Pushing back against VMware, its chief rival, Tuesday, Citrix released its ballyhooed, on-demand XenDesktop, the widgetry that delivers custom, managed virtual Windows desktops from a data center server to a user over the network, and priced the stuff. Theres a free Express Edition for up to 10 users; an entry-level Standard Edition for $75 per concurrent user; an Advanced Edition for $195 per concurrent user; an Enterprise Edition for $295 per concurrent user; and a Platinum Edition for $395 per concurrent user.

From Application Virtualization to Xen, a round-up of the virtualization themes & topics being discussed in NYC June 23-24, 2008 by the world-class speaker faculty at the 3rd International Virtualization Conference & Expo being held by SYS-CON Events in The Roosevelt Hotel, in midtown Manhattan.

Today, many organizations hear the term virtualization and still only think of the technology used in a datacenter. While this might be where virtualization started and has received a lot of attention, the next wave of virtualization is happening in connected devices through embedded technologies. When applied, virtualization allows organizations and developers working with front-end connected devices such as mobile phones, set-top boxes and WiMax base stations, to experience business benefits such as reduced bill-of-material costs, faster time-to-market and richer, more functional designs that feature reduced power, improved security and greater reliability.

Microsoft has taken the next step in getting its VMware-upsetting Hyper-V widgetry out the door; Release Candidate 1 is there to be downloaded now. If you've been paying attention you know that this is actually Microsoft's second release candidate, the first, called RC0, having been outed in March.

Desktop and application virtualization technologies are increasingly being used throughout the enterprise to improve manageability and ease deployment of corporate environments on PCs. While application virtualization solutions are typically limited to a single application, desktop virtualization solutions enable deployment of a full desktop environment. The inclusion of a full operating system in the virtualized desktop image creates solutions with high licensing costs, large footprint and deteriorated performance on end users? PCs.

There has been much speculation about the security posture of virtualized environments. One identified vulnerability is the 'hypervisor' threat in which a hacker can break out of a guest OS and onto the host OS of a server. How great a danger is the hypervisor threat? What security barriers should IT erect before and after they implement their virtual environment? Virtual security expert Hezi Moore will help attendees separate the virtualized wheat from the real chaff.

The ultimate goal of virtualization is to increase the utilization and efficiency of your current infrastructure. To that end, one should consider virtualizing the entire data center, including the traditional servers and storage, but also bringing in networking, cable management, power management, cooling/airflow capabilities, etc. This allows for extreme flexibility and agility in terms of managing the infrastructure to the point of being able to roll in and out entire racks of equipment without needing an electrician to add power outlets, without adjusting tile placement for airflow, without pulling extra cable runs, etc ... basically roll it in, plug it in, connect the network/FC cables, power up and go, all within 30-45 minutes. Additionally, efficiency and power savings are very critical in the design and architecture phases, making sure to provide as much power to the IT equipment and as little to the supporting infrastructure as possible. By utilizing a management framework based upon ITIL, and having the proper expertise with ISV applications, security, H/A and BC/DR, one can manage these new capabilities with greater ease and better cost control.

With a remote workforce, either through offshoring business processes or remote home workers, it is essential to keep the data safe while providing the most flexible computing experience. This session will discuss the strategies and pitfalls when building a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). It will discuss cost issues and help customers build a compelling Retrun On Investment through determining the Total Cost of Ownership of a VDI implementation. This session will also cover the strategic architecture and how to build a VDI Solution that will allow an Organization to reap the benefits of a remote workforce.

To achieve the full potential of 'cloud computing' we need a broader definition of virtualization, and that is the complete de-coupling of the logical components of an application (represented by the software stack) and the physical resources. In the case of middleware, whether it is data access, messaging or the business logic, the physical location of the resources should not matter to the developer and to the end user. This is not a trivial thing to do, especially when it comes to data-intensive, stateful (transactional or otherwise) applications and services. In this session we will explore the challenges and propose a solution, including a live demo.

With the rapid deployment of server virtualization technology in the data center, IT management is actively looking at optimizing their SAN storage architecture to reap the full benefits of their virtualization investment, such as workload mobility and disaster recovery, without running into I/O bottlenecks and unpredictable utilization of SAN resources that comes with a much more dynamic environment. This session will explore how Data Center Fabric enables virtual servers and physical servers to stand on an equal footing. It will also discuss capabilities specifically designed to support virtualized environments such as VMware ESX, Microsoft Hyper-V and Xen.

Virtualization is not a new story; its technologies allow companies to meet new business needs and say goodbye to underutilized hardware platforms, power consumption, server sprawl and spiraling IT costs. The technology is here and the benefits are already proving to be fruitful. However, these benefits are only possible if effective management tools are in place. This session will discuss virtualization's missing link - data center automation - and how organizations can use it to create an agile, policy-based environment to automate and orchestrate virtual machine lifecycle management. For without proper management, companies only have a piece of the virtualization puzzle.

As virtualization platform vendors strengthen and expand the feature sets of their respective offerings, it is almost a certainty that the data center in the future will include a heterogeneous mix of virtualization platforms as well as physical platforms. For organizations that are moving to virtualization, choosing the correct platform for their needs is only the start. For certain, organizations also will need to obtain a set of virtualization utilities to assist in moving to, and managing, one or more virtual platforms in their data centers. These utilities must not simply be ?repurposed? tools from the physical world, but should also be specifically designed to leverage the efficiencies and unique characteristics of the virtual platform.

While the next-generation data center has begun to take shape, the promise of true dynamic computing has so far eluded today's resource, bandwidth and power constrained enterprises. Now however, key advancements in network and processor technologies are converging to lift the remaining barriers and enable truly dynamic computing. In this presentation, IT professionals will learn why this convergence enables the Coherent Network, turning an Enterprise Data Center into a single dynamic resource pool of compute cores, memory, and I/O.

The last 10 years has seen a remarkable evolution in virtualization. First generation virtualization centered on Development & Testing and was largely confined to desktop computers and test servers. Second generation technology focused on Server Consolidation to lower hardware costs and saw the rise of hypervisor-powered hardware virtualization solutions. Now, we?re entering the third generation of virtualization, where Optimizing IT Infrastructure in the datacenter is critical. This next step forward will involve large-scale virtualized datacenter deployments that are heterogeneous, cross-platform, and include operating system and hypervisor-based virtualization for servers and workstations.

The Microsoft Distributed File System (DFS) has provided virtualization at the file share level for years but with file virtualization solutions entering the data center, the managed target shrinks from a share that may contain thousands of files, to a single file. We discuss DFS and its value in environments where file virtualization is present. We compare and contrast DFS and file virtualization. We review file virtualization as a migration and administration solution and discuss the role of DFS. We review different disaster recovery scenarios where one or both virtualization solutions are in place. We consider the practical and the promise of file virtualization with and without DFS in the environment.

Data center architects naturally seek to employ server virtualization to maximize the use of their hardware systems. An often overlooked factor that can undermine this goal is data connectivity. 75 to 95 percent of the response time now associated with database access can often be attributed to the data connectivity layer - and that's using traditional, non-virtualized servers. Running multiple virtual servers on a single machine can introduce additional complications involving data access. This presentation will examine the importance of data connectivity in a virtualized environment, and the need to take an intelligent approach to data access in order to truly reap the benefit of a virtualization strategy.

Depending on your perspective, SOA and virtualization are either synergistic or threaten increased complexity. This session will explain how implementing the right network architecture can make the most of both, promoting agility and reducing complexity. 'Service virtualization' takes functionality that is common across applications and generalizes and leverages it across the business. Capabilities like multicast, encryption, load balancing and data caching - traditionally applications on dedicated servers - have migrated into the network, where they can be virtualized and shared by multiple applications delivered to end users across multiple devices. Attendees will learn how the right network architecture can support strategies like Web 2.0 and SOA, and how the network can reduce complexity and management costs, enhance system resiliency and flexibility, and improve usage and efficiency of networked assets and applications.

As data growth rates continue to climb and business requirements further evolve, customers are feeling the pressure to realign their storage infrastructure to better meet the needs of their business. Mr. Yoshida will discuss how storage virtualization is the key enabler towards the storage-based services required to deliver substantial breakthroughs in efficiency and business agility across the entire enterprise. He will discuss how storage-based services such as thin provisioning, content and file management and dynamic data migration, enabled via controller-based Virtualization, are paving the way for the Dynamic Data Center of tomorrow.

Does virtualization matter? Can virtual desktops go beyond the sum of the virtual parts? What is the business value and at what price? As server virtualization continues to gain deeper traction and provide benefits beyond server consolidation, desktop virtualization is widely expected to follow a similar trajectory and address many of the challenges associated with enterprise desktops. Virtual desktops hold the promise of increased business agility at reduced complexity and cost, while providing high fidelity user experience at a lower carbon footprint. How is this promise delivered? This session explores the current technology trends, business scenarios and economic imperatives that are shaping the future of virtual desktops, enabling new delivery and consumption models.

Neocleus announced a suite of trusted virtual solutions for endpoints such as desktops and laptops. The solution, Neocleus Trusted Edge, provides the means for employees, partners and customers to connect to corporate resources from any endpoint regardless of its state of security. Neocleus Trusted Edge is also a solution to come to market leveraging Neocleus' hypervisor open source contributions which include enhancements the company made to the Xen Hypervisor to work directly on endpoints.

Open-Xchange and Parallels are integrating Open-Xchange open source email and collaboration software with Parallels technology to deliver a cost-effective, enterprise-class alternative to commercial email and collaboration products at a competitive price. The products, which will be fully integrated with Parallels Automation solutions, will be offered to end-users via hosting and service providers.

Absolute Performance announced it is expanding the partnership with virtualization and hosting automation company Parallels to better enable managed services and hosting providers to achieve a strategic foothold in the expanding SaaS and On Demand marketplace. The announcement centers around extending Absolute Performance's application performance management SaaS software and services to work more closely with Parallels' virtualization and data center automation products.

Zend Technologies and Parallels announced that they will collaborate on solutions that enable hosting providers to deliver PHP applications through Parallels' control panels and server virtualization offerings. The companies will deliver product interoperability and integration, define packaging and distribution standards, and pursue joint marketing initiatives.

Server virtualization firm, Parallels, has been deployed by provider of hosting services in Europe, Cobweb, as a provider to use Parallels Automation with the hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. Serguei Beloussov, CEO of Parallels noted, ''We are pleased that Cobweb is using the full potential of our Parallels Automation solution to centrally manage a wide variety of hosting services. This deployment demonstrates how Parallels Open Platform is helping service providers deliver advanced business applications using the software-as-a-service (SaaS) delivery model.''

Parallels announced that its Parallels Desktop for Mac has sold more than one million copies. The software enables Mac users to run Windows, Linux or any other operating system and their critical applications at the same time as Mac OS X on any Intel-powered Apple computer. Parallels Desktop for Mac's success has made Parallels noted in desktop virtualization. The software is available in 10 languages -- Chinese, Czech, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, and Spanish.

Parallels said Wednesday that its Desktop virtualization widgetry for the Mac, which lets Intel-based Apples run Windows or Linux along with Mac OS X, has sold more than a million copies, a nice chunk of the Macs out there. It is the largest-selling Mac utility and gives Mac users access to all those Windows programs it?s starved for.

Liquid Web launched a Microsoft Windows virtual private server (VPS) offering powered by Parallels Virtuozzo Containers. The offering will be delivered from Liquid Web's two fully owned and operated mid-western datacenters. This represents an expanded partnership with Parallels, who already supplies Liquid Web with Parallels Plesk Control Panel software, which is bundled with all Windows dedicated server offerings.

It's no secret that data centers are faced with exponential storage growth, increasing operational costs, power and cooling limitations, and the need to provision and bring new applications online more rapidly to support critical business needs, many customers look to virtualization strategies to ease the management burden. SRM technology can address the demands and management complexities that virtualization presents. Virtualization, by definition, can apply to operating systems, applications and storage arrays. This session will identify and elaborate on the various virtualization categories, and talk about how SRM technology can enable IT organizations to manage storage in the virtual enterprise.

Join us for an interactive discussion presented by Scalent Systems, as we address the big three challenges facing server failover - software configuration, network connectivity and storage access - and contrast several different approaches, from traditional backup to the use of virtual machines, to the next generation of infrastructure virtualization and management.

The session will describe the use of system aggregation, a revolutionary virtualization technology that allows end-users to get access to a large shared memory system built using multiple off-the-shelf x86 systems. Aggregation provides organizations with better price/performance compared to traditional symmetric multiprocessor (SMP) systems, and lowers the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) compared to clusters. This new virtualization technology for high-end computing takes advantage of the traditional SMP operating model such as ease of installation and management, as well as large memory, while maintaining the cost structure of x86 clusters.

As more and more enterprises and ISVs seek additional ways to leverage virtualization technology, virtual lab automation (VLA) has emerged as an innovative solution for streamlining software development and automating the entire development and test environment setup while utilizing existing server virtualization infrastructure. Additionally, VLA improves resource utilization and efficiency while pushing products to market faster. This presentation will review the virtual test and development infrastructure and provide best practice recommendations for how VLA can add significant value to developers, testers and IT operations staff and help drive business growth and employee productivity.

How can virtualization help transform your IT environment into a dynamic datacenter? In this Virtualization Keynote, Dr Stephen Herrod will explore how a virtualized IT infrastructure gives any organization a sustainable competitive advantage. We have reached a point in time, Herrod believes, when the industry is shifting and the true power of virtualization is being unleashed, allowing for reduced costs, more efficient use of resources, increased availability of applications and faster responsiveness to business needs.

As governments and corporations intensify their focus on reducing energy demands and greenhouse gas emissions, pressure to improve data center energy efficiency will continue to grow. We believe that the following four Rs must play an essential role in the development of any initiative to create a green data center: Regain power and cooling capacity, Recapture resiliency, Reduce energy costs and Recycle end-of-of-life equipment. Successful organizations will make these four Rs their mantra. And in doing so, their ongoing efforts to think green will help keep their companies operating in the black.

As computer grids are becoming more wide spread in commercial data centers, the bottlenecks in application performance move from raw processing to searching, storing and retrieving the data. In-Memory Data Grid (IMDG) technology solves this fundamental problem by acting as super-efficient application accelerator, taking advantage of unused resources readily available on the grid - disk, memory, IO - to put the data in memory of the same computer that performs the calculations. The talk will explore how IMDG can be easily integrated with existing enterprise grids to create data-aware grid applications and provide application performance acceleration while improving application scalability and reliability.

This session will focus on Application Virtualization with particular focus on achieving Web-scale. The session will compare and contrast external cloud deployment to internal deployment on commodity infrastructure.

Virtualization has taken hold in the data center, addressing some of the most pressing issues customers face including excessive power and cooling, and low server utilization. But this is only the first wave of virtualization and only addresses the server. What's next? Enter 'Virtualization 2.0,' where the benefits extend from capital cost reduction to lower operational expenses, improved service levels, agility and IT simplicity. This next wave virtualizes beyond the server, encompassing data center infrastructure (storage, networking and processing) to unbind applications from servers and create a fully agile data center. This session explores Virtualization 2.0 and what it will mean for bottom line business.

There is plenty of discussion about virtualization, but who does it really benefit? How can enterprises adopt virtualization technologies to address real business problems? Is virtualization just another consolidation technology? How are other businesses using virtualization? Is there more that it can do to drive competitive advantage, business efficiency, security and compliance? Drawing on the industry's most in-depth independent research into virtualization to date, Andi Mann, senior analyst from Enterprise Management Associates, will help you to understand what are the key business drivers for virtualization, where to expect significant benefits and how to make sure that virtualization delivers strategic advantages.

This presentation will compare and contrast Web application virtualization solutions such as WebSphere Extended Deployment and hardware virtualization solutions. Particular emphasis will be provided on how the two solutions can be combined to provide the most flexible Web application hosting environment.

At Marathon Technologies, we service a range of industries that must have their applications up and running at all times, or as we call it: vAvailable. vAvailable is the integration of virtualization and high availability technologies to create a cost-effective solution that ensures applications won't go down. With virtualization technologies, high availability has now launched well between today's alternative solutions such as clustering. This session will define vAvailable and this is a huge step between today?s alternatives. Mr. Melnick will discuss a new standard for application availability using virtualization technology that embraces Windows and business process applications.

The rapid rise of virtualization technology made it a vital component of any Enterprise IT strategy. And the technology triggered dramatic changes in product offerings and business practices to support virtualized operational models. These breakneck speed developments lead to a plethora of solutions, with the attendant confusion that typically surrounds fast moving technologies. In this session Brian Stevens outlined trends in virtualization technologies and examined their potential impact on, and benefits for, future Enterprise IT deployments. Topics included tradeoffs between open source and proprietary solutions, hardware integration efforts, deployment models, and long-term, high-volume serviceability/security considerations.