VWare CTO: Virtualization is Good For Server Hardware Vendors Too

Herrod delivered a keynote at the Interop conference in Las Vegas last week about his company’s vision for software-defined data centers. It’s a model that enables different hardware and software solutions to fit together.

“When we started out, many people thought that all the server vendors would hate virtualization, but the opposite has happened,” Herrod said. “The reality is that virtualization creates an abstraction layer and has allowed for changes in hardware.”

The abstraction that a virtual hypervisor provides is between the application and the bare metal, which is something that traditional server deployments could not do.

“Because you’ve isolated hardware from software, people are bringing in innovation faster since it just has to fit under the virtualization layer,” Herrod continued.

So instead of server vendors needing to test a full software stack, all that is required is to make sure that new server innovation can properly support and promote virtualization. Herrod noted that the real work in the coming months is to make sure the abstractions are right to properly enable even more server hardware innovation and more flexible data centers.

“The key thing is that people using virtual data centers don’t [have to] wait,” Herrod said. “They have the full concept of elasticity.”

Read the full story at ServerWatch:
VMware CTO: Server Vendors Love Virtualization

Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.