Last week VKernel released the second version of its Capacity Management Suite (CMS), a solution that integrates most of the company products.
Specifically, CMS 2.0 includes Capacity Analyzer 5.0, Chargeback 2.0 and the Optimization Pack 2.0, which includes the tools Wastefinder, Rightsizer and Inventory.
Inventory was not included into CMS 1.0 so this is a welcome addition.
Compared to the previous version, this is not just a commercial bundle: VKernel merged all the products above in a single virtual appliance, unified the analytics engine across the board and provided a single management console.
Despite that, licensing remains per-product, so that customers have a modular solution. Pricing starts at $299 per socket.
CMS 2.0 introduces a remarkable number of new features:
- Capability to partially automate the capacity plan (resources increase only)
- Capability to exclude specific VMs (powered off ones, groups, etc.), specific resources (like storage for example) or specific time frames of the day from the capacity analysis
- Customizable capacity models
- Support for thin provisioning
- Configuration change reporting
- HA failures notifications
- vCenter Servers federation
Clearly, these capabilities have been also implemented on VKernel stand-alone products. While it’s still possible to buy single products, over time the company plans to replace them with this single appliance and its modular licensing model.
Interestingly, VKernel reports over 500 customers worldwide now, ranging from 50 to 5000 virtual machines.