Saturday | 6 September, 2008
Virtualisation
News
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Sun updates xVM virtualization software 05/09/2008 09:13:00
Sun has a new version of xVM VirtualBox, its platform for desktop virtualization, out, and is also starting to offer enterprise support.Sun has released a new version of xVM VirtualBox, its platform for desktop virtualization, and is also starting to offer enterprise support for the platform, the company said on Thursday. - +
Virtualization causes disaster recovery rethink 04/09/2008 10:26:00
Disaster Recovery plans used to be straight forward, until virtualisaztion came along.There has been a "significant increase" in the number of organizations rethinking their disaster recovery (DR) plans because of virtualization, according to Symantec, in its fourth annual IT Disaster Recovery survey. - +
Microsoft liberalizes virtualization options 04/09/2008 08:22:00
Analysts predict enterprises will welcome some changes, dislike others.As Microsoft officially released its Application Virtualization 4.5 software this week, it also announced several licensing changes around virtual desktops and application virtualization, while omitting a long-anticipated one. - +
CIOs lack the "green" to go green, survey says 04/09/2008 08:32:00
Over three quarters of IT execs do not have a green budget, despite belief that going green will bring a competitive advantage.CIOs and senior IT executives lack the "green" to go green even though they overwhelmingly believe that a more energy efficient data center will become mission-critical, according to a recent survey. - +
VMware's ESX certified for Microsoft support, deployment 04/09/2008 08:30:00
VMware said it has certified its ESX hypervisor for Windows Server and other software from competitor Microsoft.VMware, whose virtualization software helps IT departments maximize use of their server hardware, said Wednesday that its product will run reliably with software from Microsoft.
Features
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How to keep your tech career afloat 03/09/2008 07:55:00
As outsourcing and downsizing continue, find out what skills and certifications will make you an IT survivorAnyone who has worked in IT for more than five minutes knows that the field has been in a dramatic transformation for the past 10 years, invading and conquering other organizational domains such as communications and security, while also wrestling with the new issues that technology has wrought such as employee mobility. In most organizations, IT has had to transform itself from a bunch of techies installing and troubleshooting equipment to a key enabler of business strategy and competitiveness. - +
Who provides what in the cloud 28/08/2008 09:33:00
More and more tech companies promise cloud offerings. But they're not all the same.The news that US telecommunications provider AT&T has joined the rapidly growing ranks of cloud computing providers reinforces the argument that the latest IT outsourcing model is well on its way to becoming a classic disruptive technology. - +
13 desktop-virtualization tools 25/08/2008 10:01:00
Virtualization stalwarts and start-ups alike are aiming for the desktop. A baker's dozen.Virtualization stalwarts and start-ups alike are aiming for the desktop. A baker's dozen. - +
Going virtual raises storage-management issues 22/08/2008 10:22:00
What to think about when considering deploying storage virtualisation.If you're an IT executive, chances are you're already thinking about storage virtualization. Nearly one-quarter of companies with at least 500 employees have deployed storage virtualization products already, and another 55 percent plan to do so within two years, a recent Gartner survey found. - +
Virtualisation: leave the laptop behind 22/08/2008 13:58:00
How to build a fully functional, virtualized environment that runs from a USB key.For the IT worker, the phrase "desktop mobility" has many meanings. It can mean having a laptop computer. It can mean keeping all your data in the cloud so that you can access it at any time and from anywhere. It can even mean downsizing your work environment to fit on a PDA or a smartphone.
Case Studies
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Planning virtualization moves wisely 26/05/2008 09:58:01
CiRBA's data center intelligence toolNot so long ago, if Underwriters Laboratories needed to add three additional servers worth of computing power in three weeks, the company just bought three new units, says Kent Walker, manager of computer operations for UL. With more time for capacity analysis - which is both labor and time-intensive - Walker might be able to shift resources around and stave off the purchase. But when the need is immediate, there's no time for that.
Interviews
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Publisher squeezing IT energy costs via smart data center design 05/09/2008 11:32:00
Green IT principles are fundamental to helping EBSCO Publishing keep up with sales growthEBSCOhost is a fee-based research service that provides libraries in North America with access to more than 20 million articles from 20,000-plus journals and magazines, all driven from two data centers in the coastal town of Ipswich, Massachusetts. The data centers are owned and operated by EBSCO Publishing, the second-largest business unit of EBSCO Industries, which is one of the largest privately held firms in the Fortune 500. Michael Gorrell, senior vice president and CIO for EBSCO Publishing, explained that green IT principles are fundamental to helping the company keep up with sales growth averaging 26 percent per year for the last three years and storage growth of 200 percent annually, without equivalent growth in computing and data center infrastructure. - +
Red Hat VP readies virtualisation roadmap 11/08/2008 09:57:52
Red Hat products and technologies president talks to Computerworld the impending virtualisation boom, cloud computing and the hot open source issues in the enterprise today.Paul Cormier is Red Hat's executive VP and head of Red Hat products and technologies divisions. His experienced thumb is firmly planted in many Red Hat pies; including engineering, product management and product marketing. The company credits the introduction of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) to Cormier's leadership and experience in enterprise technology. Cormier has returned Down Under on another visit to Red Hat's research and development team in Brisbane, and took some time out to chat with Computerworld about the anticipated boom in virtualisation, cloud computing, Microsoft's open source initiatives, CentOS, JBoss Application Server 5.0, how open source software can aid the current economic downturn, and of course, the growing role of Linux and RHEL in the enterprise. - +
VMware's CEO talks Microsoft, security, EMC and cloud computing 25/06/2008 08:53:38
Diane Greene says VMware was prepped for freebie Microsoft hypervisorDiane Greene is the president, CEO and co-founder of VMware, a pioneer of x86 server virtualization and one of the most innovative companies to hit the IT world in the past decade. Greene was in Boston last week with her VMware team, briefing analysts on new technologies that haven't been made public yet. She took some time out to speak with Network World's Jon Brodkin about a range of topics.
Opinions
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Real time drives database virtualization 25/08/2008 09:36:00
The database as we know it is disappearing into a virtualization fabric of its own.Databases are evolving faster than ever, becoming more fluid to keep pace with an online world that's becoming virtualized at every level. - +
VMotion and FCoE: A match made in admin heaven 14/08/2008 10:54:00
FCoE's affect on server virtualizationIn a recent review, I consolidated FC and Ethernet networks using FCoE (fibre channel over Ethernet) and Cisco's new Nexus 5000 switch. As the review showed, the combination merged the two transport protocols easily, allowing FC frames to channel through a 10G connection without giving up features or performance. - +
Preview: VMware Fusion 2 Beta 2 01/08/2008 09:59:52
Virtualization on the Mac has never had it so good.Virtualization on the Mac has never had it so good. There are several options available for running almost any x86-based operating system as a VM under Mac OS X, including Parallels, VMware Fusion, and VirtualBox. If you like the fact that Macs are less prone to problems, viruses, and spyware, but you simply have to run a few Windows applications, it's a great time to be alive. - +
Collaboration brings value to VAN clouds 30/07/2008 11:51:01
Value-added networks languished in the late 1990s, but new technologies have revitalized them, attracting businessesMaybe Gartner Vice President of Research Benoit Lheureux can't say, "I've seen the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked," but he did sound a bit like the poet Allen Ginsberg when -- speaking about VAN (value-added network) service providers -- he said, "I saw these guys sink into the morass of the IT hell hole, and they were bleeding revenue." - +
Did VMware sell out to EMC too soon? 22/07/2008 11:35:22
VMware's CEO was pushing to get EMC to spin VMware back out of the EMC foldDid VMware sell out to EMC too soon? I try not to mix personalities with analysis because when I do, I sometimes get into trouble. But as I try to rationalize Diane Greene's abrupt departure from VMware, and EMC CEO Joe's Tucci's role in her demise, personalities keep getting in the way. While I've met both these powerful players, I can't say that I know them. All I really have to go on is my sense of their public personas. Diane has built a huge following, is perceptive -- even visionary -- and opinionated. Joe has taken control of a franchise that was head-strong to begin with and transformed it. In my view he's even handed, but a man who is very capable of pushing back when pushed. And no doubt about it, with VMware he acquired an equally head-strong organization.
Reviews
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VMware edges out Microsoft in virtualization performance test 04/09/2008 11:56:00
Hyper-V's bright spot is a set of drivers that help it support Linux VMsWith the recent release of Microsoft's Hyper-V shaking up the hypervisor market, we decided to conduct a two-part evaluation pitting virtualization vendors against each other on performance as well as on features such as usability, management and migration. - +
HADR offerings bring resiliency to virtualization 04/09/2008 08:40:00
We examine five products that marry high availability and disaster recovery to your virtual server environmentVirtualization is becoming increasingly important in the datacenter as a way to respond quickly to the varying server demands. Depending on time of day and day of the week, as well as events in progress and many other factors, loads on any given machine may vary by factors of 100 or 1,000 or more. Giving a server more or less computing power, running multiple instances of the same server for load balancing purposes, or allowing failover from one virtual instance to another are increasingly important capabilities. - +
Parallels Server for Mac underwhelms 08/08/2008 09:46:19
Inexplicably poor support for Mac OS X Server as a guest tops a list of shortcomings that makes Parallels' much-anticipated server virtualization platform a very mixed bagNo 1U, two-socket rack server bests Apple's Xserve in its price range. No two-socket Intel desktop can touch the MacBook Pro for its combination of durability, efficiency, expandability, and quiet operation. - +
Thinstall app virtualization grows up 05/08/2008 08:16:05
VMware ThinApp 4.0 addresses many of Thinstall's shortcomings in manageability and scalabilityA wallflower: That's how I used to describe Thinstall when discussing the movers and shakers of the application virtualization party scene. With its chief competitors already paired off and dancing up a storm, Thinstall looked more and more like the lonesome loser, dateless and stag at the junior prom. - +
Microsoft's Hyper-V does the trick 24/06/2008 09:32:05
Microsoft's next-generation server virtualization solution falls short versus VMware's VI3, but has the right stuff for less demanding, Windows-centric environmentsHyper-V is finally here -- almost. With the recent delivery of Release Candidate 1, Microsoft is shifting from major engineering operations mode to cross-the-i's-and-dot-the-t's mode. The majority of the Hyper-V bits, including an ever-expanding list of supported guest operating systems, are now in place, and Microsoft customers can start migrating their test VMs into preproduction and production roles with a fair degree of confidence.
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Virtualisation Knowledge Centre
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Whitepapers
The Virtualisation Landscape to 2010
This white paper provides insights on the further evolution of virtualisation now and through to 2010, what it will do to IT infrastructure, its role within business for those who embrace it and the detrimental impact on those who don’t.
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Good for Business - Virtualisation in Perspective
Data centres are a critical component of modern business strategies, and their importance is continually growing. But so is the cost of running and supporting them. This paper looks at the urgent challenges facing organisations and their data centres, and explores some of the ways in which technology can help to address them.
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Unisys Infrastructure Management Suite
The Unisys Infrastructure Management Suite helps your organisation overcome the challenges of creating an optimised IT infrastructure with cutting-edge technology and services. As such, it is an integral component of the Unisys Real-Time Infrastructure – a long-term vision of what business and IT can achieve together.
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Comparing Multi-Core Server Virtualisation
Intel IT tested servers based on select Intel multi-core processors to analyse the potential role of each in data center server virtualisation strategies. Each server provided significant potential benefits in performance, power consumption per workload, and operating costs over older servers running non-virtualised workloads.
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Comparing Two & Four Socket Platforms for Server Virtualisation
Intel IT tested servers based on select Intel multi-core processors to analyse the potential role of each in data center server virtualisation strategies. Each server provided significant potential benefits in performance, power consumption per workload, and operating costs over older servers running non-virtualised workloads.
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Implementing Virtualisation in a Global Business-Computing Environment
Intel IT planned, engineered, and has begun deploying a virtualised business-computing production environment at several data centers, a rollout that will continue through 2008. The initiative has already confirmed anticipated virtualisation benefits such as faster, more automated deployment. Intel are initially consolidating older servers running applications that are not mission-critical; with opportunities to achieve 16:1 consolidation ratios using two-socket virtualisation hosts based on Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® processors.
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