Server and Tools Business News Bytes blog : SCVMM

Virtualization Saves Microsoft Customers Nearly a Half-Million Dollars Per Year

mdingle — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 17:00:00 GMT

Microsoft today announced that some business customers around the world have saved on average $470,000 (U.S.) per year through IT projects using Microsoft virtualization software. Microsoft’s business customers have been able to use virtualization to help reduce operations and capital expenses via reduced electrical power consumption and cooling within datacenters, reduced hardware acquisition costs, automation of desktop and server management, and centralized application deployment.

For the full press release, please visit: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/feb09/02-09VirtualizationSavingsPR.mspx

To read a guest post from David Straede, president Santa Barbara Web Hosting, please visit the Virtualization blog.

Watch this video to see why the economic crunch is leading many businesses to choose Microsoft’s virtualization solution over the competition.

Cost Savings with Microsoft Virtualization

It All Comes Together: System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 RTMs

grantkd — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 19:00:00 GMT

Microsoft’s virtualization solutions span the desktop to the data center including the management tools required to ensure that virtualization remains an asset and doesn’t become an unwieldy burden. On the server Microsoft has Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and also Hyper-V Server, our standalone hypervisor, recently released in September. On the desktop Microsoft has application, desktop and presentation solutions enabling customers to choose the level of desktop virtualization. Last, but certainly not least, is the System Center suite of management tools, which provide not only the tools for managing traditional physical IT infrastructure and apps but also virtualized environments.

Today’s announcement of the RTM of System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 extends the management benefits of System Center even further by enabling not only the management of Microsoft virtualized environments, but also VMware ESX as well. Virtual Machine Manager 2008, which is available today for evaluation, will be available for purchase as of November 1. Through the VMM 2008 console, administrators can see the entirety of their data center infrastructure – physical or virtual. SCVMM 2008 facilitates key functions like P2V (physical to virtual) migration, Intelligent Placement (selecting the best virtual host for a VM), and managing Hyper-V host clusters, to name just a few.

Customers and partners are already buzzing about VMM 2008. Read how Indiana University is implementing Microsoft’s virtualization solutions on the Windows Virtualization Blog. In addition, Fujitsu and Hitachi announced last week that they intend to make bundles of their hardware and VMM 2008 available in the coming months.

For more on today’s news, please visit the Windows Virtualization Team blog.

Other resources:

Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit

System Center Blog

VM Management Blog

Videos:

· http://edge.technet.com/Media/Desktop-Virtualization-and-Configuration-Manager/

· http://edge.technet.com/Media/Microsofts-Investments-in-Virtualization-and-Cross-Platform-Management/.

Get Virtual Now

grantkd — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 19:15:00 GMT

Today at 9 AM PDT, Bob Kelly will take the stage at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, officially kicking off Microsoft’s five-month long worldwide event series to “‘Get Virtual Now.”

Product milestones will be announced through two live webcast keynotes, available for viewing at the Microsoft Virtual Press Room.

· Bob Kelly- 9:00-10:00 AM PDT

· Bob Muglia and Kevin Turner- 12:30-2:00 PM PDT

News at today’s event:

· Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 will be released within 30 days and be available at no cost via the Web.

· System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 will be released within 30 days.

· Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5, released last week, will be included as part of Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack 2008 R2, which is due for general availability in the coming weeks.

· Microsoft demonstrated for the first time a live migration feature of Windows Server 2008 R2.

Partner News:

In separate news releases today, visit the Microsoft Virtual Press Room to learn about announcements from the following partners.

· AMD

· Compellent Technologies, Inc.

· HP

· NetApp

· Sun Microsystems

For more information, please visit the Windows Virtualization Team Blog.

System Center Configuration Manager, Virtual Machine Manager, and Data Protection Manager General Availability

Brittany M. — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 08:30:00 GMT

Today, Microsoft announced the General Availability of three Microsoft System Center products: Configuration Manager 2007, Virtual Machine Manager 2007 and Data Protection Manager 2007, expanding Microsoft’s management offerings which also include System Center Operations Manager 2007 released earlier this year. The announcement was made at IT Forum in Barcelona today and can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/nov07/11-12DesktopDataCenterPR.mspx.

Microsoft is also announcing the launch of the System Center Alliance Program which gives partners the opportunity to engage closely with Microsoft in an online community where they can easily collaborate and enhance service delivery for customers. The System Center Alliance Program can be found at: www.systemcenterpartners.com

For more information, a video interview with Brad Anderson, General Manager, Management & Solutions Divisions, can be found here: http://www.virtualteched.com/Videos/BradAnderson.asx

SCVMM 2007 Workgroup Edition Available Jan 08

grantkd — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 13:50:00 GMT

Microsoft is announcing the System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007 Workgroup edition, which will be available in January 2008. This edition is aimed at mid-market customers and allows them to manage up to five physical host servers and an unlimited number of virtual machines. The System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007 Workgroup will be priced at $499.

For more information on Virtual Machine Manger and other Microsoft virtualization products please visit these sites www.microsoft.com/scvmm and http://www.microsoft.com/virtualization.

New Licensing for System Center Products

grantkd — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 13:37:00 GMT

Microsoft is introducing new licensing for System Center products. The System Center Server Management Suite Enterprise is a comprehensive management solution designed to let enterprise customers effectively manage server and application workloads across physical and virtual environments. Server Management Suite Enterprise is priced at $860 plus two years of SA, and will allow management of unlimited operating system environments (physical and virtual) per physical device. Available starting Oct. 1, System Center Server Management Suite Enterprise includes four key products to help customers manage their IT environment:

Virtual Machine Manager 2007 license
Enterprise server management licenses for System Center Configuration Manager 2007, System Center Operations Manager 2007 and System Center Data Protection Manager 2007.

System Center Server Management Suite Enterprise delivers up to a 30% licensing cost savings over the stand alone component parts, which contributes to lower cost of acquisition for Windows servers and applications. It’s a progressive systems management licensing for today’s virtual and physical IT environments.

Next Version of SCVMM to Support Virtualization Hypervisor

grantkd — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 13:30:00 GMT

Microsoft is also announcing that the next version of SCVMM will support the virtualization hypervisor available as part of Windows Server 2008 (codename “Viridian”), as well as select third-party virtualization software, including VMware and Xen. Customers use Microsoft’s System Center management tools to manage their Windows-based server and desktop environments, both physical and virtual. Customers also turn to Microsoft to manage cross platform. With the next version of SCVMM, customers will be able to manage, configure and optimize virtualized systems running VMware VI3 and Xen. Microsoft will update customers about these plans at the beta 1 milestone, which is scheduled for Q1 2008.

RTM of System Center Virtual Machine Manager

grantkd — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 13:25:00 GMT

Microsoft is announcing the RTM of System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007, now publicly available at www.microsoft.com/scvmm, with general availability in October. System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007 (SCVMM) is a standalone server application used to manage a virtualized datacenter running Microsoft Virtual Server2005 R2. With SCVMM, customers can assess and consolidate suitable server workloads onto virtual machines, freeing up physical resources for repurposing or hardware retirement. SCVMM is tightly integrated in the System Center family of products which together provide comprehensive management of physical and virtual environments.

SCVMM delivers the following key features:

Rapid and centralized virtual machine deployment and management
End-to-end support for consolidating physical servers onto a virtual infrastructure
Fast and reliable physical-to-virtual-machine conversion (P2V) and virtual-to-virtual (V2V) conversion of VMware virtual machines to Microsoft’s VHD format
Intelligent Placement of virtual workloads on the best suited physical host servers
A complete library to centrally manage all the building blocks of the virtual data center