Image by
Robert
Scoble via Flickr
In VMworld Europe 2009, VMware CEO, Paul Maritz, announced the technological
roadmap for their new Virtual Data Center OS (VDC-OS) and vCloud API to enable
interoperability across Clouds. Slowly, but steadily, enterprises are warming to
Cloud Computing by jumping into what are called as Private Clouds, a cloud like
architecture inside of the enterprise datacenters. This announcement bodes well
for further proliferation of Cloud Computing adaption by the enterprise
community.
When transitioning from the complex infrastructure of datacenters to dynamic
but simple private cloud architectures, a new substrate layer is needed. This
new layer acts like an OS pooling all computing resources inside the enterprises
including servers, storage, etc.. VMware’s upcoming VDC-OS will act as this new
substrate layers for the private clouds.
They also built upon their vCloud initiative announcement from VMWorld Las
Vegas 2008, enabling a federation between the internal private clouds and
external public clouds. VMware is working closely with major cloud
infrastructure service providers like Savvis, Terremark, etc. to offer vCloud
initiatives. Enterprises can now tap into the utility computing resources from
these providers with the help of VMware’s vCloud initiative whenever there is a
need for more computing resources. The whole integration between the internal
and external cloud infrastructure is made seamless. In short, vCloud’s API
allows programmatic access to private cloud resources and support the delivery
of services and applications that leverage and extend private clouds.
In fact, during VMWorld Europe 2009 event, cloud infrastructure company like
Engine Yard will be demonstrating their new services built on top of vCloud API.
This API allows companies like Engine Yard to offer scalable, elastic
infrastructure needed for Web 2.0 companies and enterprises.
VMware is also trying to achieve open standards based interoperability
between various cloud infrastructure providers. The release of vCloud API is a
step in this direction.
