Continue reading »]]> Below is a list of acronyms that are often used when talking about VMware technology. If I forgot some, let me know.

Continue reading »]]> Below an overview of the current VMware offerings

Datacenter & Cloud Infrastructure

• vSphere:
  Suite or products used for datacenter server virtualization, which provides the highest levels of availability and responsiveness. Components included in this suite are –
  
  • ESX/ESXi – VMware’s best in class virtualization hypervisor. Allows multiple VMs (a.k.a. Guest/VMs) to run on a single server (a.k.a. Host Server).
    
  • Symmetrical Multi Processing (SMP) – Allows Guest/VMs to leverage multiple cores from the physical host. A VM running on an ESXi through Enterprise license can leverage up to 4 cores simultaneously. A VM running on an Enterprise Plus license can leverage up to 8 cores simultaneously.
    
  • vStorage Thin Provisioning – Reduces shared storage costs in virtual environment by 50% by not over provisioning virtual disks.
    
  • VCAgent – Enables ESX servers to communicate with vCenter (centralized management server) – your single pain of glass for your virtual environment.
    
  • vStorage APIs – Centralized off-host backup of VMs and integrates with 3^rd party backup products.
    
  • vSafe – API that protects VMs by inspection of virtual components in conjunction with the hypervisor
    
  • High Availability (HA) – Automatic relocation and reboot of VMs in case of physical host failure
    
  • VMotion – Live migration of VMs for zero down time during physical server maintenance or load balancing
    
  • Fault Tolerance (FT) – Runs two identical VMs “Active/Passive” in lockstep, on separate hosts, for even great VM availability
    
  • vShield Zones – Security policies that auto-adapt to network reconfigurations or upgrades
    
  • Virtual Serial Port Concentrator – Connect over the network to the VM serial port console
    
  • Storage VMotion – Live migration of virtual disk from one storage location to another with zero down time
    
  • Dynamic Resource Scheduler (DRS) – Load balance tool, dynamically migrates VMs to other physical hosts with zero down time
    
  • Distributed Power Management (DPM) – Reduces power consumption of physical servers (uses IPMI and iLO)
    
  • vStorage API for Multipathing – Leverage 3^rd part storage vendor’s multipathing software capabilities
    
  • vStorage API for Array Integration (VAAI) – Improve performance by leveraging efficient array based operations
    
  • vNetwork Distributed Switch – Make single changes to virtual switch, which are then proliferated to many host server
    
  • Host Profiles – Create “golden” profiles of ESX hosts and their applications for quicker host provisioning and improved host compliance
    
  • Storage Control I/O – Prioritize, monitor, & dynamically allocate VM I/O storage access based on business needs
    
  • Network Control I/O – Prioritize, manage, & dynamically allocate VM I/O network access based on business needs
    
  • Nexus 1000v – Manage your virtual and physical environment through your physical switch interface
    

• vCloud Director (vCD):
  Pool virtual infrastructure resources in your existing datacenter and deliver them to users as a catalog-based service with vCloud Director. Coupled with VSphere, vCloud Director enables customers to build secure private clouds, transforming the way IT delivers and manages infrastructure services and the way users access and consume these services.
  
  • Increase business agility by empowering users to deploy pre-configured or custom-built services with the click of a button
    
  • Maintain security & control over multi-tenant environments with policy-based user controls & vShield technologies
    
  • Reduce costs by efficiently delivering resources to internal organizations as virtual datacenters and simplify management
    

View vCD Demo – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8GShI3cSJs

• vCloud Datacenter Services: VMware delivers enterprise-class cloud computing infrastructure services. Offered by VMware-certified service providers, vCloud Datacenter Services provide the business agility and cost effectiveness of public clouds without compromising on portability, compatibility, security and control demanded by enterprise IT organizations. vCloud Datacenter Services give you a path towards a dynamic and compatible operating environment your datacenter can scale out, allowing you to leverage internal and external IT resources when and where you need them in hybrid clouds.
  
  • Agility: Enable your users to self-provision resources quickly and efficiently
    
  • Security: Depend on multilevel security and a comprehensive security framework compliant with your internal IT environment
    
  • Portability: Move applications to the hybrid cloud and back to your internal virtual environment as and when needed
    

• vCloud Express: vCloud Express is an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offering delivered by VMware service provider partners. It is a co-branded service that provides reliable, on-demand, pay-as-you-go infrastructure. This service allows IT to reduce both capex and resource challenges associated with the fluctuating infrastructure requirements of development teams. Developers can use the vCloud Express service at their convenience to address various infrastructure and programming needs such as experimentation, prototyping and testing – with the robustness, interoperability and reliability.
  

   

• Request Manager: Enhance compliance & control in
  vCloud Director based private clouds by adding sophisticated approval workflows to provisioning requests and automatically tracking software license usage. Enforce standardized settings for better cloud governance and asset management:
  
  • Improve private cloud policy control by enforcing business policies and procedures to avoid virtual sprawl
    
  • Maximize efficiency and service delivery through intelligent process automation
    
  • Simplify user experience for cloud consumers with a simple cross-browser compatible portal
    
  • Minimize deployment costs and speed with minimal configuration
    

   

Desktop & End User Computing

• View:
  Move towards user-centric computing and transform traditional stationary desktops into untethered stateless workspaces available from anywhere and at anytime. View 4.5
  modernizes desktops and applications by moving them into the cloud and delivering them as a managed service. Processes are automated and efficient, security is increased and the total cost of desktop ownership is reduced by 50%. End users get a rich, consistent and high performance desktop experience from any qualified device whether in the office or on the go.
  

• Fusion:
  Run the most demanding Mac and Windows applications side-by-side at max speeds without rebooting. With more than 80 new features in VMware Fusion 3, it’s never been easier to run Windows on Mac.
  

   

• ThinApp:
  Accelerate app deployment and simplify migration with agentless app virtualization. With ThinApp, applications are packaged into single executables that run isolated from each other and the OS for conflict-free execution on end-point devices. Application packages can be deployed to different Windows platforms, eliminating costly recoding & regression testing so you can easily migrate existing applications to
  Windows 7.
  
  • Eliminate application conflicts, reducing the need for recoding & regression testing.
    
  • Deliver reliable and flexible application access to all user profiles.
    
  • Eliminate the need for additional server hardware or software investments.
    

   

• Workstation:
  From the creator of PC virtualization comes the most reliable, secure way to run multiple operating systems at the same time. Winner of more than 50 industry awards, VMware Workstation transforms the way technical professionals develop, test, demo, and deploy software. VMware Workstation is an integral component of any serious technical professional’s toolkit.
  

   

• Player:
  VMware Player is the easiest way to run multiple operating systems at the same time on your PC. With its user-friendly interface, VMware Player makes it effortless for anyone to try out Windows 7, Chrome OS or the latest Linux releases, or create isolated VMs to safely test new software and surf the Web. VMware Player can also be used to run a virtual copy of an old PC so that you can recycle the old machines you have under your desk or stored in the closet.
  

   

• Zimbra:
  Zimbra is an enterprise-class, open source email, calendar and collaboration platform. Zimbra boosts end user productivity on any device or desktop-any time, any place- at dramatically lower costs compared to other providers. Zimbra’s innovative email, calendar and collaboration platform offers administrators and their end users innovative features that solve the challenges faced by organizations that use today’s legacy communications infrastructure. Key advantages include advanced web collaboration, compatibility with all desktop clients, over-the-air sync to smartphones (iPhone, Android, BlackBerry) as well as better scalability and ease of maintenance. Zimbra’s open standards and technologies provide the flexibility to integrate new applications as “tabs” or mash-ups in the user experience (such as Salesforce.com, WebEx, Facebook or internal apps like Oracle).
  

Infrastructure & Operations Management vCenter Server

• vCenter Server:
  vCenter Server provides a scalable and extensible platform that forms the foundation for
  virtualization management. vCenter Server, formerly VMware VirtualCenter, (a.k.a. VMware Central Management Server (VCMS)), centrally manages
  vSphere
  environments allowing IT administrators dramatically improved control over the virtual environment compared to other management platforms. VMware vCenter Server:
  
  • Provides centralized control and visibility at every level of virtual infrastructure
    
  • Unlocks the power of vSphere through proactive management
    
  • Is a scalable and extensible management platform with a broad partner ecosystem
    

   

• vCenter Heartbeat:
  vCenter Heartbeat delivers high availability for vCenter Server, protecting the virtual and cloud infrastructure from application, configuration, operating system or hardware related outages.
  
  • Get ahead of possible outages or problems that may impact VMware vCenter Server with proactive monitoring and deep awareness of all its components, including VMware vCenter Update Manager and VMware View Composer.
    
  • Protect vCenter Server & its database against planned & unplanned downtime with seamless, rapid failover & failback on physical & virtual platforms.
    
  • Provide reliable disaster recovery for VMware vCenter Server in local and remote locations.
    

   

• vCenter Orchestrator:
  Automate tasks for vSphere and enable orchestration between multiple solutions. VMware vCenter Orchestrator allows administrators to capture their best practices and turn them into automated workflows.
  

   

• vCenter Capacity I/Q:
  Utilize your datacenter or desktop capacity efficiently and cost-effectively. VMware vCenter CapacityIQ allows the right capacity to be delivered at the right time—anytime!
  
  • Eliminate waste by identifying any unused or over-allocated capacity
    
  • Reduce operational overhead by automating routine capacity monitoring and management tasks
    
  • Minimize business risk of outages or failures resulting from capacity bottlenecks and shortfalls
    

     

• vCenter Operations:
  Proactively ensure service levels, optimum resource usage and configuration compliance in dynamic virtual and cloud environments with VMware vCenter Operations. Through automated operations management and patented analytics, you benefit from an integrated approach to performance, capacity and configuration management. You’ll gain the intelligence and visibility needed to
  
  • Get actionable intelligence to automate manual operations processes
    
  • Gain visibility across infrastructure and applications for rapid problem resolution
    
  • Proactively ensure optimal resource utilization and virtual/cloud infrastructure performance
    
  • Get ‘at-a-glance’ views of operational and regulatory compliance across physical and virtual infrastructure.
    
  • VMware vCenter Operations will be available for download in late Q1 2011.
    

  View Demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paYaVKj9778
  

   

• vCenter Site Recovery Manager:
  Accelerate recovery and ensure successful recovery by automating the recovery process and eliminating the complexity of managing and testing recovery plans. VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager eliminates complex manual recovery steps and removes the risk and worry from disaster recovery.
  
  • Decrease planned and unplanned downtime for improved
    business continuity.
    
  • Protect all of your important systems and applications with
    disaster recovery.
    

  View Demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hap4VsC9a1k
  

   

• vCenter Configuration Manager:
  Automate configuration management across virtual and physical servers, workstations, and desktops with VMware vCenter Configuration Manager. Increase efficiency by eliminating manual, error-prone and time-consuming work.
  
  • Avoid configuration drift by automatically detecting and comparing changes to policies
    
  • Maintain continuous compliance with out-of-the box templates and toolkits
    
  • Automate server and software provisioning in the datacenter
    

   

• vCenter Converter:
  Automate and simplify physical to virtual machine conversions as well as conversions between virtual machine formats with VMware vCenter Converter. Use the intuitive wizard-driven interface of VMware vCenter Converter to convert your physical machines to VMs.
  
  • Convert Microsoft Windows and Linux-based physical machines and third-party image formats to VMware VMs
    
  • Complete multiple conversions simultaneously with a centralized management console
    
  • Easy to use wizards to minimize the number of steps to conversion.
    

• vCenter Chargeback: Improve utilization of virtual infrastructure with accurate visibility into the true costs of virtualized workloads. Enable line-of-business owners to have full cost transparency and accountability for self-service resource requests.  VMware vCenter Chargeback allows cost models to be customized to the process and policies of different organizations. Virtual machine resource consumption data is collected from VMware vCenter Server ensuring the most complete and accurate tabulation of resource costs. Integration with VCloud Director also enables automated chargeback for private cloud environments.
  

   

• Service Manager:
  Service Manager develops a 100% web architected solution that automates IT Service Management processes in enterprise organizations. Service Manager is independently verified to the highest level of ITIL compatibility for Incident Management, Problem Management, Change Management, Release Management, Configuration Management, Service Level Management and Availability Management. With a proven track record of implementation success in global enterprises across an international client base, VMware Service Manager delivers the best upfront and ongoing value for comparative depth of functionality in the enterprise IT Service Management market.
  

Security Products

• vShield App:
  Protect applications in the virtual datacenter from network-based threats with VMware vShield App, part of the VMware vShield family. Get deep visibility into network communications and enforce granular policies with security groups. Eliminate the hardware and policy sprawl with a cost-effective solution that offers better-than-physical security.
  
  • Increase visibility and control over network communications between VMs
    
  • Eliminate the need for dedicated hardware and VLANs to separate different security groups
    
  • Optimize hardware resource utilization while maintaining strong security
    
  • Simplify compliance with comprehensive logging of all virtual machine network activity
    

   

• vShield Edge:
  Get comprehensive perimeter network security for virtual datacenters with vShield Edge. vShield Edge integrates seamlessly with vSphere
  and includes essential network gateway services so you can quickly and securely scale your cloud infrastructures.
  
  • Reduce cost and complexity by eliminating multiple special purpose appliances and rapidly provisioning edge services
    
  • Ensure policy enforcement with built-in edge network security and services
    
  • Increase scalability and performance with one edge per org/tenant
    
  • Simplify IT compliance with detailed logging
    
  • Streamline management using a full-featured interface that integrates with vCenter Server
    and third-party solutions.
    

   

• vShield Endpoint:
  Strengthen security for VMs and hosts while improving performance by orders of magnitude for endpoint protection, with vShield Endpoint. Offload antivirus and anti-malware processing to dedicated security-hardened VMs delivered by VMware partners. Leverage existing investments and manage antivirus and anti-malware policies for virtualized environments with the same mgmt interfaces as physical environments.
  
  • Streamline and accelerate antivirus and anti-malware deployment
    
  • Improve virtual machine performance and eliminate antivirus and anti-malware bottlenecks
    
  • Reduce risk by eliminating agents susceptible to attack and enforce remediation more easily
    
  • Satisfy audit requirements with detailed logging of antivirus and anti-malware activities
    

VMware vFabric Cloud Application Platform

• vFabric tc Server:
  tc Server, best place to build/run Java Spring apps, provides enterprise users with the lightweight server they want paired with the operational management, advanced diagnostics, and mission-critical support capabilities businesses need. Designed as a drop-in replacement for Apache Tomcat 6, tc Server ensures a seamless migration path for existing custom-built and commercial software appls already certified for Tomcat.
  

   

• vFabric Hyperic:
  Hyperic is the leading platform for web and custom app monitoring and performance management for physical, virtual and cloud environments. By providing top-down visibility and control across all layers of the technology services and infrastructure used by your web and custom apps, it allows you to ensure applications are meeting their service level commitments through reduced application downtime. Hyperic discovers,
  monitors, and manages software, services and network resources used by your application, providing a single pane view of application performance.
  

   

• Fabric GemFire:
  Modern applications are increasingly web-oriented, data-intensive, and deployed in virtualized and cloud environments. Databases are becoming performance bottlenecks when they can’t supply the high-speed performance required, and are unable to scale elastically with demand. GemFire delivers speed and dynamic scalability, together with the reliability and data management capabilities of a database. GemFire is a core component of VMware’s
  vFabric Cloud Platform
  and the ideal solution for fast, secure, dependable, and cloud-scalable data access.
  

   

• vFabric RabbitMQ:
  RabbitMQ provides a robust and reliable inter-system messaging critical for cloud-based apps. A key element of the vFabric Cloud Application Platform, RabbitMQ delivers highly available, scalable, and portable messaging with predictable and consistent throughput and latency. RabbitMQ is easy to use, supported on all major OSs and developer platforms, and open-sourced under the Mozilla public license.
  

   

Application Management

• vCenter Application: Quickly and accurately map your application dependencies to accelerate datacenter moves, precisely plan infrastructure consolidations and confidently virtualize your business critical applications.
  
  • Fast and low-impact deployment through unique agentless technology
    
  • Guaranteed visibility into all application interactions across both physical and VMs via network-based approach
    
  • Discovery of unknown, unwanted and unexpected application behaviors
    

   

• AppSpeed: Assure performance of virtual apps & meet SLAs by monitoring application transaction performance across virtual and cloud infrastructure.
  
  • Proactively monitor performance by detecting deviations from auto-baselines
    
  • Quickly isolate & troubleshoot performance problems
    
  • Seamlessly deploy and manage using vSphere built-in instrumentation – turnkey, no agents required
    

   

• VMware Studio: VMware Studio 2.1 helps author, configure, deploy and customize VMs, vApps and virtual appliances that can be deployed on vSphere 4.0 or 4.1. VMware Studio 2.1 supports packaging and distribution of VMs, vApps and virtual appliances in the industry standard
  Open Virtualization Format (OVF)
  format. With OVF, customers’ experience with virtualization is greatly enhanced, with more portability, platform independence, verification, signing, versioning, and licensing terms. Studio 2.1 is designed to be used by ISVs, developers, IT professionals and members of the virtualization community. It is a free product and is available as a virtual appliance.
  

   

Professional Training and Services

• Training:
  Whether you want to become VMware certified, improve your virtualization skills or prepare your team for a VMware implementation, VMware Education Services and VMware Authorized Training Centers are the only way to effectively meet your objectives. Here’s why:
  
  • Built by the people that build the products – Our course content incorporates real-world scenarios and best practices gathered by our professional services, product management, and engineering team. Come learn from the people that build the products.
    
  • Certification – The only way to earn VMware certification and the industry-recognition that comes with it, is to attend VMware Authorized Training. Unless your VMware training is authorized, you can’t be. Learn more about Certification.
    
  • Skilled Experts – Through a rigorous certification program, VMware ensures that our instructors possess in-depth technical knowledge about our solutions and have the professional experience to inspire and guide our students.
    
  • Proven training methodologies – VMware courses are designed and delivered using real-world scenarios to build both skills and confidence. We utilize blended learning that combines eLearning methods with personal instructor-led training — at a VMware Authorized Training Center or your own facilities.
    

   

• Services: Accelerate virtualization implementations and minimize risk by taking advantage of VMware services. Ensure a successful deployment of virtualization and cloud solutions and get it right the first time. Achieve the highest levels of efficiency, manageability, and agility.
  

   

• Resident: Customers who want trusted, dedicated virtualization expertise can engage a VMware® Certified Professional (VCP) consultant through the VMware Resident Program. Resident consultants are placed on-site at the customer location and are available on a daily basis during project kickoff, design, build, and production phases. They focus on customer-specific virtualization needs, give guidance about best practices and provide insider access to VMware. Residents may fulfill a customer’s need for IT staff that are generally knowledgeable about virtualization, or they may be specialists in a particular area of virtualization. A Resident can improve productivity, consistency, and efficiency of a customer’s virtualization project.
  
  • Shorten timelines by having the appropriate resources when needed
    
  • Provides an IT staff resource with virtualization knowledge
    
  • Access to exclusive VMware technical content, best practices, resources and knowledge bases
    
  • Ongoing technical training, knowledge-sharing, and support provided through the VMware Resident Program
    

   

• TAM: As your organization standardizes on vSphere and expands deployment, the Technical Account Manager (TAM) offers expertise, access, and commitment to help maximize your investment in vSphere. The TAM leverages a proven methodology and serves as a cross functional, cross-company advocate—a critical enabler to guide you in best practices and facilitate rapid progress toward your strategic goals. Standardizing on VMware vSphere means integrating technology with organizational processes such as provisioning, change management, and support escalation to reach a state of operational readiness. These processes cross departments and require synergy between IT divisions as well as lines of business. Aligning people, process and technology to achieve operational readiness is a key goal of the TAM Program. The TAM provides a vital service by helping you address anticipated and unforeseen obstacles. For example, TAMs work with 3^rd party vendors in the VMware ecosystem and interfaces with internal VMware constituents to help resolve issues such as technical support. The TAM takes a proactive approach to:
  
  • Assess your existing infrastructure
    
  • Review implementation plans for best practices
    
  • Make recommendations in line with your unique requirements
    
  • Bring different business divisions together for a common objective
    
  • Address technical or business hurdles
    
  • Provide access to VMware information and product experts