Virtualization.com
News and insights from the vibrant world of virtualization and cloud computing
The latest update for VMware Fusion is now available and includes support for some of the latest operating systems: Windows 7 Service Pack 1 and, for Linux fans, Ubuntu 10.10 and 11.04.
VMware Fusion 3.1.3 is a maintenance release that resolves some known issues and includes improved functionality.
It is a free upgrade for all VMware Fusion 3.x users.
To download the free update start VMware Fusion, select the “VMware Fusion” menu and click on “Check for Updates.”
At the end of last month, VMware announced the acquisition of Socialcast, a provider of social collaboration solutions for the enterprise.
Socialcast enables modern business communication by “uniting people, information and enterprise applications within collaborative communities”.
Delivered as a hosted service, private cloud implementation, or via an on-premise solution, Socialcast is used by some of the world’s largest enterprises including Avaya, Humana, Nokia, Philips Electronics, SAS and … VMware.
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Socialcast joins the recent acquisitions of SlideRocket and Zimbra, along with the introduction of VMware Horizon App Manager, in helping advance VMware’s vision for a modern end-user computing model.
Pearson, the world’s leading learning company, and VMware have announced VMware Press, a newly created technical imprint that will serve as VMware’s official publishing entity.
The newly formed press will provide a suite of virtualization technology and certification products in multiple languages and formats, and will focus on three types of content:
– Technical books, ebooks and videos that concentrate on specific applications of virtualization.
– Decision Maker books, ebooks and videos that focus on the business aspects of virtualization.
– Official certification materials that support VMware’s complete certification program.
The majority of the new products will target VMware technology, primarily VMware vSphere, VMware View, VMware vCenter and VMware vCloud, which comprise the basic platform for all of VMware’s products and services.
Working in conjunction with VMware, Pearson plans to leverage the user group community programs and social channels to further engage the VMware community and offer exclusive promotions and access to the certification and technology products endorsed by VMware.
Virtustream, a provider of cloud services and infrastructure solutions, today announced a partnership with VMware to demonstrate the viability and efficiency of running SAP applications in a secure, multi-tenanted enterprise cloud environment.
Through a new program offered by Virtustream, qualified SAP customers can test drive running their SAP applications on Virtustream’s enterprise cloud platform, xStream, with resources optimized by VMware vSphere.
VMware this morning announced VMware Horizon App Manager, a user-centric management service for accessing cloud applications.
VMware Horizon App Manager represents the first component of the company’s “Project Horizon” vision first previewed at VMworld 2010.
A datasheet (PDF) is available here.
The company says future releases of VMware Horizon will broker user access to a variety of application types, virtual Windows desktops and data resources, while delivering the security and control required by businesses. The result should be a simple, seamless user experience when accessing work resources across the private and public cloud on whatever device the user chooses.
At its core, VMware Horizon App Manager includes an identity as a service hub that extends a user’s existing identity in systems such as Microsoft Active Directory or other directory options, into third-party public cloud applications like Box.net, BroadVision, Google, Salesforce.com, WebEx, Workday and others.
This simplifies the management of multiple access credentials, a necessity brought about by the growing number of cloud applications now found in a typical enterprise.
In addition, the VMware Horizon App Manager provides an open, user-centric platform for accessing cloud applications within a single application portal that is accessible from a wide range of end-user devices.
Additional VMware Horizon App Manager features include:
– Multi-Platform/Multi-Device Support
– Enterprise Directory Federation/Cloud Identity Hub
– Standards Based Secure Authentication
– Application Provisioning
– Roles-Based Access and Reporting
Available today to select early access customers in North America and Asia Pacific Region, and via trials in other regions, VMware Horizon App Manager is $30.00 per user/per year.
Check out Robert Scoble’s interview with VMware lead for Project Horizon Noah Wasmer.
Update: Chris Hoff’s take: VMware’s Horizon App Manager – A Big Bet That Will Pay Off…
Veeam Software, provider of VMware data protection, disaster recovery and VMware management solutions for virtual datacenter environments, today announced at Tech·Ed North America that it is adding support for Windows Server Hyper-V and Microsoft Hyper-V Server to Veeam Backup & Replication, its data protection solution for virtual environments.
By extending support to Hyper-V, Veeam is providing:
– 2-in-1 backup and replication for Hyper-V
– Changed block tracking for Hyper-V
– Built-in deduplication and compression
Veeam Backup & Replication for Microsoft Hyper-V will be available to customers in the fourth quarter of 2011.