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Hostway Research: Virtualization Boosts Adoption of SaaS

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Three-quarters of organizations believe that server virtualization will drive adoption of software-as-a-service (SaaS), according to new research released today by web hosting firm Hostway.

Over 60 per cent of respondents said that they plan to adopt SaaS in some form over the next five years, and 45 per cent believe that the technology had not taken off until recently because of the lack of available virtualization technologies. Prior to server virtualization, SaaS providers found it difficult reliably to offer software on demand, according to Hostway.

“Without virtualization the business model for SaaS would not be viable,” said Hostway director Neil Barton. “The business model for SaaS means you need to get a high level of utilization from the servers that the applications in the cloud sit on. Virtualization enables this. The message to application vendors is that you need to either SaaS-enable your applications yourself, or partner with people who can allow your applications to be offered as a service.”

Source: VNUnet

F5 Networks Preparing New File Virtualization Software and Hardware Products

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File virtualization specialist F5 Networks is set to announce a pair of new products next week for moving and managing unstructured data.

The first of the planned products is the F5 ARX4000, a switch that provides global namespace and data management policies through an operating system common across all ARX models. The ARX4000 is also the first of the company’s file virtualization switches to support 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) networking.

The second new offering is the F5 Data Manager, a software-based management platform that runs on a Windows machine and interfaces directly with all file storage devices and ARX switches. The Data Manager gathers file storage statistics and provides graphical reporting and trending functions, all of which is designed to help customers plan for future growth.

Nigel Burmeister, director of product marketing at F5 Networks, says the ARX4000 fills a scalability and performance gap in the company’s current product line, while the Data Manager will give customers more control over how they manage and grow capacity for file storage.

The Data Manager software interfaces with back-end file systems and F5’s ARX file virtualization switches to monitor data in both physical and virtual environments. Data Manager collects a range of statistics, including file type, age, size, and more, using an optional File System Inventory Module (FSIM). The software rounds up that information and generates cumulative reports across a customer’s entire virtual infrastructure.

Customers can now download a free, 40-day trial version of Data Manager. The base price for the software is $1,500 and the cost of the FSIM is $10,000. The ARX4000, also available now, can support approximately two billion files and features 12 1GbE ports or two 10GbE ports in a 4U-high rack for $185,000.

Marketing Fail: Falconstor Screws Up Giveaway Contest at VMworld

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We’re so sorry we missed this at the VMworld conference: VMblog is reporting that Falconstor, provider of data protection solutions, screwed up a giveaway at their booth to the extent of turning the contestants against them.

The company was giving away a Segway to a person who would wear one of their branded orange t-shirts, if he/she was lucky enough to be the winner of a drawing. Instead, the person that was announced as the winner wasn’t wearing said t-shirt at the time of the call, but was awarded the Segway anyway. The orange shirt-wearing crowd wasn’t pleased with that, so next to shouting bad words to the booth occupants, they also threw their t-shirts back at them.

Lucky for us, it was caught on video.

Open Kernel Labs Hypervisor Embbeded In First Android Phone

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Open Kernel Labs (OK Labs), a provider of systems software and virtualization technology for mobile devices and other embedded systems, announced today that the company’s OKL4 embedded hypervisor is employed on the Qualcomm chipset inside the market’s first-ever commercial Android-powered handset.

Manufactured by HTC, the G1 introduced by T-Mobile in September 2008 is the first handset powered by the Android software platform developed by Google and the Open Handset Alliance. At the heart of the G1 is the Qualcomm MSM7201A, a dual-core ARM family device with hardware-accelerated multimedia, 3D graphics and integrated multi-mode 3G baseband processing.

Android is likely to attract significant attention from third-party developers as a competing platform for reaching a large number of mobile phone users. The combination of open source software, third-party applications, and internet connectivity represented by Android is indicative of next-generation mobile phone deployment environments in which the reliability and security benefits provided by microkernel-based OKL4 are essential.

OK Labs’ OKL4 open source embedded hypervisor helps developers deliver increasingly complex software for mobile devices—in less time and with less effort—without compromising the reliability and security of those devices. Focusing on the specific requirements of mobile phones, using proven high-performance microkernel technology, and building on an open source code base uniquely position OKL4 as the optimal software architecture for next generation mobile devices.

OKL4 is available from OK Labs under open source and commercial licenses.

Shunra Software Releases Shunra VE for VMware Infrastructure 3

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Shunra Software, provider of network emulation and application performance testing solutions, and VMware Technology Alliance Partner (TAP) program member, today announced it has released Shunra VE for VMware Infrastructure 3.

Both Shunra and VMware have already established close collaboration as members of the SAP Co-Innovation Lab, which provides a hands-on working environment for SAP, its customers and partners. This environment leverages partner technology, from companies including Shunra and VMware, to accurately simulate real-world application performance in a secure environment.

Xiotech Teams Up With Xcedex

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Xiotech Corporation today announced that it has entered into an alliance with Xcedex, a provider of virtualization consulting services. Under the agreement, Xiotech is now able to offer Xcedex’s proprietary X_Factor Virtualization Readiness Planning (VRP) and Virtualization Readiness Design (VRD) analytics tools to its customers, allowing them to assess their IT environments for the approval, preparation and planning of virtual projects. This added level of detail will pay off for clients in increased control, higher return on investment (ROI) and lower total cost of ownership (TCO) throughout their data centers.

Xcedex’s X_Factor technology performs an assessment of a pre-virtual network by running inside it for a period of time and collecting inventory on servers, storage and network devices. It then assigns a score to each device based on performance characteristics, which can be used to compare proposed virtualization scenarios to make an appropriate selection. Modeling is done to ensure compatibility with design and configuration options, and detailed reports on capacity and statistics are issued. To complete the process, findings are clearly presented along with a roadmap and financial analysis, allowing for conclusions to be drawn and recommendations to be formed. Put together, the entire process will help IT leaders create optimized virtualization strategies.

XIOtech, Inc.

Xiotech will be introducing Xcedex to its channel partners, who will be responsible for the implementation and support of VRP and VRD. Upon purchase, the tools are available for immediate installation and can be operational within a few days.