The combination of servers nodes/containers run on traditional virtualization. Nobody dares to pronounce the death of virtualization, but some claim that its end is near.
The major virtualization players are already starting to feel the wind of change. These bursts bring with them various technologies of containers as well as innovative ways to consider the computer without an operating system (or “bare-metal”). This forced companies such as VMware, IBM, Microsoft, and Red Hat to radically cap to stay in the race.
“Virtualization has not finished innovating, but she arrived at a point where innovation has done more things, explains Carl Brooks, an analyst for the 451 Research. Bare-metal it is more interesting because it allows an orchestration that is comparable to that of the virtual machines. The benefits regarding capacity and use of resources are not comparable with those offered by virtualization. Users engaged in virtualization technology traditional, but eager to explore the concepts of containers or computer bare-metal, arise many questions. Most relate to how to take the plunge or to integrate and manage such a hybrid environment. In other words, well too many questions and too few answers. Simply imagine operate containers with older systems such as VMware or IBM products and introduce above the bare server market has what dizzy, confess it Manager of a major manufacturer.
How to get there? And what are the real pros and cons of the passage from one to the other of these latest wireless technologies?
The old guard of virtualization hopes to provide some elements of response with its new generation of products. They must protect the investments of users in the platforms of existing virtualization through a transition for the testing and development environment.
An emblematic figure of virtualization
Some industry observers cite VMware as an example, the emblematic figure of traditional virtualization as one of the companies of virtualization is not confined to a single approach. Indeed, the company unveiled its plans to provide its simplified version of Linux, specifically designed to handle containers, as well as two projects open source to encourage businesses to adopt native Cloud applications.
Linux, or “project Photon, was born from the observation that the VMware users use more and more containers together with vSphere, and very often they relied on software open source to create their applications. The Photon project allows running both containers and VMS natively, from a single platform.
“We created this SE [project Photon] from the kernel Linux because we knew that users were using containers in addition to vSphere, says Mike Adams, marketing director in charge of vSphere with VMware. It was the most effective way to bounce on this opportunity for us.
Some analysts consider the initiative of VMware and other providers of virtualization as a necessary evolution, or the less timely solutions.
“We’re seeing a change of direction among key actors in the world of virtualization, in particular, VMware and Red Hat, who neglect the classical virtualization toward emerging products, including management solutions destinies designed hybrid computing, notes Andrew Smith, an analyst at Technology Business Research. The erosion of the [virtualization] market is real, and companies are forced to seek new sources of income.
The benefits of VMware in the first quarter show that society has arrived at a turning point between his traditional virtualization and its innovative products for users and hybrid Clouds. Indeed, about 45% of the income of VMware are from products vSphere and EXSi, while 55% come from its hybrid Cloud management, networking, and storage solutions.
Containers and bare servers: a marriage risked
Pantheon is part of companies who have done rather well to marry containers and bare servers. It manages more than 250,000 websites, including custom Drupal and WordPress content management sites. (Hall of Fame ensures that Drupal and WordPress sites are insulated from each other regarding security and resources.)
Pantheon has opted not to adopt the model centered on VMS, believed that a model bare-metal/containers created on a single and same platform would be both simpler and more efficient.
Traditional actors and containers
“With the bare-metal/container model, we operate our infrastructure much more effectively as our competitors who have chosen the approach centered on the VM, says Zach Rosen, CEO, and co-founder of Pantheon. This increased efficiency is in our product, and is, in my opinion, makes the attractiveness of our platform for developers.
However, some large companies who themselves are risky to integrate bare servers and containers to their virtualization infrastructure themselves with a battery extremely complex and difficult to manage. They often isolate the bare server, limiting it to a part of society for example, and keeping the batteries of traditional virtualization in the rest of the company to manage separately.
“It’s a huge challenge to mix different technologies. This requires, for each technology, people dedicated to all levels of management to the implementation, especially in large companies, says Steve Brasen, Research Director at Enterprise Management Associates. It takes time for the resolution of all these problems.