Yesterday VMware announced the availability of VMware vCloud Suite 5.1.
VMware vCloud Suite 5.1 is available in three editions, Standard, Advanced and Enterprise and is licensed per processor.
vCloud Includes software-defined datacenter services, policy-based provisioning, disaster recovery, and application and operations management capabilities delivered by:
VMware vSphere® 5.1 – is the proven foundation for the software-defined datacenter, delivering the highest service levels for all applications, including business-critical workloads and low-latency, I/O-sensitive applications.
VMware vCloud Director® 5.1 – vCloud Director 5.1 allows customers to provision complete virtual datacenter services in minutes.
VMware vCloud Networking and Security 5.1 – Providing a full set of software-defined networking capabilities, the new VMware vCloud Networking and Security enables the dynamic creation of virtual networks and services that are completely decoupled and independent from the physical network hardware.
VMware vCenter™ Site Recovery Manager™ 5.1– To enhance the availability and rapid recovery of applications running in the software-defined datacenter, vCenter Site Recovery Manager 5.1 simplifies and automates disaster recovery planning, testing and execution.
Friday, 14 September 2012
Wednesday, 5 September 2012
Apple VPP Announced
Apple have announced a global expansion of VPP (Volume Purchase Plan) which is well overdue and will be music to many of Equanets BYOD clients.
This has been extended to Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
IT procurement within the United States has come to appreciate the ease at which VPP enables them to distribute apps to their iPhone and iPad equipped userbase.
What is VPP?
VPP was created to give IT the ability to push pertinent business applications to a sizeable userbase.
Any application on the App Store can be purchased for distribution, meaning you can now pre populate your enterprise application stores with free, home grown and purchased applications.
App distribution: where to begin
First you'll need to create a volume purchasing account with Apple. Once you've created your account, you decide which application/s you would like to purchase for your users in the Business Store.
After your purchase has been completed, you will be sent a VPP File, which contains VPP Codes that can be sent to users.
The quantity purchased will correlate with the number of codes provided in this package.
Using a mobile device management (MDM) solution turns provides IT with an easy deployment platform to iOS devices.
MDM eliminates the need for manual app distribution, it gives you the power to track provisioning, manage licenses, and monitor compliance of your userbase.
Looking at BYOD but are confused about where and how to start? then contact us to see how our approach can expedite your project.
This has been extended to Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
IT procurement within the United States has come to appreciate the ease at which VPP enables them to distribute apps to their iPhone and iPad equipped userbase.
What is VPP?
VPP was created to give IT the ability to push pertinent business applications to a sizeable userbase.
Any application on the App Store can be purchased for distribution, meaning you can now pre populate your enterprise application stores with free, home grown and purchased applications.
App distribution: where to begin
First you'll need to create a volume purchasing account with Apple. Once you've created your account, you decide which application/s you would like to purchase for your users in the Business Store.
After your purchase has been completed, you will be sent a VPP File, which contains VPP Codes that can be sent to users.
The quantity purchased will correlate with the number of codes provided in this package.
Using a mobile device management (MDM) solution turns provides IT with an easy deployment platform to iOS devices.
MDM eliminates the need for manual app distribution, it gives you the power to track provisioning, manage licenses, and monitor compliance of your userbase.
Looking at BYOD but are confused about where and how to start? then contact us to see how our approach can expedite your project.
Windows Server 2012 is here
Equanet have been working with Server 2012 for many months now in readiness for general availability so our customers can be assured of our support when it came to both licensing support and technical services. Well that day has now come, as of September 4th Microsoft has made Windows 2012 RTM versions available for test and purchase.
As part of the launch, Microsoft officials have performed webcast demonstrations of some of the 300 new features that are part of the product.
The key theme hasn't been about speeds and feeds but more about Windows Server 2012 being a key component of Microsoft's 'Cloud OS' vision and strategy. Windows Server 2012 has been developed from the ground up with the cloud in mind (Azure and Private).
Microsoft began to bring more feature parity to its Server and Azure components earlier this year, rolling out an implementation of Active Directory for Azure.
The end result, Microsoft officials are hoping, is a more cohesive and compelling message around Windows Server, in terms of positioning, licensing and pricing.
This version of Microsoft Server really should have you thinking differently about your cloud deployments from both technical and commercial viewpoints. Not only should it gain your respect but it has already gained the respect of industry heavyweight Cisco...
Cisco have been working closely with the Windows Server 2012 team for the past few years towards the goal of the Nexus 1000V integrating with Hyper-V, they have announced Nexus 1000V and VM-FEX support for it.
Cisco customers spoke in volumes about proving a consistency across both virtual and physical switching as they did with VMware.
In addition to the integration with Windows Server 2012, Cisco are also working for tighter integration between Nexus 1000V and System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM). This integration helps both the server & network administrators to get a consistent view of the virtualisation environment, and thus reduces operational complexity. Server admins can pick and choose the logical networks, network-sites and VM networks created by the network admins, and network admins make use of the same NX-OS CLI, feature-set across physical & virtual environments.
We think this support alone speaks volumes about the excitement there is in the industry for server 2012.
If you need tech or licensing support on server 2012 contact us or register for one of upcoming events here
As part of the launch, Microsoft officials have performed webcast demonstrations of some of the 300 new features that are part of the product.
The key theme hasn't been about speeds and feeds but more about Windows Server 2012 being a key component of Microsoft's 'Cloud OS' vision and strategy. Windows Server 2012 has been developed from the ground up with the cloud in mind (Azure and Private).
Microsoft began to bring more feature parity to its Server and Azure components earlier this year, rolling out an implementation of Active Directory for Azure.
The end result, Microsoft officials are hoping, is a more cohesive and compelling message around Windows Server, in terms of positioning, licensing and pricing.
This version of Microsoft Server really should have you thinking differently about your cloud deployments from both technical and commercial viewpoints. Not only should it gain your respect but it has already gained the respect of industry heavyweight Cisco...
Cisco have been working closely with the Windows Server 2012 team for the past few years towards the goal of the Nexus 1000V integrating with Hyper-V, they have announced Nexus 1000V and VM-FEX support for it.
Cisco customers spoke in volumes about proving a consistency across both virtual and physical switching as they did with VMware.
In addition to the integration with Windows Server 2012, Cisco are also working for tighter integration between Nexus 1000V and System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM). This integration helps both the server & network administrators to get a consistent view of the virtualisation environment, and thus reduces operational complexity. Server admins can pick and choose the logical networks, network-sites and VM networks created by the network admins, and network admins make use of the same NX-OS CLI, feature-set across physical & virtual environments.
We think this support alone speaks volumes about the excitement there is in the industry for server 2012.
If you need tech or licensing support on server 2012 contact us or register for one of upcoming events here
Wednesday, 29 August 2012
VMware vRAM is no more
We all know the issues that VMware brought to the table by changing their license model for vSphere and the opportunity that presented for alternative virtualisation vendors. Well it appears that VMware has listened with its upcoming release of VMware vSphere 5.1.
VMware is removing the vRAM licensing requirements and returning to its previous CPU-based licensing model, which customers preferred.
With only a .dot release of its flagship vSphere product announced at VMworld this week, VMware should expect to get a lot more attention for this release than it normally would have because of the licensing change. And all those vSphere 4.x users who've been waiting to upgrade to 5.0 may now finally make the move.
VMware is removing the vRAM licensing requirements and returning to its previous CPU-based licensing model, which customers preferred.
With only a .dot release of its flagship vSphere product announced at VMworld this week, VMware should expect to get a lot more attention for this release than it normally would have because of the licensing change. And all those vSphere 4.x users who've been waiting to upgrade to 5.0 may now finally make the move.
What's key in vSphere 5.1
VMware has detailed an abundance of new enhancements to its core virtualisation and cloud products: vSphere, vCenter, the vSphere Storage Appliance, and vCloud Director are all being increased to version 5.1. VMware is also introducing a vSphere Data Protection Appliance.
In adding new features VMware will also knock on the door or 3rd party partners who currently add value to the VMware stack. Such as the moving of SRM host based replication into vSphere, implementing a new backup appliance based upon Avamar.
vSphere Replication
vSphere 5.1 can now perform host-based VM replication, a feature introduced in Site Recovery Manager 5.0 but now part of vSphere. Because it will work across the majority of the vSphere product line, this replication capability should be attractive to smaller businesses that can't afford expensive array-based replication.
vSphere Data Protection
vSphere Data Protection (VDP), is an appliance-based, deduplicating backup package integrated into VMware's vCenter management framework. VDP replaces vSphere Disaster Recovery appliance with deduplication from EMC's Avamar backup line. VDP uses vSphere APIs for Data Protection (VADP).
vSphere networking
This software-based switching architecture adds support for 802.3ad LACP load balancing, RSPAN and ERSPAN remote traffic monitoring, a slew of new automated configuration health checks, VXLAN support, and SR-IOV support. Many of these additions should facilitate software-defined networking initiatives happening in the vCloud Director.
In adding new features VMware will also knock on the door or 3rd party partners who currently add value to the VMware stack. Such as the moving of SRM host based replication into vSphere, implementing a new backup appliance based upon Avamar.
vSphere Replication
vSphere 5.1 can now perform host-based VM replication, a feature introduced in Site Recovery Manager 5.0 but now part of vSphere. Because it will work across the majority of the vSphere product line, this replication capability should be attractive to smaller businesses that can't afford expensive array-based replication.
vSphere Data Protection
vSphere Data Protection (VDP), is an appliance-based, deduplicating backup package integrated into VMware's vCenter management framework. VDP replaces vSphere Disaster Recovery appliance with deduplication from EMC's Avamar backup line. VDP uses vSphere APIs for Data Protection (VADP).
vSphere networking
This software-based switching architecture adds support for 802.3ad LACP load balancing, RSPAN and ERSPAN remote traffic monitoring, a slew of new automated configuration health checks, VXLAN support, and SR-IOV support. Many of these additions should facilitate software-defined networking initiatives happening in the vCloud Director.
VMware vCloud Suite 5.1
As discussed earlier today here VMware at VMworld announced a new suite of technologies called vCloud to simplify the transition to a software defined datacenter or indeed hybrid cloud to a vCloud provider.
The aim of a software-defined datacenter is to abstract all hardware resources, pool them into aggregate capacity to facilitate automation of applications and services deployment.
VMware vCloud Suite 5.1 aggregates all the components customers need to build, operate and manage a modern, cloud integrated, infrastructure:
VMware vSphere® 5.1: with more than 100 enhancements and new features constitutes the foundation of the suite
VMware vCloud Director® 5.1: orchestrates the provisioning of abstracted resources such as storage, networking, security and availability pooling them as software-defined datacenter services
VMware vCloud Networking and Security 5.1: VMware’s software defined networking and security solution, enables the dynamic creation of virtual networks and services decoupled and independent from the physical network hardware
vCenter Site Recovery Manager™ 5.1: simplifies disaster recovery planning and ensures predictable recovery through automated testing and plan execution, can also support datacenter migrations and disaster avoidance, integrates with VMware vSphere Replication and replication technologies from VMware’s partners
The VMware vCloud Suite 5.1 is expected to be available Sept. 11, 2012. It will be offered in three editions – Standard, Advanced and Enterprise – and includes the following products: VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus, VMware vCloud Director, VMware vCloud Connector, VMware vCloud Networking and Security, VMware vFabric Application Director, VMware vCenter Operations Management Suite and VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager. Prices will start at $4,995 per processor.
The aim of a software-defined datacenter is to abstract all hardware resources, pool them into aggregate capacity to facilitate automation of applications and services deployment.
VMware vCloud Suite 5.1 aggregates all the components customers need to build, operate and manage a modern, cloud integrated, infrastructure:
VMware vSphere® 5.1: with more than 100 enhancements and new features constitutes the foundation of the suite
VMware vCloud Director® 5.1: orchestrates the provisioning of abstracted resources such as storage, networking, security and availability pooling them as software-defined datacenter services
VMware vCloud Networking and Security 5.1: VMware’s software defined networking and security solution, enables the dynamic creation of virtual networks and services decoupled and independent from the physical network hardware
vCenter Site Recovery Manager™ 5.1: simplifies disaster recovery planning and ensures predictable recovery through automated testing and plan execution, can also support datacenter migrations and disaster avoidance, integrates with VMware vSphere Replication and replication technologies from VMware’s partners
The VMware vCloud Suite 5.1 is expected to be available Sept. 11, 2012. It will be offered in three editions – Standard, Advanced and Enterprise – and includes the following products: VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus, VMware vCloud Director, VMware vCloud Connector, VMware vCloud Networking and Security, VMware vFabric Application Director, VMware vCenter Operations Management Suite and VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager. Prices will start at $4,995 per processor.
VMware Horizon Suite Details
As blogged earlier this week VMware has announced a new product suite known as VMware Horizon Suite,
VMware Horizon Suite is still in Alpha release. Horizon is a platform that will make it easier administrators to manage the challenges associated with consumerisation (mobility, cloud, and employee BYOD) while also providing a simple working environment for your end users, no matter what the device is.
VMware Horizon Suite brings together many of the technologies within VMware – Project Octopus, Project AppBlast, ThinApp, VMware Horizon Application Manager and VMware Horizon Mobile, as well as the management of VMware View. This not only includes VMware technologies, but also software that runs on Windows and applications delivered via Citrix XenApp, for example.
This makes it possible for enterprises to get the consistent governance they need, while workers enjoy separate personal and business workspaces and consistent access to applications and data on any personal device.
Through a central Web management console, the VMware Horizon Suite enables IT to provide a service catalog for all company data and applications. Horizon Suite will understand a user’s context (device, location and connectivity level) and then apply policies across applications, data, and devices no matter where that data or applications resides (Windows, Web, SaaS or Mobile).
With Horizon Suite, end users can also securely access and share their data and files from any device. You can get a feel for what it looks like in the video below:
Horizon manages from the middle, rather than the endpoint, through identity, context, and policy. And through its web console, IT can deliver a customised service catalog to users so they can select delivery of on-demand Windows, Mobile, SaaS, and Web-based applications to end-users on any device.
VMware Horizon Suite provides the security, governance, and manageability enterprises need while also providing all of the freedoms of choice and work style associated with the BYOD and consumerisation of IT trends.
Key VMworld 2012 Announcements
You may or may not be aware that over in America VMware are currently hosting their end user event - VMworld. Like with previous years there has been a slew announcements and Equanet can articulate them into this single blog entry. These are the main announcements from VMware delivered through their key note sessions:
In 2008 25% of workloads were virtualised; today, that figure is estimated to be 60%.
In 2008, everyone was asking, “What is cloud?” Now, according to VMware, we’re asking “How do we build a cloud?”
VMware has an aspiration to increase the number of workloads that are virtualised (aiming for >90%) and the amount of time to provision new workloads (shooting for minutes/seconds). This is what VMware call the “software-defined data center.”
VMware has announced vCloud Suite, which will include vSphere, vCloud Director, vCloud Connector, Site Recovery Manager, vCenter Operations, and vFabric Application Director–all rolled into a single SKU to make it easier to buy, deploy, and use.
VMware also announced that vRAM will no longer be considered a part of VMware’s licensing approach.
VMware also stated its ongoing support of OpenStack by applying to join OpenStack Foundation.
In vSphere 5.1 VM capacity grows to 64 vCPUs, 1 TB of RAM, and 1 million IOPS in a SINGLE VM, so if you have a need for a machine that big I would love to meet you!
VMware announced enhanced vMotion, which is VMware’s ability to perform live migration without shared storage.
VMware discussed Mirage (an acquisition of Wanova) which is built on the idea of layers, allowing organisations to “decompose” images into smaller, more manageable chunks, and allows for synchronisation of images across the network. Mirage is considered complementary to View, and brings VMware functionality for managing physical desktops and adding functionality for offline computing.
Project AppShift was identified to allow you to access traditional mouse style applications on touch based devices.
VMware Horizon Suite has been launched as a single, product suite that assists in managing and brokering desktops, applications, and data between users and devices (very similar to Citrix CloudGateway 2) Project Octopus is now known as Horizon Data and has moved from Beta code to Alpha code. Project AppBlast will be used to deliver desktops to devices. Oh, and Horizon will also be able to manage XenApp based applications.
Horizon also supports mobile applications as well, through Horizon Mobile. VMware announced a "container application" for iOS (Similar to Good Technology) that allows VMware Horizon Mobile to deploy and manage applications to iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad.
So plenty of announcements from VMware and just to recap the main points from the keynotes are:
- vRAM licensing model is to be disbanded
- vCloud Suite is a set of products under a single SKU to help kickstart your cloud projects
- Horizon Suite is again a set of integrated products to help focus on the end user experience
- Project Octopus is now know as Horizon Data
- vSphere 5.1 has been announced
- VMware View 5.1 has been announced.
- Project App Shift
- AppBlast is WIP
- Mobile Application management on iOS via app wrapping
- Horizon will Manage XenApp.
Monday, 27 August 2012
Helping your CIO yes to BYOD
The Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend is changing the landscape of corporate IT and support models; with the proliferation of mobile devices, corporate networks are becoming more challenging to manage and more at-risk every day. Corporate IT is now forced to react and build a new end user first computing model because the days of pushing technology to the consumer has now ended. Today, IT departments need to become more agile and adapt quickly to BYOD because it is already happening.
Devices need to connect to networks, so they can provide convenient, access to trusted users, IT needs to protect IP but provide agile architectures that are open enough to support devices but align to corporate governance. Saying no to personal devices is no longer an option.
Users are already using the devices with or without permission on your network. With the right BYOD strategy, IT departments can mitigate the risk, say “yes” and even benefit from this change.
The challenge for the CIO, then, is to build and implement a BYOD strategy that supports device diversity while putting the proper safeguards in place and keeping business and personal items separate. Equanet has created a unique approach for providing a comprehensive strategy for device diversity, protecting sensitive data and enabling productivity to create a BYOD environment that works for everyone.
The Equanet approach starts with the end users and moves through all divisions in the business ensuring all issues and opportunities are raised. We link applications to user identities, not devices, so end users can access the data from any qualified device, whether they’re working in the office or remotely. Corporate and personal digital assets are kept separate in a safe and monitored way.
The Equanet approach for BYOD allows IT to think less about devices and more about the user experience and enabling the employee. This shift in focus, from devices to access and activity, makes BYOD improvements more visible and easier to measure.
If you are considering a BYOD strategy and are wondering where you should start, Equanet can help. We have helped many customers through this transition and. Equanet Advisory Services can help CIOs say “yes” to BYOD by:
Leveraging a proven desktop virtualisation model for BYOD
Developing a suitable digital allowance scheme
Ensuring architecture and security excellence
Providing a roadmap to the end user centric computing model
Performing an operational readiness assessment
Defining a ROI and value proposition.
Devices need to connect to networks, so they can provide convenient, access to trusted users, IT needs to protect IP but provide agile architectures that are open enough to support devices but align to corporate governance. Saying no to personal devices is no longer an option.
Users are already using the devices with or without permission on your network. With the right BYOD strategy, IT departments can mitigate the risk, say “yes” and even benefit from this change.
The challenge for the CIO, then, is to build and implement a BYOD strategy that supports device diversity while putting the proper safeguards in place and keeping business and personal items separate. Equanet has created a unique approach for providing a comprehensive strategy for device diversity, protecting sensitive data and enabling productivity to create a BYOD environment that works for everyone.
The Equanet approach starts with the end users and moves through all divisions in the business ensuring all issues and opportunities are raised. We link applications to user identities, not devices, so end users can access the data from any qualified device, whether they’re working in the office or remotely. Corporate and personal digital assets are kept separate in a safe and monitored way.
The Equanet approach for BYOD allows IT to think less about devices and more about the user experience and enabling the employee. This shift in focus, from devices to access and activity, makes BYOD improvements more visible and easier to measure.
If you are considering a BYOD strategy and are wondering where you should start, Equanet can help. We have helped many customers through this transition and. Equanet Advisory Services can help CIOs say “yes” to BYOD by:
Leveraging a proven desktop virtualisation model for BYOD
Developing a suitable digital allowance scheme
Ensuring architecture and security excellence
Providing a roadmap to the end user centric computing model
Performing an operational readiness assessment
Defining a ROI and value proposition.
Microsoft Lync and VMware View 5.0
For those of you who have been using Lync on standard desktop architectures and tried to integrate with VMware View will know issues there has been. Luckily VMware has announced support for Microsoft Lync 2013. With Microsoft Lync 2013 and VMware View, customers will have full access to Unified Communications and Collaboration capabilities, and Office 15 integration.
Naturally, many customers who run Lync 2010 have expressed a desire for support of a combined architecture too. As a result VMware and Microsoft have officially completed validation testing of Microsoft Lync 2010 with VMware View 5.0. Microsoft has updated the Microsoft Lync 2010 Client Virtualisation whitepaper to reflect the addition of VMware View as a supported Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solution.
Customers can now deploy Microsoft Lync 2010 on VMware View infrastructure with confidence, knowing that the solution will be fully supported. With Microsoft Lync 2010 and VMware View, users will have access to features such as presence, instant messaging, application sharing, online meetings, sharing whiteboards and PowerPoint presentations.
Other features such as VoIP calling are only available when a Lync client is paired with a USB desktop IP Phone. A complete list of features supported with Microsoft Lync 2010 and VMware View 5.0 can be found in the Microsoft Lync 2010 Client Virtualisation whitepaper.
Naturally, many customers who run Lync 2010 have expressed a desire for support of a combined architecture too. As a result VMware and Microsoft have officially completed validation testing of Microsoft Lync 2010 with VMware View 5.0. Microsoft has updated the Microsoft Lync 2010 Client Virtualisation whitepaper to reflect the addition of VMware View as a supported Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solution.
Customers can now deploy Microsoft Lync 2010 on VMware View infrastructure with confidence, knowing that the solution will be fully supported. With Microsoft Lync 2010 and VMware View, users will have access to features such as presence, instant messaging, application sharing, online meetings, sharing whiteboards and PowerPoint presentations.
Other features such as VoIP calling are only available when a Lync client is paired with a USB desktop IP Phone. A complete list of features supported with Microsoft Lync 2010 and VMware View 5.0 can be found in the Microsoft Lync 2010 Client Virtualisation whitepaper.
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