Thinapp 5.01 available next week

May 9, 2014

Next week Thinapp 5.01 will be available for download. Until now there is no changelog – 6 hotfixes and …….?

A really major step forward in delivering Thinapp packages

January 28, 2014

A solution many Thinapp customers have been waiting for. Thinapp packages can now be delivered as VMDK´s from Cloudvolumes.

1. User and group based entitlement of ThinApp packages
2. Drastically improve performance and responsiveness of ThinApp packages
3. Eliminate network congestion caused by streaming
4. Usage tracking, audit, and compliance of ThinApp packages
5. Supports virtual desktops and RDSH/XenApp

Blog Entry at VMware Blogs by Aaron Black, End-User Computing Product Manager, VMware

I’d like to introduce a capability from our partner CloudVolumes, which allows ThinApp packages to be delivered as VMDKs.  This is an exciting form factor because of the added performance and flexibility that any customer with ThinApp packages and a vSphere datastore can start utilizing today.  There are a number of benefits with this approach which complement the isolation and cross-platform compatibility that application virtualization provides.  Let’s highlight a few of them below:

  • Customers can now present ThinApp packages as dynamically attached volumes on storage instead of moving bits around the data center via the network (so ’90s . . .).  This removes the network variable, which is often the limiting factor for scalability and performance for deploying ThinApp packages in streaming mode.
  • Entitlement to AD users and groups and ThinApp registration become immediate turnkey processes, driven through a centralized GUI, without any need for login scripts or for users to log in and log out for changes to take effect.
  • ThinApp packages retain their read-only property and can be mounted either in a shared fashion to multiple virtual machines or attached to virtual machines individually (on local storage as well).  The ThinApp sandbox can also be made portable by utilizing writable CloudVolumes to fully enable the needs of the nonpersistent desktop.
  • This is not a VDI-only solution!  ThinApp is used heavily on the RDSH platform for very dense application delivery environments, and the combination of CloudVolumes and ThinApp delivers a truly remarkable solution without trade-offs.  Having administered my fair share of RDSH boxes, I really appreciate this angle!

This is an elegant solution that empowers IT to provide scalable growth, significant storage savings, and simpler application management, while end users benefit from the accelerated performance.  So we worked with the CloudVolumes team to put together a framework for understanding the benefits and some test data that really shows the solution off.  Please take a read HERE!

Not a reader?  I understand :-). Check out the video at either YouTube or Vimeo, or scope out the diagram below for a conceptual view.

Screen-shot-2014-01-27-at-7.30.33-PM

More technical informations and test results about Cloudvolumes Thinapp Edition  will follow shortly. If you can´t wait, try it out

VMware vSphere Virtual SAN VSAN

October 13, 2013

Guest Blogpost by Chas Setchell…

One of the exciting announcements at VMworld 2013 was VMware vSphere Virtual SAN VSAN

I am excited about Virtual SAN VSAN  for a few reasons:

1. BYOCI Build your own Converged  Infrastructure with Server vendor of  your choice.

2. The ability to lower the cost of deployments of Virtual Data Centers

3. VDI use case high IO using local storage that is distributed.

4. VSan is built directly into the hypervisor not an additional virtual machine.

5. Distributed Storage without a physical SAN

I look forward to testing VMware vSphere Virtual SAN VSAN soon.

Register for the Virtual San VSan public beta 

http://www.vmware.com/vsan-beta-register?sf16542039=1

Some other blog posts you can look at for more information on VMware vSphere Virtual SAN VSAN

A great 8 part series on VSAN and more from Cormac Hogan http://cormachogan.com/vsan/

VMware Virtual SAN http://www.vmware.com/products/virtual-san/

 

VMworld 2013: What’s New in 5.5 – vSAN

http://www.mikelaverick.com/2013/08/vmworld-2013-whats-new-in-5-5-vsan/

Introduction to VMware vSphere Virtual SAN

http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2013/08/26/introduction-vmware-vsphere-virtual-san/

Nutanix Virtual Computing Platform compared to VMware VSAN 1.0

http://up2v.nl/2013/08/26/nutanix-virtual-computing-platform-compared-to-vmware-vsan-1-0/

Comparing VMware VSA & VMware Virtual SAN

https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2013/08/comparing-vmware-vsa-vmware-virtual-san.html

vSphere 5.5 Improvements Part 4 – Virtual SAN (VSAN)

http://wahlnetwork.com/2013/08/26/vsphere-5-5-improvements-part-4-virtual-san-vsan/