StackSafe Steps Into Virtualized Environments - Systems Management News On The Web

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AS OF 8/20/2008 9:43AM EST

StackSafe Steps Into Virtualized Environments
By Jeff Feinman

August 6, 2008 — Testing product provider StackSafe has added the ability to its flagship IT operations testing product to do automated imports of servers, applications, databases and other software components running in a virtual environment.

Test Center now lets users import virtualized production environments to stage both virtualized and physical production environments for testing activities, StackSafe announced Monday. Test Center imports images from one or more servers to create copies of a software stack’s application and database, so changes to those copies can be tested, the company said. It can test infrastructure for status, functionality, configuration, security and other factors. Third-party products, like security and load generation tools, can be imported into Test Center for further testing.

StackSafe executives said companies are now adding virtual production infrastructures and integrating virtual production infrastructures with existing physical production infrastructures. As a result, IT needs to test interdependencies between physical and virtual infrastructures.

“Testing end-to-end dependencies is most effectively performed in a single tool for several reasons,” said Dennis Powell, StackSafe’s senior product manager. “The tool gives a single staging platform and view of all components, a single set of functions that operate in a standard manner, and a single set of results to certify tests across the hybrid environment.”

The product can now measure the performance of physical machines that have CentOS Linux, Red Hat Linux and Windows, along with virtual machines on the VMware ESX Server, company executives said. It also tests databases, mainframes and parts of the system that cannot be virtualized into Test Center.

StackSafe executives said that Test Center being able to test both software stacks and virtual environments enables faster change impact analyses and fewer rolled-back changes.

“Test Center squarely meets the needs of IT operations teams no matter what their production environment looks like, with support included for physical, virtual and external infrastructure components,” said Loren Burnett, president and CEO of StackSafe.

Related Search Term(s): testing, virtualization, StackSafe

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