vmware

VMware says that, like its rival Parallels, it has virtualization software that can help ease the transition from Windows XP to Windows 7.

While its approach is less comprehensive than Parallels $50 product, VMware's approach is free, using a combination of VMware Converter and VMware Player, both of which are available from the company's Web site. VMware's approach uses Converter to package up and transfer a physical XP desktop into a virtual machine and then allows that XP desktop to run virtually inside the new Windows 7 machine.

VMware's products have been available for some time, … Read more

Virtualization is a major component of cloud computing, but the primary focus has been on virtualized server instances running on cloud providers such as Amazon EC2.

There is little argument that applications running in the cloud offer many attractive advantages, but ultimately users need to be able to access their data from any device and the data itself must maintain the highest levels of synchronization and integrity.

One of the big challenges is the fact that users are comfortable with fat applications (generally meaning, not browser-based) for a large number of tasks. And while Google Docs and the like are great supplements for large apps like Microsoft Office, they've yet to supplant them completely.

To avoid disrupting users too much, and avoiding the necessity of rewriting applications to be browser-based, many IT organizations turned to desktop virtualization tools to solve the problem.

Desktop virtualization was supposed to solve one the biggest headaches in IT: managing and securing corporate desktops in a more effective way. From IT's perspective, it's much quicker and easier to manage all the company's virtual desktops than physical distributed desktops. When it comes time to roll out a software update, they can automatically deploy it to all virtual desktops at once, rather than going machine-to-machine and uploading the software manually.

There are many options when it comes to desktop virtualization, but generally the "solution" most people think of is virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI).

VDI has a number of strengths such as cost reduction and management efficiency as well as a number of drawbacks, such as a lack of offline capabilities. But the core problem is that VDI puts an entire desktop that's not built for the cloud into the cloud. It just doesn't make sense to take your fat desktop and OS and stick it right onto the cloud. … Read more

For those who virtualize Windows and other operating systems on OS X, VMware has updated its Fusion VM solution to version 3.1. This update is advertised as being 35 percent faster than version 3.0, and offers up to 5x faster 3D performance for games and features such as Windows 7's Aero environment.… Read more

Once upon a time Red Hat was content to be the enterprise Linux leader and VMware was happy to be the dominant virtual infrastructure vendor.

No more.

As the two companies have sought growth, they've increasingly stepped on each other's toes, with recent VMware marketing taking strong swipes at its erstwhile partner, Red Hat, highlighting Pizza Hut as a high-profile customer defection from Red Hat to VMware.

Can't the two companies just get along?

Probably not. Back in 2006, Red Hat and VMware announced an "expanded relationship to support customers and ISVs who are deploying virtualization.&… Read more

Two relatively new arrivals in the computing industry announced a partnership to profit from the trend toward general-purpose cloud computing services on the Net.

The first partner is VMware, an EMC subsidiary that specializes in virtualization technology that lets multiple operating systems run simultaneously on the same computer for greater operational flexibility. The second is Salesforce.com, a company that offers its clients customer-relationship management services online. Under the partnership, the two will offer a cloud-based service called VMforce for running Java applications.

Specifically, VMforce will permit programs written with VMware's SpringSource tools and technology to run on tc … Read more

EMC's first-quarter earnings were strong and the company raised its 2010 outlook as enterprise spending on data centers picks up.

The company, which provides enterprise storage and software services, reported first-quarter earnings of $373 million, or 17 cents a share, on revenue of $3.9 billion, up 23 percent from a year ago. Non-GAAP earnings were 26 cents a share, two cents ahead of Wall Street estimates. Wall Street was looking for revenue of $3.7 billion.

EMC's strong quarter wasn't totally unexpected given that VMware reported better-than-expected results. Since EMC is the majority owner of VMware, … Read more

Yesterday, I heard a story about a CIO of one of the big NYC-based financial services firms explaining to his audience what was delaying further virtualization of the firm's application environment. The reason wasn't related to hardware or software.

The problem was staffing. Given the current state of virtual server management practices, the number of virtual machines was outrunning the number of people needed to effectively manage them.

IT has traditionally been about automating things. But automated IT management, and particularly automated management of the storage environment, has traditionally been approached cautiously at best by IT administrators. Nevertheless, … Read more

Parallels, the company best known for a product that lets Apple users run Windows side by side with Mac OS X, thinks it has found another good use for its virtualization technology.

The company has quietly been working on a product that uses virtualization to ease the sometimes painful upgrade process going from Windows XP to Windows 7, CNET has learned. The new product, which will work for both those upgrading an existing machine to Windows 7 or those buying a new PC, uses virtualization to ensure that older programs can smoothly run on the new operating system.

The product … Read more

Open-source cloud vendor Eucalyptus is rumored to be raising venture money at a $100 million valuation. Meanwhile, an Under The Radar conference dubbed "Commercializing the Cloud" is set for mid-April at which a host of new start-ups will talk about how they're set to shake the clouds free of billions of dollars in sales.

It can't come soon enough. For all the talk about cloud computing, the business of cloud computing is still in its infancy.

When will it grow up?

There's no shortage of exceptionally cool cloud technology. The most recent company to get … Read more