This post was written by Denise Ross
Citrix’s XenServer is a hypervisor that loads and runs directly on a bare server, rather than as an application on a host OS much like the market-leading VMware ESX server. The processors do need to support Intel VT or AMD-V virtualisation technologies, but that’s not been an issue for some time and anything bought recently will support these as standard. with a slicker interface and lots of new features, including the ability to define metadata to group and tag virtual machines.
Microsoft has announced the first public beta release of its BizTalk Server 2009 enterprise connectivity software, which can take advantage of virtualization and enhanced failover clustering featured in Windows Server 2008. Virtualization is enabled by Windows Server 2008′s Hyper-V virtualization. Clustering capabilities let BizTalk be deployed in multi-site clustering environments without additional software or hardware. The product offers scalability and reliability through its support of Microsoft’s SQL Server 2008 database. BizTalk Server also can connect with Oracle’s E-Business Suite. The general release of BizTalk Server 2009 is due in the first half of 2009.
AMD and Red Hat have demonstrated the live migration of virtual machines between AMD and Intel servers. The term ‘live migration’ refers to moving virtual machines between physical servers without affecting other tasks running on the machines at the time. The companies claim this is the first time this has been demonstrated between processors from the two manufacturers. The functionality would give enterprises “flexibility to buy the hardware that meets [their] business requirements [and to] equip [their] overall datacentre in the most cost-effective way.
Bycast announced the availability of the eighth generation of its StorageGRID platform with a range of enhancements, including a distributed file system gateway for added scalability, multi-tenancy capabilities, and support for virtual server deployments. The StorageGRID 8 platform virtualizes information retention and access over a spectrum of heterogeneous storage devices, ranging from high-performance disk to archival media, distributed over multiple sites. The enhancements boost system performance, reduce data center footprint through the usage of virtual servers, and strengthen the overall platform for SaaS customers offering digital archiving services.
Hewlett-Packard is getting into the network-based storage virtualization game with the news that it is set to ship the HP StorageWorks SAN Virtualization Services Platform (SVSP). This platform is a new system that can migrate and manage data between midrange arrays in heterogeneous SAN environments. The SVSP is a network-based platform that pools capacity across heterogeneous storage hardware from HP and other vendors. It provides users storage services such as online data migration, thin provisioning, and replication. This also includes clones, snapshots, synchronous local mirroring and asynchronous remote mirroring for disaster recovery.
Making use of its existing networking investments, Dell has unveiled Dell FlexAddress, a patent pending tool for blade chassis virtualization and persistent identity. With this, the company is following up on the successful introduction of its PowerEdge M-Series blade server solution. Any M-Series blade enclosure can now abstract the Fibre Channel World Wide Name (WWN) and Ethernet/iSCSI Media Access Control (MAC) from the blade hardware and, instead, tie it persistently to a slot in the M1000e chassis with the help of Dell FlexAddress.
