New Products

Penguin Computing has announced the Altus 600 server, specifically designed for the needs of high-performance computing (HPC). Equipped with up to two Next-Generation AMD Opteron 2000-series processors and up to 64GB of memory, the company says the Altus 600 eliminates features that are not typically needed by HPC customers, reducing the cost of clustering without sacrificing performance or efficiency.

The Altus 600 delivers key features for HPC users running complex simulations, such as strong performance and speed with the dual-core AMD Opteron 2000-series processors, as well as low overhead for HPC applications compared to general purpose Linux servers.

Penguin's Altus 600 server also features the highest memory capacity available in a 1U form factor, onboard Gigabit Ethernet, SATA hard drives, and a PCI Express x16 expansion slot for high-speed, low-latency cluster interconnects. According to the company, the Altus 600 scales to support even the most memory and bandwidth hungry applications and is also highly energy efficient, maximizing compute power per rack and minimizing the impact on AC and utility bills. Altus 600 dual-processor configurations are available now starting at only $1499.

For more information, visit: http://www.penguincomputing.com.

OpenVZ Virtualization Software Available for Sun UltraSPARC T1 Processor

The OpenVZ project has made its open source virtualization software available for servers using Sun's breakthrough UltraSPARC T1 CoolThreads processor. According to the company, this operating system-level server virtualization software technology helps increase server utilization rates. OpenVZ is operating system-level server virtualization software technology, built on Linux, that creates multiple isolated secure virtual environments on a single physical server -- enabling greater server utilization and superior availability with fewer performance penalties. The virtual servers ensure that applications do not conflict and can be re-booted independently. With virtualization technology, the server can effectively be split into many small ones, each running its tasks so that the whole server is utilized more efficiently.

With OpenVZ, SPARC system users can provision physical servers to run applications on virtual servers, rather than a full physical server. The OpenVZ project provides templates that allow for very fast (in many cases about a minute) provisioning of a virtual server.

The OpenVZ software including UltraSPARC T1 support can be downloaded from: http://openvz.org/download/kernel/devel/. Also, users can access installation instructions from the OpenVZ wiki: http://wiki.openvz.org/Quick_installation. The site serves as a forum to gain and share knowledge about OpenVZ and includes documentation and a knowledge base.

Asterisk Releases AsteriskNOW

The Asterisk company has announced its first software appliance, AsteriskNOW, which is an open source distribution of Asterisk featuring a Digium-designed GUI. AsteriskNOW includes a new setup wizard that guides users through the installation process and provides all the Linux components necessary to run, debug, and build Asterisk. Users can navigate through a simple setup wizard, including the ability to use default dial plans and easy configurations. According to the company, the AsteriskNOW GUI is highly flexible, giving users the ability to add, modify, and delete users. Download options include ISO/CD Image, VM Player image, Xen universal guest image, and LiveCD (burn and boot).

The AsteriskNOW.org Web site includes a forum for community support and feedback as well as a developer blog. AsteriskNOW is available for download from: http://www.asterisknow.org and http://www.asterisk.org.

TOLIS Group Releases bruCLONE

TOLIS Group, Inc., developer of the BRU brand of data backup and restore solutions for Mac OS X and Unix systems has announced bruCLONE, a disk-cloning tool aimed at desktop users that delivers OS X ease-of-use combined with Unix reliability.

According to the company, bruCLONE provides live OS X desktop system cloning without the need to take the system offline, allowing the system to be used in production while bruCLONE is working. bruCLONE copies and protects all desktop filesystem parameters including permissions and finder-specific attributes, and all user accounts, applications settings, system devices, and settings/preferences. The internal, or externally connected, cloned copy will be an exact duplicate of the selected source volume.

bruCLONE, which is priced at $69.95, can also serve as a disaster recovery tool for desktop systems when used in conjunction with BRU LE or BRU Server network backup solutions. For more information, visit: http://www.tolisgroup.com.

Verio Announces 360¼ Managed Private Server v.2

Verio Inc. has announced its 360¼ Managed Private Server Version 2 (MPS v2), a fully managed, powerful hosting solution designed to meet the needs of midsized companies and solution providers with more complex, Web-reliant businesses and sites.

Verio's Managed Private Server solution, which is based on the FreeBSD operating system, combines server hardware, software and technical support in a fully managed and dedicated service. According to the company, MPS bundles enterprise-level hardware, a highly secure managed hosting platform, and managed services into one product for added power and performance.

The Managed Private Server suite consists of three packages including Basic, Pro, and Pro Plus, all with the following features:

• Managed triple backup, operating system and core services updates
• Managed security patches and updates
• More than 50 optional pre-bundled software packages
• Control panel for easy configuration and management
• Enterprise-level system administration support

Core Security Technologies Releases Core Impact 6.2

Core Security Technologies has announced Core Impact 6.2, an enhanced edition of the company's flagship software product designed to help companies easily and efficiently test their network security policies. According to the company, Core Impact 6.2 allows organizations to more effectively test their security defenses against client-side attacks and malicious emails. The new version also features enhanced encryption and authentication capabilities to help testers meet secure communication requirements during penetration tests, along with expanded target platform support for testing networks with AIX systems.

Core Impact 6.2 features include:

• Email Customization and Automation for Client-Side Exploits
• Strong Authentication and Encryption for In-memory Agent
• Increased Target Platform Support
• Enhanced Information Gathering
• Improved Product Configuration

Turbolinux Releases "wizpy" Device

Turbolinux, Inc. has released "wizpy", a Linux-embedded, portable USB bootable device with digital audio capability. According to the company, the main concept of wizpy is to "turn all the world's computers into your PC".

The product will become available in Japan in February 2007 and will be released elsewhere later in 2007. For more information, visit: http://www.turbolinux.com.

ANTs Announces ANTs Data Server 3.60

ANTs software inc. has announced the general availability of the ANTs Data Server (ADS) version 3.60, a new software release of its flagship database solution featuring new compatibility, performance and management improvements. With this release, the ANTs Data Server 3.60 extends its database compatibility with features including: support for the Oracle Call Interface (OCI), an improved, high-speed data loader, and a new quality-of-service feature that enables administrators to prioritize users and queries to meet stringent response-time criteria and guarantee service levels.

The new Information Schema feature offers improved system management with comprehensive statistics on internal operations and performance characteristics and the ability to present this data in Oracle V$ systems management views. The ANTs Data Server 3.60 is available now and can be downloaded from: http://www.ants.com/download.

SSH Communications Security Releases SSH TEctia Server for IBM z/OS 5.3

SSH Communications Security has announced the availability of SSH Tectia Server for IBM z/OS 5.3 with support for digital certificates and third-party Public-Key Infrastructure (PKI) systems.

According to the company, SSH Tectia Server for IBM z/OS 5.3 is the only enterprise-class Secure Shell solution with direct Multiple Virtual Storage (MVS) file system support and hardware acceleration for secure cross-platform file transfers and secure TN3270 connections and is a robust security solution for protecting data communications to and from IBM mainframes.

With the introduction of certificate support in the new SSH Tectia Server for IBM z/OS 5.3, SSH Tectia customers can leverage both user certificates and server certificates in all key enterprise platforms, including Windows, Unix, Linux, and IBM mainframe. The advanced certificate validation capabilities of SSH Tectia, including support for multi-level certificate chains and multiple revocation methods, ensure interoperability with any X.509v3 standards-compliant PKI environment. For more information, please visit: http://www.ssh.com.