Taming the virtual beast: Part II

FastScale, Hyperic, LeoStream, PlateSpin offer disparate views of VM control

In the first part of our series on virtual machine hosting and management applications, we took a deep dive into the management capabilities offered as part of three popular virtualization hosting applications: EMC’s VMware, XenSource’s XenEnterprise and Microsoft’s interim VM host, Virtual Server 2005.

In this installment of tests, we examine one more up and coming VM platform from Virtual Iron and the wares it provides for management. 

We also dig into four standalone software packages from start-ups FastScale, LeoStream and PlateSpin and the open source Hyperic project to assess how their tools can help IT administrators provision, secure and perform the day-to-day grunt work that contain the worrying side effects of VM sprawl. (Compare physical and virtual server management tools in our revamped Server Management Buyer's Guide.)

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In the first part of our series on virtual machine hosting and management applications, we took a deep dive into the management capabilities offered as part of three popular virtualization hosting applications: EMC’s VMware, XenSource’s XenEnterprise and Microsoft’s interim VM host, Virtual Server 2005.

In this installment of tests, we examine one more up and coming VM platform from Virtual Iron and the wares it provides for management. 

We also dig into four standalone software packages from start-ups FastScale, LeoStream and PlateSpin and the open source Hyperic project to assess how their tools can help IT administrators provision, secure and perform the day-to-day grunt work that contain the worrying side effects of VM sprawl. (Compare physical and virtual server management tools in our revamped Server Management Buyer's Guide.)