Lanamark announced a partnership with Oracle that will enable Oracle channel partners to leverage Lanamark Suite to design and deliver desktop and server virtualization solutions based on Oracle VM. Lanamark will be presenting at upcoming Oracle VM boot camps and created a calculator for comparing Oracle VM vs. VMware vSphere.

Lanamark Suite enables Oracle partners to accelerate design and delivery of Oracle VM virtualization solutions. Solution providers can gather vital information about x86/x64 and SPARC environments, identify most suitable candidates for virtualization, and then design complete, high-performance virtualization solutions with Oracle VM. Lanamark Suite supports application, middleware, database, operating system, server, storage and thin client components from Oracle and Oracle alliance partners.

Learn more about the partnership between Lanamark and Oracle. 

On November 3, Red Hat announced general availability of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Servers. How does the server virtualization offering from Red Hat compare to the one from Oracle?

As part of the launch, Red Hat did a comparison of its virtualization offering versus ones from Microsoft and VMware. In reality, the closest competitors are actually Citrix and Oracle, especially if Citrix does indeed release Citrix XenServer as open source. This means that both Red Hat and VMware would get squeezed by

• Oracle VM and Citrix XenServer on the Linux side of server virtualization
• Microsoft Hyper-V on the Windows side of server virtualization
• Citrix and Microsoft on the Windows side of desktop virtualization

What's more interesting is that Red Hat pitches its offering for "heterogeneous servers and clouds." With a subscription-based licensing model and without a freely downloadable, re-distributable software, this strategy is going to be rather challenging to execute.

As speculation looms around plans from Citrix to release Citrix XenServer as open source, it's worthwhile to analyze how such a move would impact other leading software vendors in the virtualization space.

On February 23, 2009 Citrix announced that it will give away the full version of Citrix XenServer for free. Since Citrix is not generating any revenue from XenServer, open sourcing it seems like a logical step. But how will such a move impact the marketplace? Why would Citrix spend $500M on XenSource and then make Citrix XenServer open source?

As a Microsoft partner, Citrix understands that it's better to cooperate than to compete with the software giant, particularly in the server virtualization space. By open-sourcing Citrix XenServer, Citrix would:

1. Expand Citrix XenServer market share and drive additional revenue through virtualization management software such as Citrix Essentials.
2. Offer enterprises an open-source alternative to Microsoft Hyper-V with feature parity and high degree of interoperability.
3. Increase community-based support for development and maintenance of Citrix XenServer, rather than funding R&D completely.
4. Enhance adoption and survivability of Citrix XenServer by getting other software vendors such as Novell and Oracle to support it.

Microsoft

Microsoft benefits the most from this move because there would be an open-source server virtualization alternative that would isolate two other Linux-based virtualization platform vendors: Red Hat and VMware. In other words, Microsoft is squeezing these vendors from one side with Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V and from the other side with the help of Citrix XenServer.

Novell

As a company that already has good relationships with both Citrix and Microsoft, Novell has an opportunity to provide virtualization management capabilities across these two platforms. It already does this with the PlateSpin family of products. Novell may also do a port of Citrix XenServer to Novell SUSE but this is probably not a trivial effort and would take quite a bit of time.

Oracle

Oracle VM is already based on the Xen hypervisor. Whether Oracle decides to adopt Citrix XenServer depends on whether Oracle wants to give away its intellectual property to the open source community or to build dominance in the server virtualization space on its own. However, given its active participation in the Xen community, support for open source development model and antagonism towards Red Hat, Oracle may just throw its weight behind an open source Citrix XenServer.

In a nutshell Citrix, Microsoft, Novell and Oracle have a lot to gain from an open source Citrix XenServer, while Red Hat and VMware have a lot to lose from such a move. Perhaps Citrix will also rename Citrix XenServer back to XenSource Server?!

Update (November 2, 2009)

According to an interview with Simon Crosby, CTO at Citrix, XenServer will be open-sourced but the following components will not be:

• Citrix XenCenter
• Citrix XenConvert
• Drivers for Microsoft Windows

Oracle today announced availability of Oracle VM 2.2 as well as Oracle VM Storage Connect Program that will simplify management of storage infrastructure supporting virtual environments. The new release includes the following key features:

• Support for Xen 3.4 (latest Xen hypervisor)
• Support for migrating Virtual Iron VMs to Oracle VM images
• CPU power management, memory management, and direct disk I/O capabilities
• Support for the Oracle Cluster File System (OCFS2) 1.4 to enable faster VM provisioning and cloning
• Direct support for multipath storage devices that can enhance performance of clustered applications
• Options to set the scheduling priority for virtual CPUs in VMs and cap the maximum percentage of CPU time each individual VM can access
• Support for Intel Xeon 5500 series and six-core AMD Opteron processors

While Oracle may be coming late to the server virtualization party, it is clearly adding key enterprise features that are reducing the lead of its competitors. Furthermore, with Sun Microsystems, Oracle can offer what no other virtualization vendor can - a complete virtualization stack with all the key software and hardware components. And the complete stack can be easily designed and presented by Oracle partners using Lanamark Suite.

With the launch of Parallels Server Bare Metal, Parallels is expanding its value proposition in the crowded virtualization marketplace. But how is its approach different from other virtualization vendors such as Citrix, Microsoft and VMware?

First, Parallels offers a differentiated approach to virtualization that includes both hardware virtualization with Parallels Server Bare Metal and OS virtualization with Parallels Virtuozzo Containers. When the OS environment is heterogeneous, Parallels Server Bare Metal provides flexibility for hosting workloads with different operating systems on the same physical server. This approach is similar to Citrix XenServer, Microsoft Hyper-V, Oracle VM and VMware vSphere. However when the OS environment is homogeneous, Parallels provides capabilities to consolidate workloads with much lower virtualization overhead and much higher consolidation ratios. This is particularly useful for desktop virtualization.

Second, Parallels is clearly positioning itself for cloud enablement. Changes in messaging from "Automation and virtualization leader" to "Cloud enablement leader" clearly speak to that. And while other vendors are getting ready for cloud adoption, Parallels is already there with major market and mind share from service providers. Starting from its position of strength, Parallels can now go to all its partners using Parallels Virtuozzo Containers and help them expand their value proposition to customers with the addition of Parallels Server Bare Metal.

Finally, Parallels provides Parallels Virtual Automation for comprehensive management of both physical and virtual environments. Because of its strong expertise in enabling services providers, these capabilities push self-service and automation to levels that dramatically reduce the cost of implementing and managing virtual infrastructure.

In the last six years, leading vendors made significant investments to capitalize on opportunities presented by virtualization technologies:

• EMC acquired VMware in 2003 for $635 million
• Citrix acquired XenSource in 2007 for $500 million
• Red Hat acquired Qumranet in 2008 for $107 million
• Oracle acquired Virtual Iron in 2009 and is finalizing acquisition of Sun Microsystems

Now the big question is, who else wants to have a strong play in the virtualization and the cloud space?

Regardless of what happens, Lanamark Suite will enable the IT channel to design and deliver desktop and server virtualization solutions across all the leading virtualization platforms.

Lanamark today announced a partnership with Avnet Technology Solutions, a leading distributor of enterprise computing products, software and services with locations in more than 30 countries. The partnership will enable value-added resellers, system integrators and system builders working with Avnet Technology Solutions to use Lanamark Suite to accelerate design and delivery of desktop virtualisation, server virtualisation and storage solutions to enterprises in EMEA.

The partnership between Avnet Technology Solutions and Lanamark allows IT solution providers to offer real options to customers across virtualization and hardware platforms, rather than limiting them to a fixed combination. Now VARs, system integrators and consultants can mix-and-match:

• Software from vendors such as Citrix, Microsoft, Oracle, Parallels, Quest and VMware
• Hardware from vendors such as EMC, HP, Hitachi, IBM, Fujitsu, IGEL, NetApp, Sun and Wyse

By doing so, solution providers can build solutions that are best for their customers and then purchase all the key components of these solutions from Avnet, all while shortening sales cycles and maintaining control of sales and services opportunities.

Less than a month after acquiring Sun Microsystems, Oracle announced that it is going to acquire Virtual Iron. Why would Oracle want to buy Virtual Iron if it already has Oracle VM and nearly completed Sun xVM Server? Here are some potential drivers for the acquisition:

1. Virtual Iron has a mature, field-validated server virtualization offering that includes a comprehensive set of virtual infrastructure management applications.
2. Virtual Iron is one of the best known brands in the virtualization space.
3. Oracle VM probably does not yet have a critical mass of customers and mindshare. Meanwhile Sun xVM Server is not generally available.
4. Virtual Iron applications are developed in Java. This will make it easier for Oracle to integrate and maintain Virtual Iron technology, especially after acquiring Sun Microsystems.
5. By acquiring Virtual Iron, Oracle is also going to cut off other vendors such as Novell from entering into direct competition with Oracle in the virtualization space.

There is no question that Oracle could have continued to increase its marketshare by building Oracle VM and Sun xVM Server. However with Virtual Iron under its wing, Oracle is able to accelerate its entry into the virtualization space with a credible and proven virtualization offering.

Lanamark Suite already supports server virtualization analysis, planning and design for Virtual Iron.

On Monday, April 20, 2009 Oracle announced that it is going to acquire Sun Microsystems. This acquisition is of vital importance to the virtualization industry for three major reasons:

1. Oracle is already the largest enterprise software company with the brand, products, technology and partnerships to make virtualization a core part of its enterprise solution portfolio.

2. With Sun Microsystems under its wing, Oracle will be able to offer a complete solution stack to customers spanning hardware, software and services.

3. With a robust ISV community building Java-based applications, Oracle has all the necessary ingredients to stimulate development of virtualization management applications.

Today, VMware continues to be the de facto leader in enterprise virtualization deployments. Citrix and Microsoft are challenging VMware's position but both vendors are more likely to succeed in the SMB segment, at least in the short term. In contrast the Oracle/Sun combination has the potential to become a formidable challenger to VMware in the enterprise, especially since Oracle will be able to offer a complete stack across hardware and software.

The big question now is how quickly will Oracle be able to integrate Sun and accelerate its investment in virtualization?