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VKernel Introduces Capacity Root Cause Analysis and Problem Resolution Capabilities to Optimize VMware ESX Data Centers

Capacity Analyzer 4.0 is now shipping

PORTSMOUTH, N.H., April 28, 2009 — VKernel Corporation, a provider of easy–to–use and quick–to–deploy virtual server management solutions, today announced it is shipping Capacity Analyzer 4.0. Key new features include capacity root cause analysis and problem resolution recommendation capabilities to help organizations continually optimize their VMware ESX data centers.

“Unlike other monitoring tools that just repurpose data, Capacity Analyzer conducts sophisticated data analysis to show current and future resource capacity trending and where and when problems are occurring,” said Alex Bakman, founder and CEO of VKernel. “Now, with this latest version, we’re providing deeper drilldown capabilities and delivering detailed actionable information to identify the root cause of a problem, explain the performance impact, and offer resolution recommendations to help proactively solve critical issues.”

While continuing to identify current and future capacity bottlenecks, Capacity Analyzer now offers root cause drilldown analysis and detailed, situation–unique problem resolution recommendations to significantly reduce the time–consuming process of identifying the cause of a bottleneck. Users can set thresholds and alerts warning them of potential problems occurring now or in advance. Then, from the tabular–based Capacity Analyzer interface, users can click and drill deeper to see what is exactly causing a particular CPU, memory, and/or storage problem.

“Capacity Analyzer is a great product for quickly seeing what is going on from a resource capacity perspective in our environment and alerting me where I need to focus my efforts if current or future issues are detected,” said Jon Blomeier, data center analyst for Hershey Entertainment & Resorts. “By showing me exactly what is causing a problem and suggesting a resolution, I can more rapidly address the problems before performance degrades and continue to optimize my VMware environment.”

Additional functionality and enhancements to Capacity Analyzer include:

  • Peak usage analysis — see utilization peaks, averages, and when they occur
  • More CPU statistics — usage, peak usage, CPU ready, CPU ready peak, I/O wait
  • More memory statistics — usage, peak usage, swapped, swapped peak, balloon, balloon peak
  • More disk/storage statistics — latency, latency peak, queue latency, queue latency peak, throughput, throughput peak, swap, swap peak, I/O wait, BUS resets, commands aborted
  • Setting importance levels for VMs — resolution recommendations can be based on importance levels
  • Role based access management for different types of users
  • Filtering objects by name to find information faster

“While the deployment of virtualization technology can improve infrastructure efficiency via the consolidation it enables, it also potentially contributes to new forms of inefficiency, i.e., virtual machine sprawl, virtual over–provisioning, etc.,” said Cameron Haight, research vice president at Gartner. “Especially in these difficult times, IT organizations should look for tools that not only allow them to gain an edge in terms of improving infrastructure performance, but also ensuring that that performance is delivered at the lowest possible cost.”

Pricing and Availability
VKernel Capacity Analyzer 4.0 is currently available with pricing starting at $199 per CPU socket. Subscription pricing is also offered at $139 annually per CPU socket including maintenance and support. A fully–functional 14–day free Capacity Analyzer trial is also available on www.vkernel.com. For additional questions, contact VKernel by phone at 1.866.370.2733 (603–610–4300) or email sales@vkernel.com.

VKernel Virtual Server Management Solutions
The VKernel suite of virtual server management solutions is a set of innovative, “plug–and–play” virtual appliances designed to quickly address real world systems management challenges with advanced analytics as organizations expand their virtual data centers. VKernel’s patent–pending products enable IT groups to immediately solve today’s critical pain points by providing visibility into the capacity and resource consumption of each virtual machine. VKernel products include:

  • Capacity Analyzer — proactively and predicatively monitor shared capacity resources to prevent current and future problems
  • Chargeback — provide cost visibility and implementing chargeback processes
  • Modeler — quickly test and validate additions and changes to see the impact on the environment before going live
  • SearchMyVM — free “Google–like” search utility to find information in virtual environments
  • CompareMyVM — a free community website tool that allows visitors to exchange and compare VMware ESX Server virtual machine (VM) resource allocations with that of the community at large
  • SnapshotMyVM — free tool that completely automates the time–consuming VMware ESX data center documentation process

About VKernel Corporation
Based in Portsmouth, NH, VKernel is dedicated to developing best–of–breed virtual server management solutions that enhance performance, lower costs, and simplify management of heterogeneous virtual environments of all sizes. As a member of VMware’s Technology Alliance Program, VKernel offers the industry’s only VMware certified Suite of Virtual Appliances for analyzing capacity, chargeback, and cost visibility. VKernel is funded by Hummer Winblad Venture Partners and Polaris Venture Partners. For more information, visit www.vkernel.com.