* Latest product release includes self-service portal and Hyper-V support
As enterprises become more strategic with their virtualization strategies, looking to escalate the number of servers virtualized, much of what they’ll be able to do will hinge on their ability to manage the environment.
As enterprises become more strategic with their virtualization strategies, looking to escalate the number of servers virtualized, much of what they’ll be able to do will hinge on their ability to manage the environment.’’
That, of course, has loads of vendors, old and new, vying for attention.
You’ve got management options from virtualization platform vendors like Microsoft and VMware, established companies like CA, HP and IBM, plus a slew of tools from start-ups seeking out their niches.
As Gary Chen, an IDC virtualization research manager says, understatedly, “It’s so congested out there right now.”
Embotics, which has been on Network World’s virtualization companies to watch radar since 2008, falls among the latter category. In late 2007, it rolled out its V-Commander software, pitching it as a product for managing the life cycle of virtual machines (VM). It released on Tuesday the latest iteration, V-Commander 3.6 — not quite so much a VM life-cycle manager anymore.
Over the years Embotics has morphed V-Commander into a full-fledged virtualization management system. Additional capabilities in this latest release include capacity, configuration and performance management; real-time VM inventory management and reporting; change management and auditing; and troubleshooting.
Pulling the plug on hardware: Life-cycle management explained
“V-Commander is aimed at the value-minded segment of the market. It’s simple, so quick and easy to deploy, yet has fairly broad functionality, including analytics and reporting,” Chen says, adding that life-cycle management, its heritage, also is a strength.
One of the highlights, especially for enterprises looking beyond virtualization and toward private clouds, is a self-service portal, Chen says. The portal allows customizable views, organization and actions for any IT team member, be that the virtualization manager, a security specialist, an application developer or storage administrator, for example.
“Any stakeholder can get a unique set of information, in real time, without necessarily having an account or bothering the VMware administrator,” Lynch says.
In addition, Embotics is growing V-Commander into a multivendor virtualization management tool. At VMworld 2010 next week, it will demonstrate Microsoft Hyper-V support with commercial support for that hypervisor in the fourth quarter, Lynch says. The rest of V-Commander 3.6 is available immediately.
What type of management vendor — platform provider, traditional company or start-up — do you favor for your virtualization environment? Share now.
