vmware

Thoughtpolice And Its Library Of VMware Images

May 23, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

We just stumbled upon Thoughtpolice, a sys-admin’s effort to aggregate all VMware images for Linux (Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS) and FreeBSD, as well as a number of Fedora packages.

“Thoughtpolice was born because I kept needing to use the same VMware images over and over again. A Google search later, and I had found no place which provided a variety of VMware images. Thinking others would find these images useful, I made them public. Over the months, more and more VMware images were added, and the range expanded to include FreeBSD, evolving into the current day website.

Less than one year since launch, the website has led to more than 250 terabytes of downloads, the majority through BitTorrent, without which we would be unable to handle the bandwidth requirements.

The website is aimed both at sys admins like myself who need to get an operating system up and running very quickly, and people who just want to try Linux or FreeBSD out.”

Go check it out!

Alternative Technology Adds McAfee Security Solutions and Services

May 22, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Alternative Technology, an Arrow Electronics company and specialty distributor of thin-client/server-based computing, edge infrastructure, virtualization, and security solutions, has announced it will distribute the full line of McAfee security software, appliances and managed security services for small to medium businesses and enterprises. Those offerings include: system/endpoint security, network security, data protection, and risk and compliance management.

Alternative Technology will offer McAfee’s complete line of security solutions which can protect consumers, small business, and all types of enterprises. McAfee Total Protection Suites offer security solutions for servers, networks, desktops and mobile devices.

McAfee solutions offered by Alternative Technology include the recently announced 10Gbs Network Security Platform and high-performance McAfee Content Security Blade Server. McAfee offers scalability for security and compliance management for networks, data and endpoints across large-scale physical and virtual environments as well as small-scale and mid-size networks.

“McAfee security solutions are a significant addition to our line card and will be well received by our North American channel partners,” said Tom Zorn, senior vice president, Alternative Technology. “They complement our other products and service offerings. In particular, McAfee’s recently announced Email and Web Security Virtual Appliance, in beta, built from the ground up for the VMware platform, McAfee’s new virtual infrastructure security assessment service, and their plans to embed VMware’s VMsafe security technology into future McAfee security solution offerings, tie in very well with our rapidly growing VMware business.”

Complementing Alternative Technology’s professional methodology for security assessment, remediation and management, is the McAfee Foundstone Professional Services offering. The Foundstone Virtual Infrastructure Security Assessment is the first security service dedicated to virtualization. McAfee security solutions will also be added to Alternative Technology’s PCI Compliance Solutions Program.

BakBone Introduces NetVault: Backup 8.1 With Full Adoption of VMware Technology

May 21, 2008 by Robin Wauters 1 Comment

BakBone Software has released a new version of its flagship data protection solution, NetVault: Backup 8.1, adding support for individual VMware ESX Servers as well as full virtual data centers, all integrated and managed from the NetVault: Backup GUI. Users do not need to create and run scripts, giving BakBone customers the flexibility to deploy data protection in virtual environments and manage the solution under one umbrella.

In addition to new VMware capabilities, BakBone now also provides full support for Novell‘s Open Enterprise Server (OES) 2. BakBone claims to offer the broadest Linux capabilities in the storage management market, supporting more leading Linux distributions and applications than any other data protection software vendor.

According to the press release, the highlights for NetVault: Backup 8.1 include

Full VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB) Support

Offers the flexibility to protect virtual machines deployed on a VMware ESX Server or multiple VMware ESX Servers from a VCB proxy server
Provides protection for virtual machine images or individual files on Windows guest operating system without the need for complex scripting
Tracks virtual machine migration with VMotion

Full VMware virtual machine backups

Provides virtual machines with protection from disasters, media failure and data corruption
Protects the entire virtual environment in case of a disaster, including log and configuration files as well as the VMDK data files

Increased flexibility

Gives administrators automatic integration with supported devices, including a VTL, SAN, NDMP or locally attached drives
Offers greater granularity for Windows on VMware by allowing customers to backup and restore individual files within virtual machines
Empowers storage administrators to create comprehensive, flexible backup policies without the need to understand VCB internals or create complex scripts

NetVault: Backup 8.1 extends capabilities beyond the backup and recovery of virtual environments. The solution reduces the load on ESX Servers and simplifies virtual environment protection by consolidating backups through single servers. This is especially important for businesses that need to reduce data center energy demands as they consolidate hardware.

[Source: VMBlog]

Virtualization Job Listings Jump 40% (Especially VMware-Related Ones)

May 21, 2008 by Robin Wauters 1 Comment

IT job board Dice has announced that in the last six months, it’s seen postings for jobs requiring experience with VMware products surge 40 percent, reports eWeek.

“The numbers have grown significantly,” reportedly said Tom Silver, senior vice president of marketing and customer support at Dice.

Silver attributed the growth in job postings in this area to companies realizing that there are significant cost savings associated with virtualization, coupled with the move to make data centers greener, as they require less resources to run more quickly and cleanly.

Companies besides VMware, which once had the market largely to itself, have also taken notice of the trend, with Citrix Systems, Microsoft, Red Hat, Sun and Oracle also focusing heavily on virtualization technology.

Silver said he sees jobs in this are as an ideal career move for a programmer or project manager.

Illuminata analyst Gordon Haff also wieghed in saying he feels that virtualization is such a buzzword these days, there’s a lot of confusion as to what it actually is.

“Everyone is calling everything virtualization these days. Though actual virtualization has had a big spike in interest, too, and I have no doubt that the demand for people who have worked with VMware [has] gone up by a lot, it still may turn out to be a little over-hyped,” Haff said.

Haff also argued that virtualization work is less on the developer side of the house, and more operational in nature.

On a related note, we plan to integrate our virtualization job board into Virtualization.com real soon!

Cisco And EMC To Merge?

May 19, 2008 by Robin Wauters 5 Comments

We love rumors. This time, it’s not about EMC selling off its majority stake in VMware to say, Intel. President and chief editor of TMC, Rich Tehrani, is throwing another sweet-sounding one into the air: an upcoming merger between Cisco and EMC.

“If you are Cisco, it makes sense to pick up EMC now because the stock is down a bit and moreover Cisco would be able to immediately expand its product line beyond networking, telepresence and networking.

Overnight, Cisco could become a leader in storage and a very strong security player.

Remember that Cisco was an early VMware investor and they likely want to expand their ownership of the company.

Remember also that Cisco is doing some amazing things with virtualization in their routers and owning a premiere name in the virtualization space can only help their core offerings.”

What do you think? Any possibility this particular rumor might come through? Or total BS?

Let us know in comments!

VMware Combines VDI with Sun Microsystems’ Sun Ray Software, Adds Certification Program For Thin Clients And Professional Services Suite

May 19, 2008 by Robin Wauters 1 Comment

VMware issued three press releases today. One is about the company’s all new certification program to help vendors certify thin client devices for VMware VDI. From the press release:

“The new VMware certification program will enable VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure customers to choose from a wide variety of thin client devices officially certified for VMware products. VMware’s open standards ensure that thin client devices running on multiple platforms will deliver a consistent experience for virtual desktop users. Organizations choose what type of device suits their business needs and are not tied to a specific device that will only support VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure.”

The company also unveiled a new integrated desktop solution offering “superior performance”, leveraging VMware’s Virtual Desktop Infrastructure platform with Sun Microsystems’ Sun Ray Software and virtual display clients.

This model (VDI) streamlines desktop management while reducing desktop TCO, increasing IT’s control, improving security of data and enhancing user experience, flexibility, and productivity. Independent customer testing has found that the integrated VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure and Sun Ray Software solution delivered consistently better performance than competing display protocols. The solution utilizes Sun’s Appliance Link Protocol (ALP), which outperforms other display protocols when used to deliver virtual desktops over networks with high latency. Customer tests show dramatic increases in performance when using VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure with ALP to deliver complete desktop environments in a WAN deployment.

The most interesting news as far as we’re concerned, was the jumpstart of a number of professional services VMware announced to aid customer in implementing virtual desktop environments. From the release:

VMware Professional Services provides proven best practices and guidance from experts in virtual infrastructure environments to maximize a customer’s investment in VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. VMware Infrastructure methodology takes into account the complete lifecycle of a customer engagement: assess, plan, build and manage. The new services, tailored to customer experience and requirements, include:

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Jumpstart
VMware Professional Services delivers an on-site proof of concept, a fast and convenient way to train staff on setup and explore specific considerations unique to the customer environment. During a Jumpstart, a VMware Certified Professional will train up to five staff in setting up VMware products, provide knowledge transfer and discuss best practices of deployment.

Application Virtualization Jumpstart
Through application virtualization, organizations can package and deploy applications more easily, faster, and without conflict. VMware Professional Services offers customers and partners expert training on running any version of any application on a single OS without conflict.

Plan and Design for VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure and Application Virtualization
The Plan and Design engagement begins with assessment and analysis of the customer’s key objectives and existing infrastructure. VMware Professional Services then builds a comprehensive blueprint for the VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure and/or Application Virtualization deployment, including key documents needed to successfully manage the environment on an on-going basis.

Remote Office/Branch Office (ROBO) Services Acceleration Kit
The VMware Remote Office/Branch Office (ROBO) Service Acceleration Kit helps simplify the process of optimizing customers’ remote and branch offices using VMware Virtual Infrastructure. The kit provides partners with knowledge and materials for remote office optimization—matching the best approach to customer requirements. By utilizing the VMware ROBO Solution Acceleration Kit, partners can rapidly expand their professional service offerings and ultimately expand their customer’s virtual infrastructures beyond the corporate headquarters.

[Source: The Register]