Welcome!

Cloud Expo Authors: Maureen O'Gara, Max Katz, Kevin Benedict, Greg Ness, Ranko Mosic

Related Topics: Open Source, Java, Virtualization

Open Source: Blog Feed Post

Sun Microsystems Brings Teleportation to VirtualBox

Sun’s virtualization platform, aside from being a professional quality hypervisor based virtualization solution, is open source

Virtualization on Ulitzer

Some great news came out of Sun Microsystems this week with the release of VirtualBox 3.1.o. This is Sun’s virtualization platform, which has been at the core of many of Sun’s newest technologies. What is great about VirtualBox, aside from being a professional quality hypervisor based virtualization solution, is that it is open source.

According to Sun, the newest major features added are:

  • Teleportation (aka live migration); migrate a live VM session from one host to another (see the manual for more information)
  • VM states can now be restored from arbitrary snapshots instead of only the last one, and new snapshots can be taken from other snapshots as well (”branched snapshots”; see the manual for more information)
  • 2D video acceleration for Windows guests; use the host video hardware for overlay stretching and color conversion (see the manual for more information)
  • More flexible storage attachments: CD/DVD drives can be attached to an arbitrary IDE controller, and there can be more than one such drive (the manual for more information)
  • The network attachment type can be changed while a VM is running
  • Complete rewrite of experimental USB support for OpenSolaris hosts making use of the latest USB enhancements in Solaris Nevada 124 and higher
  • Significant performance improvements for PAE and AMD64 guests (VT-x and AMD-V only; normal (non-nested) paging)
  • Experimental support for EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface; see the manual for more information)
  • Support for paravirtualized network adapters (virtio-net; see the manual for more information)

The first of these new features, ‘Teleportation’, is HUGE. The ability to migrate a live virtual machine really makes downtime a think of the past and the true multi-platform nature of VirtualBox (Solaris, Linux, Mac and Windows), allows for this migration to take place across operating systems, hardware vendors, processor architectures and even from servers to clients.

Allowing restores from arbitrary snapshots makes for a pseudo revision control system for virtual machines. This is a definitely a feature that will come in handy for developers and testers.

2D video acceleration will definitely help on the virtual desktop front. Flexible storage attachments allow users to more accurately mimic physical hardware for certain systems, and changing a network attachment type on-the-fly can help with virtual network testing. The rewrite of USB drivers for OpenSolaris brings the platform closer to plug and play functionality.

A performance increase for PAE and AMD64 guests is always a welcome thing as is the foray into EFI support. Naturally, the paravirtualized network driver will drastically increase networking performance for guests.

I would say that Sun has made some major advancements overall in their flagship virtualization platform. Having used VirtualBox on several machines with Unix, Linux, Mac and Windows in my lab, I can definitely attest to the speed and usability of the platform. The added ability to migrate my virtual machines across all of my hosts is a very welcome addition. Paired with SunRay Software 5, I can see the newest release of VirtualBox serving as a solid foundation for a Desktop VDI platform.

Read the original blog entry...

More Stories By Ernest de Leon

Ernest is a technologist, a futurist and serial entrepreneur who aims to help those making IT related business decisions, from Administrators through Architects to CIOs. Having held just about every title in the IT field all the way up through CTO, he lends his industry experience and multi-platform thinking to all who need it. Creating a vision and executing it are two different things, and he is here to help with both. Seeing the forest and the trees at the same time is a special skill which takes years of experience to develop.

Cloud Expo Breaking News
Wide and cheap availability of cloud-based media services is upon us. With the transformations these services are already bringing to the consumption of music, video and interactive media, change has likewise come to professional workflows. Documents in 2012 are read, written, collaborated on, and distributed anywhere an Internet-enabled device can reach – which is to say, everywhere. In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Christopher Kenneally, Director of Business Development a...
With Cloud Expo 2012 New York (10th Cloud Expo) just four months away, what better time to start introducing you in greater detail to the distinguished individuals in our incredible Speaker Faculty for the technical and strategy sessions at the conference... We have technical and strategy sessions for you every day from June 11 through June 14 dealing with every nook and cranny of Cloud Computing and Big Data, but what of those who are presenting? Who are they, where do they work, what else h...
Cloud is a shift from the focus on underlying technology implementation to leveraging existing implementations and further building upon them. Cloud orchestration or a network of clouds is the wave of the future where these clouds can operate with elasticity, scalability, and efficiency. Effective service management is an important aspect of managing such networks. The transition to the cloud will enable the further aggregation of composite web services and enhanced business-to-business capabili...
CONGRATULATIONS to National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) CIO Jill T. Singer for being selected as one of the 10 winners of the first annual CloudNOW awards presented in Santa Clara, California earlier this week.

From the NRO Press Release:
"Considered one of the top women leaders in Federal IT, Ms. Singer was recognized for her innova...
I've been working on Enterprise Cloud Strategy and in the course of this work identified some interesting and non-obvious opportunities in the Cloud. One solution I’ve examined is the well-crafted solution that is enStratus. enStratus has built a SaaS Cloud Management / Governance product focused on providing critical management, monitoring, governance capabilities tailored to the needs of the Global 2000 market, rather than the startup market. As I have worked with a current Fortune 500 clie...
With Cloud Expo 2012 New York (10th Cloud Expo) now under four months away, what better time to start introducing you in greater detail to the distinguished individuals in our incredible Speaker Faculty for the technical and strategy sessions at the conference... We have technical and strategy sessions for you every day from June 11 through June 14 dealing with every nook and cranny of Cloud Computing and Big Data, but what of those who are presenting? Who are they, where do they work, what e...
2011 was a year of rapid adoption for public and private cloud services. Instant and on-demand server provisioning was the driving force behind the massive growth. On top, cloud server templates and script automation simplified application installation for simple and pre-defined application stacks, but have not targeted more complex enterprise application environments. In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, John Yung, CEO of Appcara, will discuss how 2012 will be the year for app...
"Having been in the IT field for many years, I believe the cloud computing chapter in the industry is an exciting one and I am proud to be a part of it," said National Reconaissance Office (NRO) Chief Information Officer Jill T. Singer Tuesday, as it was announced that she was one of 10 winners of the 2012 CloudNOW "Top Ten Women in Cloud" Awards.
As more enterprises are adopting clouds, the nature of cloud computing is changing. Previously, clouds were used to test applications or for non-mission critical applications. Today, enterprises are using clouds for cost-saving advantages and launching more mission critical applications that have defined performance needs. In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Eric Shepcaro, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Telx, will discuss how distributed computing has many advantages. It wou...
With Cloud Expo 2012 New York (10th Cloud Expo) just four months away, what better time to start introducing you in greater detail to the distinguished individuals in our incredible Speaker Faculty for the technical and strategy sessions at the conference... We have technical and strategy sessions for you every day from June 11 through June 14 dealing with every nook and cranny of Cloud Computing and Big Data, but what of those who are presenting? Who are they, where do they work, what else h...