back to article Intel, IBM, and HP back open source against VMware

Some of tech's biggest names are standing up to VMware, creating an industry group meant to accelerate the adoption of an open-source virtualization stack built atop the KVM hypervisor. Known as the Open Virtualization Alliance , the group includes IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, and KVM Linux distro leader Red Hat as well as …

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  1. Iturbide
    Thumb Up

    just VMWare??

    What about Oracle VM solution and the one from Microsoft !!

    Let's knock down everyone with OSS !!!

  2. Eddy Ito
    Coat

    OVA???

    It's only one alliance but there are a plurality of members? Bah, they didn't try hard enough, it should be OVUM.

    The one with the egg in the pocket. Thanks.

  3. IGnatius T Foobar
    Linux

    KVM is the future king

    There is little doubt that KVM will be the king of hypervisors. Xen was a temporary solution, and it worked well enough, but KVM takes full advantage of the facilities already available in the Linux kernel. It is truly a part of the kernel, whereas Xen was merely co-resident with it.

    KVM is blessed by Red Hat, Canonical, and some dude named Linus Torvalds, maybe you've heard of him :)

    VMware's current awesomeness stems from its management tools. vSphere is a pretty sophisticated piece of software. It has its warts but there's currently nothing like it. I'm psyched to hear about the Open Virtualization Alliance because it means KVM will gain similar tools. And I'm looking forward to deploying KVM in bigger and bigger environments.

    Microsoft? Hah. Non-starter. Just like in mobile -- nobody wants what Microsoft is selling.

    1. Displacement Activity
      Thumb Down

      What??

      Xen was "merely co-resident with" the kernel? Explain. Are you actually trying to say that KVM is now in the mainline kernel and that pv_ops is not yet in the mainline kernel? If so, you should say so. And Xen "worked well enough"? Are you saying that it works less well than KVM? Explain.

      Fact 1: RedHat paid going-on *two hundred million dollars* to acquire Qumranet, at a time when they supported the GPL-ed Xen, and at a time when Xen was clearly superior.

      Fact 2: RedHat started pushing KVM as the One True Solution at exactly the same time.

      Fact 3: RedHat ramped down support on Xen, and moving dom0 changes upstream, after the purchase. Look at Fedora kernels post-F8 if you don't believe this. Yes, read "RedHat" for Fedora.

      This has nothing to do with technical merit. It's VMware vs. RedHat, and who gets to own virtualisation. If you want to buy into the RH narrative, fine, but don't pretend in an IT forum that it's for technical reasons.

      1. IGnatius T Foobar
        Linux

        Xen is co-resident with the Linux kernel. KVM is IN the kernel.

        Obviously you have some sort of incentive to take sides; I'm assuming you work for Citrix. I have no such loyalties and am simply observing the situation.

        Yes, it is true that Xen is co-resident with the Linux kernel. Xen is a bare metal hypervisor that runs Linux in domain 0, which as a Citrix employee you are already aware.

        KVM is a kernel module. It runs IN the kernel. It is part of the kernel. It is designed to be a part of Linux rather than running alongside Linux.

        Xen is a good design. It's pretty much the same design as VMware ESX (with Linux in dom0 being analagous to VMware's "service console"). I happen to think that KVM is simply an even better design, and with the backing of all these big players plus the lead developer of the kernel, it is destined to become the category killer.

  4. Goat Jam
    Welcome

    the 1990s . .

    . . . when a single company - Microsoft – was the monopoly supplier of the single piece of software that everybody came to rely on.

    Things are different now? Have I been in a coma? No? Oh, crap.

    As for The Alliance, I concur with the first posters point regarding the slickness of vSphere.

    Hopefully this will see management tools that come close to the tool set that members of The Empire currently enjoy.

  5. alwarming
    Paris Hilton

    IBM & HP together ?

    They have been together in a few alliances over the course of history. Why can't I seem to recall

    any of them ?

    1. Davidoff

      Project Monterey

      IBM was HP's partner in Project Monterey when Itanium hadn't yet completely failed.

      1. alwarming

        bingo!

        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Monterey

  6. BartVDE

    IBM&HP...

    also co-produced the LTO - ULTRIUM tape racket... along with Quantum as a 3rd partner in crime...

    that worked pretty well imho.

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