Dunes Technologies announced an upgrade of its Virtual Service Orchestrator (VS-O) software that helps keep virtual machine sprawl in check and offers full automation of virtual datacenters. The Dunes VS-O 3.1 new Web 2.0-based front-end extends previous releases by enhancing business process creation with new possibilities of expression and flexibility. The product's open architecture allows for a high level of Dunes Technologies announced an upgrade of its Virtual Service Orchestrator (VS-O) software that helps keep virtual machine sprawl in check and offers full automation of virtual datacenters. The Dunes VS-O 3.1 new Web 2.0-based front-end extends previous releases by enhancing business process creation with new possibilities of expression and flexibility. The product’s open architecture allows for a high level of customization within VS-O to control and automate virtually any IT process by following standards and creating applications that are Web-aware.The company designed the latest version as a virtual appliance, based on VMware’s virtual machine. It includes a Linux OS, a database and a directory service. The appliance comes preinstalled with a library of processes and connectors. With this packaging and delivery method, IT admins can have the product up and running very quickly. When describing this approach, Stefan Hochuli Paychere, CTO and co-founder of Dunes, says “With the virtual appliance VS-O 3.1, customers can immediately get their services up and running and increase the speed to ROI by eliminating the time and cost of installing a separate OS and applications, resulting in a streamlined and standardized data center.” Dunes VS-O 3.1 platform enhancements include: Revised access rights management provides administrators with more granular control of user authorization by separating the access right of the process and the access rights to the objects manipulated by the process. Improvements to the workflow engine enable the product to function more efficiently, allow for better exception handling, makes process graph more readable and the development process more natural. Improvements in the handling of workflow inputs allow users to apply advanced filters and define actions to refine input selection. Added support for Novell eDirectory and open-LDAP directory services in addition to MS Active Directory. Site-specific configuration techniques that enable administrators to simply and quickly adjust parameters based on individual needs. Resources can now be part of exportable packages and benefit from the platform’s versioning and DRM features. Updates to the Web Service for SOA integration to better support current business practices and users. Improved performance of many plugins, especially the VMware VIM3 plugin. Constantly expanding library of over 100 workflows that act as templates for the customization and automation of client processes. The workflow library includes templates for life-cycle management, provisioning, disaster recovery, hot backup and other out-of-the-box processes. The library has been fully ported to the new 3.1 workflow engine, providing the user with the best possible experience. Fully backward compatible with VS-O 3.0, including Web views. Dunes VS-O version 3.1 will be available in July for $2,900 per server license and $790 per CPU license. Software Development