are differentiated through software content and electronics, which requires improved methods for designing software rich systems. The partnership between VaST and KPIT Cummins focuses on methodology adoption services that speed the deployment of advanced virtual prototyping tools and methodologies such as networked ECU Virtual-Hardware-In-the-Loop simulations. Electronic virtualization is highly effective in reducing engineering costs while simultaneously enabling improved end-system software quality.
KPIT Cummins and VaST have individually proven their ability to deliver leading-edge solutions for software rich automotive systems. By collaborating they offer a total solution composed of VaST’s de facto standard automotive virtualization tools supported by all major semiconductor suppliers, and KPIT’s automotive software services, in-vehicle network software, software platforms and System engineering services proven with over 50+ automotive OEMs, Tier 1s and semiconductor suppliers globally.

VIRTERA Says It Gave Open Solutions A 165% ROI On Virtualization

by Leave a Comment

VIRTERA, a services and consulting firm that specializes in maximizing virtualization Return on Investment (ROI), announced today that Open Solutions, a provider of integrated technologies for financial services providers, has realized a nine-month, 165 percent return on investment from virtualizing their global data center.

Open Solutions turned to VIRTERA, which specializes in ensuring enterprise organizations’ successful and rapid adoption of multi-vendor virtualization technologies, while optimizing the return on their IT investment. Ryan Marsee, Director of Corporate Networking for Open Solutions and his team leveraged VIRTERA’s unique professional services and consulting methodology, vSpectrum, to streamline the company’s virtualization deployment and to ensure their many vendor technologies worked seamlessly together.

As a result of VIRTERA’s experience and expertise, Open Solutions’ server compression was dramatically reduced to a 14:1 ratio (140 servers supported by 10 hosts) with server utilization plummeting by more than 50 percent from its prior 98 percent capacity.

In addition, VIRTERA also virtualized a portion of Open Solutions’ desktops. Currently, Open Solutions’ bandwidth-intensive, offshore development efforts require up to 12 hours for moving data from the company’s Cherry Hill, NJ and Glastonbury, CT data centers. With VIRTERA’s help, offshore developers can now tap into both U.S. locations and access on-demand data.

VMware and Patent #6397242 Go Back About 10 Years

by 1 Comment

Nice catch by Andrew Dugdell: it’s about 10 years ago that Scott Devine, Edouard Bugnion and Mendel Rosenblum filed patent #6397242, “Virtualization system including a virtual machine monitor for a Computer with segmented Architecture”.

Filing date: Oct 26, 1998
Issue date: May 28, 2002
Inventors: Scott W. Devine, Edouard Bugnion, Mendel Rosenblum
Assignees: VMWare, Inc.
Primary Examiner: Majid Banankhah
Attorney: Jeffrey Slusher
Application number: 9/179,137

Abstract
In a computer that has hardware processor, and a memory, the invention provides a virtual machine monitor (VMM) and a virtual machine (VM) that has at least one virtual processor and is operatively connected to the VMM for running a sequence of VM instructions, which are either directly executable or non-directly executable. The VMM includes both a binary translation sub-system and a direct execution sub-system, as well as a sub-system that determines if VM instructions must be executed using binary translation, or if they can be executed using direct execution. Shadow descriptor tables in the VMM, corresponding to VM descriptor tables, segment tracking and memory tracing are used as factors in the decision of which execution mode to activate. The invention is particularly well-adapted for virtualizing computers in which the hardware processor has an Intel x86 architecture.

rPath Introduces Cloud Computing Adoption Model

by 1 Comment

rPath today announced its Cloud Computing Adoption Model, which defines a pragmatic, five-step approach for the graduated adoption of cloud computing. The Cloud Computing Adoption Model will be rolled out on October 23, as part of an rPath webinar featuring guests Amazon Web Services, Forrester Research and MomentumSI.

Cloud computing holds real promise for enterprises and SMBs, as well as the ISVs and individual developers serving them. Among other benefits, cloud computing can help organizations:

  • reduce capital and operating expenses by increasing infrastructure utilization and reducing server sprawl;
  • reduce the cost of software consumption by allowing business lines to consume application functionality on demand and to align cost with value received; and
  • dramatically improve business agility and responsiveness by compressing deployment cycles and time-to-value for application functionality.

To help organizations realize the promise and avoid the perils of cloud computing, the Cloud Computing Adoption Model provides a pragmatic, actionable, step-by-step framework for achieving measurable benefits now, while laying the foundation for the strategic benefits of a cloud infrastructure over time.

For each level, The Cloud Computing Adoption Model outlines strategic goals, investment requirements, expected returns, risk factors, and readiness criteria for advancement.

Intel Picks Up NetEffect for $8 Million

by Leave a Comment

Intel Corporation today announced its acquisition of the assets of NetEffect, a network connectivity solutions company specializing in Ethernet products and technologies for server compute clusters.

Intel purchased NetEffect’s assets for $8 million, which include the company’s Ethernet product portfolio, intellectual property and technology. NetEffect was a provider of solutions incorporating iWARP, an Ethernet alternative to InfiniBand. NetEffect’s product portfolio includes 1 Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) adapters for servers and blade configurations as well as 10 GbE Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs).

Designed for multi-core processor-based servers and optimized for virtualization, Intel’s current portfolio of 10GbE server adapters includes single and dual port versions for both copper and fiber implementations. The NetEffect acquisition provides complementary High Performance Network Interface Card (NIC) products to Intel’s Ethernet portfolio.

NetEffect was founded in 1998 as Banderacom, a company focused on InfiniBand adapters and 16-port IB switch, and was recapitalized in 2004 as NetEffect. Thirty employees, primarily engineers, have joined the Intel team from NetEffect and will continue to be based in Austin, Texas.

Intel

Gartner Identifies the Top 10 Strategic Technologies for 2009, Virtualization and Cloud Computing Rule

by Leave a Comment

Gartner analysts today highlighted the top 10 technologies and trends that will be strategic for most organizations. The analysts presented their findings during Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, being held through October 16.

Gartner defines a strategic technology as one with the potential for significant impact on the enterprise in the next three years. Factors that denote significant impact include a high potential for disruption to IT or the business, the need for a major dollar investment, or the risk of being late to adopt.
These technologies impact the organization’s long-term plans, programs and initiatives. They may be strategic because they have matured to broad market use or because they enable strategic advantage from early adoption.
The top 10 strategic technologies for 2009 include:
Virtualization
“Much of the current buzz is focused on server virtualization, but virtualization in storage and client devices is also moving rapidly. Virtualization to eliminate duplicate copies of data on the real storage devices while maintaining the illusion to the accessing systems that the files are as originally stored (data deduplication) can significantly decrease the cost of storage devices and media to hold information. Hosted virtual images deliver a near-identical result to blade-based PCs. But, instead of the motherboard function being located in the data center as hardware, it is located there as a virtual machine bubble. However, despite ambitious deployment plans from many organizations, deployments of hosted virtual desktop capabilities will be adopted by fewer than 40 percent of target users by 2010.”
Cloud Computing
“Cloud computing is a style of computing that characterizes a model in which providers deliver a variety of IT-enabled capabilities to consumers. They key characteristics of cloud computing are 1) delivery of capabilities “as a service,” 2) delivery of services in a highly scalable and elastic fashion, 3) using Internet technologies and techniques to develop and deliver the services, and 4) designing for delivery to external customers. Although cost is a potential benefit for small companies, the biggest benefits are the built-in elasticity and scalability, which not only reduce barriers to entry, but also enable these companies to grow quickly. As certain IT functions are industrializing and becoming less customized, there are more possibilities for larger organizations to benefit from cloud computing.”