VMware introduces the "internal cloud"

By Jake Widman
Wednesday, 22 April 2009 02:31

Technology

Virtualization vendor VMware announced vSphere 4, an "operating system for building the internal cloud." The point of vSphere 4 is to enable enterprises to set up cloud computing architectures within their own IT environments.

The platform will "aggregate and holistically manage" an enterprise's processors, storage, and networking, according to VMware's announcement.

That is supposed to cut costs in the data center while still enabling IT to deliver guaranteed service levels.

"By giving IT organizations 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 percent cost reduction today while enabling IT to provide reliable and adaptable IT services," said VMware president and CEO Paul Maritz.

The cost reduction comes from a claimed 30 percent savings in infrastructure, a 50 percent savings in storage requirements, and a 20 percent savings in power and cooling.

vSphere 4 is the successor to VMware Infrastructure 3, and supposedly supports twice the number of processors per virtual machine, four times more memory, and two and a half times more virtual NICs.

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