VMware Launches VMware vCenter Operations Solution
VMware aims to be wind that moves the clouds with its new vCenter Operations solution, designed for both virtual and cloud environments to provide a sort of automated IT-as-a-Service offering that promotes easy resource management. I spoke to VMware’s Rob Smoot, director of product marketing management, about the new technology. Here’s the scoop …
Cloud computing needs a different approach to management than the past. Smoot compared the technology to phone service, wherein once upon a time phone operators made connections but now it’s completely automated. The same should be true for cloud computing, where IT resources tend to get pooled and are both complex and constantly dynamic.
“Resources are sourced dynamically. There’s a ton of change. Things like vMotion and DRS are constantly moving workloads around,” said Smoot. “The traditional model of management … is all about locking down the environment and minimizing the change. It’s manual and labor-intensive. What we’re talking about here is a new strategy for a new operational model.”
vCenter Operations integrates with VMware vSphere to essentially take in and analyze all of the data points in a network. That analysis gets catalyzed into a single dashboard to help IT professionals make smart and informed decisions. IT admins now can find the root cause of a problem faster, get an at-a-glance look at the health of the entire network and figure out how new deployments and management cycles are working in real time. IT admins can also allow vCenter Operations to provision resources to meet compliance standards, or to maintain best performance.
Smoot noted that vCenter Operations was shown to partners at VMware Partner Exchange 2011 to a warm reception. “We’re rolling out a ‘lighthouse’ program for partners who don’t have a full virtualization competency, so partners who are interested can participate [since] this is something that will be on the channel price list.”
vCenter Operations is list-priced at about $50 per VM and will come directly through VMware Sales and — as mentioned — VMware’s channel partners. Availability is slated for “late Q1,” which seems like a mid-April 2011 launch.
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