Articles about Virtualization

Just over half of enterprises (51 percent), which decide to deploy a cloud solution, opt for Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), over Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) or Software-as-a-Service (Saas).

This is according to a new report by Intel DCM, based on a survey of 204 US-based IT managers, directors, software engineers and DevOps responsible for overseeing their enterprise cloud strategy. The report also states that DevOps teams spend most of their time monitoring complex environments in their organization.

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During its developer conference in Seattle this week, Docker announced that container orchestration will now be built right into its Docker Engine, making the process of building, deploying and orchestrating containers far easier for its users.

The company has basically taken the core features of Docker Swarm and Compose and has added them to its core Engine to simplify the process of using containers in production. Both of these standalone products only recently exited their beta phases last November and it is impressive that Docker has been able to add them to Docker Engine in such a short period of time.

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Citrix and Microsoft announced recently that they will be expanding their partnership. More precisely, Citrix will use Microsoft’s Azure as its cloud.

Besides Azure, they will also integrate Citrix XenMobile and NetScaler into Microsoft’s Enterprise Mobility Suite.

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Docker has been hailed as a cycle-shrinking, cost-reducing panacea by DevOps, though ROI is far from proven with this nascent technology. So do companies have more than just hype or guesswork to go on?

Whilst businesses continue to embrace containerization, uncertainties, and misconceptions about Docker linger, not least of which is that it always reduces costs and saves time. Here are the pros and cons of Docker, and what companies need to think more about before casting their vote of confidence and investing in this space.

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Endpoint protection is still vital for enterprises of all sizes. Dell is launching new security products aimed at giving businesses advanced threat prevention for Windows Embedded thin clients and virtual desktops.

Using IP from its award-winning Dell Data Protection portfolio of security solutions, Dell is applying its endpoint security expertise beyond the PC to the thin client and virtual machines. The company claims this will give customers an industry-first approach to comprehensively securing their data.

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New research from Gartner suggests that the worldwide server virtualization market is very close to reaching its peak.

In 2016, the x86 server virtualization market is expected to reach $5.6 billion. This is an increase of 5.7 percent compared to 2015. However, this growth is not attributed to new software licenses which have declined for the first time in more than a decade. Instead this increased growth has been driven by maintenance revenue which is a clear indication of how the software market has begun to rapidly mature.

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Microsoft Azure's Container Service in now available to help companies deploy and manage containers using their choice of software.

Users of the service will be able to move their container workloads to the cloud easily and can still run their operations using open-source tools. The two most popular tools -- Mesosphere’s Data Centre Operating System (DC/OS) and Docker’s Swarm and Compose -- will be both be supported by Azure Container Service and users will be able to continue running their operations using the one they prefer.

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Today is the third birthday of the Docker containerization system and to celebrate the company is launching a beta program for Mac and Windows versions of its software.

It offers an integrated, easy-to-deploy environment for building, assembling, and shipping applications from Mac or Windows as well as having many improvements over Docker Toolbox.

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With more and more enterprises recognizing the need to go beyond securing devices while still finding an effective way to deploy native mobile apps to employees, it's little wonder that remote enterprise approaches like Virtual Mobile Infrastructure (VMI) are receiving more eyeballs in the enterprise mobility space and the scrutiny that comes along with it. With this comes questions, doubts and even fears over the whether this new approach can really fulfill on its promise.

In fact, fears can spiral into outright myths if left to fester. Remember the myth that Macs couldn't get viruses? We all know how that claim turned out. To this end and, without further ado, here's the truth about five of the most common myths you may have heard about VMI.

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VirtualBox is an amazing virtualization tool, ideal for all kinds of software testing situations -- unless they involve booting from USB, where there’s no direct support at all.

There’s a workaround which will sort-of solve the problem, no additional software required, but it’s awkward and inflexible. Virtual Machine USB Boot is an interesting alternative, an open-source portable tool which makes it much easier to boot USB keys in both VirtualBox and QEMU.

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As cloud services continue to evolve and form a large part of UK IT spending, it comes as no surprise that virtualization is set to enjoy a successful 2016.

A recent study by the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) found that four in five UK organizations formally adopted at least one cloud service in 2015, whilst seeing a year-on-year rise in the uptake in cloud services from 48 percent in 2010 to 84 percent in 2015. These figures show the ability for virtual servers to address two key factors in IT strategy: reducing carbon footprint and providing high power solutions. Both these factors are fueling the migration towards virtual services for organizations. In light of these moves there have been concerns that this could lead to data centers becoming redundant. This is simply not the case.

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Docker, the Californian technology company behind the open source virtual container platform, has announced the acquisition of Unikernel Systems, a Cambridge-based startup.

Unikernel Systems has a rather unique product that Docker plans to integrate into its own tools and services as it views a future beyond just containers. The integration of Unikernels into Docker would allow developers to build even more efficient microservice architectures.

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Microsoft has launched an enhanced version of its Azure Site Recovery (ASR) targeted especially for VMware customers.

The ASR concept allows you to backup virtual machines into the Azure storage, update them and then run the VMs in Azure as a disaster recovery option. Microsoft charges $54 a month per VM instance stored in Azure, but doesn’t pay any compute or storage costs until you run the VM, which would make sense as it is only a file until the VM is spun up.

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Flash is undoubtedly considered a superhero within the world of storage. However, it is unlikely to save the day all on its own. Whilst playing an important role, flash is just one of multiple solutions required to address the most common storage pain points in the data center.

Just like any superhero, it needs to work as part of a team in order to save the world or at least save you time. And in that respect, there is an underlying problem (or villain) that needs to be fought off. After all, without villains, there would be no need for superheroes in the first place.

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Considering it only came into existence in 2013, Docker has experienced a monumental rise in both the consumer and business markets. From such humble beginnings, (the earliest version of the technology was developed by founder Solomon Hykes in his mother’s basement), Docker has managed to secure a number of high-profile partners and earlier this year received a valuation in excess of $1 billion. But what exactly is Docker?

According to the company itself, "Docker allows you to package an application with all of its dependencies into a standardized unit for software development". The way in which Docker does this is through a software feature known as a container. These containers encompass everything that a piece of software needs to operate, including code, system tools, system libraries, runtime -- essentially anything that can be run on a server. In this respect, the way in which Docker enables infrastructure virtualization is nothing new, but in other ways it is really shaking up the virtual machine market.

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