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Tenable Releases Virtual Appliance for Nessus

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Tenable Network Security recently announced the general availability of a virtual appliance for the Nessus Vulnerability Scanner.

Tenable’s Nessus Virtual Appliance for VMware is a pre-built, pre-configured and ready-to-run software application packaged with the operating system inside a virtual machine. This is available to Tenable ProfessionalFeed subscribers as a free download and the virtual appliance is easily deployed in under 10 minutes — reducing infrastructure cost/complexity, simplifying deployment and maximizing ROI in VMware environments. The combination of Tenable’s Nessus with VMware virtualization technologies allows organizations to deploy Nessus scanners using physical as well as virtual servers.

With server consolidation, disaster recovery and cost considerations thrusting server virtualization into mainstream datacenter operations, IT operations personnel are beginning to worry about security. The virtual appliance for Nessus brings significant benefits to the marketplace. First, instead of building a server to host Nessus and deal with the installation process, Tenable customers can download and operate Nessus on a dedicated VM and reduce the complexity of installation and configuration. Second, as new images of the Nessus VM are made available, moving to them saves time by using an image that has been tested. Finally, Nessus can be positioned on a pre-configured virtual server in locations of your network that would not regularly host a scanner but can be on an as needed basis allowing for less disruption to the network.

CohesiveFT Updates Elastic Server Manager, Includes Open API

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CohesiveFT has announced an update to its Elastic Server Manager service, a lightweight administration and monitoring tool that provides a consolidated view of virtual server-related activities such as logs, configurations, administrator permissions, and the ability to start and stop services. The new release includes an open API for developers who want to connect additional web service-enabled programs to the management features that are automatically built-in to every Elastic Server at time of assembly.

The new Elastic Server Manager API is accessible via SOAP and REST. Utilizing Elastic Server rubberbands, small software components that connect all or part of an Elastic Server to monitoring systems or other enterprise frameworks supporting activities like license or inventory management, organizations can connect their own services to Elastic Server Manager, consolidating control of their application components. In addition to a newly redesigned interface, as well as the open API, the Elastic Server Manager uses the MindTerm secure remote access client for SSH access to the user’s Elastic Server. The Elastic Server Manager tool is free for account holders.

The Elastic Server platform lets users assemble custom servers by choosing components from a library of popular software stacks. Once assembled, these custom application stacks can be configured to a variety of virtualization and cloud-ready formats, downloaded and deployed in real-time. The Elastic Server platform features a dashboard that highlights the most popular user-selected components as well as an overall view of community activity. Users can also distribute their finished servers through the Elastic Server platform. There are currently more than a thousand community users contributing nearly three thousand Elastic Servers to the market.

Cohesive Flexible Technologies

Wyse Software Suite Components To Be Integrated Into VMware View

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VMware today announced a licensing agreement with Wyse Technology to use its remote display software to enhance RDP for VMware View. Bolstering its vClient Initiative and its commitment to support broad customer choice for the use of multiple protocol technologies, VMware plans to integrate two components of Wyse’s software suite into a future release of VMware View.

VMware View will include a portfolio of products that will give end users a single view of all their applications and data in a familiar, personalized environment – dubbed “myview” – that will be available from almost any device and location. With VMware View, enterprises will be able to replace traditional PCs with virtual desktops that follow users instead of devices. These virtual desktops will be centrally managed in the datacenter, but they will be able to run locally on a laptop or remotely from a server. VMware View will help enterprises achieve streamlined desktop and application management while reducing desktop TCO, improving security of data and enhancing user experience, flexibility and productivity.

In addition to supporting Wyse thin clients, the licensing agreement is designed to enable VMware to use Wyse’s enhancements with personal computers and third-party thin client devices. VMware View with Wyse’s TCX-MMR (multimedia) and TCX-MDS (multi-display) solutions will enhance virtual desktop solutions.

As part of VMware’s vClient initiative, VMware View will provide customers the flexibility to choose the protocol for its users through multi-protocol support. VMware also plans to license Teradici’s PC-over-IP protocol as previously announced. In addition, VMware View is expected to support protocols from HP and Sun.

VMware

Aqua Connect Terminal Server 3.0 Adds Mac Leopard Compatibility and RDP Support

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Aqua Connect, a vendor of Macintosh terminal services, today announced the release of its Aqua Connect Terminal Server 3.0 software. The newest release is compatible with Mac OS 10.5 Leopard and offers support for Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP).

This development establishes Aqua Connect as the first company to license and implement RDP server for the Mac platform. The release of the Leopard version has been highly anticipated and Aqua Connect has delivered more functionality than previous versions. This version allows new organizations and existing terminal server users to easily integrate the Mac platform into existing IT infrastructures.

The Aqua Connect Terminal Server 3.0 includes substantial upgrades over the previous versions while still delivering the core features that made ACTS the standard in Mac terminal services.

VMware Releases Server 2.0, Workstation 6.5, ACE 2.5

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VMware has announced the availability of its free server class virtualization product, VMware Server 2.0, a free hosted virtualization product for Microsoft Windows and Linux servers that has been around for quite some time.

Workstation 6.5, its long running desktop virtualization platform has also hit the wires, and finally ACE hit the 2.5 mark.

(VMblog gives a run-down of the new stuff in VMware Server 2.0, Workstation 6.5 and ACE 2.5)

VMware

Alternative Technology to Distribute and Offer Support for Oracle VM

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Alternative Technology, an Arrow Electronics company and specialty distributor of thin-client/server-based computing, edge infrastructure, virtualization, storage and security solutions, today announced that they will distribute Oracle VM software and sell Oracle VM server virtualization support for both Oracle and non-Oracle applications.

Oracle VM software is available to download for free and consists of open source server software and an integrated Web browser-based management console. Oracle VM provides an easy-to-use graphical interface for creating and managing virtual server pools, running on x86 and x86-64-based systems across an enterprise. Users can create and manage virtual machines that exist on the same physical server but behave like independent physical servers. Each virtual machine created with Oracle VM has its own virtual CPUs, network interfaces, storage and operating system. With Oracle VM, users have an easy-to-use browser-based tool for creating, cloning, sharing, configuring, booting and migrating virtual machines.

Backed by Alternative Technology and Oracle’s world-class support organization, solution providers now have a single point of support for their customers’ entire virtualization environments including the Linux operating system, Oracle Database, Oracle Fusion Middleware and Oracle Application software. Customers who want to deploy Oracle products in a faster, lower cost server virtual environment can now use Oracle VM and subscribe to Oracle VM support.