VMware takes on Australia
Ingram Micro will be supplying the VMware product to resellers across Australia and extending the reach and availability of VMware virtual infrastructure solutions.
VMware virtualisation software allows users to run multiple operating systems, including Windows and Linux, simultaneously and independently in fully networked, portable virtual machines on a single PC or Intel-architecture server.
Virtual infrastructure provides a layer of abstraction between the computing, storage and networking hardware and the software that runs on it. Lenox said the infrastructure makes existing resources more efficient and flexible, and reduces administration and management costs by about 80 percent.
Jim Lenox, VMware's Asia-Pacific director, said however that VMware was no magic solution to server resource requirements.
"VMware is not a magic dust. If you're doing a big server consolidation in a box, the resource requirements of these servers will not go away. You need those extra resources in the box where you are consolidating the big server to," he said.
Lenox said VMware's server business grew by 300 percent in 2003. He believes that virtual infrastructure is "the foundation for the next generation computing model" which will allow software services to be deployed and managed independently of hardware.
"VMware sees Australia as a major area of opportunity. The Australian IT arena is a mature marketplace that is ripe to enjoy the efficiency and cost savings VMware's products deliver. Our virtualisation solutions lower the cost of IT by making existing resources more efficient and flexible, overcoming the age-old issues of resource utilisation, availability and manageability," he said.
One feature of the VMware product presented during the press conference was the VMotion. The VMotion migrates a running virtual machine to a different physical server connected to the same storage area network (SAN) without service interruption. It allows zero-downtime maintenance by moving servers around so that underlying hardware and storage can be serviced without disrupting user sessions.
Following its acquisition in the first quarter of this year by EMC, Lenox said they will continue to "focus on creating and advancing virtualisation solutions."
Ingram Micro will be running a series of seminars for potential resellers across Australia to introduce the VMware product. The Sydney seminar will be held end of August, Melbourne and Brisbane in September and Perth in October.