VMware Maps Out Its Future at VMworld 2008 - Page 2

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Virtual machines gobble up storage resources just like physical servers do, and VMware is offering vStorage Thin Provisioning and vStorage Link Clones to manage storage. Thin Provisioning enables system administrators to allocate fewer physical resources than usual to back up the virtual memory provided to a virtual machine, thus stretching IT staffs' physical resources further, Balkansky said. As the physical resources get used up, the system alerts system administrators to add more.

Link Clones work along the same principles as incremental backup does -- once a master copy is made, only the changes are stored. This works for clusters of virtual machines that are similar, such as Web server or application server farms, Balkansky said.

For easier application deployment, VMware is offering vApp, which consists of a bundle of virtual machines that together support a multi-tiered application. The machines also are labeled with associated operational policies and service-level agreements, Balkansky said.

"Once you deploy a vApp on the VDC-OS, it knows how to handle the vApp based on the specifications included," he added.

The vApp leverages a proposed Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) standard called Open Virtual Machine Format (OVF), which enables users to bundle virtual applications with operating systems, calls and hooks, wrapped up in metadata about the system in XML . The DMTF is an industry organization leading the development, adoption and promotion of interoperable management standards.

Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL), which is on the DMTF board, is leveraging the standard in its Oracle Templates.

Managing the system

Installing an application means nothing if it cannot be managed, and a scarcity of adequate tools to manage virtualized environments has been bothering enterprise IT for some time. Several major vendors, noting the lack, have extended their tools for managing the physical environment to the virtual environment.

VMware has now entered the fray, offering management tools under its vCenter label. They will "help manage every aspect of VDC-OS from provisioning vApps and virtual machines to capacity management to ongoing configuration control -- the entire lifecycle," Balkansky said.

However, vCenter is not meant to replace tools from vendors specializing in management, and VMware will integrate its management set with products from BMC, IBM, HP and "other big vendors," Balkansky added.

Meanwhile, VMware has signed up more than 100 cloud service providers to support its vCloud initiative. These include software and processing solutions vendor SunGard, telecommunications giant Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) and Savvis, (NASDAQ: SVVS) which offers IT infrastructure as a service. The cloud service providers have committed to providing cloud computing services that can be leveraged by customers using VDC-OS, Balkansky said.

For the end client, VMware is announcing a client virtualization platform that will run directly on laptops or desktops, Jerry Chen, VMware's senior director for desktop virtualization, told InternetNews.com. It will enable customers to use the same tools IT staffs rely on to provision and deploy client- and server-based systems.

"The desktop of the future will be a combination of your computer, Gmail, online applications like Salesforce and your smart phone," Chen said. "Ultimately, end users want their desktop to follow them, not their device, so it shouldn't matter where they're connecting from or what they're using to connect with. They want a single view."

At the same time, enterprises want to be able to manage these disparate devices. Next year, VMware will announce the vClient initiative, which will provide an integrated platform for server- and client-based virtualization and will extend client management to laptops and offline devices, the company said.

This "will be a product, as well as partnerships, as we're not going to do this alone," Chen added.