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XenApp 6.5 Connector for Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager was released in March of this year after a collaboration project between Citrix and Microsoft lasted several months, with the aim of extend Configuration Manager range of control outside domain-joined machines to other devices including Linux, iOS and Android leveraging on the XenApp Connector itself and Citrix Receiver capabilities.
With the XenApp Connector, administrators can:

• Orchestrate the process of deploying applications to XenApp servers, farms, and worker groups from within the Configuration Manager console, both directly for traditionally managed farms, as well as for streamed farms when used in conjunction with Provisioning Services
• Extend the Configuration Manager  user-centric and rules-based application delivery capabilities to deliver applications to users in the most appropriate manner for the device they are using: MSI, App-V, or XenApp
• Enable user self-service of XenApp hosted applications from both Receiver and the System Center Application Catalog
• Ensure high availability by optionally leveraging the Power and Capacity Management Concentrator to gracefully orchestrate the deployment of applications and software updates while minimizing downtime for users

Now Citrix announced, through its official blog, the release of the first service pack that delivers the following improvements:

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Just a few days after the announcement of the release of Windows Server 2012 R2, TechNet sponsored a preview release of a free eBook called “Introducing Windows Server 2012 R2” written by Keith Mayer, Senior Technical Evangelist at Microsoft focused on Windows Infrastructure, Data Center Virtualization, Systems Management and Private Cloud.

The eBook bundled with the download of the Windows Server 2012 R2 Evaluation Kit, allows its reader to learn about the new features in Windows Server 2012 R2, among them there have been improvements when building a Private Cloud foundation on topics such as Virtualization, Storage, Networking, High Availability and Disaster Recovery.

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Together with the release of VMware Fusion 6, VMware released version 10 of its counterpart in desktop virtualization platforms for Microsoft’s OSes: Workstation.

This new release supports Windows 8.1 virtualization and enhances Unity mode to work with its new UI.

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As expected, at a short distance from the release of Parallels Desktop 9, VMware released version 6.0 of its desktop virtualization platform for Apple Mac: Fusion.

The new release is already optimized for OS X Mavericks and leverages, in virtualized Microsoft OSes, its new features like multi-screen support, AirPlay and dictation.

Like Parallels Desktop this new release supports the brand new Windows 8.1 allowing Metro applications to be visible in Launchpad, Applications folder or in the Dock in Unity mode.

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At VMworld 2013, Trend Micro, the security software company demonstrated integration between VMware NSX and Trend Micro’s Deep Security. As announced on August 26, Trend Micro is collaborating with VMware to create a software defined data center which would allow customers to have an increased protection and automate security deployments.

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On August 30, IBM announced to have completed acquisition of CSL International. The agreement, started at the beginning of July, allowed the Big Blue to acquire the Israeli provider of virtualization management technology as part of a  strategy to consolidate the cloud capabilities of System z portfolio by offering a simplified management of the virtualization environment.

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The 10th edition of VMworld US took place in San Francisco between 25 and 29 of August 2013, with over 21,000 attendees this event confirmed that the market expectations for VMware is comparable to the one on Apple which has been answered with the presence on stage of large customers such eBay, Citi and GE and the announcement of several new releases.

The intent of this article is to briefly summarize all the major releases in this edition:

• vSphere 5.5: is the core release on which VMware introduces all the new technologies at server virtualization level. While not introducing any price changes this new release presents 4 new major features:
  • Support for Reliable Memory Technology to optimize the placement of the VMkernel and other critical components.
  • vSphere Flash Read Cache, a new storage solution that enables the pooling of multiple flash-based devices in a single vSphere Flash Resource.
  • Integration of Virtual SAN technology that allows the aggregation of local storage in a single shared datastore.
  • vSphere Big Data Extensions that allows the deployment and management of Hadoop clusters within vSphere interfaces.

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Today Parallels announced the availability of the upgrade to version 9 of its desktop virtualization platform Parallels Desktop.

The new release supports the upcoming Windows 8.1, released yesterday in RTM, providing its own version of the start menu and includes the support for iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive and SkyDrive.

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Yesterday, August 27, ManageEngine announced a new storage-level mapping feature added to its Applications Manager, a server and application performance monitoring platform, which will automatically maps VMware vSphere servers and their related virtual machines (VMs) to storage arrays, this new features is going to help IT administrators to have a better end-to-end visibility into the performance of their virtual resources.

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As announced less than a couple of weeks ago by Brad Anderson, VP for Windows Server and System Center with a blog post, Microsoft today, August 27, announced in a blog spot the released to manufacturing of Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1 client.

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