Windows Home Server 2011 Officially Released

Microsoft has officially released its new Windows Home Server 2011. Windows Home Server 2011, with this release to manufacturing, is now expected to reach subscribers of MSDN and TechNet in early April at which point they can download the software through their subscriptions. This latest version of Windows Home Server should start to show its face on computers in May according to Microsoft. Microsoft also noted that manufacturers have already been working with the new home operating system. The official version of Windows Home Server 2011, which has been code-named Vail, comes to techies nearly one year after the beta was released and almost two months since the release candidate made its debut. Windows Home Server 2011 uses the same core operating system as Windows Server 2008 R2 but the new version is designed for people who need to balance multiple PCs, home networks and growing amounts of photos, music, videos and other heavy content. Running Windows Home Server on a dedicated PC allows users to set up network shares in order to access all of their data, back up their networked PCs, remotely access their files and stream their music and as well as their videos. The software offers a central dashboard in order for customers to run the various administrative tasks they will be doing. The previous version of Windows Home Server offered a feature known as Drive Extender which received much praise from users. The feature allowed people to extend multiple disk drives into a single large volume as they added new storage. However, Microsoft has claimed that the drive extender technology "was not meeting our customer needs," so they cut it from Windows Home Server 2011. However, Microsoft did add a feature called the Move Folder Wizard in order to move content between different drives. However, the loss of Drive Extender may turn away many potential users of Windows Home Server 2011. Microsoft has also lost one of their key Windows Home Server hardware partners. Late last year Hewlett-Packard, who was known for their robust Media Smart Windows Home Server servers, announced that they would no longer make computers for the Home Server operating system. The loss of HP only leaves a few key manufacturers, like Acer, who will be building dedicated boxes for Windows Home Server 2011. Windows Home Server 2011 will be released in 19 languages, according to Microsoft, including English, French, Chinese, Russian and Korean. Source: cnet - Microsoft releases Windows Home Server 2011

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Facebook Combines Microserver Technology with Server Virtualization

Here's something interesting for you. Facebook is using a hybrid server virtualization as well as Intel's microserver technology in order to make the continued expansion of the social networking god more cost effective.

According to the Research Lab Director of Facebook Gio Coglitore, "The firm has already been trailing in new microserver technology and is interested in leveraging the benefits of the solution in its substantial data centers."

One of the keys to the popularity of the single-processor server hardware is the fact that it can be packed more densely which offers more processing power per square inch than traditional server solutions.

"We found in our testing that a realized environment brings efficiencies and the ability to scale more effectively," Coglitore said. "If virtualization was the right approach, we would be a virtualized environment."

Coglitore concluded that virtualization was, indeed, an excellent solution but can become very difficult to manage at a very large scale. Intel introduced their microserver technology back in 2009 where it received high praise from fans and users. The technology has also landed some big clients since then including Dell, Seamicro and Tyan.

Source: onestopclick - Facebook mixes server virtualization with microserver technologies

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Latest Version of Oracle GlassFish Server Launched

Oracle has officially launched a new version of Oracle GlassFish Server as well as an update to the Java Platform Enterprise Edition (Java EE) 6 software development kit (SDK)distribution through the latest release of the Java EE 6 Reference Implementation.

Oracle GlassFish Server is based on the company's open source counterpart, GlassFish Server Open Source Edition, which allows customers to have more control over their product deployments via the publicly available roadmap of product features and priorities.

Oracle stated that Oracle GlassFish Server 3.1 delivers on the roadmap laid out at JavaOne 2010 with a focus on new highly availability features specifically in load balancing, failover, state management and centralized administration. Key features of Oracle GlassFish Server 3.1 include: new features for OSGi Enterprise like support for JDBC and HTTP Service; faster startup/deploy/re-deploy cycle; sophisticated tools integration with NetBeans and Eclipse and increased compatibility with Oracle WebLogic Server 11g.

This new release also features failover as well as load balancing capabilities and even built-in HTTP and Enterprise Java Bean (EJB) state management. High availability messaging with GlassFish MQ is also available. According to Oracle, the new offering's centralized administration enables customers to monitor, and even manage, clusters and standalone servers securely from a single web-based console. This will help decrease operational costs as well as enabling users to respond to change quickly. It even allows centralized policy-driven management of GlassFish Metro Web Services from Oracle Web Services Manager.

Source: CBR - Oracle launches latest version of Orcale GlassFish Server

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Zimbra Updated by VMware

After being in development for over a year, Zimbra 7 is finally being released. VMware acquired Zimbra, an open source collaboration vendor, a little over a year ago from Yahoo, and the Zimbra 7 release is the first thing to come out of the company under the ownership of VMware. Zimbra 7 includes features that expand the usability and scalability of the platform even further than before.

According to Senior Director of Zimbra Products and Marketing at VMware John Robb, "The VMware Zimbra team worked closely with both Zimbra and VMware customers over the last year to prioritize the Zimbra 7 release. VMware is very supportive of open source, community based development, and Zimbra 7 demonstrates our commitment."

Zimbra 7 is the first release from the company since Zimbra 6 was released in September of 2009. Zimbra 6 was the final major release under Yahoo, who acquired Zimbra in September of 2007 for $350 million.

Zimbra 7 includes a lot of good stuff including improved file sharing capabilities that allow users to store and share files in the cloud via the Zimbra briefcase. If you are an administrator, this release includes enhanced delegation capabilities to control permissions and access. There are also new policies for load balancing as well as automatic recovery of Zimbra servers.

VMware virtualization-related enhancements are also included in Zimbra 7. "VMware Zimbra 7 includes support for VMware vSphere HA as well as support for NetApp NFS," according to Robb. "Additionally, the Zimbra Appliance leverages VMware Studio." Robb also added that Zimbra is an important product family at VMware and is part of the VMware End-User Computing Business Unit. "VMware Zimbra is completely integrated into VMware and it is available for all VMware partners to sell," said Robb.

As a part of the Zimbra 7 update, the desktop client is also being updated. Zimbra Desktop was released in 2007 as a way of bringing web-based email to the desktop. Zimbra Desktop was originally built with help from Mozilla Prism technology. Prism, as you know, was a project by Mozilla that targeted enabling web applications to run on your desktop. Mozilla has since moved the Prism project into their new effort called Chromeless.

According to Robb, "We are looking at all options for Zimbra Desktop and we are working closely with the Mozilla team, a Zimbra customer." Robb also noted that the future of Zimbra at VMware is definitely bright. According to Robb, VMware is looking at the future of end-user computing. It is a future where end-users access their data as well as their applications through a workspace that is available as part of their new mobile enterprise.

"VMware wants to provide IT with the ability to securely manage and deploy these workspaces. Zimbra is a key component of delivering on the future of end-user computing because it provides VMware a platform for delivering personal and end-user data and information," according to Robb.

Source - Server Watch - VMware Updates Zimbra

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Dell and Ubuntu Team Up for Linux Cloud Computing Technology

Canonical, one of the vendors of Ubuntu Linux, is expanding their cloud horizons thanks to a new cloud partnership they have formed with Dell. The partnership consists of Dell making the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC) technology available on the Dell PowerEdge C2100 server as well as the Dell PowerEdge C6100 server. The UEC deal marks a huge milestone for Ubuntu as it moves from Dell desktops to Dell servers.

According to Nicolas Barcet, Ubuntu Server Product Manager, "It is the first offer that involves Ubuntu Server Edition at Dell so it's a major step extending the strong relationship we have had on Ubuntu Desktop and Netbook editions."

UEC has been a part of the Ubuntu Linux distro since Januty Jackalope was released in April 2009. Other releases by Ubuntu have improved the technology that is based on the open source Eucalyptus project. Ubuntu stated back in April 2010 that it had 12,000 active deployments of UEC with as many as 200 being added each day. This deal with Dell also involves a fair amount of money but an exact amount is unclear.

"Dell receives a share of the UEC Assist contracts it sells; details are not public. Dell does the entire sell, which includes the reselling of UEC Assist contracts," said Barcet.

There were some questions raised as to why Dell has decided to make UEC available now, and Barcet noted that Canonical and Dell have been working on making a simple yet stable deployment methodology. This methodology is reflected in both reference architecture documents as well as a set of pre-configuration files.

Barcet noted that UEC is not certified or integrated with other hardware from major system vendors other than Dell as of right now. UEC offers Ubuntu the ability to enable their infrastructure to run as either a private cloud deployment or a public cloud deployment. While the price utility of cloud computing has made it a good business investment for some companies, there are still challenges that need to be tackled.

According to Barcet, "Novelty of infrastructure as a service is the strongest barrier. We believe that seeing trusted partners join forces to provide an end-to-end solution will help establish the solution."

Source: Server Watch

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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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