Page 137 - How Cloud Computing Is Transforming Business and Why You Cant Afford to Be Left Behind

O VERCOMING RESISTANCE T O THE CL OUD

Verizon Business, and Savvis all say that they will create more
sophisticated cloud services, including in-depth security, that
will host VMware virtual machines. AT&T actually launched
its ability to host VMware virtual machines in June 2009. Mike
Crandell, CEO of RightScale, says that his firm will create vir-
tual machine templates that will allow a server, after it is con-

figured by the customer, to be deployed to the cloud of the
customer’s choice. So far, two destinations are available: EC2
and Rackspace. In addition, RightScale will be able to config-
ure workloads in the virtual machines of any of the three ma-
jor vendors. The idea of being able to deploy servers to various
clouds using different formats is likely to become a regular
feature of front-end service providers.

On another front, Citrix Systems and Microsoft, who are
close business partners, have both agreed to support Micro-
soft’s VHD file format, combining the weight of the number
two and number three vendors in x86 virtualization to counter
VMware’s better-established VMDK. Microsoft Azure will run
the VHD file format. However, it’s not compatible with
VMware’s ESX hypervisor or VMDK file format. It’s the con-
version problem again: VMware customers will have to find a
way to convert if they are seeking a cloud based on VHD, and

vice versa.
So far, few VMware customers have shown a tendency to
migrate. VMware, the virtualization market leader with $2
billion in revenues in 2009, keeps advancing the capabilities
of the management environment that now surrounds its vir-
tual machines in the enterprise. Even so, the virtualization
market is expanding so rapidly that it’s hard to say what it will

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