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VMworld 2010 Video

The VMware Social Media team will be collaborating with social media teams from various sponsors, partners and attendees to bring everyone the best experience possible and expand the messages and experiences from the conference – both in San Francisco and Copenhagen.

The Support folks will be showcasing our social media prowess at the Social Support Pod in the Genius Bar area. Kevin Mitts (Mr. KB) and Rick Blythe(that’s me) would love it if you drop by and say hello. Kevin is there to talk about the VMware Knowledgebase, let folks know how to use it, and answer questions about it. I’m there to let people know about our online presence in social networks. We’re doing some pretty interesting things I think these days.

We have created a social media overview to highlight the following:

• Contacts & Key URLs
• Collaboration tools for contributors & gatherings
• Details of the Social Media & Blogger Lounge
• Blog, Twitter, Facebook and Video/Photo resources
• Discussion Forums
• Other social media options

View the Social Media overview at http://vmware.com/go/vmworld-socialmedia and feel free to share this URL with others.

If you will be contributing to VMworld 2010 coverage, add your details at http://vmware.com/go/vmworld-contributors.

If you would like to share any VMworld 2010 gatherings, please add those details at: http://vmware.com/go/vmworld-gatherings.

Please contact vmworld-socialmedia@vmware.com if you have any questions.

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Social Media at VMworld 2010

I just got my hands on Eric Siebert’s new book Maximum vSphere. This is Eric’s second book, and this goes deep into best practices specific to this release of vSphere. It’s also a great reference to keep on hand when those questions pop into your head. Whether you’re implementing or managing vSphere 4, upgrading from older technologies, or taking on new responsibilities in a VMware environment, you’ll find this book indispensable.

Some really great chapters in here:

• Upgrading to vSphere
• Building Your Own vSphere Lab
• Advanced Features
• Performance in vSphere

The book also benefits from contributor Simon Seagrave, and John Troyer authored the Forward. Congratulations Eric on another fine book.

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Maximum vSphere

Here’s what’s new in this release, as well as important links to review.

What’s New
The ThinApp 4.6 release adds the following features to improve usability, performance, and updates:

• ThinApp Converter transparently captures installation content, generates ThinApp projects, and builds the projects into ThinApp packages. This process is fully automated, from when ThinApp Converter starts to run until the ThinApp package is built.
• ThinApp can capture Internet Explorer 6 and many of its plug-ins on a Windows XP machine. Used in conjunction with the ThinApp ThinDirect plug-in, installed on a user’s native browser, Web sites, or specific pages can be redirected to automatically open in a virtual Internet Explorer 6 browser. In addition, an application that requires Internet Explorer 6 can be packaged with Internet Explorer 6, so that the application runs automatically on the virtual Internet Explorer 6.
• ThinApp ThinReg application enables a virtual service to be installed as a physical service, so that it starts when the physical machine is started. Any user can start and stop the service.
• Internet Explorer 6 is supported for Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit) machines.
• ThinApp Management SDK enables package inspection and control of package registration, streaming, and updates. The ThinApp Management SDK has been publicly released and is available as a download.
• AppLink supports wildcard characters for directory files and for filenames, enabling recursive dependency collections.

For additional information about ThinApp 4.6, visit the following links:

• http://www.vmware.com/products/thinapp/
• http://www.vmware.com/go/thinappsdk/
• http://blogs.vmware.com/thinapp/2010/08/vmware-thinapp-46-whats-new.html
• http://www.vmware.com/support/thinapp4/doc/releasenotes_thinapp46.html
• http://vmware.com/go/thinappsdk

Twitter folks to follow:

http://twitter.com/ThinappGuru ; http://twitter.com/vmwareview

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ThinApp 4.6 is out the door

• Installation and Deployment
• Storage
• Network
• Availability
• Management
• Platform Enhancements
• Partner Ecosystem

Today’s press releases: VMware Advances Foundation for Cloud Computing With VMware vSphere 4.1 and Expanded Virtualization Management Portfolio and VMware Introduces Enhanced Virtualization Offerings for Small and Midsize Businesses.

I also encourage you to read Steve Herrod and Bogomil Balkansky’s blog posts for additional insight and perspective on today’s announcements.

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vSphere 4.1 Launched!

Matt Lamantia will show examples of how the VIX API can be used to develop tools for managing guest environments in VMware products. Included will be a demonstration of proof-of-concept tools that monitor processes and transfer files to multiple guests simultaneously. He will also show a Perl script that combines vSphere Web Services SDK and VIX SDK to re-size a virtual disk and the filesystem above it on the fly. Very cool.

Wednesday June 30th, 9:00 AM PST
Speaker: Matt Lamantia R&D Manager
Level: Advanced
Participant Passcode: 783534
Toll Free: 1-888-450-4823
Toll: 1-719-785-5674
WebEx Information:
Meeting Number: 923 019 604

https://vmware.webex.com/vmware/j.php?ED=146358697&UID=0&RT=MiM0

Session PDF and Recording will be posted:

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/272891

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Manage your Guest OS with VIX APIs

Wanted to share a new VMware blog by Elliott Stewart for the personal desktop product documentation. The new blog addresses documentation questions, provides troubleshooting tips, and provides fresh information on Workstation, Fusion, Player, and ACE.

http://blogs.vmware.com/vanswers/

You can RSS-subscribe to the blog or follow Elliot on Twitter at @elliottvmw.

Welcome Elliot!

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Finding vAnswers blog

For more details on the announcement itself, I have included some links to some blogs.  You can also view a replay of the webcast from the Google conference here.  For a general description of the announcement, and significance of this announcement, please see Steve Herrod’s blog.

For those interested in more of the technology details, I’d also refer you to Rod Johnson’s blog.

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Google, VMware collaboration

Why are salesforce.com and VMware working on this together?
Salesforce.com and VMware have a shared vision — that cloud computing can simplify IT – and can reduce the cost and complexity of building and running business apps. The complementary technologies, expertise and communities from each company made teaming up to deliver an enterprise java cloud a natural fit. In addition to the 2 million spring developers, VMware is bringing new vCloud technology that manages both the underlying vSphere virtualization layer as well as the java application infrastructure.
Salesforce.com is the leader in cloud database technology and the most trusted cloud platform for enterprise application apps with over 72,500 customers running their most important apps and most sensitive data. By combining forces we are giving businesses and their Java developers a clear path to the cloud.

How will this help customers?
VMforce will dramatically simplify how enterprises can harness the economics of cloud computing without compromising the flexibility, control and choice they require. Now CIOs and IT departments will be able to leverage their existing programming skills and investments in Java applications, and take full advantage of the benefits of cloud computing. With VMforce, the more than 6 million enterprise Java developers now have an open path to cloud computing without compromise.

What are the benefits of VMforce?
Simple — It runs in the cloud: There’s no hardware to manage. No software stack to install, patch, tune or upgrade. It’s all provided as a service in the cloud. Developers can focus on their code and we’ll handle the rest.

Spring Framework: VMforce includes the popular Spring framework. Spring makes it easy for developers to build powerful enterprise Java apps.

Powerful business app components: Since VMforce runs on the Force.com platform, developers have access to pre-built business app components that can be configured into their apps without requiring any custom coding. These components include a cloud database, search, reporting & analytics, a web services integration API and application security services.

Automatic scalability: With VMforce apps automatically scale. Developers don’t have to worry about scaling up app servers, databases or infrastructure.

Trusted Your apps run on the most trusted cloud infrastructure. Force.com is trusted by over 72,500 customers for their most important business applications and their most sensitive data. VMforce apps run on this same trusted infrastructure. All of your Java apps can now run on the world’s most secure enterprise cloud computing platform. The Force.com infrastructure that runs all of the apps created has passed some of most stringent security certifications including ISO 27001, SysTrust and SAS70 Type II.

Open Standard Java: VMforce supports standard java code: POJOs, JSPs, Servlets, etc. along with the popular Spring Framework.

Standard-Skill Sets: With VMforce, every Java developer is now a cloud developer. Any company with Java development resources and skill-sets can now easily start building and running enterprise apps in the cloud.

Portability: By building enterprise Java apps with Spring, you can deploy your app locally or onto the cloud.

How does VMforce compare to vCloud Express?
vCloud and other Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) solutions are complements to VMforce. vCloud Express and other cloud services based on vSphere offer basic compute capacity as a service. They still require you to install and manage your own application stack. These solutions are great for a category of applications that aren’t Java and don’t work in a PaaS environment like VMforce.

How is VMforce different than vCloud Express?
VMforce is a complete Platform as a Service (PaaS) while vCloud Express is an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) solution. In an IaaS solution, customers can consume a generic server resource in the cloud. It still requires customers to install and manage an application stack including the application server, database, and other middleware elements. For some developers and some applications this is the right solution.

In contrast, VMforce is a full PaaS solution where the customer doesn’t need to worry about installing and managing the middleware and application stack. All that “plumbing” is now done as a service. With VMforce, the customer focuses on the application logic and leaves the rest to VMware and Salesforce.com. Can you run VMforce on a vSphere-based private cloud? You cannot run VMforce on a private cloud. VMforce is delivered as a service which means that a company is turning over the operations and "plumbing" of the application stack to VMware and Salesforce.com. However, customers can build their private clouds using many of the same technologies used in VMforce including vSphere, the Spring Framework, and tc server.

How is VMforce different than other cloud services like Microsoft Azure or Amazon EC2?
The Windows Azure Platform is Microsoft’s cloud solution. Unlike VMforce, Azure is a closed and proprietary system focused on .Net developers and applications. It requires you to use Microsoft Azure services whereas VMforce lets you program in the open source language Java and reuse existing Java libraries and applications.

Amazon EC2 is an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) solution. In an IaaS solution, customers can consume a generic server resource in the cloud. It still requires customers to install and manage an application stack including the application server, database, and other middleware elements.

In contrast, VMforce is a full PaaS solution where the customer doesn’t need to worry about installing and managing the middleware and application stack. All that “plumbing” is now done as a service. With VMforce, the customer focuses on the application logic and leaves the rest to VMware and Salesforce.com.

Furthermore, VMforce is a complete solution that combines the openness of Java and Spring with Force.com services that allow you to build applications quicker and faster. Customers can use the Force.com search and reporting services, the analytics service, and even the Salesforce.com Chatter collaboration services. It lets you build complete business applications where Azure and Amazon are still lacking in these offerings.

What is the availability of VMforce?
VMforce is currently scheduled to be in developer preview in 2010. Customers should make their purchasing decisions based on technology that is currently available.

What is the pricing for VMforce?
We are not announcing pricing today. We are exploring a number of different options and will announce pricing closer to VMforce availability.

Will both salesforce.com and VMware sell VMforce?
Yes, however the specific go to market plan will not be communicated until much later in the year, closer the availability of the service.

What are the financial details of the joint venture?
Financial details are not being disclosed. The partnership is set up to provide value equitably between VMware and salesforce.com.

Can I talk to my customers about VMforce?
Yes, everyone at VMware needs to be able to share that VMware (as part of our vCloud initiative) and salesforce.com are working together to provide a path for Java/Spring developers to move to the cloud.
That said there is no immediate call to action that VMware needs to communicate to its
customers. Later in the year, VMware and salesforce.com will lay out a go to market strategy for this new service.

Where can I learn more?
There are two VMware executive blogs that explain more:
• Blog post from Steve Herrod can be found at:
http://blogs.vmware.com/console/2010/04/vmforce-and-vmwares-open-paas-strategy.html
• Blog post from Rod Johnson can be found at:
http://blog.springsource.com/2010/04/27/vmforce-spring-cloud/
Please visit www.vmforce.com to learn more.

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What is VMforce?

http://blogs.vmware.com/security/2010/04/vsphere-40-hardening-guide-released.html

This guide represents a new approach to providing security guidance from VMware. As compared with the previous VI3 Hardening Guides, the current guide has the following highlights.

• Structure: this version uses a standardized format, with formally defined sections, templates, and reference codes.  The goal is to increase clarity and reduce ambiguity, make it easier to reference individual guidelines, and most of all, enhance the ability to automate guideline enforcement.
• Recommendation levels: in following with the formats used by NIST, CIS, and others, this guide categorizes all guidelines into three security levels.  Instead of recommending a single set of guidelines for all environments, this guide encourages more of a risk-based approach, so that individual administrators can decide which guidelines apply to their environment.

Overall, there are more than 100 guidelines, with the following major sections:

• Introduction
• Virtual Machines
• Host (both ESXi and ESX)
• vNetwork
• vCenter
• Console OS (for ESX only)

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New vSphere 4.0 Hardening Guide