360is Represented at Microsoft Virtualization Round-table

360is were delighted to be able to take part in this months virtualization round-table, held at Incisive Media's central London offices. We spoke alongside representatives from Microsoft and Computerlinks. The panel debated the mainstream adoption of virtualization occurring now the software is mostly free, virtual desktop infrastructure, and the skills gap that exists in many IT/MIS departments around this new wave of software and hardware infrastructure.

The panel concluded that virtualization and the abstraction of "nuts and bolts" was already fundamentally changing the nature of conversations between Vendors, VARs, and clients, and would likely change hiring practices as companies sought business technologists over traditional IT skills.

The full text of the article is available online.
A copy of the print magazine is available on our site.

Autumn Virtualization Seminar, London & Cambridge (NOW FULL)

We are holding an invitation-only seminar on mission critical & production systems virtualization in November. Some of you will have already received the invite directing you to register.

Choose the date/location below to book your place and receive the calendar appointment and PDF agenda via Email.

19th November: Royal Mint, Royal Mint Court, London, EC3N 4HJ.
26th November: Trinity Centre, Milton Rd Cambridge, CB4 0FN.

Registered attendees will receive further information on the event and a full agenda.

Agenda
09:30 Arrival & Tea/Coffee

10:00 Welcome & Introductions - 360is Ltd

10:05 Running Citrix Virtualized In Production - Citrix Systems Inc

• Netscaler VPX, XenDesktop, XenApp.
  
• Best practice advice for reliable virtualization of Citrix software.
  
• Citrix end-to-end virtualization strategy for agile infrastructure.

11:00 Break

11:10 Virtualization Hardware - The Virtual Machine Company Ltd

• How customer requirements shaped virtualization hardware.
  
• How to achieve ultimate VM density and lowest TCO.
  
• A post-server approach to virtualization.

11:40 Case Study, “Virtualising A Billion Dollar Database” - 360is Ltd

• Maximising VM density without compromising performance & availability
  
• The virtualization experience, one year on.

12:00 Finish and Q&A.

12:15 Tour (Royal Mint only) followed by light lunch.

Cancellations & Additional Invitations
Places are limited, if you are subsequently unable to attend then please let us know so that we can move someone else up from the waiting list. If you did not get an invite and would like to attend, or wish to recommend a colleague, please contact rob.gilson@360is.com.

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Update 16-11-09: The seminar is now full and there is a waiting list for those unable to get in this time around. Please notify Rob Gilson (above) if you have registered but are now unable to attend.

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Update 20-11-09: Thanks to all who attended the Seminar. For those who were unable to make it, or who want copies of the presentations, please see the following links:

• 360is Intro & VMCO Hardware (7MB), Rob Gilson - 360is
  
• Citrix Update (11MB), Damian Saunders - Citrix Inc
  
• Virtualizaing Difficult Workloads (2MB), 360is
  
• VMCO Case Study (6MB), 360is
  

360is Awarded Platinum Partner Status by The Virtual Machine Company

360is are delighted to be the first UK reseller awarded Platinum status in recognition of their achievements as the partner with the highest unit shipments in 1H 2009.

360is continue to see strong growth in the hardware virtual appliance market, fueled by tightening operating expenditure, increased hosting/colo costs, and growing adoption of virtualization in business critical infrastructure. Since their launch in early 2008, Virtual Machine Company appliances have provided superior VMs-per-watt and VMs-per-square-foot to enterprises, hosting providers, and compute-intensive industries, when compared to general purpose x86 servers.

In a recent press release, Steve Barnett, Virtual Machine's Managing Director said "The 360is team consistently over-deliver, their mixture of expertise, execution and customer service means we're proud to have them as a platinum partner".

About The Virtual Machine Company
The Virtual Machine Company manufacture the worlds most powerful & energy efficient virtualization appliances, offering the densest VM ratios of any comparable platform. Led by Steve Barnett, the former Managing Director of Check Point Software Technologies. Their appliances are designed from the ground up to provide ultimate performance and return on investment in a virtualized environment, and each is backed up by enterprise quality support and services. Each device benefits from performance monitoring, capacity management & planning tools that ensure the optimum configuration of your virtual estate, and access to free In-Cloud services that take estate management to a new level.

Winner of June TomTom Give Away

Back in June we gave away a new TomTom GO 530 SatNav system. We can now announce the lucky winner as Ms K.Pavitt, who registered an opportunity with us for a virtualization project beginning in August. Congratulations!

360is wins Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Contract at Wren Academy

Wren Academy is a new 1000-place secondary school in the London Borough of Barnet. The Academy, specialising in Design and the Built Environment, offers state-of-the-art ICT facilities. Over £1 million will be spent on hardware and infrastructure supporting the aspiration that every student will have plentiful access to Information Technology.

360is is rolling out a complete campus-wide VDI solution for students and staff. The Citrix XenDesktop solution is based upon a mixture of thin and thick clients, and virtualized server-side. 360is drew upon prior experience of implementing complex VDI projects in the public and private sector to win the contract.

Virtual Iron Scrapped!

The acquisition of Virtual Iron was announced by Oracle on the 13th May this year. Oracle already had its own OracleVM product and can now add Sun's xVM software to the pot. Both of those products are (like Virtual Iron) based on open source Xen.

While this consolidation is good for customers in the long term, providing 3 strong competitors to the incumbent VMware, in the short term it was hard to see Oracle maintaining so many similar components to their stack. Sure enough something had to give and last week Oracle wrote to partners confirming that there would be no new sales of Virtual Iron, and that its features would eventually be subsumed into OracleVM. Virtual Iron customers should update themselves on the situation here.

Although we have already been contacted by an unhappy Virtual Iron customer looking to mitigate the risks in operating a platform whose development has been ceased, at least Oracle made their decision to melt-down Virtual Iron quickly, limiting any uncertainty.

If you are a Virtual Iron customer, and need to migrate to a supported, Xen-based platform with a future. We can make the transition as painless as possible. Given that most Virtual Iron customers have tight cost constraints, we are currently recommending Citrix XenServer as a replacement. There is even a completely free version that offers enterprise features like live migration, shared storage integration, and OS templates.

During this difficult period, we offer a free consultation with one of our engineers, to scope the size and shape of any possible migration from Virtual Iron to XenServer, or to consider other options. Simply get in touch.

Security Assessment & Penetration Testing Case Study

360is has been operating since 2002, our consultants have been advising UK companies since the early 90's. Over the years we've been asked many times for case studies on Security Assessments, Penetration Tests, and Post Incident Investigations. Up to now we have always resisted, for reasons of customer confidentiality and because most of our clients are still referred to us by word of mouth.

We are pleased to announce the first of several Security Services case studies. While based upon a real engagement, some details have been changed to ensure confidentiality and each case may draw upon information from more than one project.

• Financial Services, External Security Assessment.

Can you see anything of your current situation reflected in these stories?
Are the benefits gained by our clients interesting to you?
Have you thought about the ways we can help you this year?

TomTom GO 530 To Give Away

If you register your Virtualization or Security Service, support or training requirement with us before the end of June 2009, and attend a meeting with one of our consultants, you will be entered into a prize draw for a TomTom GO 530 Sat Nav system.

To register your project and to arrange a meeting, email your contact details and an outline of your requirement to Rob Gilson. Details of the lucky winner of the TomTom will be announced on our site on the 30th of June.

Citrix XenServer Case Studies

Over the last 3 years, our consultants have delivered about 50 virtualization projects for clients as far away as India. We have worked with all the major hardware and software vendors to solve real business problems. A few of these experiences were captured as case studies and can now be made available to you.

What makes these documents a little more interesting than an average case study is that they have been written up-to a year after completion of the project, and include an update on how the new infrastructure is performing, and how accurately the technology delivered on promises. First out of the trap are several Citrix XenServer success stories, watch out for VMware and Hyper-V later.

Multimedia Distribution & Switching, virtualizing difficult workloads.
Financial Data Warehouse, how to virtualize a billion dollar database.
Multilingual Call Center, navigating the vendor jungle.

Can you see your current situation reflected in these stories?
Are the benefits gained by these clients interesting to you?
Have you thought about the ways we can help you this year?

XenServer Administration Poster

Since XenServer was made freely available for download a few weeks ago, there has been a surge in companies new to virtualization, taking their first steps into this area. As you would expect, this has resulted in lots of questions on the user forum and calls to our help desk.

360is have produced a XenServer administrators poster, in A4 format, for both new and experienced admins to download for free. Do let us know what you think, and make any suggestions for improvement via the normal channels.

UPDATE: 28-04-09
The response has been overwhelming, with more than eight hundred downloads. For those of you that asked for more glitz, and as part of 360is "printer toner industry stimulus package", please check out the new "midnight edition".