Latest News from Open Source Virtualization

Convirture Updates Virtualization and Cloud Management Software

Wed, 02 May 2012 16:18:35 EDT

Convirture has updated its ConVirt Enterprise Cloud virtualization and cloud management software to include support for the latest version of OpenStack (Essex). Support for CloudStack will be available in an update to the software that is planned for the third quarter of this year. ConVirt Enterprise Cloud also is also now certified to run on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. The company also released ConVirt 2.1 Open Source, an update to the free, open source version of its management software.

Using RAM in SSD Caching

Wed, 02 May 2012 07:00:00 EDT

If you were happily running your IT system but needed some additional performance, chances are you turned to some kind of SSD caching solution to improve performance at a lower cost point than adding more servers or storage. You went on what I am calling a “cache diet” (no, not the “crash diet” you went on last year to lose a few lbs). You may think your cache diet is great. “Dog, we got some performance improvement and the applications guys are not bothering me anymore, at least for now.” And it is true, you did see some performance improvement when you went to an SSD caching solution….but now, things are starting to slow down again and the applications guys are making noise again. You are experiencing IO bottlenecks and higher latency times for data access or you just never really got all the improvements you expected. “So what do I do now, Dr. Dog?” Well, the problem is the SSD cache solution you implemented does not have any RAM in it and the solution from the good doctor is “you need more RAM in your cache diet.”

Vyatta Introduces Software Forwarding Plane for Datacenter Scale

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 05:00:00 EDT

"Vyatta is delivering a next-generation distributed software networking environment that is capable of an order of magnitude better performance than our previous generation software on the same off-the-shelf hardware," saidRobert Bays, CTO of Vyatta. On Tuesday Vyatta introduced Vyatta vPlane technology, a highly scalable forwarding plane for next-generation enterprise and cloud network designs. Delivering a combination of speed and flexible deployment models, Vyatta vPlane's fast-path architecture is poised to improve the cost and capabilities of networks for virtualized datacenters. The migration of mission-critical enterprise applications to virtualized environments is producing a perfect storm of networking challenges. The resulting application density and multi-tenancy environments are creating traffic patterns that traditional Layer 3 infrastructure is ill-equipped to address due to inflexibility, cost and throughput limitations.

Convirture Releases New Versions of Virtualization and Cloud Software

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 14:58:21 EDT

Updates are now available for ConVirt software that manages open source virtualization technologies KVM and Xen, along with clouds. The updates include Eucalyptus 2.0.3 support and ability to import existing virtual machines in an Amazon EC2 account.

Three News Ways to Reduce Data Center Power Use with Virtualization

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 08:18:00 EDT

Scaling back power needs in the data center is a noble ideal, but it’s something that very few organizations have truly been able to achieve. The fact of the matter is that increasing demand for service and capacity outpaces most of the greening efforts (and efficiency interventions like virtualization) that we can muster. There are more reasons to reduce your data center’s power consumption than just saving the planet, too. There are financial incentives to doing so that have little or nothing to do with fossil fuel conservation or the ozone layer. Part of the problem is that each data center is highly individualized. You can make changes to the cooling system efficiency, you can invest in advanced power distribution grids that ration power as it’s needed, and you can make a number of energy-saving procedural changes. Unfortunately, these methods may or may not pay off big in your data center.

Big Data and Virtualization – Where the Twain Shall Meet

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 13:00:00 EDT

Big Data and virtualization are the two biggest revolutions underway in enterprise datacenters today. In the coming three to five years, they will unquestionably change the face of datacenters as we know them. Interestingly, both phenomena have been going on in parallel with little to no intersection or impact on one another. That is about to change, as the waves intersect and create a massive cadence to shake enterprise IT. This article explores how the frontiers of Big Data and virtualization are about to meet, irreversibly changing each other's fate along the way. Over the course of the next few years, they will become one massive flow that can't be traced back to two disparate epicenters of change. That is how interesting, yet predictable, this saga will be.

Convirture Reports Strong 2011 as Virtualization Management Takes Off

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 05:00:00 EST

Convirture, which makes management software for Linux virtualization, had an excellent 2011. Convirture announced its fifth consecutive quarter-over-quarter growth, including increasing its customer base ten-fold for its commercial product, ConVirt Enterprise. The company now has customers in every global region, including North and South America, EMEA and Asia. The open source version of ConVirt has now been downloaded more than 60,000 times. In total, ConVirt software, which is available for most major Linux distributions including Debian, OpenSUSE and Ubuntu, is now being used by more than 8,000 businesses. "Linux-based virtualization is here, it's real and clearly there is an appetite for something other than VMware when it comes to managing cloud computing and virtualization technologies," said Arsalan Farooq, CEO of Convirture. "As KVM and Xen continue to gain traction with enterprise customers, we expect to see even faster growth through 2012."

Virtualization and Cloud Management Software Certified for Open Source OS

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 11:00:00 EST

Convirture announces that its ConVirt virtualization and cloud management software, which is used by companies worldwide to manage large variety of virtual and cloud environments based on the KVM and Xen hypervisors, is now certified to run on the following operating systems. "We are continuing to add functionality and platform support to our products so that IT managers have complete confidence in choosing to build new virtualized environment, or replace existing proprietary and expensive installations, with open source," said Arsalan Farooq, CEO of Convirture. "Adding certification for the most widely used operating systems and cloud providers makes the decision to use open source that much easier."

Managing Complexity: The Next Great Frontier for Cloud Computing

Sat, 05 Nov 2011 10:15:00 EDT

The CEO of Convirture will be speaking next week at Cloud Expo about the complexities of managing physical and virtual computing assets, plus public, private and hybrid clouds. Cloud Expo Silicon Valley takes place in Santa Clara from November 7-10 and is expected to attract more than 5,000 attendees. "Because cloud computing brings potential issues such as complexity, fragmentation and workload management, IT managers need a unified way to manage everything they have - whether physical, virtual or cloud computing resources," said Arsalan Farooq, CEO, Convirture. "Delivering a solid return-on-investment requires proper allocation and management of all computing resources."

Management Software for Linux Virtualization Made Available

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 09:00:00 EDT

Convirture has released ConVirt Enterprise Cloud - software that manages virtualized datacenters and cloud deployments built on KVM and Xen virtual machines. ConVirt Enterprise Cloud provides a set of sophisticated tools capable of managing an entire virtual and cloud infrastructure from a single console, including private clouds, hybrid clouds, traditional virtual machines as well as public cloud resources such as Amazon EC2. "As we developed this product and worked with our beta customers, we kept hearing the same thing again and again: customers are concerned about the potential for complexity, fragmentation and workload management issues that come with adding cloud resources," said Arsalan Farooq, CEO of Convirture. "Until now, users of KVM and Xen did not have a management layer that provides a unified means of viewing and managing their entire traditional, virtual and cloud-based environments. With ConVirt Enterprise Cloud, IT staff can manage the complex, properly allocate computing resources and deliver real ROI for the organization."

KVM Consortium Apparently Thriving

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 07:00:00 EDT

More than 200 technology companies have joined the Open Virtualization Alliance (OVA), the consortium committed to fostering the adoption of Red Hat’s Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM), in the three months since it was launched. Red Hat says more than 50% of them are focused on cloud computing, and virtualization is a key component of every cloud. OVA membership is also growing significantly among companies in new global regions, including Asia-Pacific and Latin America, reportedly for the minimum investment involved. At its launch in May OVA had seven founders: BMC, Eucalyptus Systems, HP, IBM, Intel, Red Hat and SUSE. The consortium was at 65 members in June and now it’s got another 134 new members for a total of 206.

Installing a Guest Operating System on a Virtual Machine

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 11:30:00 EDT

Virtualization has been widely accepted as a technique to conserve resources. Virtualization is the process of running a guest operating system on a virtual machine, which is created in a virtualizer running on the host operating system. Large companies do not have to install 100 different host computers for its employees as they may create 100 different virtual machines running different guest operating systems on a single host computer. VMware is one of the main vendors of Linux virtualization solutions. VMware Player may be used to run 32-bit and 64-bit Linux operating systems including openSUSE, RHEL 5, and Ubuntu. VMware also offers Virtual Appliances, which are prebuilt software solutions comprising of virtual machine/s. Virtual Appliances are available for Ubuntu, Red Hat and openSUSE, though an appliance for the latest versions may not be available. For the latest version of openSuse, 11.2, it is recommended to install the openSUSE directly onto the VMware Player. In this article we shall install Oracle database XE in openSuse 11.2 as a guest operating system running in a virtual machine (VM) on a Windows host operating system.

KVM-Pumping Alliance Formed

Mon, 23 May 2011 08:45:00 EDT

There is now such a thing as the Open Virtualization Alliance, formed by Red Hat, IBM, Intel, HP, SUSE, Eucalyptus and BMC, to push the adoption of KVM, the Kernel-based Virtual Machine embedded in the Linux kernel that Red Hat’s basing its virtualization on. The consortium is supposed to fan interoperability, accelerate the expansion of an ecosystem of third-party solutions around KVM and retell happy end-user stories. It’s also supposed to provide education, best practices and technical advice.

Red Hat and IBM Spearhead Open Source Virtualization for the Enterprise

Thu, 05 May 2011 11:45:00 EDT

Red Hat, Inc. and IBM have announced that they have joined hands to expand the open source KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) ecosystem through joint solutions targeting the enterprise. They plan on pooling their resources together to develop cloud management interfaces and virtualization management APIs which will address cloud, datacenter automation, virtual storage and networking, virtualization security and virtual appliance management. They also intend to cultivate a community of users among third party virtualization vendors. The APIs will be used in their respective management products, including Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager, IBM Director and Tivoli software.

Cloud Expo Silicon Valley Opens Call for Papers for “Cloud Foundry” Track

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 15:15:00 EDT

Cloud Expo Silicon Valley has expanded its technical program through the addition of an all-new "Cloud Foundry" track to complement the already extensive selection of tracks. Cloud Foundry is the open platform as a service project initiated by VMware. It can support multiple frameworks, multiple cloud providers, and multiple application services all on a cloud scale platform.

Red Hat Introduces JBoss Enterprise SOA Platform 5.1

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 04:00:00 EST

We're beginning to see a real marketplace for open source-based integration and middleware, and in many ways the open source versions are advancing the value and variety of these services beyond where the commercial products can quickly tread. What's more, as cloud and SaaS services become more common, ways of integrating data and applications assets -- regardless or origins -- will need to keep pace. Standardization and inclusiveness of integration points and types may be much better served by a community approach, and open source licenses, than waiting for a commercial product upgrade, or costly custom integrations.

Wyse to Simplify VDI-Centric Cloud Computing Deployments

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 09:00:00 EST

Wyse on Thursday previewed Project Pyramid, a new software technology that brings simplicity to the management of virtual desktops. Project Pyramid will enable Wyse to deliver a self-configuring client product line in the desktop virtualization industry a well as automate the deployment of Wyse thin clients throughout a private cloud or server, whether the deployment entails ten devices or tens of thousands of them. According to Natalie Lambert, director of product marketing, Enterprise Desktops and Applications at Citrix, "Project Pyramid enables customers to roll out desktop virtualization to tens of thousands of users, with the confidence that their devices will work.”

Convirture Collaborates with Eucalyptus Systems for Private Clouds

Fri, 04 Feb 2011 06:00:00 EST

Convirture, maker of Linux and open source-based virtualization management software, has partnered with Eucalyptus Systems, creators of the leading independent private cloud platform, to deliver enterprise-grade private cloud management capabilities to Eucalyptus users and customers. The agreement calls for the two companies to work together to integrate ConVirt 2.0 Enterprise with Eucalyptus open source software and Eucalyptus Enterprise Edition (EE) , as well as cooperate on sales, marketing and support activities. As open source-based private clouds become more widely deployed in enterprise data centers, the need increases for a sophisticated management toolset. ConVirt 2.0 Enterprise provides Eucalyptus private cloud users with management capabilities that were previously only available on closed-source products.

Unix Copyrights Will Remain with Novell

Thu, 25 Nov 2010 17:00:00 EST

It took Novell more than two days after the announcement that it's being bought for its chief marketing officer John Dragoon to say on the company's web site that Novell's Unix copyrights will stay with Novell. God knows it wasn't answering the phone. What Dragoon says still means control passes to Attachmate's owners and it is still unclear what control Microsoft has over them - considering the acquisition seems to have Microsoft's fingerprints all over it - or how interested Attachmate might be in preserving those rights against SCO, whose case still exists. Oral argument in its appeal of the jury decision award Unix ownership to Novell will be heard January 20.

IGEL adds VDI Clients for Open-Source SPICE and VMware View

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 05:25:00 EDT

With the integration of the Linux-based SPICE client, IGEL provides yet another option for configuring virtual desktop (VDI) infrastructures

Reading, UK, October 12, 2010: German thin client manufacturer, IGEL Technology, today became the first company in its sector to integrate the open-source software client SPICE into its Linux operating system for its Universal Desktop thin client range. With the SPICE client, IGEL customers who already use Linux at their server level can now provision high-performance virtual desktops with different guest systems. For instance, SPICE can be deployed within the Red Hat® Enterprise Virtualization for Desktops solution in order to virtualize Microsoft® Windows® 7 Professional, Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional or Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

In addition to SPICE, IGEL's latest update to its Linux operating system also includes the brand-new software client for VDI solutions VMware View™ 4.5, which in addition to being compatible with Windows® 7 also offers improved WAN performance as well as smartcard support in the PCoIP protocol. Furthermore, IGEL Universal Desktops now also support Kerberos, the popular single sign-on (SSO) and authentication solution.

Get SPICE: It's spicing up the VDI market!
For multimedia in particular, the SPICE open-source protocol offers high-quality performance and a convenient, comfortable user experience because it does not require Codecs and optimally uses the graphics performance available in thin clients. "Our first tests have shown that SPICE, especially when it comes to multimedia, is absolutely comparable to those protocols already established on the market," states Florian Spatz, Product Marketing Manager at IGEL Technology. "We're pleased to be able to provide our customers, in particular those who are running an open-source virtualization solution on their servers, yet another option for configuring their virtual desktop infrastructures."

Price and Availability
The software clients for SPICE and VMware View™ 4.5 come standard in the IGEL Linux "Standard" and "Advanced" firmware along with Kerberos support. These latest versions are now available as free downloads from www.MyIGEL.com.

About IGEL Technology
IGEL Technology is the world's third largest client vendor by revenue and is market leader in its home country of Germany (2009 IDC). The company produces a wide range of thin clients, based on Linux and Microsoft Windows, giving customers access to almost any form of server-based infrastructure and application including virtual desktops from VMware®, Citrix® Xen or Microsoft®, terminal services, legacy applications via Ericom® PowerTerm® terminal emulation, web, Java, SAP and VoIP. Form factors include traditional desktops, and integrated LCD units as well as the world's leading software for PC to TC conversion. IGEL Thin Clients come bundled at no extra cost with a remote management suite called UMS that guarantees hassle free and secure remote configuration and administration of thin clients as well as migrated PCs.

IGEL Technology
Dr. Frank Lampe
Tel.: +49 421 520 94 1300
Mobile: +49 151 12178475
Email: lampe@IGEL.com
http://www.IGEL.com

UK Press Contact
Paul Smith
The Amber Group
Tel: +44 (0)7770 828525
Email: Paul@ambergroup.net

New Version of Xen and KVM Virtualization Management Software

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 16:21:56 EDT

IT managers who are building virtual data centers and private clouds based on the Xen and/or KVM open source hypervisors now have even more advanced management capabilities with the latest version of ConVirt 2.0 Enterprise from Convirture. The newest release adds advanced enterprise features including dynamic workload management, virtual local area network (VLAN) configuration and lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) support, as well as enhanced scalability and search functions. "As Xen and KVM become more widely used in virtualized data centers and for private cloud implementations, the need for sophisticated management capabilities increases," said Arsalan Farooq, CEO at Convirture. "The new features in ConVirt Enterprise only add to the rich functionality that IT managers want and need, and which were previously unavailable to open source-based hypervisor users."

Easy On-Ramp to Virtualized Datacenters Available from Convirture

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 08:58:00 EDT

Convirture introduces ConVirt 2.0 Enterprise Starter Edition management software for virtual servers based on the Xen and KVM hypervisors.

University of Florida Selects ScaleMP for Biotechnology Research Center

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 09:33:35 EDT

ScaleMP™, a leading provider of virtualization solutions for high-end computing, today announced that the University of Florida’s (UF) Interdisciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research (ICBR), a world-class research support center that provides biotech research services to the UF community and its research partners, has deployed ScaleMP’s vSMP Foundation for SMP. With vSMP Foundation, the ICBR is able to harness existing infrastructure to continue to leverage both legacy and proprietary software packages, provide scientists and researchers the ability to submit larger interactive jobs to a virtual symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) system with large shared memory pools and increase application performance speeds – all at the same level of cost-effectiveness as the center’s previous open source virtualization deployments.

Enterprise Management Comes to Open Source Virtualization

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 12:30:25 EDT

Building on its open source software offering, Convirture has introduced ConVirt 2.0 Enterprise edition with add-ons of specific interest to enterprises like advanced automation and scalability features for running large-scale or mission-critical virtualized environments. It brings new viability to managing open source hypervisors, like Xen and KVM, with features intended to deliver equivalent function to VMware's vCenter -- at much lower cost. The founder and CEO, Arsalan Farooq, says: "Until now, any organization that wanted a complete solution for managing and automating a virtual data center was locked into expensive and proprietary solutions like VMware vCenter. That changes today as ConVirt 2.0's advanced automation, private cloud management, enterprise scalability and datacenter integration features now meet or exceed what's available from proprietary platform vendors. Now, organizations considering Xen or KVM as open source alternatives to commercial virtualization platforms are no longer forced to compromise on manageability."

Cloud.com Collaborates with Industry Leaders in Open Source and Cloud Computing to Help Put an End to Cloud Lock-in

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 11:03:31 EDT

Cloud.com, a leader in open source private and public cloud computing software, today announced it is collaborating with leaders in open source and cloud computing on OpenStack™, an open source cloud platform designed to foster the emergence of technology standards and cloud interoperability in both the hosting industry and the enterprise. The initiative was launched by Rackspace and includes key technology contributions from NASA’s Nebula platform as well as broad industry support from leading technology companies such as Citrix. (see related release from July 19).

Novell Announces SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 Service Pack 1

Wed, 19 May 2010 07:01:28 EDT

BrainShare EMEA -- Novell today launched SUSE(R) Linux Enterprise 11 Service Pack 1 (SP1), which delivers the industry's broadest virtualization capabilities, powerful advances in high availability clustering, and more flexible maintenance and support options. As a result, customers can take advantage of the latest open source technologies to run their mission-critical services cost effectively on any platform - physical, virtual or cloud (http://www.novell.com/cloud/) - today, as well as in the future.

Red Hat’s KVM Virtualization Steals Spotlight

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 08:30:00 EDT

IBM has launched a new service that lets outside enterprises indulge in software development and testing on its Cloud Platform. IBM currently hosts services on the web like Lotus Live along with a Private cloud option that it launched in 2009. Since then it has steadily expanded its cloud portfolio [...]

Southern California Linux Expo(SCaLE 8x) Recap

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 22:27:00 EST

In a time when many tradeshows are experiencing lower then normal attendance the 8th Annual Southern California Linux Expo (SCaLE 8x) had record attendance this past weekend in Los Angeles. I was there exhibiting and conducting a community training day for Zenoss and was very impressed by not only the quality of the program but the enthusiasm of the attendees. On the Friday before the main SCaLE expo and speaking program starts many people hold mini-conferences and the SCaLE staff has been excellent at helping to organize and promote the events. I conducted a Zenoss Community Day that Friday with phenomenal attendance and enjoyed meeting a great group of open source management users.