I was impressed with the VMware simulcast this morning announcing VSphere, the next iteration of their enterprise virtualization platform, dubbed the first “Cloud OS.” Having deployed and administered VMware products for several years, it’s exciting to see them continue to push the evolution of virtualization, which has now expanded from a single server up to multiple data centers.
It’s also becoming quite apparent that a loose alliance is coalescing between several of the established leaders in the infrastructure space. In particular, VMware continues to align with Cisco, whose recent unveiling of a “Unified Computing System” combined with VSphere offers the promise of a private “cloud in a box.” Other members of this confederation are Intel, whose recent Xeon 5500 Nehalem chip is tailored for VM loads, in addition to EMC, whose updated Symmetrix SAN is optimized for VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V support. Dell appears to be more closely aligned than HP, and has a better position in the SMB market.
And don’t count out Oracle / Sun, one of today’s VSphere demo’s featured Sunfire servers, and when Cisco CEO John Chambers left the stage to congratulate VMware’s lead engineering team, Sun racks were featured quite prominently.
So who’s not joining the party, yet?
Here’s my list -
The continued limited inter-operability between major virtualization vendors – VMware, Microsoft, Citrix – and subsequent “vendor lock-in” really makes me wonder about the feasibility and likelihood of a truly Open Cloud platform, given the symbiotic relationship between Virtualization and Cloud computing.
P.S. I still think Cisco should have picked up Sun…
[...] And for an interesting response, Microsoft’s reaction to the announcement: http://darow.wordpress.com/2009/04/21/reactions-to-vmwares-vsphere-4/ [...]
By: Vmware vSphere | invurted.com on April 22, 2009
at 12:45 am
I agree that Cisco should have made a stronger play for Sun. But the Ellison/McNealy relationship certainly had something to do with Oracle winning out.
By: Doug Park on April 22, 2009
at 2:24 am
Yes, that’s a good observation on the personal connection. Sun’s emphasis in recent years has been more on the software side too, which makes it an easier meld into Oracle. Cisco is still taking a gamble with the UCS, and it remains to be seen whether it will pay off.
By: darowh on April 24, 2009
at 5:59 pm
Obviously, there is a continuing demand for the benefits of VMWare. Why do you think there is an apparent non-participation from the big players, i.e. IBM, Microsoft, Citrix … could it be they’re developing their own “brands” of what VMWare does?
By: DouglasAntonio Ebanks on April 22, 2009
at 5:48 am
Douglas, I think IBM is still playing catch-up with virtualization and cloud computing. It’s only slightly ironic that IBM researchers actually invented virtualization back in the 60′s-70′s, but as with the PC they have missed out with bringing it to the wider marketplace.
Microsoft and Citrix do indeed have their own virtualization systems – Hyper-V and Xen, respectively – and VMware needed to pull away from the pack with this VSphere release, which I believe they have done.
By: darowh on April 22, 2009
at 5:16 pm
Darrow – I thought the presentation yesterday was pretty good. I like that they are now offering real failover capabilities for VMs. I was a little confused about the purpose of having all the Sun equipment there, though. Nothing about Amazon that I could see either. Appreciate your observations!
Mak
By: Mak King on April 22, 2009
at 3:20 pm
Some very good points, but I think you’re missing a big player on the Unified Storage front, NetApp.
By: Jack on April 23, 2009
at 11:27 pm
I agree that NetApp is a big player in storage, and so far compatibility with VMware is comparable with EMC though that may change. However, EMC is much better positioned as the majority shareholder of VMware.
By: darowh on April 30, 2009
at 5:50 am
just to correct your comment on HP not being innovative
please read this HP has support for vSphere http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2009/090421b.html. HP can support it today.
Also please note ther HP have released Bladesystem Matrix (server/storage/network) http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/blades/components/matrix/main.html built upon the very innovative and leading blade infrastructure – c7000/VC blade. This is actually available today (unlike UCS) and it has the software to manage it
They have also produced the BL495 blade specifically built for virtualisation and the BL2x220c the worlds first 2-1 blade – in a 42inch rack you get 128 servers totalling 1024 cores, 4TB Memory. both pretty innovative.
The reason why i mention matrix and blades is because that is effectively what the ‘cloud’ will be built on with management software on top to reprovision infrastructure based on SLA and OLA. This is not new to HP and IBM (they will deliver more in due course) or Sun.
Netapp is another example of a very innovative company (as mentioned).
By: Unix on April 26, 2009
at 12:21 am