VMware launches vSphere 5 and Cloud Infrastructure Suite

Virtualisation giant VMware last night announced version 5 of its vSphere hypervisor and a batch of additional tools dubbed Cloud Infrastructure Suite, which together constitute what chief executive Paul Maritz described as the company's "biggest single release of software to date".

Maritz (pictured above) said the company's aim is to increase the reach of its vSphere hypervisor beyond the 50 per cent of VMware customers who are currently using it by becoming a "highly automated internal service provider". 

Cloud Infrastructure Suite is central to this strategy. VMware's Cloud Infrastructure Suite builds on vSphere 5, which creates the resource pool on which the other components sit. These consist of vCenter Site Recovery Manager (SRM) for business continuity; vCenter Operations for monitoring and management; vShield Security, and the vCloud Director, the user interface providing policy, reporting, and self-service capabilities.

Maritz explained that vSphere 5 is capable of supporting VMs that are up to four times more powerful than was previously the case, with as much as 1TB of memory and 32 virtual CPUs each – enough for even the most demanding business-critical applications. 

It also allows for automated settings, meaning someone in admin could set operating parameters for their servers and then leave the hypervisor to manage the servers.

Available from the third quarter of 2011, the suite will be offered on a rental, utility-type basis.

The release will allow customers to mix and match applications between private and  public clouds, and slide applications "without trouble" from their internal to an external architecture.

"The move to a public cloud should be a business not an architectural decision," said Maritz.

This easy migration will be made possible by VMware's partner network, comprising 2,000 companies including CSC, Verizon, SoftBank and Colt among others.