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

We’ve always viewed computer systems as a “necessary evil,” specially for small and medium businesses that have limited IT support.  No doubt computers are essential for our business, but there’s always something to be fixed or updated. And it seems that every month, we have to buy or install something new. Help is on the way. IBM announced plans to help free growing businesses from the headaches, limitations and costs of IT maintenance with a new appliance — called IBM Lotus Foundations Start — that offers buinesses an easy way to collaborate, as well as the option to reliably run Microsoft Windows on a virtual machine with VMware technology. The new “plug-and-play” appliance combines software and hardware and is designed to allow employees to begin working together within one hour of initially booting up.

The IBM Lotus Foundations appliance has everything a customer needs to quickly set up a reliable IT infrastructure. The software uses the IBM Lotus Notes/Domino collaboration platform to enable employees to create, share and print Lotus Symphony documents, and work with email and calendar functions. Its automated design — self-configuring, self-healing, and self-managing daily systems operations — eliminates the need for routine maintenance and helps to ensure that critical data is protected through an integrated disk backup technology. Read More…

Posted under Cloud Computing, IT for Growing Businesses, Virtualization Products / Reviews

North Carolina State University and IBM today announced plans to provide every student in North Carolina access to advanced educational resources through NC State’s Virtual Computing Lab (VCL), a cloud computing-based technology. Through this cloud - which is a set of Internet-based resources - students at K-12 schools, colleges around the state and the University of North Carolina system campuses themselves will have access to the most advanced educational materials, select software applications and computing and storage resources. NC State also announced that the code for its VCL technology is available through the Apache open source community for free, and is in discussions with a number of universities across the globe that wish to replicate this cloud computing model.

In support of this effort, the NC State Department of Computer Science and Office of Information Technology announced the creation of a Center of Excellence in Cloud Computing, an applied research and development facility on the NC State campus that that will spearhead collaboration projects between NC State and the IBM “Blue Cloud” development team, helping improve the quality of education provided through the VCL platform and ensure reliability.

Read More…

Posted under Cloud Computing, Virtualization Case Studies, Virtualization News

According to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Server Virtualization Tracker, worldwide virtualization license shipments in the second quarter of 2008 (2Q08) increased 53% year over year. The x86 server market led the way with 60% year-over-year growth followed by the EPIC server market with 18% growth.

“Quarterly totals of x86 server virtualization licenses continue to experience healthy growth, although the growth rates have slowed over the last four quarters. The modest decline in growth rates indicates that the market is showing early signs of maturation,” said Brett Waldman, research analyst for System Software at IDC. “Based on our conversations with end users, IDC believes that the high-volume consolidation opportunities – the low hanging fruit in the x86 server virtualization market – is starting to dry up. This is, in turn, resulting in smaller deals overall.”

Read More…

Posted under Hardware Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Virtualization News, Virtualization Software

Big Blue is not just for big companies. IBM’s new Express Advantage offers midsize companies server and storage solutions with advanced virtualization capabilities and benefits like reduced hardware and software resources. This allows midsize companies to free up floor space, save energy and simplify administrative tasks.

IBM is also introducing a new version of WebSphere’s industry leading application server that will help midsize businesses reduce both cost and IT complexity, while providing a reliable platform for midsize businesses to collaborate and securely exchange data. These Express Advantage IT optimization solutions are built on an open architecture reflecting IBM’s ongoing commitment to help midsize businesses find new and affordable ways to apply technology for greater value. “We’re committed to helping our midsize customers succeed in today’s highly competitive global economy with innovative business and technology solutions built uniquely for their needs,” said Marc Dupaquier, general manager, IBM Global Midmarket. Read More…

Posted under Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization, Virtualization Products / Reviews