VMworld: VMware Launches vCloud Suite And Cloud Ops Forum

VMware has used its VMworld event to launch a new bundle for data centres called VMware vCloud Suite, and a new body, the Cloud Ops Forum, to promote cloud-based IT.

The two official announcements were somewhat eclipsed by the news that VMware wants to join the open source OpenStack Foundation, but both aim to provide tools for IT departments to virtualise their data centres and move services into the cloud.

Cloud Suite, tout de suite!

VMware vCloud Suite is a free upgrade for users with the Enterprise Plus vSphere licence,  whilst VMware Cloud Ops Forum consists of a group of service providers aiming to promote the use of cloud products for business benefits.

“vCloud Suite allows customers to create an agile data centre, with the intelligence at the software, level, extending it to networking, availability and storage,”  said Jon Cairns, director of systems engineering  in Northern Europe for VMware.  “A single SKU [stock-keeping unit] allows a software defined data centre.”

The product is built around vSphere  5.1 and launches at version 5.1 itself. It includes existing products including vCloud Director and vCloud Networking and Security, and the basic “standard” package will be available as a free upgrade to anyone paying an Enterprise Plus licence fee for vSphere.

There are two higher levels: vCloud Suite Advanced includes vCloud Operations Management (vCOPS) which automates the process of scanning alerts for significant incidents, making the operations manager’s job easier.

And vCloud Suite Enterprise also includes VCenter Site Recovery Manager, which automates the process of recovering a virtual data centre from a different site in the event of a disaster.

The products are now licensed per CPU, Cairns pointed out, with no limits on the number of cores, the amount of VRAM or the number of VMs. This reduces the often-criticised complexity of previous vMware licensing models.

Cloud Ops promotes change

Meanwhile, the Cloud Ops concept is a way to present the benefits of the cloud to the rest of the business, Cairns explained.

“When we started, it was all about capex and opex savings,” he said. “There are savings in there, but really, the benefit the business sees is around agility: stopping IT being a cost centre, and allowing it to create business agility.”

The Cloud Ops package will centre around training and education to help IT managers present this case to their business, enabling them to take advantage of those cloud beneifts (and VMware to sell more cloud software and services).

Unsurprisingly, the members of the Cloud Ops Forum are mostly service providers who stand to benefit from increased cloud sales, and the group is exclusively focused around the VMware version of the cloud.

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