VMworld (day 1) in a single word? good!
I’m here in the Hang Space at VMWorld trying to rest a little after the first day of sessions and meetings. Following is a wrap up and commentary of what I saw today.
EVO
EVO is the VMware’s hyper-converged play. In practice, it’s not a product but a reference architecture. Pre-certificed pieces of a Software-defined Data Center that you can buy from selected hardware partners. The EVO:RAIL (the single server appliance + VMware software) is already available while the EVO:RACK (a fully configured rack of equipment) is still in the works.
From my POV this is the best move that VMware could have made in this space. VMware won’t build it’s own hardware (and it doesn’t looks EMC will neither) but EVO is going to enable traditional hardware partners to face new challenges imposed by competitors like Nutanix or Simplivity (which, btw, are very active in looking for partnerships with hardware vendors too!). This is also good for the end users (except the potential lock-in to the VMware stack!) because it will be very easy for them to find solutions and design their next infrastructure. On the other hand, the value of the hardware vendors will be diminished even more… but, at the end of the day, it’s a consequence of the software-defined approach, isn’t it?
Openstack (and other open things)
It is no news that VMware is very active on the OpenStack side (and other open source initiatives). And it’s amazingly good to see an OpenStack distribution directly available and supported from the leader of the virtualization market. This means broader freedom of choice for the Enterprise able to protect its investments in the virtualized infrastructure while enabling the exploration of new cloud management platforms and services.
And it’s not only OpenStack. Docker and other technologies are directly supported now too, further highlighting the announcement.
Cloud
I’m not very fond of vCHS (especially not the DR services) but it’s clear that VMware is working hard to build a good and consistent platform. vCloud Air is the right evolution of VMware’s cloud offer and new services, like DBaaS for example, are really going to help end users to do more in a better and easier way.
VVOLs (and storage)
We finally (almost) have them! VVOLs are a great advancement for VMware block storage and many vendors are going to support it right from day one.
It means granularity, performance and features. Not that all these features aren’t target by some vertical solutions already, but these will be “democratized” (if your storage system will be able to support it… but this is another story).
Partners
Partners are in the spotlight! (and I like it).
Contrary of what I’ve seen in the last couple of years, it’s clear that the wind has shifted (a little bit of market share decline helps maybe…) and VMware is returned to be the friendly company that loves partners.
Most of the new initiatives are developed for and with partners (or so it seems).
Bottom line
I know, I may seem too VMware friendly in this very moment… perhaps because I actually am. The announcements are interesting, the overall strategy looks solid and sometimes friendly to end users and partners.
I have doubts and questions on some parts of what I saw today but I also have two more days to determine and find the what’s good and what isn’t.
More to come later.
Disclaimer: I was invited to Tech Field Day Extra by GestaltIT and they paid for travel and accommodation. VMworld Pass was kindly provided by VMware and many vendors will have special giveaways for bloggers and vExperts.
I have not been compensated for my time and am not obliged to blog. Furthermore, the content is not reviewed, approved or published by any other person than the Juku team.
