Novell Extends Leadership in the Enterprise Data Center with First Major PlateSpin Product Release

By VSM News Staff
published: Monday, June 23 2008

PlateSpin PowerConvert 7.0 delivers most comprehensive multi-platform support for Windows and Linux in mixed data center environments.

ORLANDO, Fla. (Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations & Management Summit) - June 23, 2008 - PlateSpin ULC, a Novell® company, today announced the launch of PlateSpin PowerConvert® Version 7.0 with new backup and recovery features and expanded multi-platform support to help enterprises migrate and protect server workloads across heterogeneous physical and virtual IT environments. The first major product release since the company was acquired by Novell in March 2008, PowerConvert 7.0 gives customers a true enterprise-class solution to simplify the management of server workloads in their heterogeneous data centers.

"Since implementing PlateSpin PowerConvert, we have realized tangible benefits and savings," said Steve Houghton, infrastructure solutions architect, Norwich Union IT Solutions, an Aviva company. "We have seen a significant improvement in the performance of the data center with scheduling and remote management tools at our fingertips and an increase in productivity with over 1,000 virtual machines in operation. PowerConvert has been instrumental to ensuring the day-to-day running of business functions and has given us the opportunity to reduce emissions, cut costs and increase efficiencies across the board."

With extended support for Linux* and Windows*-based workloads, PowerConvert provides new image-based disaster recovery capabilities and migration speed enhancements for large-scale implementations.  In addition to providing enhanced SUSE® Linux Enterprise support, PlateSpin PowerConvert now provides broader support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, as well as support for critical 64-Bit Microsoft Windows Server-based workloads and Citrix XenServer environments. PowerConvert provides the flexibility to optimize data centers by decoupling server workloads from the underlying hardware and streaming them over the network between physical servers, blade infrastructures, virtual hosts and image archives.

"Since Novell's acquisition of PlateSpin in March, the two organizations have worked closely to put in place a data center strategy and product roadmap to help customers achieve an agile enterprise in which business services can span physical and virtual environments," said Stephen Pollack, chief executive officer of PlateSpin, a Novell company. "To build the next-generation data center infrastructure, organizations need enterprise-caliber multi-platform workload portability, robust and scalable workload protection and reliable policy-based orchestration, PlateSpin PowerConvert 7.0 is designed to help customers achieve this flexibility and maximize their investment in virtualization."

New PowerConvert 7.0 Features:

• Linux "Anywhere-to-Physical" Migrations - Powerful physical-to-physical (P2P) and virtual-to-physical (V2P) capabilities enable migration of Linux workloads across physical or virtual boundaries for 32-bit SUSE Linux Enterprise Server from Novell and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, giving customers the ability to accelerate data center initiatives including server consolidation, hardware lease migration and data center relocation.

• Windows 64-Bit Support - Windows 64-Bit physical-to-virtual (P2V) migration for critical Windows Server 2003 workloads with support for various transfer methods, including Take Control, Live File Transfer and Snapshot for VMware ESX 3.x, 3.5 and Citrix XEN Enterprise 4.1, offers customers an effective migration option in a single solution.

• Enhanced Citrix XenServer Support - Support for anywhere-to-virtual (X2V) and virtual-to-image (V2I) workload migrations for Citrix XenServer Enterprise 4.1 including 32-bit Windows XP, 2000, 2003 and 64-Bit Windows Server 2003 allows customers to accelerate and simplify integration and maximize their IT investment.

• Incremental Imaging Capabilities - Flexible imaging support brings greater workload protection while enabling significant savings in terms of staffing time, bandwidth and storage costs. Superior image import and export capabilities and automation enable organizations to more easily create and manage an image-based repository of server workloads for backup and disaster recovery and reduce imaging costs.

• Enterprise-class Speed and Reliability - Dramatically improved transfer speeds for workload migrations over a wide range of network types from Gigabit Ethernet networks to high-latency WAN environments - all with reliable enterprise-class workload migration functionality including Server SyncTM, job automation and post-migration testing capabilities that minimize downtime while maximizing the integrity of the workload migration. PowerConvert's enterprise-caliber reliability reduces overall migration project times, lowers business risk and accelerates time to value for large-scale data center initiatives.

Availability

PlateSpin PowerConvert 7.0 is now shipping worldwide. For more information on how to purchase PlateSpin PowerConvert and applicable pricing in your region, contact your local authorized PlateSpin reseller, email info@platespin.com or visit http://www.platespin.com/products/powerconvert. Resellers and distributors interested in joining PlateSpin's global partner community should contact us at http://www.platespin.com/partner.

PlateSpin, a Novell company, provides a unified suite of solutions to help enterprises adopt, manage and extend their use of server virtualization in the data center. PlateSpin's Workload PortabilityTM technology liberates workloads from hardware platforms, allowing data, applications and operating systems to be migrated over the network between any physical or virtual host. The ability to migrate, protect, provision and optimize server workloads across physical and virtual environments helps enterprises reduce cost, complexity and risk. With integrated workload profiling and planning, PlateSpin solutions improve the speed and quality of data center initiatives and ease the burden of managing mixed IT environments. For more information, visit www.platespin.com.

About Novell

Novell, Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVL) delivers the best engineered, most interoperable Linux* platform and a portfolio of integrated IT management software that helps customers around the world reduce cost, complexity and risk. With our infrastructure software and ecosystem of partnerships, Novell harmoniously integrates mixed IT environments, allowing people and technology to work as one. For more information, visit www.novell.com.