PlateSpin Launches PowerConvert 7.0

PlateSpin, a recent acquisition of Novell recently announced PowerConvert 7.0, The company was quick to point out that this is the first product launch since the acquistion. Why would they go to such great lengths to mention that? They want to convince the market that PlatSpin will continue to be an innovative supplier and that becoming part of Novell's portfolio didn't change that.

Here's what PlateSpin had to say about PowerConvert 7.0

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

What's new?

Here's what PlateSpin says is new:

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 Sync™, 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.

Snapshot analysis

The rather timid way the company introduced this announcement would lead a person to think that the company was rather embarrassed by its track record and product portfolio. This reminds me of the scene in Lord of the Rings Return of the King. Aragorn has just been crowned King of Middle Earth. Everyone on the great plateau at the summit of  the Capital City of Gondor, Minas Tirith, is bowing to the new King. When the Hobbits start to do the same, the newly crowned King Aragon tells them "You bow to no one."

Novell has a very large portfolio of technology that covers a number of the market segments in the Kusnetzky Group Model of virtualization technologies that I presented in a post nearly a year ago. This includes virtual processing software in the form of Xen, KVM and powerful clustering software. It includes storage virtualization technology. It includes quite a number of tools to enhance both security and managability in virtualized environments. PlateSpin's tools fall in that last category.

PlateSpin's products have always been powerful tools to help organizations increase the capabilities used in thier efforts to manage, orchestrate and automate their virtualized resources. This announcement just pushed the envelope a bit further and increased the range of solutions Novell/PlateSpin can offer. There's no need for Novell or PlateSpin to seem embarrassed by this announcement.