Virtual Desktop Strategies, Virtual Server Management
prnewswire | August 16, 2023
StackPath, the industry-leading edge computing platform, today announced new, larger StackPath Edge Compute Virtual Machine and Container instances featuring higher virtual CPU (vCPU) core counts and included RAM. These larger instances give businesses the computing power that data-intensive workloads require, deployed at the edge of the internet for the lowest latency between processing and data sources and destinations.
"Enterprises increasingly need to leverage real-time data for a myriad of reasons, from improving end-user experiences to gaining deeper business insights. But real-time data applications require high processing power, and getting cloud computing with that level of power has historically come with the cost of latency, centralization, and excessive bandwidth charges," said Tom Reyes, Chief Product Officer for StackPath. "These new, larger compute instances deliver the best of both worlds, pairing cloud computing power with the speed, scalability, and control that makes edge computing an essential facet of any latency-sensitive, distributed workload's deployment strategy."
StackPath provides virtual machines and computing containers on demand, with full orchestration for rapidly provisioning distributed resources. Unlike most hyper-scale cloud computing providers, StackPath deploys its facilities within the metropolitan areas of major markets around the world, placing its instances physically closer to businesses' premises and their end users. This reduces latency by minimizing the distance data has to travel. Private network connections between StackPath locations provide even more speed advantages for workload data commuting between geographic regions.
The new virtual machine instances sizes are:
16 vCPUs x 64GiB RAM x 25GiB Root Disk
32 vCPUs x 128GiB RAM x 25GiB Root Disk
48 vCPUs x 256GiB RAM x 25GiB Root Disk
The new container instances sizes are:
16 vCPUs x 64GiB RAM x 40GiB Root Disk
32 vCPUs x 128GiB RAM x 40GiB Root Disk
48 vCPUs x 256GiB RAM x 40GiB Root Disk
StackPath Edge Compute instances are provisioned on demand through the StackPath Customer Portal or API. Instances are billed by the hour and by the volume of data transferred. Additional options include forming virtual private clouds and leveraging built-in L3-L4 DDoS protection, persistent storage, image capture and deployment, private IP addresses, and more. To learn more or get started, visit http://www.stackpath.com.
About StackPath
StackPath is a cloud platform built at the internet's edge, providing infrastructure and services physically closer to the source or destination of data than hyperscale cloud service providers. StackPath Edge Compute (including virtual machines and containers), Edge Delivery (including CDN and serverless scripting), and Edge Security (including WAF and L3-L4, L7 DDoS Protection) solutions run in edge locations strategically deployed in high-density markets and united by a secure global network and a single management system. Customers ranging from Fortune 50 enterprises to one-person startups trust StackPath to give their latency-sensitive workloads and real-time applications the speed, security, and efficiency they require.
Read More
Virtual Desktop Tools, Virtual Server Infrastructure
businesswire | July 13, 2023
MacStadium, the industry-leading Mac private cloud and software-as-a-service provider enabling macOS workloads, today announced it has secured two patents: one for injection molded “helmets” providing keyboard, video and mouse (KVM) and precise power button control remotely, and one for a new rack shelving design with optimizing server density along with the KVM system.
MacStadium’s helmets, which sit atop a Mac mini or Mac Studio, are specifically designed to retrofit the company’s current shelving offering. Leveraging 3D printing technology to rapidly prototype and refine the design, this innovation dramatically reduces time-to-market and yields very low cost per unit.
While the helmets remain compatible with former shelving solutions, the new shelf design offers six times the server density of older Mac Pro racks and 50% more server density than existing Mac mini racks. Additionally, each Mac server is provisioned with an Apple-focused KVM device providing significant capabilities and advantages while slashing rack shelving costs by 50% or more.
“These patents offer an exciting glimpse into how much we have grown and evolved our technology to better service our customers with scalability on-demand and faster deployment made possible via our enterprise hardware program,” said Paul Benati, MacStadium’s senior vice president and COO. “MacStadium has been and remains at the forefront of Apple enterprise innovation. As the first to market with new Apple servers, we continue to innovate, prioritizing reduced system friction, increased customer ease and satisfaction and decreased costs.”
MacStadium’s proprietary helmet - which is currently in production - houses a temperature probe, LED light, OLED display and a servo, which allows for granular remote control of Apple devices’ power button. These KVM devices can remotely control the Apple devices to which they are connected, eliminating the need for customers to request server control and for IT teams to physically go to data centers to correct issues. With these remote control and self-service features, customers unlock new capabilities, including the ability to dynamically define the purpose of the Apple device, access to network storage and the long-awaited ability to run FileVault. The KVM system is securely accessed via SSL, SSO integration and authentication and authorization via lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP).
The shelving system, which will soon begin production, is designed to hold 24 Mac minis and 24 Apple-focused KVM devices, increasing the capacity of a standard rack to 144 Mac minis. In addition to increased operational efficiencies and secure server access from anywhere in the world, the shelving design offers tremendous cost savings due to its injection molded manufacturing. Not only is this manufacturing offered globally by a multitude of vendors, but it also allows for reduced shipping costs and more server density per square foot due to the product’s reduced bulk and weight.
These innovations provide a clear competitive advantage for customers and are just some of the foundational elements of MacStadium's offering, aimed at driving Mac compute to customers via self-service.
The patents come after MacStadium announced Orka Workspace with Pulse, designed to enable high-definition audio and visual streaming on virtual Mac desktops via any HTML5-supported browser. In addition, the company recently made public its Orka Small Teams edition, a self-service purchase option, giving MacDevOps teams immediate access to the industry’s leading enterprise-grade macOS virtualization and orchestration tool. As tech companies look to streamline operations and maximize their resources, this automation is critical to remain competitive.
About MacStadium
Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Atlanta, MacStadium is a private Mac cloud provider delivering scalable and secure enterprise cloud solutions exclusively for macOS. The company’s suite of advanced software-enabled infrastructure, combined with its innovative technology, delivers the security, performance, reliability and flexibility its MacDevOps customers require for successful app development on Apple devices. Powered by MacStadium, Orka® (Orchestration with Kubernetes on Apple) Platform is the only virtualization layer available for Mac build infrastructure based on popular Docker and Kubernetes technology. MacStadium is a Summit Partners portfolio company with multi-site operations in the U.S. and EU.
Read More
Virtual Desktop Tools, Server Hypervisors
prnewswire | July 26, 2023
ePlus inc. (news) today announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, ePlus Technology, inc., has extended its portfolio to include SD-WAN Managed Services for Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN to include:
Proactive monitoring and alerting
Policy management
Virtual private network path and policy configuration management to SaaS applications
Application-based configuration to ensure optimum performance and security
Underlay management of private, public, and dedicated data transport connections.
"Adding SD-WAN Managed Services expands our existing service capabilities for Palo Alto Networks solutions, including next-generation firewall management and first-call Enhanced Maintenance Support," said Lee Waskevich, vice president of security strategy for ePlus. "The distributed nature of both applications and users has continued to blend responsibilities for networking and security teams to combat the latest cyber threats and provide an optimum user experience. ePlus Managed Services deliver on this convergence to help generate successful outcomes for our customers."
"We are pleased to expand our SD-WAN Managed Services offerings to include support for Palo Alto Networks," said Wayne St. Jacques, vice president of managed services at ePlus. "By offloading the management and remediation of their Prisma SD-WAN solution, customers are poised to increase uptime and performance, optimize business-critical applications, achieve measurable cost savings, and maintain segmentation and inspection policies to ensure compliance with their security policy."
ePlus also offers Managed SD-WAN offerings for Cisco, Meraki, and Fortinet. For more information about ePlus SD-WAN Managed Services, visit https://www.eplus.com/solutions/networking/Software-Defined-Networking. For details about ePlus' Palo Alto Networks offerings and partnership, visit https://eplus.com/partners/showcase-partners/palo-alto-networks.
About ePlus inc.
ePlus has an unwavering and relentless focus on leveraging technology to create inspired and transformative business outcomes for its customers. Offering a robust portfolio of solutions, as well as a broad range of consultative and managed services across the technology spectrum, ePlus has proudly achieved more than 30 years of success, carrying customers forward through adversity, rapidly changing environments, and other obstacles. ePlus is a trusted advisor, bringing expertise, credentials, talent and a thorough understanding of innovative technologies, spanning security, cloud, data center, networking, collaboration and emerging solutions, to organizations across all industry segments. With complete lifecycle management services and flexible payment solutions, ePlus' more than 1,700 associates are focused on cultivating positive customer experiences and are dedicated to their craft, harnessing new knowledge while applying decades of proven experience. ePlus is headquartered in Virginia, with locations in the United States, UK, Europe, and Asia‐Pacific.
Read More
Virtual Desktop Strategies, Virtual Server Management
Business Wire | August 28, 2023
VMware Explore 2023 — Data and intelligence play a key role in enabling automation and implementing a successful hybrid work strategy, but a holistic approach is required to maximize its advantages. Today, VMware announces modern AI integrations to the Anywhere Workspace platform, part of the VMware Cross-Cloud services portfolio, that automatically optimize employee experience, drive new vulnerability management use cases, and simplify application lifecycle management. VMware Anywhere Workspace is the only hybrid work platform that integrates digital employee experience (DEX), virtual desktop infrastructure and apps (VDI and DaaS), unified endpoint management (UEM) and security to enable a seamless and secure workspace on any device or location.
“Last year, we announced our Autonomous Workspace vision as a path forward for organizations to navigate the challenges brought on by hybrid work,” said Shankar Iyer, senior vice president and general manager, End-User Computing, VMware. “We are thrilled to unveil new advancements for our customers that expand data sources and insights, integrate with technology partners for improved security, and unify app delivery strategy across all virtual desktops and apps. These innovations continue to progress our vision of providing the next evolution of digital workspaces.”
Integrated AI-Driven Platform Scales Experience Management
VMware continues to leverage data, intelligence, and automation to improve the employee and IT experience by introducing new Insights and Playbooks based on greatly expanded data and machine learning algorithms that enhance DEX remediation capabilities. These updates broaden access to data, help strengthen VMware Insights, and allow for remediation of more issues.
VMware will now enable delivery of new app performance scores, in addition to existing mobile device, desktop, and virtual environment experience scores. If a SaaS app service goes down, IT is proactively alerted and employees are automatically notified. This allows IT to quickly resolve the outage without dealing with inbound support tickets and employees don't waste time trying to access unavailable services.
But simply providing IT with more data is not enough to empower them to work smarter. VMware’s AI-driven Insights feature now provides anomaly detection that informs IT of potential experience issues for frontline devices and VDI environments, in addition to mobile and desktop environments. Today’s announcement of new Playbooks enables IT to create step-by-step remediation workflows to resolve incidents more efficiently and use success rate analytics to automate the resolution process and streamline execution over time.
“Workspace ONE Intelligence has been a game changer for us when it comes to automating life cycle management inside UEM. We have been utilizing it for automatically tagging devices and assigning them into smart groups. We have also used several dashboard templates for monitoring our security stance and helping remediate high-risk security threats,” said George March, manager of digital workspace and development, Information Technology, USA Health. “Next on our roadmap is implementing the ITSM connector, and with the addition of remediation playbooks, we are so excited about the way it will streamline our help desk support teams workflows.”
Unique Partner Integration Powers New Security and Manageability Use Cases
Ensuring end-to-end manageability and security for today’s distributed workforce is critical and requires a holistic approach to vulnerability assessment, prioritization, remediation, out-of-band support, and reporting. Collaboration with a best-of-breed partner ecosystem that offers speed, breadth, and depth in vulnerability management is necessary to protect against sophisticated attack vectors. VMware is committed to innovating together with our technology partners to provide customers with more secure and seamless hybrid experiences.
Today, VMware continues this mission by announcing an expanded partnership with Intel through a one-of-a-kind, cloud-native integration of Workspace ONE with Intel vPro®. This chip-to-cloud integration makes it easier to secure and remotely manage work devices entirely from the cloud, with no additional on-premises infrastructure and management software needed. Through line of sight and out-of-band management of vPro powered devices, IT teams can have below-the-OS vulnerability insights, and visibility to reduce the impact of potential exploits quickly and efficiently. Using Workspace ONE, customers can have centralized visibility into Intel vPro-powered PCs and accelerate patch remediation cycles for devices located outside of office perimeters, even if the devices are sleeping or powered off. This improves security and compliance by accomplishing higher patch saturation with fewer remediation steps and reduces potential disruption to employee productivity.
Modern App Management Simplifies Virtual Environments
Managing and delivering apps across VDI, DaaS, and published app environments has become increasingly complex and inefficient due to silos of legacy tools used. VMware recently introduced Apps on Demand, powered by VMware App Volumes, to unify app management and intelligently deploy apps to published app hosts or non-persistent desktop environments, all based on real-time app usage.
Today, VMware announces additional expansion of App Volumes support to deliver apps on demand to persistent virtual desktops. Now in beta availability, customers with persistent VMware Horizon environments will be able to use App Volumes to capture their apps once and deliver to many persistent virtual desktops. This automates the app delivery process with up to 99% compatibility and reduces management time and costs for any desktop or published app environment. VMware App Volumes is the only solution to help organizations deliver and manage apps across VMware Horizon, Citrix, Microsoft, and Amazon virtual desktop and app deployments as part of VMware’s Apps Everywhere vision.
Boeing: A ‘Hybrid Workforce Innovator’
The Boeing Company (Boeing) has used VMware Workspace ONE across the United States and in more than 65 countries to support its global workforce of 140,000 employees who develop, manufacture and service commercial airplanes, defense products and space systems for its customers. At VMware Explore 2023 Las Vegas, they were named ‘Hybrid Workforce Innovator’ as part of the 2023 VMware Customer Achievement Awards for the Americas for enabling its workforce to work from anywhere in the world, improving the user experience while reinforcing and advancing security for devices and applications.
“VMware Anywhere Workspace helps us manage and protect end points, provide a common platform to access apps and tools, as well as helping facilitate a digital experience for our employees,” said Kristina Ross, Boeing Workplace Solutions director for Research & Technology. “Workspace ONE helped streamline our transition from traditional PC lifecycle management to Windows 10 modern management which was enabled by our shift to a SaaS-based solution for the company. Today, we have a unified view to oversee all endpoint requirements, and the adoption of SaaS enhanced our scalability and ability to shift focus from infrastructure to business facing solutions.”
About VMware
VMware is a leading provider of multi-cloud services for all apps, enabling digital innovation with enterprise control. As a trusted foundation to accelerate innovation, VMware software gives businesses the flexibility and choice they need to build the future. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, VMware is committed to building a better future through the company’s 2030 Agenda.
Read More