Skytap Virtual Lab is useful for development, prototyping, QA, training, and demos A few weeks ago, Steve Brodie of Skytap gave me a Web demo of his company’s self-service Virtual Lab solutions. Basically, Skytap gives you a quick and easy way to set up virtual computers and networks in the cloud. This is very useful for development, prototyping, QA, training, and demos.Skytap provides its own lab management application and Web-based console, very quick provisioning, and a large library of pre-built Virtual Machine images featuring almost all the major platforms. You can also supply your own images and clone your own machines. If you need to access resources that are behind your firewall, you can reach them from the Skytap cloud via a VPN.Skytap is a spin-off from the University of Washington. Its first product, Skytap Virtual Lab, was released in April 2008. The company recently completed a $7 million Series B round of funding, so it should be able to weather the current recession and expand its datacenter. In fact, given its customer TCO story, it may grow as a result of the recession. You can download a white paper about Skytap Virtual Lab (free registration required) and watch a two-minute video about it. Software Development