Red Hat in collaboration with HP and AMD announced continued delivery of virtualization capabilities offered through Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Customers are now able to achieve performance gains by coupling new high-performance device drivers with the features provided by Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors, available with HP ProLiant DL585 G5 servers.

Virtualization provides enormous benefits to makers and users of computing platforms ranging from desktops, to servers, and even supercomputers. The reasons for this are now obvious; cost savings through server consolidation, reduced administrative costs, and greater flexibility. Less obvious may be the degree to which virtualization can benefit deeply embedded applications such as cell phones, networking equipment, and point of sales terminals.

Adding to the complete portfolio of desktop virtualization offerings, HP announced it plans to support Citrix XenDesktop upon its availability in May across its industry-standard HP ProLiant server and HP Compaq thin client product lines. Citrix XenDesktop is a comprehensive desktop delivery solution that allows companies to virtualize Microsoft Windows desktops in the data center and deliver them on demand to office workers in any location.

IBM may be starring down the barrel of an EC investigation of its precious mainframe business, significant to its bottom line. According to both Bloomberg and Dow Jones, the commission has sent Big Blue a questionnaire asking for details about its mainframe business practices and questionnaires have a way of leading to formal investigations. The EC is asking because of the complaint that Platform Solutions Inc (PSI) made against IBM last October, charging it with violating Article 82 of the EC Treaty, the very abuse-of-dominance provision used to nail Microsoft, a charge IBM ironically urged the EC to find against Microsoft.

Parallels said Wednesday that its Desktop virtualization widgetry for the Mac, which lets Intel-based Apples run Windows or Linux along with Mac OS X, has sold more than a million copies, a nice chunk of the Macs out there. It is the largest-selling Mac utility and gives Mac users access to all those Windows programs it?s starved for.

'When Insight and Updata approached us, it was clear that they already understood that DataCore has become the storage virtualization and SAN management solution of choice in the server and desktop virtualization space,' said Ziya Aral, Chairman and CTO, DataCore Software. 'We are glad to have these two excellent firms as part of the team.'

Web hosting provider, Cirrus Tech, has officially unveiled the availability of virtualization technology on its dedicated server hosting plans, as a growing number of VPS clients engage upgrades. Clients can enjoy the benefits of the same virtualization technology used in Cirrus' Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting plans in a standalone dedicated server. Although a VPS has dedicated resources and is isolated within the server, it still exists in a physical server that hosts other VPS instances. A dedicated server with virtualization utilizes all the resources available in the dedicated server with a layer of virtualization for added benefits.

nSolutions launched its flagship change and configuration management offering, Network Ontology and Virtualization Appliance (NOVA). NOVA is a highly scalable, change and configuration management appliance that auto-discovers infrastructure resource configurations, builds a real-time repository of physical, logical and virtual resources, correlates the interdependencies and controls the changes to ensure continuous operational and security compliance.

Array Networks introduced WiFiProtect, a comprehensive, identity-based access control solution for WLAN networks. WiFiProtect's virtualization technology funnels all WLAN traffic through a scalable gateway that enables enterprises to provide customized wireless access for partners, guests and employees. By using standard browsers present on virtually every client device, it eliminates the need for IT intervention or a pre-installed client every time a user requires wireless access.

ITS Group and Scalent Systems announced an agreement where ITS will resell and integrate Scalent V/OE (Virtual Operating Environment). This partnership enables ITS Group to broaden its technology solution portfolio and confirm its position as one of France's key integration companies specializing in the virtualization of data centers. The implementation of Infrastructure Virtualization in the data center results in a real-time infrastructure which lowers IT management and operational costs while increasing flexibility in the face of dynamic compute resource requirements.

QSound Labs announced that its mQFX and QSurroundMobile technologies will be made available on Symbian OS as a reference component. mQFX, for 3D stereo audio enhancement effects, and QSurroundMobile, the multichannel audio virtualization technology, will be available in Symbian OS developer and customer kits and can be used for test and demonstration purposes. QSound's mQFX and QSurroundMobile will provide extended functionality for Symbian OS mobile phones, delivering a superior listening experience for all types of multimedia content.

VMLogix announced that Vignette has selected VMLogix LabManager to virtualize their software development and test labs to continue innovating the Vignette Web Experience Platform. Vignette chose VMLogix because of its capabilities geared toward independent software vendors (ISVs), including software automation, superior user management, and easy integration with existing development, build and test tools.

Building on a goal to make virtualization and availability ubiquitous, Marathon Technologies Corporation announced an expanded strategic partnership with Citrix Systems. The broader agreement involves tighter integration of Citrix XenServer and Marathon everRun VM, and establishes Marathon as a preferred high availability partner. The expanded partnership includes closer sales and marketing collaboration, as well as validation of Marathon everRun as one of the first Citrix Ready high availability solutions. The results of these efforts will be turnkey, automated availability and disaster recovery solutions that deploy in minutes and work with little or no IT intervention. These solutions are suited for both mid-market customers with very limited IT resources and larger customers who need to do more with less in a slowing economy, both of whom can consolidate more of their applications.

Chelsio announced new software drivers that are fully integrated within XenServer 4.1 from Citrix. The 'in-box' drivers provide seamless deployment of Chelsio 10GbE Unified Wire adapters with Citrix XenServer 4.1, enabling I/O performance for single or multiple Windows and Linux virtual machines (VM) while delivering on the promise of the unified wire.

Data center managers are quickly realizing the benefits of virtualization, including reduced power consumption, improved server utilization, increased availability by reducing planned downtime, and reduced costs. However, with these benefits comes a new layer of complexity. Heterogeneity is common in data centers and most include multiple operating systems (both virtual and physical), different virtual machines, and storage and tape vendors. Interoperability is critical to managing this heterogeneity.

Although I am somewhat of a new user of containers virtualization technology, I thought I'd write a short article giving an overview about using containers virtualization instead of dedicated physical servers for people thinking about trying virtualization technology - especially 'containers,' or operating system virtualization technology. Here, I will address misconceptions that I had about containers and talk about how my perspective on this type of virtualization technology is changing.

Virtualization is becoming an increasingly important concept, not only to IT staffs, but to CIOs and line-of-business managers as well. Aspects of the 'new economy' that contribute to the need for virtualization range from a globally distributed workforce of users who expect more control over when and how they work, to an increasing emphasis on service, worldwide competition, and the notion of the 'borderless enterprise,' where employees, customers, and partners share significant information and business processes.

After a $1.5 million angel round, Desktone, which was started in 2006 by Eric Pulier, who also started SOA Software, US Interactive and IVT, picked up $17 million in first-round funding about a year ago from Highland Capital Partners, SoftBank Capital, Citrix Systems and the China-based Tangee International. SoftBank as well as Deutsche Telekom could become service providers. Ruda says the brains behind the technology is Paul Gaffney, the former CIO of Staples. The company has maybe 40 people, more than half of them in Shanghai doing development, which explains Tangee's involvement.

Corel, the owner of Office rival WordPerfect, is looking for a new CEO now that the incumbent David Dobson, there since 2005, is leaving before the end of June for a senior position at some unidentified Fortune 500. Dobson's move follows Corel's largest investor Corel Holdings LP, controlled by the private equity company Vector Capital, offering $11 a share Canadian for the 31% of the company it doesn't already own, a move that would take the joint private again for the second time in five years.

Microsoft has finally released the Vista-delayed XP SP3 to manufacturing and will be sending the code to PC makers. It supports the Network Access protection and Peer Name Resolution Protocol (PNRP) used in Vista so XP apps can communicate with Vista apps that use the stuff. It can also be a guest OS on Hyper-V.

The Legal Times has been poking around IBM's misadventure with the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) and how it was briefly barred from doing any new business with the United States government a few weeks ago, and it says, paraphrasing Robert Meunier, the EPA official who blackballed the company without notifying it ahead of time, that 'immediate action was the only way to prevent IBM was potentially winning back the contract it allegedly cheated on.'

Amazon is now offering two premium support levels for application developers using its cloud computing services, to wit its S3 storage service, its EC2 computing service and SQS application messaging service. It's got Silver support, priced at $100 a month or 10 cent for every dollar of total Amazon Web Services (AWS) usage fees a month - whichever is greater - and Gold support, which runs $400 a month or 10 cents-20 cents et cetera et cetera.

Remember that Mesh stuff that Microsoft chief architect Ray Ozzie was hinting around about a few weeks ago? Well, Microsoft's new contribution to the cloud, what we called 'the Big Sync,' is now Live Mesh, a preview Web Service that, as previously reported, is supposed to synchronize a user's files, feeds, applications and preferences/settings across multiple PCs and make them shareable. Microsoft also calls it a 'platform' and some people compare to a WebOS.

In its efforts to keep the boat afloat, it's generally assumed that AMD will throw its consumer electronics business overboard. Its revenues last quarter were a measly $81 million, down 26% sequentially, and its operating margin was -10%, down from 11% quarter-over-quarter.

Microsoft and Novell have taken it into their collective head to push their peculiar axis into China - and elsewhere - to convert unsupported Linux users to SUSE. They say they've had demand 'to build a bridge between open source and proprietary software and provide interoperability and IP peace of mind,' a claim that set off guffaws across the open source community considering China's reputation for ignoring IP rights - among other civil liberties - and the fact that it's been a big-time Windows pirate.

There's no question that advances in server virtualization technology are becoming popular among corporations that want to save money by consolidating resources and improving operational efficiency. Virtualization enables a dramatic increase in cost savings in ongoing maintenance and the cost required to keep physical assets afloat.

When Honda introduced the Civic in America in 1972, industry experts declared Honda would never succeed because automobiles were too complex and required skills and technology beyond those of the mere motorcycle company. Fast forward to today when Honda's Civics and Accords are two of North America's top-selling cars.

During customer briefings, I'll often use the concept of the Lego data center when talking about the vision behind Data Center 3.0. The joy of Lego (for me at least) is the ability to build something then, (sometimes violently) break it apart and build something else. This is the operational model we look to bring to the data center - sans most of the violence - with Data Center 3.0.

There are pitfalls in using software-based network interface cards and host bus adaptors. They don't scale well in I/O-centric loads running on scaled-out architectures. The CEO of a leading virtualization companies said, 'Software virtualization addresses 80% of the market and it leaves 20% for hardware-based I/O virtualization.'

What does the former CTO of XenSource - now CTO of the virtualization and management division at Citrix - have in common with the founder and CEO of PlateSpin, now VP of Business Development at Novell? And what do both of them have in common with the CTO of VMware? The answer is that all three are speaking in June at the 3rd International Virtualization Conference & Expo in New York City, along with the CTO of Egenera, the Technical Director and Chief Technologist at Sun, the VP& CTO of Hitachi Data Systems, the CTO of BMC Software, the VP & CTO of EMC, the co-founder & CTO of Neocleus, the CTO of Xsigo Systems, the CTO of Brocade, the Chairman and CEO of SIMtone, the Founder & CEO of ScaleMP, the founder and CTO of VirtualLogix, the Chief Strategist of Appistry, the CTO of Marathon Technologies, the CTO & Co-Founder of Reflex Security, the VP of Research and Development at DataDirect Technologies, the CMO of GigaSpaces, the IT Director at Fidelity Investments, and others.

Sometimes I think virtualization, although scary, is a no brainer for medium to large companies. In today's world server sprawl has become a major problem and costs companies a lot of money not only on server hardware, but power, cooling, support, and square footage. On the other side you have small businesses that generally have a different make up. Many do not have data centers and some have no more than a handful of servers. Can virtualization help them? What are the ways that it can benefit them without breaking the bank?

CiRBA announced that OnX Enterprise Solutions has standardized on CiRBA's virtualization analytics software for delivering consolidation consulting services. OnX joins a growing number of global and regionally-focused IT services organizations in South America, EMEA and the United States that are leveraging CiRBA's software to plan client virtualization and consolidation initiatives.

CiRBA announced an agreement with Hyro to offer CiRBA's consolidation and virtualization analytics software in the Australian enterprise IT market. Through its technology services and solutions arm, Synergy Plus, Hyro will leverage CiRBA to analyze client environments to plan consolidation and virtualization initiatives.

CA and Opalis announced an OEM partnership that will enhance CA's Data Center Automation offerings with the IT process automation technology from Opalis. The joint technology solutions will further enable enterprises to drive down IT operational costs and increase productivity, while enforcing compliant best practices aimed at improving performance and availability of critical business services.

Sun Microsystems announced that it has entered into a stock purchase agreement to acquire innotek, the provider of VirtualBox. By enabling developers to more efficiently build, test and run applications on multiple platforms, VirtualBox will extend the Sun xVM platform onto the desktop and strengthen Sun's standing in the virtualization market.

Virtual Iron announced that its virtualization solution has now been deployed in over 2,000 customer organizations. The milestone, achieved in the first quarter of 2008, demonstrates the demand for comprehensive server virtualization capabilities in small and medium-sized enterprises. Much of Virtual Iron's growth has come from small and medium-sized enterprises, which make up about 70% of its customer base.

BT is going to distribute and support both SugarCRM, the commercial open source CRM people, and its rival NetSuite, Larry Ellison's other company. Both companies are competing against salesforce.com, the brainchild of former Ellison lieutenant Marc Benioff, with on-demand CRM applications. No terms were disclosed. BT is supposed to go chase SMBs and divisions of large companies, targeting its roughly1.6 million business customers in the UK and EMEA with NetSuite's stuff.

IBM introduced t a new category of server designed to address the technology needs of companies that use Web 2.0-style computing to operate massive data centers with tens of thousands of servers. Companies that operate massive scale-out data centers spend 10 to 30 times more on energy costs per square foot than a typical office building. The energy powers both hundreds of thousands of servers and the air conditioning needed to cool them. The growth of such data centers will continue as streaming video, online gaming and social networks spike Internet traffic, requiring companies to build ever vaster pools of computers that devour energy resources to operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

SYS-CON Events has announced that VMware CTO Stephen Herrod is to give the Morning Keynote on June 24 at the 3rd International Virtualization Conference & Expo being held June 23-24, 2008, in New York City. Herrod will be taking a 35,000 foot view of the fast-expanding virtualization space, and the lasting role that software that creates and manages virtual machines is now destined to play in the Enterprise IT landscape.

Parallels announced that its Parallels Desktop for Mac has sold more than one million copies. The software enables Mac users to run Windows, Linux or any other operating system and their critical applications at the same time as Mac OS X on any Intel-powered Apple computer. Parallels Desktop for Mac's success has made Parallels noted in desktop virtualization. The software is available in 10 languages -- Chinese, Czech, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, and Spanish.