VMworld Technology Preview Consolidates Physical File Servers to Virtual Appliance

Likewise to preview Likewise CIFS Appliance edition

Likewise, a provider of software for integrating Linux, Unix, and Mac systems with Windows, will preview a new virtual appliance for VMware that quickly and easily migrates legacy file servers running on physical systems to high performance virtual storage appliances — simplifying administration while reducing operational and licensing costs.

The technology will be demonstrated next week at VMworld (booth #1606).

Likewise CIFS Appliance combines the features of the Likewise CIFS file server running on a Linux host operating system as a virtual machine, coupled with management integration within the VSphere/vCenter console. Likewise CIFS Appliance enables deployment and migration of files to new virtual file server appliances — allowing legacy systems to be retired. Typical file server management tasks are easily accessed within VMware vCenter to configure the appliance.

“VMware provides many technologies to enable administrators to configure machines in many ways that improve upon the traditional physical server management,” said Manny Vellon, CTO, Likewise. “Being able to snapshot, leverage common datacenter storage, backup/restore, load balance, and have automatic system fail-over to secondary computing resources are now a part of IT department everyday requirements. Providing a file server appliance on top of this fabric of virtualization technologies increases the benefits of investing in virtualization technologies.”

Likewise CIFS is a file server technology for network file share access to the share folders over SMB1 and SMB2 protocols that are common on local area networks. The Likewise CIFS Appliance leverages this technology to enable Windows network access to folders and files maintained on a virtualized file server using VMware. Companies can use Likewise CIFS Appliances to consolidate and retire legacy physical servers by migrating data to the Likewise CIFS Appliance on their VMware infrastructure.

To assist system administrators, multiple management interfaces will be available including the vSphere client interface, Windows-compatible management via Microsoft Management Console (MMC), and a Web service-based management interface. This approach allows for flexibility in the ways that administrators choose to work with the file server.

“We have seen a great deal of interest in our Linux-based CIFS server. The scalability and performance of Likewise CIFS offer customers a solution for Windows compatible storage in heterogeneous networks,” said Likewise CEO, Barry Crist. “The virtual appliance technology preview we’re debuting at VMworld is a response to the enthusiasm we’ve seen from customers and partners for new ways to deploy Likewise CIFS – and we’re looking forward to working with partners on additional offerings.”

Likewise Identity Service is an Active Directory bridge technology providing authentication of non-Windows systems to Active Directory – making it easy to authenticate users, control access to applications and data, and improve security. Likewise Identity Service is also integrated with VMware vSphere, providing enterprises with a scalable means to improve authentication and access control in virtualized environments to help meet IT security audit requirements. Organizations using vSphere (with ESX or ESXi) can manage and control vSphere users with Microsoft Active Directory.

Also, earlier this year, Likewise CIFS and Likewise Identity Service became available with some HP StorageWorks platforms.

About Likewise

Likewise provides more than 70,000 organizations with integration and authentication tools for mixed networks – enabling secure access of Linux, Unix, and Mac OS systems on networks using Microsoft Windows.

Likewise provides integration and identity management solutions to improve security and operational efficiencies and to help achieve regulatory compliance in mixed networks. Likewise Open lets organizations securely authenticate Linux, Unix and Mac OS users with Microsoft Active Directory. Likewise Enterprise includes all the core authentication technology that comes with Likewise Open, plus world-class migration, group policy, auditing, and reporting modules. More information is available at the company’s Web site, www.likewise.com.