Veeam Software,Veeam Software have announced that Backup & Replication 6.5 has achieved VMware Ready status – meaning it has been put through a pretty serious testing mill and is now supported on VMware vSphere® 5.1.

The badge appears to have been well received by those within the virtual vendor, with senior figures such as Alliance Programs Director Parag Patel  saying he was ‘pleased’ that Veeam Backup & Replication can now bear the VMware Ready logo.  It does of course also give you some more confidence that Veeam’s product range is good to go for your virtual environment.

VMware has announced the end of availability for a number of their products, Horizon Application Manager, View Enterprise Bundle/Add-on, and ThinApp Client/Suite, which will take effect throughout the remainder of this year:

VMware Horizon Application Manager - no longer available after 31/03/2013.  Users will need to migrate to VMware Horizon Workspace, the vendor's new platform for the mobile workforce.

VMware View Enterprise Bundle and Add-on - orders will not be taken after September 30, 2013. The features and capabilities offered in View Enterprise will continue to be available in VMware Horizon View.

VMware ThinApp Client and Suite - this will be withdrawn on 15th December 2013, although the features and capabilities offered in ThinApp will continue to be available in VMware Horizon View, Mirage, Workspace, and Suite.

Recently we had a couple of customers getting in touch to ask about phishing emails - messages that appear to contain links to a known brand (a bank or places such as Paypal), but in fact are false pages usually containing either malicious code that will try to infect your pc, or a form that stores the personal information you are asked to put in.

Now, phishing emails are hardly new of course, but while the last 12 months have seen the levels of mass spam fall sharply due to much better anti spam solutions like we ourselves deploy, the number of more targeted messages containing malware have exploded in number.  This is down to the individuals and groups behind spam attacks waking up to the realisation that email quality, not quantity, can be more profitable - and you need to be aware.

So, what is going on right now, and how can you avoid getting hooked by a phishing mail?

Veeam Software have today announced a new campaign to help organisations make the move to Modern Data Protection. According to Gartner, by 2016, one-third of organisations will change backup vendors due to frustrations over cost, complexity or capability. At the same time, Gartner reports that server virtualisation is now over 60% penetrated and on the way to surpass 80%. Veeam’s Modern Data Protection solution – a powerful, easy-to-use and affordable solution Built for virtualisation – sits at the junction of these two industry trends.