Sun Microsystems announced the availability of Sun xVM Ops Center, a datacenter automation tool that enables customers to simplify the management of heterogeneous IT environments and reduce costs. Sun xVM Ops Center is a key component of Sun xVM software, the company's open virtualization and management platform.

As companies move to virtualize their datacenters, the management of servers, network and storage is becoming increasingly complex. From a single console, Sun xVM Ops Center enables customers to simplify the management of all assets, regardless of the operating system or hardware platform on which they run. The management console automates time consuming, routine system administration tasks, such as: firmware updates, bare-metal operating-system provisioning, and patching and updating ' making it easier for users to manage thousands of IT assets simultaneously. As part of the company's ongoing commitment to the open source community, Sun has released updates to the source code used to build Sun xVM Ops Center to the OpenxVM.org community under the GNU General Public License Version 3 (GPLv3).

'Sun xVM Ops Center is the next milestone in delivering on our Sun xVM virtualization strategy,' said Steve Wilson, vice president of xVM, Sun Microsystems. 'The Sun xVM strategy is built around three key differentiators: enterprise-grade features, openness and interoperability ' all designed to meet the needs of customers who are looking for best-of-breed solutions for their dynamic datacenters. Sun's unique virtualization and management strategy gives our customers choice and breadth, spanning from desktop and servers to storage, appliances and networks.'

Sun xVM Ops Center runs in cross-platform Linux and Solaris Operating System (OS)-based x86 and SPARC(R) environments. Key features in Sun xVM Ops Center include:

• Server Discovery & Inventory Management ' Automatically scans and identifies servers across the network, even when powered off, which enables faster deployment and management of IT assets.
• Firmware and Bare Metal Server Provisioning ' Delivers automatic and 'hands off' installation of bare-metal operating systems, RPMs and firmware, bringing new efficiencies to IT departments.
• Patch Management & Updating ' Provides up-to-date patch management tools for Red Hat, SUSE and the Solaris OS, offering organizations greater control over their datacenter plans and minimizing downtime. In addition, unique patch simulation capabilities remove uncertainty when customers apply updates.
• Managing & Monitoring ' Securely and remotely manages users and heterogeneous datacenter assets, and proactively resolves problems by monitoring critical parameters, improving the security and stability of systems.
• Compliance Reporting ' Provides an up-to-date view into the system state, patch status, and software portfolio, which helps with quick and accurate reporting and compliance validation.