We are extremely pleased to announce the immediate availability of ConVirt version 0.8.1. This release represents many months' worth of feverish development and testing, community contributions, feedback, feature-requests, and validation in datacenters both large and small. The result of this long gestation is a quantum leap forward in features, quality and, hopefully, the value to the ConVirt user community.

From amongst the myriad improvements, bugfixes, and new features in this release, here are a few highlights:

• Drag & Drop 'Live' Migration.
• User defined server resource pools.
• Dynamic resource provisioning.
• An integrated Virtual Appliance Catalog.
• Template based rapid provisioning.
• Comprehensive template management.
• Xen 3.1+ support.

These and many other new features and enhancements should allow ConVirt users to effortlessly manage the complete lifcycle of Virtual Machines in their environment ... starting from a VM's inception as a provisionable template, through the dynamic allocation of physical resources at creation, on to both live and cold migrations to meet various operational goals, and so on.

Meanwhile, those users responsible for virtualized QA or Testing lab environments will find the vastly improved Image Store, with its new template management features and single-click, rapid provisioning operations a significant boon to their workday.

Finally, small businesses, departments and individuals looking to jumpstart their virtualized infrastructure will find the integrated appliance browser, with its large catalog of virtual appliances from leading vendors, invaluable in getting going quickly.

We are excited to get this release out to the community and look forward to continued community support for ConVirt.

You can download ConVirt 0.8.1 from the Downloads area. Also, head over to the Gallery for a quick overview video of some of the new features.