In days past, virtualization platforms that relied on an amalgamation of different technologies could present complications for IT managers. But in a sign that hybridized virtualization environments are becoming the accepted norm, Convirture has announced a new version of its management tools that supports all major virtualization and cloud platforms.

If the world of virtualization and cloud computing were simpler, there might be one clear preferred solution for building computing infrastructure. But organizations now have an array of enterprise ready hypervisors to choose from, ranging from Xen to VMware to KVM. At the same time, several major cloud platforms, including Eucalyptus, OpenStack and Amazon EC2, are available. Because all of these technologies have different strengths and weaknesses, many IT infrastructures rely on a mix of these various solutions.

And while the mantra of IT managers may once have been that consistency and core standards win the race, value-added management solutions for virtualization and the cloud are making it easier to administer hybridized environments without having to worry as much about what's running under the hood. The most recent release of Convirture's ConVirt Enterprise and ConVirt Enterprise Cloud software, which will go live on December 3, highlights this trend by adding support for VMware's vSphere and ESXi hypervisors to the range of other popular platforms that already work with the company's management tools.

Convirture is promoting its new software as an alternative to VMware's own vCenter platform, which provides management resources for VMware environments. Now, according to Convirture, organizations can use the ConVirt products to combine the functionality offered by vCenter with support for other popular technologies that vCenter does not handle.

Integrating Open and Closed Solutions

While that enhancement promises to help increase sales of Convirture's products as cloud infrastructures continue to grow and become more hybridized, perhaps the biggest takeaway point is the implications this change could have for the way organizations choose to combine different virtualization and cloud technologies.

Previously, enterprise class management tools that supported open source and proprietary platforms equally well were a rare find. With solutions such as Convirture's, however, organizations can deploy both types of technologies without as much concern over how they will administer them.

And that's important, because it means the stiff barrier separating proprietary virtualization and cloud tools, such as VMware and Amazon EC2, from open source alternatives such as KVM, Xen and OpenStack has become less rigid. Choosing between inexpensive, flexible open source solutions and more costly proprietary ones that threaten vendor lock-in is growing less necessary as enterprises can take advantage of new management solutions to deploy both classes of technology.