VMware Tightens Management Infrastructures

VMware is on course to assemble an impervious management infrastructure that will complement its software-defined datacenter plans and solidify its leadership position as a purveyor of private and hybrid clouds. Building on its recently announced VMware vCloud Suite, the company is now focusing on customer service provisioning, cloud operation management and cloud business management.

Four new Enhancements to vCloud Suite include vCloud Automation Center 5.1, vFabric Application Director 5.0, vCenter Operations Management Suite 5.6, and vCloud Connector 2.0.

vCloud Center 5.1 is based on DynamicOps technology VMware acquired when it purchased DynamicOps last summer. Via multi-cloud infrastructure and desktop provisioning capabilities, this new product employs a self-service portal -- what VMware calls "essentially a cross-cloud storefront" -- that enables authorized admins, developers and business users to request new IT services or manage existing resources.

With a nod to VMware's growing emphasis on software-defined services, the company says "vCloud Center 5.1 will now be integrated with VMware vCloud Director to allow customers to leverage virtual datacenters comprised of VMware vCloud Suite's software-defined services."

vFabric Application Director 5.0 was created to provision applications on any cloud by standardizing and streamlining the ways customers model and deploy multi-tier applications using blueprints with pre-approved operating system and middleware components.

VMware says that while vFabric Application Director 5.0 was primarily created for VMware vCloud Suite-based products, "It will make it possible for customers to use the same blueprints to deploy apps across multiple virtual and hybrid cloud infrastructures, including Amazon EC2." The product will also feature application support for all Microsoft packaged apps -- Exchange, SQL, Sharepoint--as well as custom apps--Java, .Net, Ruby on Rails.

vCenter Operations Management Suite 5.6 boosts hybrid cloud computing by applying patented analytics to integrated performance, capacity and configuration management, This provides the intelligence users require to proactively enable service levels in hybrid clouds. According to VMware, "The VMware vCenter Operations Management Suite can double the operational savings customers receive from VMware vSphere. With this release, VMware will include the performance management capabilities of the VMware vCenter Operations Suite in all versions of VMware vSphere."

Enhancements to v5.6 are driving VMware's strategy to converge management capabilities, incorporating new compliance views into the operations dashboard to help customers proactively enforce IT policy compliance, as well as security guidelines and regulatory environments.

VMware took the opportunity to spruce up vCloud Connector 2.0, toward the goal of hybrid cloud portability. This package, which provides a unified look at transferring and managing workloads between vSphere-based private and public clouds, extends the logical boundaries of the datacenter, "enabling the transfer of workloads across clouds without the need to reconfigure the network after workloads have reached their destinations."

Also on the announcement agenda was VMware Business Management Suite 7.5, which helps users manage their businesses by measuring the performance and cost across all cloud services; and VMware Cloud Ops Service and IP, announced in August, and now touted as "a new operating model where IT shifts from a reactive, tactical relationship with the business to the role of a strategic partner, helping broker critical, value-added services across an organization."

VMware cloud automation solutions are expected to be available during Q4 2012. VMware Cloud Automation Center 5.1, VMware Cloud Connector 2.0. VMware vCenter Operations Management Suite 5.6 and Fabric Application Director 5.0 will be included in the VMware vCloud Suite, which is licensed per processor with no core, vRAM or number or VM limits. Prices start at $4,995 per processor.

VMware vCenter Operations Suite Foundation will be available for free download to all vSphere customers with active support. The VMware IT Business Management Suite is licensed per user, and all of VMware's cloud management solutions will be available a la cart and priced per VM.

Posted by Bruce Hoard on 10/09/2012 at 12:48 PM