VMware vSphere 4.1 (From $83 to $3,495 per Processor)

VMware, Inc. announced VMware vSphere 4.1, the latest version of the VMware virtualization platform, as well as an expanded portfolio of virtualization management solutions. VMware here is coupling scalability and performance enhancements with new management capabilities to deliver a foundation for cloud computing.

"Strategically, server virtualization is an IT modernization catalyst that will change how IT is acquired, consumed, managed, sourced and paid for. Virtualization will even change how businesses innovate and grow," said Thomas Bittman, VP Distinguished Analyst at Gartner. "Done well, server virtualization makes fundamental changes that can lead an organization down the path of private and public cloud computing."

Cloud computing represents a new model for the way IT services are developed, provisioned and consumed. VMware virtualization enables enterprises and service providers to lay the foundation for cloud computing by aggregating an elastic pool of computing resources that can be accessed on-demand while enabling policy-based automation and management to increase efficiency. VMware vSphere 4.1 and the VMware vCenter product family are cornerstone solutions for customers and service providers building private and public cloud environments. As such, these technologies have attracted a broad partner ecosystem of industry leaders that support and extend this foundation.

"Virtualization occupies an increasingly central position within IT strategy as the cornerstone of modern infrastructures and the foundation for cloud computing," said Raghu Raghuram, senior vice president and general manager, virtualization and cloud platforms, VMware. "As the market leader, VMware vSphere is redefining the economics of computing, while helping customers to achieve the levels of utilization and automation that underpin the promise of cloud computing."

VMware vSphere 4.1

Advances the Foundation for Cloud Computing
With groundbreaking new memory management and expanded resource pooling capabilities, VMware vSphere 4.1 promises to accelerate the evolution of datacenters and service providers into cloud computing environments, setting the standard for key tenets of cloud computing:

• 2X larger resource pools with 3X the management power. Already the most powerful virtualization platform on the market, VMware vSphere 4.1 includes dramatic scalability enhancements, enabling customers to aggregate twice the computing resources within a single pool. VMware vCenter Server can now manage up to 10,000 concurrently powered on VMs – three times as many as before.
• Up to 25% better performance and reduced cost per application. With the addition of new memory compression technology, VMware vSphere 4.1 preserves the performance of systems under heavy load, resulting in up to 25% better performance over previous approaches. Memory compression also contributes to further increased consolidation ratios in VMware vSphere. Already the highest consolidation levels in the market, this increase reduces customers’ cost-per-application, a critical measure of value delivered through virtualization.
• X faster virtual machine migrations for increased agility. Speed and scale enhancements to VMware vMotion deliver superior platform response and availability by migrating virtual machines up to five times faster and enabling up to eight concurrent vMotion events per server pair.
• New network and storage I/O controls deliver Quality of Service guarantees. VMware vSphere 4.1 introduces new controls that allow better alignment of storage and network I/O resources to business priority. VMware vSphere network and storage I/O controls provide granular control over how applications access shared storage and network resources. Administrators can set quality of service priorities per virtual machine and VMware vSphere 4.1 automatically manages resource allocation accordingly.
• Increased performance through open integration with storage environments. VMware vSphere 4.1 already supports more operating systems, devices, applications, and service providers than any other virtualization solution. With the introduction of new VMware vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI), VMware vSphere 4.1 enables tighter integration with solutions from VMware’s storage partners to increase the efficiency and performance of the platform in cloud environments.  

"Over the past two and a half years as we’ve significantly reduced IT cost and complexity while increasing efficiency, VMware has become a central part of our IT strategy," said Brad Blake, CTO at Boston Medical Center. "VMware vSphere has proven its ability to handle the most demanding applications and scale to support an increasing percentage of our infrastructure.  Through VMware’s continued innovation and vision, VMware vSphere has become the foundation for our cloud computing strategy."

"With this release, VMware has once again raised the bar in virtualization," said Rob Zelinka, Director of Infrastructure at TTX. "As we increasingly virtualize more of our production systems and mission-critical applications, advancements like memory compression and storage and network I/O controls ensure that we can maintain – or improve – service levels while creating a more flexible, scalable and cost-effective infrastructure."

Expanded Management Portfolio
and Licensing Model for Cloud Environments
VMware vCenter helps customers further reduce complexity of their IT environment while increasing operational efficiency through policy-based management of provisioning, deployment, and performance optimization. VMware has broadened its management portfolio to deliver a complete set of solutions to automate the management of dynamic virtualized systems.

VMware is introducing:

• VMware vCenter Configuration Manager (formerly EMC Ionix Application Stack Manager and EMC Ionix Server Configuration Manager) ensures policy based compliance and avoids configuration drift by automating manual configuration tasks across virtual and physical servers and workstations.
• VMware vCenter Application Discovery Manager (formerly EMC Ionix Application Discovery Manager) quickly and accurately maps application dependencies to accelerate datacenter moves, precisely plan infrastructure consolidations, and confidently virtualize business-critical applications. 

VMware is also introducing a new per VM licensing model for the VMware vCenter management solutions. This new model aligns licensing costs to the number of virtual machines being managed, rather than to the physical hardware. As virtualization and cloud computing become more prevalent models of IT infrastructure, the virtual machine is rapidly becoming the standard measure of infrastructure deployments. In a virtualized environment, the hardware configuration is abstracted and changes frequently due to virtual machine migrations across the datacenter, making hardware-based licensing complex. The new virtual machine-based licensing model for VMware vCenter offers customers better alignment between software costs and benefits delivered. This new model will also better support customers’ needs to port computing environments across diverse hardware configurations, including multiple CPU scenarios, without incurring additional costs. This new licensing model will be in effect on September 1, 2010 for VMware vCenter products only.

Pricing and Availability
VMware vSphere 4.1 is currently available in packages and prices that address the widest range of customer requirements, from Small and Mid-size Business solutions starting at $83 per processor to full enterprise editions for the most demanding environments at $3,495 per processor.