VMWare has introduced what it claims is the world's
first cloud computing operating system. Based on its virtualisation
technology, the operating system, known as vSphere 40, targets IT
departments with a flexible IT infrastructure to run applications
in-house or via an external hosting provider.
Paul Maritz, president and chief executive officer at VMware,
said: "VMware vSphere is the next evolution along this path of
innovation. By giving IT organisations a non-disruptive path to
cloud computing, we will be leading our customers on a journey that
delivers value every step of the way, delivering up to an
additional 30% cost reduction today while enabling IT to deliver
reliable and adaptable IT services."
VMWare's strategy is to target end-user IT departments that want
to reap the benefits of low-cost computing. It argues that users do
not have to dump their existing infrastructure and switch public
services from Google, Microsoft or Amazon.
Instead vSphere offers CIOs a virtualisation platform that
separates applications from physical server hardware, network and
storage infrastructure. It allows users to run applications
in-house as an internal cloud service, or externally from a cloud
computing provider. Virtualisations can be moved between internal
and external clouds.
Pricing starts at $166 per processor.
Existing VMware Infrastructure 3 users with valid support and
subscription contracts are
automatically
entitled to VMware vSphere 4 editions.
| VMWare vSphere 24.0 performance boost |
|---|
| 2x the number of virtual processors per virtual machine (from
4 to 8) |
| 2.5x more virtual NICs per virtual machine (from 4 to
10) |
| 4x more memory per virtual machine (from 64 GB to
255GB) |
| 3x increase in network throughput |
| 2x increase in the maximum recorded I/O operations per second
(to over 200,000) |
| New maximum recorded number of transactions per second -
8,900 which is 5x the total payment traffic of the VISA network
worldwide |
| Targeted performance improvements for specific
applications |
| Estimated 50 % improved performance for application
development workloads |