Tech Tools

RHEV 3.2 Released

Red Hat has released version 3.2 of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV). The biggest new feature of this version is storage live migration, which allows a virtual machine to move online to another storage domain without interrupting the operation. RHEV also now supports the latest CPUs, including Intel's Haswell series, AMD Opteron, and PowerPC G5 processors. Another key element of the newest version is a new plugin framework that lets you add new third-party features to the user interface. Other features include improvements in logging and monitoring, storage, network management, and power management.

FreeBSD 8.4 Released

The FreeBSD project has announced FreeBSD 8.4, the latest release in the FreeBSD 8 series. The FreeBSD developers maintain two branches, which means FreeBSD 8.4 shares attention with the FreeBSD 9.1 production release. (The legacy FreeBSD 8 series is kept in service for users who want to maintain a more conservative update strategy.) Version 8.4 includes the new Gnome version 2.32.1 and KDE version 4.10.1. All currently available LSI controllers are supported for the first time. The latest release also fixes bugs, adds several new applications and components, and tackles a number of security issues, especially in Bind.

Cisco Introduces New Backbone Routers

Cisco announces a new series of Carrier Routing System-X (CRS-X) backbone routers. The CRS-X offers four times more bandwidth than the previous CRS-3 System – up to 400Gbps per slot. The chassis can hold up to 16 slots. Interfaces of 100GB, 40GB, and 10GB are also included with CMOS-based optical data transmission under the Cisco brand name CPAK. The IOS XR router operating system is based on the QNX real-time kernel.

AMD Chips, Strategies, and Roadmap

AMD introduces a new family of energy-efficient Opteron processors for scale-out server systems. The new Opteron processors X1150 and X2150 are designed to compete with Intel's Atom CPUs. According to AMD, the new chips offer twice as many cores and four times as much RAM as the Intel Atom support S1260. As this issue goes to press, the company has also announced a new server strategy and roadmap, including a new portfolio of Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) and CPUs. AMD is also looking for traction in the market for high-core-count ARM server systems, with a new 64-bit ARM chip code named "Seattle."

Java Enterprise Edition 7 Released

After a long wait, Oracle has finally released the latest version of the Java Enterprise Edition.

Members of the Java Community Process (JCP) approved new standards for the Java Enterprise Edition in April, and Oracle has now officially announced the availability of Java EE 7. Java EE 7 programming includes additional interactive web applications based on HTML5 and places greater reliance on the bidirectional WebSockets protocol. For data exchange, Java EE 7 has JavaScript JSON serialization. Web Services and the REST architecture are supported by the new JAX-RS 2.0 specification.

The latest version of the GlassFish Application Server 4.0 is compatible with the current Java Enterprise standard. The SDK is available for download on the Java EE 7 SDK downloads page.

Crafter Studio 2.2

Crafter Software announces the release of the Crafter Studio 2.2 web development application. According to the press release, "Unlike legacy systems that were built just for web content, Crafter Software solutions were designed from the ground up to easily tap into disparate data sources from social media, ERPs, CRMs, marketing campaign systems, and others to create a dynamic web experience that is specifically targeted to an individual user."

Crafter Software is a spinoff of River Logic Corp. The Crafter CMS comes in both a free community edition and an enterprise edition.