Year: 2007

Earlier this month virtualization.info broke the news that a technology preview of upcoming Microsoft hypervisor (codename Viridian) has been included in Windows Server 2008 RC0 build, distributed to TAP customers.

Now Microsoft confirms the story and informs that the RC0 will be distributed to wide public, possibly on the week of September 17. But most of all the company reveals that final release of Windows Server 2008 will already include Viridian beta 1, as ZDNet is reporting.

Windows Server 2008 RTM is set for Q1 2008, with an official launch set for February 28.

Quoting from the Microsoft official announcement:

Today at VMworld 2007, Microsoft Corp. and Citrix Systems Inc. announced that they have strengthened their longtime integration alliance in the desktop and application delivery market by standardizing on the Microsoft Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) format as a common runtime environment for both virtualized operating systems and applications. This collaboration will result in future versions of Citrix’s Desktop Server and virtual application solutions adopting the Microsoft VHD format. At the same time, Microsoft plans to adapt a future version of Microsoft SoftGrid Application Virtualization for both the desktop and Terminal Services to the VHD format. Microsoft and Citrix will also collaborate on emerging virtualization technologies and virtual infrastructure management tools to help ensure interoperability and simplified administration for end users…

The move itself anyway seems a real waste of energies considering both Microsoft and XenSource (then Citrix is included) are working with VMware and major OEMs to develop a common virtual machines format called OVF. But the announcement further clarifies how Microsoft will use its long term partnership with Citrix to contrast VMware until codename Viridian release.

The real question is: what will happen between these partners after Viridian launch?

Quoting from the Microsoft official announcement:

Microsoft Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc. today announced that Sun has signed on as a Windows Server OEM. Additionally, Sun and Microsoft will collaborate to further enable deployment of Windows Server on Sun x64 systems.

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Sun and Microsoft will work together to ensure that Solaris runs well as a guest on Microsoft virtualization technologies and that Windows Server runs well as a guest in Sun’s virtualization technologies. Sun and Microsoft will work together on a support process for customers using the virtualization solutions. This joint commitment to customers ensures that Windows and Solaris will provide a solid virtualization experience….

The Sun virtualization technologies this press announcement is referring to is the upcoming implementation of Xen inside Solaris 10 called xVM.

Xen codebase contributors are already working to grant a smooth experience with Windows guest operating systems. This work will only get better considering that:

• XenSource has been acquired by Citrix, a long term Microsoft partner
• Microsoft has two critical deals in place with Novell and now with Sun, granting their Xen-based hypervisors interoperability with upcoming codename Viridian
• Virtual Iron, offering a Xen-based hypervisor as well, just entered the Microsoft Interop Alliance

It seems pretty evident Microsoft is influencing Xen development more than open source community itself.

Last month virtualization.info broke the news VMware is going to introduce a new virtual machines format called OVF (Open Virtual Format) in upcoming VMware Infrastructure 3.5.

Now an official announcement from Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) confirms the effort and reveals OVF is a commonly agreed format which will simplify interoperability between different virtualization vendors:

The Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) today announced the acceptance of a draft specification submitted by leading virtualization companies targeting an industry standard format for portable virtual machines. Virtual machines packaged in this format can be installed on any virtualization platform that supports the standard simplifying interoperability, security and virtual machine lifecycle management for virtual infrastructures.

The companies behind the collaboration on this specification include Dell, HP, IBM, Microsoft, VMware, and XenSource. This group of virtualization industry leaders has submitted the specification to the DMTF for development into an industry standard.

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The proposed format, called the Open Virtual Machine Format (OVF), uses existing packaging tools to combine one or more virtual machines together with a standards-based XML wrapper, giving the virtualization platform a portable package containing all required installation and configuration parameters for the virtual machines. This allows any virtualization platform that implements the standard to correctly install and run the virtual machines…

Other vendors will embrace this new format in the next few months. First one is Enomalism which announced its support:

Enomalism Inc today announced the support of the Open Virtual Format (OVF) specification submitted by leading virtualization companies targeting an industry standard format for portable virtual machines.

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Using Enomalism OVF package management interface with our VMcasting technology, the Enomalism dashboard automates the process of installing, upgrading, configuring, and removing software packages. Enomalism VMcasting technology uses RSS feeds to deliver updates and release notes directly to deployed virtual systems…

Anyway doesn’t seem Microsoft will start using this new format as its main one anytime soon: the company announced a major interoperability partnership with Citrix on its VHD format.

Quoting from the VMware official announcement:

VMware, Inc., the virtualization leader, today at VMworld 2007 announced that it has released a majority of VMware Tools as open source software as part of the project Open Virtual Machine Tools. VMware Tools is a set of guest operating system virtualization components that enhance performance and improve management of VMware virtual machines.

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VMware is also working with operating system vendors including Novell, Red Hat and Ubuntu to integrate open-sourced VMware Tools into the operating system installation process…

Open source version of VMware Tools is available here.

With this move VMware hopes to spread VMware Tools adoption among all Linux providers, which may ship VMware-ready distros in a near future. At the same time VMware is trying to simplify huge work of supporting VMware Tools for a ever-growing amount of distributions which are updated at a very fast pace.

Anyway the move implies some risks: proliferation of non-official VMware Tools versions will increase chances of guest operating system instability and insecurity.

Steve Herrod, Vice President of Technology Development at VMware, told virtualization.info that the company will only support official VMware Tools, so customers should pay much attention to which version they are going to install in production environments.

Quoting from the Embotics official announcement:

Embotics, the Virtual Machine (VM) Lifecycle Management Company, today launched V-Commander, a centralized, policy based control and management system for enterprise VMs. Embotics’ V-Commander manages large pools of VMs; controlling VM sprawl and automating VM management tasks, providing real operational benefits, control and oversight.

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V-Commander can display the genealogy of any VM in real time, making it simple to patch, configure, manage and rollback all related VMs. V-Commander also uses a range of VM markers and policies to control VM deployment and automate or simplify many control tasks that today consume valuable staff time.

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Intuitive and easy-to-use, V-Commander is built specifically for the virtualized data center and offers the following unique features:

• Manages online and offline images
• Automatic genealogy tracking allows for coordinated “family” actions (configuration, patching, retirement, etc.)
• Integral policy engine automates important control policies including separation of duties, deployment control and VI partitioning
• Built in secure repository provides a definitive VM library, facilitating standardization and easy deployment
• Provides VM operational oversight, control and audit, complete with drill-down capability

…Starting at USD $25,000, Embotics V-Commander is generally available in Q4 2007.

The virtualization.info Virtualization Industry Radar and Virtualization Industry Roadmap have been updated accordingly.

Quoting from the XenSource official announcement:

Platform Computing, a leading systems infrastructure software company, and XenSource, the leading provider of enterprise-class virtualization solutions based on the open source Xen hypervisor, today announced an OEM agreement that enables Platform to integrate and bundle XenEnterprise v4 with the new version of their VM Orchestrator (VMO) solution.

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Under terms of the agreement, Platform will embed XenEnterprise v4 with VMO as part of a complete VM life cycle management solution, offering best of breed dynamic resource management, self-service functionality, and resource aware high availability (HA), all from a common web-based management console. A core element of VMO is Enterprise Grid Orchestrator (EGO) – a proven management environment and policy engine that dynamically allocates shared resources based on application priority and workload. The two companies will participate in joint marketing activities including an upcoming webinar…

Quoting from the Egenera official announcement:

Egenera Inc., the data center virtualization company, announced it has entered into an OEM agreement with VMware. Under the terms of the agreement, Egenera BladeFrame system customers will be able to purchase VMware Infrastructure 3 solutions and support from Egenera and its resellers beginning in Q4 2007. The agreement further strengthens the relationship between the two companies, and delivers closely aligned and complementary virtualization solutions for the enterprise data center

Egenera previously announced a port of VMware ESX Server – part of VMware Infrastructure – to the Egenera BladeFrame system, complementing Egenera’s data center virtualization solutions with the robust infrastructure virtualization capabilities of VMware technology. Availability is slated for Q4 2007…

Quoting from the Stratus official announcement:

VMware, Inc. and Stratus Technologies Inc. announced today that they have entered into a definitive OEM agreement for the purpose of delivering the market-leading technologies of both companies – virtualization and continuous availability – to enable virtualized IT infrastructures with the highest levels of uptime and reliability. Under the terms of the agreement, Stratus will be able to market, resell and provide joint customer support for VMware Infrastructure 3 running on next-generation Stratus ftServer models.

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By working through the VMware Community Source Program, Stratus will be able to support VMware Infrastructure 3 (VI3) software on Stratus ftServer systems. The new multi-core ftServer 4400 and 6200 models will be the first fault-tolerant x86 server platform able to deliver all of the business continuity benefits of virtualization, plus the unparalleled reliability and availability of a mission critical server foundation. General availability of the new ftServer models supporting VMware Infrastructure 3 is expected in early 2008…

Virtualization startup moka5, launched in April 2006, is slowly rebuilding its management team to impact the market in a more effective way.

First of all hired a new CEO, Bill Demas, in July 2007. Now it announces new vice presidents of Engineering and Marketing departments:

moka5 announced today Mike Schwartz as Vice President of Engineering and Sheila Tan-Salvucci as Vice President of Marketing for the fast growing company.

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Mike joins moka5 with almost 25 years experience managing, designing and implementing complex software and hosted operations. Mike has proven experience in developing packaged software in emerging market categories. Having developed several leading-edge technologies into shipping products, Mike has worked for several of the largest websites in the world. Most recently, Mike was vice president of engineering and operations for Six Apart where he was responsible for pulling together the robust technology foundation and turning it into a shipping, packaged solution for a variety of vertical markets including small to medium-sized businesses and individual bloggers. Previously, Mike was Elemental Security’s vice president of engineering, where he built the engineering team to successfully ship their enterprise-scale security system on time and on budget. Prior to that, Mike led world-class engineering teams at Opsware/Loudcloud and Branders.com, once again providing market leading solutions in new market categories.

Sheila joins moka5 with over 17 years experience working for multi-national consumer brands, mid-sized software companies, and start-ups. Sheila has extensive experience in understanding consumer behavior as well as developing and scaling marketing organizations to enter emerging markets. Most recently, Sheila was vice president of marketing for Presto where she ran marketing to help consumers “stay connected” by making it easier for them to share digital content. As Intuit’s senior director of marketing for Quickbooks, Sheila was responsible for developing and managing the central marketing organization that helped drive the innovation and growth of the Quickbooks franchise in the SMB market, which tripled in revenue growth under her leadership. Sheila began her career at the consumer packaged goods giant Procter & Gamble, where she led the development and introduction of several new products and held key brand management positions, including Crest. She led new product innovation and marketing for online start-up, Reflect.com, specializing in meeting the diverse needs of women in the custom cosmetics industry.