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DiscCloud Launches Virtual Appliance for Mac OS X

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DiscCloud today announced the release of the DiscCloud Virtual Appliance, the world’s first desktop virtualization platform designed for Mac OS X clients.

With DiscCloud, Mac desktops can be centrally administered, supported, and maintained using trusted and well known practices used by VMware professionals. The DiscCloud Virtual Appliance runs as a Virtual Machine on VMware Server and ESX class products, and hence on vast assortment of standard x86 platforms.

DiscCloud extends existing capabilities of the Mac desktop, via advanced VMware features such as automated backup, continuous availability, storage scalability, mobility, and desktop disaster recovery.

DiscCloud’s approach to desktop virtualization is 100% Apple license compliant, and supports Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) clients.

RingCube Joins VMware Technology Alliance Partner

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RingCube Technologies, provider of managed virtual workspaces, today announced (PDF) it has joined the VMware Technology Alliance Partner (TAP) program. The VMware TAP program helps technology vendors integrate their products with VMware virtualization software and deliver timely, joint solutions to mutual customers. As a member of the program, RingCube will utilize VMware resources and expertise to deliver desktop virtualization solutions that complement the VMware VDI architecture.

RingCube’s virtualization technology separates the user’s desktop environment, including applications, data, settings and system resources from the operating system and encapsulates it into a secure container. Users can run their virtual desktop at the office or on unmanaged PCs — at home, at a client site or in a hotel business center. When users start their RingCube workspace, it transforms any PC into their own familiar, personalized workspace that facilitates access to their files, applications, settings and entire desktop, as if they were on their own PC. RingCube virtual workspaces can be implemented via a variety of deployment options.

With more than 700 members worldwide, the VMware TAP program works with best-of-breed technology partners to provide them a comprehensive set of VMware technical and marketing services, support, tools and expertise to deliver enhanced value to joint customers.

RedHat Picks Up Qumranet

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According to Globes, RedHat has acquired Qumranet (confirmed via press release)

“Redhat announced its acquisition of Israeli virtualization start-up Qumranet Inc. for about $100 million, ending a long period of rumors. This is Red Hat’s first acquisition in Israel, and it will turn the Linux software company into a market leader in virtualization. Qumranet will become Red Hat’s R&D center in Israel.”

Best known Qumranet co-founders are Benny Schnaider, Moshe Bar, Both are well known, with track records ath Cisco ,PentaCom and P-Cube, and more interesting Qlusters and XenSource (now Citrix)

“Benny Schaider, and Moshe Bar are expected to head Red Hat’s Israeli R&D after the acquisition. Qumranet has 65 employees worldwide, mostly R&D staff in Israel. The company has raised $20 million in two financing rounds from its founders, Sequoia Capital, Northwest Venture Partners, and Cisco. The company still has cash from its latest financing round, which was held in January. ”

This shines a totally different light on the irrational discussion if RedHat should be Acquired by VMWare .

RedHat now owns one of the fastest growing Virtualization technologies around : KVM
RedHat had already chosen for stronger support of KVM, but with todays evolution one has to start thinking about the future of Xen in the leading Linux distribution. In one day RedHat stepped from being just an integrator of different virtualization technologies to one of the leading Virtualization Vendors.

Apani Pushes EpiForce VM as Virtual Appliance (Free Trial)

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Apani, provider of cross-platform server isolation solutions for large enterprises, today announced that EpiForce VM is now available as a virtual appliance free trial. EpiForce VM is the industry’s first software-based solution that secures corporate networks, containing both physical and virtual machines, from a single platform.

EpiForce VM is part of Apani’s security software product family and provides enterprises the ability to adopt a single security solution that will protect mixed data centers. From legacy systems to contemporary platforms and now virtualized environments, Apani’s EpiForce product line is the silver bullet for enterprise IT departments looking to simplify security enforcement and move away from a silo approach to protecting the inside of the corporate network.

The EpiForce VM virtual appliance free trial is a fully functioning version of EpiForce VM designed to install and run as a VMware VI3 appliance. The trial version includes two virtual machines (VMs) with agents pre-installed and license keys for up to 10 agents that can be installed on any physical or virtual Windows or Red Hat Linux platform. A complete video tutorial and training guide is included to help security administrators to configure and test EpiForce VM in their own environment.

EpiForce VM is based on the EpiForce platform v2.5 and initially supports VMware ESX Server 3.0 and 3.5 and uses on-demand policy distribution to offer enterprises the ability to manage and deploy policy to thousands of virtual or physical servers and endpoints with no impact to the network, application or user. EpiForce VM offers a centralized management console that enables a consolidated view to manage all EpiForce VM-protected machines — whether they are virtual or physical, without regard to their physical location on the network. Persistent security policy management allows administrators to utilize VMotion or Virtual Center to migrate EpiForce VM-protected virtual machines from one physical host to another with no disruption of security policy, minimizing unplanned downtime and maximizing operational flexibility.

VMware ESX First Hypervisor to Receive Microsoft SVVP Validation

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VMware today announced it has qualified its VMware ESX hypervisor under the Microsoft Server Virtualization Validation Program (SVVP), shortly after they officially joined. VMware ESX 3.5 update 2 (ESX 3.5u2) is the first hypervisor to be listed under the program, providing VMware customers who run Windows Server and Microsoft applications with access to cooperative support from Microsoft and VMware.

Update: also see the post from Microsoft’s Virtualization Team blog.

Microsoft’s Server Virtualization Validation Program enables VMware and other software providers to test and validate their virtualization software to run Windows Server 2008 and previous versions of Windows Server. Under this program, Microsoft offers cooperative technical support to customers running Windows Server on validated, non-Microsoft server virtualization software, such as VMware ESX 3.5 update 2. Customers with support policies in place, and running Windows Server-based applications on VMware ESX 3.5u2, can receive cooperative technical support from Microsoft.

VMware also offers an extra layer of protection for customers, outside of Microsoft’s Server Virtualization Validation Program, who work directly with VMware for support. The additional protection is a part of the VMware Premier Support contract with Microsoft that enables VMware to escalate application issues rapidly and work directly with Microsoft engineers to expedite resolution.

Today’s move is expected to be particularly compelling for VMware’s tens of thousands of small and medium-size business (SMB) customers. Many of these customers turned to virtualization for the dramatic cost savings that virtualization can provide by reducing hardware requirements and power consumption.

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Top VMware Executive Richard Sarwal Returns To Oracle

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Richard Sarwal has left his position as executive VP of research and development at VMware to return to database software giant Oracle. VMware hired Sarwal from Oracle less than a year ago, and declined to give details of why Sarwal decided to go back to Oracle.

Stephen Herrod, CTO at VMware, will assume Sarwal’s day-to-day duties temporarily. Sarwal is currently still listed in the management structure as outlined on the company website.

[Source: San Francisco Business Times]