Solution Centre Blog

Citrix XenServer - Free Enterprise-Class Virtualisation

blog@solutioncentre.co.uk — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 22:22:57 GMT

Citrix have upped the ante in the server virtualisation stakes by offering their �enterprise-class, cloud-proven� XenServer platform at no cost.

This is an interesting twist in the server virtualisation wars. They have decided their very capable product can be free, presumably to step on VMware ESX sales by differentiating themselves at the entry point. In the current cash strapped times this should do them no harm at all.

It is not a cut down or incapable version, it comes with a feature set that will be all many organisations need, with features such as centralised multi-node management, and full live motion.

They are reverting to a classic Citrix model of adding value to �standard� products by producing a range of chargeable add-ons for those who need them. Citrix Essentials� for XenServer, a new product line that includes a rich set of capabilities specifically optimised for the XenServer environment. These optional features including:

� lab automation
� dynamic provisioning
� workflow orchestration
� high availability
� seamless integration with leading storage systems

will be directly visible in the XenCenter administration console in grayed-out mode, making it easy to understand the additional capabilities available. As Citrix adds new enhancements to the Citrix Essentials product line, all active XenServer users will have the option to be automatically notified of these new capabilities through their XenCenter management console.

Customers using Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V for their virtualisation platform will also be able to add similar advanced virtualisation management capabilities to their environments by purchasing Citrix Essentials� for Hyper-V�. With the Citrix Essentials product line, Citrix is committed to adding significant value to both XenServer and Hyper-V, the two fastest growing virtualisation platforms in the market, helping customers in all market segments achieve more manageable, scalable and agile data centres in a way that leverages their existing investments in the most efficient way possible.

What�s in name?

blog@solutioncentre.co.uk — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 23:36:54 GMT

Mazu Profiler is now Riverbed Cascade. We know why Mazu is now Riverbed � they bought the company. Who knows why Profiler, which describes a bit of what this wonderful piece of kit does, is now Cascade. No idea what Cascade describes or implies, but that doesn�t stop the product being magnificent. It�s not a network monitor. It�s not a security monitor. It�s not an application performance monitor. It�s not a compliance monitor. It�s not a behavioural analysis monitor. It�s ALL of those things and probably more beside.

It�s a strange beast. When you try and describe it to someone they almost always say �I have something that does that�. I�ve seen things that do bits of what this can do, but nothing like as comprehensive. You probably can recreate much of the functionality by throwing loads of products at it, but you would end up with multiple panes of glass to manage and multiple throats to choke, multiple support contracts and a general nightmare.

With Riverbed Cascade, as we must get used to calling it, you get real end to end visibility into how the entire infrastructure stack is delivering services to the end users, which after all is the whole point of the infrastructure. There is no synthetic traffic to run across the network. No agents or probes to install and maintain. Just a simple installation which can start to give meaningful results within a couple of hours of taking the appliance out of the box.

Simple use examples are:
� For those who were clobbered by Conficker. With this you can see the activity and isolate the affected hosts before it spreads
� Get real response time measurements for every client server conversation, for every application
� Is the problem the network or the server, easily identify root causes for quick resolution
� Active Directory, DNS and DHCP integration means you can easily see who and what is involved
� SNMP integration means you can get location information and identify which switch the user is plugged into
� Easily allows you to prove to an auditor that no unauthorised (non-compliant) activity has happened
� Deep packet inspection means you know exactly what that application is, not just ports and protocols
� How heavily used is your network, great for capacity planning
� Where do the application dependencies lie, does the application really work in the way you think
� How many of your servers are not really doing anything, how much could you save switching those servers off

Integrates with a bunch of other stuff, manage it through your overall management architecture; integrate it with specialist tools, such as SEMS.

The only way to really get your head round the power of this system is to see it in action. Ask about our webinar demonstrations and see what it could do for you!!

Product Link

What use is IT to the rest of the organisation?

blog@solutioncentre.co.uk — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:44:15 GMT

From the businesses point of view, what is the purpose of IT? It is usually to help the rest of the business function by providing information, data, communication, applications, etc. In other words it allows the business to function.

It is therefore important to the business to know how well those services are being provided to the end users.

In many environments this visibility is provided by how frequently the helpdesk phone rings. Some have a range of sophisticated probes and monitors deployed. Deploying probes is always a hassle and is never cheap. Some run synthetic traffic across the network and measure responses; that adds load, is hassle to set up and doesn�t represent the real world.

What is needed is something that:
� Is simple to install, without probes everywhere
� Can see all traffic, all the time
� Can see across the LAN and the WAN
� Can see response times for real data and applications
� Introduces no real load on the system
� Can give a helicopter view across silos
� Facilitates easy deep dives into the nitty gritty to allow proper root cause analysis
� Doesn�t need to be set up and scheduled, like a sniffer, as it�s always everywhere

That is what the Mazu Profiler is like. It is awesomely powerful. It can do so much it is easy to make it sound unbelievable, but it really is.

Mazu Profiler uses Network Behaviour Analysis (NBA) to provide a new way of looking at the infrastructure by analyzing network traffic to provide valuable information about the interactions of and dependencies between users, applications, and systems.

You can set up different dashboards appropriate for different users. So it can be a simple traffic light, or tell you the inside leg measurement of the router in rack 24, or the SQL query being processed by the server when it runs like a dog. Unbelievable? Yes, but real and awesome!

Portlock Software have release SMART Suite.

blog@solutioncentre.co.uk — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:31:13 GMT

It adds a non-installed GUI to headless systems, such as Windows 2008 Core and Hyper-V. It provides a wealth of tools to repair and recover broken Windows servers. It allows access to systems that are no longer bootable from the hard drive. Based on Windows Pre-Installation Environment (WinPE) 2.1 which is built from Windows Server 2008 and is released in 32-bit and 64-bit versions, nearly all storage and networking hardware are supported.
Portlock System Management and Recovery Toolkit (SMART) Suite for Windows is the essential system administrator's toolkit for professionally managing and maintaining enterprise servers and virtual machines. Portlock SMART Suite has three main functions:
1. A GUI for managing Microsoft Hyper-V Server and Windows Server 2008 Core
2. A bootable platform to repair damaged operating systems
3. Tools to perform system tasks on bare-metal systems and virtual machines

Use Portlock SMART Suite for Windows directly from the ISO image, or burn the ISO to a CD and insert into a running Windows system. Manage Portlock SMART Suite for Windows remotely from a running Windows system or from a bare-metal boot, download Windows updates, and administer drivers, services, firewalls and much, much more.

Server Core platforms
Windows Server 2008 core and Hyper-V Server 2008 are minimal server bare-metal installation platforms that are installed without any user interface of their own, providing tighter security. Without a user interface you are forced to use and memorise lengthy scripts from the command line for server role and system configuration. With Portlock SMART Suite for Windows providing you with a user friendly environment that replaces script searching, memorising and implementing, server core platforms are sure to become further accepted and routine.

Recovery Toolset: Components
� Portlock Drive Explorer
� Portlock Device Manager
� Portlock Computer Management
� Portlock Boot Manager
� Remote Connection
� Portlock Drive Map
� Portlock Network Configuration
� Portlock Display Manager
� Command Line
� Web Browser
� Notepad
� Windows Recovery Environment
� Portlock Email Client
� Portlock Language Manager
� Portlock WiFi Manager

This is a cracking product. More details soon, please give us a call if you need more details in the mean time.

Xsigo Updates Director with 20Gbps Connections

blog@solutioncentre.co.uk — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 08:36:59 GMT

Xsigo Systems have an enhanced version of their VP780 I/O Director, called the VP780 x2 I/O Director. The new VP780 x2 offers all the benefits of its predecessor � greater data centre agility, up to 50% less capital cost, and 70% fewer cables � now with a 100% increase in server connectivity speed. The VP780 x2 delivers 20Gbs of bandwidth to each server, making it the world�s fastest converged I/O fabric. The product also offers industry-first features that allow users to quickly monitor and manage their I/O topology with a single view that extends from the virtual machines to the physical switch ports.

The enhanced data centre I/O management capabilities of the VP780 x2 include a single-screen view of virtual machines, virtual switches, and I/O topologies that enables end-to-end visualisation of resources extending from the virtual machine to a physical switch port. Enhanced performance monitoring now includes traffic statistics accessible through third party tools. The faster server connection speed delivers greater throughput and increased VMotion performance for faster deployment of virtual resources.

Also new in the VP780 x2 are enhanced SAN and iSCSI boot capabilities that allow users to boot any server from any Fibre Channel or iSCSI LUN for fast re-purposing of server resources. Customers can now adapt to dynamic workloads, deploy resources on demand, and boost utilisation by rapidly changing both a server�s I/O personality and its application workload, all within the Xsigo virtual I/O environment.

Xsigo consolidates the I/O infrastructure and replaces physical network and storage interfaces (NICs and HBAs) with virtual resources that are remotely manageable from a single console. The Xsigo solution works with today�s existing infrastructure, and incorporates a modular design that is easily adapted to accommodate new networks, servers, and interconnect standards.

Presence Networks Throws Reuters Instant Messaging Users a Free Lifeline

blog@solutioncentre.co.uk — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 08:52:25 GMT

Good news for those affected by the US court�s decision to ban Reuters using some security technology (FaceTime) in their IM service. This seemingly left Reuters with the option of providing no service or a service without the security features. According to a FaceTime press release of July 29, 2008: �Many financial institutions rely on the Reuters Messaging Compliance Manager to ensure compliance with SEC and Sarbanes-Oxley regulations for logging, archiving and retrieval of electronic communications regarding financial transactions.�

Apparently in court Eran Barak, the head of Thomson Reuters' strategy and collaboration services, said �If Thomson Reuters were suddenly unable to make use of the Reuters Messaging compliance product, Thomson Reuters' customers would be crippled in their day-to-day business operations.�� and �There is no practical immediate substitute for the Reuters Messaging compliance product in the event of any disruption. Any development of a suitable replacement (and complete transition of existing customers to the new product) would take several months (and would involve tremendous expenditure of money and labor) for Thomson Reuters to convert to an alternative product �" (Decl.of Eran Barak, pp. 6-7; 1:08-cv-4730-CM Document 19)

Presence Networks is offering any Financial Services organisations not currently able to use Reuters Instant Messaging, or concerned about the security implications or disruption to service, an immediate solution of free transfer and network setup, plus the first 100 seats per company free for 90 days on its secure LiveWorker(TM) Software as a Service IM.

Presence Networks specialise in presence and IM, providing Software as a Service designed to meet security requirements and recording for compliance. They can extend and link individual networks to cover as many people as required both inside and outside corporate firewalls and as all users get their secure managed service with unlimited access from PCs, Blackberrys and Mobiles from around GBP 5.99 ($12.00) a month, we believe they will find it incredible value.

To address the fears many IT Professionals have about the security of Instant Messaging, LiveWorker(TM) is fully encrypted and records all chat and transactions. The service offer incorporates the latest real-time communications technology including encrypted file transfer between users. Secure, recorded Public IM gateways can be switched on at the discretion of the Administrators enabling users to see and communicate with contacts on different systems through a single interface.

Contact us if you want to know more.

Free Secure, Business Class Instant Messaging

blog@solutioncentre.co.uk — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:41:58 GMT

Presence Networks is offering up to 5,000 seats free for a year on its new global LiveWorker� Service to help businesses with limited IT resources start using secure Instant Messaging and online collaboration tools.

They say that British Companies are falling some way behind others in using technology to collaborate online, despite research showing there significant business gains to be made including increasing productivity, cutting costs and extending market reach. Their offer will enable even the smallest company to harness the power of this technology in just a few minutes. They hope to encourage others to join them and jointly create inter-connected, business quality secure live networks with their customers, suppliers and partners. �

To address the fears many IT Professionals have about the security of Instant Messaging, LiveWorker� is fully encrypted and records all chat and transactions. The service offer incorporates the latest real-time communications technology with Chat, Web Meetings and encrypted file transfer between users included in the free package, with SMS on a pay per use basis and low cost teleconferencing charged on phone bill by User�s existing Service Provider.

For companies seeking to enhance security or to build larger communities, Presence Networks provides enhanced services or large-scale deployed system with sophisticated user admin management and security tools, Anti Virus and integration with Active Directory and other voice and data services.
Business Instant Messaging use is predicted to explode over the next 24 months as Companies seek ways to reduce their costs and improve their productivity and gain competitive edge. Some Analysts even claim that IM use will exceed e-mail by 2010 as email is overwhelmed by SPAM.

Companies can sign-up for free seats. The free offer is limited to 10 seats per company for the first 500 to register and on a first come basis*

Request your FREE ONE YEAR*, 10 User trial and start liveworking today, using the "Contact Me" link

Netuitive�s BSM now runs across virtual and physical infrastructures

blog@solutioncentre.co.uk — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:34:42 GMT

Netuitive have a great business service management (BSM) product, which now supports both physical and virtual environments. Its Netuitive Service Analyser product is a self-learning correlation software for managing performance of enterprise applications across mixed physical and virtual environments.

Netuitive Service Analyser has already earned acclaim for providing the only self-learning and continuously adaptive software for automating BSM. With new capabilities, customers can manage the performance of enterprise applications end-to-end, across distributed servers, databases and network systems � that are both physical and virtual.

One of the problems with IT environments is that it ends up being a bunch of silos � storage, servers, network, desktops, etc, usually with different people managing. The push to virtualisation is in danger of creating yet another silo. Mission critical, enterprise applications run across the whole environment, so that end to end performance measurement is fundamental. Being able to get a single pane visibility across both physical and virtual environments is now a necessity.

There are lots of monitoring products on the market, but they tend to look at each variable as an entity, rather that in relation to any other. This becomes even more significant in virtualised environments when the ability to monitor the huge range of variables is well beyond most of us humans. The outcome is that people turn off monitors so they don�t get annoyed by false alarms. The problem with that is you then lose visibility of what is really happening in the environment and without visibility, the system becomes a free-for-all and management largely becomes reactive responses to end user complaints, rather than pro-active management before the event.

Netuitive�s platform is completely self-learning and continuously adaptive, performing sophisticated statistical trends analysis and multi-variable correlation to automatically determine normal system behaviour, measure and forecast deviations from the norm, and interpret symptoms for proper alerting and diagnosis. When the software detects or forecasts behaviour outside that range, Trusted Alarms� are issued�up to 2 hours ahead of the deviation becoming a problem, giving time for pro-active action, rather than scrabbling after the event.

AutoCAD 2007/8 new .dwg file format and WAN optimisation

blog@solutioncentre.co.uk — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 21:46:20 GMT

There has been a lot in the press recently about the problems (particularly) Riverbed has been having with the new AutoCAD file formats for 2007 and 2008 http://esgblogs.typepad.com/brians_blog ... ns-co.html is an example of what�s out there.

The problem manifests itself when you save files, where the new file format means there is negligible acceleration achieved (Riverbed quote 1.3x) and users make references to bricks. Riverbed claim 7.64x improvement with AutoCAD 2004 using the old file format.

Packeteer have been doing some work to look at the performance of their iShared and iShaper WAFS system and say the remote user will see no difference with their system whichever file format they use.

�With Packeteer�s iShaper and iShared solution the transition from earlier versions of AutoCAD to AutoCAD 2008 was seamless and trouble-free,� said Vaughn Silar, president & CEO of Paragon Engineering Services, Inc. �In optimizing our AutoCAD 2008 files across the WAN between multiple offices, Packeteer was able to deliver the same high performance application visibility, acceleration and intelligent service assurance for which we have come to depend on them.�

In tests using 80ms round trip latency over T1 lines, Packeteer found that an 8MB AutoCAD 2008 file took 140 seconds to save across the native WAN while that same file took only seven seconds to save with the iShaper solution, a performance improvement of 20x. Packeteer�s iShaper solution performance was also not affected by ISP (Increment Save Percentage) changes that Autodesk 2008 utilises to optimise the size of the AutoCAD files upon file saves and which negatively impact the performance of other WAN Optimisation solutions.

These results can be attributed to Packeteer�s CIFS acceleration which employs a superior WAFS architecture that ensures local file server-like performance and is future-proofed against any protocol or file format changes for CIFS applications. With a combination of streaming, file object caching and byte data reduction technologies, the WAFS technology built into Packeteer�s iShared and iShaper solutions always deliver the fastest user response times on file opens and saves.

By way of confirmation of the performance of the Packeteer solution, in an April 3, 2008 review by InfoWorld Magazine�s Test Center, reviewer Keith Schultz said, �Packeteer�s iShaper is at its best optimizing CIFS traffic and shaping traffic on the WAN. Its overall optimization and acceleration is right there with the best of them; its CIFS performance is the best I�ve tested. Reporting too is top notch, and the single point of administration makes it easy to manage the appliance.�

InMage 4.1 Released

blog@solutioncentre.co.uk — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 09:51:42 GMT

InMage have released the latest version of their DR-Scout, business protection software, which provides CDP (Continuous Data Protection), replication and automated application failover.

A host of new features and configuration options are included in the new release, with application support now including:

BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES)
Oracle
SAP
SharePoint
Exchange
SQL
Virtual Servers

VMware
Virtual Server
Oracle VM

...Read more - Product Information