SearchServerVirtualization is reporting a breaking news, still unconfirmed, about VMware preparing a lite version of ESX Server:
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According to several sources close to VMware, ESX Lite is real and currently under development. The new lightweight hypervisor would be installed directly on the motherboard, simplifying the deployment of an ESX host and ensuring 100% hardware integration…
Read the whole article at source.
If confirmed this move would arrive without too much surprise, considering hard mission VMware has: take away hardware control (and its political power over industry) from Microsoft’s hands.
Advent of KVM virtualization solution, which uses a different approach anyway, as Linux kernel module, makes this task even harder with big distributors like Red Hat and Novell having a new chance to maintain hardware control despite virtualization (just like Microsoft is trying to do with its upcoming hypervisor Windows Server Virtualization, codename Viridian).
Update: virtualization.info has just learned the information is confirmed. VMware and some OEM partners (Dell is one of them) are going to offer hardware with embedded ESX Server. Something which could be called a real hardware appliance.