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VMware Announces the Next Generation of Virtualization – the Virtual Datacenter Operating System (VDC-OS)

VMware Announces the Next Generation of Virtualization – the Virtual Datacenter Operating System (VDC-OS)

Next Generation of Virtualization Technologies from VMware and Partners Make Datacenters Elastic, Self-Managing, and Self-Healing

LAS VEGAS, Nevada, September 15, 2008— Today at VMworld 2008, VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the datacenter, announced a comprehensive roadmap of groundbreaking new products and technologies that expand its flagship suite of virtual infrastructure into a Virtual Datacenter Operating System (VDC-OS). The Virtual Datacenter OS allows businesses to efficiently pool all types of hardware resources - servers, storage and network – into an aggregated on-premise cloud – and, when needed, safely federate workloads to external clouds for additional compute capacity.  Datacenters running on the Virtual Datacenter OS are highly elastic, self-managing and self-healing.  With the Virtual Datacenter OS from VMware, businesses large and small can benefit from the flexibility and the efficiency of the “lights-out” datacenter.
 
The VDC-OS expands virtual infrastructure along three dimensions. First, it delivers a set of infrastructure services (called Infrastructure vServices) to seamlessly aggregate servers, storage and network as a pool of on-premise cloud resources and allocate them to applications that need them most. Second, it delivers a set of application services (called Application vServices) to guarantee the right levels of availability, security and scalability to all applications independent of the operating system, development frameworks or architecture on which they were built to run. Third, the VDC-OS delivers a set of cloud services (called Cloud vServices) that federate compute capacity between the on-premise and off-premise clouds.  Unlike a traditional OS, which is optimized for a single server and supports only those applications written to its interfaces, the VDC-OS serves as the OS for the entire datacenter and supports the full diversity of any application written to any OS, from legacy Windows applications to modern distributed applications that run in mixed operating system environments. These services will be bolstered by the vCloud Initiative announced today. (See press release, “VMware Announces vCloud Initiative for Enterprise-Class Cloud Computing with Support from Industry Leaders BT, Rackspace, SAVVIS, Sungard, T-Systems, Verizon Business and Others.”)

“Automation and virtualization technologies are shifting the center of gravity for server computing from server operating systems to a new breed of infrastructure operating system that spans many distributed servers,” says Thomas Bittman, research vice president, at Gartner.

“The first ten years of VMware were about enabling customers to build out dynamic and efficient virtual infrastructure that delivered high levels of flexibility and resiliency,” said Paul Maritz, president and chief executive officer, VMware. “The next generation of innovative technologies in the Virtual Datacenter OS will enable companies to realize the promise of enterprise cloud computing – where applications are automatically guaranteed the right quality of service at the lowest TCO by harnessing internal and external computing capacity.”

"VMware already has had transformative impact on how we do things: our server farms are aggregated into clusters that act as a single large computer and can guarantee service levels to applications,” say Douglas B Babb, chief IT systems architect, Hill AFB, Contractor with Systems Implementers Inc.  “We no longer worry about scheduling downtime for hardware maintenance, or worry about hardware failures.  And all of that delivered while reducing the infrastructure cost per application by more than 50%.  It is my opinion that the Virtual Datacenter OS from VMware will get us closer to the lights-out datacenter that can expand and shrink on demand and automatically heal itself from failures.”

Comprehensive Roadmap to Extend Virtual Infrastructure into a Virtual Datacenter OS
VMware is announcing a comprehensive roadmap of groundbreaking new product capabilities for its Virtual Datacenter OS.

New Application vServices Provide the Best Way to Run Enterprise Applications
VMware is introducing new Application vServices for availability, security, and scalability that automatically deliver the right service levels to all applications at significantly reduced cost. Simply put, virtual is better than physical for mission critical applications – they can get better availability, security and quality of service without any application changes or deploying additional specialized software - simply by running on the Virtual Datacenter OS.

  • Fault Tolerance, a groundbreaking new application service, provides zero downtime, zero data loss availability to all applications against hardware failures without the cost and complexity of hardware or software clustering solutions.

“VMware Fault Tolerance is making previously very high-end, expensive and complex functionality truly accessible,” said Matthew Clark, director of computing infrastructure, Qualcomm. “It can be turned on with a mouse click and you get the same result that fault tolerant hardware or software clustering would give you at a fraction of the cost and effort.”

Data Recovery provides quick, simple and cost effective disk-based backup and recovery for all applications.

Fault Tolerance and Data Recovery complement HA which provides automated restart of virtual machines affected by software failure; VMotion and Storage VMotion allow companies to minimize planned downtime; and Site Recovery Manager automates the failover of an entire site. The existing and new capabilities protect applications from most causes for failure and make the VDC-OS the safest platform for applications.

  • VMsafe provides X-ray vision into virtual machines in order to detect and stop previously undetectable viruses, rootkits and malware before they can infect a system. Checkpoint, IBM, McAfee, Radware, Symantec, and TrendMicro, are announcing their plans to deliver VMSafe –integrated products in 2009 that provide superior protection to virtual machines than possible with physical machines or other virtualization solutions.
  • Hot add of virtual CPU, memory and network devices to virtual machines enable applications to scale seamlessly without disruption or downtime.
  • Very large virtual machines with up to 8 virtual CPUs, 256GB of RAM, meet the performance requirements of the most resource intensive applications and take advantage of the ever increasing power of x86 servers.
  • VMDirectPath provides enhanced network and storage I/O performance for transaction applications.

VMware is also introducing two new capabilities - vApp and vStudio – that make it easier than ever for administrators to deploy and manage applications.

  • vApp turns new or existing applications into self-describing and self-managing entities. vApp leverages OVF, an open industry standard, to specify and encapsulate all components of a multi-tier  application as well the operational policies and service levels associated with it. Just as the UPC bar code contains all information about a product, vApp gives application owners a standard way to describe operational policies for an application which the VDC-OS can automatically interpret and execute.
  • VMware Studio is an authoring and configuration tool that enables ISVs and enterprises to construct Virtual Appliances and vApps. Instead of deploying and managing operating systems and applications separately, now a vApp can be deployed and managed as a single entity. VMware Studio is being used by leading ISVs today. (See press release, “VMware Optimizes Software Delivery and Distribution with Virtual Appliance Solutions.”)

New Infrastructure vServices Provide High Elasticity at Lower Cost
New Infrastructure vServices in the VDC-OS extend the concepts of resource pooling to storage and network to enable elastic, on-demand allocation of on-premise resources. The new Infrastructure vServices complement VMware DRS which provides on-demand allocation of processing capacity and memory to applications. In addition, the VDC-OS is geared to minimize the resources consumed per application, thereby significantly lowering the capital and operating costs per application.

  • vStorage Thin Provisioning and vStorage Linked Clones enable users to reduce storage requirements by up to 50%.
  • vNetwork Distributed Switchabstracts the configuration of virtual networking from the host level to an aggregate datacenter level, simplifying the setup and change of virtual networking and allowing the delivery of cluster wide networking services. The vNetwork Distributed Switch enables Network VMotion - the preservation of all network and security policies when a virtual machine is being migrated.

New Cloud vServices Allow Workloads to Safely Federate between On-Premise and Off-Premise Clouds
Cloud vServices enable full location and infrastructure-independent mobility and elasticity for applications running on the VDC-OS.  Cloud vServices can seamlessly connect internal datacenters and external cloud service provider offerings to allow workloads to federate safely between on- and off-premise clouds. For example, enterprise IT departments may utilize flex capacity offerings from service providers to scale the infrastructure needed for peak load or disaster recovery purposes.

New Management Capabilities Provide Proactive and Automated Management of the Virtual Datacenter OS
The Virtual Datacenter OS lays the foundation for more efficient and automated IT management processes. The combination of existing vCenter products and new capabilities to be introduced in 2009 equips companies with a comprehensive set of management capabilities to automatically provision new VMs and vApps, to ensure compliance with established configuration standards, right-size every element in the environment, predict and manage capacity, and allocate the costs back to the business. New management capabilities include:

  • vCenter ConfigControl extends policy-based change and configuration management with automated enforcement across every aspect of the VDC-OS
  • vCenter CapacityIQ continuously analyzes and plans capacity to ensure optimal sizing of virtual machines, resource pools and the entire datacenters
  • vCenter Chargeback enables automated tracking of costs and chargeback to the business enabling IT to function as a utility with true visibility into operating costs
  • vCenter Orchestrator enables the development of customized workflows that automate operational tasks through a simple drag and drop interface, without the need for scripting
  • vCenter AppSpeed automatically ensures application performance levels. It monitors end user response time for applications, correlates these response times with different elements in the infrastructure, and triggers remedial actions to alleviate bottlenecks.

These new management products complement vCenter Server – the central management console for the Virtual Datacenter OS, VMware Lifecycle Manager for automated provisioning, Lab Manager for application development and Stage Manager for application deployment.

Partners in the Virtual Datacenter OS
The Virtual Datacenter OS from VMware is garnering the commitment and collaboration of large and vibrant ecosystem of partners. The Virtual Datacenter OS offers extensibility frameworks and APIs partners to integrate their products into the VDC-OS. The VMware Ready program offers the validation and certification mechanism for partners to provide storage, networking, cloud, and management products and services tested and optimized for the VDC-OS.

"VMware has a solid track record of consistently delivering innovation that solves the real problems in our datacenter," says Tom Gibaud, manager, server engineering, ViaHealth.  "VMware shows once again, that they can out-innovate and out-execute relative to the competition. Today's announcements firm up our confidence that we made the right choice when we standardized on VMware."

About VMworld 2008
VMworld 2008, now in its fifth year, with more than 14,000 attendees and 206 sponsors and exhibitors, is the must-attend event for IT professionals looking for actionable ideas, innovative products and best practices for virtualizing the enterprise – from the desktop to the datacenter.  Under the theme, "Virtually Anything is Possible," VMworld celebrates what is happening today and what the future of virtualization holds.  Keynotes are being given by Platinum Sponsors Cisco, Dell, EMC, HP, IBM, Intel, NEC, NetApp, Symantec and VMware.  VMworld features more than 285 breakout sessions and hands-on labs, led by VMware and industry professionals, and is being held September 15-18 at the Venetian in Las Vegas. 

About VMware
VMware (NYSE: VMW) is the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the datacenter.  Customers of all sizes rely on VMware to reduce capital and operating expenses, ensure business continuity, strengthen security and go green. With 2007 revenues of $1.3 billion, more than 120,000 customers and nearly 18,000 partners, VMware is one of the fastest growing public software companies. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, VMware is majority-owned by EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) and on the web at www.vmware.com.

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Forward-Looking Statements
Statements made in this press release which are not statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements and are subject to the safe harbor provisions created by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements relate, but are not limited, to new product and technology initiatives, introduction of new virtualization products, market adoption and deployment of VMware products and architecture, levels of demand for VMware products including market size and leadership, ongoing development and delivery of innovative new products and applications and capabilities of VMware products and technologies. Actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of certain risk factors, including but not limited to: (i) adverse changes in general economic or market conditions; (ii) delays or reductions in consumer or information technology spending; (iii) competitive factors, including but not limited to pricing pressures, industry consolidation, entry of new competitors into the virtualization market, and new product and marketing initiatives by our competitors; (iv) our customers’ ability to develop, and to transition to, new products, (v) the uncertainty of customer acceptance of emerging technology; (vi) rapid technological and market changes in virtualization software; (vii) uncertainties in product development timelines; (viii) our ability to resolve technical challenges; (ix) VMware’s relationship with EMC Corporation, and EMC’s ability to control matters requiring stockholder approval, including the election of VMware’s board members; (x) our ability to protect our proprietary technology; (xi) our ability to attract and retain highly qualified employees; and (xii) the impact of fluctuating currency exchange rates. These forward looking statements are based on current expectations and are subject to uncertainties and changes in condition, significance, value and effect as well as other risks detailed in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2008, which could cause actual results to vary from expectations. VMware disclaims any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements after the date of this release.

The information on this press release is intended to outline our general product direction and should not be relied on in making a purchasing decision.  The information on this press release is not a commitment, promise or legal obligation to deliver any material, code, or functionality. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described for our products remains at our sole discretion.