Systems Channel News Roundup, Jan. 12-16 |
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By Colin Steele, Site Editor
16 Jan 2009 | SearchSystemsChannel.com |
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Systems channel news roundup for Jan. 12-16, 2009.
XP users may pass on Windows 7
Windows 7 is getting positive reviews, but some users say they'll still keep Windows XP, thank you very much. Support for XP won't end until 2014, and some users tell SearchCIO.com they plan to stick it out until then -- when something even newer and better than Windows 7 could be on the market.
Windows Vista suffered from issues of application compatibility and user-friendliness early on, from which it never really recovered. Microsoft has been pushing Windows 7, which is now out in beta, as the next big thing. But the company could be a victim of its own success with XP, a popular and stable operating system.
Windows 7 is due out late this year or in early 2010.
Storage vendors court VARs at Macworld
Despite the lack of buzz around this year's Macworld Conference and Expo, there was some good news for the channel. SearchITChannel.com reports that several Mac storage vendors used the show to reach out to resellers and OEMs. Apple's dominance in the video, broadcasting and other media markets, where storage needs are especially high, creates strong opportunities for solutions providers to reach these niche customers.
Microsoft partners for fault tolerance
Microsoft is teaming up with Marathon Technologies, a fault-tolerance software vendor. Under the partnership, Microsoft will use Marathon's software, which lets virtual machines and Windows applications run in lockstep on two servers, to boost Windows Server 2008 and its Hyper-V virtualization hypervisor. The software keeps applications up and running when the hardware on one server fails. Microsoft's move is the latest in a series of attempts to take on VMware in the server virtualization market.
Egenera opens PAN Manager APIs
In a move to court more OEM resellers, Egenera has added open APIs to its Processing Area Network (PAN) Manager software, according to SearchServerVirtualization.com. The open APIs will let customers and partners more easily integrate PAN Manager with management suites and other applications, the company said. PAN Manager helps users add virtual machines to physical servers by virtualizing the server components.
NetApp extends virtualization guarantee
NetApp this week extended its 50% Virtualization Guarantee program to Citrix and Microsoft virtual environments. Under the program, which only applied to VMware before, NetApp guarantees that customers will use at least 50% less storage by choosing its storage solutions in virtual environments. If not, NetApp will provide the additional capacity needed at no extra charge.
Check out last week's systems channel news roundup.
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