Cloud Computing on Ulitzer

VMware's vSphere 4 takes virtualization to an entirely new level - into the cloud, to be exact. Originally coined as the Virtual Data Center Operating System, vSphere 4 is more than a simple upgrade from ESX 3.5 to 4.0. It's a transformation of the virtual infrastructure to create a cloud operating system. The release includes a wide range of features that will usher in a new evolution in virtualization technology.

Overall performance is improved, thanks to some key VMware partnerships, notably Intel. The release of their Nehalem-based Xeon 5500 processor, which was built with virtualization in mind, is a major game changer. Data center workloads that could not previously be virtualized with the required performance levels are now candidates for virtualization. This is a huge step for VMware, which continues to strive toward their goal of 100 percent virtualization for customers.

During the announcement on April 21, some impressive comparison statistics were used to highlight the significance of these performance increases. Using a single virtual machine, vSphere was able to process five times the number of transactions that Visa processes per second. Put another way, it could also handle three times the average daily traffic of eBay.

vNetwork switching, powered by VMware's partnership with Cisco, is another feature many virtualization administrators have been asking for. With vSphere 4, the concept of vNetwork switching introduces a single virtual switch that spans the entire resource pool to centrally process and manage all network traffic. This is a major plus providing a solid framework to monitor VMs as they move throughout the infrastructure. Add to this the announcement of the software-based Cisco Nexus 1000v switch and admins have incredible amounts of control over virtual environments.

At its core, vSphere 4 will standardize VMware on a 64-bit hypervisor, rather than the current 32-bit version. This move handles one of the largest differences between VMware and rivals. The management console is also now separate from the hypervisor, which will reduce vSphere's size and attack footprint.

Fault tolerance (FT) is another major improvement from a business continuity perspective. Within an HA-enabled resource pool, you can now keep a shadow copy of any virtual machine (VM) in sync to ensure that any failures to the production VM will not impact business. If a failure occurs, forcing a switch to the shadow copy (which then becomes the running production copy), another shadow copy is created on a second host to further guarantee Fault Tolerance.

Distributed power management is now fully supported. This plays an integral role in the dynamic data center, giving vSphere the ability to manage data center resources for optimal, efficient performance.

License management has also been enhanced. The time-consuming list of tasks that are required today will be simplified and integrated into vCenter. Remember the days of the license server and its large and tedious license file? vSphere's license keys and management will take much of the hassle out of the license management process. The old 20-step process is now just three steps.

On top of all of these enhancements, vSphere will support an expanded list of hardware, in comparison to the current version of ESX. Plus, it will support four times more guest operating systems than the competition, giving you the flexibility to fit into any data center and/or cloud.

vSphere is a major advancement in virtualization. Its expanded feature set creates a foundation to improve the performance, reliability, and flexibility of your virtual infrastructure in groundbreaking new ways.