VKernel Corporation, a provider of powerful, easy-to-use, and affordable virtualization management and optimization software, is making perpetual licenses of its Capacity Modeler software for VMware completely free until December 31, 2009. VKernel Capacity Modeler is a free alternative to the expensive VMware vCenter CapacityIQ and can be downloaded at http://www.vkernel.com/free.
[ Read my InfoWorld article which gives more information about VKernel's plans, and hear what Kevin Conklin, VKernel VP of Product Management and Marketing had to say about VMware and CapacityIQ - http://www.infoworld.com/d/virtualization/vkernel-makes-capacity-modeler-free-alternative-vmware-capacityiq-462 ]
Conerned that recently announced competitive offerings, such as VMware’s CapacityIQ, leave users with inadequate capabilities to tackle an important problem, VKernel is offering anyone that downloads VKernel Capacity Modeler between now and December 31, 2009 a free perpetual licenses for unlimited CPU sockets.
“Early reviews of CapacityIQ say it’s a 1.0 product with only basic capacity planning and ‘what if’ capabilities that are very similar to those found in our Capacity Modeler”, said Alex Bakman, founder and CEO of VKernel. “We’ve been developing VMware management and optimization solutions for years and understand that users require more serious solutions like our Capacity Analyzer and Optimization Pack. To illustrate this point we are giving our Capacity Modeler away free to anyone who is contemplating using CapacityIQ.”
The free VKernel Capacity Modeler software provides VMware customers the ability to quickly plan, simulate, and validate hundreds of real-world “what if” VM deployment and resource allocation scenarios in an interactive sandbox before going live in the production environment. With VKernel Capacity Modeler, user can perform:
- Capacity Planning
- Interactive “What If” Modeling Scenarios
- Proactive Problem Prevention
- Predictive Capacity Impact Analysis
VKernel currently supports VMware ESX and vSphere, with plans to support Microsoft Hyper-V and Citrix XEN. The company’s current virtualization management and optimization products include:
- Capacity Analyzer – proactively and predicatively monitor shared capacity resources to prevent current and future problems and optimize the environment
- Optimization Pack – collection of management and optimization applets to help users quickly reclaim unused server and storage resources – delivering an instant ROI
- Chargeback – provide instant cost visibility and implement a chargeback process
- Modeler – interactive capacity planning and change modeling