Xangati Shatters Pricing Barrier to Live Enterprise-Wide Virtualization Management

Xangati, the first management solution to provide live, video-like visibility into all communications across both the virtual and physical worlds, today released two groundbreaking new products – Xangati for ESX and the Xangati Management Dashboard. Designed to decrease the management burdens of virtualization experts, Xangati’s new line of virtual appliances offers extensive monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities like no other solution on the market today and does so at a fraction of the cost. To take a free test drive and see what you’ve been missing, download Xangati for ESX at http://www.xangati.com/landing_page-software_download.php.

“Virtualization has proven to be a revolutionary force in today’s computing infrastructure,” said Zeus Karravala, senior vice president of enterprise research at Yankee Group. “It has already driven down the cost of servers; but until now, the old-school management solutions have failed to adapt to the economics of virtualization. With the release of its new virtual appliances, Xangati proves leadership once again by riding the virtualization wave to provide comprehensive management at a price that the virtualization manager themselves can pull the trigger on.”

Alan Robin, CEO of Xangati said, “The inability to explicitly see virtual communications within a hypervisor using traditional management solutions is perhaps the most fundamental ‘blind spot’ in a virtual infrastructure. We believe that to effectively manage the virtual world, you have to be of the virtual world, which is why we’ve come to market with a suite of virtual appliances that solve this virtual communication void. Couple our innovative product introduction with an aggressive ‘try-before-buy’ pricing model that allows virtualization administrators to solve problems before even committing to a purchase, and Xangati not only provides a win-win for everyone but positions itself as a disruptive force for virtualization management as we know it.”

Xangati is specifically designed to complement VMware’s vCenter by adding 360-degree communication visibility into all the critical elements that it manages. Just minutes from installation to instant visibility, and for as little as $2 per server, Xangati’s new virtualization management solution provides an instantaneous video-like view of how each and every component of a virtual infrastructure is performing. The solution also offers virtualization administrators DVR-like recordings of actual activity to be replayed after-the-fact for better problem analysis and faster time to resolution. Xangati’s virtual appliance suite consists of the following products:

• Xangati for ESX – tightly integrates with VMware’s hypervisor to instantly summarize traffic traversing a vSwitch, providing valuable visibility that completely eliminates these once troublesome “blind spots.” The turnkey virtual appliance is offered via a 14-day high-value trial, with the true plug-and-play nature of the solution enabling it to be installed and yield value in less than 30 minutes.
• Xangati Management Dashboard – can track up to 5,000 identities (e.g. a hypervisor, virtual server, virtual desktop, VoIP phone), providing complete enterprise-wide visibility, alerting, reporting and recording for hundreds of applications. The product comes in both a Standard and Enterprise edition, depending on the size and scope of the IT infrastructure and budget. It too is plug-and-play, with ROI in less than two hours.

Xangati’s initial pilot program has already yielded incredible value and helped virtualization experts in the following ways:

• Prove that the virtual infrastructure is not the cause of emerging performance issues
• Foster better communication between the virtualization teams and the owners of the servers that they have created
• Ensure virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) pilot success by showing both end-user experience with VDI and the root cause of the problem
• Catch misconfigurations with virtual IP storage and use the data to prevent performance or security issues
• Track the virtual server as it talks to an Oracle database in the physical world

“Countless organizations are struggling with ‘blind spots’ on their infrastructure and need real-time results to successfully get through their virtualization deployments – whether they are at the desktop, server or storage level,” continued Robin. “Xangati is unique in providing complete communication visibility across the enterprise to help identify and resolve performance issues right away.”

Davin Garcia, an IT manager at Innovative Technical Solutions, Inc. said, “Xangati is a powerful solution that now lets me see not only virtual-to-physical communications but virtual-to-virtual communications as well – eliminating critical ‘blind spots’ in this growing world of virtual infrastructures. The ability to have visibility into communication within the ESX host truly covers all bases and offers the most complete solution I’ve been able to find on the market today.”

Availability and Pricing

For hundreds to thousands of dollars less per managed object than traditional solutions that are agent-based, Xangati’s aggressive new pricing model offers a transparent view of the entire host and all associated virtual machines, as well as record and playback functionality of any found issues.

Xangati’s new suite of virtual appliances is available now. Xangati for ESX can be downloaded directly from http://www.xangati.com/landing_page-software_download.php for a free 14-day trial; or, at an immediate cost of $299. The Xangati Management Dashboard Standard edition is available for $4,999; and the Enterprise edition for $9,999. Xangati is also making available a Starter Kit at a discounted rate of $9,999, which includes Xangati for ESX for up to 20 hosts and the Xangati Management Dashboard Enterprise edition.

Xangati’s new virtual appliances support visibility into not just VMware environments, but heterogeneous virtualization environments including those also driven by Citrix and Microsoft, among others. To reach a sales representative for more information and to have a discussion about the solution that’s right for your organization, please contact sales@xangati.com.

SpringSource Unveils tc Server Spring Edition as the Best Place to Build and Run Spring Applications

SpringSource, a division of VMware, Inc. and the leader in Java application infrastructure and management, today introduced SpringSource tc Server Spring Edition, the best place to build and run Spring applications. tc Server Spring Edition provides a lightweight platform for running modern applications and is ideally-suited for the virtualized datacenter as well as private and public cloud environments. The tc Server Spring Edition bridges the divide between development teams and IT operations by equipping them with tools to manage the health, performance and quality of their Spring applications.

As part of the introduction of SpringSource tc Server Spring Edition, VMware is unveiling the “Spring on VMware” Promotion whereby licenses of tc Server are offered at no additional cost for a limited time with the sale of qualifying VMware products. The promotion marks the first time that SpringSource solutions are available from VMware channel partners.

Based on the popular Apache Tomcat server, tc Server Spring Edition delivers new levels of developer productivity, operational control and deployment flexibility for customers building and deploying Spring applications. By providing developers and operators with top-down insight into the performance and health of their Spring applications, customers can reduce the time it takes to deliver new applications to meet their business goals. Additionally, the lightweight footprint of tc Server helps ensure optimal resource utilization across virtual and cloud environments.

“Not only is tc Server Spring Edition the best place to run Spring apps but it is ideally architected for next-generation datacenter technologies,” said Shaun Connolly, vice president of product management for the SpringSource division of VMware. “Our customers have proven that to deploy applications properly in virtual environments, the application server must require a very small footprint. In this way, tc Server Spring Edition is ideal for virtual deployments which are the onramp to cloud computing.”

This new lightweight edition of tc Server makes it easy for customers currently running Spring applications on Java EE servers to migrate to tc Server Spring Edition. The lean architecture also allows customers running on Tomcat servers who want enterprise features and customer support to migrate to tc Server Spring Edition. The approach provided by tc Server is a foundation for a streamlined application lifecycle fitted to the evolving datacenter. The solution is part of SpringSource’s product line, which provides modern offerings for building, running and managing Java applications.

SpringSource’s approach is championed by many independent perspectives. As a September 2009 report by Forrester Research Inc., titled, “Lean, the New Business Technology Imperative,” states: “Don’t buy and install more stuff than you need. When you evaluate software for any given project, make brevity and compactness a consideration. Too many clients spend far too much time and effort trying to find the products with the most features. Lean shops look for just enough, no more¹.”

“Without tc Server, I could not have deployed my web-based applications into the internal private cloud environment I created,” said Jon Brisbin, portal webmaster for NPC International. “Other solutions, including the previous application server I was using, are too process-heavy. SpringSource tc Server’s small footprint allows me to deploy a dozen app server instances on one physical box virtualized by VMware software, with plenty of capacity left over.”

Key Features of tc Server Spring Edition

SpringSource tc Server Spring Edition harmonizes the application lifecycle by providing a modern platform that delivers new levels of developer efficiency, operational control and deployment flexibility.

Developer Efficiency: Increase productivity and decrease time to deliver applications from hours to minutes with the following features:

• Deep visibility into the health and performance of Spring applications
• Enhanced build and deploy process through integration with Maven
• Agile Spring development experience with SpringSource Tool Suite designed to speed the code / test cycle and ability to find underperforming areas of your applications

Operational Control: Help ensure Spring applications meet business goals with the following features:

• Performance and SLA management of Spring applications provides the top-down insight required to help ensure applications are operating as expected
• Rich alert definition, workflows and flexible control actions enable application operators to proactively manage application issues
• Group availability and event dashboards make it easy to see the problem areas and possible root causes of issues

Deployment Flexibility: Future-proof applications by leveraging an agile platform that addresses needs from developer to datacenter to cloud with the following features:

• Template-driven server instance creation enables multiple application server instances per machine to be configured and deployed in a matter of seconds
• Integrated experience with VMware Workstation and VMware Lab Manager enables applications to be easily deployed and debugged within encapsulated virtualized environments
• Open, secure API for all operations ensures system administrators have access to the operational capabilities they need using the scripting tools they are familiar with

SpringSource tc Server Offerings and Availability

SpringSource tc Server 2.0 will be generally available in early April 2010 and offered at list price in the following three packages:

• Spring Edition – Starts at $750 per CPU
• Standard Edition – Starts at $500 per CPU
• Developer Edition – Free to download standalone or as part of SpringSource Tool Suite

“Spring on VMware” Special Promotion

Under the “Spring on VMware” Promotion, all customer orders fulfilled between March 8, 2010 and May 8, 2010 that include products (license only) from VMware vSphere™, the VMware vCenter™ family of products, VMware View™ or VMware ThinApp™ will receive 2 CPU licenses of tc Server Spring Edition and 60 days of evaluation support (collectively referred to as the “Spring on VMware Bundle”). For more information on VMware’s promotion visit: www.vmware.com/go/tcserver-promotion.

Upcoming tc Server Webinar

For further information on tc Server Spring Edition and the special VMware promotion, SpringSource will host a webinar titled, “SpringSource tc Server: The Best Place to Build and Run Spring Applications,” on March 23, 2010.

To register for the webinar click on one of the following links:

• Europe: 2:00PM Central European Time/1:00PM GMT https://vmwareevents.webex.com/vmwareevents/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=664353614
• North America: 11:00AM Pacific Time/2:00PM Eastern https://vmwareevents.webex.com/vmwareevents/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=668126377

Swedish Internet Leader to Standardize on Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization

Red Hat, Inc., the world's leading provider of open source solutions, today announced that Swedish Internet company Voddler has standardized its movie service on Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization. Voddler has also selected Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat Network Satellite as the basis for its new infrastructure, providing the company with a centralized and scalable server platform.

Voddler offers its customers a wide variety of movies on-demand, and Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization will enable the company to virtualize its web servers responsible for the movie service and the database servers containing all of its film titles.

“The powerful combination of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization made Red Hat the obvious solution to virtualize our key business-critical systems,” said Roger Kemmler, IT manager at Voddler. "Red Hat's subscription-based model will help us support our infrastructure as we grow and launch the service in new markets. For this we require a stable and secure platform that is cost-effective, centrally administered and extremely scalable. Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization meets all of those criteria.”

Voddler continually updates its catalogue of film titles and its growing customer base is using the service more frequently, which means the demand on web server and database capacity is continually increasing. A key requirement for Voddler is to have the flexibility to scale the server platform and redistribute resources to meet the demand for increased capacity. Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization allows Voddler to consolidate and increase the effectiveness of its physical infrastructure by using features such as live migration and dynamic resource scheduling to help ensure that the physical systems are used close to their maximum capacity.

Red Hat Network Satellite, a systems management tool, helps Voddler to quickly and easily configure and maintain the virtualized servers running on the new Red Hat platform.

Consultancy EnjoyIT, a Red Hat Ready Partner, is providing support for the project implementation and is also acting in an advisory role.

For more information about Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, visit www.redhat.com/rhev.

For more information about Red Hat, visit www.redhat.com. For more news, more often, visit www.press.redhat.com.

Cal Net Technology Group and Microsoft Will Kick-Off Hyper-V Campaign on St. Patrick's Day

Cal Net Technology Group, recently named one of the fastest growing private companies in the U.S. by Inc. Magazine, has announced the official launch of “Hyper-V Treasure Hunt: Uncover Hidden Cost Savings with Virtualization.” The campaign, in partnership with Microsoft, seeks to educate and inform current Cal Net customers about the benefits of Microsoft Hyper-V, including cost savings and energy efficiency.

The campaign will kick-off with an invite-only open house on Wednesday, March 17, 2010 from 6pm – 9pm at Cal Net’s headquarters in Los Angeles. In addition to learning about Hyper-V, and other complimentary products, all attendees will have the opportunity to socialize with industry leaders, receive complimentary IT-related swag, and enter to win a copy of Windows 7.

“As budgets continue to dwindle, and small to mid-size businesses look for ways to cut costs and streamline processes, I believe that it’s part of our job as their IT consultant to consistently offer better products that meet current needs,” remarked Zack Schuler, CEO of Cal Net Technology Group. “The Hyper-V campaign is one in a series of many that we will be conducting with Microsoft over the next year, with the goal of staying ahead of the trends and steering our clients toward more efficient, cost-effective ways of conducting business.”

"As a VAR Champion Club partner, Cal Net Technology Group plays an integral role in educating consumers about Microsoft products and services,” added Ken Stone, Region Marketing Manager of Microsoft. “We look forward to working with partners like Cal Net Technology.”

2nd Cloud Computing World Forum To Invite End Users For Free

End users looking at implementing cloud computing and SaaS into their businesses are being invited to attend the 2^nd Cloud Computing World Forum Conference (http://www.cloudwf.com/) for free.

The event is taking place from the 29^th June to 1^st July 2010 at Olympia Conference Centre, London, and promises to be Europe's largest Cloud and SaaS based event to date.

The conference will provide a full perspective of cloud computing and SaaS from business value through integration and implementation and to the future of cloud computing. Presentations will include discussions about the practical realities of these technologies and feature end users, thought leaders, platform and service providers and other senior figures from the IT and Telecoms industry.

Key speakers at the event include:

• - Mary Hensher, CIO, Deloitte
• - John Linwood, Chief Technology Officer, BBC
• - Mark Cameron, CTO, Virgin Atlantic
• - Bryan Kinsella, CIO, Rentokil Initial
• - Toby Wright, CTO, Telegraph Media Group
• - Stuart Curley, Chief Technology Architect, Royal Mail
• - Gordon Penfold, CTO, British Airways
• - Peter Bradley, Staff Officer Operations, RNLI
• - Joerg Weber, Attack Monitoring Manager, Barclays
• - Simone Brunozzi, Technology Evangelist, Amazon Web Services
• - Charles Newhouse, Head of Strategy and Design, BAE Systems
• - Robert Whiteside, Head of Enterprise, UK, Ireland and Benelux, Google
• - Mike Spink, Research Director, Gartner
• - David Wilde, CIO, Westminster Council

The event includes a free-to-attend exhibition with workshops, demonstrations, access to Cloud Camp and invites to the evening's drinks reception, which will be held as part of the Cloud Computing World Series Awards (www.cloudwf.com/awards), free to attend for all visitors.

End users wanting to apply for a conference pass, which includes access to the full conference presentations, the exhibition and networking area, the pre-show networking tool and a copy of the post show conference material, should send their contact details to cio@keynoteworld.com

For free registration to the exhibition, workshops, cloud camp and awards then please visit http://www.cloudwf.com/ or call +44 (0) 845 519 1230.

For further information on speaking opportunities, sponsorship and exhibition options then please contact the Keynote team on +44 (0) 845 519 1230 or email info@keynoteworld.com

Virtual Machine Backup Leader, PHD Virtual, Names Thomas Charlton Chairman and CEO

PHD Virtual Technologies, award winning provider of esXpress VM Backup, the fastest multi-VM backup and restore solution on the market, today announced that Thomas Charlton has been appointed Chairman and CEO by the PHD Virtual board of directors. Charlton has more than 20 years of leadership experience in emerging technology ventures, leading past companies to increased profitability and successful acquisitions.

"We are pleased to add Thomas to PHD Virtual's corporate structure," said Michael Triplett, managing director, Insight Venture Partners and PHD Virtual board member. "Thomas brings a wealth of company management expertise and innovation to PHD Virtual from his years of experience. His amazing track record in corporate growth and visionary thinking will help continue PHD Virtual's dramatic growth."

Prior to joining PHD Virtual, Charlton was the CEO of multiple software companies, including Shunra Software (network emulation and appliances), VoiceGenie Technologies (Voice XML speech platform) and Trailblazer Systems (eCommerce EDI software). Responsible for each company's strategic direction, revenue growth, profitability and global expansion, Charlton led Shunra and VoiceGenie to profitability, and led VoiceGenie and Trailblazer Sytems to successful acquisitions by Alcatel and Nu Bridges respectively. Charlton also served as CEO at Tidal Software (enterprise job scheduling) which was recently acquired by Cisco Systems, Inc.

"I am excited about the opportunity that PHD Virtual represents based on the innovative technology it has built to address the growing data protection needs of the virtualization market," said Charlton. "Customers with virtualized environments cannot adequately protect their growing information through traditional data protection solutions. Virtual server environments need technology that has been purpose-built to meet the unique requirements of virtual machines. PHD Virtual is the only technology to be designed specifically for a virtual environment with the performance and scalability enterprise customers require. It also delivers the unique distinction as a virtual solution that integrates easily with a customers' physical storage environment for true end-to-end data protection."