mark bowker
Senior Analyst

VMware, EMC, Cisco, HP, IBM and Dell Target x86 Workloads

Opinion
Nov 5, 20091 min

Clearing up some confusion about Vblocks

I wanted to address some confusion that I keep hearing regarding the targeted workload for Vblocks or any other modular/ pod concept from HP, IBM or Dell in the enterprise data center. The goal of these platforms is to target existing and new x86 workloads that run on Windows and Linux.

As companies target virtualization as the migration path for x86 workloads they need some hardware to run it on. Sure, they can run out and buy all the individual pieces and some will just as I did years ago when I went to a computer fair and purchased individual graphics card, serial port adapter, hard drive, floppy drive and mother board and went home and crossed my fingers that it would work. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Now VMware, EMC, Cisco, HP, IBM and Dell all want to make the purchase, implementation and transition to the platform easier by delivering a complete solution rather than the individual components. They (mostly VMware) also want companies to accelerate the transition of mission critical applications to the virtualized platform.

mark bowker

Senior Analyst Mark Bowker focuses on all things related to virtualization and cloud computing. Mark researches cloud and virtualization technologies and evaluates the impact the solutions have (or will have) on IT strategy and the broader marketplace. His other research areas include data center management, application workload deployment in next-generation data centers, and the external influences driving adoption of data center technologies. Prior to joining ESG, Mark ran the IT organization for a business consulting and technology services company.

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