Bulletproof offers clients ability to control time with VMware

Dubbed 'VM Tardis', the facility will be included in all new Bulletproof Dedicated VM Hosting servers as a free option and will allow users to pause, rewind, fast forward and 'slow-motion' hosted Virtual Machines to achieve fine control over time, said marketing director Lorenzo Modesto.

"This development - dedicated hosting - is what LSD was to art and music in the 60s," he said.

Modesto claimed dedicated VM hosting services already have a pause feature in the 'Suspend VM' capability, but these new features open up a whole range of possibilities to end users.

“Users were able to achieve long-running computing functions much quicker simply by hitting the 'fast-forward' button on their VM through the Bulletproof Control Centre monitoring and control portal,” he said. “Similarly, if incorrect results, crashes, bugs or other problems occur inside a Dedicated VM Hosting service, the 'Way Back Machine' button can take the VM back to a time before the problem occurred.”

Modesto explained that by using the 'slow-motion' feature, developers and debuggers are able to 'Super-Slo-Mo' their VM back and forth around the point where a problem occurred to see what caused it, and pause the VM at an exact moment to allow vendors to get in and see the state of the system.

“This function can also be supplied with an LCD screen and marker so that the developer can see what happens 'if we freeze it here', similar to some television sports commentators analysis of set plays in team sports,” claimed Modesto.

This ability to avoid and analyse system crashes has led to a leading operating system supplier showing particular interest in this function, he said.

However Modesto claimed the product has not been heavily tested with all applications and it is possible that even transactions could be undone, reversed or sped up using Bulletproof's new "Leg-up" technology.

“This could in theory also allow fast-forwarding of credit card transactions, thereby increasing revenue levels for businesses using the service,” he said.