Neuigkeiten im Bereich Virtualisierung

NetEx HyperIP Speeds VMware View 4.0 Offline Desktop Transfer Times by 300%

NetEx, the leader in WAN optimization software, announced today that its HyperIP® for VMware significantly increases performance of VMware’s Offline Desktop technology, making it commercially viable for the first time. In tests performed by NetEx, HyperIP increased transfer times by 300% making it far more efficient and practical to perform critical functions such as VMware View Offline Check-in and Check-out.

Offline Desktop is a promising feature of VMware View, which extends VMware’s Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solutions to include both server-hosted virtual desktops and client virtual desktops. HyperIP for VMware, a software-only implementation of NetEx’s award-winning WAN optimization software for disaster recovery, optimizes backup, recovery and data replication applications over existing IP infrastructures enabling unmatched flexibility in deployment and performance scalability on virtual machines. The software-only HyperIP WAN optimizer is downloadable today for a free 10-day trial.

“HyperIP is a powerful tool when using native TCP for WAN transmissions and when users access their server-hosted desktops offline, which is a major obstacle with the current iteration of VMware View,” said John Greenwood, Solution Sales Director at NCE Computer Group (Europe) Limited. “HyperIP will make it possible for us to use the View Offline feature in a released fashion versus the current experimental mode allowing our customers to get the performance and productivity they need now and eliminating the need for expensive hardware updates.”

“By speeding the WAN performance and eliminating the bottlenecks, HyperIP has proven Offline Desktop can be used as VMware intended, running virtual desktops locally for the best user experience, but managing them centrally through a single administration platform,” said Robert MacIntyre, NetEx Vice President of Business Development and Marketing.

NetEx is currently making HyperIP for VMware optimization software available for a free 10-day trial, allowing organizations the time to properly test HyperIP with replication, backup, iSCSI, cloud storage and other IP-based data transfer requirements and managed service offerings prior to making a purchase decision.

HyperIP is currently solving BC/DR performance problems worldwide for the following applications: VMware VMotion, Veeam replicator, IBM TSM, Data Domain replication, DataCore AIM, and others.

DevonIT Wins Citrix Ready XenDesktop Challenge

Today, Citrix announced the winners of the Citrix Ready XenDesktop challenge. We asked our Thin Client partners to submit videos

representing the best Thin Client to use with XenDesktop. The videos were posted to CitrixTV to be viewed by ourselves and the

community. The winners were decided by following judges; Doug Brown, Sumit Dhawan, and myself Chris Fleck, plus the community

votes of ratings and view count.

1. Best User Experience - Wyse http://www.citrix.com/tv/#video/377

2. Best Management - IGEL http://www.citrix.com/tv/#video/530

3. Best Security – HP http://www.citrix.com/tv/#video/688

4. Best Form Factor 10ZiG http://www.citrix.com/tv/#video/672

5. Best Innovation HP http://www.citrix.com/tv/#video/677

6. Support for Locally Streamed Desktop Devon IT http://www.citrix.com/tv/#video/676/

7. Best overall Video ( Expert Panel Vote ) Devon IT http://www.citrix.com/tv/#video/673

8. Best overall Video ( User Community Vote ) Devon IT http://www.citrix.com/tv/#video/673

Click here to read the judges' comments and much more: DevonIT Wins Citrix Ready XenDesktop Challenge - Best Video - Chris Fleck -

Weitere Infos zu DevonIT Thin Client

Benckmarks: Exchange 2007 on VMware vSphere 4.0

Benckmarks: Exchange 2007 on VMware vSphere 4.0 mit FC, iSCSI and NFS storage im Vergleich

The 16,000 mailboxes environment was distributed across 8 virtual machines (Windows Server 2003 R2, 14GB RAM, 2 vCPUs, 20GB vHD and 2000 users each) served by a HP ProLiant DL 580 G5 server with 4 Quad-Core Intel Xeon X7350 @ 2.93GHz and 128GB RAM.

The backend storage was served by a NetApp FAS6030 array with 114 disks split into four aggregates (the data on was made of 40 disks).

VMware tested the same environment with Microsoft Exchange Load Generator (8-hours workday simulation) using a 4GB Fibre Channel connection, a 1GbE iSCSI connection and a 1GbE NFS connection.

Despite this major difference in the available bandwidth the three protocols performance are very similar.

Microsoft Hyper-V R1 vs R2

Micrsoft RDP 7 Funktionen und Features in Windows 7:

VMware View 4 mit PCoIP (PC over IP) von Teradici

Intel CPU Roadmap 2010 für die Desktop Virtualisierung

Oracle Virtual Iron Support

The coming display protocol wars

Back at its industry conference in September 2008, VMware Inc. had its work cut out for it. With new CEO Paul Maritz having just replaced Diane Greene, the company had to come out with guns blazing in front of an impressive crowd of 14,000 attendees. For the most part, the company managed to pull it off with a slew of announcements at the show -- and in the weeks that followed, which are usually an informational dead zone.

Nearly lost among those announcements was a licensing and co-development agreement with Teradici Corp., a small Canadian company of which most attendees had never heard. But as the virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) market begins to gather steam and VMware devotes more and more resources to it, the Teradici deal will loom larger, becoming an important strategic puzzle piece in the emerging VDI protocol wars.

All About the Network
As a desktop solution, VDI is network-dependent. In one type of common configuration, a virtual server in the data center communicates with a rich or thin client on the end user's desktop using a display protocol across the LAN. Because a network sits between the end user and the compute resources, the protocol's job in part is to optimize this process as bitmap changes are sent to the end-user client. The more efficient the protocol, the snappier the end-user experience.

For this reason, display protocols are critical to the overall success of VDI -- a fact that hasn't been lost on the top VDI vendors. Companies such as VMware and Citrix Systems Inc. are keen to make sure that early VDI implementations don't frustrate end users, who are used to the speedy performance provided by today's laptops and PCs.

Protocol Landscape
Today's mainstream display protocols are well known and largely proprietary. They include the Citrix Independent Computing Architecture (ICA); a WAN-optimized protocol from Sun Microsystems Inc. called Appliance Link Protocol (ALP); Microsoft's Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP); Remote Graphics Software (RGS) from Hewlett-Packard Co.; and Smart Protocol for Internet Cellular Exchange (SPICE) from Red Hat Inc., which acquired the protocol when it bought Qumranet.

Among the more widely used protocols, Citrix ICA is considered to be the best performing, in no small measure because Citrix has had 15 years to perfect it. It's long been a key element in the company's presentation-virtualization solutions, such as XenApp, formerly known as Presentation Server.

As VDI becomes more mainstream, VDI suppliers will be honing these protocols to improve their existing product offerings because the bandwidth demands on IT networks are increasing rapidly.

For example, the use of multimedia has been growing steadily over the years and shows no signs of abating. This includes apps such as video streaming, videoconferencing, VoIP and unified communications. Some of these applications are isochronous, meaning they function in real time and are intolerant of delay. The challenge for both thin clients and VDI will be to catch up with these kinds of applications by offering the same level of performance available with a PC.

VMware's VDI solution is called VMware View. Traditionally, VMware VDI products have used Microsoft's RDP. But RDP can't match the performance of Citrix ICA, which is why HP recently announced it's working to address some of the issues that caused RDP to lag behind ICA in performance.

HP plans to build extensions to RDP to improve performance for graphics and real-time applications such as videoconferencing and VoIP. Some improvements have already been incarnated into a new software suite, called HP Virtual Client Essentials.

Microsoft is also working to improve RDP. In January 2008, it acquired Calista Technologies, a start-up focused on presentation virtualization. Calista's technology is based on a compression algorithm that optimizes the RDP protocol and requires less network bandwidth.

VMware is taking a different tack to improve the display protocol aspect of its VDI offerings, starting with the Teradici deal. Teradici has developed a unique approach to display protocols and is attempting to push the envelope for VDI with a technology called PC-over-IP (PCoIP), which uses unique graphics algorithms, silicon processing and host workstation/server add-in cards.

Attack Dog
In essence, Teradici is VMware's attack dog in the protocol wars. In part, this is because Teradici says that PCoIP has features no other VDI protocol offers, such as an embedded optimization algorithm for dynamic adjustments to network performance.

Stuart Robinson, director of business development for Teradici, claims that ICA simply can't do the same. "If there's an instantaneous change in the network, we can reflect [that] change in the quality or frame rate. That allows us to be very responsive from a user perspective, even if the network is fluctuating," he says.

Citrix CTO Simon Crosby disputes the claim that ICA can't make dynamic adjustments. Writing in his blog -- in response to a blog that appeared on the Virtualization Review magazine Web site -- Crosby said: "Citrix ICA has had an ability to dynamically adapt its coding algorithm not only in response to availability of network bandwidth, but also in response to available encode/decode capabilities at the server and client side, respectively, for over two years. This allows ICA to deal with complex rendering problems with grace and to deliver high fidelity across a highly disparate set of server/network/client combinations, dynamically adapting as system conditions change."

VMware's main VDI competition comes from Citrix rather than Microsoft, so there are important issues at stake because Citrix has an array of products it sells to address LAN/WAN optimization.

Software, Not Hardware
Take Teradici's PCoIP and convert it to software, and you have the essence of what the VMware partnership is all about. Under the agreement announced at VMworld, VMware will effectively license a software implementation of PCoIP. The protocol will be included in a future release of VMware View, allegedly enabling such applications as streaming movies, high-resolution graphics and high-definition audio.

According to VMware's Senior Director of Enterprise Platforms Jerry Chen, the companies will collaborate to convert Teradici's chip-based hardware solution into a similar software offering. This is something at which VMware, as a pioneer of hardware virtualization, excels.

This software-only version will eventually be embedded in VMware View as well as thin clients, in keeping with Teradici's server/client approach. But Citrix's Crosby says that, based on conversations he's had with OEMs, "That approach is proving to be a difficult sell to customers, since it ties the server forever to a particular delivery protocol from a particular vendor in a narrow proprietary architecture."

Analyst Rachel Chalmers, with The 451 Group, questioned in a report whether the software version of PCoIP could get the job done. "A software PCoIP won't offer the same performance as its hardware equivalent, but it would give VMware a workaround for Microsoft's ubiquitous-but-pedestrian RDP. That could become an important differentiator for VMware," she wrote.

Citrix, in the meantime, is not sitting still. The company is spending research and development effort on Project Apollo, which centers on 3-D graphics as well as streaming media and real-time capabilities. The project will have applications to both XenDesktop -- Citrix's VDI solution -- and XenApp via an approach called SmartRendering, which combines server-side and client-side rendering to improve desktop performance.

VMware says it will also work with Teradici on further network-optimization capabilities for high-latency WANs and other network environments. Chen says that with these refinements, it's possible that RDP could be replaced. Whether VMware will succeed in this effort remains to be seen, and some observers feel that the process could take years to develop.

The VDI Battlefield
The race is on. But the overall success of VDI will ultimately depend on the judgment of millions of users, who are used to multi-core horsepower on their machines with no intervening networks to add latency. If VDI ultimately represents a step backward, then it will have a difficult time taking hold in the marketplace. The outcome of the protocol wars may be a large factor in how it all shakes out.

About the Author

Tom Valovic is a freelance technology writer whose work appears in Virtualization Review, a publication and site in the 1105 Media network.

10 Reasons Why Cisco’s Unified Computing Strategy Will Get Push Back From Customers

Cisco’s so-called “Unified Computing” strategy holds vast and arguably adverse implications, as a way to lock customers into a proprietary world while locking out vendors like HP and IBM that are trusted open systems suppliers to enterprises around the world.  For the past few months, I’ve been pointing this out through my blog and various media outlets including The Wall Street Journal, Network World, and Investors Business Daily. Upon considering what’s known of Cisco’s “California” server, Unified Computing initiative and Unified Fabric architecture, I believe there are at least 10 good reasons why Cisco’s proprietary version of data center computing won’t fly.

1. Goliath vs. the world. Cisco may be on its way to discovering that it’s foolhardy to undermine the strengths of HP and IBM – companies that have tremendous relationships with data center customers, companies with a long history of driving costs out of the system and maximizing performance via balance between the components. It will likely take several generations for Cisco's “California” server to reach the product maturity of HP and IBM. These vendors enjoy long and deep relationships with Intel & AMD and can be expected to execute product refresh cycles more efficiently – at favorable pricing.

2. CIOs and IT managers won’t drink the Kool-Aid:  In today's frugal economy, CIOs and IT managers who are concerned with controlling cost of ownership are unlikely to rip out their existing data center infrastructures servers to enable Cisco to make its 60-70% gross margins.

3. Unified Computing means standards with a "C." According to Cisco, converged data and storage networking requires Cisco’s Data Center Ethernet (DCE), thus eliminating freedom of choice with a sole-source Cisco-only server and network. This puts at risk integration and interoperability with vast existing installations. The rest of the industry is working on an open approach called Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE) using IEEE’s Data Center Bridging (DCB) standards.

4. It's more about packaging than true innovation.  For example, Cisco's fabric extenders carry the same cost structure as switches, as they utilize similar switching silicon, physical interface components, and management processors.  When compared to traditional switches – sharing management via “stacking” – the fabric extenders are another example of packaging, not innovation.  The more costly data center infrastructure components – CPUs, RAM, and networking silicon – remain unchanged, except Cisco's prices are higher and – surprise, surprise – more Cisco gear is needed to control them.

5. Cisco: Looking for a few (thousand) good FEs. Cisco does not have the field people required to sell, configure, install or support servers or the applications. The non-hardware aspects of winning the data center are weighted heavily in the favor of the incumbents.

6. More I/O bandwidth-hungry VMs. A California server chassis, with eight powerful servers and large memory, only provides limited 10 Gigabit Ethernet links to the outside world.  Cisco’s is highly incented to make the I/O equation work by delivering additional I/O in the network, which means more yet more money for guess who? See Reason #10.

7. “Unified” is fine so long as you're only worried about the “unity” of one vendor’s gear. Cisco's "Unified Computing” blade server will use a PCI-Express connection that connects only to Cisco's Unified Fabric architecture. This promises to eliminate today’s freedom of choice in selecting different vendors and different transports such as standards-based FCoE, Fibre Channel or InfiniBand that can best suit a specific operating environment.

8.  In Cisco, we trust. The "Unified Computing" paradigm forces the customer to trust Cisco 100%, putting choice of technology, functionality pricing and at the whim of Cisco.

9. Back to the Future. Cisco's "Unified Computing" paradigm looks a lot like the old minicomputer days with single-vendor control and lock-ins. As we all learned in the 90’s, open standards promote innovation and keep prices low so you can select the best-of-breed solutions for your data center.

10. Follow the money – into Cisco's bank account.  Cisco's "California” server approach requires Cisco's Nexus 5000 switches that start at $17K for a bare-bones Layer 2 switch and significant premiums for adding Layer 3 and FCoE functionality, so the total cost of ownership will be similar to the cost of living in California.

So, I say once again to Cisco, welcome to your “California” server, now please go home.

Quelle: http://www.bladenetwork.net/why-not-ucs.html

Zero Client Hersteller

Zero client technology is the latest trend in reduced footprint computing. Much like a thin client, a zero client moves the computing power back to the data center, leaving little more than a keyboard and monitor at a users' desk. While thin clients require some local processing power and locally installed software, zero clients eliminate the need for locally installed software and connect directly to virtual PCs back in the data center, usually over an Ethernet connection.

Zero client hardware typically consists of a small box that connects to a keyboard, mouse, monitor and Ethernet connection. The zero client contains network protocols, allowing each of these interface types to be supported over a wired or wireless IP network without a local PC or thin client. Zero clients are connected over the network to applications running on a PC or server located elsewhere on the IP network. When paired with a VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure), zero client solutions become a quick, secure way to deliver applications to users.

Zero client technology offers several advantages over "fat clients," which are also known as traditional PCs:

• Power use can be greatly reduced.
  • A fat client may use as much as 250 watts of power, a zero client device may use as little as 5 watts

   

• Zero client devices cost significantly less than a traditional PC or even a thin client device
  • Zero client solutions are often priced well under $200 per seat

   

• When combining zero client computing with VDI, administrators can reduce the number of physical PCs or blades and run multiple virtual PCs on server class hardware
  • With this change, all of the management, support, continuity and failover benefits of a virtual infrastructure are extended to desktops throughout the organization
  
  

• 
  

  Currently, only a few vendors are playing in the zero client space: Pano Logic Inc., Digi International, Wyse Technology and Teradici. Each of these vendors approach zero client technology in a unique fashion.

  Pano Logic Inc. offers a small hardware device that works with VMWare's ESX Server hypervisor. A virtual PC is created in the data center and delivered over an IP connection to the Pano device, which handles transferring all I/O between the desktop peripherals and the hypervisor based PC.

  Digi International approaches the zero client environment with its PCoIP (PC over IP) based ConnectPort Display technology. With ConnectPort, a dedicated PC or blade is located in the datacenter and functions as the remote PC. All I/O is converted into an IP carried protocol which the ConnectPort Port Display device delivers to the user's monitor while all peripheral activity is passed back to the datacenter.

  Wyse Technology combines multiple technologies to deliver its zero client solution. This company offers their WSM appliance, or WSM provisioning software, which runs in the datacenter to deliver PC desktops out to the company's zero client devices. WSM can be combined with virtualization to build out a VDI solution.

  Teradici's approach has its roots in PCoIP technology. The earliest Teradici zero client solutions involved placing a PCI card into a host PC, which then redirected all I/O over IP to a piece of zero client hardware located at the desktop. Teradici has recently partnered with VMware to create a virtualized version of the host PC, which changes the zero client relationship from one user mapped to one physical PC to a one (virtualized PCs on server) to many relationship.

  Zero client technology is still in its infancy, but should prove to have a significant impact on the enterprise as the technology evolves, becomes more accepted and better supported.