VMware-related Improvements

VMware Inc. made a number of software announcements – VMware Site Recovery Manager, VMware Stage Manager, VMware IT Services Bundle, and VMware Management and Automation Bundle. In other news Asigra Inc unveiled Televaulting 8.0, a new release of its agentless information recovery management software.

Focal Points:

• VMware unveiled VMware Site Recovery Manager, a product for disaster recovery management and automation, which will be generally available within 30 days. The package provides integrated management and non-disruptive testing of disaster recovery plans along with automated failover and recovery. The software works seamlessly with VMware Infrastructure, VMware VirtualCenter, and replication software from storage partners. VMware Stage Manager automates the process of transitioning application environments in the virtual datacenter through the stages of the release process – from integration to testing to staging and to user acceptance – before being released into production. Instead of having to keep track of multiple instances of configurations throughout these stages, IT managers using VMware Stage Manager can automate the application release process so changes and updates are automatically managed and controlled, officials asserted.
• VMware announced two new bundles of its suite of management and automation products for the datacenter. The VMware Management and Automation Bundle provides a single package for addressing both IT Service Delivery and Business Continuity. It includes VMware Lifecycle Manager, VMware Lab Manager, VMware Stage Manager, plus the disaster recovery product VMware Site Recovery Manager. The bundle is priced at $3,995 per two processors. Officials stated the VMware IT Service Delivery Bundle includes all the products needed to automate the entire lifecycle of IT services, from initial request to retirement – VMware Lifecycle Manager and either VMware Lab Manager or VMware Stage Manager. The IT Service Delivery Bundle is priced at $2,995 per two processors.
• Asigra released Televaulting 8.0, which includes agentless backup and recovery of VMware ESXi and other virtual server platforms, enhanced enterprise application support, intelligent archiving, multi-directional data center replication, and on-demand scalability. The software supports any-to-any restore capability, bare metal recovery, policy-based backup lifecycle management, long-term de-duplicated data retention, and one-to-one, many-to-one or many-to-many replication. Amongst the applications supported are Novell Inc.'s GroupWise, Microsoft Corp.'s Exchange, SharePoint and SQL, IBM Corp.'s DB2 and Lotus Notes, Oracle Corp.'s database, and SAP AG's NetWeaver.

Experton Group believes software solutions that provide major enhancements to the automation of VMware virtualization processes and operational productivity will enable IT executives to rely more on VMware as a consolidation platform. Issues with configuration, disaster recovery and life cycle management impaired the ability of companies to manage their virtualized systems effectively. These new packages will enable IT to better leverage their virtual environments and to expand VMware rollouts. IT executives should evaluate and implement software packages such as these that enable IT operations to perform more effectively during regular and irregular operations and throughout the production life cycle.