VMware unveils cloud suite

The number of physical servers in New Zealand will besurpassed by virtual machines this year, according to VMware regional manager,Tim Dacombe-Bird.

Speaking at the launch of VMware’s vSphere 5 cloudinfrastructure suite, Dacombe-Bird told journalists over 50% of serverworkloads will be running in virtualisation soon.

"It’s gone from a technical discussion to a strategicdecision,” Dacombe-Bird says.

"The introduction of this suite is the biggest announcementin our history.”

Steven Gross, VMware senior manager of products &solutions, says the release of the suite signifies the transition ofvirtualisation technology into maturity.

"vSphere 5 enables true cloud computing,” Gross says.

"We started running virtualisation wanting to get the bestout of our servers. Now we’re able to deliver services not possible in the physicalworld.”

The suite is the result of over one million hours of codedevelopment, Gross says, and two million hours of quality assurance.

"Organisations are betting their businesses on thistechnology, so it needs to be rock solid.”

The new suite features over 200 new and enhancedcapabilities, including the ability to automatically distribute workloadsbetween virtual servers, and an automated deployment system to allow users tocontrol the installation of applications.

VMware is also introducing a new pay model, wherebycustomers will pay for services by volume of data, rather than by capacity.

Beta partners Gen-i have been running the final version ofthe new suite for over two months, and agree the system has plenty of sellingpoints.

Alisdair Watson, head of infrastructure management for Gen-i, says vSphere allows a new level of capacity and scalability, ‘which from a customerpoint of view is massive’.

For more opinion on the future of cloud computing, go here to readTechDay’s chat with David Fox, head of enterprise cloud services for HP SouthPacific.