ZDNet UK Virtualisation Toolkit

Whiteboard: Deploying desktop virtualisation

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (John Whaley, CTO & Founder, MokaFive) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 11:58:02 +0000

John Whaley, CTO and Founder of MokaFive, talks about the issues surrounding virtualised desktops and says organisations need to think about management, offline use, cost and user experience

Six factors to weigh up for virtualisation projects

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Cath Everett) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:03:01 +0000

Diving into virtualisation without preparing properly is risky, so here is a checklist to help projects go smoothly

AT&T's cloud platform set for Europe in 2010

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (David Meyer) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:09:01 +0000

Synaptic Compute as a Service launches in the US later this year and will come to Europe by the second quarter of 2010

VMware aims to virtualise Windows 7 rollouts

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Matthew Broersma) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:36:02 +0000

The company's View 4 aims to capitalise on growing interest in desktop virtualisation driven by tight budgets

Tech events that are shaping Microsoft's future

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Toby Wolpe) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:21:01 +0000

Microsoft's Bob Kelly talks about a remarkable quarter: one that has certainly been eventful, though not always for the right reasons

V-Blocks - do they mean you're V-Locked in?

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:30:18 +0000

V-Blocks: it's a new form of packaging for servers, switches and storage for your datacentre, and it looks like the future. EMC and Cisco have announced that they'll be selling aggregated...

Red Hat boosts enterprise virtualisation portfolio

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (David Meyer) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:09:02 +0000

The Linux firm has launched its server virtualisation hypervisor and management platform, extending its KVM-based product range

HP converges on the datacentre

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Manek Dubash) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:06:02 +0000

The company has pulled together new and existing products to provide an architecture that aims to streamline sprawling IT infrastructures

EMC, Cisco and VMware take aim at 'private cloud'

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Matthew Broersma) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:01:02 +0000

The partnership plans to offer a range of datacentre infrastructure packages called Vblock, to eventually be built by a new joint venture

Cisco, EMC to unveil cloud joint venture

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Matthew Broersma) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:44:02 +0000

A new line of products called vBlock will combine storage, servers, networking and virtualisation for an integrated set of datacentre gear, according to reports

VirtualBox update fixes Windows 7 bugs

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Matthew Broersma) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:12:01 +0000

The update to Sun's virtualisation testing tool takes care of compatibility problems with the Microsoft and Apple OSes, among other performance improvements

What Microsoft understands about virtualisation (and a probl...

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:30:00 +0000

When VMwares main competition was a little company called Connectix (100 people to VMwares 200), the two virtualisation teams were best enemies; staring each other down, going head to head and...

VMware vSphere 4

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Roger Howorth) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:30:02 +0000

The latest release of VMware's enterprise-level hypervisor and management suite raises the bar with the addition of built-in backup, thin provisioning and fault tolerance options. The combination of functionality and a proven track record makes vSphere 4 an excellent choice for high-end server virtualisation projects.

What does storage virtualisation really mean?

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 09:03:36 +0000

Virtualisation has moved from being a shiny new technology concept to a sticky business that involves getting your hands dirty with some real technology and business problems. But while server...

VMware third-quarter results top estimates

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Larry Dignan) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:44:01 +0100

The company's revenue for the quarter is up four percent on the same period last year

Are firms making the most of virtualisation?

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Toby Wolpe) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:21:02 +0100

Virtualisation has many advantages, but its use seems to be inconsistent. ZDNet UK speaks to four experts to learn their views on the subject

Virtual Box Snake

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:40:08 +0100

I booted up my trusty VirtualBox virtual machine today, to write out an invoice in some crusty rusty old PC accounting software (proprietary, dropped by developer, no longer supported, but...

MS and Novell: Relationship 'exceeding expectations'

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:03:11 +0100

Microsoft and Novell are close to completing the sales targets that formed part of their alliance, three years into the five-year deal, representatives from the companies said on Thursday. ...

Microsoft, Red Hat kick off mixed virtualisation

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (David Meyer) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:19:01 +0100

The two companies have announced that their virtualisation products now support each other's operating systems, a move that could help both compete with VMware

Red Hat and Microsoft support mixed virtualisation

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:40:04 +0100

It is now possible to deploy supported virtualisation environments that combine Red Hat Linux with Microsoft Windows Server, the two companies have announced. Late on Wednesday, Red Hat and...

Virtualisation - a progress snapshot

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:41:36 +0100

Why is virtualisation take-up so slow? There's an interesting blog post here from Ron Oglesby, who works at Dell's infrastructure consulting services arm, which starts with the assumption that...

VMPs - Virtual Machine Practices

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 16:22:34 +0100

Most of the following relates to using XP Pro as host. As soon as you feel comfortable using Ubuntu or some other Linux as host do it since you will see a performance increase in the VM. On...

A real guide to virtualisation: Special report

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Staff) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:54:02 +0100

Find out the latest information on virtualisation and how it is fitting into the realities of today's IT

Virtualisation: Why the contract is king

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Mark O'Conor) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:14:02 +0100

Lawyer Mark O'Conor offers advice on how to avoid potential pitfalls when structuring a virtualisation agreement

App virtualisation meets the mobile device

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Staff) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 12:33:02 +0100

VMware chief technology officer Stephen Herrod shows a Visa mobile application on a Microsoft Windows CE device that is also running virtually on Google's Android OS

Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 19:40:02 +0100

With the release of its updated standalone Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 product, Microsoft claims to [finally] have a hypervisor to match that of market leader VMware. Moreover, by bundling newly added...

Virtualisation gets ready for the mainstream

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Stephen Shankland) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 17:13:02 +0100

VMware is pushing its software for use on PCs and mobile phones. There is plenty of room for expansion, but watch out for that cloud

VMware, HP share virtual desktop plans

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Staff) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 14:59:01 +0100

VMware chief executive Paul Maritz talks to HP's director of software virtualisation about how the company's VMware View product fits into HP's virtualisation plans

Virtualisation means more time at the console

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 11:13:57 +0100

I've been using a lot of virtual machines recently for various projects. My current favourite virtualisation system software is Sun's VirtualBox. It's flexible, it's easy to use, it's fast, and...

Bare-Metal VM Farms Part2

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 04:42:22 +0100

Talked to a rep today at Virtual Computing. There are some "soft gotchas" with the bare metal VM concept. ( A soft gotcha is one that if you gave it a second thought or two, you would've known...

HP and VMware team up on server management

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Andrew Donoghue) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:36:02 +0100

The companies have jointly released a vCenter-based console that promises to simplify the management of virtual server systems and their physical counterparts

Xen.org to build open-standards cloud platform

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (David Meyer) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:27:02 +0100

The Xen Cloud Platform will form part of a wider initiative aimed at federating the private enterprise cloud and public cloud services, such as those offered by Amazon and Rackspace

Bare Metal VM Farms

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 08:31:00 +0100

There has been a recent flurry of PR for a firm that is somewhat related to Citrix called Virtual Computing. I do not all the particulars but there is a financial relationship between the two....

VMworld blows up a storm

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 12:40:14 +0100

If you're into virtualisation, whether vendor or buyer, then VMworld, VMware's annual virtualisation-fest, is the place to go. That has until now been the general ethos in this part of the forest....

Citrix declares war on VMware?

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 10:23:39 +0100

Straws in the wind suggest that the desktop virtualisation market is starting to warm up. We're quite accustomed to the idea of virtual servers today: data centres are filling up with hefty,...

Does VMware's VMsafe fully protect your datacentre?

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:53:34 +0100

Back in the bad old days when you deployed one app per server, you might have been a bit peevish about the idea that malware could start spraying itself around your data centre. Now we're all...

Open-source cloud platform goes commercial

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:15:51 +0100

Eucalyptus, an open-source project aimed at making it possible to set up Amazon Web Services-compatible private cloud infrastructures, has established itself as a private company, Eucalyptus...

A free tool from VKernel for tracking VMs

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 15:12:11 +0100

The virtualisation software supplier, VKernel announced the free tool last week. It can help in the documentation and inventory recording of virtual machines (VMs), the company said. Called...

Virtual Iron virtually sold perhaps

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:31:21 +0000

The rumours are building around the virtualisation company Virtual Iron and if they are not quite at fever pitch, they are somewhere close. I normally avoid writing about rumours but this one is so...

Citrix will offer free XenServer, reports say

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 13:45:14 +0000

On Wednesday it appeared that Citrix was about to declare that it was offering its flagship virtualisation software, XenServer, for free, a move that might immediately revitalise the companys...

Is Red Hat threatening to do a Novell with latest virtualisa...

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 17:14:14 +0000

Just seen a release come in from Red Hat promising to play nicely with Microsoft over their competing virtualisation approaches. It smacks slightly of the kind of release you'd expect from the...

VMware opens client virtualisation

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:49:40 +0000

EMC's virtualisation company, VMware has launched an open source virtual desktop client, VMware View Open Client. It is intended for use by EMC/VMware partner companies who want to give their...

VirtualBox - hedging my bets

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 11:43:09 +0000

For my latest Joomla! site, I have set up a Windows XP Virtual Machine (VM), using the VirtualBox Open Source Edition. Trouble is, once I'd installed Internet Explorer 7, I couldn't get a...

Sun upgrades xVM VirtualBox

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 15:46:03 +0000

Sun Microsystems said on Wednesday that it has upgraded its x VM VirtualBox desktop virtualisation software to version 2.1. It has introduced a range of enhancements to the software including...

Automatic fault finding

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 18:47:25 +0100

All too often a problem is easy to fix once it has been correctly diagnosed. The trouble is, it can sometimes take a disproportionate amount of time to identify the problem. A fault with a NAS...

A better way to migrate virtual machines

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 21:34:22 +0100

VMware has been in business for 10 years, and for most of that time it based its business on the fact that Intel and AMD did not support virtualisation. Although the chip vendors both added...

With Intel in Prague

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:30:34 +0100

Intel is hosting a shindig in Prague today, to celebrate the recent launch of its Dunnington processor, a.k.a. the Xeon 7400. Boyd Davis (Intel's General Manager, Server Product Group Marketing)...

You're invited: Breakfast briefing on virtualisation

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:39:10 +0100

As promised, ZDNet UK is hosting a get-together where we give you a chance to meet industry experts and get their views on an IT issue of the day. We're inviting folks to come along to a breakfast...

VMware out with results and free deal

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:52:09 +0100

It is busy days at VMware as the company said goodbye to its president and chief executive, faced rumblings from investors worried about the company's strategy and then decided to come up with a...

Hyper-warped-visor-consolidation Confabulation

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 02:38:43 +0100

Excuse me if I sound stupid but consolidation and virtualization could be two separate processes or system management criteria. Depending on the application, having a SQL server of some type or...

Return to the dark side?

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 11:51:21 +0100

Microsofts Virtualisation Strategy concerns me. Were about to see the release of Hyper-V. Around this release will the usual amount of marketing and razzmatazz that Microsoft usual bring to...

Microsoft Hyper-V ready to go?

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:31:15 +0100

Our colleagues at ZDNet US are reporting that Microsoft's long awaited virtualisation management tool or hypervisor may be released to manufacturing tomorrow. According to Microsoft...

Red Hat backs new virtualisation strategy

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 21:36:00 +0100

Linux specialist Red Hat has announced that is developing an embedded hypervisor product that it claims will compliment rather than compete with its existing virtualisation strategy. Launched at...

VMworld Europe: Conference Blog Day 2 (part 3) The Virtual...

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 17:14:02 +0000

Looking at the virtual road ahead as the main section of this VMworld Europe 2008 conference closes, we can perhaps draw a few concluding thoughts from the exhibitors and attendees. VMware CEO...

The evolution of virtualisation

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 12:37:05 +0000

This blog continues coverage of the VMworld Europe conference and exhibition and features info from VMware CEO Diane Greene. Heres a potted history of virtualisation technology as VMware sees...

VMworld Europe: Conference Blog Day 1

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 06:56:01 +0000

As dawn (and the last of the night's facelift victims) shuffle slowly off past Monte Carlo they leave behind a grey and wet Cannes with 4,500 attendees anticipating the start of the first VMworld...

Virtual Desktop Comfort Factor || !

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 19:42:44 +0000

Following the virtualisation news feed as I have been over the last month, I notice that VMwares Virtual Desktop Infrastructure solution with its Virtual Desktop Manager 2 is fresh to the scene...

Virtuous virtualisation vicissitudes

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 20:31:21 +0000

I like to keep my virtualisation head tuned in now and again but its not an area I profess to have a long history of writing about. With that in mind, I sometimes have to juggle the well-known...

Oracle, BEA and the big virtual Java adventure

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 17:21:48 +0000

So there I was reading up on Mr Ellisons announcement this afternoon that, The addition of BEA products and technology will significantly enhance and extend Oracles Fusion middleware software...

The development double-helix answer to Vista upgrade headach...

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 12:34:52 +0000

Being an Apple devotee but still a techy at heart I find it more painful than most to discuss the topic of Vista upgrades (or maybe we all share the same pain regardless huh?) so Ive been doing...

Vista vs Ubuntu: this time, it's virtual

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 14:20:22 +0100

I've been meaning to try VirtualBox, the free x86 virtualisation product from InnoTek, and a comment to my previous Vista/Ubuntu post has pushed me into it. Of course, I can't just put a...

Capita see virtual benefits and pitfalls

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 16:46:52 +0100

No chance of falling asleep at the VMware conference thanks to Capita's Shaymus Kennedy. He works out of the financial services side of Capita in Dublin and proved a good spokesman for VMware....

Breaking news: Red Hat and Sybase launch virtual appliance

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Thu, 10 May 2007 22:14:39 +0100

This has just been announced in San Diego - you can expect the full story soon: Sybase and Red Hat have announced an expansion of their partnership which will include the launch of a virtual...

Virtualisation is about politics not technology?

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 11:23:13 +0000

Discussions at the NetEvents conference in Geneva have moved on to all things virtual with a panel led by Yankee Group analyst Camille Mendler who claims that terminology is one of the things...

EMC semi-floating VMware

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 02:07:50 +0000

Rather bad form of EMC's Joe Tucci not to mention this yesterday at the RSA Conference, but the storage firm has decided to sell 10 percent of VMware stock this summer in an initial public...

More power from the people...

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 17:13:47 +0000

[Live from VMWorld in Los Angeles] VMWare working on power management system on top of VI that spots spare capacity and shuts down or clams down servers to save power. Also, says VMWare, letting...

Virtual appliances

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 15:56:17 +0100

I first heard of virtual appliances a couple of years ago during a trip to Sweden to hear about Intel's AMT technology. I didn't hear about them from Intel, but from Gartner analyst Brian Gammage,...