Qumranet has just announced the general availability of its desktop virtualization suite called Solid ICE v4.1.
Solid ICE
I've been to Qumranet stand at VMworld Europe 2008, and was really impressed with the technology demo.
Planet V12n!
If you haven't heard about Planet V12n before, it's an initiative by the VMTN to aggregate all the virtualization blogs they can find. There's also a Planet VMware aggregator for VMware-only blogs.
Last week, Desktop Vitualization blog was added to the Planet V12n list, and I'm really proud to join the rest of great blogs already featured there. Thanks for adding me to the list! And to all the new readers of this blog – welcome and thanks for stopping by, hope to see your comments!
Head over to the VMTN blog to look at the full list of participating blogs, it's an excellent way to learn more about the virtualization community.
For Unix how-tos and tips, please check out my Unix Tutorial blog and Unix Tutorial digest.
VMware Virtual Disk Development Kit
Last week saw a rather interesting release: a VDDK – Virtual Disk Development Kit by VMware, which seems to be a complete toolset for working with VMware VMDK disk images and coding your own applications which interface with them.
Virtual Machine Disk Format (VMDK image specification) is used by many vendors, and so such an SDK from VMware is a great way to reinforce VMDK position on the market.
What is VMware VDDK?
Virtual Disk Development Kit is essentially the following three things:
- VMDK disks mount utility (mounting Windows or Linux partitions directly from VMDK images)
- VMDK disks management utility (growing VMDK images and changing their type, even shrinking VMDK images under certain conditions)
- VMDK Virtual Disk API – a programmatic interface to access VMDK images from your applications
[Read more…]
Microsoft Plans to Acquire Kidaro
Looks like Microsoft is expanding their desktop virtualization campaign with acquisition of Kidaro:
Microsoft Corp. today announced its intended acquisition of Kidaro, a leading provider of desktop virtualization solutions for enterprises. In combining Kidaro’s virtualization technology with its suite of desktop management tools, known as the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance, Microsoft will enable IT professionals to optimize their desktop infrastructure by providing management capabilities for Virtual PCs, streamlining deployments and easing application compatibility issues.
Windows Virtualization Team blog also confirms:
the three founders of Kidaro will be joining Microsoft and play similar roles here, and that the plan is to keep Kidaro's R&D team in Israel.
See also:
Kidaro Presents Virtual Desktops DR Solution
Kidaro has just announced an enterprise-level disaster recovery solution for virtual desktops.
With the Kidaro Desktop DR solution, enterprises can maximize business continuity by distributing corporate-controlled virtual desktops on DVDs, USB drives, or over the Web. Kidaro's virtual desktop platform enables secure employee access to corporate resources and data from their home PCs or recovery center computers. Because the solution runs locally on existing desktop and laptop computers, without expensive server farms, Kidaro Desktop DR provides a cost-effective and secure method for recovery.
With Kidaro Desktop DR, enterprises can:
- Implement a cost-effective disaster recovery plan for desktop continuity
- Get employees back to work quickly and securely, on any computer including home PCs
- Simply distribute software or USB drives, without deploying expensive server farms
I am a little bit skeptical about the desktop-based approach to DR. Coming from a rather typical enterprise environment, I am only comfortable with the whole DR solution organized within a secure and highly available datacenter environment, but desktop virtualization has already changed many things and set new expectations, so perhaps such an approach is worth a try.
Some of the advantages of Kidaro's approach to virtual desktops DR:
- Rapid disaster recovery – from any location
- No server farms required – minimal investment in recovery sites
- All operations are encrypted to prevent data-leakage
See also:
Launching the Desktop Virtualization Glossary
Every day brings more definition to various aspects of desktop virtualization, and that's why I have just launched the Desktop Virtualization glossary.
Naturally, it's going to take time to build the glossary up, but even at this early stage any suggestions for the structure or definitions are very welcome .
Parallels Server Beta available on Linux, Windows and Mac OS X
SWsoft, create of Virtuozzo Containers and Parallels Desktop, has just announced the availability of Parallels Server Beta.
From the official Parallels Server Beta announcement:
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.
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Gotham Technology Group partners with Kidaro
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.
Oracle VM is available for download
As you probably know, Oracle had announced its own virtualization solution – Oracle VM – just a few days ago.
Oracle VM is based on the open-source Xen virtualization technology. Essentially, Oracle VM is a virtualization server with an integrated web-based management console.
Oracle VM offers simplified and faster installation and deployment, and promises to be three times more efficient than other server virtualization products.
Oracle VM is a fully supported solution with the following Oracle products certified to run within virtual machines:
- Oracle Database 10.2.0.3 and 11.1
- Oracle Application Server 10gR2 and 10gR3
- Oracle Enterprise Manager 10.2.0.4
- Oracle TimesTen 7.0.3.1
- Oracle Berkeley DB 4.6
- Oracle E-Business Suite 11.5.10 and 12
- Oracle's PeopleSoft Enterprise 9.0
- PeopleTools 8.49.07 and above
- Oracle's Siebel CRM 8
- Oracle's Hyperion 9.3.1
As of yesterday, the Oracle VM is available for download through eDelivery website: download Oracle VM. Both x86 32-bit and 64-bit of VM server 2.1 and VM manager 2.1 are offered.