| No sooner did I speculate on who will make a run | | | | Silicon Valley exists between Larry Ellison and his |
| at providing p-cloud (private cloud) management | | | | ego. After that the longevity of a press release is |
| tools than VMWare comes charging like | | | | the nearest runner-up. |
| malcontent bull in a Pamplona ally. | | | | So VMWare faces a problem. To virtualize the |
| Like Apple before it, VMWare is co-opting a single | | | | data center requires providing in a virtualization |
| letter of the alphabet to brand a series of | | | | management tool all the infrastructure |
| products. Apple owns 'i' and VMWare now owns | | | | management components that CTO's have |
| 'v'. I hereby establish my claim to 'g' for | | | | bought over the years from best of breed |
| everything I create, such as g-confusion and | | | | vendors. VMWare would be certifiably insane to |
| g-discontent (good thing I don't sell musical | | | | try building VDC-OS by itself. They do not have |
| instrument strings). | | | | not can they acquire and rapidly integrate |
| One of VMWare's initiatives is vCloud, which is one | | | | expertise in all the different facets of data center |
| component of their broader Virtual Datacenter | | | | management. They have to partner and open |
| Operating System (VDC-OS) gestalt. VDC-OS - a | | | | VDC-OS in such a way that other solution |
| clumsy acronym in an otherwise slick acronym | | | | providers can port their existing technologies into |
| flooded market - seeks to virtualize the data | | | | VMWare's evolving infrastructure. |
| center in very broad terms. It already has select | | | | Cisco helps. Nobody knows networking like Cisco, |
| virtualization components for CPUs, storage and | | | | and they have tagged with VMWare on some |
| network and a 2009 road map for central | | | | other projects. Since virtualizing the network is |
| management. | | | | part of the whole product definition for p-clouds, |
| What is interesting about their announcement this | | | | VMWare has a head start. Expect partnerships |
| week is the addition of a security module. Though | | | | with HP (monitoring ala OpenView), possibly |
| conceptually there is nothing fancy about their | | | | AlarmPoint (alerting) and others. VMWare has |
| security addition, it is the addition itself which is | | | | already implemented an API to bridge VDC-OS |
| telling. As I recently mentioned, the winner in the | | | | the data center cloud to external clouds, so |
| p-cloud space will have to stitch together all the | | | | perhaps the APIs will enable other technologies to |
| normal IT functions into one tool that allows the | | | | aid in managing a p-cloud. |
| total abstraction of the data center - | | | | Do not expect a lot of participation from |
| auto-discovery, server classification, network | | | | Microsoft and Citrix. |
| segment management, virtualization, provisioning, | | | | In the oddest alliance since Microsoft and Novel |
| monitoring, redundancy, failover, alerting and more. | | | | made kissy-face, Redmond has partnered with |
| That VMWare has taken on a small aspect of | | | | Citrix to bridge not only Hyper-V and Xen but |
| security shows they understand the whole | | | | Citrix's more capable virtualization management |
| product definition for p-cloud management is | | | | tool. This is a shotgun marriage where two |
| incomplete. | | | | competitors with nothing even close to a whole |
| It is good that they recognize the problem. I | | | | product are teaming to block VMWare's inertia. |
| wonder if they foresee the solution. | | | | Microsoft and Citrix stand to lose enterprise |
| P-clouds present a perpetual problem with whole | | | | mindshare if (or perhaps when) VMWare brings |
| product development, namely that nobody can do | | | | true p-clod capabilities to the market. |
| it on their own. The primary reason the high tech | | | | VMWare has a vision, and at first glance appears |
| business is rife with alliance that change faster | | | | to understand that they need to open their |
| than smoochers at a spin-the-bottle party is that | | | | architecture to extend it outwardly. As interest in |
| everyone is seeking to create a whole product by | | | | VDC-OC grows, they VMWare will feel the heat |
| getting other companies to provide some part of | | | | to open further - ala App Exchange - to allow |
| the total solution. As markets and competitive | | | | nearly any addition functionality to be added |
| realities change, so do alliances. | | | | without VMWare having to build it themselves. |
| The closest thing to a permanent relationship in | | | | |