VMware is stepping up efforts to deliver on its vision of the software-defined datacentre with the acquisition of Virsto, a storage virtualisation vendor, while also rolling out automation tools in the shape of vSphere with Operations Management.

The firm said it has entered a definitive agreement to acquire Virsto Software, whose storage hypervisor technology is aimed at bringing the same kind of optimisation and flexibility to enterprise storage that VMware has already delivered to servers.

VMware said that the move will fill a gap in its current capabilities, helping to optimise storage alongside its existing technologies for managing server and networking resources.

“Our customers have told us that managing performance and data services for virtual machines can be challenging, especially in I/O-intensive environments like virtual desktops,” said John Gilmartin, vice president of storage and availability, writing on VMware’s blog.

Virsto offers a storage management platform that can accelerate I/O performance on any block-based storage system while providing services such as virtual machine snapshot and cloning capabilities, Gilmartin added.

VMware plans to continue to offer Virsto’s standalone virtual appliance for vSphere in the short term, but is looking to integrate Virsto’s architecture and data management services into future VMware products further down the road.

As part of the same vision, VMWare also unveiled vSphere with Operations Management, integrating the vSphere platfrom with a tool to deliver automated operations for vSphere deployments.

This uses analytic capabilities to peer into the performance, health and efficiency of the virtualised environment, and then use this data to proactively manage performance and capacity.

“Utilising the vSphere health model, vSphere with Operations Management extrapolates and presents data for managing performance and capacity more effectively than any other current or promised solutions,” said Ben Scheerer of VMware’s Cloud and Infrastructure Management product group.

VMware vSphere with Operations Management is set to be available later this quarter in Standard, Enterprise and Enterprise Plus editions, priced from $1,745 per processer with no core, vRAM or virtual machine limits.

VMware also announced VMware vSphere Data Protection Advanced, a backup and recovery tool for business critical applications such as Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft SQL Server running in virtual environments.

Based on EMC’s Avamar, vSphere Data Protection Advanced will ship this quarter for $1,095 per processor, with no restrictions on the number of protected virtual machines.

An update to Dropbox for Teams aims to give IT administrators more control and visibility options for cloud-hosted files.

Updates include the ability for admins to create downloadable activity reports and set sharing controls for user’s accounts. The move continues Dropbox’s push to gain a foot hold in the enterprise market.

“People at over two million businesses and 95 per cent of Fortune 500 companies are using Dropbox – from law firms working with their clients to international businesses staying in sync across the world,” wrote Dropbox software engineer Emil Ibrishimov in a blog post.

“Today, we’re launching a completely redesigned admin console and new sharing controls to help Dropbox for Teams admins manage their group.”

The updated version of Dropbox for Teams includes the ability for admins to view recent activity, third party app usage and web session information for all members in a given team.

Admins will be able to filter that information by logins, passwords, apps, devices, and members using the revamped admin console. Dropbox’s reworked offering also includes the ability to set a team members access to files on a case-by-case basis.

Security will see a revamp from the update as admins can now require team members to use two-step verification on a member-by-member basis. Dropbox originally released its two-step verification system last year after a password breach occurred late last year.

Dropbox’s updates attempt to put the firm’s service in the same field as competitor’s enterprise solutions. Last year, its cloud storage competitor Box released a slew of security and app integration tools aimed at increasing usability within the IT field.

Dropbox for Teams is currently available to firms for a starting price of $795 a year for up to five team members and 1TB of storage space.

Virtualisation management firm VMTurbo has updated its Operations Manager tool with broader platform support and enhancements to its policy engine.

Available immediately, VMTurbo Operations Manager 3.3 broadens its virtualisation platform support to include VMware’s vCloud 5.1 and Microsoft’s Hyper-V 2012, Red Hat Enterprise Virtualisation 3.1, as well as adding CloudStack and Citrix XenServer.

The new version also enhances the usability of the system, giving customers greater visibility of information about their virtual machines and also more flexible control over the timing of any changes the suite recommends.

VMTurbo itself is a relatively new firm, founded with the aim of simplifying the operation of complex virtualised datacentres. Operations Manager takes a radical approach to this, automating as many management tasks as possible and using techniques borrowed from economics to balance resources against demand.

“We call it the Economic Scheduling Engine, as it models the IT environment as buyers and sellers, using supply and demand to drive resource allocation decisions,” VMTurbo’s managing director for Northern Europe, Andrew Mallaband, told V3.

Under this model, applications sell transactions to the business while buying memory, CPU and disk resources from virtual machines, using virtual pricing which varies as resource utilisation fluctuates throughout the datacentre, just like a market-driven ecosystem.

Version 3.3 aims to improve the usability of Operations Manager for service providers and enterprise customers alike by allowing for more customisation, according to Mallaband.

“We deal with lots of enterprises and cloud service providers who are keen to expose information from our system and some of the control functions to their customers,” he said.

Virtualisation tools specialist Veeam has released an add-on for its Backup & Replication 6.5 platform that can automatically copy virtual machine backups to cloud-based storage services.

The tool offers a time-saving alternative for administrators who need to ensure backups are held in an off-site repository to comply with regulations.

Available immediately, Veeam Backup & Replication Cloud Edition enables IT departments to automate the copying of backups to any of 15 different cloud-based storage services, including Amazon’s S3 or Glacier platforms, Microsoft Azure, Rackspace or HP Cloud.

However, instead of issuing a major update to its Backup & Replication suite, which provides backup protection for virtual machines and their data in VMware or Hyper-V environments, Veeam is delivering it as a separate add-on to Backup & Replication 6.5 that deals solely with transferring files off-site.

“Backup & Replication Cloud Edition still counts as version 6.5, but we haven’t changed the code. It is implemented as an engine that you can install next to your current 6.5 deployment that offloads your backup files to a location off-premise,” Veeam chief evangelist in EMEA Hans De Leenheer told V3.

He explained that customers had were happy with Backup & Replication 6.5, but that for regulatory reasons some needed a way to get backups to an off-site location, in case their offices should be destroyed.

While not addressing any major technical issue, the tool makes it as easy as possible for an administrator to configure a regular, automatic transfer of backup files to the cloud repository.

Veeam also implemented the feature this way because backing up virtual machines directly to the cloud would have a huge impact on latency, according to De Leenheer.

Likewise, the tool does not enable users to perform a recovery directly from the cloud. Instead, users must use the cloud engine to retrieve the correct off-site archive before kicking off a local recovery, as is the normal procedure for Backup & Replication 6.5.

“It’s just a convenient and affordable alternative to sending tape to a traditional offsite backup vault,” said De Leenheer.

Veeam Backup & Replication Cloud Edition is available under annual subscription licensing. Existing customers can add a Cloud Edition license to their existing Veeam Backup & Replication perpetual licenses, the firm said.

LogMeIn has officially launched Cubby, a cloud-based storage service that lets users synchronise content across PCs and mobile devices, as well as share files with friends and colleagues securely.

Available now, Cubby is being slated as an alternative to Dropbox and as a potential solution for businesses seeking a secure solution for employees using smartphones and tablets to view company documents, as part of the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend.

Like other online storage services, Cubby has a free edition – called Basic – that provides 5GB of cloud storage, but a perk is that consumers can earn up to 20GB more if they get others to sign up for the service.

Meanwhile, a paid-for Cubby Pro version includes 100GB storage per user and additionally offers a feature called DirectSync that enables users to synchronise an unlimited amount of data between devices and computers, without it being stored online.

Cubby also allows users to set any folder or folders as shared, rather than having to drop files into a specific folder as with Dropbox, according to LogMeIn.

“Cloud file sharing services too often force people to make choices between personal or business use, simplicity or flexibility, accessibility or security – compromises that don’t reflect the realities of how technology is increasingly adopted and used in today’s mobile workplace,” said LogMeIn chief executive Michael Simon.

“Cubby is designed to deliver the elegance and ease of use individuals enjoy with the security and flexibility businesses demand.”

The service builds on experience LogMeIn has gleaned from its remote access service, and uses 256-bit AES encryption to secure all communications.

Any files added to Cubby through the desktop application are automatically protected using client-side encryption. Meanwhile Cubby Locks, a feature of the Cubby Pro version, lets account owners require a password for access to shared folders and activate another level of protection by encrypting the access keys with their password.

Cubby requires a desktop app for Windows PCs or Macs, with mobile client support for phones or tablets running Android as well as Apple’s iPhone and iPad devices.

The Cubby Pro paid-for version is available on subscription pricing from £4.46 per user per month, or can prepaid at £53.56 per user per year.

LogMeIn offers a range of cloud-based services, including remote access and IT helpdesk tools.