Virtualization Strategies News, Analysis, White Papers and Case Studies on Virtualization Software and Hardware Strategies

IBM introduces its cloud computing portfolio this week and showcased a few partners and customers. Big Blue’s cloud strategy remains focused on the enterprise; so you can’t pay by the minute with credit cards, like you can with Amazon Web Services and other general purpose cloud offerings.

For enterprise IT, cloud computing promises dramatically better ease of use, economies of scale and much greater flexibility in sourcing and adapting to change. The technologies comprising cloud computing - virtualization, SOA, Software as a Service, are technologies that IBM claims to have invented or are least, well-known for excelling in. IBM intends to help its clients and partners realize their cloud computing goals in three principle ways:

• Build their own cloud environments for internal and external use
• Deliver cloud services and software to be consumed by clients and partners directly
• Build an ecosystem of developers, partners, vendors and universities to further cloud computing and standards adoption

The partnership and strategy include: Read More…

Posted under Cloud Computing, Virtualization News, Virtualization Products / Reviews

How can VMware improve the world’s leading virtualization conference?  Make it a virtual conference, of course!  VMware teamed with Jive Software to take the once-per-year VMworld conference and extended it (online) into a 365-day-per-year, always-on community.

Eric Nielsen, Director of Web Communities, at VMware sums it up like this, “We expanded the VMworld conference from a three day event for 15,000 to a 365 day/year destination for 50,000 virtualization professionals.

By extending the user conference to a year-round event virtualization professional can now access virtualization information and services from IT peers, academics, vendors, and analysts 24/7/365.

Intel

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Posted under Virtualization News, Virtualization Products / Reviews

BLADE Network Technologies, Inc. just announced that its 1-10 Gigabit Ethernet switches is now  equipped with VMready^TM — making it the first network virtualization solution that automates the enterprise data center for dynamic “live” migration of virtual machines (VMs).

Now data center architects can use BLADE’s VMready switches to overcome network-based obstacles. The inability for security policies to move in concert with the VM is inhibiting broader adoption of server virtualization in the enterprise data center. VMready watches the Virtual Machine environment to ensure that when a live VM moves from one physical host to another, the destination network has been prepared in advance — preserving essential security, access and performance policies.

“In order to fully realize the benefits of server virtualization, dynamic migration of workloads is required,” said Joe Skorupa, Research Vice President, Enterprise Network Services and Infrastructure, Gartner, Inc. “To enable this environment, the underlying network must be able to automatically reconfigure itself to ensure that the appropriate polices and resources are in place before a VM is moved to a new host.” Read More…

Posted under Data Center Virtualization, Hardware Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Virtualization News, Virtualization Products / Reviews

OFFERS VIRTUALIZATION BENEFITS WITH OUT THE COST OF VIRTUALIZATION SOFTWARE

Rackable Systems, Inc. announced its new MicroSlice architecture, which eliminates the need for costly virtualization software and sets a new standard for price performance-per-watt. Basically, MicroSlice eliminates the need for virtualization software through what Rackable Systems calls “physicalization,” a hardware-based approach to virtualization which may improve the total cost of ownership.

“Rethinking the whole approach to an existing market is at times the best way to achieve the magic blend of reducing costs and improving performance”, said Mark Peters, senior analyst with the Enterprise Strategy Group. “Rackable Systems’ innovative mindset has achieved just that with its new building-block server architecture - delivering a package that is perfectly targeted for any users seeking to ‘do more for less’ in the current tight economic conditions”. Read More…

Posted under Server Virtualization, Virtualization News, Virtualization Products / Reviews, Virtualization Software, Virtualization Strategies

Sun Microsystems announced that it has expanded its portfolio of small and medium-sized business (SMB) solutions with the introduction of two new virtualization solutions that combine Sun’s x64 server and open storage products with VMware ESX and Microsoft Hyper-V software.

Sun said it’s SMB initiative delivers uniquely designed solutions for virtualization deployments, while reducing total cost and complexity. Sun’s SMB solutions portfolio includes Windows Essential Business Server (EBS), Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 upgrade, MySQL database and Sun’s secure web server solution. Sun’s overall commitment to open source software and industry-standard hardware make it easier and more affordable for SMBs to access Sun’s leading products. Customers can choose from a wide range of products and platforms like the Sun Fire x64 servers and Ultra-SPARC processor-based servers; multiple operating systems like Solaris 10, Windows and Linux; and industry-leading databases like Sun’s MySQL database. Sun’s SMB initiative continues to deliver customer value across a range of industries from media and entertainment to education and technology. Sun SMB customer case studies can be found at http://www.sun.com/customers/. Read More…

Posted under Desktop Virtualization, SMB Virtualization, Virtualization Case Studies, Virtualization Products / Reviews

Intel and Citrix are planning to bring desktop virtualization technologies to a wider audience in an effort to make it easier to run and manage virtual machines within a corporation.

Intel and Citrix Systems are looking to combine their virtualization and hardware management technologies into one overall offering that will make it easier to secure and manage multiple virtual machines running within one corporate client.

Under this agreement Intel and Citrix plans to produce a new class of virtualization solutions that optimize the delivery of applications and desktops to millions of Intel Core2 and Centrino 2 processor-based devices, dramatically reducing the cost of desktop management.  The hypervisor-based virtualization solution should bring both mobile and office users the benefits of centralized desktop virtualization with a rich, personalized PC environment.  As a result, mobile and office workers will be able to take advantage of enterprise-scale virtualization without sacrificing security, manageability, ease-of-use, performance or mobility. Read More…

Posted under Desktop Virtualization, Virtualization News, Virtualization Products / Reviews

Cisco Systems is preparing to enter the server market as early as March, according to an article in the New York Times. The article, which claims to have inside sources, said Cisco aims to sell a server combining hardware and virtualization software from Cisco and VMWare Inc.

Speculation on Cisco’s move into the server market has been going on for several months. Many experts agree that this is a logical extension for a company that has a dominate market share in other network products like switches and routers. One interesting thing to watch is how long time allies like HP and IBM will feel about Cisco competing with them in the server market.

Virtualization technology offer business tremendous benefits and a networking company like Cisco see an opportunity to produce a new, potentially disruptive class of hardware and software management systems that span an entire data center. With businesses looking to manage their data centers as a single entity rather than separate units, Cisco’s entrance in the server market could make them the core supplier of data center technologies (Cisco has a minority stake in VMWare – the leading supplier of virtualization software. Read More…

Posted under Data Center Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Virtualization News, Virtualization Products / Reviews

An agreement between Mitel and Sun Microsystems has produced the world’s first virtualized voice and data desktop, providing businesses with lower operating costs, simplified IT management, and enhanced security. With the combination of Mitel call control on Sun servers and the Mitel Unified IP Client for Sun Ray^TM, Mitel and Sun have delivered the first ultra thin desktop solution, providing a simplified, device-secure authentication source for voice and data hot desking and mobility.

The Mitel Unified IP Client for Sun Ray provides businesses with a complete voice and data solution in a virtualized environment that reduce desktop hardware costs and simplifies network management while driving business value.

Read More…

Posted under Desktop Virtualization, Virtualization News, Virtualization Products / Reviews

VMware on Tuesday released VMware View 3, new software aimed at providing desktop virtualization, application virtualization and management of virtual desktops in one product.  This technology helps IT organizations reduce storage cost, improve user experience and enables IT to rapidly provision and update thousands of desktop from a single image.

This is a major advance in virtual desktop computing. With VMware View 3, IT organizations can “decouple” a desktop from specific physical devices or locations to create a personalized view of a user’s desktop, applications, and data that is securely accessible from almost any device, at any time. By hosting these virtual desktop images in the datacenter using VMware View 3 IT personnel can provision and manage thousands of virtual desktops simply, securely, and with substantially lower operating costs. Read More…

Posted under Desktop Virtualization, Virtualization News, Virtualization Products / Reviews, Virtualization Software

VMware, Inc. announced plans to bring virtualization and its many proven benefits to mobile phones through the new VMware Mobile Virtualization Platform (MVP). VMware MVP will help handset vendors reduce development time and get mobile phones with value-added services to market faster. In addition, end users will benefit by being able to run multiple profiles - for example, one for personal use and one for work use - on the same phone.

“VMware is excited to extend the benefits of virtualization to the mobile phone market,” said Paul Maritz, president and chief executive officer of VMware. “By abstracting the applications and data from the hardware itself, we expect that virtualization will not only enable handset vendors to accelerate time to market but can also pave the way for innovative applications and services for phone users. We look forward to working closely with our partners to bring new mobile solutions to market faster.”

It’s not just VMWare that gets excited about virtualization for mobile phones; Gartner research sees virtualization in the mobile space as a very promising and potentially a fast emerging market.  “We predict that by 2012, more than 50% of new smart phones shipped will be virtualized.  Read More…

Posted under Virtualization News, Virtualization Products / Reviews, Virtualization Strategies