VMware Announces VDC-OS, vCloud

LAS VEGAS -- Today at VMworld 2008, VMware, Inc. (NYSE:VMW), the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the datacenter, announced a comprehensive roadmap of groundbreaking new products and technologies that expand its flagship suite of virtual infrastructure into a Virtual Datacenter Operating System (VDC-OS). The Virtual Datacenter OS allows businesses to efficiently pool all types of hardware resources - servers, storage and network into an aggregated on-premise cloud – and, when needed, safely federate workloads to external clouds for additional compute capacity. Datacenters running on the Virtual Datacenter OS are highly elastic, self-managing and self-healing. With the Virtual Datacenter OS from VMware, businesses large and small can benefit from the flexibility and the efficiency of the “lights-out” datacenter.

The VDC-OS expands virtual infrastructure along three dimensions. First, it delivers a set of infrastructure services (called Infrastructure vServices) to seamlessly aggregate servers, storage and network as a pool of on-premise cloud resources and allocate them to applications that need them most. Second, it delivers a set of application services (called Application vServices) to guarantee the right levels of availability, security and scalability to all applications independent of the operating system, development frameworks or architecture on which they were built to run. Third, the VDC-OS delivers a set of cloud services (called Cloud vServices) that federate compute capacity between the on-premise and off-premise clouds. Unlike a traditional OS, which is optimized for a single server and supports only those applications written to its interfaces, the VDC-OS serves as the OS for the entire datacenter and supports the full diversity of any application written to any OS, from legacy Windows applications to modern distributed applications that run in mixed operating system environments. These services will be bolstered by the vCloud Initiative announced today. (See press release, “VMware Announces vCloud Initiative for Enterprise-Class Cloud Computing with Support from Industry Leaders BT, Rackspace, SAVVIS, Sungard, T-Systems, Verizon Business and Others.”)

“Automation and virtualization technologies are shifting the center of gravity for server computing from server operating systems to a new breed of infrastructure operating system that spans many distributed servers,” says Thomas Bittman, research vice president, at Gartner.

In a separate release:

LAS VEGAS -- Today at VMworld 2008, VMware, Inc. (NYSE:VMW), the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the datacenter, announced the expansion of the VMware Ready Program for partners providing management solutions for the Virtual Datacenter Operating System (VDC-OS) from VMware. (See related press release, “VMware Announces Next Generation of Virtualization—the Virtual Datacenter Operating System.”) The VDC-OS transforms enterprise datacenters into an “internal cloud” – an elastic, shared, self-managing and self-healing utility that also federates with external clouds of computing capacity to free IT from the constraints of static hardware and location. The VMware Ready Program gives management solution partners full access to a rich set of management functionality and integration interfaces for the VMware vCenter management product portfolio – as well as technical qualification, integration best practices and logo usage that offer customers an easy way to identify products that tightly integrate with or extend native VMware vCenter management capabilities.Key management vendors including BMC Software, CA, EMC, HP Software, IBM Tivoli, NetIQ, nworks (a veeam company), Quest Software, Symantec, and Tripwire are using vCenter technologies today and are delivering or qualifying VMware Ready management solutions.

In a separate release:

LAS VEGAS -- Today at VMworld 2008, VMware, Inc. (NYSE:VMW), the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the datacenter, announced vStorage, a set of new technologies and interfaces to provide VMware customers the best total cost of ownership and manageability for the storage infrastructure in their virtual environment. vStorage combines new VMware technologies that maximize efficient use of storage by virtual machines with new vStorage APIs and the VMware Ready program to enable storage partners to integrate and optimize their products with the Virtual Datacenter OS (VDC-OS) from VMware that delivers the elastic, self-healing and self-managing datacenter. These interfaces and programs will be available to all storage partners, enabling customers to further simplify, optimize, and automate their computing infrastructure with a broad set of storage platforms.

“Storage is a critical building block in delivering the flexibility, speed, resiliency, and efficiency of the Virtual Datacenter OS,” said Raghu Raghuram, vice president of products and solutions, VMware. “vStorage in combination with products from our storage partners automates handoffs between the VMware platform and the storage infrastructure, simplifies storage operations, and maximizes efficient use of customers’ storage infrastructure.”

In a separate release:

LAS VEGAS -- Today at VMworld 2008, VMware, Inc. (NYSE:VMW), the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the datacenter, announced its vCloud Initiative, with support from 100+ partners, to deliver enterprise-class cloud computing, by federating compute capacity on demand between virtual datacenters and cloud service providers to support existing and new application loads. By enlisting broad support from partners across the industry, including BT, Rackspace, SAVVIS, Sungard, T-Systems, and Verizon Business, the VMware vCloud Initiative is aimed at helping companies both large and small safely tap compute capacity inside and outside their firewalls – how they want, when they want, and as much as they want – to ensure quality of service for any application they want to run, internally or as a service.

Today VMware Infrastructure is broadly used by businesses to operate internal IT infrastructure, as well as by traditional and emerging service providers, to deliver managed IT services such as managed applications, disaster recovery, web hosting, and hosted development environments. Going forward, VMware is expanding its virtual infrastructure into a Virtual Datacenter Operating System with the application, infrastructure, management, and cloud services to run existing application loads as well as future application loads developed on any framework. (See press release, “VMware Announces the Next Generation of Virtualization – the Virtual Datacenter Operating System.”) The core technology underpinning the VMware vCloud Initiative is a set of Cloud vServices that provide the APIs and technologies to enable enterprise-class cloud computing as well as federate between on-premise and off-premise clouds, scaling the infrastructure needed for peak load, service level management or disaster recovery.

“Until now, businesses have faced too high a hurdle to realize the benefits of cloud computing, including wholesale disruptive infrastructure and application changes,” said Paul Maritz, president and chief executive officer, VMware. “The VMware vCloud Initiative brings together industry innovators to deliver enterprise-class cloud computing for any customer and any application. Whether businesses want to expand their internal IT infrastructure into an internal cloud model or leverage off-premise compute capacity, the VMware platform would give them the flexibility and assurance to dial up and dial down the IT resources they need, when they need them, to run their businesses with high efficiency and agility.”

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