HotLink® Corporation, the market leader in transformation solutions for heterogeneous virtualization management, today announced the latest release of its flagship product, HotLink SuperVISOR™ for VMware vCenter -- the only technology to extend VMware vCenter management capabilities to Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix XenServer and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (KVM). The new version enables automation solutions, such as VMware vCloud Director and PowerCLI, to directly support multi-hypervisor resources through their existing interfaces to VMware vCenter without requiring other consoles or integration points. Version 2.0 of HotLink SuperVISOR lets VMware vCenter serve as a multi-hypervisor administration and integration hub, dramatically reducing the complexity of deploying, administering and managing heterogeneous private clouds.

The patent-pending HotLink Transformation Engine™ is the unique enabler of hypervisor interoperability, allowing IT organizations to standardize on VMware vCenter for administration and management across heterogeneous hypervisors. With the 2.0 release, the transformation technology and integration with VMware vCenter have been extended to the VMware vCenter ecosystems of compatible products so they can leverage VMware vCenter as the single point of integration for both VMware and non-VMware resources. This eliminates the complexity of deploying additional consoles, integrating with multiple APIs, or embarking on time-consuming and expensive professional services engagements.

“Like most enterprises, Flextronics is looking for the best ways to leverage multiple hypervisors to economically increase our capabilities. However, the day-to-day complexity of integrating and managing multiple infrastructure types has been a significant barrier,” said Dave Smoley, CIO of Flextronics. “The ability to utilize our existing VMware vCenter management solution for cross-platform resources is very compelling.”

The new capabilities of HotLink SuperVISOR for VMware vCenter 2.0 include:

• Deeper VMware vCenter integration — Enhancements enable VMware vCenter infrastructure to be natively utilized for administering, provisioning and managing multi-hypervisor resources in cloud-based environments. This eliminates the need for users to deploy multiple consoles and enables full-featured, heterogeneous administration and management through VMware vCenter.
• Expanded metadata collection — Extensions to HotLink transformation technology enable VMware vCenter compatible automation tools, such as vCloud Director and PowerCLI, to easily support heterogeneous resources using VMware vCenter as the multi-hypervisor integration hub. This dramatically reduces the complexity of deploying and managing heterogeneous private cloud implementations.
• Support for Amazon EC2 — The latest release is interoperable with HotLink Hybrid Express for fully unified management of all on and off-premise cloud-based resources. Users can seamlessly and intuitively expand private cloud deployments to include Amazon EC2 resources, using VMware vCenter as the single point of administration and integration.
• Expanded platform support — HotLink SuperVISOR 2.0 adds support for VMware vCenter 5.1 and Microsoft Hyper-V 2012, enabling the functional and operational enhancements these versions provide.
• New free version — HotLink SuperVISOR for VMware vCenter is now available in a free edition with support for three hosts and fifteen virtual machines. Users can immediately benefit from the HotLink technology in smaller multi-hypervisor and private cloud projects and expand usage over time.

“Going from one to two or even more virtualization platforms creates an integration and management nightmare since you need a unique management stack for every variation of the infrastructure. The net result is dramatically increased complexity and impaired IT agility,” said Bernd Harzog, analyst at The Virtualization Practice. “The HotLink technology enables one consistent set of management tools across multi-hypervisor deployments without obscuring the functionality that differentiates these platforms. This is a giant leap forward for the industry.”

Lynn LeBlanc, CEO and founder of HotLink, said, “Enterprises have many business and financial reasons for deploying heterogeneous virtual infrastructure in both traditional and cloud-based environments. On a practical level, the integration, administration and management of diverse platforms have always been hugely problematic. The ability to standardize on a single virtualization management solution, VMware vCenter, while seamlessly incorporating other virtual infrastructures is a powerful proposition, and HotLink is the first and only to deliver it.”

Availability and pricing

HotLink SuperVISOR for VMware vCenter 2.0 is available now in both the free and standard editions. Standard edition list price starts at $26,700. For more information, contact sales@hotlink.com or visit www.hotlink.com.

Supporting resources

• Download whitepapers: http://www.hotlink.com/technology/wp_list.html
• Register for webinar: http://www.hotlink.com/news/event.php
• Watch videos: http://www.hotlink.com/technology/demo.html
• Request price quote, demo or trial: http://www.hotlink.com/contact/
• Download free edition: http://www.hotlink.com/technology/supervisor-vmware.html

About HotLink Corporation

Founded in early 2010 by data center software veterans and the founders of FastScale Technology, Inc. (acquired by VMware), HotLink Corporation is on a mission to dramatically simplify IT management complexity with the first ever transformation technology for heterogeneous and hybrid computing infrastructure. Winner of VMworld 2012 “Best of Show,” top “Virtualization Management,” “Best Cross-Platform Management” and “Best Cloud Application,” HotLink’s customers include enterprise IT organizations spanning technology, financial services, manufacturing and telecommunications. HotLink’s advisory board includes visionary leaders from Electronic Arts, Facebook, E*TRADE, Clorox, Citrix, BMC and Flextronics. HotLink is a privately held, venture capital-backed company based in Santa Clara, Calif. For more information, visit www.hotlink.com or connect with us on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.