VMware rolls out latest cloud app platform, adds SQLFire

VMware launched its latest cloud application platform, dubbed VMware vFabric Suite 5.1, in an effort to roll up multiple tools and better integrate with open source software.

The virtualization and cloud player's vFabric is designed to give companies core applications services to build and manage Java Spring apps on-premise and cloud.

According to VMware, the vFabric Suite rolls up the Spring framework, applications services and a per virtual machine licensing model. The latest vFabric Suite will be available in the second quarter starting at $1,500 per virtual machine.

David McJannet, director of cloud and applications services at VMware, said the suite is designed for enterprises, which are targeting mobile and Web oriented software. "Five to 10 years ago something like Instagram would have built on an Oracle database," said McJannet. "Today app services are built on an open source development framework. Enterprises have taken note."

VMware's vFabric includes the following:

• The vFabric Application Director and Applications Performance Manager. These tools automate, deploy and manage applications with templates and canned workflows. These products are also standalone.

• An in-memory database known as SQLFire, which is focused on large scale workloads. VFabric SQLFire cuts disk access out of the equation and cuts latency. VMware vFabric SQL Fire is licensed per virtual machine starting at $2,500 as a standalone product.

• Supported open source tools. VMWare's vFabric includes Postgres, an open source database optimized for VMware, Apache Tomcat, Apache HTTP Server and RabbitMQ messaging. "The single license model enables enterprises to get support for open source software," said McJannet.

VMware will also allow enterprises to buy application infrastructure software on virtual machines instead of hardware. That move theoretically can cut costs by only using the licenses in use.