Marathon Launches Fault-Tolerant Software For Server Virtualization

Marathon Technologies on Monday released everRun VM, a product that the company said is the world's first fault-tolerant, high availability software for server virtualization.

The company said everRun VM prevents outages and data loss in Citrix XenServer virtual infrastructures. The new software enables companies to run high-value production applications in virtual machines by providing virtualization across a broader range of applications. In addition, everRun VM provides high availability and disaster recovery as a standard part of the IT infrastructure for midsize and larger companies.

Marathon said that many companies are reluctant to add high availability solutions, such as clustering software and proprietary hardware, and therefore availability solutions have remained a niche application because they are thought to be too complex and expensive.

To make these technologies more mainstream, the everRun VM software can break through availability bottlenecks through tight integration with Citrix XenServer and provide several services.

One such service is a completely automated VM availability via everRun VM that automates VM availability setup and configuration, which is usually deployed in thirty minutes or less. It also automates fault and policy management, literally maintains itself, the company said.

everRun VM also provides flexibility for IT administrators to choose different levels of protection for each virtual machine, so that they can match the needed availability level for each application running in a VM. Therefore, there is optimal availability in price/performance since companies pay only for the protection they need.

Additionally, everRun VM supports all Windows applications without any modifications, and makes automated HA and DR more practical for midsized companies.

Marathon, based in Littleton, Mass, bills itself as the world's first and only provider of fault-tolerant, automated, high availability and disaster recovery software for physical and virtual servers.

The company recently announced that it has added over 100 channel partners globally into the v-Available Program. The program is aimed at exploiting the lack of what the company said is effective availability technology for server virtualization, and qualifies resellers as experts in integrating fault-tolerant, high availability software into virtual server environments.

"They're providing a high availability solution that is a perfect fit for our customer base," said Jed Ayers, vice president, partner management and marketing at MTM Technologies, a Marathon partner. "This product opens the door, provides continuity of operations and real costs savings."