Virtualization news and reviews
This year, two great desktop virtualization products have won the InfoWorld Technology of the Year awards in Platform section.
SWsoft, create of Virtuozzo Containers and Parallels Desktop, has just announced the availability of Parallels Server Beta.
Parallels Server is the first virtualization solution designed to run on Apple hardware, including Mac Pros and Xserves, and the first to run multiple copies of Mac OS X Server v10.5 Leopard on a single Apple computer. Parallels Server also runs on any x86 or 64-bit Windows or Linux-based server.
Parallels Server can be installed using the Parallels lightweight hypervisor, in which virtual machines run in tandem with a primary operating system, or 'bare metal', in which virtual machines run independently and are not dependent on a host operating system to function properly. At installation, users can choose to load Parallels Server in either the lightweight hypervisor mode or bare-metal mode. Parallels Server is the only virtualization product of any kind to afford users the flexibility to choose their implementation during installation.
Seeing that Sun Microsystems just entered the official VMmark results page, I thought I would share the news here and explain what VMmark is.
VMmark is the first industry-standard virtualization benchmark – a free product from VMware which allows you to test the performance of your virtual environment by running various workload scenarios on your virtual appliances.
Just like in conventional TPC-based testing, there is a server which runs the workload scenario, and there clients which interact with it triggering different developments of such scenarios.
Finally, I've got a chance to try the in action. As an experiment, I've installed Windows XP inside a fully virtualized xVM domU on an OpenSolaris build 79 – please click the thumbnail to see a full screenshot.
I've just created the Sun Microsystems section on this website. A former employee of Sun and a big fan of its Solaris OS, I'm really excited to learn new virtualization solutions available and to share my findings with you.
Please visit the section: Sun Microsystems.
Just a few weeks ago, Sun had introduced xVM – a family of virtualization solutions based on the technology of open source project called Xen.
Recent builds of OpenSolaris have full support for xVM, which means that you can activate it by booting Solaris in a special mode (it's a separate menu item in your Grub boot loader menu).
As always, Sun not only invests a lot of time into development of the project, but all the findings are open-sourced, and there's a hub for related projects: OpenXVM.
Kevin Lees has just posted a great article on the Virtual Strategy magazine pages, called PMP'n Virtualization – Part One
I really like the way he put most of the advantages of adopting virtualization technologies in just a fwe paragraphs, and happen to agree that such a complex set of technologies brings not only benefits, but also risks, and definitely needs a structured approach to its implementation.
Here's just a few lines from the original article, please read it in full if you're interested:
Desktop virtualization changes the way IT provides the desktop infrastructure. In addition to making the low cost, thin client desktop a tenable solution, hosting the “PC” in datacenter-resident virtual machines fundamentally changes how desktops are managed by IT.
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Virtualization, specifically the speed with which virtual machines can be created and deployed, supports a faster IT response to changing business needs. The cycle time from business need recognition to business solution implementation by IT will continue to shrink as IT standardizes on virtual machine usage.
You may have noticed already, but I've started building the content up. Naturally, I'd like this first step to cover the major players in desktop virtualization, and that's how the VMware section was created.
Apart from providing general information about the company, the VMware page has a few more sections:
Let me know what you're most interested in, and I'll be sure to prioritize the future sections. I'm not new to VMware solutions, but still find quite a lot of new and exciting products and features to discover and share with you.
Last week saw Gotham Technology Group, a consultancy company, join forces with Kidaro to offer enterprise desktop virtualization solutions to their customers:
Desktop security and the complexity of managing desktop and laptop computers are major IT challenges. So far in 2007, security breaches on PCs and portable storage devices have been responsible for the loss or theft of over 6 million customer records, affecting sectors such as financial services, healthcare, government, education, and consumer goods. (source: PrivacyRights.org). According to a Gartner Research study, the 5-year TCO for a PC averages more than 10 times the original purchase price, or about $21,000 for a $2,000 system. Desktop virtualization technology provides the tools to address many of these security and management challenges.
"Our customers have struggled for years to balance productivity, security, and control in their computing environments, and they're always looking for ways to drive immediate savings," said Ken Phelan, CTO of Gotham Technology Group. "Kidaro's platform is a real breakthrough solution. It offers security and control in an operationally feasible model, without giving up mobility or requiring the procurement of new client and server machines. In many cases, customers can immediately save millions by distributing virtual desktop software instead of new employee laptops."
Kidaro's desktop virtualization platform creates a corporate-managed, encrypted workspace that encapsulates applications and resources and delivers them to any endpoint machine. Because Kidaro runs locally on laptops and desktops, it supports partially-connected and mobile users, and doesn't require expensive server farms. Kidaro's enterprise-class management framework automates the entire virtual desktop lifecycle, and enables granular policy enforcement on both corporate and third-party endpoints.
Kidaro and Gotham plan to offer a number of solutions, including:
- Secure Remote Computing
- Desktop Disaster Recovery
- Virtual Laptop on a USB
- Laptop Encryption and Data Leak Prevention
Please read the full press release by Kidaro here: Gotham Technology Group to resell Kidaro Enterprise Desktop Virtualization Platform.
Just got a invitation in my inbox today: the upcoming VMworld Europe 2008 is open for registration.
Wait no more, and register for VMworld Europe 2008 today!