WatchGuard Switches from VMware to VMLogix to Streamline Their Development and Test Labs

Today we announced that WatchGuard Technologies, a global leader of business security solutions, switched from VMware Lab Manager to VMLogix LabManager in their pre-production labs. Since deploying VMLogix, WatchGuard has experienced a 91 percent savings on platform costs as well as a dramatic time savings on managing their dev/test environments. WatchGuard uses VMLogix LabManager on servers running VMware ESX 4.0. WatchGuard IT Manager Mark Olsen recently gave us this accolade, “VMLogix LabManager has completely revolutionized our developments and test process.”

To learn more about how WatchGuard is using VMLogix, you can read the case study here or read the full release here.

VMLogix Announced as a Finalist for the 2010 Red Herring 100 North America Award

VMLogix has been named a finalist for the 2010 Red Herring 100 North America Award. To capture this recognition, VMLogix was evaluated with hundreds of companies from across North America based on our technological innovation, management strength, market size, investor record, customer acquisition, and financial health in their respective industries.

Winners will be announced at the Red Herring North American Conference in San Diego, June 22-24, 2010. To read the full list of finalists, see http://www.herringevents.com/RHNA2010/2010finalists/2010finalists.html.

The multiple uses cases of VLA within Amazon Web Services and on Microsoft Hyper-V

Although software development and testing was the first use case for virtual lab automation, many organizations have begun to realize that the benefits of VLA extend far beyond that. Our CEO, Sameer Dholakia, does a great job of explaining the different VLA use cases in the videos below. So if you’ve been wondering how virtual lab automation can be used in your organization and are curious about using it with Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Hyper-V, check out these short videos:

Virtual Labs on Amazon Web Services:

Virtual Labs on Hyper-V:

VLA as the Basis for Cloud Management

There has been a lot of discussion around defining a cloud and the difference between a private, on-premise cloud and a virtualized data center. In the video below CEO Sameer Dholakia helps clarify the difference and define cloud computing. If you’ve been wondering what capabilities transform your virtual data center into a private cloud and what are the benefits of those capabilities, take a look at the video.

VMLogix and Carpathia Present Live Webcast on May 27

Join Sameer Dholakia, CEO of VMLogix, and Jon Greaves, CTO of Carpathia Hosting, for a live webcast, “Bringing Development & Testing into the Cloud,” on Thursday, May 27 from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. EDT. They will discuss how VMLogix, Carpathia and Citrix Systems, Inc. have teamed up to deliver a truly turnkey solution to enterprises and federal agencies for development and testing in the cloud. Powered by VMLogix LabManager and Citrix XenServer, Carpathia InstantOn – Virtual Lab Solution provides a cloud platform that can collapse your development and testing lifecycle by up to 50 percent.

You can learn more and register here.

InfoWorld and Virtualization Review Analyses of Lab Management Solutions

June 22nd marks the one year anniversary of our supporting both private and public clouds, and we are constantly excited and intrigued by how the market is embracing and using this technology.  As interest increases and more enterprises look to virtual lab automation to help them manage their cloud deployments, product reviewers are also taking a closer look. To this end, VMLogix recently participated in product reviews with InfoWorld and Virtualization Review:

InfoWorld’s Andrew Binstock reviewed the main contenders in the virtual lab management space and reviewed our on-premise solution, VMLogix LabManager.  Binstock was “favorably impressed” with LabManager – giving it an 8.3 rating which places it in the ‘very good’ category – and mentions that our roadmap includes plans to release a hybrid cloud solution in the upcoming months. You can read the full review of virtual lab managers here.

Rick Vanover, who pens the ‘Everyday Virtualization’ blog over at Virtualization Review, has been kicking the tires of our cloud solution, VMLogix LabManagerCE. Rick finds that in addition to the virtual lab management functionality, LabManagerCE is “easier than using Amazon Web Services to launch EC2 AMI instances through tools like ElasticFox or just using the Web portal directly.”

Check out Rick’s post and comment on what you think of cloud-based lab management here.

VMLogix Continues Push to the Cloud

In summer ’09, VMLogix first announced our LabManager – Cloud Edition, running on top of the Amazon Web Services cloud, to bring virtual lab capabilities to public clouds.  The “bursty” nature of virtual lab workloads – dev/test, software demos/POCs/evals and software training – make them great candidates to move from on-premise infrastructure to elastic, scalable clouds.

Our enablement of VMLogix LabManager on AWS was the first implementation of our Cloud Edition, and you’ll see more coming in the future.

At Synergy last week, VMLogix announced that we are working with Carpathia Hosting and Citrix to bring development and testing workloads to the cloud by integrating VMLogix LabManager with Carpathia’s InstantOn enterprise cloud offering. The resulting InstantOn Virtual Lab solution is an easy way for organizations to get started with virtual labs in the cloud.

You can read the announcement here or check out details on the joint solution here.  You can also register for an upcoming webinar, scheduled for May 27^th, from Carpathia and VMLogix here.

VMLogix Named as a Network World Cloud Company to Watch

Network World recently announced their “15 cloud companies to watch” which tracks innovative vendors offering ways to make the transition to a cloud-based world less daunting. You guessed it…VMLogix LabManager – Cloud Edition (LabManagerCE) made the list. This was great validation as we continue to be committed to offering easy-to-use solutions for organizations moving their workloads to both public and private clouds. In addition to LabManagerCE we offer VMLogix LabManager which can help you transform (and manage) your virtual data center into a private cloud. You can read the Network World article here: http://www.networkworld.com/supp/2010/ndc3/051010-ndc-cloud-companies.html?page=9.

voke Webinar: How to Justify the Purchase of a Virtual Lab

We recently recorded a webcast with Theresa Lanowitz of voke, inc, for the firm’s Virtual Lab Management webcast series. Our webcast, “Hybrid Clouds One Lab: How Do I Justify the Purchase,” is now live and available for viewing on the voke website. The webcast discusses virtual labs in the cloud as well as offers a demo of VMLogix LabManager. As an attendee you will also hear tips on how to justify the purchase of virtual lab technology for your organization.

To register, go here. You can also check out the entire webcast series: http://www.vokeinc.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=123&Itemid=191.

VMLogix speaking at STAREAST 2010

STAREAST 2010

April 25-30, 2010 in Orlando, FL

Session title: Virtual Test Labs in the Cloud

When: Wednesday, April 28, 2010 at 1:45-2:45 p.m. ET

Where: Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, FL

Presenter: Jacob Ben-David, Senior Sales Engineer at VMLogix (www.vmlogix.com)

Session overview: In most software engineering organizations, development and test labs continuously demand regular computer, storage, and networking infrastructure upgrades and continuous support. Lab administrators have moved toward server consolidation powered by virtualization platforms from vendors such as Citrix, Microsoft, and VMware, often accompanied by a management layer called virtual lab automation (VLA). Together, virtualization and VLA enable the lab to operate as a private, on-premise cloud. While this solves some problems, there are still other challenges to consider. Some test labs now leverage public cloud infrastructures such as Amazon Web Services. Jacob reviews virtual labs enabled in private, public, and hybrid clouds, and explains how they improve development, build, and test processes. Learn about the key areas of consideration for organizations adopting or evaluating this approach, including security, public cloud infrastructure, operational flexibility, user access models and compliance.

http://www.sqe.com/stareast/