Zero Client Virtual Desktop Gets Updated by Pano Logic

Pano Logic, a leader in the world of virtual desktop vendors, is updating its zero client hardware and desktop virtualization software with a new release. The Pano System 4.0 update gives users improved hardware which enhances USB device support and adds Xen hypervisor support. Pano Logic technology has been in the market since 2007 touting itself as an alternative approach to thin client or traditional desktop deployments.

According to Pano Logic co-founder Aly Orady, "Effectively the way we accomplish our zero client is by stretching the system bus across the network." Orady went on to explain that in a normal desktopPC there is a system bus which is connected to I/O ports used for keyboards, displays and USB devices. Pano Logic has taken everything that normally represents the PC and transfered it to the data center as a virtual machine. Orady also stressed that the Pano Logic device is not a typical thin client machine.

"A thin client is basically a stripped down PC with memory, processor and an operating system and is running on some kind of software," Orady noted. "What we did is we built our system from the ground up with a device that is extremely secure and has no management burden or software on it."

Orady added that zero client doesn't have a traditional PC processor in it. All the drivers for operating the device are on a virtual machine that runs in the data center. Even though the zero client does not have a CPU, it does have some silicon in it. Orady added, "What is in the Pano device is a chip that we designed and in that chip is the data path for moving data off the system bus and onto the network. We have a little bit of hard coded logic in there that is just intelligent enough to get an IP address using DHCP."

The chip isn't actually a chip but a field-programmable gate array FPGA. The system also has onboard memory. Orady explained that the system has a DRAM chip for local frame buffer storage though most of the RAM is allocated dynamically on the back end virtual machine server. The management piece of the virtual desktop solution is called the Pano Manager. This talks to all the Pano devices and pumps out login screens, authenticates and associates desktops with users.

Prior to the release of the Pano System 4.0 only VMware and Microsoft's Hyper-V were supported by the Pano Manager. Now the Pano Manager supports Citrix XenDesktop, the latest addition to the group. The Pano System 4.0 also includes new hardware that has DVI ports in addition to the VGA output that was supported in earlier versions of the device. An additional monitor is now supported, and the system also includes support for isochronus USB devices. These types of devices include webcams, headsets and other devices that require real-time requirements for data transfer.

According to Orady, "We'll continue to expand the set of use cases for which the solution is applicable. So you'll see software updates from us over the next 12 months that will include things like better performance and management which will allow folks to run the device in more types of scenarios and run more rigorous types of applications."

Source: Server Watch

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New Data Center from Microsoft in Washington

Very soon, Microsoft will be unleashing a state-of-the-art data center in Washington after receiving a tax cut from local politicos. Microsoft has promised to open up what it is calling "one of the most innovative new data centers" in Quincy, Washington in the early part of this year. There aren't a whole lot of details, but it is said that the center is expected to host services like Microsoft's Azure cloud.

This new data center is based almost entirely on pre-assembled computing models that are designed to give you a greater scale as well as greater flexibility. The center also uses server cooling techniques that were developed at the Dublin and Chicago data centers of Microsoft in order to help cut running costs. The data center will open up next to Microsoft's existing 500,000-square-foot data center facility in Quincy, which was opened back in 2007.

General Manager of Microsoft's Data Center Services Kevin Timmons wrote in a blog post that the expansion takes new ideas that were forged in Dublin and Chicago one step further, using modular building blocks for electrical, mechanical, server and security subsystems. At Microsoft's other data centers the modules were capable of scaling from 400 to 2,000 servers.

According to Timmons, "Our modular design enables us to build a facility in significantly less time while reducing capital costs by an average of 50% to 60% over the lifetime of the project."

This new design means that the Quincy extension will be housed in a steel and aluminum structure instead of the concrete building that is the existing Quincy center. A report from Data Center Knowledge back in May said that the building will completely lack side walls. This news comes following an eight month experiment where Microsoft ran five HP servers in an outside tent with absolutely no failures.

"The Structure," according to Timmons, "is virtually transparent to ambient outdoor conditions, allowing us to essentially place our servers and storage outside in the cool air while still protecting it from the elements. The interior layout is specifically designed to allow us to further innovate in the ways that we deploy equipment in future phases of the project."

This is all very exciting stuff, but it almost didn't happen. Back in 2009, Microsoft released news that they were closing the existing Quincy data center and moving operations to San Antonio, Texas. This news came as a Washington tax exemption that favored data center providers was set to expire. However, local politicians responded with a 15-month sales tax exemption on the purchase and installation of computers and energy for new data centers in 32 rural counties in the state of Washington, the place where Microsoft has called home for 32 years.

This tax break was backed by the political pressure group Washington Needs Jobs who has members including Microsoft, Yahoo and VMware as well as the Washington Technology Industry Association and the town of Quincy. It was also said that, along with Microsoft, Yahoo and VMware are also planning on producing data centers in Washington.

Source: The Register

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VMware to Bring Virtualization to Your Smartphone?

Virtualization first struck on the workstation, then came server virtualization, and then virtual desktops. By now, virtualization is seen as ubiquitous in data centers and is also fairly well understood. However, it is not widely used on the desktop. But it seems that virtualization doesn't want to stop there because VMware, last week, announced that it had partnered with LG to enable virtualization on its Android phones which would make smartphones owned by employees palatable to companies conscious about security.

Where the consumer market is concerned, LG's presence is strong and continuously growing. However, the company is overshadowed by BlackBerry in the enterprise market. That is why LG is working with VMware to integrate its end-user computing technologies into the company's smartphones. According to VMware, this will "enable users to adopt the mobile device of their choice, while allowing corporate IT departments to manage sensitive data on those devices with enterprise-level security and compliance."

The first application of this technology is supposed to be available on smartphones in 2011. Unfortunately, there has yet to be any exact release date or pricing mentioned. This virtualization will, however, enable LG smartphones to run two operating systems like Android and BlackBerry, for example. It will also allow them to run one account in isolation from another. What this basically means is that a user can securely run a network account separate from his account on the same mobile device.

This is a great tool for companies who want their IT techs to have the ability to have access to everything they need whenever they need it. Look for a lot of companies implementing this into their IT departments when it releases in 2011.

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Oracle's New SPARC Supercluster

When the Sun SPARC microprocessor first came out, many people thought that it would be a dead end. Well, Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, is on a mission to prove all of those naysayers wrong.

Oracle announced a plethora of new servers powered by SPARC as well as an outline for future development of SPARC. Among the new servers there is an SPARC based Exalogic Elastic Cloud and the newly unveiled SPARC Supercluster. It seems that the new SPARC servers are being optimized for the upcoming Solaris 11 Unix os as Sun's hardware and software portfolios undergo an update from Oracle.

According to Ellison, "For all our competitors that have been enjoying their Sun down and Sun set programs, this is the end of that. The Sunrise program is all about SPARC and Solaris, those two foundation technologies are going to lead the industry into the next generation of engineered systems."

One of the new SPARC systems announced by Oracle is the Exalogic Elastic Cloud server which is powered by SPARC. Back in September, Oracle debuted an x86 based Exalogic server at OpenWorld. The Exalogic server is a middleware enhanced cloud-in-a-box solution that is specifically designed for Java applications. On the flipside, the SPARC version is powered by a 16 core T3-1B SPARC processor.


Oracle is also making a general purpose computing platform with the new SPARC Supercluster while Exalogic is focused on Java middleware performance. "The Supercluster is a general purpose server that will run your middleware, your customer apps and your database extremely well," Ellison said. "It runs your database faster than anyone has run any database before."

Aside from talking about the new SPARC T3 processors in the Exalogic and Supercluster platforms, Ellison also talked about the benefits of InfiniBand, which is used in both systems in order to approve overall performance. InfiniBand is typically seen in high performance computing systems and offers lower latency than your traditional Ethernet configurations.

According to Ellison, "We think InfiniBand is dramatically better for linking servers to other servers and servers to storage than Ethernet. We certainly have Ethernet connectivity to these boxes, but when these servers are talking amongst themselves and talking to storage, they're going through a high performance, reliable and guaranteed delivery network called InfiniBand."

Oracle is continuing to move ahead on SPARC performance beyond the current generation of T3 processors. According to Ellison, "The T4 is alive in the lab delivering a lot better single-threaded performance than the T3. In T3 we focused on adding more cores, and in the T4 we're trying to make our single thread performance better and it looks very good right now."

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5 Awesome and Free Server Tools

Servers are one of the most important things for any company, but what is more important is making sure that your server is running as it should. In order to do so, however, you need two things: a good IT tech and the right tools. A good IT Tech isn't really hard to come by, especially in today's business field where it seems like everybody and their mother are going to school to learn about computers. Tools, on the other hand, are a different story. While the tools themselves may not be hard to come by, knowing which ones to get can be.

There are many different types of tools you can download off of the internet in order to help with your server management. Some are good, some are bad, but the best ones may even be free. Take a look at some great server tools your company needs that are completely and utterly free.

Nagios
Nagios is an enterprise infrastructure monitoring suite. Besides being free, Nagios is also mature and commercially supported all around. The tool has grown from being a simple software project to a major contender in the contemporary network management field. Companies like Domino's Pizza, Ericsson, ADP, Wells Fargo, Citrix and even the United States Army are all avid users of Nagios.

Apache
If you think the Apache project is just simply a web server, then you are wrong. The project, which goes by the formal name of the Apache Software Foundation (ASF), consists of nearly 100 unique projects which are contained under Apache.

PSTools
If you want a suite of very useful command-line Windows tools which are considered essential to survival in a Windows-infested network by IT professionals, then PSTools is the tool for you. PSTools provides incredible automation tools, not to mention that it is considered to be the single best free toolset for Windows available. You can grab this handy tool for free directly from Windows.

Wireshark
Wireshark is a must have tool for anybody who runs a network, regardless of size. Wireshark is a network packet capture and analysis program that is here to assist you in achieving a trouble-free network. Network problems will not be prevented by Wireshark, but the tool will allow you to analyze your problems in real time and, hopefully, avoid future problems.

SharEnum
Most people will consider SharEnum a little obscure, but for those who use it the tool is very useful. SharEnum shows you all the file shares on your network as well as their associated security information. This tool is a very valuable security tool and is also free from Microsoft.

So there you have it, five incredibly useful and incredibly affordable (come on, they're free) tools that every person should have for their servers. IT professionals from all over use these tools and ones like them every day in order to keep their servers working as well as possible, so why shouldn't you? If you are in need of some good server tools, then start downloading these five freebies now!

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IBM Cancels Irish Server Works

In a recent report from the Irish Times, it appears that IBM is cutting off what is left of the server manufacturing jobs at the company's Emerald Isle factory. The reason for the loss is said to be due to the fact that IBM is shifting its server-making to factories the company owns in Shenzhen, China.

With this cutback IBM has lowered its overall workforce in Ireland to around 4,000 employees. This number does include the 190 jobs that IBM just cut as well as 200 employees that the company recently added back in March for a Smarter Planet research center and an additional 100 added to the company's software labs around the country.

IBM released in a statement not too long ago that they were moving their high-end server manufacturing for the Asia/Pacific and EMEA regions to factories in Singapore. IBM did note that they were keeping a "foot in the door" in the European Union by keeping entry and mid-range server manufacturing in the factory IBM has in Mulhuddart, which lies just outside of Dublin.

IBM has also shut down and outsourced all of their x64 server plants located in Scotland aside from very high-end System z and BladeCenter platforms. The Power Unix manufacturing that IBM had in Austin, Texas was also recently moved to Rochester, Minnesota.

Due to this recent cut in jobs, Ireland will be out of the IBM server manufacturing business completely. This also raises questions as to when IMB's mid-range Power Systems will be shifted to China as well. IBM said that they will try to find jobs for as many of the 190 employees as possible. IBM said that all of the 190 employees will receive five weeks of severance pay for every year they served with the company.

According to IBM, "This change will place us closer to our growth markets and suppliers while providing greater operational efficiency and cost savings." The shipping costs to get Power and z10 processors to China or Singapore are fairly small. However, the expensive shipping costs it takes to transport finished Power Systems and mainframe servers to European and African customers is definitely offset by the lowered labor costs of China and Singapore.

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