Virtualization has quickly become a staple new concept for enterprise IT. At SYS-CON's 3rd International Virtualization Conference & Expo, held at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City, June 23-24, we had exceptional speakers with high-quality use cases not only of how virtualization maximizes the use of resources and thus saves companies money, but also of how it is fundamentally altering the way that businesses run IT. The two content-packed days emphasized value with a rich array of sessions about the business and technical value of virtualization.

Red Hat CTO Brian Stevens, Citrix CTO Simon Crosby, Egenera CTO Pete Manca, Allen Stewart, Group Manager, Windows Virtualization at Microsoft, and Brian Duckering, Sr. Director of Products and Alliances at Symantec were the top industry executives who joined Jeremy Geelan in the 4th Floor Reuters Studio overlooking Times Square for a special SYS-CON.TV 'Virtualization Power Panel' recorded on June 22, 2008, the day before the opening of SYS-CON's 3rd International Virtualization Conference & Expo - which was held 23-24 June 2008 in New York City.

I was chatting with a customer the other day who was struggling with some of the implications of cloud computing. The analogy that finally made sense to them is what I will call 'cloud dining.' I am the cook in the house and I am tasked with feeding the family. If my 10-year old is lobbying for Italian, I can cook at home or order out. The decision may also vary from day to day. For instance, I might not have all the ingredients and have to order out, or, like this weekend, it may be 103 outside and cooking at home is not all that appealing. Now, the same can be said for supporting a given application in a cloud computing environment.

The world's first journal devoted to the delivery of massively scalable IT resources as a service has been launched by SYS-CON Media, the latest in a series of leading-edge additions to its 25-plus stable of online and print publications such as Web 2.0 Journal, AJAX & RIA Journal, Open Web Developer's Journal, and iPhone Developer's Journal.

SYS-CON Events announced today that the Virtualization on Wall Street Conference & Expo will take place on March 22-24, 2009, in New York City. The event is expected to attract over 1,000 developers, architects, IT managers, and software professionals of every stripe who will be converging in New York City to attend this comprehensive meeting on Virtualization on Wall Street.

2008 will be the year of Virtualization with many companies offering their products and services, including: 3 Leaf, Acronis, Agilysys, Akorri, AMD, APC, Appistry, AppStream, Attune Systems, Avanade, BEA Systems, Blue Lane, Brocade, CA, Cassatt, Certeon, CiRBA, Citrix, ClearCube, Coraid, Crosswalk, DataDirect, DataSynapse, Digipede Technologies, Double-Take Software, Dynamic Network Factory, Ecora Software, Egenera, Embotics, EMC, Enigmatic, Enomaly, EqualLogic, Evault, eXludus Technologies, F5Networks, FalconStor, FastScale Technology, Fortisphere, GlobalFluency, Grid Dynamics, Hitachi, HP, IBM, InovaWave, Intel, KACE, Kidaro, Layeredtech, LeftHand Networks, Leostream, Mainline, ManageIQ, Marathon Technologies, Mellanox Technologies, Microsoft, Mid-Atlantic Computers, Mindbridge Software, Ncomputing, NeoPath Networks, Neoware, Network Appliance, Neverfail, Novell, Opalis Software, OPNET Technologies, Opsware / HP, Oracle, Panologic, Parallels, PlateSpin, Platform Computing, PolyServe, Provision Networks, Raxco Software, Red Hat, Reflex Security, rPath, Sagent Solutions, SAP, Scalent Systems, ScienceLogic, Seanodes, Splunk, Stoneware, StorageNetworking.org, Supermicro Computer, Surgient, SWsoft, Symantec, Tangosol, Thinstall, Tideway Systems, TOA Solutions, TRANGO Virtual Processors, Trigence, United Devices, VeeAm Software, Virtual Iron, VirtualLogix, Virtugo Software, Vizioncore, VMLogix, vmSight, Vmware, vThere, Sentillion, Wyse Technology, XDS, XenSource, Xsigo Systems, and ZenithOptimedia.

The future model for providing IT infrastructure and services in large organizations is what many today are calling 'Cloud Computing' - a concept popularized by Amazon through its web services efforts. Merrill Lynch analysts for example reckon that by 2011 the volume of Cloud Computing market opportunity will amount to $160BN, including $95N in business and productivity apps (e-mail, office, CRM, etc.) and $65BN in online advertising.

VMware is supposed to report its second-quarter results on Tuesday July 22 and people will be tuning in to see how EMC's abrupt ouster of the virtualization leader's CEO and co-founder Diane Greene last week is handled and what is added to the news that VMware isn't going to make its full-year 2008 guidance of 50% growth over 2007. Parent company EMC said last week that VMware would come in 'modestly below' its revenue goals because of a more challenging spending environment but left Q2 guidance of 55% growth in place.

Just as people begin to understand the difference between web ops and IT, we are entering a period where clouds promise 'Ops-Free' computing. Because it's easy, scalable, available and disposable, the cloud is well on its way to becoming 'technology's next big thing.' However, with recent outages from Amazon and Google Apps, the question of the cloud's competence, security and reliability have come into play. In this session, Hyperic's CEO, Javier Soltero will address these issues along with the many others surrounding the cloud including: The emergence of web operations as a discipline, How cloud computing simply changes, instead of eliminating the importance of web operations, What tools are available to help better manage cloud environments?

RingCube and MXI Security have partnered to deliver MojoPac Enterprise on MXI Security's Stealth MXP Biometric USB drives. The integrated mobile virtual desktop solution enables users to securely carry their entire desktop environment including applications, files and settings on a portable USB drive and access it from any PC - at work, home, at a customer site or on a public computer -- online or offline. MXI Security USB portable security devices ensure that RingCube's high performance virtual workspaces are protected by the highest 2-factor biometric user authentication and the strongest AES 256-bit hardware encryption to prevent data leakage and unauthorized access.

HP is going into the shipping container business following down the path already trod by Sun and recently IBM and some other smaller firms except HP of course figures it can do these data center add-ons better than its rivals. HP calls its 40-foot containers PODs, short for Performance Optimized Data Centers, and says that unlike its competitors its containers will house rival gear from Dell, Sun, IBM, Cisco and whomever as well as HP?s own.

With the adoption of virtualization, virtual machines are replacing physical servers in the data center and introducing a unique set of management requirements. Policy-based management in the virtualized infrastructure is an approach that is used to simplify and automate management by establishing policies to deal with situations that are likely to occur. Many organizations today mistakenly assume that their approach for applying best practices in the virtual infrastructure will be the same as their physical one. This session will discuss leading practices and pitfalls of applying and enforcing IT policies in a virtualized environment.

Cloud Computing offers significant benefits over traditional solutions for deploying production systems as well as for conducting development and testing activities. This session will distill the unique characteristics of clouds and describe how to best think about deployments in the clouds. Case studies and real experiences from Thorsten von Eicken's two years of cloud computing experience will illustrate the pros and cons of today's cloud offerings. His technical discussion will cover: Layers of cloud computing, Cost breakdown versus traditional solutions, IT management and development, testing benefits/examples, Extreme, fast scalability at low cost - case study.

Citrix Systems announced 'Project Kensho,' which will deliver Open Virtual Machine Format (OVF) tools that allow independent software vendors (ISVs) and enterprise IT managers to create hypervisor-independent, portable enterprise application workloads. These tools will allow application workloads to be imported and run across Citrix XenServer, Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and VMware ESX virtual environments.

Fortisphere announced that it plans to support VMware VMsafe technology, expanding the market reach of its Virtual Essentials software suite, which provides customers with greater levels of visibility and control over their VMware virtualized environments. VMware VMsafe technology helps vendors combat the challenges of compliance, management and security in ways previously not possible in physical environments.

Hosting provider LeaseWeb has decided to use a FAS 3040HA mid-range platform by NetApp so that it will be able to offer its customers a complete storage-on-demand (SOD) solution. The platform will allow LeaseWeb to offer managed back-up and disaster recovery services.

Red Hat announced that InfoCamere, an organization responsible for managing the IT systems that connect and secure over 100 Italian Chambers of Commerce, relies on Red Hat and JBoss solutions for flexibility, reliability and ease of use for its mission-critical systems.

Citrix has tapped its VP of channels and emerging product sales Al Monserrat to replace its departing sales chief John Burris, who, as previously reported, is going to Sourcefire as CEO. A couple of years ago Monserrat was responsible for Citrix' North American sales. Meanwhile, Citrix has named former PeopleSoft chief marketing officer and HP veteran Nanci Caldwell to its board.

That thud you heard yesterday was the European Commission hitting Intel with a second supplemental indictment-like statement of objection (SO) charging the company with three more instances of antitrust violations designed to keep AMD out of the market. Miraculously the news arrived just as AMD was posting its seventh consecutive quarterly loss.

Citrix on Tuesday announced Project Kensho, which is supposed to deliver Open Virtual Machine Format (OVF) tools that will let ISVs and enterprise IT folk create portable hypervisor-independent enterprise application workloads that should run across XenServer, Hyper-V and VMware ESX virtual environments. Citrix is expecting to have a free technical preview for download in September.

Amazon has kicked into Engine Yard's $15 million Series B round along with Benchmark Capital and New Enterprise Associates. The two-year-old 70-man open source company provides a deployment infrastructure, services and support for developers to take their Ruby and Rails applications to the cloud. The money should underwrite its anticipated cloud computing cluster platform and expand its business.

As server virtualization gains mainstream adoption, it is increasingly being deployed to support a broad range of data center initiatives that extend beyond simple server consolidation and development and test. Today, enterprises of all sizes are realizing the true potential of server virtualization and using it to streamline their data centers to create more flexible and dynamic IT infrastructure that enables them to deploy and manage software applications, support business continuity and balance CPU capacity dynamically. This session will examine the emergence of this new operating environment and its dramatic potential impact for users. It will also look at some of the critical considerations for users and how these decisions can impact their data center roadmap.

CEO Hector Ruiz, increasingly blamed for the harrowing of AMD, stepped down during the company's Q2 conference call with Wall Street Thursday in favor of his sidekick, AMD president and patent-carrying engineer Dirk Meyer, the guy who used to run AMD's chip operation and was responsible for the Opteron chip that brought grief to Intel. Since the two have been so closed aligned it is unclear whether the change will make any substantive difference in AMD's fortunes.

Sun, whose stock has been teetering on the brink of disaster, pre-announced its fourth quarter Tuesday and said it could have non-GAAP earnings somewhere between 25 cents and 35 cents because of a $100 million restructuring charge (five-15 cents GAAP) on revenues of $3.725 billion-$3.8 billion. Its gross margin is supposed to be 44%-45. Wall Street folks figured it would do 27 cents on $3.8 billion.

StoneFly unveiled StoneFusion 6.1, a new more robust release of the company's intelligent network storage platform, which is integrated into all StoneFly IP SANs to provide block-level provisioning and centralized storage management, control and monitoring of logical storage volumes.

Join MokaFive co-founder and CTO, John Whaley, as he discusses desktop virtualization as a potential dream-come-true for IT administrators faced with demanding users and impending disasters. Whaley will cover how desktop virtualization provides solutions to accommodate a mobile workforce including secure remote access, ability to work online or offline, running complete operating systems and applications off a USB flash drive or iPod, and centrally-managed updates delivered simultaneously. Whaley will also talk about key security benefits to building and deploying virtual desktops including malware immunity, backing up to the cloud and automatic rejuvenation.

FastScale announced a new North America Channel Program with eight partners already signed including Blackhawk Technology Consulting, Continental Resources, International Computerware, New Age Technology, SecureTek Group, VirtaCORE, Whitewater Data, and Xcedex. Data center demand for the company's innovative technologies exceeded expectations during the first year of availability, and skilled partners will provide customers with greater access to products, technical expertise, and related services offerings centered on FastScale?s technologies.

FastScale announced the newest release of its flagship product, FastScale Composer Suite. FastScale Composer Suite fully automates the process of building, managing and deploying server software environments for enterprise class data centers and Web farms, whether the infrastructure is physical, virtual or both. The new release extends the benefits of FastScale's sleek software management solution to Windows Server 2003 environments, adds new capabilities in lightweight application provisioning, and delivers a range of scalability and usability enhancements.

Imera Systems announces next generation network virtualization solutions for cross-enterprise e-Diagnostics and equipment knowledge base access. The solutions connect manufacturers and equipment vendors to maximize productivity and reduce unscheduled equipment down time with no VPN connection, no third party service provider and no IP leakage.

On the heels of emergence from stealth mode, Hyper9 revealed the identities of two key product architects. Hyper9 search guru Jim Snyder and data aggregation expert Brian Baker share large roles in the development of the company's recently announced virtualization management solution.

SAP announced the opening of a second SAP Co-Innovation Lab in Ohtemachi, Tokyo, Japan. Joining the co-innovation lab, located in Palo Alto, California, the addition further broadens efforts by SAP to work with software solution partners, technology partners, service partners and customers to accelerate the innovation and delivery of solutions designed to address industry-specific business issues for companies around the world.

3PAR announced a new partnership with SYSDBA in South Africa to deliver innovative utility computing solutions built on 3PAR Utility Storage. SYSDBA offers a portfolio of products that collectively optimize and consolidate their clients' data centers by reducing management overhead and improving resource utilization, ultimately saving their clients money. 3PAR Utility Storage is designed to enable a new generation of utility computing applications such as delivery of enterprise IT as a utility service, cloud computing over the Web, and Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)-based applications. The partnership with 3PAR allows SYSDBA to take virtualization beyond the server layer and into the storage infrastructure for greater consolidation, cost savings, and reduction of storage administration for their customers.

StoneFly unveiled StoneFusion 6.1, a new more robust release of the company's intelligent network storage platform, which is integrated into all StoneFly IP SANs to provide block-level provisioning and centralized storage management, control and monitoring of logical storage volumes.

Virtualization comes in many forms, and by combining multiple technologies, enterprises can transform the way they deploy and manage their software. This session will examine how an enterprise can combine the use of layer-2 'desktop' hypervisor technology, layer-1 dedicated server virtualization software and next-generation management software to rapidly speed the rate at which they can develop and deploy new software within their enterprise. With software developers able to easily create and encapsulate software within virtual machine containers, and then speed this through staging and deployment, enterprises benefit from radical cost reduction and increased time to market. It will also radically simplify complex IT tasks, such as: patching and compliance reporting. This session will include case studies and live technology demonstrations.

IBM and Juniper Networks announced they have signed a five-year, data center hosting agreement with IBM to support Juniper's global operations. As part of the agreement, IBM will provide Juniper with a next-generation, global hosting environment to support its enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) application deployments worldwide. IBM will host Juniper's operations from its new energy efficient 'green' data center in Boulder, Colorado.

ScaleMP announced the availability and support of its vSMP Foundation Standalone software on the Dell PowerEdge server platforms. ScaleMP customers can now take advantage of ScaleMP's aggregation solutions using Dell's PowerEdge server platforms. The vSMP Foundation Standalone software aggregates multiple x86 and cluster-based systems into a single virtual shared memory system, reducing overall system management complexity while providing maximum processing and memory capabilities.

Carbonite announced a partnership agreement with Lifeboat Distribution. The agreement will enhance distribution coverage within North America. Carbonite will have access to Lifeboat's North American network of more than 4,500 resellers, value-added resellers, consultants and systems integrators. Among the partners expected to resell the Carbonite Online Backup solution are Wayside's separate subsidiaries - Programmer's Paradise and TechXtend - that sell software and hardware solutions to U.S. and Canadian corporations, universities and government organizations.

TOLIS Group announced a partnership with Parallels. TOLIS' BRU Server network backup solution has been successfully tested for compatibility with Parallels Server for Mac virtualization software. TOLIS Group is the developer of the ultra-reliable BRU brand of data backup and restore solutions and is a Parallels Technology Partner. BRU Server is now listed in the Parallels Certified Products Catalog.

SYSGO announced that their PikeOS safe and secure virtualization platform has been selected to support the ARINC-653 test application ported on AIDA, the new platform defined by the DIANA project. This test application is a Flight Management System (FMS).

As a technology provider that helps application companies embrace cloud computing by virtualizing the applications to run on any cloud, I was a bit disappointed with Google's AppEngine announcement. It appears that Google is embracing the 'walled garden' approach of SalesForce.com and Microsoft instead of the cloud approach of Amazon.