As the VMworld conference continues, VMware is sharing details about some of the new virtualization offerings that it will bring out in the next year. These VMware virtualization products will fit into VMware's vision for building cloud computing infrastructure for both enterprises and third-party hosting providers. The improvements include updates to the VMware ESX Server hypervisor and new management capabilities with VMware Virtual Infrastructure and vCenter.
LAS VEGAS-While much of the talk
at
VMworld
has focused on VMware's concept of building and managing cloud computing
infrastructures, the company's executives have said little about how the
company plans to pull all the different parts together into one set of
offerings.
That changed on the second day of the show here when Stephen Herrod,
VMware's CTO, detailed some of the
improvements and new products that VMware will offer through its upcoming
cloud
computing and data center suite now called Virtual Datacenter OS or VDC-OS.
Herrod delivered this message during his Sept. 17 keynote address.
The first of these improvements will begin to appear in 2009, when VMware
will update its Virtual Infrastructure suite to Version 4.0 and then update its
core ESX Server hypervisor. Right now, the ESX hypervisor can allow virtual
machines to support up to four virtual CPUs processors and 64GB of RAM.
Once the update is pushed out, ESX will be able to create virtual machines that
can handle eight virtual CPUs and 256GB of RAM.
Since the upcoming VDC-OS will touch all aspects of the data center-servers,
storage and networking-VMware is also planning to update its offerings around
storage and networking, called Infrastructure vServices. The company also plans
to open up its APIs to allow ISVs to write applications that will plug into the
different components of the VDC-OS.
On the networking side,
VMware
already announced that Cisco Systems has developed a virtual software switch
called the Nexus 1000V. This virtual switch should make it easier to move
virtual machines around a network using VMware's VMotion. It will allow
administrators to set consistent policies throughout the network.
For storage, VMware is also planning to open up its APIs to third parties in
order to provide better management features. Within its vStorage offerings,
VMware also plans to blend in some existing technologies, such as Storage VMotion,
and upcoming features such as thin provisioning, which should help get more
mileage out of shared storage.
In addition to these features, VMware also plans to build out the fault
tolerance and high-availability features in its suite offering. While VMware
already ships a high-availability tool, it will now add VMware Fault Tolerance,
which creates a shadow copy of a virtual machine that will kick in if there is
a hardware failure.
VMware is also planning to offer more tools within its VirtualCenter management
console, now renamed vCenter.
One of several new features that users can look for is a tool called
AppSpeed, which will monitor the performance of virtual machines and should
ensure that applications run and have enough compute power allocated to the
workload at hand. VMware developed AppSpeed with
technology
acquired in May when VMware bought B-hive Networks.
VMware is also looking to expand its user base for vCenter, and Herrod
announced that vCenter can now run on top of Linux. The announcement was enough
to draw a large cheer from the crowd that had come to listen to the keynote.
In the past, the vCenter management console could only run on top of
Microsoft Windows. Since many of the cloud computing infrastructures being
built use Linux-
IBM
uses Linux in many of the cloud computing facilities that it is building-VMware's
support for vCenter on Linux is a logical next step for the virtualization
company.
Finally, Herrod also talked about allowing IT managers
to access vCenter from a host of mobile devices, which will include the
Apple
iPhone and
RIM's
BlackBerry.
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