Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Qumranet


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was keep. There is some support for merging this to either KVM or Red Hat, but it's not clear which is better suited, and the sources listed here in this discussion show that this meets the threshold for NCORP. Further discussion about merging may be had on the article talk page, if desired. – bradv  🍁  05:35, 23 February 2020 (UTC)

Qumranet

 * – ( View AfD View log  Stats )

nn former business Staszek Lem (talk) 19:04, 5 February 2020 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Companies-related deletion discussions. Shellwood (talk) 19:51, 5 February 2020 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Israel-related deletion discussions. Shellwood (talk) 19:51, 5 February 2020 (UTC)


 * Keep. Original developer of KVM. Plenty of reliable source coverage, try Google search. Marokwitz (talk) 20:02, 5 February 2020 (UTC)
 * Anything beyond PR and routine business announcements? per WP:NORG? Staszek Lem (talk)
 * Keep Nominating editor appears not to have bothered to look for sources at all.IceFishing (talk) 22:00, 5 February 2020 (UTC)
 * Sources nothing beyond routine PR. Please review WP:NORG. It was updated some time ago due to inordinate amount of COI spam. Staszek Lem (talk) 19:48, 9 February 2020 (UTC)
 * Delete Notability isn't about raw Google search hit numbers. All the sources seem to be either brief mentions about people who founded the company but did other stuff, or just PR. Which is also how the article sounds. Maybe they could just be mentioned in the KVM article since they developed it. Them developing one product, if it's notable or not, shortly before they got bought out doesn't warrant them having their own article. Neither are they automatically notable by association of developing something that is. --Adamant1 (talk) 06:45, 8 February 2020 (UTC)
 * Not accurate. Before I added my opinion above, I added reported stories from the Wall Street Journal, Haaretz, and the New York Times to the article.IceFishing (talk) 23:23, 8 February 2020 (UTC)
 * It also shows up well in a google books search .IceFishing (talk) 23:44, 8 February 2020 (UTC)
 * IceFishing, you know it's not about Google search result numbers. Also, did you bother to check the articles to see if they met the standards before adding them? Because both the New York Times and Haartez articles are interviews with the CEO of the company and therefore not neutral. Whereas, The Wall Street Journal article is mainly about them starting a "cloud venture" that isn't even mentioned in the paragraph that you cited the article on. It's questionable if being bought out or starting a "cloud venture" is even notable anyway. While in the short term putting faux sources into an article might make it seem notable for the sake of an AfD, it doesn't help in the long-term to add ultimately un-usable citations that don't actually provide new content to an article. It's also a case of notability bombing. --Adamant1 (talk) 00:14, 9 February 2020 (UTC)
 * Well, I clicked on notability bombing and I must disagree with you on several points.  First,  "notability bombing" applies only to reference that fail to "actually support substantive or noteworthy content about the topic."  What we have here are references from the time the company was sold that "actually support substantive or noteworthy content about the topic."  i.e., it was an tech company with valuable innovations that sold for big bucks.   Notice also that not all of the coverage dates from the moment of the sale.  and do also notice that the references are to reported, signed articles that cover different aspects of the company's history and successful sale.IceFishing (talk) 13:08, 10 February 2020 (UTC)

 Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.

Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks,  Sandstein   19:33, 12 February 2020 (UTC)
 * Merge or Redirect Has no standalone notability. Can easily be merged or redirected to either the KVM or Red Hat page. Sulfurboy (talk) 21:48, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

Keep per the significant coverage in multiple independent reliable sources.  The article shows that Qumranet has been covered by research analysts: "'Qumranet has developed from the ground up, a virtualization platform specifically for hosting virtual desktops on remote servers. Through their adaptive remote rendering technology, and virtual machine software, Qumranet's solution should be a strong competitive offering in the burgeoning desktop virtualization market,' said Michael Rose, Research Analyst, IDC. 'Qumranet's concentrated focus on virtual desktops is its greatest strength. That focus brings architectural and management advantages over its competitors. Qumranet is not trying to also solve all the problems of server virtualization -- just those associated with virtual desktop deployments,' said Anne Skamarock, Research Director of Focus Consulting, as quoted in the recent Focus Solution Profile on Qumranet, published as part of the Focus 'Desktop and Application Delivery Alternatives' Research Series." This is a self-published source. Verifiability says: "Self-published expert sources may be considered reliable when produced by an established expert on the subject matter, whose work in the relevant field has previously been published by reliable, independent publications." According to the author's about pageInternet Archive: "My name is David Marshall. I have been selected as a VMware vExpert 9 times from 2009 to 2017, and I'm the author of 'VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Datacenter' Published by CRC Press, ISBN: 1420070274, and 'Advanced Server Virtualization: VMware and Microsoft Platforms in the Virtual Datacenter' Published by Auerbach Publishing. ISBN: 0849339316. I was also the Technical Editor of two extremely popular books from the For Dummies Series: 'Virtualization for Dummies' Published by Wiley. ISBN: 978-0-470-14831-0 and 'VMware VI3 For Dummies' Published by Wiley. ISBN: 978-0-470-27793-5." I consider David Marshall to be a self-published expert reliable source when he quotes the research analysis from Michael Rose of International Data Corporation and Anne Skamarock of Focus Consulting.    <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> </ol>

<ol> <li> The article shows that Qumranet has been covered by research analysts: "'Qumranet has developed from the ground up, a virtualization platform specifically for hosting virtual desktops on remote servers. Through their adaptive remote rendering technology, and virtual machine software, Qumranet's solution should be a strong competitive offering in the burgeoning desktop virtualization market,' said Michael Rose, Research Analyst, IDC. 'Qumranet's concentrated focus on virtual desktops is its greatest strength. That focus brings architectural and management advantages over its competitors. Qumranet is not trying to also solve all the problems of server virtualization -- just those associated with virtual desktop deployments,' said Anne Skamarock, Research Director of Focus Consulting, as quoted in the recent Focus Solution Profile on Qumranet, published as part of the Focus 'Desktop and Application Delivery Alternatives' Research Series." This is a self-published source. Verifiability says: "Self-published expert sources may be considered reliable when produced by an established expert on the subject matter, whose work in the relevant field has previously been published by reliable, independent publications." According to the author's about pageInternet Archive: "My name is David Marshall. I have been selected as a VMware vExpert 9 times from 2009 to 2017, and I'm the author of 'VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Datacenter' Published by CRC Press, ISBN: 1420070274, and 'Advanced Server Virtualization: VMware and Microsoft Platforms in the Virtual Datacenter' Published by Auerbach Publishing. ISBN: 0849339316. I was also the Technical Editor of two extremely popular books from the For Dummies Series: 'Virtualization for Dummies' Published by Wiley. ISBN: 978-0-470-14831-0 and 'VMware VI3 For Dummies' Published by Wiley. ISBN: 978-0-470-27793-5." I consider David Marshall to be a self-published expert reliable source when he quotes the research analysis from Michael Rose of International Data Corporation and Anne Skamarock of Focus Consulting.</li> <li> The article notes: "Qumranet, a rather small software company, wants to make a very large play in the virtualization market with a new product. It's looking for Solid ICE to go up against the desktop virtulization wares from VMware, Citrix, Microsoft and a host of start-ups. Those of you in the open source kingdom will know Qumranet best as the corporate sponsor of KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine), which had made its way into major Linux operating systems as the default server virtualization package. Canonical, the, er, corporate sponsor of Ubuntu, is perhaps the most vocal backer of KVM. Solid ICE (Independent Computing Environment) takes Qumranet to the next level by giving it an actual revenue-generating product to throw at businesses. Customers can use the software to create numerous virtual desktops per physical server. ... Qumranet is joining a very crowded market. But, to the company's credit, it seems to have focused on all the right initial pieces of the virtual desktop challenge. It has centered on speedy LAN-based delivery of software rather than working off WAN technology as some have done. In addition, it appears to have solved some of the management issues associated with virtual desktops by going with the template approach. The company also offers another management piece that's billed as a Google-like search tool, which lets administrators pull data on CPU, memory, I/O and application performance across a network. All good stuff."</li> <li> The article notes: "Qumranet, the creator, maintainer and global sponsor of the KVM Open Source Hypervisor Project, has dropped out of stealth mode to offer its answer into the seamingly very crowded VDI or virtual desktop infrastructure market where desktops are served up to end users from a centrally controlled server infrastructure in the datacenter. Established at the end of 2005, Qumranet has around 45 employees and was co-founded by CTO Moshe Bar, one of the co-founders of both XenSource and Qlusters. After a two year quiet period, Qumranet dropped into the scene at DEMOfall '07, where it premiered its technology strategy and unveiled its first commerical product called Solid ICE (Independent Computing Environments). Solid ICE is the first virtualization product offered that runs on top of the KVM virtualization platform that was added into Linux kernel 2.6.20 back in October of 2006. The product allows an organization to host what the company believes is thousands of Windows or Linux desktops running as KVM virtual machines on servers in the datacenter."</li> <li> The article notes: "Qumranet, the company responsible for the development of the open source KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine), is Monday  introducing desktop virtualization software. At DEMOfall 07 Qumranet unveiled Solid Ice, which is software that allows the hosting of desktop images for users on Linux servers. Solid Ice sits on top of the KVM hypervisor, which is integrated into the Linux kernel. ... Qumranet is founded by Benny Schnaider and Rami Tanir, formerly of Cisco; Moshe Bar, co-founder and CTO for XenSource; and Giora Yoran, formerly of Mercury Interactive. The company is funded by Sequoia Capital and Norwest Venture Partners and has 45 employees. ... Qumranet’s name comes from the Hebrew name Qumran, which is the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. Like the Pre-Nicene scholars who have been credited with writing the Dead Sea Scrolls, Qumranet’s engineers have been laboring for more than two years to write the product."</li> <li> The article notes: "Qumranet, the start-up behind the increasingly popular KVM kernel-level virtualization technology, has thrown its hat into the desktop virtualization ring with a system it promises can deliver an experience indistinguishable from a conventional desktop. ... KVM, an open source project of which Qumranet is the sponsor and maintainer, is based on a loadable kernel module and is compatible with AMD's and Intel's hardware virtualization technologies. ... Qumranet's closest competitors are those offering VDI systems, including Quest's Provision Networks, Citrix, VMware and Ericom."</li> <li> The article notes: "Red Hat Inc. (NYSE: RHT) today announced its acquisition of Israeli virtualization start-up Qumranet Inc. for $107 million, ending a long period of rumors. This is Red Hat's first acquisition in Israel, and it will turn the Linux software company into a market leader in virtualization. Qumranet will become Red Hat's R&D; center in Israel. ... Qumranet was founded in 2005 and is one of the more interesting companies in the Israeli high-tech landscape. The interest is not only due to the company's business of using open code to develop virtualization technology for PCs, but also because of the men behind the company. Qumranet co-founders are CEO Benny Schnaider, president Rami Tamir, CTO Moshe Bar, and chairman Dr. Giora Yaron. ... ... Ra'anana-based Qumranet has 65 employees worldwide, mostly R&D; staff in Israel. The company has raised $20 million in two financing rounds from its founders, Sequoia Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, and Cisco. The company still has cash from its latest financing round, which was held in January. ... The concept underpinning Qumranet's Solid ICE platform is an Independent Computing Environment (ICE) that enables enterprises to host desktops in KVM virtual machines on servers in the corporate data center, and allows users to connect to them via a remote protocol called SPICE. Solid ICE includes management, security, and communications solutions for virtualization of PCs. Since this requires open source code, which can be adapted for this purpose, Qumranet solution uses Linux. Qumranet's target market is PCs, in what the company calls 'server-side desktop virtualization', which means hosting virtual machines on an enterprise's servers. This enables the running of a range of operating systems (not just Linux) or virtual computers using the hardware of just one PC."</li> <li> The article notes: "Chris Wolf, an analyst at Midvale, Utah-based Burton Group, said Red Hat has been 'in catch-up mode' on virtualization and the Qumranet acquisition will help it close the gap. But Wolf questioned Red Hat's claim that the merger puts it alongside Microsoft as one of two soup-to-nuts virtualization players. ... Gordon Haff, a principal IT adviser at Nashua, N.H.-based Illuminata Inc said the merger makes sense, both in terms of the close relationship between the two companies, but also because there is a trend in which larger companies buy up small, point-virtualization firms like Qumranet. 'Qumranet is really a research and development firm rather than a full-fledged company,' Haff said. Despite its size, the Qumranet acquisition could yield interesting results. Red Hat is focused on Linux and the server market, so it will be good to see how it will follow through on the acquisition with improving application delivery to the desktop, he said."</li> <li> The article notes: "Given how much time and money it sunk into KVM, the Linux-based, open-source virtualization project, it's not a surprise that that stealth-mode start-up Qumranet was working on virtualization. But until Monday, the company refused to say just exactly how. At DemoFall 2007, Qumranet unveiled its strategy: software that makes it easier to run desktop PCs on central servers rather than on actual PCs. Others, notably market leader VMware, already have a start in that market, but Qumranet aims to make it possible by buying software from one company rather than hiring a systems integrator to stitch together a hodgepodge of components, said chief executive and co-founder Benny Schnaider. ... Qumranet's SolidIce software runs on KVM virtual machines, which themselves run atop Linux. However, by virtue of features in newer Intel and Advanced Micro Devices processors, Windows can run unmodified on KVM."</li> <li> The article notes: "Qumranet, the commercial sponsor of the KVM virtualization software, has begun beta-testing a desktop virtualization system aimed at geographically distributed organizations. The company's existing Solid ICE desktop virtualization system was designed to combat performance issues, which continue to be a down-side of desktop virtualization. Solid ICE Multi-Site takes Qumranet's efforts a step further, dealing with branch offices and remote sites. Under Solid ICE, the user's desktop runs in a KVM virtual machine in a data center, and the user accesses it via the SPICE remote rendering software on a thin client or repurposed PC."</li>

There is sufficient coverage in reliable sources to allow Qumranet to pass Notability, which requires "significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject". Cunard (talk) 09:58, 13 February 2020 (UTC)</li></ul>
 * The sources I have presented largely cover Qumranet before its September 2008 acquisition by Red Hat. The sources demonstrate that Qumranet has received analysis from Michael Rose, Research Analyst, IDC and Anne Skamarock, Research Director of Focus Consulting. In April 2008, The Register conducted a review of Qumranet's Solid Ice production and then provided detailed analysis of the company itself, "Qumranet is joining a very crowded market. But, to the company's credit, it seems to have focused on all the right initial pieces of the virtual desktop challenge. It has centered on speedy LAN-based delivery of software rather than working off WAN technology as some have done. In addition, it appears to have solved some of the management issues associated with virtual desktops by going with the template approach. The company also offers another management piece that's billed as a Google-like search tool, which lets administrators pull data on CPU, memory, I/O and application performance across a network. All good stuff." After the company's acquisition by RedHat, TechTarget quoted from two analysts who provided analysis about the acquisition: Chris Wolf, an analyst at Midvale, Utah-based Burton Group, and Gordon Haff, a principal IT adviser at Nashua, N.H.-based Illuminata Inc. There is sufficient coverage about Qumranet's history (its founders, funding and investors, and acquisition) and its products (Solid ICE and the KVM Open Source Hypervisor Project) to justify a standalone article. It would be undue weight to discuss all of this information in the Kernel-based Virtual Machine and Red Hat articles. Cunard (talk) 09:58, 13 February 2020 (UTC)


 * Merge to KVM and Red Hat articles, redirect to KVM article. This company has no independent notability, and that's clearly demonstrated by the fact that all the references proposed only discuss the company in terms of its one notable product. --Slashme (talk) 10:04, 20 February 2020 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. <b style="color:red">Please do not modify it.</b> Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.