Vizioncore wraps up virtualization management and offers free software

At VMworld 2009, the Vizioncore team spruced up its booth with the addition of a huge LED sign that seemed to attract show attendees like moths to a flame. When I walked into the exhibit area, it was the first thing to catch my eye. It pulled me right into the booth, as I suspect it did to many others considering the amount of traffic the company received during the event. It probably didn’t hurt that once pulled into the booth, you noticed a beautiful motorcycle as its centerpiece. Folks were ready to turn in their plane tickets in order to drive this bad boy home!

In addition to giving away money, prizes, and that incredible Harley to a few lucky people willing to scan their badges, Vizioncore also gave away software products. During VMworld, the company announced it was giving away three of its existing software tools to anyone and everyone interested — a great way for Vizioncore to cut through the noise and wedge itself into the growing demand for virtualization tools.

[ Learn more about Vizioncore vOptimizer Pro in this Q&A with Vizioncore strategic alliances | Vizioncore vRanger Pro 4.0 promises faster backups in virtual environments ]

But this wasn’t the first time that Vizioncore announced a free software giveaway during a trade show. This latest move follows the precedent set at VMworld Europe back in February of this year with the release of the Virtualization EcoShell Initiative (VESI). VESI, if you remember, is a freeware development program aimed at enhancing the virtualization administrative experience by extending automated virtualization management capabilities through a graphical scripting engine. The project is based on Quest Software’s PowerGUI, and it takes advantage of Microsoft’s PowerShell scripting language.

So what’s the latest free software coming out of Vizioncore? Try your hand at one or all three of the following tools:

• vControl Multi-Hypervisor Management – Offers a browser-based interface that enables control of multiple platforms, including VMware, Hyper-V, XenServer and Sun Solaris Zones. It allows administrators to leverage easy-to-trigger workflows for task-based administration of VMs.
• vOptimizer WasteFinder – Scans through vCenter Servers/ESX Hosts and individual VMs looking for and adding up overallocated VM storage and misaligned virtual machines. Users can report on wasted storage and see the potential savings from the space that can be reclaimed. The tool also detects problem areas such as virtual machines that are not 64k aligned, which leads to poor I/O performance.
• vConverter SC – Provides an intuitive GUI that can perform rapid simultaneous conversions of single or multiple servers without disruption to the source system. It reduces the time, cost, and effort required to convert physical and virtual machines, and it’s compatible with VMware, Microsoft, and Citrix hypervisors.

Just prior to announcing these free tools, Vizioncore also created a competitively priced product bundle made up of the entire Vizioncore solution set. The vEssentials bundle addresses the lifecycle of VM management.

“We have dramatically simplified the purchase decision for the customer, as vEssentials Complete offers the most complete solution set from a single vendor on the market,” explained Tyler Jewell, Vizioncore vice president of products.

Vizioncore said it covers all six stages of VM management with its vEssentials bundle — Analyze, Convert, Protect, Monitor, Optimize and Automate — for $1,499 per socket.