Quoting from the PlateSpin official announcement:
PlateSpin Ltd. today announced the general availability of the next release of its PowerConvert™ product, used in more than 500 enterprise data centers across the world. PlateSpin PowerConvert provides anywhere-to-anywhere OS Portability™ for optimizing the use of Intel-based data center resources. From most any source, to most any target in the data center, PlateSpin PowerConvert automates the migration of data, applications and operating systems to the servers that best match the service level needs of the workload, all from a single point of remote control.
“PowerConvert is being used by multi-infrastructure data centers to accelerate the adoption of virtual infrastructure by enabling rapid server consolidation (P2V), de-virtualization (V2P) capabilities for application support, streamline business continuity with flexible recovery (I2P, I2V) and to manage hardware migrations including upgrading to blade servers (P2P),” said John Stetic, Director of Product Management. “The increased functionality and broader features with this newest release further strengthens PowerConvert’s position as the de facto standard for IT managers looking for a new level of adaptability.”
New features available in PlateSpin PowerConvert 5.1 include:
- Full Windows Dynamic Disk support provides the ability to convert Windows-based source servers with dynamic disks (including software RAID) to virtual machines, other physical machines, or to image archives
- Built in support for Incremental Third party Images which lets data center managers automatically deploy the latest incremental image captured from Acronis TrueImage or Symantec LiveState, streamlining the recovery process
- A new Conversion Analyzer Tool provides detailed reports based on the inventory features of PowerConvert that result in the reduction of conversion planning times especially for server consolidation projects
- Automatic control of the startup state of Windows and Linux services for deeper application configuration during a conversion
- A revamped mechanism to improve the overall support for a broad range of source and target hardware
- Integrated Job Scheduling allows users to schedule conversions to run at a date and time most convenient and appropriate for the service requirements of their data center. When combined with the existing email notification feature, data center managers can optimize by exception reducing hands-on time during projects
- Built-in integration with IBM Director gives IBM users centralized control of server consolidation and migration projects
Arthur Amos, Head of Technology Infrastructure at Nationwide Building Society, said “PowerConvert has enabled Nationwide to automate migrations of servers across our Enterprise without having to be in physical contact with either the source or target machines, eliminating weeks if not months of labor and enabling us to realize a quicker return on our investment as we accelerate our move to a virtual infrastructure. The addition of Virtual to Physical (V2P) migration capabilities in PowerConvert helps to protect our investment. It is clear that the benefits of PowerConvert are real and measurable.”
Current PlateSpin PowerConvert customers with a valid maintenance agreement can upgrade from PowerConvert 5.0 to 5.1. PlateSpin PowerConvert 5.1 is available today for use with industry leading server technologies, image archives, and virtualization products such as VMware ESX Server, VMware GSX Server and Microsoft Virtual Server.