The vCloud Initiative - Maritz’s War Cry?
Two weeks ago at VMWorld 2008, 14,000 attendees were inundated with booth glitterati, press releases, parties, games of chance and hype. While many solutions did stand out in my opinion ( as outlined here ), the one that took some time to sink in was the vCloud initiative. Readers of this site and professional colleagues will know that I’ve been discussing and pushing the cloud concept specifically based on a VMware-based infrastructure for most of the last 14 months. While my session, “Cloud Computing in a Virtualized Environment” was not chosen for VMWorld 2008 (the presentation will be made available here in the coming weeks), cloud computing has not diminished in importance in my eyes.
Listening, reading and re-reading all of the marketing collateral released on this topic in the last few weeks it’s almost hard to take it as anything more than agitprop. However, with Maritz’s background in dealing with the cloud it may finally be coming to fruition.
It was hard to overlook booths by Elastra, 3Tera, Skytap, et al., all significant or growing players in the cloud market. I am in the process of reviewing the major players and hope to post my finding before the next virtualization event (Microsoft’s Virtualization Forum on November 10th in Washington, D.C.) I will be attending. While free or bargain-basement-priced virtualization vendors such as Xen or free ESXi becoming available, the primary reason for going with an alternative is now moot. However, to leverage the real power found in the VMware platform, through DRS, DPM, HA, et cetera, an Enterprise license must be purchased, the vCloud initiative lends me to believe that mega-scale providers signing ELAs will receive mega-scale discounts. The VMware platform is proven and it’s about time that companies like 3Tera and Elastra make use of its robustness. I and many others are much more likely to recommend renting cloud space to a client when we know the underlying platform is VMware than when it’s a competitor’s cheaper knockoff.
“the vCloud initiative lends me to believe that mega-scale providers signing ELAs will receive mega-scale discounts”
That’s not to discredit other platforms which are wildly popular amongst ISPs, especially in EMEA and APAC, but since VMware is the preeminent virtualization vendor it only makes sense to me that it become the predominant foundation for computing clouds. Another benefit to using the VMware platform is its support of various operating systems. In my ongoing cloud comparison tests, most production clouds do not allow the use of Microsoft-based virtual machines. In order for the cloud concept to eventually reach the mainstream the mainstream operating system will need to be supported.
Apparently, BT is already using VMware as the backbone for its “virtual data center capability.” One of the primary forces behind the vCloud initiative is that it will allow legacy applications and modern day applications to be built on or off-premises, to a standard platform. No longer will I need to develop my virtual machine applications or appliances for a particular vendor (and then lose leverage when negotiating contract renewals), but a standard platform will be used making my piece of the cloud completely mobile and transparent.
Workstream, a company providing a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) talent management portal, has also adopted the VMware vCloud initiative. Their portal software is delivered as a slice in their virtual ether providing a web-based solution.
Companies like Verizon Business and Rackspace have also lined up to participate in the initiative. I must say, I think it’s a bit dubious that Rackspace is on the list. Having discussed data center innovation with that organization many years back (to which I was adamant about proliferating virtualization in their data center), my pro-virtualization stance was met with lackluster appreciation in early talks. Perhaps I was dealing with a low level pawn in the grand scheme of things, but nevertheless, I’ve since had a sour taste when it comes to Rackspace and their service offerings. Maybe their recent IPO is one of the forces behind jumping on this perceived bandwagon.
Two other benefits of the vCloud initiative are utilizing existing “VMware approved virtual appliances”:http://www.vmware.com/appliances/ (to which there are hundreds) and utilizing the open virtualization format (OVF), a standard growing in popularity and importance.
Finally, allusions to the future of Virtual Center, which becomes vCenter and further workflow management integrated into the product via vOrchestrator, allow the necessary automated workflows to be created to manage thecloud’s weather system.
Processing as a utility is the direction we are headed. If you haven’t done so already, pick up a copy of Nicholas Carr’s, “The Big Switch”:http://www.amazon.com/Big-Switch-Rewiring-Edison-Google/dp/0393062287 which compares the emergence of the electrical utilizes a century ago to the advent of the computing utility; a concept that will come to fruition in our lifetime.
“Processing as a utility is the direction we are headed.”
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2007 Systems Architech.