VMworld roundup: VMware partners focus on securing data migration at lower costs

VMworld 2012 kicked off in San Francisco this morning, and a host of VMware's closest partners are rolling out new releases and announcements left and right.

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Here's a roundup of a few introductions emerging amid the virtualization giant's annual expo:

• NetApp: Building upon NetApp's Agile Data Infrastructure approach, NetApp announced a new integration between its Data ONTAP 8 software with VMware vSphere 5.1 to enable organizations to deliver and manage non-disruptive migration of data among hundreds of virtual machines at a time. The objective is to offer continuous data access and uninterrupted business operations as the infrastructure grows and scales without any required changes to server hosts.
• Juniper Networks: Juniper Networks upgraded vGW Virtual Gateway, its security solution for virtualized environments for enterprise and cloud service provider customers. At the heart of the upgrade is the new Cloud API as well as an SDK for automated security configuration, which is touted to be more cost-efficient with more security controls. Cloud service providers would have the option to offer customers the chance to build customized portals with self-service access to virtual machines and security provisioning on an on-demand basis.
• Brocade: Brocade has introduced its ADX Series application delivery switches, which are designed to enable scalable virtual networking services, also known as VXLAN (Virtual eXtensible Local Area Network), which were built in partnership with VMware. With the VXLAN gateway solution, Brocade and VMware customers should be able to virtualize their networks at enterprise and service provider scale at hardware-based performance levels. The idea is to allow customers to use their current infrastructures while leveraging the VXLAN to support multi-tenancy and large-scale deployment of applications and virtual machines.
• Avaya: Avaya has two new virtualization solutions focused on eliminating what it describes as the "cumbersome aspects" of infrastructure while simplifying the installation and operations of real-time applications.
  First up is Avaya Collaboration Pods, a portfolio of turnkey solutions for speeding up Avaya Collaborative Cloud solutions deployments. Using features and storage arrays from Avaya, EMC and VMware,the Pods are supposed to deliver virtualized storage, computing and networking optimized for unique performance requirements of collaboration and other real-time applications.
  That's followed up by more integrated support for VXLANs with Avaya VENA Fabric Connect, which is described as more efficient and less prone to errors because it enables "changes only at the edge of the network, rather than on every device and every link."