HotLink, a provider of solutions to manage heterogenous virtualization environments, has come out with an update to its flagship SuperVisor software that uses VMware's (NYSE: VMW) vCenter control panel to simplify the management of multi-hypervisor environments. The HotLink SuperVisor for VMware vCenter 2.0 software centrally manages workloads running on virtualization platforms such as VMware’s ESX, Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Hyper-V, Citrix’s (NASDAQ: CTXS) XenServer and Red Hat’s (NYSE: RHT) Kernel Virtual Machine.

HotLink is offering the SuperVisor software in a free edition with support for three hosts and 15 virtual machines. The idea is that users can take advantage of the HotLink technology in smaller multi-hypervisor and private cloud projects and expand usage over time.

Because SuperVisor 2.0 enables vCenter to operate as a multi-hypervisor administration and integration hub–thereby reducing the complexity of deploying, administering and managing heterogeneous private clouds–IT organizations can standardize on vCenter for administration and management across heterogeneous hypervisors. With vCenter as the single point of integration for both VMware and non-VMware resources, deploying additional consoles, integrating with multiple APIs or engaging in professional services deployments can be reduced or eliminated.

"Enterprises have many business and financial reasons for deploying heterogeneous virtual infrastructure in both traditional and cloud-based environments,” said Lynn LeBlanc, HotLink chief executive and founder. “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."

New features include:

Bernd Harzog, an analyst at The Virtualization Practice, said that the “HotLink technology enables one consistent set of management tools across multi-hypervisor deployments without obscuring the functionality that differentiates these platforms.”