VMWare News - Virtual Desktop

Pretty cool - newest news from VMware:

Have desktop, will travel.

VMware unveiled Tuesday its open source virtual desktop client VMware View Open Client, designed to provide users with constant access to their personal desktop on almost any device.

VMware View Open Client aims to provide organizations with the ability to host user desktops within their respective datacenters and allow their users to access their personal desktops from a variety of devices at any given time.

Jocelyn Goldfein, general manager of VMware's Desktop business unit, said in a statement:

Now we are sharing our source code in VMware view Open Client so vendors can easily optimize devices to create the best virtual desktop solutions. As a result, IT is able to reduce the total cost of providing desktop environments by allowing low-end or less-expensive devices that provide the same feature set as higher-end devices.

The VMware View Open Client is offered up through the GNU Lesser General Public License version 2.1.

_____________________________________________________________

Just a couple days ago VMware announced the availability of its free VMware View Open Client, which organizations can use with their VMware View virtualization software (commercial) to enable a Linux desktop or thin client to connect to a remote Windows desktop. According to Linuxdevices.com:

The free client boasts a “full” command line interface, and is said to support secure tunneling using SSL, and two-factor authentication with RSA SecurID. The release is said to work with VMware Virtual Desktop Manager (VDM) 2.0 and 2.1, as well as VMware View Manager 3.0. Posted on Google Code, the client software is licensed under GNU Lesser General Public License version 2.1 (LGPL v 2.1).

Poised to head off competition from Microsoft’s Hyper-V technology, View Open Client promises to help cut deployment costs for virtualized desktops. You can download the View Open Client binary packages, which have been posted on Google Code, along with more details on support, licensing, and compatibility.

Are you using any VMware virtualization software in your organization currently? Is it likely that you will deploy a virtual desktop infrastructure any time soon?

Document Management Software - getting started

Courtesy BuyerZone's introduction - visit their site for free quotes. This is a critical investment for a growing business.

"Quality document management systems can be customized to almost any situation, but some decisions need to be made up front. Without the right planning, you risk wasting time and money.

What problem are you trying to solve? That question, obvious though it may be, is one you have to have detailed answers to before you start working with a document management vendor. “We have too much paper” isn’t a good answer: be specific. “We need more remote access,” “We want to cut filing costs,” and “We have to enforce better security” are all better answers.

Gather details on what types of paper you’re working with, how they’re created, labeled, and filed, and what your needs are like for retrieval or ongoing usage. If you can easily categorize your documents into types, such as delivery slips or W2s, suppliers may be able to offer specific advice. A rough count of how many new documents you’ll need to enter per day is also useful.

Don’t overlook your existing electronic documents: you’ll want to be able to incorporate text files, PDFs, spreadsheets, and other important files into the document management system. Don’t get over-aggressive: stick to the types of documents relevant to the problems you’re solving.

Also look at your processes. What approval or editing steps should be built into the system? Which documents need to be permanently archived, and which should be editable? What types of documents need to be filed together for easy retrieval?

Then make sure you have management buy-in. Because of the costs and the transformative nature of document management systems, “grass-roots” efforts to implement them rarely succeed. With well thought out ROI analyses, you should be able to get executives on board.

Start slow
While you may eventually want a comprehensive, company-wide system, document management vendors strongly recommend you start by implementing a solution for one application in one department. It’s much easier to get management support for a new effort that only affects a single department at a lower cost. Tackling one problem at a time also makes installation less disruptive.

Once it’s been implemented, vendors indicate that it’s very common for a company to come back to expand the solution to multiple departments or processes months or years later. The success of the first, smaller solution leads to greater support for a more significant investment later. For example, a successful implementation in HR can serve as the launching point for larger, company-wide projects.

Time & Attendance System - Pay Policies, Shift Differentials, Calculations, Automation

6. What unusual pay policies, shift differentials, OT or Holiday rules, other varying rates, etc., should you be sure to cover when reviewing options with vendors?

In discussing this with the payroll department, you will need a clear understanding of the steps taken between collecting the approved timecards, and entering the time into the payroll software. What are the most complex calculations that they run into? In which areas do they most frequently find mistakes? Do the rules and policies vary significantly between employees, departments, or locations?

7. What other processes are currently manual that we can possibly automate efficiently at the same time?

8. What level of implementation & support will we need?

Document Management Software Benefits

Courtesy BuyerZone's introduction - visit their site for free quotes. This is a critical investment for a growing business.

"Cost savings - One of the biggest hidden costs that paper-intensive businesses face is the time it takes to work with paper files. Say it takes a $20/hour employee five minutes to walk to a records room, locate a file, act on it, refile it, and return to his desk. At just four files per day, that’s over 86 hours per year spent filing – around $1700 in wages. At ten files per day, that shoots up to 216 hours per year – over five weeks’ time, or $4300 – and that’s only for one employee. A system that lets employees find and work with those documents without ever leaving their desks can instantly slash those costs.

Document management systems also eliminate the “lost document” cost – the time it takes to recreate a document that’s been destroyed or misplaced. Some suppliers estimate the cost of replacing each lost document at $250.

Additional cost savings come from the office space that can be freed by eliminating most paper records. With real estate costs at $15 to $40 or more per square foot in many major cities, converting records rooms into usable office space can save considerable amounts of money. In other cases, you may be able to eliminate warehousing costs for years of old records.

Security
If you’re not taking data security seriously, you should be. Threats from outside (competition, identity thieves) and inside (disgruntled employees, employee theft) threaten the integrity and value of your most important information. Document management systems can provide several layers of security:

• Multiple levels of password-protected access for groups and individuals
• Encryption of document contents
• Audit trails showing who has accessed or updated documents

Disaster recovery
Whether your existing documents are paper or electronic, chances are you don’t have adequate disaster recovery plans in place. Document management systems protect your paper records by creating electronic copies that can be backed up in multiple ways. They also can include off-site data backups and other steps to ensure that a fire, flood, or break-in won’t cripple your business.

Access
Even as the Web makes it increasingly easy for employees to work remotely, paper records remain a serious roadblock to distributed organizations. The right document management system allows your employees to access vital records from wherever they are. Simply allowing more than one employee to look at a file at the same time is a significant improvement over paper files. Additionally, multi-layered access allows employees to see and change only the documents they’re authorized to handle.

Process consistency
Many companies’ document handling processes are just fine without a computerized system – or so they think. One benefit that matters more to larger companies is that a document management system will enforce consistency to the degree you want it. Different departments may have different approval processes – but once those are defined, the system will make sure they’re followed. No longer will consistency in filing, naming conventions, and workflow suffer as you add new employees or cover for vacationing staff.

Sun Microsystems answers with new SAN Arrays

Seen in the news today:

Sun Rolls Out New SAN Arrays

Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA) is experiencing strong growth from its open storage efforts, but the company isn't forgetting the Fibre Channel SAN market.

Sun this week unveiled two new modular arrays, the Sun Storage 6580 and 6780, based on the company's OEM relationship with LSI (NYSE: LSI). The 6580 replaces the 6540 unveiled 2 1/2 years ago, while the 6780 is a move further up market.

One thing similar to Sun's open storage efforts is the marketing message for the new arrays; the company claims as much as "three times better price/performance than the competition," based on SPC-1 and SPC-2 benchmark results.

The "competition" is EMC's (NYSE: EMC) Clariion arrays, said Sun primary arrays general manager Nancy Hart, even though they aren't mentioned by name in Sun's SPC results. NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP) created a furor last year when it directly compared its FAS3040 arrays to EMC's Clariion CX3.

Hart said the price/performance message is a good one for the current economic environment.

"The economic meltdown definitely touches the storage industry," she said. "Customers are still processing all the data, they just don't have the budget."

Sun is also offering upgrade and trade-in programs for its own and competitors' products.

The 6580 and 6780 come with the Sun StorageTek Common Array Manager. The 6580 scales up to 256 TB and offers eight 4Gb FC host ports, 8GB cache, 16 expansion trays per controller, an intermix of SATA and FC drives and RAID 6 support. It lists at $59,995.

The 6780 offers twice the IOPS and four times the throughput performance. It scales up to 448 TB, and offers eight or 16 4Gb FC host ports, 16GB cache, 28 expansion trays per controller, SATA and FC drives and RAID 6 support. It lists at $89,995.

Hart said 8Gb FC, 10Gb iSCSI, SAS and FCoE are on the company's roadmap. "There's going to be a lot of change in the next 18 months," she said.

In other hardware news, NetApp created a bit of a furor among its own users when it said it will discontinue its S-family of products aimed at small and mid-sized businesses. NetApp plans to offer new FAS2020 bundles for the SMB market instead.

Document Management Systems - Reasons

Courtesy BuyerZone's introduction - visit their site for free quotes. This is a critical investment for a growing business.

"More and more industries are falling under the influence of legislation that requires specific procedures for record keeping. Financial services companies need to be able to prove that information is unaltered to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley; medical practices have to prove that their records are safe from prying eyes to comply with HIPPA. The legal industry also has specific requirements related to discovery, including full-text searching of massive amounts of documents.

For businesses in these more regulated industries, document management systems are by far the best way to ensure compliance with strict security and record-keeping rules. It’s important to note that such systems only help your company become compliant, they don’t guarantee it. But, the right procedures and behaviors do. No matter how secure your electronic records are, if an employee prints sensitive information and takes it to lunch, you’re not in compliance.

Departmental applications
Because they benefit business units shared by almost all companies, document management systems are used in a broad spectrum of businesses. Human resources and accounting departments, traditional heavy users of paper files, are huge beneficiaries of document management.

In addition, the Patriot Act’s requirements of immediate government access to records apply to a wide range of businesses, and ISO 9000/9001 certification efforts can also benefit from document management. Manufacturing and government are two sectors that pursue document management for these broader regulatory reasons.

Any organization that wants to put more processes in place can benefit as well. Document management systems are used to enforce naming conventions, ensure strict approval processes are followed, and generally add consistency to existing procedures.

One example of document management in action comes from a BuyerZone vendor who worked with a salmon distributor in Seattle. Every summer, they used to move their entire operation to Anchorage for fishing season – including putting their corporate servers and pallets full of paper files on a barge and sailing them up the coast. At the end of the summer, they’d pack everything up and get back on the barge.

Not the most efficient business plan, perhaps, but they couldn’t operate without their records. Once their document management system was in place, all they had to do was bring a laptop and small scanner with them to Anchorage, and they could still access all their records as if they were back in Seattle.

Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 - Overview

Highlights from Microsoft's overview of their Virtual PC 2007 -

Use Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 to run multiple operating systems at the same time on the same physical computer. Switch between virtual machines with the click of a button. Use virtual machines to run legacy applications, provide support, train users, and enhance quality assurance.

Virtual PC lets you create separate virtual machines on your Windows desktop, each of which virtualizes the hardware of a complete physical computer. Use virtual machines to run operating systems such as MS-DOS, Windows, and OS/2. You can run multiple operating systems at once on a single physical computer and switch between them as easily as switching applications—instantly, with a mouse click. Virtual PC is perfect for any scenario in which you need to support multiple operating systems, whether you use it for tech support, legacy application support, training, or just for consolidating physical computers.

Virtual PC provides a time-saving and cost-saving solution anywhere users must run multiple operating systems. Use Virtual PC in the following scenarios:

• Ease Migration: Run legacy applications in a virtual machine instead of delaying the deployment of a new operating system just because of application incompatibility. Test your migration plans using virtual machines instead of actual physical computers.
• Do More in Less Time: Support staff can run multiple operating systems on a single physical computer and switch between them easily. They can also restore virtual machines to their previous state almost instantly. Train students on multiple operating systems and virtual networks instead of purchasing and supporting additional computers.
• Streamline Deployment: Test software on different operating systems more easily. One crashing application or operating system doesn’t affect others.
• Accelerate Development: Increase quality assurance by testing and documenting your software on multiple operating systems using virtual machines. Decrease time-to-market by reducing reconfiguration time.

Configurability

After installing Virtual PC, you can configure it to suit your requirements. Virtual PC has a number of settings that control how the product interacts with the physical computer, allocates resources, and so on.

Easy installation Virtual PC is simple to install. Any administrator can run the Virtual PC guided setup program, and installation doesn’t require a reboot. The first time Virtual PC starts, it guides you through the process of creating the first virtual machine.

Standardization Configure and test upgrades and installations on virtual machines, and then you can deploy throughout your company a standard configuration that avoids problems caused by minor differences between hardware platforms.

Convenience Users switch between operating systems as easily as they switch between applications. They simply click the window containing the virtual machine. They can pause individual virtual machines so they stop using CPU cycles on the physical computer. They can also save virtual machines to disk and restore them at a later time. The restoration process normally takes a few seconds—much faster than restarting the guest operating system.

Host integration Users can copy, paste, drag, and drop between guest and host. Virtual PC provides additions that you install in a guest operating system to enable this functionality.

Document Management Software overview 1

Courtesy BuyerZone's introduction - visit their site for free quotes. This is a critical investment for a growing business.

"Simply put, document management systems can transform the way your business operates. Whether you’re solving a paper problem or simply improving the way you handle electronic files, the right document management system can provide a wide range of benefits for businesses large and small.

If you have employees who spend most of the day filing or retrieving documents, or if you spend good money every month to warehouse old paper records, you should investigate a document management system.

As you start investigating your options, one distinction to be aware of is between document imaging systems and document management software. The essential difference is that document imaging systems include tools to help you convert paper records into electronic files, while document management software is used to manage your electronic files.

The software is similar in both cases: you’ll still need security, tracking, and searching. But document imaging requires software and hardware to scan and index paper documents, while document management software is better suited for capturing e-mail and Web content.

Time & Attendance System - Reporting

5. What reporting does each respective department need that could be handled with this system?

This is often the key area of interest for the executive-level staff. What reports are they running involving labor costs? It is possible that those reports can be put together within the Time & Attendance software, or even automatically compiled and emailed if they are needed on a regular basis. Determine what structure and file types are desired for these reports, i.e. Adobe PDF, Excel, Access, CSV, or other types.

Time & Attendance System - Timesheet Approval, Regulatory Compliance

4. How will the timesheet approval process work?

Often, the current process can be simulated electronically. Determine whether the present way timecards are approved is efficient and effective.

Is the organization is under regulatory requirements for timesheet approval? You may want to confirm that electronic signatures are acceptable, as is typically the case.

Time & Attendance System - Servers, Infrastructure

3. Do we have the hardware, software, and infrastructure needed to support this?

Interview someone in your IT department if needed for this information. If the company has multiple locations, can each location access your network? Do all of your managers have access to workstations? Do all of your employees? Do you have a server with space available for a new software package? Do you already have licensing for any database technologies? Often, advanced workforce management systems will require database capabilities such as SQL or Oracle.

Electronic Medical Records - Centricity Overview

From GE's website, here's an overview of their EMR system.

Electronic Medical Records (EMR)

Centricity® EMR

Centricity EMR is an electronic medical record (EMR) system that enables ambulatory care physicians and clinical staff to document patient encounters, streamline clinical workflow, and securely exchange clinical data with other providers, patients, and information systems.

Centricity EMR is used by thousands of physicians to manage millions of patient records, and is among the most widely used ambulatory care electronic medical records. Centricity EMR empowers healthcare providers to deliver the highest quality of care at lower costs.

Designed by clinicians, for clinicians, this system fits the needs of both providers and administrators:

* Based entirely on easy-to-use, easy-to-maintain technology
* Available with GE Healthcare's practice management solutions for a practically paperless office
* Integrates with most revenue cycle management systems and shares common data with Centricity Business and Centricity Business Advantage
* Integrates with most healthcare information systems and shares common data with Centricity Enterprise
* More than a decade of successful releases, effective implementations and quality support

Outsourced Payroll Services: Why

Per ADP - Their argument on Why It Pays to Outsource Your Payroll.


There's more to managing small business payroll than writing checks and handing them out to employees on time. You need to keep accurate records, calculate and pay payroll taxes, and communicate effectively with employees. Many small business owners are finding that they can simplify the process by using an outsourced payroll provider to manage the entire process cost-effectively and efficiently.

Outsourcing your payroll can provide your small business with a number of important benefits:

Save time
Using an outsourced payroll solution is typically more efficient for a small business than processing payroll internally. Leaving payroll to experts frees up hours that you can devote to other important parts of your business. Whether it is your time, staff time, or a combination, chances are the hours could be better spent winning more business, improving customer service, fine-tuning business operations or launching a new product line. Among the areas where outsourcing will save time are:

• Processing payroll


• Cutting and distributing paychecks


• Calculating and paying withholding and employment taxes


• Preparing and distributing W-2s and 1099s at year-end


• Handling employee payroll inquiries

Save money
Many business owners underestimate the cost of processing payroll internally by failing to account for all hours spent and resources allocated to pay employees and maintain payroll paperwork. A thorough cost assessment usually proves that a small business saves money by outsourcing the processing, tracking and filing of payroll documents. To assess your own internal payroll costs, consider:

• How much the time spent is actually worth: consider the cost of your time and the time of anyone who processes or "touches" payroll. Often, many people in a small company are involved in the various parts of payroll processing.


• What savings would outsourcing provide: since an outside provider can handle all the responsibilities involved in managing payroll and answering employee questions, a small business can often eliminate or reallocate an internal payroll resource.

Avoid penalties
Calculating federal, state, and local employment taxes and filing payroll-related tax paperwork can be more than just a hassle. If it's done incorrectly, your small business may face penalties and even interest on money owed since the mistake was made. In fact, it is estimated that one in three small businesses receive a tax penalty costing over $800 each year. Outsourcing payroll does away with the risk of many of these costs and hassles because:

• An outsourced payroll provider calculates payroll taxes, based on its expertise and close tracking of regulation changes


• Monthly or quarterly employment tax reports are managed by the payroll service, ensuring they are submitted correctly and on time


• Payroll providers may assume penalties that come as a result of incorrect tax calculations


• End-of-year paperwork — such as W-2s and 1099s — are handled directly by the payroll provider, so they are sent out on time

NetApp Upgrade - Storage Area Network

From the Life in University Information Technology blog, here is a technical overview of an upgrade of a network appliance:

NetApp 3050c upgrade of DataOnTap 7.0.5 to DataOnTap 7.2.3

Performing a non-disruptive upgrade of our Network Appliance FAS 3050c (clustered filer configuration)

One of the benefits of having the clustered filers (FAS3050c) is that I can, in most cases, perform a system upgrade without having to disrupt services running on either system. The process is a little complex but well worth the payoff as in our environment I literally have thousands of students connecting to the storage at a time. Below is a slightly modified version of my notes from the upgrade (use at your own risk). I followed the directions from NetApp's upgrade guide. Although, I will note that their directions were not exact. I had differing outputs from commands at times which made me a little nervous. All in all the upgrade went pretty smooth and the systems have been running solid since.

Download from now.netapp.com under Download Software – DataOnTap – FAS 3050c

• new Shelf Firmware from now.netapp.com (all shelf firmware updates)
• new Disk Firmware from now.netapp.com (all disk firmware updates)
• newest release of Filer Firmware CFE 3.1
• newest GA Release of DataOnTap 7.2.3
• docs for DataOnTap 7.2.3

Copied and Made backups of files

• Mounted \\filerA\c$
• Mounted \\filerB\c$
• Made of backup of c$\etc\ folder on both systems (minus log files)
  - Copy to c$\backup\etc_8-24-2007
• From shelf zip file to the etc\shelf_fw on the both filerA and filerB
• From shelf zip file to the etc\shelf_fw on the both filerA and filerA
• From disk zip file to the etc\disk_fw on the both filerA and filerB
• From disk zip file to the etc\disk_fw on the both filerA and filerA

Shelf Firmware

• Login to the appliance console.
• Check current shelf firmware version ( > sysconfig -v )
  
• Enter Advanced privileges ( > priv set advanced )
  
• Start the update ( > storage download shelf )
  - This will upgrade the shelf firmware on all the disk shelves in the system. (If you wish to only update the disk shelves attached to a specific adapter, enter storage download shelf adapter_number instead).
• Accept the update, Press y for yes and hit enter.
• To verify the new shelf firmware, ( > sysconfig -v )
  
• Exit Advanced privlieges ( > priv set admin )

Disk Firmware

Disk firmware is automatically updated on reboot if there are updated files in the disk_fw folder. To keep the system from updating too many disks at once set or verify the following option.

• ( > options raid.background_disk_fw_update.enable)
  - if it is set to off, I recommend you change it to on
  

DataOnTap Update

1. Downloaded the newest General Deployment Release, in this case it was Data ONTAP 7.2.3.
2. Verified our system met all requirements for running the downloaded release, updates were required for Disk firmware and shelf firmware (which was done above)
3. Checked known problems and limitations of the new release to see if any would affect our environment. No potential problems found.
4. Compared bug fixes from current version of OnTap 7.0.5 to new version of 7.2.3. There were many bug fixes that could potentially effect our environment which makes the upgrade needed.
5. Downloaded newest documentation for 7.2.3

Update Procedure

With C$ mapped on both filers I ran the downloaded OS install (self extracting zip files) to the respective \etc directories. This is the first step and copies all the needed files over to the filers. Once completed, we preforme the procedure below from the NOW upgrade guide for Windows Clients.

1. start the install on both systems ( > download )
   
2. Checked the cluster status ( > cf status ) to make sure cluster failover was enabled
3. Had filerB takeover services for filerA ( > cf takeover )
   - This causes filerA to reboot
   
4. During reboot of filerA hit ( ctrl-c ) to enter into maintenance mode
5. From maintenance mode type ( > halt ) to do a full reboot
6. Hit ( del ) during memory test to get to the CFE prompt
7. start the firmware update of the filer from the CFE> prompt using ( CFE> update_flash )
   
8. Now reboot, type ( bye ) at console after update was finished to reboot filerA
9. filerA is now in a …waiting for giveback state
10. Now to give services back to filerA we have to force it using ( > cf giveback –f ) from filerB
    - This is required since we are now on different version of DataOnTap between systems in the cluster.
    
11. Giveback successful, checked firmeware and os version on filerA using ( > sysconfig –v )
12. After checking services on both systems it's time to upgrade filerB
    
13. Have filerA take over the services of filerB ( > cf takeover –n )
    
14. Type ( > halt ) from filerB to reboot it
    
15. During reboot of filerB hit ( ctrl-c ) to enter into maintenance mode
16. From maintenance mode type ( > halt ) to do a full reboot
17. Hit ( del ) during memory test to get to the CFE prompt
18. start the firmware update of the filer from the CFE> prompt using ( CFE> update_flash )
    
19. Typed ( bye ) at console after update was finished to reboot filerB
20. filerB is now in a …waiting for giveback state
21. Now to give services back to filerB we have to force it using ( > cf giveback –f ) from filerA
    - This is required since we are now on different version of DataOnTap between systems in the cluster.
22. Giveback successful, checked firmeware and os version on filerB using ( > sysconfig –v )
1. Both systems should now show the updated firmware and OnTap version 7.2.3


23. You should also notice that any out of date disk firmware is automatically updated. In my case I went from NA07 to NA08 on many of the disks.

My final steps were to test system connections

1. We use the following NetApp services: CIFS, FTP, HTTP, FCP via VMWARE. All worked fine. I Also checked our student websites and our web based FTP software that connects to the filer.
2. Checked Domain connection using cifs testdc ( filerA> cifs testdc )
   - appeared fine

Time & Attendance System - Time Clocks, Biometric, Timesheets

2. How should we to collect time?

Here are some popular options for recording employee attendance:

1. Time clock (uses barcode, magnetic strip, or proximity-based badges)
2. Biometric Terminal (uses thumbprints or, more commonly and effectively, hand scanning technology)
3. PC-based (an application installed on a computer to allow employees to clock in)
4. Web-based (a “thin-client” tool that is accessible by any PC on the network, and allows employees to clock in, edit their timesheets as allowed, view their schedule and available benefit hours, and access other relevant information)
5. Phone-In Module (allows employees to call in to an automated system to record their time)
6. Mobile (includes PDA and other mobile devices)

Virtual Machine - Compare Systems

This comparison is courtesy Wikipedia, where they compare basic information about platform virtual machine (VM) packages.

Name	Creator	Host CPU	Guest CPU	Host OS(s)	Guest OS(s)	License
Bochs	Kevin Lawton	any	x86, AMD64	Windows, Windows Mobile, Linux, IRIX, AIX, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, BeOS, Mac OS X	DOS, Windows, xBSD, Linux	LGPL
Containers	Sun Microsystems	x86, x86-64, SPARC (portable: not tied to hardware)	(Same as host)	Solaris 10	Solaris (8, 9 or 10), Linux (BrandZ)	CDDL
Cooperative Linux	Dan Aloni helped by other developers (1)	x86[1]	(Same as parent)	Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista[1]	Linux	GPL version 2
Denali	University of Washington	x86	x86	Denali	Ilwaco, NetBSD	?
DOSBox	Peter Veenstra and Sjoerd with community help	any	x86	Linux, Windows, Mac OS Classic, Mac OS X, BeOS, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, QNX, IRIX, MorphOS, AmigaOS	Internally emulated DOS shell. Classic PC booter games and unofficially, Windows 1.0 to 3.11	GPL
DOSEMU	Community Project	x86, AMD64	x86	Linux	DOS	GPL version 2
FreeVPS	PSoft	x86, AMD64	compatible	Linux	Various Linux distributions	GPL version 2
GXemul	Anders Gavare	any	ARM, MIPS, M88K, PowerPC, SuperH	Unix-like	NetBSD, OpenBSD, Linux, Ultrix, Sprite	BSD
Hercules	Jay Maynard	any	z/Architecture	Unix-like	Linux on zSeries, z/OS, z/VM, z/VSE, OS/360, DOS/360, DOS/VS, MVS, VM/370, TSS/370.	QPL
Hyper-V	Microsoft	x64 + hardware-assisted virtualization (Intel VT or AMD-V)	x64,x86	Windows 2008 w/Hyper-V Role	Supported Drivers for Windows 2000, Windows 2003, Windows 2008, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Linux (SUSE 10 Released, More Announced))	Proprietary (free of charge with Windows Server 2008)
iCore Virtual Accounts	iCore Software	x86	x86	Windows XP	Windows XP	Proprietary
Integrity Virtual Machines	Hewlett-Packard	IA-64	IA-64	HP-UX	HP-UX, Windows, Linux (OpenVMS announced)	Proprietary
JPC (Virtual Machine)	Oxford University	Any running the Java Virtual Machine	x86	Java Virtual Machine	DOS	GPL version 2
KVM	Qumranet [1]	Intel/AMD processor with X86 virtualization,IA64,s390,PowerPC	same as platform	Linux	Linux, Windows, FreeBSD, Solaris	GPL version 2
LinuxOnLinux	Gelato@UNSW	Itanium	compatible	Linux	Linux	GPL
Linux- VServer	Community Project	x86, AMD64, IA-64, Alpha, PowerPC/64, PA-RISC/64, SPARC/64, ARM, S/390, SH/66, MIPS	compatible	Linux	Various Linux distributions	GPL version 2
Logical Domains	Sun Microsystems	UltraSPARC T1, UltraSPARC T2	compatible	Solaris 10	Solaris, Linux, and FreeBSD	?
LynxSecure	LynuxWorks	x86, Intel VT-x, Intel VT-d	x86	no host OS	LynxOS, Linux, and Windows	Proprietary
Mac-on-Linux	Mac On Linux	PowerPC	PowerPC	Linux	Mac OS X, Mac OS 7.5.2 to 9.2.2, Linux	GPL
Mac-on-Mac	Sebastian Gregorzyk	PowerPC	PowerPC	Mac OS X, up to Tiger excluded	Mac OS X, Mac OS 7.5.2 to 9.2.2, Linux	GPL
OKL4	Open Kernel Labs	x86, ARM, MIPS	as host	none (bare metal)	Linux, eCos, "other RTOSes"	BSD
OpenVZ	Community project, supported by SWsoft	Intel x86, AMD64, IA-64, PowerPC64, SPARC/64	Same as host	Linux	Various Linux distributions	GPL
Oracle VM	Oracle Corporation	Intel x86, x86-64, Intel VT-x	Intel x86, x86-64, Intel VT-x	none (bare metal install)	Microsoft Windows, Oracle Enterprise Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux	Free, Commercial
OVPsim	OVP [2]	Intel x86	OR1K, MIPS32 (and public API which enables users to write their own processor models)	Microsoft Windows	MIPS Malta (and public API which enables users to write their own peripheral and system models)	Apache 2.0
Padded Cell for x86	Green Hills Software	x86, Intel VT-x	x86	INTEGRITY Real-time OS	Windows, Linux, Solaris	Proprietary
Padded Cell for PowerPC	Green Hills Software	PowerPC	PowerPC	INTEGRITY Real-time OS	Linux	Proprietary
Palacios VMM	The V3Vee Project	AMD-V	x86	OS independent (currently GeekOS, Kitten)	Linux	BSD
Parallels Desktop for Mac	Parallels, Inc.	Intel x86, Intel VT-x	Intel x86	Mac OS X (Intel)	Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, OS/2, eComStation, MS-DOS, Solaris	Proprietary
Parallels Workstation	Parallels, Inc.	x86, Intel VT-x	x86	Windows, Linux	Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, OS/2, eComStation, MS-DOS, Solaris	Proprietary
PearPC	Sebastian Biallas	x86, AMD64, PowerPC	PowerPC	Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, NetBSD	Mac OS X, Darwin, Linux	GPL
PowerVM	IBM	POWER4, POWER5, POWER6, PowerPC 970	POWER4, POWER5, POWER6, PowerPC 970	hardware / firmware, no host OS	Linux-PPC, AIX, i5/OS, IBM i	Proprietary
Proxmox Virtual Environment	ProxMox	x86-64	x86, x86-64	Debian Etch w/ProxMox Role	Same as KVM; Same as OpenVZ	GPL v2
QEMU	Fabrice Bellard helped by other developers	x86, AMD64, IA-64, PowerPC, Alpha, SPARC 32 and 64, ARM, S/390, M68k	x86, AMD64, ARM, SPARC 32 and 64, PowerPC, MIPS	Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, BeOS	Changes regularly [3]	GPL/LGPL
QEMU w/ kqemu module	Fabrice Bellard	Intel x86, AMD64	Same as host	Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, Windows	Changes regularly [4]	GPL/LGPL
QEMU w/ qvm86 module	Paul Brook	x86	x86	Linux, NetBSD, Windows	Changes regularly	GPL
QuickTransit	Transitive Corp.	AMD64, x86, IA-64, POWER	MIPS, PowerPC, SPARC, x86	Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris	Linux, Mac OS X, Irix, Solaris	Proprietary
RTS Hypervisor	Real-Time Systems	Intel and AMD x86	x86	none: bare metal installation	Windows XP, XP-Embedded, Linux, VxWorks, Windows CE, ETS, OS-9 and proprietary OS	Proprietary
SimNow	AMD	AMD64	AMD64	Linux (64bit), Windows (64bit)	Linux, Windows (32bit and 64bit)	AMD proprietary
SIMH	Bob Supnik / The Computer History Simulation Project	Alpha, ARM, HPPA, x86, ia64, x86-64, M68K, MIPS, MIPSel, POWER, s390, SPARC	Data General Nova, Eclipse; Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-1, PDP-4, PDP-7, PDP-8, PDP-9, PDP-10, PDP-11, PDP-15, VAX; GRI Corporation GRI-909, IBM 1401, 1620, 1130, 7090/7094, System 3; Interdata (Perkin-Elmer) 16b and 32b systems; Hewlett-Packard 2114, 2115, 2116, 2100, 21MX; Honeywell H316/H516; MITS Altair 8800, with both 8080 and Z80; Royal-Mcbee LGP-30, LGP-21; Scientific Data Systems SDS 940	Windows, BSD, Linux, Solaris, VMS	Depends on target machine, Includes NetBSD/VAX, OpenBSD/VAX, VAX/VMS, UNIX v6, UNIX v7, TOPS-10, TOPS-20, ITS	Unique, BSD-like license
Simics	Virtutech	x86, x86-64, SPARC v9	Alpha, ARM, IA-64, MIPS32, MIPS64, MSP430, PPC32, PPC64, POWER, SPARC v8, SPARC v9, x86, x86-64, TI TMS320C64xx.	Windows, Linux, Solaris	Depends on target machine, VxWorks, OSE, QNX, Linux, Solaris, Windows, FreeBSD, RTEMS, TinyOS, and many others have been run.	Proprietary
Sun xVM Server	Sun Microsystems	x86-64, SPARC	(Same as host)	none (bare metal with Solaris as special guest providing backend drivers to guests)	Windows XP & 2003 Server (x86-64 only), Linux, Solaris	GPL version 3
SVISTA 2004	Serenity Systems International	x86	x86	Windows, OS/2, Linux	Windows, Linux, OS/2, BSD	Proprietary
TRANGO	TRANGO Virtual Processors, Grenoble, France	ARM, XScale, MIPS, PowerPC	Paravirtualized ARM, MIPS, PowerPC	none: bare metal execution, Linux or Windows as dev. hosts	Linux, eCos, µC/OS-II, WindowsCE, Nucleus, VxWorks	Proprietary
User Mode Linux	Jeff Dike helped by other developers	x86, x86-64, PowerPC	(Same as parent)	Linux	Linux	GPL version 2
View-OS	Renzo Davoli helped by other developers [5]	x86, PowerPC, AMD64 (in progress)	(Same as parent)	Linux 2.6+	Linux executables	GPL version 2
VDSmanager	ISPsystem LLC	x86	(Same as host)	FreeBSD	FreeBSD	Proprietary
Sun xVM VirtualBox	Sun Microsystems	x86, x86-64	x86, (x86-64 only on VirtualBox 2 with hardware virtualization)	Windows, Linux, Mac OS X (Intel), Solaris, eComStation	DOS, Windows, Linux, OS/2, FreeBSD, Solaris	GPL version 2; full version with extra enterprise features is proprietary (free of charge for personal and educational use and evaluation)
Virtual Iron Virtual Iron 3.1	Virtual Iron Software, Inc.	x86 VT-x, AMD64 AMD-V	x86, AMD64	none: bare metal execution	Windows, Linux	Complete product carries a proprietary license [6]; a few components are GPL version 2 [7]
Virtual PC 2007	Microsoft	x86, x86-64	x86	Windows Vista (Business, Enterprise, Ultimate), XP Pro, XP Tablet PC Edition	DOS, Windows, OS/2, Linux(Suse, Xubuntu), OpenSolaris(Belenix)	Proprietary (free of charge from Jul 2006)
Virtual PC 7 for Mac	Microsoft	PowerPC	x86	Mac OS X	Windows, OS/2, Linux	Proprietary
VirtualLogix VLX	VirtualLogix	ARM, TI DSP C6000, Intel x86, Intel VT-x and Intel VT-d, PowerPC	Same as parent	none: bare metal installation	Linux, Windows XP, C5, VxWorks, Nucleus, DSP/BIOS and proprietary OS	Proprietary
Virtual Server 2005 R2	Microsoft	Intel x86, AMD64	Intel x86	Windows 2003, XP	Windows NT, 2000, 2003, Linux (Red Hat and SUSE)	Proprietary (Free)
Virtuozzo	SWsoft, now Parallels, Inc.	x86, IA-64, AMD64	x86, IA-64, AMD64	Linux, Windows	Linux, Windows	Proprietary
VMware ESX Server	VMware	x86-64[citation needed]	x86-64	none (bare metal install)	Windows, Linux, Netware, Solaris, FreeBSD, ...	Proprietary
VMware ESXi Server	VMware	x86, x86-64	x86, x86-64	none (bare metal install) (embedded)	Windows, Linux, Netware, Solaris, FreeBSD, ...	Proprietary - (Free)
VMware Fusion	VMware	x86, Intel VT-x	x86, AMD64	Mac OS X (Intel)	Windows, Linux, Netware, Solaris, others	Proprietary
VMware Server	VMware	x86, AMD64	x86, AMD64	Windows, Linux	DOS, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Netware, Solaris, Virtual appliances	Proprietary (Free)
VMware Workstation 6.0	VMware	x86, AMD64	x86, AMD64	Windows, Linux	DOS, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Netware, Solaris, Darwin, Virtual appliances	Proprietary
VMware Player 2.0	VMware	x86, AMD64	x86, AMD64	Windows, Linux	DOS, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Netware, Solaris, Darwin, Virtual appliances	Proprietary (Free)
Wind River hypervisor	Wind River	x86, PPC	(Same as host)	bare metal	Linux, VxWorks, bare metal virtual board	Proprietary
Wind River VxWorks MILS Platform	Wind River	PPC	(Same as host)	bare metal	VxWorks, bare metal virtual board	Proprietary
Xen	Citrix Systems	x86, AMD64, (PowerPC and IA-64 ports in progress)	(Same as host)	NetBSD, Linux, Solaris	FreeBSD, NetBSD, Linux, Solaris, Windows XP & 2003 Server (needs vers. 3.0 and an Intel VT (Vanderpool) or AMD-V (Pacifica)-capable CPU), Plan 9	GPL
z/VM	IBM	z/Architecture	z/Architecture (z/VM does not run on predecessor mainframes)	None or itself, single or multiple levels/versions deep, e.g. VM/ESA running inside z/VM 4.4 inside z/VM 5.2 inside z/VM 5.1.	Linux on zSeries, z/OS, z/VSE, z/TPF, z/VM, VM/CMS, MUSIC/SP, OpenSolaris for System z, and predecessors	Proprietary, one-time charge plus maintenance/support
z LPARs	IBM	z/Architecture	z/Architecture	Intrinsic feature of System z mainframes	Linux on zSeries, z/OS, z/VSE, z/TPF, z/VM, VM/CMS, MUSIC/SP, and predecessors	Intrinsic feature of System z mainframes
Name	Creator	Host CPU	Guest CPU	Host OS(s)	Guest OS(s)	License

[edit] More details

Name	Guest OS SMP available?	Runs arbitrary OS?	Drivers for supported guest OS available?	Method of operation	Typical use	Guest OS speed relative to Host OS	Commercial support available?	Needs administrative rights?
Bochs	Yes, up to 8-way	Yes	?	Emulation	Hobbyist, Developer	Slow	?	(network support needs packet capture/TUN which requires admin rights to be installed)
Containers	Yes, over 100-way	No	N/A	Operating system-level virtualization	Business, Development, Enterprise Server Consolidation, Hosting, Service separation, Security, Isolation	Native speed	Yes
Cooperative Linux	No[1]	No	some are supported	Porting	used as a separate machine for a server or with X11 networking	Native[8]	?	Always. User-mode console can be attached to running instances, though.[1]
Denali	No	No	?	Paravirtualization and Porting	Research	Slow	?
DOSBox	No	No	Yes	Emulation using Dynamic Translation or interpretation.	execution of DOS applications, especially games	Slow (10% native), much slower on non-x86 systems.	?
DOSEMU	No	Yes	Yes	Hardware virtualization	Legacy application support	Native[9]	?
FreeVPS	Yes	No	n/a	Operating system-level virtualization	Hosting, Service separation, Security	Native[10]	?
GXemul	No	No	N/A	Emulation	Hobbyist, Developer	Slow	?
iCore Virtual Accounts	Yes	No	Compatible	Operating system-level virtualization	Safe Home Computing	Native	Yes
Integrity Virtual Machines	Yes (8-way supported, 16-way experimental)	Yes	Unnecessary	Virtualization	Server consolidation and Security	Near native (no guest additions necessary)	Yes
Jail	Yes	No	N/A	Operating system-level virtualization	Hosting, Service separation, Security	Native[11]	?
Hyper-V	Yes	Yes	Yes	Hypervisor	All	Native. Drivers IO is non-emulated for better IO performance. However, substantial performance loss on some workload (network and disk intensive especially) is associated with all virtualization solutions.	Yes
JPC (Virtual Machine)	No	Yes	N/A	Emulation and Dynamic Translation	Research	Slow (at most 20% of native)	No
KVM	Yes	Yes	N/A	In-kernel Virtualization	?	Near native	?	Needs
LinuxOnLinux	Yes	No	Under development	Paravirtualization by Afterburning plus Type II hypervisor	researching virtual machines	Near native (within 10%)	No
Linux- VServer	Yes	No	N/A	Operating system-level virtualization	Hosting, Service separation, Security	Native[12]	?
Logical Domains	Yes	No	Yes (for supported OS such as Solaris 10)	Paravirtualization	Server consolidation, Hosting, Service separation, and Security	Near native	Yes
LynxSecure	Yes	Yes	Yes	Paravirtualization and Operating system-level virtualization	Embedded and enterprise-level workstation and servers, high-assurance security, secure domain separation (MLS, MILS, MSL), and cross-domain solutions	Native or near native performance	Yes
Mac-on-Linux	?	?	?	Virtualization		Native[13]	?
Mac-on-Mac	?	?	?	Virtualization		Native[14]	?
OKL4	?	No	Yes	Paravirtualization	embedded systems	Native[15]	?
OpenVZ	Yes	No	Compatible	Operating system-level virtualization	Virtualized Server Isolation	Native[16]	?	Needs
Oracle VM	Yes	Yes	Yes	Paravirtualization and hardware virtualization	Server consolidation and security, enterprise and business deployment	Near native	Yes
Padded Cell for x86	No	Yes	Yes	Virtualization, Lightweight Hypervisor	Developer, Business workstation, Security	Near native	?
Padded Cell for PowerPC	No	No	Yes	Paravirtualization, Lightweight Hypervisor	Developer, Business workstation, Security	Near native	?
Parallels Desktop for Mac	Yes	Yes	Yes	Virtualization, Lightweight Hypervisor	Hobbyist, Developer, Tester, Business workstation	Near native	Yes
Parallels Workstation	No	Yes	Yes	Virtualization, Lightweight Hypervisor	Hobbyist, Developer, Tester, Business workstation	Near native	Yes
PearPC	No	Yes	Yes	Emulation using Dynamic Translation	Hobbyist, Developer, Business workstation	Slow (1/15 native; 1/500 on G4)	?
PowerVM	Yes	Yes, max 10 / CPU	Yes	native or (micro lpars) hypercalls to firmware-hypervisor	any use, up to 64-way	native, POWER5 and later have no raw-iron mode	Yes
QEMU	Yes	Yes	?	Dynamic Recompilation	Hobbyist, Developer, Business workstation, Server	Slow when emulating a different architecture (i.e. powerpc on x86 or vice versa) (10% to 20% of native). Reasonably fast otherwise.	?	if TAP access is desired, other networking modes require no admin
QEMU w/ kqemu module	No	Yes	?	Virtualization	Hobbyist, Developer, Business workstation, Server	Near native [17]	?	Needs
QEMU w/ qvm86 module	No	Yes	?	Virtualization	Hobbyist, Developer, Business workstation, Server	Near native	?	Needs
QuickTransit	Yes	Yes	No	Dynamic binary translation	Various	Varies depending on host/guest processor combination	Yes
RTS Hypervisor	Yes	Yes	Yes	native, binary - direct HW access	Embedded real-time systems; Medical, Industrial, Mil-Aero	Native[18]	Yes
SimNow	Yes	Yes	Yes	Code caching, Virtualization	Developer, Server	Slow (10% of native)	?
SIMH	No	Yes	No	Emulation	Hobbyist, Legacy application support, Historical preservation	Slower than native	?
Simics	Yes	Yes	Yes, but most of time unmodified is the point	Full-system simulation	Early software development, embedded software development, advanced debug, computer architecture research	depends on target nature	Yes
Sun xVM Server	Yes	Yes	Yes	Paravirtualization and Porting or Hardware Virtualization	Enterprise servers	Up to near native[19] speed substantial performance loss on some workload (network and disk intensive especially)	Yes
SVISTA 2004	No	?	?	?	Hobbyist, Developer, Business workstation	?	?
TRANGO	Yes	Yes[20]	Yes	Paravirtualization and Porting or Hardware Virtualization	Mob. phone, STB, routers, etc.	Native[21]	?
User Mode Linux	???	No	special guest kernel+modules required	Porting	used as a separate machine for a server or with X11 networking	near Native speed (Runs slow as all calls are proxied)	?	for networking
View-OS	Yes	No	N/A	Partial Virtualization through syscall trapping	security, isolation, testing, mobility	Near native (better with ptrace kernel patch[22])	?
VDSmanager	Yes	No	N/A	Operating system-level virtualization	Hosting, Service separation, Security, Isolation	Native speed	Yes
Sun xVM VirtualBox	No	Yes	Yes	Virtualization	Business workstation, Enterprise Server Consolidation, Business Continuity, Hobbyist, Developer	Near native	Yes (with commercial license)	Needs (See Support forums)
Virtual Iron Virtual Iron 3.1	Yes (up to 8 way)	Yes	Yes	Native Virtualization	Enterprise Server Consolidation, Business Continuity, Dev/Test	Near Native	Yes
Virtual PC 2007	No	Yes	Yes	Virtualization (guest calls trapping where supported)	Hobbyist, Developer, Business workstation	Near native with Virtual Machine additions	?
Virtual PC 7 for Mac	No	Yes	Yes	Dynamic Recompilation (guest calls trapping where supported)	Hobbyist, Developer, Business workstation	Slow	?
VirtualLogix VLX	Yes	Yes	Yes	Paravirtualization and Porting or Hardware Virtualization	Embedded real-time systems: Mobile phone, STB, Softswitch, etc	Near Native[23]	Yes
Virtual Server 2005 R2	No	Yes	Yes	Virtualization (guest calls trapping where supported)	Server, Server Farm	Near native with Virtual Machine additions	?
Virtuozzo	Yes	No	Compatible	Operating system-level virtualization	Server Consolidation, Business Continuity, Disaster Recover, Service Providers	Native speed	Yes
VMware ESX Server 3.0	Yes (Add-on) (up to 4 way)	Yes	Yes	Virtualization	Enterprise Server Consolidation, Business Continuity, Dev/Test	Up to near native	Yes	Needs
VMware ESX Server 2.5.3	Yes (Add-on) (2 way)	Yes	Yes	Virtualization	Enterprise Server Consolidation, Business Continuity, Dev/Test	Up to near native	Yes	Needs
VMware Fusion	Yes	Yes	Yes	Virtualization	Hobbyist, Developer, Tester, Business workstation	Near native	Yes	Needs
VMware Server	Yes (2-way)	Yes	Yes	Virtualization	Server/Desktop Consolidation, Dev/Test	Up to near native, substantial performance loss on some workload (network and disk intensive especially)[citation needed]	Yes	Needs
VMware Workstation 6.0	Yes (2-way)	Yes	Yes	Paravirtualization (VMI) and Virtualization	Technical Professional, Advanced Dev/Test, Trainer	Up to near native	Yes	Needs
VMware Player 2.0	Yes (2-way)	Yes	Yes	Virtualization	Technical Professional, Advanced Dev/Test, Trainer, End User (Prebuild Machines)	Up to near native, substantial performance loss on some workload (network and disk intensive especially)[citation needed]	Yes	Needs
Wind River hypervisor	No	Yes	Yes	Paravirtualization, hardware assisted virtualization	Embedded, safety critical, secure	Native	Yes	Not applicable
Wind River VxWorks MILS Platform	No	Yes	Yes	Paravirtualization, hardware assisted virtualization	Embedded, safety-critical, secure	Native	Yes	Not applicable
Xen	Yes	Yes	Not required with the exception of the networking drivers where a NAT is required. A modified guest kernel or special hardware level abstraction is required for guest OSs.	Paravirtualization and Porting or Hardware Virtualization	?	Up to near native[24] speed substantial performance loss on some workload (network and disk intensive especially)	Yes
z/VM	Yes, both real and virtual (guest perceives more CPUs than installed), incl. dynamic CPU provisioning and reassignment	Yes	Yes, but not required	Virtualization (among first systems to provide hardware assists)	Enterprise servers	Near Native[25]	Yes
z LPARs	Yes, both real and virtual (guest perceives more CPUs than installed), incl. dynamic CPU provisioning and reassignment; up to 64 real cores	Yes	Yes, but not required	Microcode and hardware hypervisor	Enterprise servers	Native: System z machines always run with at least one LPAR	Yes
Name	Guest OS SMP available?	Runs arbitrary OS?	Supported guest OS drivers?	Method of operation	Typical use	Speed relative to Host OS	Commercial support