Virtualization

Visions of virtual data centers make for good keynote fodder, but the most important thing coming out of this week's VMworld is a set of tools to make it easier to keep the network, storage and security links with a virtual machine no matter where in the network it moves.

CEO Paul Maritz wasn't impressive in his discussion of innovation or detail, but CTO Harrod got into more of the security, fault-tolerance and other elements that are genuine ground-breakers.

VMware CEO Paul Maritz redefined VMware's vision of virtualization in his VMworld keynote this week, mostly by changing the names of existing products. What he didn't do is convince customers VMware is ready to break out of its rut and innovate its way out of a tough competitive position.

Paul Maritz outlines a bold vision, but weakens his own with with a lack of technical detail and enough commitment to change to demonstrate VMware can make serious progress toward multivendor management, let alone data-center Nirvana.

VMware backs off the hypervisor and moves toward a role as uber-manager of the data center, storage and networks in the cloud.

VMware lost or fired three top people in recent weeks, but hasn't done enough to reassure customers that it can continue to innovate or recast its development plan to stay ahead of its competition.

Both ESX and ESXi will install on almost any reasonable pile of hardware, but they won't necessarily run. VMware needs to tweak the install so ESX will install only on hardware on which it will actually function.

Microsoft claims technical parity with VMware, though no one else agrees, and presents 'just-as-good, one-third-the-price' as the selling point for products that, in some cases, are not yet available, let alone proven.

A hurricane of hype is flying around now, spewing jargon-filled talk about pricing and cloud computing. Enough. At VMworld, let's talk automation, management, security, and how IT shops are using virtualization to help companies move quickly on business goals.

Unbelievable limitations in the end user licenses for VI SDKs make it look as if VMware is barring development of management tools from third-party commercial developers or homegrown automation tools customers build for use in their own businesses.