virtualization.info Editors

Anthony Liguori posted an interesting note about instructions that impact on virtualization performances:

One surprising thing about x86 virtualization is that while there is a small number of instructions that require special effort (around 17 depending on what you count), there are an even smaller number that make 95% of all the calls to these instructions.

These four instructions are cli, sti, pushf, popf (which probably isn’t all that surprising). An interesting result of this is that you only really have to focus on making these instructions fast…

Quoting from CRN:

Microsoft is in talks to buy application virtualization software vendor Softricity of Boston, CRN has learned.
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The deal with Softricity — which hit the rumor mill earlier this week — is expected to be finished before the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) in Seattle next week. Sources say Microsoft at WinHEC also will unveil Virtual DLL, a feature for Windows Vista developed in conjunction with Softricity.

The feature will not enable full application virtualization offered by Softricity’s SoftGid platform but it will allow users to virtualize application registries and “end DLL hell once and for all,” one source said…

Read the whole article at source.

Parallels is approaching final mission of being the first in bringing desktop virtualization to Apple Mac OS X for Intel architetures.

The new build, labeled release candidate, sports a lot of bug fixes, a new look & feel and an uninstaller, and a new name, moving from Parallels Workstation to Parallels Desktop.

I personally believe this is a good move since the word Workstation in virtualization is sinonimous of VMware, and could damage Parallels image instead of powering it.

Download it here.

The virtualization.info Virtualization Industry Roadmap has been updated accordingly.

Parallels expect to ship the final product next month.

Quoting from LinuxDevices:

Hypervisor specialist Trango Systems has joined the OMTP (Open Mobile Terminal Platform), in order to contribute to Trusted Processors and Trusted Environment specifications.
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Trango believes mobile phones are increasingly in need of advanced security capabilities, given rapidly increasing capabilities that include music, movie, and game downloads, as well as broadcast media reception. It says its Trango hypervisor technology can help protect service providers and end-users from “trojans, viruses, and other malicious attacks.”…

Read the whole article at source.

TechNewsWorld interviewed Marty Seyer, Senior Vice President at AMD about new trends in semiconductors market:

The semiconductor market is thriving again — and the future looks bright. Worldwide semiconductor revenue totaled US$235 billion in 2005, a 6.9 percent increase from 2004, according to Gartner Group data. It was the first time the semiconductor industry surpassed its record-setting year in 2000 when revenue reached $223 billion.
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TNW: What big developments are on the horizon?

Seyer: Virtualization is going to be big in 2006. We’re going to hear a lot about it … we already are hearing a lot about it. Virtualization is going to be broadly analyzed and adopted in 2006, but the ramp is 2007-2008 for real virtualization. So on one hand, it’s hot…

Read the whole interview at source.

Quoting from the IBM official announcement:

IBM today announced it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Rembo Technology, a privately held software company based in Geneva, Switzerland. Financial details were not disclosed. The acquisition is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2006.

Rembo is a leading provider of software that helps organizations automatically install or upgrade operating systems on thousands of servers, laptops and desktop computers simultaneously, which eliminates the need for IT specialists to spend days or weeks installing software manually on each physical or virtualized computer.
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Rembo will also extend IBM’s virtualization capabilities, covering software, hardware and services. Virtualization helps make it simpler and less expensive for companies to integrate and improve the performance of hardware, software, storage and networks in open and heterogeneous environments. It enables governments, banks, retailers and other organizations to view and manage many virtual IT resources as one, and dynamically change them as needed.

Rich Lechner, vice president, virtualization, IBM, said, “Adding Rembo to the IBM Virtualization Engine portfolio will help improve the economics of a virtualized infrastructure. Rembo’s automated management tools will further enhance IBM solutions and enable clients to reduce management costs, increase resiliency and enhance security in heterogeneous, distributed environments.”…

Quoting from the PHD Technologies official announcement:

PHD Technologies, Inc. , today officially announced the release of esXpress 2.2 for VMware ESX Server.

By combining its revolutionary Intelligent Delta Technology with 256-bit encryption, esXpress 2.2 brings a new level of security, speed, and dependability to the VMware backup industry. And esXpress with encryption is the only virtualization-specific backup product which helps companies in achieving compliance with regulations defined by SOX, HIPAA,FDA, SEC, etc.
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esXpress is the only backup solution designed specifically for the VMware ESX virtual infrastructure and the only one capable of differential backups. Using Intelligent Delta Technology, esXpress is on average 70+% faster than the competitors offerings. Often backup speeds can exceed 165GB/hour per ESX host. And now it’s the only secure solution with encryption options such as AES, 3DES, Blowfish and others.

Download it here.

The virtualization.info Virtualization Industry Roadmap has been updated accordingly.

Quoting from Trade Arabia:

Fujitsu Siemens Computers, a leading European information technology (IT) manufacturer, has started an eight-country Middle East virtualisation tour with an event that was attended by more than 70 enterprise customers in Abu Dhabi.

The firm has also announced a joint commitment with AMD and Network Appliances to offer a blueprint for a virtualised data centre.
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The Virtualisation Road Show is travelling to eight countries in the Middle East (United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Kuwait and Pakistan).

Read the wholer article at source.

InfoWorld published a nice review of QEMU 1.3.0 rating it 8.5/10 and providing this bottom line:

Technically a simulator, QEMU nonetheless has virtualization capabilities that allow it to run Linux on Windows (or vice versa). It can also run code from one CPU on a system with a different physical CPU, so an x86 Windows system can execute a virtualized Sparc-based Solaris image.

QEMU is slower than commercial virtualizers, but it’s lightweight nature and platform support compensate for performance.

Read the whole review at source.

Altiris, Dell, Intel, VMware, EMC and ZiffDavis are sponsoring a joned webcast for May 25th, first one of a 3-episode serie:

One of the most compelling solutions that a Virtual I/T Infrastructure can provide is improved efficiency in the datacenter. In most data centers, server utilization rates are far below 25%, resulting in increased power, cooling, maintenance, and management costs. Additionally, there are even more complexities in a test environment due to multiple server models and software environments. The same is true for development activities; they need to account for the different production platforms that might be used. Finally, there is legacy application support, where platform-specific “quirks” can be eliminated going forward.

In order to obtain these important efficiencies while improving the speed and responsiveness of a production environment, a group of industry leaders is working together to provide a complete solution that can be implemented quickly with immediate results. By working jointly on the key components of architecture, servers, storage, virtualization infrastructure software, and management, Dell, Intel, VMware, Altiris and EMC provide this best-of-breed solution. The leaders would like to invite you to an important eSeminar that showcases their integrated approach in providing a robust virtual I/T infrastructure solution. These accomplished partners in this growing area are joining together to provide you with the insight and knowledge that can help drive the success of your next virtualization project. During this eSeminar you will learn about:

• How this group of partners has joined forces to help simplify deployment of a virtual I/T environment and begin the transition to production environments
• How this team works together to improve ongoing maintenance of a virtual I/T environment
• How Dell acts as the direct, single point of contact for virtual I/T environments
• How reference solutions can reduce your cost of implementation

Register here.