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PDFJust over a week ago I sat the VMware Install, Manage and Configure training course as a prerequisite to gaining my VCP accreditation. I have been using VMware products for around 10 years now, so I find a lot of things in the area of virtualization to be common knowledge. I have decided to write this article on vSphere for those of you who are new to the product.
A few weeks ago I wrote a similar article on Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, which is the current competitor to VMware which uses the underlying KVM virtualization technology.
VMware has been the market leader in virtualization for more years than I can remember. Virtualization is their primary business function and they have their fingers in many pies within the technology industry. As a result they have a huge market share, huge list of vendors supporting their products and an even larger number of customers.
VMware have put in a huge amount of work to produce a product as robust as vSphere, however in writing this article, I have come to realise just how cluttered and over complicated the product is.
If you are seeking to use virtualization in your organisation, yet still wish to maintain the element of simplicity and get the biggest return on investment (ROI), I suggest you give Red Hat a call and ask for a demo or evaluation of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV). With the release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3 and the latest enhancements to the KVM virtualization technology, you will be able to get *up to* a 40% greater output of your servers than what can be achived with VMware.
Before you start to think I can’t decide which product I am backing here, let me just emphasize my point on the fact that I support the customer having the choice of what product they use for their business. If you are happy to pay for VMware and it does what you need to get your business moving where it needs to go, by all means go right ahead. It is a great product. My only aim here is to educate those who are not aware that there is always an alternative.
If you are reading this article, you may be new to VMware products or possibly new to virtualization technology all together.
Brace yourself, as this is going to be a very long article.