SERVER HYPERVISORS, SECURITY
VergeIO | April 26, 2023
VergeIO, the Ultraconverged Infrastructure (UCI) company, today announced the launch of IOclone, a new solution that solves the virtualization snapshot problem facing users today. VMware and other virtualized environments suffer from highly inefficient snapshots and because of performance concerns, customers can only maintain a few active snapshots. This level of retention is insufficient for adequate data protection. With IOclone, customers can now leverage the built-in global data deduplication capabilities of VergeOS to create complete clones of virtual machines (VM) within milliseconds, regardless of VM size. Each clone is immutable and space efficient, initially consuming no additional capacity.
Hypervisors without the powerful capabilities of IOclone require customers to use expensive array-based snapshots or integrate with backup software solutions, forcing customers into an expensive and complicated multi-step solution for data protection. By comparison, IOclone is a single-step process tightly integrated into VergeOS. Once IT sets up a cloning policy, snapshots happen regularly without administrative intervention.
Now customers can create and maintain thousands of space-efficient copies of virtual machines or even virtual data centers without impacting performance. Both the original production instance and clones perform at the full performance of the infrastructure. Clones are instantly available for use in testing, QA, and development purposes, or customers can create "golden masters" and spawn hundreds or even thousands of VMs or virtual data centers (VDCs) from the original, again without impacting performance.
"Both clones and snapshots typically have some overhead in the capacity they consume and the processing required to use them. Clones typically have to make a copy of all of the metadata information, which means the cloning process takes some time upfront, but then they are ready to use and independent. Snapshots trade up front processing time and instead show performance degradation when in use or during clean-up," said Greg Campbell, VergeIO founder and CTO. "IOclone delivers the best of both. Because our deduplication is part of the metadata in our filesystem, we get all the performance and independence benefits of cloning without their upfront overhead.”
Customers can execute IOclone on the virtual machine, the volume, or an entire virtual data center (VDC). In the same way that a virtual machine is an encapsulation of a server, a VDC clone is an encapsulation of the entire data center. It includes all the VMs within the data center and all the storage and networking policies, delivering near-instant recovery.
IOclone does not require specialized storage controllers or storage data processing units. Thanks to the efficiency of VergeOS, it works with off-the-shelf servers using commodity flash and hard disk drives within the VergeOS environment. It is integrated into VergeOS and is available now at no additional charge to VergeOS customers. Customers looking to migrate off VMware can leverage VergeIO's IOprotect and benefit from the immutable limitless protection of IOclone.
About VergeIO
VergeIO is the Ultraconverged Infrastructure (UCI) company. Unlike hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI), it rotates the traditional IT stack (compute, storage, and networking) into an integrated data center operating system, VergeOS. Its efficiency enables greater workload density on the same hardware with high levels of data resiliency. The result is dramatically lower costs and greatly simplified IT.
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VIRTUAL DESKTOP TOOLS, VIRTUAL DESKTOP STRATEGIES
Presidio | March 21, 2023
Presidio, a leading global digital services and solution provider, today announced expanded advanced VMware services increasing scale and deployment expertise for multi-cloud and automation to help customers fully leverage the benefits of the cloud. In addition, Presidio is now designated as a Pinnacle Partner, the new top tier in the VMware Partner Connect Program. The Pinnacle level is focused on VMware’s most strategic and transformational partners.
“Customers want a single partner to develop and deliver on a comprehensive strategy from the network, data center, and multi-cloud so they can focus on transforming their businesses and accelerate their journey to the cloud,” said Dave Hart, president and chief operating officer at Presidio. “To help them, we’ve added even deeper VMware expertise to our team that is uniquely adept at both advising and building out secure on-premises and multi-cloud solutions.”
Now with broader skill sets and an expanded team of VMware experts, Presidio has comprehensive expertise to help customers leverage the benefits of integrating their public cloud to work seamlessly with on-premises infrastructure while taking advantage of existing teams, skillsets, tools and processes. Presidio combines its technology consulting framework and lifecycle services with VMware’s innovative software and services to design, implement and manage agile, more secure, multi-cloud solutions optimized for each customer's unique requirements. Presidio’s engineers hold seven VMware Master Services competencies.
“VMware and Presidio have a long-standing partnership with close alignment that delivers maximum value for our shared customers. We’re pleased to see them become a new Pinnacle Partner, the highest level in our evolved Partner Connect program,” said Tracy-Ann Palmer, vice president, global channel sales programs and compliance at VMware. “Pinnacle Partners are technology leaders in their industries and regions, with multiple program validations and demonstrated sales and services success at scale. Presidio continues to stand out as an innovative company that is helping customers become cloud smart on their digital transformation journeys.”
About Presidio
Presidio is a global digital services and solutions provider accelerating business transformation through secured technology modernization. Highly skilled teams of engineers and solutions architects with deep expertise across cloud, security, networking, and modern data center infrastructure help customers acquire, deploy, and operate technology that delivers impactful business outcomes. Presidio is a trusted strategic advisor with a flexible full life cycle model of professional, managed, and support and staffing services to help execute, secure, operationalize and maintain technology solutions.
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VIRTUAL DESKTOP STRATEGIES, SERVER VIRTUALIZATION
businesswire | April 13, 2023
Searchlight Cyber, the dark web intelligence company, has launched Stealth Browser, a secure and user-friendly virtual machine for cyber professionals to access the dark web and conduct investigations anonymously, without risk to themselves or their organization. Stealth Browser is an enhancement to Searchlight’s Cerberus investigation platform, which is used by law enforcement agencies, enterprises and MSSPs to uncover criminal activity on the dark web, and has been used in some of the biggest criminal cases involving dark web activity.
The dark web is a critical source of intelligence for cybersecurity professionals, but accessing it carries risks for the investigator and their organization’s infrastructure. On their own systems, they run the risk of accidentally installing malware, exposing their digital fingerprint/proprietary IP address, or inadvertently leaking sensitive information. Stealth Browser eliminates these risks by automatically masking the investigator’s digital fingerprint, allowing both novice and experienced investigators to quickly and securely access Tor and I2P onions on the dark web without risk to themselves or their organization’s infrastructure.
With one-click, Stealth Browser allows the investigator to generate a virtual machine directly from any internet browser without the need to install any software. This is in stark contrast to the complex setup usually required to safely access the dark web, and allows analysts to get the relevant information they need more easily, without the need for lengthy administrative and approval processes.
Ben Jones, CEO and co-founder of Searchlight Cyber commented: “As with all of our solutions, Stealth Browser was developed in collaboration with our customers to address the challenges they face when conducting critical dark web investigations. Many organizations struggle with providing scalable and secure access to investigate threats on the dark web. Stealth Browser was created to allow any threat analyst, regardless of expertise, to get the information they need while always staying safe and secure.
“Threat hunters and investigators put themselves at risk when collecting intelligence on cybercriminals and malicious actors who are lurking in the shadows of the dark web. We created the Cerberus platform to allow organizations to securely investigate previously unobtainable dark web activity. The release of Stealth Browser is the continuation of this mission, further reducing risks in the fight to bring cyber criminals to justice.”
About Searchlight Cyber
Searchlight Cyber provides organizations with relevant and actionable dark web intelligence, to help them identify and prevent criminal activity. Founded in 2017 with a mission to stop criminals acting with impunity on the dark web, we have been involved in some of the world’s largest dark web investigations and have the most comprehensive dataset based on proprietary techniques and ground-breaking academic research. Today we help government and law enforcement, enterprises, and managed security services providers around the world to illuminate deep and dark web threats and prevent attacks.
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