Cisco has released a paper titled: Reference Architecture Based Design for Implementation of Citrix XenDesktop Using Cisco Unified Computing System, Microsoft Hyper-V, and NetApp Storage. The paper is really exhaustive and contains 162 pages. This paper reports the results of a study evaluating the scalability of the Citrix XenDesktop environment on a Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) B-Series Blade Servers running Microsoft Hyper-V connected to a NetApp Storage array.
Year: 2011
Release: Oracle VDI 3.2.2.
Oracle has released an update for its VDI product, Oracle VDI 3.2 which was released in August last year. The update is considered a maintenance release fixing bugs but also adds features like multi-monitor support and multi desktop support for Sun Ray thin clients.
Multi monitor support recognizes Sun Rays with multiple monitors attached and identified to Windows 7/XP Guest VMs, multi desktop support allows user to view separate VMs on each monitor.
SolarWinds acquires Hyper9
Last week SolarWinds, a company which provides IT management software acquired Hyper9 making its move into the virtualization management market. Hyper9s Virtual Environment Optimization (VEO) solution will add optimization, capacity planning, configuration and chargeback reporting for virtualized server environments to the SolarWinds portfolio. The latest version released by Hyper9 is Virtual Environment Optimization version 3.0 which was released in November last year.
Release: Oracle VM VirtualBox 4.0.2
Oracle has released a maintenance update for their desktop virtualization solution VM VirtualBox, version 4.0.2. The update is available for version 4.0 of VirtualBox which was released in December last year.
Some of the fixes from the changelog include:
- Windows Guest Additions: automatic logon on Windows Vista/Windows 7 now supports unlocking previously locked workstations
- Linux hosts: fixed a crash during USB device enumeration
- E1000: fixed PXE boot issues with WDS
- …
Release: VKernel Capacity Management Suite 2.2
VKernel has released version 2.2. of its capacity management product: Capacity Management Suite (CMS). This version is a follow up of version 2.0 which was released in September last year. CMS provides a capacity management dashboard plus VKernel Capacity Analyzer 5.1, Optimization Pack 2.1, Chargeback 3.0 and Inventory 1.0.
New features include:
Release: Kaviza VDI-in-a-Box 4.0
Kaviza has announced the release of version 4.0 of their connection broker software VDI-in-a-box. This version is the follow-up of version 3.1 which was released in September last year, which added the out-of-the-box support for the Citrix Receiver.
Version 4 focuses on monitoring and easier management, by adding the following new features:
Release: Quest vOptimizer Pro v3.1
Quest has released version 3.1 of its Virtual Machine storage optimization product vOptimizer Pro. This version is the follow-up of version 3.0 which was released in July last year. vOptimizer Pro is cabable of reducing a virtual machine’s virtual hard drive to the smallest size possible and optimizes guest operating systems for maximum performance and portability.
vOptimizer was originally developed by Invirtus and called Invirtus VM Optimizer, which was acquired by Quest in H1 2007 and soon after that merged in the Vizioncore product line which Quest acquired in beginning 2008, rebranding it to Vizioncore vOptimizer. Later Quest decided to drop the Vizioncore brand and rebranded the product to Quest vOptimizer Pro.
Release: Embotics V-Commander 3.7
Embotics has announced the release of version 3.7 of its VM lifecycle management solution V-Commander. This version is the follow up of version 3.6 which was released in August last year. Although support for Hyper-V was also announced at that time this version still doesn’t support it.
V-Commander now provides the following features: Configuration Management, Chargeback and IT Costing, Change Management, Lifecycle Management, Performance Management, Capacity Management and Self Service functionality.
Liquidware Labs loses its VP of Engineering
Jonathan Alexander, who joined LiquidWare Labs after it acquired vmSight in May 2009 has left the company in order to become VP Engineering at Vocalocity. Although his linkedin profile states he already left the company in April 2010, the Liquidware Labs website removed references to Alexander in the last couple of weeks, Lanamark a competitor of Liquidware labs reports. Lanamark an Liquidware are heavily competing in the capacity planning space.
Alexander joined vmSight in October 2007 after working at Trusted Network Technologies, Inc. Before that he held several positions from 1999 to 2005 at Epiphany, Inc, and started his career in 1995 as Director of Engineering at Radnet, Inc.
Release: Pano Logic System 4
Pano Logic has announced the release of its Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) platform Pano System version 4. This release is the follow-up of version 3.5 which was announced in October last year.
Pano offers a complete remote VDI solution which consists of a software agent which resides in the guest Operating System, a connection broker and a Keyboard/Video/Mouse (KVM) over IP hardware box, called Pano Device. Communication between the Pano Device and the connection broker leverages a bus extension protocol called Pano Direct.