Earlier this week, we held our two-day Mobilize 2011 event, which was jam packed with interviews, discussion panels and fireside chats all revolving around the mobile industry. This morning, Rob Woodbridge hosted me on a video summary of Mobilize, which distills the event’s high level themes. Read more »
At Mobilize, VMware CTO Steve Herrod laid out a mobile plan that reeks of success on par with what VMware has achieved in server virtualization. The trick to accomplishing that might be VMware’s quest to make its hypervisor technology a part of the core Android kernel. Read more »
Employees love using their own devices to do corporate work, but the practice, known as consumerization, is rife with security risks. Speaking today at Mobilize, Cisco’s Tom Gillis said consumerization is causing a fundamental rearchitecture of how networks look that requires a reimagining of security solutions. Read more »
Not one to be left behind for long, VMware has introduced the new version of its Fusion virtualization software. Fusion 4 lets you install and run a second OS, including Windows, Lion or Snow Leopard in a virtual machine that integrates completely with your desktop. Read more »
VMworld can be a lot to digest, but it also can be a good barometer of where IT is and where it’s going. A couple days removed from the show, I gave some thought to the interesting trends I noticed and the insightful discussions I had. Read more »
The buzz around OpenFlow is increasing with a few case studies out last month, some fundings and a new beta product from a vendor pushing a software-defined network controller. And now there’s a developing programming language for virtualized networks, called Frenetic. Read more »
Despite OpenStack’s continued growth, a combination of product updates and acquisitions from Citrix, Eucalyptus, Red Hat and VMware over the past week demonstrate that the race to become the dominant private cloud provider, as well as win over the enterprise, is far from over. Is one of ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
VMware this morning announced VXLAN, the company’s attempt to allow virtual machines to span geographical data centers as part of the same LAN. Herrod said it will create “software-based networks that can be created on-demand, enabling enterprises to leverage capacity wherever it’s available.” Read more »
VMware, long synonymous with servers, today began its encroachment into mobile devices with a new product and two new projects aimed at getting enterprise access onto mobile phones and tablets. The products offer consumer-like web services while giving corporations control over access. Read more »
The impact of digital technology has shattered long-established monopolies and ways of making money in the newspaper publishing industry. Today, publishers must find ways to subsidize content-creation costs directly, and this report examines a few different approaches, from more flexible paywalls to charging users directly for access and mimicking the business models of other industries, such as online gaming. Companies mentioned in this report include Ford, Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Fusion-io, a newly public company that makes flash memory components for servers on Monday released the results of its acquisition of IO Turbine, a mere three weeks after it acquired the startup. The combination of the two companies has resulted in a product called ioCache. Read more »
Speaking to a jam-packed room of thousands, VMware CEO Paul Maritz kicked off today’s VMworld conference by declaring, once again, the advent of the cloud era. If you don’t believe him, just look at the number of virtual machines deployed. But cloud is more than virtualization. Read more »
VMware has released Micro Cloud Foundry, a fully functional version of its open-source, Platform-as-a-Service software condensed into a virtual image that runs on developers’ personal computers or laptops. The aim is to make it easier to create cutting-edge applications without the hassle. Read more »
Web applications that are deployed in one or a few data centers can watch their bandwidth costs exceed their server and hosting costs as their applications scale up, according to a paper looking at what telecommunications companies can offer as cloud providers. Read more »
Nutanix is counting on mid-size enterprises to drive its adoption of its converged infrastructure appliance. CEO Dheeraj Pandey’s stance is that SMEs have the budgets, the IT demands and the right cultures to justify taking chances on new approaches to infrastructure. He could be onto something. Read more »
Zerto, an Israel-based startup focused on providing disaster recovery for virtualized and cloud resources, has closed a $15 million Series B funding round from U.S. Venture Partners, Battery Ventures and Greylock Partners. The company launched in June and has now raised $21 million overall. Read more »
Joyent has open-sourced its cloud operating system. Called SmartOS and already utilized in Joyent’s public cloud and SmartDataCenter private-cloud software, it will be available via an open-source license much like the Joyent-led Node.js effort is, says Joyent CTO Jason Hoffmann. Read more »
It looks like Zynga’s infrastructure strategy is rubbing off on gaming startups. Digital Chocolate, purveyor of social games such as Millionaire City and Pro MMA Fighter, is following in Zynga’s footsteps of launching games in the cloud, then bringing them back in house when demand levels. Read more »
VMware has addressed customer concerns over its new vSphere 5 platform by overhauling the pricing model. When VMware launched its vSphere 5 platform last month, most of the talk was about the new features, but a few customers raised concerns over higher prices. Read more »
There has been a lot of talk about consolidation lately because federal agencies have until Oct. 7 to present their plans for slashing data center footprints by 38 percent by 2015. But how exactly the government will pull this off is still up for debate. Read more »
On Wednesday Dell said it would buy networking-gear-maker company Force10 Networks. The move was expected since Dell’s rivals in the server space have tied up their networking equipment buys after Cisco launched servers that combined computing and networking in one box. Read more »
The sport of mixed martial arts combines the multiple disciplines of wrestling, boxing, and jiu jitsu into one combat sport. The cloud battle between VMware and Citrix is a metaphor for two highly trained MMA fighters stepping into the ring after a two-year training camp. Read more »
There’s little doubt that VMware will continue to maintain its lead as a virtualization supplier in the short run, but doing so over the long run is tricky business. So says Art Wittmann at InformationWeek about VMware’s vSphere 5 offering, updated this week. Despite the bolstering […] Read more »
At its Cisco Live event today in Las Vegas, Cisco rolled out a range of new features and products designed to convince companies that Cisco is all they need for their cloud network and server needs. But will customers actually buy into Cisco’s vision? Read more »
VMware on Tuesday morning launched the latest version of its vSphere virtualization management software, as well as a suite of integrated products for managing cloud computing environments. There isn’t much new aside from the capabilities in vSphere 5, but VMware’s timing was ideal. Read more »
Much like Apple’s elegant Time Machine software helps make backing up your MacBook effortless, Zerto wants to make disaster recovery in the cloud as simple. The Structure 2011 LaunchPad company wants to become the disaster recovery solution for companies that rely on the cloud. Read more »
Mobile virtualization is hot topic today for businesses and consumers alike as enterprise employers keep their eye on security while employees just want a device that works for them, rather than one device for business and another for personal use. Read more »
Cloud computing has grown from a pie-in-the-sky vision to a major IT movement over the past few years. As its promise has grown, though, so too has its scope. This report covers six key sectors in cloud computing: commodity Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), enterprise IaaS, Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), cloud storage and private clouds. We highlight the current state of each and provide informed insights into where they — and cloud computing in general — are headed. Much like any market in a still-evolving state, the infrastructure of the cloud-computing transition is still being built by startups, practitioners and even a big-name company or two. Companies mentioned in this report include VMware, Amazon, Nasuni, Terremark and Heroku. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Simon Crosby is leaving his post as data center and virtualization CTO at Citrix Systems to launch a new company called Bromium that will utilize virtualization technology to tackle cloud computing security. The company raised $9.2 million from Andreessen Horowitz, Ignition Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Read more »
VMware announced the late-summer availability of vFabric 5 this morning, an integrated suite of the various application-platform components it has acquired over the past couple years. The news illustrates pretty definitively that, for the time being, VMware’s on-premise and cloud-based platform strategies are fairly distinct. Read more »
VMware today bought Israeli startup Digital Fuel in an attempt to give VMware customers better insights into how their IT investments measure up. Isreali newspaper Globes said VMware paid $85 million for Digital Fuel. Read more »
VirtualWorks, a Boca-Raton, Fla.-based startup from Citrix Systems founder Ed Iacobucci, has raised $8.5 million from Florida’s New World Angels investment group to tackle the problem of corporate data dispersed across servers, devices and clouds. It could also help with data portability between clouds. Read more »
Citrix today announced the first commercial distribution of the open source OpenStack cloud-computing software, which Citrix ix calling Project Olympus. It’s a bold move to announce an OpenStack distribution so early into the project’s existence, but Citrix must to something to combat bitter rival VMware. Read more »
Yesterday, Cisco and NetApp announced more than 150 customers have adopted their joint FlexPod converged infrastructure architecture, a sign that might point to a falling out between Cisco and its VCE partners, EMC and VMware. Rumor has it Cisco isn’t happy with that arrangement. Read more »
VMware has acquired IT management provider Shavlik Technologies in an attempt to simplify for small- and medium-sized business the process of managing their machines. Shavlik brings an interesting set of new capabilities to VMware, including the ability to manage physical machines and a SaaS delivery model. Read more »
BigSwitch Networks, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based network virtualization startup founded on the principles of the OpenFlow standard, has raised $13.75 million in a Series A financing, led by Index Ventures and Khosla Ventures. The company’s goal is to become the VMware of networking. Read more »
Two markets stand out above all else when looking at the first quarter of 2011: infrastructure as a service (IaaS) — the epitome of cloud computing — and big data. Amazon Web Services continues to lead the IaaS space in terms of customers and innovation, while Rackspace, buoyed by momentum around OpenStack, will be its primary competitor for mainstream customers. In the big data space, there are so many players and terms floating about it’s difficult for outsiders to get a handle on who’s who and what’s what, though such activity validates the technologies. Other developments this quarter included HP’s impending presence in the cloud computing and big data spaces and the realization that Intel won’t be left to die if low-power servers based on x86 processors catch on like the buzz late last year suggests they will. Additional companies mentioned in this report include VMware, Microsoft, Cloudera, SeaMicro and Facebook. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The angels who wrote the first check to Google were also the first backers of startup IO Turbine, which comes out of stealth mode today with details about its fundraising, its founders and its planned product for speeding up I/O bottlenecks on virtualized servers. Read more »
VMware officially entered the service provider market by taking over operations of the Mozy storage service from EMC. VMware CTO Steven Herrod announced the news on his blog today, writing that “VMware has hired the team and acquired assets behind EMC’s Mozy cloud-based data protection service.” Read more »
Imagine if companies could track the energy consumed by a lone click of a mouse to store photos in the cloud. It might sound like a pipe dream, but it could one day be reality. Read more »
