Virtualization - Infoworld

The future of hypervisors

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:14:26 +0000

The world of hypervisors is complicated by the fact that there are proprietary and open source tools, each with different strengths and weaknesses.

One expert says the difference between the two is that innovation is coming out of the open source products at a quicker pace. But another expert doesn't quite believe that first to market is the key to success. He says this market is too important to be downloading open source bits frequently. With that dilemma, enterprises instead turn to commercially supported products.

OpenStack removes Hyper-V support in next release

admin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:56:05 +0000

Despite Microsoft's stated commitment to Hyper-V in OpenStack, buggy code designed to support the hypervisor will be removed from the next version of the stack, developers decided on Wednesday.

Microsoft 'committed' to Hyper-V OpenStack support

admin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:39:04 +0000

Microsoft may try to revive support for Hyper-V in OpenStack as the community considers removing the code -- which one OpenStack developer called broken and unmaintained -- from the stack.

"Microsoft is committed to working with the community to resolve the current issues with Hyper-V and OpenStack," Microsoft said in a statement.

Microsoft ups the battle with VMware for the private cloud

J. Peter Bruzzese — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Many companies want to make their data centers into private clouds so they can get the advantages of faster, more flexible allocation of server, storage, and software resources. EMC VMware has long been the first stop for organizations looking for the virtualization component to help build that private cloud. But Microsoft wants to be the go-to provider, so it's amping up its Windows Server and System Center offerings this year to try to get that status.

EMC lays out product roadmap, warns of disk shortages

admin — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:47:43 +0000

EMC CEO Joe Tucci today offered a high-level overview of the company's product roadmap, which includes a refresh of its VMAX Symmetrix array, its VNXe hybrid array, and the general availability of its embedded flash storage product for servers.

EMC subsidiary VMware will also detail new functions in all of its major product families, including the vSphere private cloud infrastructure suite and the vFabric application cloud platform.

Microsoft takes aim at VMware and the cloud with System Center 2012

David Marshall — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:15:27 +0000

The skirmish between VMware and Microsoft for greater control over the virtualization and cloud markets is only going to get bigger and more intense in 2012.

Red Bend aims to bring mobile virtualization and BYOD to the masses

David Marshall — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:20:30 +0000

The idea behind mobile virtualization technology is quite simple: Platform developers take a smartphone and add some type of a virtualization layer to it to provide users with a personal/corporate all-in-one device, which will help with corporate BYOD initiatives. Corporate data can be protected from personal applications, and users can keep their personal information private and free from corporate management and company policies.

The year's best hardware, software, and cloud services

Doug Dineley — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Was it the philosopher George Santayana who said, "Those who don't remember the past are condemned to repeat it?" Did he offer any hints for those of us who want to repeat the past, especially the successes? We're beyond the teary elegies of 2011 and deep into making resolutions for 2012. If we're going to stand half a chance of creating something great this year, it only makes sense to pause and celebrate what went right in 2011.

Picking the top technologies in a wild year

Eric Knorr — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Whenever someone asks me how InfoWorld differs from other IT publications, I cite two facts off the bat: Most of our articles are written by experienced, working IT people -- and we're one of the few publications that still does real enterprise product reviews.

6 things every IT person should know

Matt Prigge — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Anyone who's been in IT for more than 10 minutes knows that troubleshooting is a huge part of the job. Some item -- it doesn't matter what -- breaks in a new and entirely unexpected way, and by default, it's up to you to get it fixed. It doesn't matter how many books you've read, how well you know the user guide, or what you ate for breakfast. What matters is how quickly you can connect the dots and wiggle your way out of the problem.

Top 10 small-business tech predictions for 2012

admin — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 11:00:00 +0000

For small and midsize businesses, 2011 was an eventful year for the owners and managers tasked with technology decisions. The year's highlights range from the arrival of new technologies such as the introduction of Intel's Thunderbolt peripheral interface to the release of Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich."

VMware 2011: The good, the bad, and the cloudy

David Marshall — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:10:06 +0000

VMware was a busy company in 2011. Instead of resting on its laurels, the currently crowned virtualization technology leader continued to be a mover and a shaker -- although not everything went its way.

VDI shoot-out: HDX vs. PCoIP

Lab Notes — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:00:00 +0000

Citrix XenDesktop's HDX and VMware View's PCoIP offer the same basic functionality -- providing video, sound, and peripheral support to remote desktop users -- but they each use a different transport protocol, HDX riding TCP and PCoIP riding UDP. Most end-users won't be interested in the TCP-versus-UDP debate, but network admins will always have an opinion, especially if their responsibilities include network monitoring, WAN optimization, or VPN support.

VDI shoot-out: VMware View 5

Doug Dineley — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:00:00 +0000

An excellent platform for building an enterprise VDI solution, VMware View 5 takes advantage of all the features, services, and fault tolerance built into VMware's flagship vSphere hypervisor. View allows IT to manage pools of virtual desktops, assign them to users, and define policies for VDI behavior, all from a single browser-based UI.

VDI shoot-out: Citrix XenDesktop vs. VMware View

Doug Dineley — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:00:00 +0000

More than 20 years ago, the desktop revolution swept across the land, ushering in a new paradigm of computing, taking processing away from a centralized host, and moving it to personal computers at the edge of the network. With VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure), as the saying goes, what's old is new again. Using virtualization, IT now has the ability to bring those distinct computing platforms back under one roof, while also providing for greater control and flexibility of user access.

VDI shoot-out: Citrix XenDesktop 5.5

Doug Dineley — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:00:00 +0000

Certainly the most flexible VDI solution I've worked with, Citrix XenDesktop is the model of compatibility coupled with excellent capabilities. XenDesktop not only works with Citrix XenServer, but also runs on top of other vendors' hypervisors. It supports all four virtual desktop delivery models (dedicated, pooled, streamed, offline) and remote connectivity from a wide range of client operating systems, including Linux, Mac OS X, iOS, and Android.

Startup pushes software-defined networking

admin — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 12:36:45 +0000

Software-defined networking startup Embrane this week came out of stealth mode to unveil its product and strategy for virtualizing network services.

Free VMware tools for virtualization admins are worth a 'fling'

David Marshall — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:08:56 +0000

If you are a VMware virtualization administrator and haven't been indoctrinated yet into the use of "flings," perhaps it's time you climbed on board. There is a community repository filled with golden nuggets created by VMware-employed developers and engineers -- and yes, they are offered for the low, low price of free.

Operating systems don't matter much anymore

admin — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 11:00:00 +0000

For decades now, we've been fussing about operating systems. "Mac OS X is better than Windows!" "Why upgrade to Windows 7 when XP works just fine?" "You're all wrong. Linux rules." Such arguments are about to become history.

Thanks to advances in virtualization, cloud technology, and the Web, it matters less and less to users which operating system is behind their desktop screens -- or, for that matter, their tablet and smartphone displays.

Xen virtualization being ported to ARM chips

David Marshall — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 16:48:57 +0000

Several Xen developers who currently work for Citrix recently announced they are porting the Xen hypervisor to the ARM processor architecture. The group's work began less than three months ago, but the port is said to already be capable of booting a Linux 3.0-based virtual machine.