We have had OpsCheck and ConfigCheck up over on vWire.com since the site was launched but we have noticed a trend.  A little less than half of the people who click on the buttons to get the tools don’t actually download it.  There has always been a form in front of the download and these 6 fields seemed to have scared off about 40% of the people who wanted the tools.  I can understand that - on certain sites I would do the same thing in fear of what the info would be used for.  Our objective is to get these tools in the hands of people they will help.  So you can now get OpsCheck and ConfigCheck without filling out any form.  We have removed it so that everyone can benefit from these tools.  So if you use VMotion or care about the security of your VM’s come and try OpsCheck and ConfigCheck.  Most people are surprised at what they find when they run these tools.

This week we released OpsCheck on vWire.com for free - a tool to help ensure “VMotionability”.  A number of people have come to get it which is great.  Some of those people are starting to share their findings in the community.

Alan’s is one of my personal favorites because of the way he stated it originally on Twitter.

What I find interesting about this product is the wide range of need for this product.  There are some people who are fairly advanced in their environments and have a pretty good handle on things.  They are finding things they were not aware of before.

Then there are people who have possibly never gotten VMotion to work.  You may be reading this thinking– that can’t be right – but we have talked to people that virtualization is part of their job and they have had issues for the past year getting VMotion to work.  OpsCheck can help these people quickly identify what issues that are preventing VMotion and giving them the troubleshooting guidance to correct those things.  One of the main technologies that sets VMWare apart from the rest currently is VMotiion.  OpsCheck is a tool that should be in every VI Professionals toolbox because you should not be spending time in training or dollars on consulting for what should be a foundational piece of your VMWare deployment.  Use those dollars wisely on things that should be being built upon this foundation.

Our goal at Tripwire in these free tools is to provide value where it matters.  ConfigCheck and OpsCheck are the first two tools we have released because we have heard a need for these things and we have the skills to produce them quickly.

For some time now here at Tripwire there has been a team working on what has been known internally as Project Spitfire.  You have seen part of this team here at the Virtual Black Hole but today is a significant coming out party for the entire team.  What we announced today is the first phase of a new initiative here at Tripwire focused on virtualization management known as vWire. This is a separate line of business from Tripwire Enterprise and is entirely focused on solutions to make the VI professional’s life easier.

As part of this, today we announced that OpsCheck is now available at www.vWire.com.  OpsCheck is a free tool that helps you ensure your VMotion is operational.  We also today announced a new community for VI professionals.  There are already lots of great discussions about OpsCheck and virtual infrastructure management within the vWire community.

Last June we released ConfigCheck to allow you to test your VI configurations agains the VMWare hardening guidelines.  This great free tool is also available at vwire.com.  ConfigCheck was recently rated one of the top 10 free VMWare tools over on VM/ETC.

There is lots more to come but this is a big day for us.  We hope you enjoy the free tools, website and community as they have been designed in an effort to help with problems that we have been hearing from VI Professionals.

If you are reading this you more than likely think that virtualization is a good thing - as you should. Virtualization is not just a technology fad that will fade over time. Most of us realize that virtualization is a game changer. The problem is that most users are not equipped in some way to be as successful as their physical counterparts in some ways. Read the rest of this entry »

I spent last week in San Antonio, Texas at the Tripwire World Wide Sales Kick Off meeting. Read the rest of this entry »

In December Cameron Haight from Gartner came out to visit Tripwire.  He spent the entire day getting an update on all of the exciting things that were going on here in Portland.  While he was here, he shot a video clip with Dan Schoenbaum our Chief Operating Officer talking about what Tripwire offers.  If you don’t know Tripwire this is a good high level summary to understand what our flagship product has to offer.   Towards the end of the interview there is a hint of things to come…

In one of the original posts on this blog Karen talked about what the Virtual Black Hole was all about.  With the new look and feel I thought it would be helpful to give a little more color on why we are here and who are all these people.  The idea is a simple one - as Karen mentioned everyone on this blog is part of a small team within Tripwire that is working on something new. Read the rest of this entry »

Today is Christmas, which means more than likely you have the day off with the rest of your family.  Put down the computer and go hang out with them.  We will be here with great stuff again tomorrow!  Happy Holidays from all of us at The Virtual Black Hole.

Virtualization has been tagged in many lists of an item that will do well in 2009 because it is cost effective in how you can use your IT dollars.  For most companies, a recession or down economy does not mean that you stop spending but you spend on the most important items.  Read the rest of this entry »

Read the rest of this entry »