The $7.4 billion buyout of Sun Microsystems is giving Oracle an opportunity to build an integrated hardware and software company that can compete with the likes of IBM and Hewlett-Packard as a full-service IT systems provider. But Oracle has to demonstrate that it is prepared to invest in the Sun brand for the long term, and not just wring as much profit as possible from a once great company that has long been in decline.
Oracle’s $7.4 billion acquisition offer of Sun Microsystems gives CEO Larry Ellison a chance to do something he probably has always wanted to do—build a vertically integrated hardware and software company along the lines of IBM and Hewlett-Packard.
He built Oracle into one of the top software companies in the world. Oracle has consistently turned up as second or third on the published lists of the world’s largest software companies, behind IBM or Microsoft depending on who is doing the counting. Ellison has never wanted to be anything but No. 1 in any market, which is why his company has shelled out more than $50 billion to date to acquire software companies that would add to its revenue stream and its technology portfolio.
The Sun buyout isn’t even Oracle's biggest deal. That distinction goes to Oracle’s acquisition of enterprise resource planning software provider PeopleSoft for $10.3 billion in December 2004. It’s also eclipsed by middleware and application development tool company BEA Systems for $8.5 billion.
So far Oracle hasn’t stumbled with any of these acquisitions. Despite the massive cost of all these acquisitions, Oracle has reported quarter after quarter of hefty revenue growth at least until the company started to feel the full effects of the recession that started to erode sales and profits across the tech sector late in 2008.
But the Sun buyout put Oracle into a whole new league. Going into the hardware business gives it a chance to go to customers with the pitch that it can supply virtually all their IT needs from soup to nuts—servers, storage, database software and a multitude of applications. If there is any weakness in this lineup, it is the lack of a vigorous services business, since Oracle has historically relied mainly on channel partners for product services. But Oracle can always build or buy an IT services group.
I have to disagree with my esteemed colleague Joe Wilcox, who contends that Oracle will effectively kill off Sun. Yes, it’s the end of Sun as an independent company. But that’s not Oracle’s doing. Sun’s management can only blame itself for all the missteps that caused it to go from a cash-rich industry powerhouse to a weak market has-been that had to go hat in hand to prospective buyers before it ran out of cash and time.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
CentOS 5.3 Has Keen Focus on Virtualization
CentOS is based on Red Hat's Enterprise Linux source packages and shares in Red Hat Enterprise Linux's recent virtualization, app dev, security and storage improvements. Many of the enhancements in CentOS 5.3 come in the area of virtualization, targeted largely at scalability on large host machines.
CentOS, the popular community-supported clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, hit Version 5.3 in March, some three months after its parent distribution, RHEL 5.3 began shipping.
CentOS is based on Red Hat's freely available Enterprise Linux source packages. The CentOS project strips trademarked logos and other branding from the packages before building them into a free, Linux-based, operating system that boasts binary compatibility with its parent.
Version 5.3 of CentOS shares in RHEL's recent improvements around virtualization, application development, security and storage. Unlike, RHEL, CentOS may be had without any subscription fees, which makes CentOS a popular operating system option for many hosting providers and cloud computing vendors.
Applications designed and tested to work with RHEL should work just the same on CentOS, and security and bugfix patches from Red Hat flow downstream to CentOS, as well. However, the distribution lacks direct support from Red Hat, and CentOS systems can't be managed through the Red Hat Network service.
That said, with its roots in RHEL, CentOS is very stable distribution with a relatively long support term and a generous catalog of compatible hardware and software. In addition, the free, community-oriented status of CentOS results in plenty of regional mirrors from which to download updates (about 80 in the United States), as well as an active community that provides many software packages beyond those that Red Hat ships as part of its official distribution.
CentOS is a great fit for server deployments, and can serve well as either a host or guest for virtualization. As a virtualization host, CentOS defaults to the Xen hypervisor, with Red Hat's virt-manager utility for graphical management. CentOS isn't as full-featured a virtualization host as VMware's ESX server, but I found the process of configuring a Xen host and spinning up guest instances smoother on CentOS than on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 in my recent tests of that distribution.
CentOS 5.3 can also work well in a desktop role, although the software packages that ship with CentOS trail those that ship with the faster-moving Fedora and Ubuntu Linux by a couple of years on average. For example, where the soon-to-ship versions of Fedora and Ubuntu will include Version 2.26 of the GNOME desktop environment, CentOS offers GNOME version 2.16.
CentOS 5.3 is available for free download from the CentOS project or from one of its mirrors via www.centos.org. The CentOS project doesn't offer support beyond community resources, although the project maintains a directory of companies offering support services. What's more, because of CentOS' closeness to Red Hat's supported enterprise Linux product, migration barriers from CentOS to the Red Hat platform will be low if an organization decided to purchase Red Hat's support.
The CentOS distribution spans six CDs or one DVD, and is available in versions for the x86 and x86-64 processor architectures. The distribution is also available in a slim, 8.3MB network install image. I used this image in some of my tests to boot a new system before pulling down the packages I needed from one of the CentOS mirror sites.
I tested the 32-bit version of CentOS 5.3 from a virtual machine with 1GB of RAM hosted by Sun's VirtualBox desktop virtualization application. I tested the x86_64 version of CentOS on a dual-core AMD Athlon64 server with 4GB of RAM, as well as on a paravirtualized virtual machine hosted under CentOS's Xen hypervisor.
Virtualization
As a reflection of Red Hat's Linux development efforts, it isn't a surprise to see that many of the enhancements in CentOS 5.3 focus on virtualization. These improvements are targeted largely at scalability on large host machines, including support for host systems with as many as 126 processors and 1TB of RAM, and support for guest instances with as many as 32 processors and 80GB of RAM.
CentOS 5.3 taps Xen 3.0.3 as its default hypervisor, but I could opt for KVM as a virtualization option by installing packages from the CentOS project's “extra” repository.
As with the Xen implementation that ships with Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, CentOS offers a more spartan feature set compared with purpose-built virtualization products such as VMware's ESX Server. Still, I was able to roll out new, fully virtualized Linux or Windows guest instances very easily, as well as install Linux guests in higher-performance paravirtualized mode.
CentOS 5.3 ships with a Linux alternative to Sun's DTrace system tracing framework called SystemTap. I've found SystemTap rougher around the edges than DTrace, particularly on CentOS. Right from the start, SystemTap requires more setup steps than does DTrace, including installing additional packages. One of these packages, containing kernel debug info, wasn't available in the regular CentOS repositories.
After following the instructions for CentOS at the SystemTap project site, I was able to run the example scripts provided at the site to tease out information about the workings of my test machine. I was able to pipe the output of one script, which tracked disk and CPU utilization, to the data and function plotting gnuplot to visualize the information.
Elsewhere on the development front, CentOS 5.3 ships with OpenJDK, the fully open-source release of Sun's Java Standard Edition platform.
I was also pleased to see that CentOS 5.3 now offers support for block level disk encryption as an install-time option—an important option for notebook deployments because it can keep data inaccessible in case of lost or stolen machines.
CentOS, the popular community-supported clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, hit Version 5.3 in March, some three months after its parent distribution, RHEL 5.3 began shipping.
CentOS is based on Red Hat's freely available Enterprise Linux source packages. The CentOS project strips trademarked logos and other branding from the packages before building them into a free, Linux-based, operating system that boasts binary compatibility with its parent.
Version 5.3 of CentOS shares in RHEL's recent improvements around virtualization, application development, security and storage. Unlike, RHEL, CentOS may be had without any subscription fees, which makes CentOS a popular operating system option for many hosting providers and cloud computing vendors.
Applications designed and tested to work with RHEL should work just the same on CentOS, and security and bugfix patches from Red Hat flow downstream to CentOS, as well. However, the distribution lacks direct support from Red Hat, and CentOS systems can't be managed through the Red Hat Network service.
That said, with its roots in RHEL, CentOS is very stable distribution with a relatively long support term and a generous catalog of compatible hardware and software. In addition, the free, community-oriented status of CentOS results in plenty of regional mirrors from which to download updates (about 80 in the United States), as well as an active community that provides many software packages beyond those that Red Hat ships as part of its official distribution.
CentOS is a great fit for server deployments, and can serve well as either a host or guest for virtualization. As a virtualization host, CentOS defaults to the Xen hypervisor, with Red Hat's virt-manager utility for graphical management. CentOS isn't as full-featured a virtualization host as VMware's ESX server, but I found the process of configuring a Xen host and spinning up guest instances smoother on CentOS than on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 in my recent tests of that distribution.
CentOS 5.3 can also work well in a desktop role, although the software packages that ship with CentOS trail those that ship with the faster-moving Fedora and Ubuntu Linux by a couple of years on average. For example, where the soon-to-ship versions of Fedora and Ubuntu will include Version 2.26 of the GNOME desktop environment, CentOS offers GNOME version 2.16.
CentOS 5.3 is available for free download from the CentOS project or from one of its mirrors via www.centos.org. The CentOS project doesn't offer support beyond community resources, although the project maintains a directory of companies offering support services. What's more, because of CentOS' closeness to Red Hat's supported enterprise Linux product, migration barriers from CentOS to the Red Hat platform will be low if an organization decided to purchase Red Hat's support.
The CentOS distribution spans six CDs or one DVD, and is available in versions for the x86 and x86-64 processor architectures. The distribution is also available in a slim, 8.3MB network install image. I used this image in some of my tests to boot a new system before pulling down the packages I needed from one of the CentOS mirror sites.
I tested the 32-bit version of CentOS 5.3 from a virtual machine with 1GB of RAM hosted by Sun's VirtualBox desktop virtualization application. I tested the x86_64 version of CentOS on a dual-core AMD Athlon64 server with 4GB of RAM, as well as on a paravirtualized virtual machine hosted under CentOS's Xen hypervisor.
Virtualization
As a reflection of Red Hat's Linux development efforts, it isn't a surprise to see that many of the enhancements in CentOS 5.3 focus on virtualization. These improvements are targeted largely at scalability on large host machines, including support for host systems with as many as 126 processors and 1TB of RAM, and support for guest instances with as many as 32 processors and 80GB of RAM.
CentOS 5.3 taps Xen 3.0.3 as its default hypervisor, but I could opt for KVM as a virtualization option by installing packages from the CentOS project's “extra” repository.
As with the Xen implementation that ships with Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, CentOS offers a more spartan feature set compared with purpose-built virtualization products such as VMware's ESX Server. Still, I was able to roll out new, fully virtualized Linux or Windows guest instances very easily, as well as install Linux guests in higher-performance paravirtualized mode.
CentOS 5.3 ships with a Linux alternative to Sun's DTrace system tracing framework called SystemTap. I've found SystemTap rougher around the edges than DTrace, particularly on CentOS. Right from the start, SystemTap requires more setup steps than does DTrace, including installing additional packages. One of these packages, containing kernel debug info, wasn't available in the regular CentOS repositories.
After following the instructions for CentOS at the SystemTap project site, I was able to run the example scripts provided at the site to tease out information about the workings of my test machine. I was able to pipe the output of one script, which tracked disk and CPU utilization, to the data and function plotting gnuplot to visualize the information.
Elsewhere on the development front, CentOS 5.3 ships with OpenJDK, the fully open-source release of Sun's Java Standard Edition platform.
I was also pleased to see that CentOS 5.3 now offers support for block level disk encryption as an install-time option—an important option for notebook deployments because it can keep data inaccessible in case of lost or stolen machines.
Cisco Offering Cloud Computing Security
Cisco Systems Inc. on Tuesday introduced new network security products to help protect companies' Web-based software and services from attacks on their networks.
Large companies are moving more of their software and services online, trends often called "cloud computing" and "software as a service," to help users communicate and share information.
Such services, delivered through data centers, help companies use less space and computing power. But worries about viruses and external attacks on corporate data and computer systems, due to the open nature of such services, has been an obstacle to greater adoption.
Cisco, known for making routers and switches, has been expanding into a wider range of products including software. It has identified collaborative software and cloud computing as key areas of growth.
The new security products will include software that filters through online traffic as well as services that help companies assess their overall technology security, it said.
Cisco also said on Tuesday that it was upgrading its WebEx online meeting software by introducing more advanced routing systems that help handle the increase in online traffic.
Cisco bought WebEx, a company specializing in web-conferencing software that incorporates features like instant messaging and document sharing, in 2007.
(Reporting by Ritsuko Ando; Editing by Derek Caney)
© Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. Users may download and print extracts of content from this website for their own personal and non-commercial use only. Republication or redistribution of Thomson Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters and its logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of the Thomson Reuters group of companies around the world.
Large companies are moving more of their software and services online, trends often called "cloud computing" and "software as a service," to help users communicate and share information.
Such services, delivered through data centers, help companies use less space and computing power. But worries about viruses and external attacks on corporate data and computer systems, due to the open nature of such services, has been an obstacle to greater adoption.
Cisco, known for making routers and switches, has been expanding into a wider range of products including software. It has identified collaborative software and cloud computing as key areas of growth.
The new security products will include software that filters through online traffic as well as services that help companies assess their overall technology security, it said.
Cisco also said on Tuesday that it was upgrading its WebEx online meeting software by introducing more advanced routing systems that help handle the increase in online traffic.
Cisco bought WebEx, a company specializing in web-conferencing software that incorporates features like instant messaging and document sharing, in 2007.
(Reporting by Ritsuko Ando; Editing by Derek Caney)
© Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. Users may download and print extracts of content from this website for their own personal and non-commercial use only. Republication or redistribution of Thomson Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters and its logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of the Thomson Reuters group of companies around the world.
IT Infrastructure Slideshow: HP BladeSystem Matrix Combines Server, Storage, Networking
With the latest move in the burgeoning data center convergence space, HP is rolling out its BladeSystem Matrix, which pulls together server, storage, network and management software into a single package, tied together by an enhanced Virtual Connect technology. With virtualization becoming more commonplace in the data center, enterprises are looking for ways to take advantage of the technology while reducing the complexity and overall operating costs. HP and other vendors, including Cisco, Dell, IBM and Sun, are jockeying for position in the space with solutions designed to bring together server, storage and networking to give businesses a more agile, flexible and cost-effective data center environment. HP's BladeSystem Matrix, combined with the Matrix Orchestration Environment—or MOE—increases data center performance and flexibility while reducing costs, HP officials said. In addition, HP is unveiling new storage offerings, some of which come from its acquisition last year of LeftHand Networks, as well as the enhancements to the Virtual Connect networking technology. HP also is rolling out a service to help enterprises plan and design their virtual environments.
Virtualization Slideshow: Sun xVM VirtualBox 2.2 Is a Tempting Alternative to VMware Fare
The no-cost Sun xVM VirtualBox tool is a good system for putting multiple virtual machines on a desktop or notebook system for developers and other IT pros. New in this version is the ability to export and import virtual appliances that are built to the Open Virtualization Format specification, networking features that make it easier to configure guests to communicate with each other while limiting contact with the outside world, and graphics enhancements and access to 3D hardware acceleration. As a challenger to VMware's Workstation (and to the no-cost VMware Server product), the new version of VirtualBox is an even more tempting alternative for cash-strapped IT users. However, the tool does lack the management capabilities and finesse of kingpin VMware's offerings.
Unisys Improves Virtualization Capabilities in Its Servers
Unisys is incorporating Intel’s new Xeon 5500 series chips—also known as Nehalem EP—into its ES3000 rack servers and ES5000 blades. Unisys also is supporting VMware’s new vSphere virtualization platform in all of its x86 enterprise servers. Unisys officials say the moves not only will improve the virtualization capabilities of its enterprise servers, but also close the gap between scale-out and scale-up virtualization environments.
Unisys is ramping up the virtualization capabilities of its enterprise x86 servers by upgrading to Intel’s Nehalem EP processors and VMware’s latest version of its virtualization platform.
Unisys announced April 21 that it is incorporating the Xeon 5500 series chips into its ES3000 rack systems and ES5000 blade servers, and will support the new VMware vSphere 4 platform in all of its lines of enterprise servers.
The vendor is looking to help businesses grow their virtualization environments as well as enhance their cloud computing management and deployment capabilities.
“It’s focused around doing virtualization right,” said Rod Sapp, marketing director for Unisys’ enterprise servers. “We can help clients with their end-to-end deployment of virtualized environments.”
Sapp said Unisys can now help businesses with any type of virtualization environment. Intel’s new Nehalem EP processors—which were announced March 30—not only help businesses improve performance and reduce costs, but also come with improved virtualization capabilities, which Unisys wants to take advantage of in its rack and blade servers.
“This is very much a scale-out virtualization [environment],” Sapp said.
Unisys joins a host of other system makers, including Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Rackable Systems, that unveiled new servers based on the processor.
The new VMware vSphere platform—which also was announced April 21—lifts the ceiling on many of the scalability limits on the hypervisor, making it more of a scale-up play, he said. The new platform enables Unisys to offer customers the capability to run significantly more virtual machines on a single physical server, according to Sapp.
The new systems also help bridge the cost gap between scale-out and scale-up, he said. Previously, the cost per virtual machine was five times more in scale-out environments. With the new generation of servers, that cost difference has dropped to three times more for scale-out deployments. The cost savings in scale-up environments center around licensing, server management, and power and cooling.
Sapp said the new capabilities give Unisys a strong framework to help enterprises create virtualization environments, from the hardware and software to services and best practices.
The new capabilities come at an opportune time for IT administrators, who—thanks in large part to the global recession—are being asked to improve service levels while reducing costs.
“There’s more pressure being put onto IT to start using virtualization more to cut costs,” Sapp said.
The new rack and blade servers will be available starting April 28, he said. A 5U tower server with the new technologies will be available around July 30.
Unisys is ramping up the virtualization capabilities of its enterprise x86 servers by upgrading to Intel’s Nehalem EP processors and VMware’s latest version of its virtualization platform.
Unisys announced April 21 that it is incorporating the Xeon 5500 series chips into its ES3000 rack systems and ES5000 blade servers, and will support the new VMware vSphere 4 platform in all of its lines of enterprise servers.
The vendor is looking to help businesses grow their virtualization environments as well as enhance their cloud computing management and deployment capabilities.
“It’s focused around doing virtualization right,” said Rod Sapp, marketing director for Unisys’ enterprise servers. “We can help clients with their end-to-end deployment of virtualized environments.”
Sapp said Unisys can now help businesses with any type of virtualization environment. Intel’s new Nehalem EP processors—which were announced March 30—not only help businesses improve performance and reduce costs, but also come with improved virtualization capabilities, which Unisys wants to take advantage of in its rack and blade servers.
“This is very much a scale-out virtualization [environment],” Sapp said.
Unisys joins a host of other system makers, including Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Rackable Systems, that unveiled new servers based on the processor.
The new VMware vSphere platform—which also was announced April 21—lifts the ceiling on many of the scalability limits on the hypervisor, making it more of a scale-up play, he said. The new platform enables Unisys to offer customers the capability to run significantly more virtual machines on a single physical server, according to Sapp.
The new systems also help bridge the cost gap between scale-out and scale-up, he said. Previously, the cost per virtual machine was five times more in scale-out environments. With the new generation of servers, that cost difference has dropped to three times more for scale-out deployments. The cost savings in scale-up environments center around licensing, server management, and power and cooling.
Sapp said the new capabilities give Unisys a strong framework to help enterprises create virtualization environments, from the hardware and software to services and best practices.
The new capabilities come at an opportune time for IT administrators, who—thanks in large part to the global recession—are being asked to improve service levels while reducing costs.
“There’s more pressure being put onto IT to start using virtualization more to cut costs,” Sapp said.
The new rack and blade servers will be available starting April 28, he said. A 5U tower server with the new technologies will be available around July 30.
VMware Launches vSphere 4, Its Operating System for the Cloud
vSphere 4 facilitates the delivery of IT infrastructure as a service to enterprise users, so their IT departments can build their own private cloud systems to provide business services internally for the company and for its trusted partners, supply chain participants and other business associates.
VMware on April 21 launched what it claims to be the first operating system specifically engineered for cloud computing with vSphere 4, the first major upgrade to its frontline product since 2006.
vSphere 4, formerly called VMware Infrastructure, will be made available in the second quarter of 2009, the company said.
vSphere 4 is designed to facilitate delivery of IT infrastructure as a service to enterprises, so IT departments can build their own private cloud systems to provide business services internally for the company and for trusted partners, supply chain participants and other business associates.
In short, VMware wants to become the system of choice to run enterprise data centers, and further, to enable these complex systems to reach out and touch others in order to gain business advantages.
"Cloud computing has become known as the next big thing and is now sort of a buzzword, but we believe that with vSphere 4, we can make cloud computing a reality," Bogomil Balkonsky, VMware's vice president of product marketing for servers, told eWEEK.
"It's the first iteration of VMware's virtualization as an enabler for cloud infrastructure. It scales higher, runs faster, offers more automated management technologies."
A lot of the recent talk about this new computing services model, Balkonsky said, has been focused on public external clouds -- such as Amazon EC2 and S3, GoogleApps, Salesforce.com and others.
"Those will all have a very interesting effect on the industry, but we believe where the action is going to be in cloud computing, in the next few years, is helping companies build and transform their internal infrastructure into internal clouds, or internal cloud providers," Balkonsky said..
"A company data center can act with efficiency [using this new operating system] and with the reliablity of an internal utility provider, if they want."
vSphere 4 also provides the foundation for enterprise IT departments to connect their own homemade private clouds behind a firewall with those of partners -- or established public cloud services, like those noted earlier.
Why is VMware calling this an operating system, rather than a cloud computing architecture? Operating systems, in the classical sense of the IT term, refer to products such as Microsoft Windows, Apple's Mac OS, Linux, Unix, and AIX.
"We're calling this an operating system is because at a high level, an operating system does two things: It manages the hardware looking downward, and it provides interfaces or services with applications, looking upward," Balkonsky said.
"An operating system typically is the mediator between applications and the hardware. Our technology is the first software layer that installs on the bare metal. It provides two classes of services: A set of services to manage the hardware -- the servers, the storage, and the network -- and a set of application services to provide availability, security, and scalability to applications."
VMware designed vSphere 4 to be a non-disruptive force in the data center, Balkonsky said. The company's virtualization software works with virtually all other data center systems; vSphere 4 is designed to slip into its own layer without disrupting workflows.
vSphere 4 will be available in the second quarter in six editions, starting at $995 for three physical servers for small offices.
VMware on April 21 launched what it claims to be the first operating system specifically engineered for cloud computing with vSphere 4, the first major upgrade to its frontline product since 2006.
vSphere 4, formerly called VMware Infrastructure, will be made available in the second quarter of 2009, the company said.
vSphere 4 is designed to facilitate delivery of IT infrastructure as a service to enterprises, so IT departments can build their own private cloud systems to provide business services internally for the company and for trusted partners, supply chain participants and other business associates.
In short, VMware wants to become the system of choice to run enterprise data centers, and further, to enable these complex systems to reach out and touch others in order to gain business advantages.
"Cloud computing has become known as the next big thing and is now sort of a buzzword, but we believe that with vSphere 4, we can make cloud computing a reality," Bogomil Balkonsky, VMware's vice president of product marketing for servers, told eWEEK.
"It's the first iteration of VMware's virtualization as an enabler for cloud infrastructure. It scales higher, runs faster, offers more automated management technologies."
A lot of the recent talk about this new computing services model, Balkonsky said, has been focused on public external clouds -- such as Amazon EC2 and S3, GoogleApps, Salesforce.com and others.
"Those will all have a very interesting effect on the industry, but we believe where the action is going to be in cloud computing, in the next few years, is helping companies build and transform their internal infrastructure into internal clouds, or internal cloud providers," Balkonsky said..
"A company data center can act with efficiency [using this new operating system] and with the reliablity of an internal utility provider, if they want."
vSphere 4 also provides the foundation for enterprise IT departments to connect their own homemade private clouds behind a firewall with those of partners -- or established public cloud services, like those noted earlier.
Why is VMware calling this an operating system, rather than a cloud computing architecture? Operating systems, in the classical sense of the IT term, refer to products such as Microsoft Windows, Apple's Mac OS, Linux, Unix, and AIX.
"We're calling this an operating system is because at a high level, an operating system does two things: It manages the hardware looking downward, and it provides interfaces or services with applications, looking upward," Balkonsky said.
"An operating system typically is the mediator between applications and the hardware. Our technology is the first software layer that installs on the bare metal. It provides two classes of services: A set of services to manage the hardware -- the servers, the storage, and the network -- and a set of application services to provide availability, security, and scalability to applications."
VMware designed vSphere 4 to be a non-disruptive force in the data center, Balkonsky said. The company's virtualization software works with virtually all other data center systems; vSphere 4 is designed to slip into its own layer without disrupting workflows.
vSphere 4 will be available in the second quarter in six editions, starting at $995 for three physical servers for small offices.
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