VMware revs up for VMworld; launches new software
VMware announced Monday a new lineup of products that will be showcased this week.
VMware launched VMware ESX Server 3i, a "thin hypervisor" that's integrated in server hardware sans an operating system; Virtual Desktop Manager, a connection broker for virtual desktops; and Site Recovery Manager, an automation system for recovering from data center outages.
These products will be talked up as VMware kicks off its VMWorld 2007 conference this week in San Francisco. George Ou will be on site for ZDNet and Dan Kusnetzky will also have virtualization coverage.
Among the VMware announcements, the ESX Server 3i thin hypervisor is the most interesting. Why? VMware competitors--Novell, Microsoft and Red Hat--increasingly see virtualization as part of a bundle with the operating system. VMware is apparently running in the opposite direction.
By integrating ESX Server 3i into servers from the likes of Dell, Fujitsu, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, HP, IBM and NEC VMware is staking out new ground. In the end, you have VMware saying no OS is required vs. OS companies that are bundling virtualization.
VMware says ESX Server 3i will speed up deployment and management by going from booting up a server to using virtualization in minutes. The company says VMware ESX Server 3i "is a 'bare metal' hypervisor that partitions a physical server into multiple secure and portable virtual machines."
More details on VMware's lineup:
- VMware's disaster recovery software will be supported by EMC, EqualLogic, Hitachi Data Systems, HP, IBM, Lefthand Networks and Network Appliance. The overall goal is to automate manual processes when a data center goes down. VMware release.
- VMWare's Virtual Desktop Manager 2 is designed to centralize desktop management. The software is a component of VMware VDI, a desktop virtualization platform. VMware release.