VMworld 2008 conference coverage

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VMworld 2008 takes place Sept. 15-18 at the Venetian Hotel Center in Las Vegas. SearchServerVirtualization.com and SearchVMware.com staff are on hand to cover the event, from keynotes and other news to workshops, exhibits and product news.

VIDEO SearchServerVirtualization.com announces Best of VMworld 2008 awards From the show floor, Search Server Virtualization. com announced its Best of VMworld 2008 awards, which spanned eight categories. Desktop virtualization: Underwhelmed at VMworld Virtualization expert Andrew Kutz says that despite VMware's initiatives in desktop virtualization, VMware's VDI is lackluster. Vizioncore, Cisco virtualization offerings show promise at VMworld Virtualization expert David David scouts the VMworld show floor for standout virtualization products that will be released by the end of 2008. Virtualization investments yield payoff Companies have reaped the benefits of their investments in virtualization, says editor Jan Stafford, on-site at VMworld 2008. Hardware for virtualization trends Virtualization expert Rick Vanover surveys the hardware for virtualization offerings and trends at VMworld 2008. Marathon Technologies critiques VMware fault tolerance An executive from Marathon Tech- nologies compares Marathon's everRun faul-tolerance technology with VMware's new fault-tolerance software. VDC-OS revealed VMware's Bogomil Balkansky explains the new Virtual Datacenter Operating System (VDC-OS), VMware's new "internal cloud." AMD exec discusses virtualization-assist technologies Margaret Lewis of AMD discusses the company's virtualization-assist technologies, live migration and interoperability issues with Intel. Cloud computing: All the rage, but what about the mechanics? Lost in the flurry of discussion about cloud computing is how exactly it will work. Scott Lowe breaks down some of the mechanics of the cloud. Desktop virtualization: Offline, but so what? Although virtual desktops are available offline, how useful is offline computing anyway? Cloud computing: A reality check Analyst Gary Chen discusses the difficulties of moving into a cloud computing-based infrastructure. Drawing a crowd at VMworld, Veeam-style At VMworld, the Veam booth draws a crowd. Software management, desktop virtualization discussed Jim Sazone and Michael Burke of Vitera sound off on two running themes at VMworld: management software and desktop virtualization. A hypervisor on your laptop? NxTop is here Virtual Computer discusses its hypervisor-based virtual desktop offering, NxTop. Unlike VMware's beta vClient, NxTop is here now. New survey: Virtualization's revving up News writer Mark Fontecchio provides a rundown of some of the results of our data center purchasing survey results on server virtualization. SEE ALL VIDEO VMworld2007 Check out news, features and podcasts from SearchServerVirtualization.com's special coverage of VMworld 2007. MORE VIDEO VMworld 2008 preview: Cloud computing, Rosenblum, Hyper-V Will VMware delve into cloud computing initiatives or announce new management tools at VMworld? What's the signifiance of the departure of VMware's Mendel Rosenblum? And is Hyper-V poised to be a game-changer? The open source scoop and VMworld Red Hat has just purchased Qumranet, and Novell will emphasize SUSE's interoperability with virtualization technologies. Hear the pre-show news on the leading Linux providers at VMworld. VMworld 2008 Cirba virtual capacity management Cirba founder and CTO Andrew Hillier talks about the evolution of capacity management in virtual server environments. VMware, VDI and market leadership: A VMworld 2008 preview VMware has some work to do at VMworld 2008 to shore up its image and continue its market leadership position. Will it offer Workstation for free or delve further into desktop virtualization? VMworld 2008: Users want truth, low prices In this VMworld 2008 preview, TechTarget's Jan Stafford shares what VMware users wish VMware would announce and do at the Las Vegas event. PRODUCT NEWS New vmSight management platform for desktop and apps announced The new offering from vmSight, vmSight 4.0, is a management platform to monitor desktops and applications running in a virtual environment. VKernel to support Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and Hyper-V VKernel has announced that it will partner with Microsoft to produce systems management tools for Windows Server 2008 and Hyper-V. Integrien previews new VMware-specific features for Alive The newest version of Integrien Corp.'s Alive systems management software will contain VMware-specific capabilities for the first time. Sourcefire strengthens virtualization security with RNA Sourcefire has introduced Real-time Network Awareness (RNA), a feature that monitors hardware and virtual environments. Desktone and Wyse to enable Flash in DaaS environments Wyse Technology and Desktone Inc. have announced a partnership that will allow them to bring Flash to virtualized desktop infrastructures. Perfman 7.2 announced Perfman announced Perfman 7.2, the latest version of the company's cross-platform capacity planning and performance management software. Reflex Security announces VMC for VM management Reflex Security Inc. announced Virtualization Management Center (VMC), a product to provide greater visibility into virtual machine activity for security admins. AppSense tackles virtual desktop challenges AppSense Environment Manager 8.0 is designed to address the storage and management costs associated with virtual desktops. Virtual Computer releases NxTop for mobile computing Virtual Computer has announced its new PC virtualization platform, NxTop, geared for mobile workforces, enabling admins to install additional applications, patch components and more without disrupting end users' settings. Splunk for VMware Management enables improved view of virtual environment Splunk for VMware Management helps to prevent virtual machine sprawl in order to maximize a virtual environment's potential. NetEx Virtual HyperIP for VMware unveiled NetEx has announced the release of its new Virtual HyperIP for VMware offering, which is designed to enhance the performance of storage replication applications from the likes of Symantec, IBM and EMC. VAlign Software announces new management tool for VMware VAlign has announced VAlign for VMware, which contains tools to more efficiently manage the financial implications of a virtualized infrastructure. 3Leaf now plugs in to VMware VirtualCenter I/O virtualization provider 3Leaf Systems has created a plug-in for VMware VirtualCenter. GlassHouse offers Managed Services for Virtual Environments GlassHouse Technologies has launched Managed Services for Virtual Environments to provide visibility, monitoring and reporting capabilities for virtualized IT environments.

TOP STORIES

Best of VMworld 2008 awards announced The Best of VMworld 2008 awards have been anounced for virtualization technologies spanning eight categories. VMworld 2008 keynote explores disaster recovery In the final keynote at VMworld 2008, a VMware exec demoed VMware's Site Recovery Manager for disaster recovery automation. Marathon Technologies says VMware fault tolerance flawed Fault-tolerance software provider Marathon Technologies compares its everRun technology with VMware's new fault-tolerance software. VMware CTO outlines VDC-OS, vCenter VMware's CTO delivered a keynote that broke down the new Virtual Datacenter Operating System's infrastructure components and demonstrated VMware's desktop virtualization. Paul Maritz fields questions at VMworld 2008 VMware's new CEO, Paul Maritz, held a second Q&A session and fielded some tough questions on the climate at VMware post-Diane Greene, the ESX Update 2 bug and competition from Microsoft. VMware CEO Paul Maritz delivers VMworld keynote VMware CEO Paul Maritz gave his first keynote address at VMworld 2008 in Las Vegas and discussed new technologies for desktop and cloud computing, corporate partnerships and competing against Microsoft. VMware's vClient puts hypervisor on desktop By porting a bare-metal hypervisor on desktops, VMware's new vClient initiative addresses the limitations of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure – as well as looming desktop virtualization competition from Microsoft. DMTF releases OVF VM standard, management initiative The Distributed Management Task Force released the much-anticipated Open Virtualization Format, a standard for deploying virtual machines in heterogeneous environments.

MORE NEWS COVERAGE

Storage still remains virtualization afterthought For many enterprise users, storage remains an afterthought in their virtualization planning and projects. AMD exec says processor interoperability still a challenge At VMworld, an AMD executive discusses interoperability issues with Intel, live migration and AMD's virtualization-assist technologies. IBM software to reduce desktop data IBM will reduce the amount of storage space virtual desktops consume by as much as 80%. Cisco brings virtualization to Fibre Channel and Ethernet Cisco rolled out a software-based virtual Ethernet switch that company officials said lays the groundwork for setting granular policies over Ethernet networks, including iSCSI storage and wide area networks. Citrix Systems closes in on VMware with XenServer 5 release Citrix Systems' new version of XenServer now offers high availability, fault tolerance, virtual machine tagging and enhanced management features. One analyst deems it a significant improvement over past versions. VMware and Citrix showcase fault tolerance at VMworld With data centers adding more virtual machines per host, VMware and Citrix have promised to protect against hardware failures with new fault-tolerance offerings. VMware woos partners SearchITChannel.com has the partnership news covered at VMworld. Read about VMware's promised deep discounts through its partner program and more. VMware unveils cloud computing initiatives On day one of VMworld, VMware announced Virtual Datacenter Operating System and vCloud, initiatives designed to enable data centers and managed service providers to exploit cloud computing. Microsoft and Novell deliver on virtualization interoperability promise Microsoft and Novell have made good on their 2006 interoperability pact with adapters to speed performance of their respective OSes on the other's hypervisor. Sourcefire adds VM protection to RNA, new appliance The small security vendor has moved into the virtualization market. VMware takes on Microsoft's 'dynamic' vision With its new CEO, Paul Maritz, in tow, VMware will showcase its virtual data center OS this week at VMworld. Storage vendors push data protection at VMworld As production server virtualization deployments proliferate, Symantec, Hewlett-Packard and others at VMworld are tackling the next frontier: how to back it all up. Can VMware maintain its market leadership position? VMware may be the market leader in virtualization today, but its weakness in physical systems management, its potential for redundancy and the emergence of Hyper-V signal that trouble could be on the horizon. Red Hat, Canonical and Ubuntu to make open source case at VMworld Whether they feature new products or not, Red Hat, Novell and Canonical will descend on VMworld to promote virtualization strategies. Sun xVM Server and Ops Center update, add virtualization options Sun Microsystems has announced the availability of its Xen-based hypervisor, xVM Server, and an updated version of its virtualization management software, Sun xVM Ops Center. Dell announced new array with VMware Auto-Snapshot Manager Dell's new iSCSI array includes VMware Auto-Snapshot Manager, which provides visibility into a server's data protection schedule and assists in granular file and folder restore. Hyper-V R2 to include Live Migration feature With VMworld set to start just next week, Microsoft announced Live Migration, which will be available in the next version of Hyper-V and Windows Server 2008. VMworld predictions Despite clear strengths, including VMotion and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, VMware has weaknesses to overcome, including virtual machine performance management. Will it address its shortcomings at VMworld 2008?

BLOG

A VMworld first-timer's postmortem Virtualization expert Rick Vanover gives his thoughts on lessons learned at VMworld. VMware CTO crystallizes vClient After VMware's CTO invoked the word hypervisor to explain VMware's new vClient desktop virtualization technology, VMworld attendees finally had a collective aha moment. Lose the desktop already! Desktop virtualization is a running theme at VMworld 2008, but that doesn't mean everyone is satisifed with the maturity of desktop virtualization. SkyTap's 'hybrid' cloud-computing model SkyTap's new "hybrid" cloud-computing model uses an application programming interface to enable the transfer of existing dynamic environments to the cloud. In next-gen desktop virtualization, vClient faces competition Virtual Computer announced its desktop virtualization technology NxTop -- which is almost identical to VMware's vClient -- and stands out for one big reason: It's here, and you can see it in action today. VMware has yet to demo vClient. VMworld 2008 the LinuxWorld of yesteryear? VMworld 2008 is packed -- and reminiscent of the LinuxWorld shows of yesteryear, before Linux became mainstream. Introducing Virtual Data Center OS (VDC-OS) VMware has announced its new Virtual Datacenter Operating System (VDC-OS), which aims to pool all data center resources and convert them into a solitary, secure cloud. A VMworld journal: Day one A SearchVMware.com contributor shares his thoughts on day one of the show. Citrix and 3Tera partnership elevates the cloud 3Tera and Citrix have announced a partnership that centers on the Citrix XenServer Cloud Edition. The buzz at and on VMworld Here's the buzz for technology announcements and trends at VMworld. Getting the most out of VMworld Here are some ways to get the most out of this year's show. Bring an extra bag for swag Did you bring enough luggage to tote back the swag offered at VMworld? Bigger and bolder VMworld 2008? VMworld 2008 is due to be bigger than any previous virtualization conference. Things change but also stay the same VMware remains the market leader, users are still reticent about desktop virtualization and Microsoft's Hyper-V has yet to change the game.

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