Paper: Implementing Microsoft Windows Server 2012 on HP ProLiant Servers

Now that Windows Server 2012 is available for download, hardware vendors are announcing on which hardware they are going to support the new OS coming from Microsoft. HP has released a whitepaper titled: Implementing Microsoft Windows Server 2012 on HP ProLiant Servers. The paper which contains 13 pages provides guidelines on installing Microsoft Windows Server 2012 on supported ProLiant models.

The paper addresses the following topics:

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Microsoft releases beta of System Center 2012 Service Pack 1

We already reported today that Microsoft released a beta version of Service Pack 1 for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager (SCCM) which provides configuration management, hardware/software asset management and patch deployment tools for Windows desktops and servers.

Microsoft today also released other betas for the upcoming Service Pack 1 for the other System Center products making up the Microsoft Private Cloud solution stack.

The Beta which will provide support for installing the components on top of Windows Server 2012 and the SQL Server 2012 also includes updates and enhancements to the following System Center 2012 components:

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Microsoft releases beta of System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Service Pack 1

Microsoft yesterday announced the release of beta 1 of the upcoming service pack for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager (SCCM). SCCM provides configuration management, hardware/software asset management and patch deployment tools for Windows desktops and servers. Service Pack 1 will allow customers to install on top of and manage Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8, both products already released last month.

Besides support for Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 Service Pack 1 will provide the following additional functionality:

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Microsoft releases RC of User Experience Virtualization (UE-V) solution

In April this year, Microsoft announced a new solution called User Experience Virtualization (UE-V) in a first Beta. In June Microsoft released a second beta and now Microsoft has announced the Release Candidate of UE-V, meaning that its now feature complete.

UE-V is a so called user environment management (UEM) product capable of applying settings when applications are opened, and save those settings when the applications is saved, in contradiction with already existing solutions like roaming profiles and folder redirection which only work at logon and logoff of a user. Besides application settings UE-V is also capable of roaming system settings across devices.

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Release: VMware Fusion 5.0.1

After two weeks from 5.0 release, VMware has released a minor update for its desktop virtualization platform for Apple Mac: Fusion.

Update 5.0.1 introduces the following fixes:

  • Addresses an issue that affected Ivy-Bridge based Macs that were unable to startup older operating systems
  • Fixes the detection of Windows 8 media downloaded from MSDN
  • Improves handling of USB devices
  • Fixes an occasional problem when entering snapshot view using Command-S shortcut

Comparison VMware Fusion 5 vs Parallels Desktop 8

VMware Fusion 5 and Parallels Desktop 8 are both desktop virtualization platforms that allow to run Windows applications on Mac and both have been released recently, yesterday CNET published an article comparing the two products.
According to CNET both programs are able to launch rapidly the guest operating systems and the access to Windows program without difficulty.

Release: Pano System for Cloud/Terminal Services 2.0

This solution would enable an easy migration to the cloud, allowing the support of major computing platforms, using a zero endpoint with no processor, no operating system or moving parts.
The technology developed by Pano Logic would permit an accesible migration between server-hosted desktop to Microsoft and Citrix terminal services, from virtualized desktops to browser based cloud desktop.

Dell, EMC and Cisco view on BYOD with VDI and Desktop Virtualization

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is a business policy of employees bringing personally owned mobile devices to their place of work and using those devices to access privileged company resources such as email, file servers and databases as well as their personal applications and data.
BYOD offers an alternative with smartphone and tablets technologies, for small customers to manage business without infrastructure collapse. Now the main technology providers are opting for virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and desktop virtualization.
According to what we saw at the VMworld 2012, desktop virtualization is the latest trend, the join initiative between CISCO, EMC and VMware known as the Virtual Computing Environment (VCE) is seen as an opportunity for an interesting growth market. This partnership allowed to create an unique virtual solution where EMC developed storage products together with Cisco’s servers.
Dell instead prefers an end-to-end approach of acquisitions and developed a layered solution focused at a corporate level to the midmarket, taking advantages in its end-to-end coverage and midmarket focus.

Broadcom announces New Server Network Virtualization Acceleration Technology

Broadcom Corporation, the fabless semiconductor company for wired and wireless communications, announced last August 28 at VMworld the new NetXtreme® II server network virtualization (NV) acceleration technology for VXLAN implementations.
The new server platform with Smart NV tech developped by Broadcom in collaboration with VMware, should improve server performance by 55 percent, it also should have the ability to scale multi-tenant networks with VXLAN, enabling logical, software-based networks that can be created on demand and increase the scale of virtual machines on the physical server while maintaining Quality of Service.

Cisco and VMware consolidate their partnership

Last week Cisco and VMware announced their intention to consolidate their partnership with the common objective of develop integrated product and solutions designed for software defined datacenters.

Both companies will seal the partnership investing in dedicated engineering teams that will collaborate on deeper integrations across VMware cloud solutions and Cisco’s Data Center Networking and Fabric Computing platforms.

The annoucement comes about to calm the voices, spread around after Nicira acquisition, about a possibile impasse in the relationship between the two companies.

From the original press release:

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