Citrix, VirtualIron, and Oracle. What do these things have in common? Xen, xen, xen...
So here is the announcement - As of today, Oracle is offering up a Xen-based VM platform for download.
We're not just talking an Oracle-only hosting environment. (Which, I had to admit, was the first thing that popped in my head when I picked up the press release & read Charlie's piece in iWeek.)
This is not your father's Oracle. Nor your linux-wonk's Xen, for that matter. A nice confluence of market competition and open source collaboration has brought this once-obscure linux vmm into the limelight.
With Citrix dropping 500 large for XenEnterprise, VirtualIron available as a pre-load from HP & IBM, and Oracle putting their money on Xen, I'd say the platform's viability is looking even better for the long haul.
Oracle VM does everything you'd expect it to: full support for v-optimized 64-bit AMD and Intel chipsets, all flavors of client OS along with custom optimization for ready-tuned Oracle virt appliances and traditional DB, Fusion Middleware, and other auxiliary applications.