vFoglight 6.5 Includes ESX and Hyper-V

vFoglight 6.5, from Quest,  hits three different and highly competitive sweet spots in the burgeoning virtualization market: performance management, monitoring and capacity planning. It also brings both Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware ESX Server into the fold, providing a lot more bang for the product buck. (This process reflects a deviation from the normal process of starting out with ESX and subsequently adding Hyper-V). Throw in application infrastructure management for Microsoft Active Directory and Exchange, and you’ve got a package that hits a lot of high notes.

Quoting two different users, Quest drives home the ability of vFoglight 6.5 to master the complexities of expanding IT infrastructures while protecting critical applications and helping users meet the dynamic demands associated with configuring, provisioning, monitoring and optimizing their IT infrastructures and virtualized data centers.

The event remediation capabilities of vFoglight 6.5 enable admins to view alarms and respond by launching automated resolutions that reduce the time required to resolve problems. The product’s User Perspectives feature gives admins tailored views that make it easier to understand performance monitoring and chargeback opportunities. It saves "hours" of time and improves administration by making it possible for admins to perform "common VM tasks in the context of daily activities." Finally, it again aids admins by presenting them with clearly displayed and valuable infrastructure information.

In a development that definitely adds cachet, according to Steve Stover, Quest Senior Director of Product Management, vFoglight, has 6,500 "paying customers" as opposed to a user base that obtains the product via free downloads.

Lately, Hyper-V has been somewhat undressed as a pretender to the hypervisor throne ensconced securely on the royal head of ESX Server, as comparison tests revealed the advantages enjoyed by the far more mature VMware product. When asked why Quest provided Hyper-V compatibility with vFoglight 6.5, Stover listed two reasons. "First, I need a viable second option, and I think Microsoft can be that, and second, I believe Microsoft will be a lower cost option, if only for lower priority workloads." Hardly a ringing endorsement for Redmond, but it still represents progress.Stover also claimed vFoglight sales were up 75 percent over last year, adding that Quest expects them to double in the current fiscal year.

Posted by Bruce Hoard on 11/30/2010 at 12:48 PM