Management vendors continue to drop the V word

It's not enough to talk about virtualization any more; management vendors are lining up to show their support for the technology from VMware, Microsoft, Citrix and anyone else planning to make their name with virtual technologies.

View some of the products being showcased at VMworld 2008 here.

Management software makers like CA and newcomer BlueStripe Software announced their plans to make easier managing system and application components in virtual environments. Companies like Embotics and VKernel have made available free tools for different management tasks involving virtual machines (VM).

And this week companies like Integrien and Splunk will show some 14,000 VMworld attendees how they have separately updated their product portfolios with VMware-specific capabilities. And VKernel plans to not only showcase its free SearchMyVM application, but also introduce show goers to its VKernel Modeler tool. A newcomer to virtualization management space, Glasshouse Technologies, will also introduce its suite of managed infrastructure services.

For its part, Integrien added new analytics and VMware-specific visualizations to its flagship Alive software. Splunk created a free add-on to its Splunk Server software called Splunk for VMware that Integrates with VMware management APIs to provide insight into performance metrics and configuration data of virtual machine deployments. And VKernel Modeler enables IT administrators to post 'What if' scenarios and see the hypothetical results, which helps them to plan for capacity based on existing and potential resources to meet performance demands. GlassHouse Technologies says its managed services offering will monitor the performance of servers, storage, network and any components that surround the virtualization layer.

"There has never been a technology that has come in like virtualization and not caused people to change in some ways the way they do their work. Virtualization is doing that to operations and management processes," says Jasmine Noel, principal analyst at Ptak, Noel & Associates. "Management vendors are updating their tools to adapt to virtual environments, but the question is: can the management tools be smart enough to help IT managers keep up with the technology? Because it is never going to stop."

Denise Dubie is senior editor with Network World.