History

Vizioncore is well-known for its prodigality in giving away free versions of its product. They started with esxBasics, a free bundle including former esxRanger and esxCharter (which Vizioncore is about to release with a new format), and now continues with products acquired from Invirtus.

First one is vOptimizer, recently released in version 4.0, which has following limitations in its freeware shape:

• 2 users
• No reporting or email notification
• No support

Download the freeware edition of vOptimizer here.

This product should be included in the arsenal of free virtualization tools that virtualization.info exposed last week.

The virtualization startup Veeam finally released first version of its Monitor for VMware Infrastructure 3.

This new product brings all features already seen in Monitor for VMware Server and Workstation, with some important differences in architecture: it’s a multi-tier solution, supports multiple ESX Servers monitoring, doesn’t require an agent, and doesn’t even require VirtualCenter, which makes it suitable even for SMBs.

Download a trial version here.

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

Accountability is one of the top 10 challenges virtualization.info recognizes for virtualization adopters. Only few companies are working on this segment at today but the need for chargeback capabilities is high, mostly in big enterprises.

Today a new company called V-Kernel officially launches with a product in this space: VKernel 1.0

VKernel, which is (unfortunately) delivered as virtual appliance only, integrates with VMware VirtualCenter and automatically pull stats from the virtual infrastructure. From them the product can generate several reports about software license fees, power cost, etc.

Download a trial here.

V-Kernel has been included in the virtualization.info Virtualization Industry Radar.

The virtualization.info Virtualization Industry Roadmap and the Virtualization Industry Challenges report have been updated accordingly.

Despite only few days passed since major faults Amazon suffered on his Xen-based general purpose grid computing facility, Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), the company is ready to announce a major improvement in the service, introducing 2way and 4way 64bit virtual machines.

In details Amazon now allows creation of three kind of virtual machines inside EC2:

Small Instance (default)

• 1.7 GB memory
• 1 EC2 Compute Unit (1 virtual core with 1 EC2 Compute Unit)
• 160 GB instance storage (150 GB plus 10 GB root partition)
• 32-bit platform
• I/O Performance: Moderate
• Price: $0.10 per instance hour

Large Instance

• 7.5 GB memory
• 4 EC2 Compute Units (2 virtual cores with 2 EC2 Compute Units each)
• 850 GB instance storage (2 x 420 GB plus 10 GB root partition)
• 64-bit platform
• I/O Performance: High
• Price: $0.40 per instance hour

Extra Large Instance

• 15 GB memory
• 8 EC2 Compute Units (4 virtual cores with 2 EC2 Compute Units each)
• 1,690 GB instance storage (4 x 420 GB plus 10 GB root partition)
• 64-bit platform
• I/O Performance: High
• Price: $0.80 per instance hour

But the biggest news is that EC2 beta program is no more restricted to a small amount of testers.

Enroll for it here.

Quoting from the XenSource official announcement:

XenSource, Inc., the leading provider of enterprise-class virtualization solutions based on the open source Xen hypervisor, today announced that it signed its 1000th customer in Q3. The introduction of the feature-rich, high-performance XenEnterprise v4 in August accelerated this growth, helping the company nearly double its customer base. New XenSource customers include ASIERUS, Carsdirect.com, Cornell University, McKesson, Miami Herald, Microsoft, Polycom, Postini, Raytheon and Sleek Networks. Additionally, XenServer and the freely available XenExpress also experienced record customer traction, with more than 25,000 downloads of XenExpress occurring in Q3…

XenSource announced the 500 customers goal in July 2007, so it only took 4 months to double the customers base.

It’s worth to note that among its customers XenSource has Postini, which has been acquired by Google. So in some ways Google is now using virtualization technologies. A strange thing since the search engine stated

From the Xen-devel mailing list Keir Fraser, Project Leader at XenSource, announces release of new Xen 3.1.1 version.

The very short announcement reveals this is a bugfix release only. All vendors using the open source hypervisor (CItrix/XenSource, Virtual Iron, Novell, Red Hat and now Sun) are expected to update their products accordingly in the coming months.

Binaries for Xen 3.1.1 should be available shortly here.

Along with cost and power saving, more efficiency and flexibility, virtualization technologies introduces severity in datacenter: any virtual infrastructure without a rational and strict operational framework is doomed to fail in returning the expected investment, and in most cases introduces more management problems rather than reducing them.

So the need for guidance during planning, design, implementation and maintenance phases of IT projects is bigger than ever.

VMware already recognized this need and it’s building an online wiki called Virtual Infrastructure Operations (VIOPS) to create a user generated framework.

Now also Microsoft is moving in the same direction, starting a new beta program called Infrastructure Planning and Design, part of Solutions Accelerators beta group.

The program allows beta testers to access a series of guides describing the architectural considerations and streamline the design processes for planning and implementing Microsoft infrastructure technologies.

Microsoft started with two most wanted guide:

• SoftGrid Application Virtualization Guide (37 pages)
  The Infrastructure Planning & Design Microsoft SoftGrid Application Virtualization guide discusses when to use standalone mode and connected mode for application distribution. It assists designers in the infrastructure planning process for SoftGrid by providing a clear and concise workflow of the decisions and tasks required for each method. This guide enables you to plan the infrastructure required for meeting your application virtualization service goals.
• Windows Server Virtualization Guide (50 pages)
  The Infrastructure Planning and Design: Windows Server Virtualization guide discusses Microsoft virtualization options using Windows Server virtualization in Windows Server 2008 and Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1. The guide explains design considerations at critical decision points and helps plan for an optimized server virtualization infrastructure architecture to meet organizational goals for performance and consolidation.

but a third one about Terminal Services is expected in Q1 2008.

These guides enhance and replace the Windows Server System Reference Architecture and will be available on Microsoft TechNet for free once finalized.

If you are about to start a new virtualization project with Microsoft technologies they really worth a look.

Enroll for the beta program here with following invitation code: IPDM-QX6H-7TTV.

Thanks to Justin Zarb for the news.

Virtualization platforms vendors are moving all together to bundle their hypervisors with popular servers from well-known OEMs like Dell, IBM and HP.

First one was XenSource, announcing its XenExpress OEM Edition, followed by VMware, which announced ESX Server 3i. Now it’s the Virtual Iron turn, as eWeek is reporting:

…

Starting Oct. 16, Virtual Iron will begin bundling the latest version of its virtualization software with rack-mount and blade servers from Hewlett-Packard and IBM. The bundles, which include services, are being sold through Tech Data and its network of VARs.

The bundle from IBM, of Armonk, N.Y., includes two servers – either an Intel-based System x3550 or x3500, or the AMD-based x3655 – along with the service contract, virtualization and storage software for a price ranging from $12,396 to $13,843. While the Virtual Iron software supports storage choices, the actual storage server is an option.

The bundle from HP, of Palo Alto, Calif., is similar but adds a blade option.

That bundle includes two rack-mount servers – the HP ProLiant DL380, which uses an Intel processor, and the DL385, which uses an AMD chip. In addition, Virtual Iron is offering a bundle with HP’s new BladeSystem c3000 blade chassis, which the company introduced in September at the 2007 VMworld Conference, along with the BL460c blade, which uses both Intel and AMD processors.

The bundles include two servers, virtualization and storage software but not the actual storage hardware, which can be added as an option. The price for the bundle that comes with the rack-mounted HP servers is $10,447, while the package that includes the blade and blade chassis is $33,114…

Sun is expected to do the same with its own hardware as soon as xVM, the implementation of Xen with Solaris kernel, will be ready.

Microsoft will technically do this since the very first day of codename Viridian release, considering the new hypervisor will be embedded into Windows Server 2008 and Microsoft already bundles its operating systems with 95% of worldwide servers.

The only big absentee in the strategy seems SWsoft at this point, which has to rely on Windows or Linux to deploy its OS virtualization platform Virtuozzo. Anyway SWsoft may count on upcoming Parallels Server to achieve same goal, which has big chances to be distributed in bundle with Apple Xserve.

While virtualization adopters are still struggling with basic issues like ISVs and virtualization vendors support issues, licensing problems, lack of tools in several functional areas, and high investments costs, biggest research firms feel free to claim the industry is ready for Virtualization 2.0.

The first one was IDC which annunced Virtualization 2.0 at end of 2006, saying it would arrive in 2007.

Now Gartner follows and announces Virtualization 2.0 will arrive in 2008.

And this while their own data reveals that in 2006 only 5% of worldwide servers were deployed for virtualization purposes.

We should definitively reconsider how and when to apply 2.0 label.

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

Quoting from the Trigence official announcement:

Trigence, a leader in virtualization at the application level, today announced the addition of Nat Smith as Director of Product Management and Marketing.

…

Prior to joining Trigence, Smith was the Director of Product Marketing with Expand, where he positioned the company in the coveted Leaders quadrant of Gartner’s Magic Quadrant. Prior to Expand, Smith was a Senior Product Manager at Network Physics where he successfully led the development team and customized product launches for application infrastructure solutions. Smith has also held key management positions at Packeteer, Palm and AT&T Labs…