Lots of VMware-related things to blog about this week, what with VMworld taking center stage in most people's minds. And then there's the veritable river of beefy press releases coming from VMware, not to mention all their partners, including EMC.
This post focuses on two really big ones in my mind: VMware's announcement of VDC-OS (virtual data center operating system), and their vCloud initiative.
And, in reality, I think they're just two sides of the same coin -- and that's what makes them special.
First, Let's Talk about VDC-OS
This one wasn't really a product announcement per se, it was more of an extended statement of direction. But, unlike many "statement-of-directions" we've seen from other vendors, this one is backed up by a reasonable amount of beef that's shipping today.
As you can see, the real "news" is the intent to provide extended services that go far beyond just a hypervisor and a few utilities.
We now have a nice lexicon to extend the virtualization discussion: we have Application vServices (availability, security and scalability) as well and Infrastructure vServices (vCompute, vStorage and vNetwork)
We have two distinct management disciplines in vCenter (formally VirtualCenter), namely Application Management and Infrastructure Management.
And we have two deployment models that can be used interchangeably: on-premise, or cloud.
Here's what scary -- the first round of capabilities for each of these extended capabilities are already in place. Put differently, please don't make the mistake of dismissing all of this as vaporous slideware. It seems to be more real than might first appear.
As an example, VMware's various HA capabilities are now collectively described and extended as Fault Tolerance. Coming from a world where HA meant at least two of everything, we now are starting to think of high availability and fault tolerance as simply an attribute of a virtual machine -- nothing more.
Vmware's vSafe capabilities are a good starting point for being able to containerize and externally examine applications and code using newer virtualization mechanisms. Yes, there's far more to an integrated security discussion that just looking for malicious code, but it's a fair start.
And scalability is presumably met by the new "hot add" capability of server and network resources.
No mention of a "hot delete" though :-)
The vStorage initiative was announced separately (probably worthy of a separate blog post). And I'm sure we'll hear more before too long about vNetwork as well as other topics.
VMware also announced their intention to create a robust partner ecosystem to help bring their vision to fruition, namely the VMware Ready initiative. All good
All in all, I see a grand vision of the future coupled with solid execution in today's shipping product.
And Yes, There's A Cloud Out There ...
Embedded in the vCloud announcement, there's a powerful idea here that's worthy of additional discussion.
I think that by now most people realize that we'll see multiple styles of clouds in the marketplace to meet different needs, e.g. consumer, SaaS, enterprise, etc.
Better to think in terms of "clouds" rather than a singular concept.
In this lexicon, I think of vCloud as creating an "enterprise resource cloud" available to the data center that can be used when and if it's needed.
I've written before about how containerization of applications sets the stage for moving resources dynamically to aligned outsourcers and service providers. Now the idea has been formalized, and the first round of aligned service providers have been recruited for this particular flavor of "cloud".
Note that the two concepts, VDC-OS and vCloud, are positioned as extensions of each other. The idea is that customers should have choices where their (presumably) virtualized applications should run. Maybe you want to be in the business of owning virtualized infrastructure, maybe you just want to rent it, and maybe you might want the option to do either, depending on your needs.
There's at least a half-dozen blog posts yet to be written on what this might mean for things like management environments, service delivery, security, geographical optimization, the new role for outsourcers -- as well as how things like the network and data replication will play an even more important role in these environments.
But, make no mistake, this is a very powerful concept. And I would predict that we'll see echos of this before too long from other IT vendors who are competing for a slice of the next-generation IT spend.
Questions Remain
Are customers willing to accept the idea of a data center operating system underpinned by virtualization concepts? I think the market is ready -- basically a "yes" in my book.
Are these same people willing to anoint VMware as the standard bearer for the industry for this new vision of enterprise computing? Sure, there will be some competitive tussling, but -- basically -- I think the answer to this one is "yes" as well.
And, finally, will VMware be able to deliver against their expanded vision? If history is any indicator, the answer to this is "yes" once again.
What I Like
I like bold visions backed up by solid execution.
And, frankly, that's what I'm seeing here with this announcement: a bold vision on how data centers will be built and managed around virutalization concepts coupled with a clear articulation of at least one useful and pragmatic instantiation of the cloud.
And it's not entirely a surprise. If you watch what the VMware team has been working on over the last few years, it feels like a natural extension to everything they've said and done before.
But -- in reality -- it doesn't matter all that much what I think.
After all, I don't build and run data centers -- but maybe you do.
So, what do you think?
Courteous comments always welcome!
Chuck,
Is it not all aboiut IT service delivery?
More and more people are asking for better service levels at lower costs with no down time ever for any reason. Good things to want.
Virtualization is a key tool here because it breaks the relationship between the service level and the physical asset.
VDC-OS seems to be a set of tools to make manage IT and it happen.
Clouds, on or off site, are just another way to deliver the required service at a lower cost and better service level.
The fact that there are real products now
validates and extends the vision of better services at lower costs.
Posted by: Conray | September 18, 2008 at 10:43 AM