Cisco Makes Hardware-Free Switches a Virtualized Reality

Cisco and VMware announced Wednesday a collaboration that will bring businesses greater scalability and operational control of virtual environments in their data centers. The initial fruit of the two companies' combined efforts will be the integration of the Cisco Nexus 1000V distributed virtual software switch into the VMware infrastructure .

The collaboration also means that both Cisco and VMware will lend their respective expertise in networking and virtualization to launch a new set of multidisciplinary professional services and reseller certification training that supports customers' data center virtualization strategies.

To that end, Cisco and VMware will also work together on integrating VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure solutions within Cisco's Application Deliver Networking solutions. Doing so, the two companies said, will serve to improve the performance of virtual desktops delivered across wide-area networks (WANs).

"This is a significant advancement in helping customers virtualize their data centers, because now virtual machines can have the very same advanced networking capabilities as physical servers," said Paul Fazzone, product marketing manager , Server Access and Virtualization Business Unit at Cisco.

"Networking capabilities such as QoS (quality of service) and security can be applied through policies for each individual virtual machine," he added.

Flipping the Switch
Although VMware's ESX operating system includes its vSwitch technology, which provides some networking capabilities, it is only provided for the host. It does not provide networking functionality for each virtualized machine. That's where the collaboration with Cisco comes into play.

The two-year partnership on networking and engineering research and development enabled Cisco to offer the networking capabilities of a physical Cisco switch in the form of a pure software product.

The Cisco Nexus 1000V is the industry's first third-party virtual switch designed to be natively supported in a VMware ESX environment. It is also the first third-party software switch developed for VMware's new distributed virtual networking and distributed switch environment.

The virtual switch technology should simplify the operation of both physical and virtual networking infrastructures to aid server, virtualization and networking administration managers speed up data center virtualization.

As virtualization in general alters the dynamics of physical networking, server virtualization, for instance, is increasing port bandwidth requirements. That's led the industry to move from 1GE to 10 GE ports.

Embedded within the VMware hypervisor, the Nexus 1000V makes available correlated services, securities and everything else the network provides for each virtual machine. If a machine moves, all of the policies that have been set up for that machine will move with it.

The Virtual Network Link technology will integrate with WMware's vNetwork Distributed Switch framework and enable IT administrators to set and enforce connection policies for each virtual machine in the data center.

"In effect, Cisco is virtualizing the link between the network and the virtual machine to enable customers to benefit from a richer set of network services, faster VM deployment and improved operational consistency," Fazzone told TechNewsWorld.

Virtual Switching
"Virtualization is changing the way companies deploy and manage hardware," Robert Whiteley, a Forrester Research analyst, told TechNewsWorld. "It was originally justified for the cost savings that server consolidation afforded, but it has quickly spread to creating a dynamic foundation for the datacenter."

Flexibility and business continuity are the principal driving forces behind most virtualization projects. The problem, however, is that the network has been by and large divorced from this trend.

"Ask any server or virtualization admin running a large project and he'll quickly tell you that the network becomes a critical bottleneck. It has performance, visibility and security gaps," Whiteley explained.

Virtualization essentially creates a gap -- networking teams are managing both the physical network and the virtual network, but the virtual one does not have adequate control and tools, he continued.

Cisco's new Nexus 1000V virtual switch is intended to change that. It provides the technology and management that network admins traditionally interface with, and it proposes the standards to ensure this integrates with the workflow and management that surrounds virtual infrastructure, Whiteley continued.

Organizations now have the choice to select the built-in virtual switch from VMware or the more sophisticated and feature-rich product from Cisco, he said.

"To provide some perspective, I think the product and its corresponding VN-Link proposed standard will fundamentally reshape data center networking. I think they'll be as important as the VLAN was to networking and the VSAN standards are to storage," he concluded.

By Walaika Haskins
TechNewsWorld 09/18/08

HP Encourages CIOs to Rethink Virtualization in Business Terms

New offerings vastly simplify virtualization implementation, management
PALO ALTO, Calif., Sept. 2, 2008

HP today announced new products, services and solutions designed to simplify the implementation and management of virtualization so that the technology delivers greater business value.

Recent global research conducted on behalf of HP revealed that while 86 percent of technology decision makers have implemented virtualization projects, the vast majority of respondents expect to have virtualized just 25 percent of their technology environments by 2010.(1)

While many of those surveyed anticipate eventually reaching 75 percent virtualization of their total environments, only one-third of these technology implementers recognize virtualization as a valuable business tool. Two-thirds of implementers relegate virtualization to the role of technology enabler.

“Virtualization is a powerful step in transforming IT,” said Ann Livermore, executive vice president, Technology Solutions Group, HP. “To do it right means successfully managing and automating mixed physical and virtual environments. HP delivers the industry’s broadest portfolio for virtualized environments, covering applications and operations management, infrastructure and client architectures.”

HP’s approach to virtualization is focused on removing the technology inhibitors that reduce virtualization’s impact on the business. It highlights how applications and business services can perform well regardless of where and how they are hosted, networked or managed. It dramatically simplifies management across a combined virtual and physical world, and it addresses the issue of pooling infrastructure resources across an organization.

HP’s new offerings support business needs that span the desktop to the data center. They are focused on lowering operational cost, mitigating the risk of a heterogeneous environment and freeing resources to deliver new business services. These offerings are designed around three specific areas: applications and operations management, overcoming infrastructure barriers, and maximizing client architectures.

Rethink … applications and operations management
HP Business Service Management (BSM) and IT Service Management (ITSM) solutions have been enhanced with new virtualization monitoring and support capabilities to seamlessly link business services to the physical and virtual resources that deliver and manage them. This leads to faster deployments, lower costs and quicker problem resolution.

• HP Operations Agent, HP Performance Agent and HP SiteScope have been enhanced with hypervisor management capabilities, including the ability to collect management data to automate event and availability monitoring and management processes across heterogeneous infrastructures.
• HP Network Node Manager i-series has been updated to monitor the performance and availability of networks supporting dynamic, virtualized environments. This allows customers to proactively plan and monitor network capacity.
• New HP Asset Manager identifies and manages virtual machine asset inventory and licenses, allowing customers to pay for only the licenses they need.
• A new strategic development agreement with Red Hat simplifies the monitoring and management of virtualized environments.
• New and enhanced HP Virtualization Support Services achieve a smooth transition to, and ongoing management of, new virtualization technology while reducing the risk of unplanned downtime.

Rethink … infrastructure barriers
Current infrastructure was not designed to take complete advantage of virtualization. New HP offerings are designed to lower costs, mitigate the risk of downtime and free up resources that can drive additional business services to support growth.

• The HP ProLiant BL495c virtualization blade is the world’s first server blade designed specifically to host virtual machines. The BL495c eliminates key virtualization performance bottlenecks of memory, data storage and network connections.
• HP StorageWorks 4400 Scalable NAS File Services integrates the HP StorageWorks 4400 Enterprise Virtual Array, file servers, management software, and Microsoft Windows® or Linux support to virtualize the connection between servers and storage. The solution lowers maintenance costs and mitigates the risk of data loss with advanced replication software.
• HP-UX 11i V3 and the HP Virtual Server Environment have been enhanced for mission-critical virtualization with significant performance improvement, automated optimization, improved protection and simplified management capabilities.
• HP Virtualization Accelerator Services are new, predefined consulting services for planning, designing and implementing virtualization initiatives. This yields a faster return on investment.

Rethink … client architectures
Businesses can leverage client virtualization to achieve greater reliability, security and improved management of end-user computing. This decreases the cost of client management and support while increasing productivity.

• The new HP t5630, t5545, t5540 and t5145 Thin Clients feature scratch-resistant HP DuraFinish and provide expanded multimedia features, enhanced brokering capabilities, greater performance and improved management support.
• The HP ProLiant xw460c Blade Workstation with Graphics Expansion Blade supports a full range of graphics capability with the latest NVIDIA Quadro FX graphics. This provides more secure, easily managed data center workstation computing for the financial trading, public sector, mechanical computer-aided design (MCAD), and oil and gas segments.
• Enhancements to the HP Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solution include new planning, quick-start and implementation services. These services determine specific VDI needs and associated business value, so customers can implement the right solutions. HP also unveiled the new HP VDI with Citrix XenDesktop, which is designed to enable everything from smaller, entry-level implementations to enterprise-wide desktop delivery.
• “Citrix Ready” blade PCs and thin clients are now certified for use within Citrix XenDesktop environments. They deliver a dedicated one-to-one remote computing experience at radically improved economics for knowledge workers requiring a broad range of application support and a rich graphics experience.
  

Additional resources
More information about today’s news, including a video from Ann Livermore, executive vice president of the Technology Solutions Group at HP, is available in an online press kit at www.hp.com/go/virtualization2008.

More information about HP’s virtualization capabilities, including HP customer testimonials on their virtualization implementations, is available at www.hp.com/go/virtualize.

HP Press Release (http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2008/080902xa.html)

Microsoft Shows Off IE8's Ad-Blocking, Page-Tabbing Chops

Microsoft rolled out the second beta of its upcoming Web browser, Internet Explorer 8 (IE8), Wednesday. When finalized, IE8 will be the first new version of the browser the software maker has released since 2006.

While the browser looks much the same, Microsoft has been tinkering under the hood to bring IE users new features and functionality.

"It's great to see Microsoft moving forward with IE and trying to innovate in the browser. They are making the correct choices regarding standards support and privacy," Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft, told TechNewsWorld.

With the eighth version of Internet Explorer, Microsoft software developers focused on three key themes -- everyday browsing, safety and the platform -- according to Dean Hachamovitch, general manager of IE8.

The release of IE8 Beta 2 comes nearly six months after Microsoft released the initial beta to developers in March. It is available in English, German, Japanese and Simplified Chinese for Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Vista x64, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 x64.

Browser for Every Day
As Microsoft engineers looked at how people surf the Net, according to Hachmovitch, one thing that became clear was that the majority of user activity beyond the Web page involved tabs and navigation.

As a result, IE8 features a redesigned New Tab page that allows users to perform common tasks by clicking links on the New Tab page. Microsoft has also revamped the Tab Groups functionality. When one tab is opened from another, the new tab is placed next to the originating tab, and both are then marked with a colored tab. This enables users to quickly identify which tabs contain Web pages with related content, the company said.

"The launching of linked articles in new tabs coupled with the automatic grouping and color coding is probably the killer feature for me," Rob Enderle, principle analyst at the Enderle Group, told TechNewsWorld. "I hate losing the page I'm looking at when I click on a link, and there is a huge architecture change here where rather than always navigating away from a page, you tend to -- with IE8 -- stay on the page but still see additional information."

Another new feature is IE8's Smart Address Bar. Leaving behind the static URL bar of old, Microsoft has created the Smart Address Bar that -- like the Awesome Bar in Mozilla's Firefox -- will match URLs (uniform resource locaters) in the user's site history with what is typed into the Address Bar. Results include content in a user's favorites and feeds. The Smart Address Bar also has the capability to search the title, Web address and favorites folders.

"This means that you'll find sites even if [you] type something other than just the first part of the Web address. To make it easier to find what you're looking for, we group the results and highlight the matched text," Paul Cutsinger, IE8 lead program manager, wrote on the IE8 blog.
The Smart Address Bar will give Firefox's Awesome Bar a run for its money, according to Enderle.

"The smart address bar appears to go farther than the very popular Firefox 'Awesome Bar.' What it does differently is that when it displays addresses while you type one in, it groups them, making the feature vastly more useful," he said.

Performance, Safety and the Platform
Engineers at Microsoft took a double-pronged approach to boosting performance in IE8, looking at performance in both the lab and the real world. IE8, according to Hachamovitch, is much faster than IE7 on many sites.

In terms of performance in the real world, the browser's new tab functionality, Smart Address Bar, Favorites bar, Search box, Accelerators and Web Slices are aimed at making daily browsing simpler and quicker.

Users can use Accelerators to search, map, e-mail , translate or share content from any Web page they view with one click. They remove the need to cut and paste content or links in an e-mail or the Address bar. Microsoft takes care of that with a range of Accelerator buttons.

With Web Slices, users can subscribe to portions of their favorite Web sites and keep up-to-date with frequently updated sites from the Favorites Bar. When new information is added to a selected page or site, the Web Slice will become highlighted. Clicking on a highlighted slice will open a preview of the updated page.

Another feature that adds speed to a user's surfing experience is IE8's new Visual Search feature, which enables users to type in a search term and see results that include pictures, if they're available.

On the safety front, IE8 Beta 2 includes the SmartScreen Filter and additional protections from phishing and malware. Engineers have also added the XSS Filter feature that makes reflected / "Type-1" Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities -- a growing threat vector -- much more difficult to exploit from within the browser.

In addition, the InPrivate functionality, announced earlier this week, gives users the ability to control whether IE saves their browsing history, cookies and other data. The feature also enables users to block incoming third-party content and some types of advertising.

"Standout features for me include InPrivate browsing and Accelerators (formerly known as "Activities"), which can save a lot of time that would otherwise [be] spent opening new tabs and possibly copying and pasting data into them," said Direction on Microsoft's Rosoff.

Microsoft has also worked to make IE8 more interoperable with other Web browsers and Web standards. The company has also added CSS (cascading style sheets) 2.1 support, improved document object model and HTML 4.01. It's also added new navigation features for asynchronous JavaScript and XML (extensible markup language) applications.

"The improvements in compatibility mean fewer problems with pages that weren't optimized for IE, and this alone will probably reduce substantially the movement from IE to alternatives," Enderle pointed out.

Areas of Improvement
While IE8 Beta 2 is a great move forward for Microsoft, Rosoff said, one area the company could do a better job with is installation.

"The installation process took a bit longer than I expected and required a reboot. I'd contrast that with the very clean and quick Firefox installation process. But it's probably unavoidable given IE's integration with Windows at some fairly low levels," he noted.
Both Enderle and Rosoff said IE8 will be a competitive release able to go toe-to-toe with Mozilla's Firefox.

"Firefox and IE is where the battle is being fought, and IE remains the dominant product. I think this release should be enough to stop folks from leaving IE to go to Firefox, particularly given some of the problems with the latest Firefox release," said Enderle.

"I can't think of any obvious places where it lags behind these other browsers. Firefox users in particular might want to give it another look and see if the new features are enough to make them switch," Rosoff concluded.

Aug. 18, 2008 Tech News World (http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Microsoft-Shows-Off-IE8s-Ad-Blocking-Page-Tabbing-Chops-64337.html)

Microsoft relaxes virtual-machine rules

Microsoft on Tuesday announced a change in its licensing policy to make it easier for businesses that want the ability to shift server software that is running in a virtual machine from one physical machine to another.

The licensing shift, which had been expected, lifts a cap that had limited the ability to switch software from one physical machine to another within a server farm. Under the prior rules, such shifts could be made only once every 90 days. That's a problem because software from VMware and others aims to allow such transfers to be made dynamically in response to changing demand.
"Businesses are taking steps to make their IT operations more dynamic and are delving into virtualization as a cornerstone strategy," Microsoft Senior Director Zane Adam said in a statement. "Microsoft recognizes this and is innovating its licensing policies, product support, and a wide range of IT solutions to help customers get virtual now."

The change applies to 41 server titles, Microsoft said, including the enterprise version of SQL Server 2008, the standard and enterprise versions of Exchange Server 2007, as well as the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft System Center products.

Microsoft also plans to offer better support for businesses that are running its software inside other companies' virtualization engines. Under the changes, Microsoft will support its software running inside virtual machines from VMware, Cisco Systems, Citrix, Novell, Sun Microsystems, and Virtual Iron as if it were being run in nonvirtual environments.

In the past, many customers with problems running Microsoft software in VMware, for example, had to reproduce the problem outside of VMware in order to get technical support from Microsoft.

For some time now, Microsoft has been trying to shift its pricing policies to reflect a new world in which server software often runs inside virtual machines.

Microsoft is going to have more to say on the virtualization front at a September 8 event in the Seattle area.

August 19,2008
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10019601-56.html?hhTest=1&tag=nefd.lede

Thoughts on the New 3G iPhone

A Post from our Field Service Engineer Anthony Edwards:

I was following Steve Jobs announcement on Monday regarding the new 3G iPhone. We will potentially see a lot more of the iPhone in the corporate environment now that new version is being reported that it will definitely and properly support Exchange via active synch. A couple things to note:

1. The price cut on all the new 3G iPhones (with Exchange and Cisco support) will definitely entice corporate users; however it will only still be tied to one carrier here in the USA (AT&T). Therefore, we have to see if users are willing to jump ship as far as carriers go.

2. Larger companies that have investments in BlackBerry Servers will still probably shun away from this phone (There is an expected ‘battle-royal’ between the new 3G iPhone and BlackBerry Thunder later this year as Apple tries to make ground in the enterprise arena against BlackBerry and Windows Smartphone). Also, there are newer Windows Mobile 6.1 devices due this year to rival the iPhone. See below item#3.

3. Windows 6.1 devices with new interfaces to match that of the iPhone are due later this year (HTC Diamond, HTC Diamond Pro, Sony Ericsson Xperia X1, Samsung SHG-i900 Omnia, LG Vue to name a few)

All in all, the starting price of the new 8GB 3G iPhone for $199.00 is pretty attractive. It will face stiff competition later this year from the upcoming Window Mobile 6.1 devices however. Below are some of the negatives the phone already has before its release:

Negatives:
1. No word on whether you will be able to connect to laptop and use as a modem or to get online.
2. As a new device sporting 3G technology, it is limited to HSDPA 3.6Mbs download speeds. Most of the new Windows Mobile 6.1 devices previously mentioned will do 7.2Mbs download speed (dependent on and as carriers continue their infrastructure upgrades)
3. No MMS support (not really critical in a business environment I guess)
4. Same 2 mega-pixel camera (Windows mobile device have up to 5 mega-pixel cameras, some even with LED flash and facial recognition)
5. No video calling (only one camera)

Positives:
1. Initial price of $199.00 starting for the 8GB version
2. Large internal storage - 8GB, 16GB, & 32GB
3. 3G support (even though limited to 3.6Mbs)
4. Fully functioning Exchange support (finally) and Cisco IPSEC VPN support

The buzz throughout the Internet has the show down match up as new 3G iPhone vs. BlackBerry Thunder vs. HTC Touch. The winner is expected to be the BlackBerry Bold at the corporate level, possibly even the HTC Touch. For the regular consumer, it will be will be a tossup. The iPhone may have the slight edge based on initial pricing. No actual pricing is known for the new Win mobile devices except possibly the LG Vue. However, early thought has it that that on the consumer side the winner might still be the HTC Diamond/HTC Diamond Pro or the Xperia X1.

Microsoft Flashes Brief Glimpse of Windows 7

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer revealed on Tuesday a few details on the software company's next operating system, Windows 7, at the D: All Things Digital conference in San Diego.

The company has maintained a disciplined silence about the upcoming OS -- a marked contrast to the constantly changing plethora of information released during the five years it took Microsoft to develop and launch Windows Vista.

"With the last release, many of the technologies Microsoft executives talked about and got everybody excited about didn't make it into the product," Michael Cherry, lead analyst at Directions on Microsoft, told TechNewsWorld.

Although the company is still giving little if anything away about the application's security, performance , networking and other so-called "under-the-hood" functionalities, during their keynote address, Gates and Ballmer presented a demonstration of the multitouch user interface the software maker plans to add to the OS.

That Touchy Feeling
Based on some of the technology developed for the Microsoft Surface, the multitouch fingertip user interface for Windows 7 covers a range of applications. Users will be able to enlarge and shrink photos, paint pictures with the new "Touchable Paint" application, and arrange, examine or write on digital photographs as well as map their location and search for specific places such as the nearest Starbucks.

Some of the features, including the two-finger zoom, single finger thumbnail panning and flicking through a slideshow, are reminiscent of Apple's iPhone.

"They developed this previously for another product, Microsoft Surface, which was built on Windows, so it's not a surprise that they are using this work in Windows 7," Gary Chen, a Yankee Group analyst, told TechNewsWorld. "I think it's a great leap forward in terms of the UI (user interface). It will make using a computer much more intuitive and collaborative.

However, Cherry said the UI "looked interesting" but there just aren't enough details about the technology for him to be enthusiastic about it.

"We don't know what it entails. Were the applications specially modified to work with it? Right now I'd say it looks interesting. They've demonstrated a lot of things, and I don't see any guarantee that that's a feature that will be in [Windows 7] or will require new hardware," he said.

Windows 7 Wish List
Outside of the show-and-tell session at the conference, Microsoft's silence regarding Windows 7 and its features is in part due to the development process being in the early stages.

"It's early, and you don't really want to commit publicly to something that hasn't been firmed up. Microsoft is still deciding a lot of things with Windows 7, and with their position in the market, it's best to keep mum until you know what and when you can really deliver something," noted Chen.

However, he added, Microsoft needs to give people a "reasonable lead time" about what they should expect in the new version. "I expect in 2009, we'll have a much better idea of what Windows 7 will be," Chen continued.

With details on Windows 7 sketchy at best, the one feature Chen said he hopes Microsoft will include in the OS is virtualization.

Meanwhile, Cherry just hopes that Microsoft does a better job of "managing expectations and only claim those things they really have accomplished, and if there are hard problems they have yet to solve, say that.

"The fact that they're not telling me anything right now, I don't care. What I'm more interested in is that the information they do give me be incredibly complete and accurate. What I don't want is a quick demo that says, 'Isn't this exciting?' What I want is specific details. And I want accurate scheduling information. When can I really get my hands on it?" he stated.
Windows 7 scheduling, however, appears murky based on conflicting remarks from Microsoft. Microsoft plans to release the new OS in late 2009, according to Ballmer; however, Windows Engineering Chief Steven Sinofsky told Cnet the launch would happen in January of 2010.

Lesson: Don't Over-Promise
Large enterprises and small businesses alike are in the midst of making very strategic decisions about their Windows desktop roadmap, explained Benjamin Gray, a Forrester Research analyst. That said, customer optimism is high for new information on the future of Windows.
However, with Windows 7, Microsoft is taking a tighter approach to communications. This approach stems from the lessons Microsoft learned from its Windows Vista experiences, Gray told TechNewsWorld.

"Let's face it, Microsoft was burned for promising too much for too diverse a crowd with Windows Vista, and it's going to be a little more disciplined about when and how it discloses information on Windows 7.

"Obviously, Microsoft is still in the throes of development and testing for Windows 7, so it's still too soon to come to any conclusions. And while the touch capabilities that Mr. Ballmer and Gates demonstrated were neat, they aren't going to help businesses with this decision-making process," Gray noted.

"At the end of the day though, Forrester recommends that most companies deploy Windows Vista eventually, because Windows 7 is clearly going to be an evolutionary update that is built on the Windows Vista foundation. So the challenges that organizations are experiencing with Windows Vista today will likely occur with what's coming next, and you're better off preparing for the future now than later," he concluded

By Walaika Haskins
TechNewsWorld
05/28/08
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Microsoft-Flashes-Brief-Glimpse-of-Windows-7-63183.html?welcome=1212701908

Windows Server 2008 Evaluation and Hyper-V RC 1 Now Available!

IT professionals face increasing pressure from rapidly changing technology, increasing costs and security concerns, and expanding business needs. Windows Server 2008 helps alleviate these pressures by automating daily management tasks, tightening security, improving efficiency and increasing availability. It also offers virtualization solutions that will enable IT professionals to reduce costs, increase hardware utilization, optimize their infrastructure, and improve server availability.

Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, the next-generation hypervisor-based server virtualization technology, allows you to make the best use of your server hardware investments by consolidating multiple server roles as separate virtual machines (VMs) running on a single physical machine. With Hyper-V, you can also efficiently run multiple different operating systems—Windows, Linux, and others—in parallel, on a single server, and fully leverage the power of x64 computing.

Windows Server 2008 Evaluation and Hyper-V Release Candidate 1
Download the Windows Server 2008 Evaluation and get the latest information on the Hyper-V Release Candidate 1 as well as the download.

Microsoft Assessment and Planning Solution Accelerator Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) is an integrated suite of automated assessment tools and guidance to help you evaluate all virtualization options, from desktops to servers. It provides an agent-less inventory of clients, servers, applications, devices, and roles. MAP provides multi-technology coverage for Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, and Microsoft Office 2007, as well as Microsoft Virtualization technologies, including Virtual Server 2005 R2, Hyper-V (pending release of RTM bits) and Microsoft Application Virtualization (formerly SoftGrid).