Virtualization in Higher Education
Colleges and universities are adopting virtualization to improve data center efficiency, consolidate servers, save money, and reduce energy consumption. Here you'll find articles showcasing institutions that are moving to virtualized computing environments, along with news stories covering the latest technology developments.
The University of Southern California (USC) Marshall School of Business has purchased Xiotech's Emprise 7000 storage area network (SAN) to increase network performance and improve storage management in a virtualized IT environment as the school transitions to a virtual server infrastructure.
Q1 Labs has announced VFlow Collector for QRadar, a network and application layer activity monitor designed to IT professionals oversee and secure virtual environments.
Mississippi State University has implemented Reflex VMC (Virtual Management Center) from Reflex Systems. The application allows IT administrators to monitor a virtual infrastructure and enforce business and IT policies.
VMware rolled out the centerpiece of its virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) strategy this week with the release of VMware View 3.
VMware has released an update to Fusion, its desktop virtualization solution for Mac OS X. The latest release, version 2.0.1, which began shipping Friday, includes a number of resolved issues, performance enhancements, and other improvements, as well as compatibility updates for the latest Apple MacBook and MacBook Pro systems.
Parallels has released Parallels Desktop 4.0, an update to the company's desktop virtualization solution for Mac OS X. The new version adds more than 50 new features, including support for DirectX 9.0 and significant performance improvements.
An IDC study released Thursday depicted a slowing worldwide market for virtualized servers. However, Microsoft and interoperability may heat things up again in 2009.
Citrix took another step forward in its quest to push the envelope for virtualization interoperability by releasing a technology preview of Project Kensho, the company's multi-hypervisor toolkit that allows ISVs and IT managers to develop portable virtual machine (VM) appliances.
Migration to virtualization won't be the quick transition that some technology evangelists have predicted, according to recent surveys by two IT security companies. Nor is virtualization as secure as many might want it to be.
In an announcement at VMworld last week, VMware unveiled plans to deliver a portfolio of solutions intended to turn virtualized desktops into "universal clients." The initiative, dubbed vClient, begins with a series of products called VMware View.