VMware strategy raises concerns

Users and analysts have raised concerns about VMware's latest cloud initiative

VMware's announcement last week of products to allow customers to introduce cloud computing-based IT services met with a mixed reaction from users and analysts.

The virtualisation specialist launched its Virtual Datacentre Operating System (VDOS) and Cloud vServices at the annual VMworld user conference in Las Vegas.

VDOS will allow businesses to run their IT infrastructure internally using a similar model to external hosting or software-as-a-service providers, covering all hardware resources including servers, storage and network.

Cloud vServices will allow the aggregated hardware resources to be federated to external cloud-based services hosted by partners such BT and Verizon, in what the firm calls the vCloud initiative.

Products launched to work with VDOS include an application called Fault Tolerance that helps to significantly reduce downtime when hardware fails, and vStorage, a service that contains technologies such as thin provisioning and linked clones to reduce storage requirements by up to 50 per cent. A linked clone is a copy of a virtual machine (VM) that shares virtual disks with the parent VM.

Harbinder Singh, network engineer at Stony Brook University Hospital in New York, said the Fault Tolerance product would be particularly useful for organisations using VMware for important applications.

"A certain percentage of the hospital's virtual machines are critical and they have to run 24 hours a day, so this would be a great solution to have if the host fails," he said.

But users were less impressed with the lack of detail in the Cloud vServices announcement.

Singh said the initiative concerned him because it signalled a loss of customer control. "We are very hands-on and we don't want to lose that approach, " he said.

And European data privacy regulations that restrict the movement of data outside the EU might hinder the use of such external cloud computing services, according to Butler Group analyst Roy Illsley.

"It is still unclear where VMware is heading with this new cloud drive," he said. "It may need to consider delivering services to users on the basis of internal clouds."

Simon Spence, chief information officer at commercial real estate firm CB Richard Ellis, said his department has no desire to own hardware, but he will adopt a wait-and-see approach to the cloud offering.

"We expect there will be difficult issues surrounding data privacy that will need to be resolved," he said.

VMware chief executive Paul Maritz acknowledged that the strategy was "complicated" and needed more work before it appeals to customers.

"The strategy will not take off before VMware solves these issues and puts in place the necessary solutions," he told Computing.