Muglia Cloud Burst

Muglia mentioned the individuality of customers, noting that some want to rely primarily on existing datacenter and applications investments, while others view the cloud as a far-reaching gamechanger for IT. He went on to say that "Microsoft will use a combination of products, services and industry collaboration to help customers make the change when they are ready," adding, "Key to tackling the challenge is for customers to strike the right balance between traditional software-based server architectures managed by the customer or a partner, the vast power and near limitless scalability of cloud services powered remotely by giant server warehouses, and a hybrid model that blends the two."

Muglia delivered several cloud-related news items of interest, including:

Public beta of service pack 1 (SP1) for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 coming by the end of July. Created to prepare users for the cloud, SP1 includes Remote FX 3-D graphics for remote users and Dynamic Memory to adjust memory usage. Also included are updates for users of Windows Server and Windows 7.

Windows Azure platform receives enhanced features, including and updated Windows Azure software development kit, which features support for Microsoft .NET Framework 4, Visual Studio 2010, and IntelliTrace. This is available here. "In addition," Microsoft says, "The Windows Azure Content Delivery Network moved from beta to a production service and is now generally available."

Updates to SQL Azure include "spatial data support and access to 50GB of SQL Azure Database capacity, allowing for higher scalability, flexibility, and easier management of applications and services." Beyond that, additional enhancements to management capabilities include "the public preview of SQL Azure Data Sync Service, which provides more flexible control over where and how data is distributed and synced across multiple datacenters, and Microsoft SQL Server Web Manager, a lightweight and easy-to-use tool to help develop, deploy and manage data-driven applications on the cloud."

Posted by Bruce Hoard on 06/07/2010 at 12:48 PM5 comments

3 That Didn't Make It

ScaleMP took the wraps off vSMP Foundation 3.0, the latest iteration of its server virtualization for aggregation platform that reportedly features unlimited modular scaling, increased performance with scalable backplane bandwidth and expanded hardware support. ScaleMP builds on the power of Intel Nehalem-EX and Westmere-EP processors to create "virtual symmetric multiprocessing systems from two to 128 nodes, enabling users to create the largest x86 shared-memory system available." The company also previewed its VM-on-VM technology, which "consolidates multiple servers running KVM and Xen virtualization software on a virtual system allowing the virtualization software to use the aggregated virtual server resources." The payoff: increased system utilization, enhanced application performance and additional IT infrastructure flexibility.

Wanova used Citrix Synergy as a platform to offer its twist on desktop virtualization by unveiling a beta program for its Wanova Mirage desktop virtualization software package. Created with the idea of managing, supporting and protecting remote PCs, Wanova Mirage 1.5 adds end points running Windows 7 in addition to Windows XP. The package also raises the bar on storage efficiency and enables IT managers to have a clearer view of their distributed desktop infrastructures. More information on the Wanova Mirage 1.5 beta program is available here.

AppZero Server virtualization is alive and well at AppZero, which is "scooping and moving" groups of virtualized server apps across data center and cloud environments without an OS via AppZero Release 4.5 of its Virtual Application Appliance (VAA) suite. AppZero says VAA automates and enhances the process of moving multi-application workloads, and in the process provides enterprises with an on-demand way to run server-side apps where and when they want. According to the company, "Now all the applications on a machine can be scooped up without the OS and the applications are packaged as a VAA, making them mobile from another server, or from the data center to the cloud. Pricing is $500 per OS instance with a purchase of 10, regardless of the number of processors. The beta and a free, two-week trial version of AppZero 4.1 is available here for Windows 2003, Windows 2008 and Windows 7. General availability begins June 19.

Posted by Bruce Hoard on 06/04/2010 at 12:48 PM0 comments

Netuitive 5.0 Digs Deep

This time it's being manifested by Netuitive, the self-styled leading provider of "self-learning performance management software," in the form of the company's Netuitive 5.0 release, which allows cloud users to look behind the physical covers to see what's going on with systems and services on the virtual side of things. The reported upside is improved system performance and enhanced service quality combined with reduced operating and administrative costs.

Looking at the benefits in another light, the company says "Netuitive 5.0 replaces human guesswork with automated mathematics and analysis to understand normal system behavior across IT silos, isolate root causes of service issues, and forecast degradations before they impact performance."

The message is clear: Cloud-based environments are far more complex than their traditional data center counterparts because they are based on geographically dispersed systems that defy monitoring via manual correlation rules and static thresholds, or siloed tool sets that address just one domain at a time.

Prominent new features in the 5.0 product include unified visualization and performance management database (PMDB).

Unified Visualization aggregates service views from distributed infrastructures, regardless of monitoring source or geography, to deliver a real-time dashboard view of end-to-end service health. Playing to the vendor's strength, "Netuitive self-learns and correlates the performance for every component that enables an organization's private cloud service--including physical and virtual servers, storage, network and applications--to provide unprecedented visibility, performance forecasting and root cause isolation."

Performance Management Database leverages data already being collected by existing systems monitoring tools--including those from BMC, CA, IBM, Microsoft, VMware--to deliver a rich source of IT performance data. According to Netuitive, "Organizations can now search millions of data points to quickly evaluate system performance in order to fully optimize under-utilized infrastructure assets, including servers, storage and network components."

For pricing info, contact Netuitive.

Posted by Bruce Hoard on 06/03/2010 at 12:48 PM0 comments

Don't Miss VC Horizons '11

By way of a somewhat skewed comparison, the 2009 show drew some 3,000 attendees from over 1,000 companies and 56 countries. Emboldened by its domestic success, Citrix will hold its first pan-European event--Citrix Synergy Autumn this October 6-7 in Berlin--where it can be expected that Oktoberfest attendance in the local beer gardens by show-goers will surely rival that of the Citrix event itself. At last, a trade show where you can drink beer for breakfast and blend right in with your fellow conference attendees.

On the VMware's side of the conference ledger, in a press release VMware issued last September 4 after the completion of its sixth annual VMworld conference, it was said the show attracted more than 12,500 customers, partners, press and analysts, plus 200 sponsors and exhibitors. This year's event will be held August 30-September 2 in the same location as last year's: San Francisco's Moscone Center. And VMworld Europe will also be held in October (from the 12th to the 14th), but in Copenhagen, which is a respectable distance from the oompah bands and lederhosen crowd.

All of which begs the question: Does the virtualization/cloud industry deserve its own, independent, annual event--call it VC Horizons--which can act as an emphatic proof point for these powerful technologies that are reshaping data centers and spawning energetic new marketplaces?

Posted by Bruce Hoard on 06/01/2010 at 12:48 PM1 comments

vRanger Pro 4.5 DPP Debuts

VRanger Pro 4.5 DPP includes Vizioncore's Active Block Mapping (ABM) and Change Block Tracking (CBT), two components from the company's vReplicator product. According to Vizioncore, "ABM queries the Windows OS to remove inactive blocks from read lists during backups, which accelerates the data collection process by an average of 49 percent compared to vRanger Pro 4.2.3. ABM works on its own to speed full backups, typically performed weekly by Vizioncore customers. ABM also works in combination with CBT to speed incremental and differential backups, typically performed nightly.

"ABM is particularly helpful in speeding the backup of virtual machines running file and print services, which create and delete many small files as a routine part of their operation. Notably, ABM also speeds recovery by an average of 90 percent as compared to vRanger Pro 4.2.3 by avoiding the need to write zero blocks."

The product also supports Quest Recovery Manager for Exchange (RME) to provide object-level recovery for Microsoft Exchange. Vizioncore says that RME enables vRanger Pro DPP to be the first image-based solution to provide agentless object level recovery from image-based backups.

VRanger Pro 4.5 DPP is available now for $499 per socket.

Posted by Bruce Hoard on 05/27/2010 at 12:48 PM0 comments

Xsigo I/O Virt Offers Instant Savings

According to Xsigo, "Pod architectures allow businesses to deploy compute resources in consistent, pre-configured racks that can be uniformly designed, built and managed. The result is deployment times reduced from weeks to hours and standardized management across pools of servers. The Xsigo VP560 I/O Director consolidates I/O and enables software management of I/O resources, eliminating the physical complexity and manual configuration that is found with traditional connectivity."

Jon Toor is VP of marketing at Xsigo. He says server virtualization has created excessive complexity, which the VP560 undoes because it requires only two physical connections per server (one of which is strictly for redundancy), compared to between 6 and 16 in many instances today.

"You have 70 percent fewer cards per server and a lot fewer switch ports at the other end of the wire," Toor notes. "We run connectivity to the server, and what goes out to Brocade is driven by bandwidth needs. It's more simple and efficient, and utilization goes up from 5 percent to 50 percent."

Cloudwise, this is a boon to customers who want any-to-any connectivity, as opposed to maintaining separate clouds for the Web or databases that lead to more and more wires, cards and complexity.

Evidently, VMware agrees with Xsigo's vision, because Toor says their reaction was "This really solves problems for us," which means it creates business for Xsigo. Toor says 90% of his company's 70 customers are also VMware customers.

The VP560 I/O Director is immediately available for $20,000, a price Toor says is "comparable" to the costs of competing technologies from HP and Cisco. Plus, he adds, his product wins out when it comes to openness, ease of use and scalability. As for ROI, he claims new customers start saving 30 percent to 70 percent on day one.

Question: Why should Microsoft sales partners add Hyper-V to their arsenals?

Posted by Bruce Hoard on 05/26/2010 at 12:48 PM0 comments

Microsoft to Sales Partners: Sell Hyper-V Along with VMware

That swishing sound you hear is VMware CEO Paul Maritz rubbing his hands together with glee.

In support of Microsoft's new "Virtualization Partner Profitability Toolkit," Greschler begins, "Every partner knows about the great opportunity to sell virtualization technology and services. For a while, that meant one thing: working exclusively with VMware.

"Times have changed."

Greschler goes on to cite the relative affordability and technical prowess of Hyper-V compared to VMware, while noting that IDC says Hyper-V "continued its ascent" in Q4 09, growing 215% year over year.

But then the tenor changes dramatically when he goes on to declare: "Nearly every VMware partner we talk to recognizes that Microsoft is a major player in virtualization and tells us they would like an opportunity to build a virtualization practice that includes both VMware and Microsoft."

While this is not tantamount to raising a white flag, it is a stark, public acknowledgement of VMware's deeply embedded pre-eminence.

The Virtualization Partner Profitability Toolkit, which is available on the Microsoft Partner Network, includes a "profitability modeling tool" in the form of a interactive spreadsheet designed to depict the advantages of adding a Microsoft practice to their business.

So what will Microsoft partners find if they dutifully use this tool? According to Greschler, "As much as we'd like to tell you otherwise, if you plug the numbers in to look at your work on a project-by-project basis, the numbers could favor VMware. But if you take a practice-level view, and look at the numbers over the long term, the tool is likely to show partners making far more money with Microsoft."

The company says that claim is true because Microsoft virtualization offerings are "three-to-five times" less than VMware, a claim that VMware would hotly dispute, arguing that while Hyper-V is free, customers have to buy it along with an operating system, and they have to manage it, neither of which occurs free of charge.

At any rate, in conclusion, Greschler declares, "The takeaway from all this is pretty simple. If you're just selling VMware today, then you are in the VMware business. If you want to be in the virtualization business, look at building a virtualization practice where you're technology-agnostic and offering more choice to customers."

If you are one of those customers, you probably won't be hearing this particular call to action.

Question: Why should Microsoft sales partners add Hyper-V to their arsenals?

Posted by Bruce Hoard on 05/24/2010 at 12:48 PM3 comments

Veeam Reports Stellar Q1

• Total booking revenue grew 165 percent in Q1 2010 over the same period in 2009.
• New license bookings revenue increased 161 percent over the same period.
• Veeam signed up over 1,400 new customers in Q1, bringing its worldwide total to nearly 10,000.

Also in March Veeam unveiled SureBackup for VMware image-level backups. This technology tests and verifies the recoverability of "every backup of every virtual machine." SureBackup will find its way into version 5.0 of Veeam Backup & Replication, which is scheduled to hit the streets during Q3.

Of course, they have a cloud initiative, and it comes in the form of a customized partner program for cloud and managed service providers that was created to align with their business models. The company says it has 3,300 ProPartner resellers and more than 20 distributors worldwide.

Veeam president and CEO Ratmir Timashev cites the work his company put into building a strong, global sales and channel organization, as a reason for the favorable Q1 results.

Question: What is your impression of Veeam?

Posted by Bruce Hoard on 05/20/2010 at 12:48 PM0 comments

XenServer 5.6 Survives Blogger Tribal Council

In other words--despite many a dubiously blogged word--XenServer 5.6 has been officially introduced. The new and revamped version, which Citrix sees at the heart of its virtualization efforts, continues to be available gratis in the free (fully open source) XenServer edition, but there are also more advanced--and decidedly not free--Enterprise and Platinum editions from which to choose. In addition, Citrix unveiled a "low-priced" XenServer Advanced Edition, which reportedly makes it easier for users running free XenServer to cost-effectively add high availability and management features. In the wake of all this change, you can forget about Essentials for XenServer, which no longer exists; its management functionality has been spread across the new editions.

Citrix lists four primary highlights of XenServer 5.6:

The XenServer 5.6 Free edition enhances the existing enterprise features to extend the limits of host memory, CPU, network and OS support. According to Citrix, "While the free edition already provides a rich feature set for enterprises to deploy and centrally manage full enterprise-class virtualization on any number of servers with no up-front costs, the enhancements in XenServer 5.6 enable virtualization users to achieve greater server consolidation ratios, flexibility and best-in-class VM density for server, cloud and desktop workloads."

The XenServer 5.6 Advanced edition includes everything in the free edition, plus the long-awaited dynamic memory control. It also includes high availability and a host of advanced reporting and alerting capabilities. "The Advanced edition has been designed to provide a simple and cost-effective solution for enterprise customers and cloud providers to deliver highly available application services from their virtual infrastructures," Citrix notes.

New and advanced capabilities added to XenServer 5.6 Enterprise include automated workload balancing, host power management, advanced storage integration with StorageLink, live memory snapshots and role-based administration. "The Enterprise edition has been the primary choice for a majority of XenServer customers because it builds on the enterprise-ready, cloud-proven free edition to enable customers to integrate directly with a wide range of enterprise storage environments. The new XenServer 5.6 enterprise edition not only expands StorageLink support, but also adds new features to existing storage management capabilities, enabling customers to optimize application performance, reduce power consumption and define detailed access rules for managing virtualization infrastructures," Citrix says.

XenServer 5.6 Platinum extends the free, Advanced and Enterprise editions to deliver a suite of IT capabilities that help administrators accelerate the delivery of IT services that drive the business. "Specifically," the company notes, "XenServer 5.6 adds StorageLink SiteRecovery and a self-service portal extension to Lab Manager. The new SiteRecovery provides an automated way to recover from a data center outage through a single console that leverages the native capabilities of a customer’s existing storage array. The self-service portal enables employees to quickly access needed resources, allowing them to create new environments or use an existing virtual environment, along with on-demand documentation."

XenServer 5.6 will be available May 28. XenServer Advanced Edition is $1,000 per server, or $30 per month for cloud service providers. The Enterprise and Platinum Editions are $2,500 and $5,000 per server, respectively.

According to a quote from Al Gillen, Program VP, System Software, IDC, the new free version is an "entryway" for new virtualization customers, while "We are increasingly seeing vendors use a free plus premium offering strategy to build market share for a variety of infrastructure software products. XenServer Enterprise and Platinum editions provide the additional features that virtualization customers will look to as their virtualization deployments expand and mature."

Question: What do you think of the XenServer 5.6 pricing structure?

Posted by Bruce Hoard on 05/19/2010 at 12:48 PM3 comments

CA Talks Enterprise; Unveils Three New Products

Citing a very popular statistic, Andi Mann, VP of Virtualization Product Marketing at CA notes that most analysts say that between 15 percent and 30 percent of servers are virtualized. "That's still very low. That tells me they're having difficulty getting past file servers," Mann declares, adding, "Jumping from step to step, for example from consolidation to infrastructure optimization is very hard."

He also notes that unlike some of its smaller competitors in the virtualization management space, CA is not beholden to any one vendor (read VMware), which allows it to take advantage of a much broader market, including Citrix, Microsoft and IBM. "That's a key differentiator for us," he states.

Another key differentiator is CA's ability to go beyond past "speeds and feeds" to a complete, end-to-end look at virtualization implementations, and offer a range of products and services, including P2V, networking, database management, configuration and provisioning. "We show them what resources they can have and what it will cost them," Mann says. "There's no one who addresses the market as broadly as we do."

The three new CA products include:

CA Virtual Assurance, which was created to "optimize uptime and performance of virtual and private cloud environments by providing comprehensive monitoring, event correlation, and fault and performance management." This product is focused on model-based root-cause analytics, real-time and historical performance metrics, along with the ability to monitor virtual networking and app traffic response across virtual layers.

CA Virtual Automation provides automated, self-service virtualization machine lifecycle management that enables users to "rapidly deploy, expand, and control virtual and private cloud environments." Its capabilities include resource pool management, template-based virtual machine provisioning, provisioning support for Amazon ECS and Amazon VPC, integrated self-service with chargeback, and capacity and utilization tracking and reporting.

CA Virtual Configuration allows users to maintain operational efficiency and compliance in virtual and private cloud environments by automating the discovery of virtual environments to inventory and baseline virtual machines, infrastructure, applications, and dependencies. The product then "enables customers to manage sprawl, track and compare configuration changes as well as help meet regulatory compliance and audit needs."

Posted by Bruce Hoard on 05/18/2010 at 12:48 PM0 comments

XenClient is a Heavy Metal Hit

XenClient--which Citrix quickly notes is based on XenServer--was clearly the star of day one at Synergy, as Citrix bragged on the ability of its Intel vPro-powered bare-metal architecture to provide client-side virtualization that enables centrally managed virtual desktops to "run directly on corporate desktops and PCs, even when they are disconnected from the network."

The concept of companies running multiple virtual desktops on the same corporate owned laptop is "near and dear" to the heart of CEO Mark Templeton, who embraces the notion of employee-owned PCs that can separately and securely support personal and professional computing environments.

Speaking of Templeton, he seemed to be enjoying himself as he strutted triumphantly across the stage proclaiming the success of huge Citrix desktop virtualization environments in large enterprise settings.

In addition to XenClient's bare metal hypervisor, which enables each VM to run side by side directly on hardware, as opposed to being hosted within the installed operating system, the new product features two primary components: Citrix Receiver, a "lightweight client that lets users create and manage their own local virtual desktops, or access centrally managed corporate virtual desktops," and Synchronizer, which connects with XenClient laptops to download centrally managed virtual desktops. "Synchronizer enables user data to be backed up automatically through a secure connection over the Internet, and allows IT to define security policies for managed laptops, disable lost or stolen XenClient laptops and restore a user's virtual desktop on any XenClient-based laptop," Citrix said.

Via XenClient Express, the XenClient package is available for public download. It is intended for organizations to trial small deployments. Citrix said XenClient will be generally available with the next release of XenDesktop later this year.

HDX "Nitro" Technologies
Anxious to retain what many experts call a competitive advantage over VMware View 4 (which remains the standard bearer until VMware shakes the bugs out of v4.5) Citrix introduced its series of HDX "Nitro" technologies that are planned for upcoming releases of Citrix XenDesktop and XenApp. No dates for their debut were announced.

The company said Nitro technologies, which are on display at Synergy this week, will include enhancements from several development projects designed to promote faster across-the-board performance, enable instant app launch, provide faster printing at a fraction of the bandwidth, support accelerated WAN speed and efficiency, and produce dynamic sense-and-respond rendering.

HDX Happening Now with Wyse Xenith
Wyse leveraged its position with Citrix to take the wraps off Wyse Xenith, which it calls "the industry's first zero client with Citrix HDX technology." (Just in case you're wondering, Pano Logic has thrown its lot in with View.) Quick value prop: Xenith improves on traditional client devices by eliminating management and security hassles while providing the much ballyhooed high-def HDX user experience. In this zero client environment, there is zero local configuration to worry about, zero delays because there is no operating system to boot, and zero malware because Xenith has no "attack surface." In addition, it reduces energy expenses, auto-discovers XenDesktop straight out of the box, and "launches a full Windows desktop in seconds."

Because it is Citrix Ready, Xenith will also accept new HDX features as they are released by Citrix and Wyse. The product will be available in June.

Wyse also introduced Wyse PC Extender virtualization software that enables users to extend the life of existing PCs as they implement virtual desktop strategies. According to Wyse, "Wyse PC Extender enables organizations to buy thin clients they can afford, and turn the remaining PCs into thin clients, extending their usefulness for another year or two." Which puts Wyse in a great position to service legacy customers and then upsell to them when they enter their refresh cycles.

Wyse PC Extender includes full support for XenDesktop with HDX and other protocols, including Microsoft RDP and PCoIP for View. It is available immediately.

Two Security Thrusts
Citrix and McAfee are combining forces toward the goal of enabling XenDesktop customers to extend their virtualization security by deploying the McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator. As part of this effort, the two vendors are developing security solutions for VDI-based virtual desktops that "centralize all virus scanning and virus signature file updates, offloading the processing intensive actions from individual VMs." Citrix and McAfee also announced that they are developing hypervisor-native detection capabilities for XenClient and XenServer that are designed for the hypervisor to play a prominent role in "protecting and detecting security policy violations for VMs."

Finally, Citrix introduced "Safe Zone" technology that lays out a path that makes it easier for companies to employ virtual computing by targeting not only internal users but external contractors and users who work at home or have employee-owned laptops. Citrix said, "This new technology automatically encrypts all data created by corporate applications delivered to users via XenApp or Microsoft App-V, storing them transparently in dedicated safe zone directories. This ensures sensitive corporate data stored on non-corporate devices is not only protected, but that it can be wiped remotely at the end of a contract, or in the event that a user's laptop is lost or stolen."

Safe zone technology is available immediately.

Posted by Bruce Hoard on 05/13/2010 at 12:48 PM0 comments

VMware Acquires Another Company, and a Human

VM is spinning the deal by saying the privately held Gemstone will enhance SpringSource and VMware's vision of providing the infrastructure required for cloud-centric apps via its built-in availability, scalability, security and performance guarantees.

According to SpringSource, "These modern applications require new approaches to data management, given they will be deployed across elastic, highly scalable, geographically distributed architectures. With the addition of GemStone's data management solutions, customers will be able to make the right data available to the right applications at the right time within a distributed cloud environment."

This most recent acquisition comes after VMware also recently acquired two messaging vendors, Rabbit Technologies, which provides an enterprise messaging system based on the emerging Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP), and Zimbra, Yahoo's open source mail collaboration unit.

Heck, VMware is even publicizing the fact that they acquired a human, namely Salvatore Sanfilippo, who was lead programmer on the open source Redis project, described by Derek Collison of VMware's Cloud Service Division as a "high performance and scalable advanced key-value store where values can be data structures such as lists, sets, and hashmaps, as well as strings and blobs."

The company tells me that they won't be bashful about grabbing other companies as the need arises.

Question: What do you think of VMware's cloud technologies?

Posted by Bruce Hoard on 05/13/2010 at 12:48 PM5 comments

Kaviza Celebrates Citrix, VDI-in-a-box 3.0

Kaviza also gave a nod to XenServer--which is looking more and more rehabilitated--by announcing its support for that Citrix product as well. In fact, Kaviza went so far as to say XenServer is "making it easy for Kaviza customers to host their VDI environments on a world-class platform at a far lower cost."--a far lower cost being zippo in the case of XenServer.

Almost as an afterthought to its praising of Citrix, Kaviza took the wraps off the beta version of its Kaviza VDI-in-a-box 3.0, which it says delivers turnkey virtual desktops for an "unprecedented" total cost per desktop of less than $500--including servers, software and support. Kaviza says 3.0 is the antidote to the high costs, intimidating complexity and under-performing user experience that have plagued some desktop virtualization solutions.

The company also says VDI-in-a-box "is designed specifically to fit departmental budgets and desktop IT expertise using a plug-and-play architecture that runs on commodity servers without requiring shared storage. Kaviza enables the desktop IT staff to deploy VDI or hosted virtual desktops without any specialized IT expertise. This innovative approach makes VDI less expensive than traditionally managed personal computers and generates immediate ROI."

Kaviza VDI Accelerator with Citrix HDX is an add-on designed to provide a high-definition user experience, and is available on all hypervisors supported by Kaviza. Kaviza VDI-in-a-box for XenServer enables users to leverage the company's hypervisor-agnostic design to select the most appropriate virtualization platform.

Last, and seemingly least, Kaviza points out that VDI-in-a-box "is also available for VMware ESX and vSphere."

Posted by Bruce Hoard on 05/11/2010 at 12:48 PM0 comments

System Center Overriding SBS?

Reader Kirk Foutts is an IT manager who likes to poke around and come up with fixes that aren't exactly standard-issue. In the course of his explorations, he sometimes comes across some pretty interesting stuff -- in this case, what he calls "components in System Center that duplicate and conflict with components built into Small Business Server."

According to Kirk, these duplications and conflicts come as a result of Microsoft stating that System Center Virtual Machine Manager is the "supported solution to managing virtual  machines and systems."

He states that Systems Center "wants to take control" of some functions that are managed from a single SBS Microsoft Management Console. These functions include Windows updates, monitoring and reporting, firewall control and e-mail notifications.

Here's how Kirk puts it: "Looking at the System Center page, SBS 2003 and SBS 2008 are both listed as supported operating systems. This just doesn't work! This is even more confusing to me when I see that SBS 2008 has a virtual license. It's like laying the cheese out there for the mouse, but when the mouse gets there, it's really yogurt or something, not cheese."

"Adding System Center would bring in multiple software pieces for configuration and add complexity that I believe would simply be too much," he continues, adding "Don't get me wrong here, System Center and its little brother System Center Essentials are awesome tools. They just duplicate SBS and in that duplication there will be more expense and less efficient."

Posted by Bruce Hoard on 05/10/2010 at 12:48 PM0 comments

The Perilous State of Virtualization Security

In many ways, virtualization has grown up. A lot of servers have become virtualized, and a lot of virtualized environments have become relatively sophisticated. Yet, as a recent report notes, virtualization security remains a critical issue that is not widely understood, implemented or budgeted.

These are some of the issues at the heart of "2010 State of Virtualization Security," which was conducted by Prism Microsystems and directed toward a large universe of IT pros drawn from a audience that include Prism customers and over 50,000 subscribers to the EventSource newsletter. The survey was also put out to the general public via Twitter and Linkedin.

Protection of the virtualization layer -- the hypervisor and VM management apps -- is a major concern to survey respondents. To wit, 56.6 percent said "The introduction of a new layer that can be attacked" was a concern, while 58.1 percent cited "The potential for the hypervisor to create a single point of entry into multiple machines instances" as another concern.

There were a few interesting points that divided respondents. For example, in response to the statement "Virtual environments are inherently less secure than physical environments," just over 25 percent either strongly agreed or agreed, while 52 percent disagreed or strongly disagreed," with 21.8 percent saying they were unsure.
There was also significant disagreement over responses to the statement "Traditional security solutions are sufficient to provide security insight into all layers of the virtual environment (hardware, hypervisor, Guest OS)," with 24.2 percent strongly agreeing or agreeing, and 51.3 percent disagreeing or strongly disagreeing.  Another 24.5 percent reported that they were unsure.

When asked to respond to "Threats exposed by virtualization can be mitigated by using existing processes and technology," 46.1 percent either strongly agreed or agreed, while 24.3 percent disagreed or strongly disagreed, and another 29.5 percent were unsure.

In response to the preceding question about the use of existing processes and technology, the study states, "What's most interesting is that the majority of respondents seem to be aware that traditional solutions are insufficient to provide insight into all layers of the virtual environment, yet they still continue to use these solutions, which brings us to ask, why?"
In response to that query, 51 percent of respondents cited a "lack of budget for virtual environment-specific solutions," 48.1 percent listed "lack of staff expertise," and 40.2 percent mentioned "licensing, deployment and support models of security vendors not optimized for virtual environments."

Turning to another topic, 65 percent-plus of respondents reported that they have not created a separation of duty between IT staff responsible for the provisioning of virtual machines/virtual infrastructure and other admin groups. The problem with this, 34.9 percent of respondents claim, is that it gives too much "privilege and capability to administrators," which may lead to abuse resulting from "an extended span of control."

QUESTION: What bugs you about virtualization security in your company?

Posted by Bruce Hoard on 05/07/2010 at 12:48 PM0 comments