DynamicOps self service management for virtual environments

A few days ago, I had the opportunity to speak with Rich Bourdeau DynamicOps' VP Marketing, and learn about Virtual Resource Manager (VRM) and this spin-off from Credit Suisse. DynamicOps is the result of project to allow virtual resources to be easily configured and provisioned based upon the organization's policies and available system resources.

Here's what DynamicOps has to say for itself

VRM was initially developed by Credit Suisseís Global Research and Development Group, headed by Steve Yatko,  managing director. The software has been in production for more than two years and manages thousands of virtual desktops and servers at multiple Credit Suisse data centers in four locations worldwide. The software brings a level of product maturity and capability that is not commonly found in many currently available virtual infrastructure management products.

Virtual Resource Management (VRM) Technology

• Automated Service Delivery and Management of Virtual Desktops and Servers
• Allows IT to gain control & increase agility, while lowering costs
• Technology developed and used internally by Credit Suisse for 2.5 years
• Deployed across small and large divisions of bank

The company's products are designed to configure and provision virtual resources based upon Citrix XenServer, Microsoft's Hyper-V and VMware's ESX Server. The goals are to allow non-sophisticated users to deal with virtualized resources while still complying with organizational guidelines. VRM also provides usage and chargeback tracking in multi-vendor environments.

Snapshot Analysis

DynamicOps' VRM, coming from an internal project at a large company, faces a number of competitive challenges even though it appears to be a comprehensive attempt to build a self-service environment on top of management and provisioning tools offered by the suppliers of virtual machine software  suppliers. Sometimes, these projects produce software that serves the needs of the company that created the software, but isn't of much use to thers. DynamicOps appears to have been able to walk the fine line between serving the needs of the parent company and still produce a viable product for the market.

In previous posts, I've discussed the next generation datacenter and how organizations are seeking ways to move their vairous workloads from a diverse hardware and software environment to an environment having a unified hardware platform that still can support a complete portfolio of applications. Posts such as "What would a next generation datacenter look like?", "HP and the next generation data center" and "IBM announces the Z10: Is the mainframe still relevant?" discuss the race the hardware suppliers are running to supply the hardware for that datacenter.

Organizations thinking about this move are also looking for ways to treat their IT department as a service provider. This means that the IT administrative staff would set up the basic parameters for system utilization and provision, but the IT people from each business unit would take care of their own workloads. While not part of the discussions I've had with IT executives of end-user organizations, I suspect this move will also open doors to moving some or all of those workloads into the cloud if that proved to be the best, most economical platform.

DynamicOps seems to have thought this through very carefully when implementing VRM and has built the framework for that self-service management of virtual resources.

If your organization is heading that way, it would be worth a look.