October 2007 | Main | December 2007
November 29, 2007
Microsoft and Partners - WHS Video
A few weeks back I mentioned that Microsoft sent a film crew to do short interviews with several Diskeeper Corporation employees. They also interviewed several other key Windows Home Server (WHS) partners as well.
Microsoft recently completed the video and sent it to us. You can check it our here. It's a large file (.wmv format) so it will take a while to download.
We'll be welcoming the Microsoft film crew again tomorrow for a second, more technical, video targeted to system builders creating and selling WHS systems.
Posted by Michael at 09:45 PM | Comments (0)
November 09, 2007
Upcoming Software and Technical-Paper Releases
We have a number of update builds planned for Diskeeper 2008 and Undelete 5.0 in the coming weeks. I'm posting some info here as advance notice.
For Undelete, we have a new 5.0 build with new features planned. Possibly even next week.
We also have a fully functioning Diskeeper 2008 Server product that we will release as a "Release Candidate" for Windows Server 2008 (aka Longhorn). This one, unlike the currently available Diskeeper 2008 software, will have Bootime defrag!
We also have a new update for Diskeeper 2008 with more Bootime defrag functionality as well as some improvements to the "controller logic" that determines when to run the "extreme defrag" engine. I'll explain these points in detail once the update is available.
I'm also assembling a new paper that compares the new Diskeeper 2008 functionality to previous version of Diskeeper, such as the extreme conditions defragmentation and Volume Shadow Copy Service compatibility. It will present test results, some charts, graphs and related info.
The best way to receive notification about new software updates is the product's Check For Updates feature, but I'll also post a notice here on the blog.
Posted by Michael at 09:40 PM | Comments (10)
November 03, 2007
Diskeeper 2008 HomeServer is here!
As those who have followed this blog already know we formed a marketing partnership early on with Microsoft on their exciting new Windows Home Server (WHS) product. While both Microsoft and Diskeeper have had OEM versions of software available earlier this year (Diskeeper 2007 HomeServer has been available since August), Diskeeper coordinated a simultaneous release today, of our official product to the retail market with Microsoft's WHS retail release.
"Diskeeper has worked with Microsoft since Windows NT," said Steven VanRoekel, director of Windows Server Solutions at Microsoft. "It is great to work with them on the Windows Home Server platform to provide the maximum system performance and reliability possible to our customers."
The Diskeeper 2008 HomeServer provides functionality and accessibility uniquely necessary for WHS. The most visually evident addition is the new integration with the WHS management console.
However, under the covers lies an even more vital feature that makes Diskeeper compatible with Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
Microsoft's new Drive Extender technical paper provides a warning against running the built-in defragmenter on WHS.
"Caution: You should not use the DEFRAG utility on your Windows Home Server hard drives... The DEFRAG utility may cause issues with the Volume Shadow Copy Service that runs every 12 hours to create previous version snapshots of the shared folders on the home server."
Microsoft Support Article #312067 describes the technical details of the issue with VSS from which this warning originates, as it also affects Windows Home Server. Diskeeper engineers addressed this known incompatibility with defragmentation in Diskeeper 2008’s with a specialized new VSS-Compatible Mode. Using unique file movement algorithms via the online file movement control (FSCTL_MOVE_FILE) mechanism, the impact on VSS with Diskeeper 2008 is dramatically minimized allowing users to access previous versions of files that other solutions, without a VSS-Compatible defragmentation mode, would not.
With Real-Time defragmentation, InvisiTasking, and all the new Diskeeper 2008 functionality also included Diskeeper HomeServer is ready to keep your new WHS system running at peak performance.
Posted by Michael at 02:16 AM | Comments (7)
November 02, 2007
Best-Selling System Utilities for Corporate Use
Here is a market research report* we regulary track in-house to see how we fare against some of the other well known software utility companies in number of licenses sold. The list covers a one year period (September 2006 September 2007).
Rank, Product Family, Publisher
1. Symantec Antivirus, Symantec
2. Symantec Ghost, Symantec
3. ScanMail, Trend Micro
4. NeatSuite, Trend Micro
5. Clnt/Svr, Trend Micro
6. Tivoli Storage Manager, IBM
7. Diskeeper, Diskeeper Corporation
8. InterScan Messaging Security Suite, Trend Micro
9. SvrProtect, Trend Micro
10. OfficeScan, Trend Micro
*North American Product ranking and market share are based on unit sales. All the data comes from National Purchase Diary (NPD) distribution channel software sales report. NPD captures 88% of all sales going through distribution channels.
Posted by Michael at 07:44 PM | Comments (0)
November 01, 2007
Windows Server 2008 Support
Diskeeper 2008 Server and EnterpriseServer currently install and, for the most part, work on Windows Server 2008 operating systems. The only feature in Diskeeper currently not supported is Bootime Defragmentation, which is currently being worked on. You can grab the trialware from Diskeeper.com to test.
We also worked with Microsoft to be one of the first third-party applications (Microsoft engineers actually said we were the first they knew of) to support Windows Server Core, a minimized (less functionality but also less resource usage) iteration of Windows Server 2008.
As the Diskeeper user interface is a snap-in to the Microsoft Management Console, you can use the Diskeeper Administrator console to deploy Diskeeper software (Server, EnterpriseServer) to the remote Windows Server 2008 Server Core system and then bring up the Diskeeper graphical user interface (GUI) using the Remote Control feature - and have access to the full Diskeeper GUI.
Official support for Windows 2008 will be available prior to the official Microsoft release date. It will be a free update for all Diskeeper 2008 users. That update will also include a number of additional minor features.
Once administrators become familar and comfortable with the new feature, I expect Server Core to be a popular and welcome addition to Windows 2008. Leveraging virtual machines to house numerous specially purposed (e.g. DNS) Server Core instances, with their smaller resource footprint, on a single physical system can be a great way to make the most effective use of hardware.
Posted by Michael at 01:26 AM | Comments (0)