What’s VMware? An Essential Guide

Based out of Palo Alto, California, VMware is a vendor of virtualization software and a worldwide leader in cloud infrastructure. The corporate was first founded in 1998, and after a series of acquisitions in 2004 and 2016, is now a subsidiary of Dell Technologies. Because the first company to successfully virtualize the x86 architecture, VMware brought a revolution to the IT industry with its virtualization and cloud solutions. 

Today, the corporate has over 500,000 customers and greater than 75,000 partners across the globe, including Liquid Web with VMware hosting. These partners are coming from various industries reminiscent of banking, healthcare, retail, telecommunications, and other various industries. With such a commanding presence within the IT industry, VMware is a number one software company within the realm of enterprise-grade virtualization.

In this text, we’ll dive into several key concepts to learn more about VMware reminiscent of:

• VMware’s server virtualization and other product offerings.
• Advantages and downsides of VMware.
• Among the underlying technology behind VMware’s virtualization software.

Before diving into VMware and the way businesses utilize its enterprise-level software and cloud architecture, let’s begin with an outline of virtualization and virtual machines. 

In easy terms, virtualization is the technique of making a software-based (or virtual) version of components reminiscent of computing, storage, networking, servers, or applications. That is made possible using hypervisors, a software that runs above the physical server or host.

In the same vein to this idea, IT professionals can emulate a physical computer by creating what’s generally known as a virtual machine (VM). The practice of virtualization makes it possible for a single server to have multiple VMs running on it, each with its own operating system (OS). It’s necessary to notice that each one VMs on a physical server share the identical pool of resources reminiscent of RAM and networking.

The explanation why server virtualization is so necessary is that by segmenting a physical server into multiple environments, organizations can maximize the efficiency and utilization of their physical servers. 

As certainly one of the primary and most reputable providers within the space, VMware continues to be one of the sought-after providers of virtualization software.

Now that we have now a fast overview of virtualization and VMs, let’s dive into more specifics about VMware’s full suite of software.

For the needs of this resource, we’ll often give attention to that what which VMware is most recognized for—its server virtualization software. Nonetheless, there’s a bunch of other solutions VMware offers outside of server virtualization. 

The practice of virtualization has been around for a while, and most professionals and admins have at the least some direct experience or exposure to vSphere, a collection of multiple software offered by VMware. Following the discharge of vSphere 7 in April 2020, vSphere primarily deals in running VMs in a majority of VMware workloads, and ESX isn’t any longer supported by the corporate. 

Available in Community, Standard, Enterprise, and Enterprise Plus editions, vSphere includes:

• ESXi Type 1 Hypervisor.
• vCenter Server.
• vSphere Update Manager.
• vSphere Web Client.
• vSphere Client.
• vMotion.
• Virtual Machine File System.
• Virtual Symmetric Multi-Processing (SMP).
• vSphere High Availability (HA).
• Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS).
• Fault Tolerance and Host Profiles.

As mentioned earlier, a virtualized server is in a position to host multiple VMs using a skinny software layer called a hypervisor. VMware ESXi is a kind 1 hypervisor, otherwise generally known as a bare metal hypervisor. A bare metal hypervisor runs directly on a server’s hardware with no need a primary OS.

A successor to the previous ESX, a bigger hypervisor that used considerably more of a bunch computer’s resources, ESXi stands for Elastic Sky X Integrated. Virtualization admins can opt to configure ESXi using its console or vSphere Client. ESXi is a component of the vSphere suite of virtualization products and is the exclusive hypervisor included with vSphere licenses.

Among the features that ESXi offers are:

• User-friendly experience on account of modern user interface based on HTML5.
• Enhanced security due to powerful encryption capabilities.
• Reliable performance because you might be in a position to apply individual solutions to every of your virtual machines.

Despite its ubiquitous presence in virtualization, there are alternative hypervisors IT professionals may select to think about which include:

• Microsoft Hyper-V: Much like the ESXi, Hyper-V is a kind 1 hypervisor. Nonetheless, it differs from ESXi in that it must use partitions to administer its VMs and want Windows OS to run.
• Linux Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM): Unlike ESXi, KVM is an open-source product with a completely transparent codebase. KVM is a component of the Linux kernel, meaning there are numerous open-source virtualization management tools to pick from.
• Citrix XenServer: Boasting a protracted history within the virtual desktop integration market, XenServer is Citrix’s direct competitor hypervisor to ESXi. 

Outside of vSphere, VMware has a dizzying choice of other industry-leading software and products that help with specific challenges around the information center and cloud infrastructure, networking and security, storage, and lots of more. 

Here’s a temporary list of other well-known bundles and standalone products in VMware’s lineup:

• VMware Cloud (Available on AWS, Dell EMC, or through third-party providers).
• VMware NSX.
• VMware vRealize.
• VMware vSAN.
• VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM).
• VMware vCloud NFV.
• VMware Horizon.
• VMware Workstation.
• VMware Fusion.

Taking a look at VMware’s history as an organization, it’s hard to disregard how heavily VMware relied on Linux. A predecessor to the ESXi hypervisor, the ESX hypervisor included a Linux kernel, the first component of an OS that manages a pc’s hardware. Fast forward to today and ESXi now supports various Linux operating systems reminiscent of Ubuntu, Debian, and FreeBSD. 

• Reduced Operating Costs and Capital: By virtue of leveraging virtualization, higher utilization will typically result in lower operating costs. VMware is a pacesetter in virtualization when it comes to product innovation and customer satisfaction, which suggests that almost all organizations can profit from their products.
• Large Network of Third-Party Providers: There are numerous selections with regards to VMware. From sourcing software and solutions from the corporate on to working inside their approved partner network, IT professionals aim to realize quite a bit from turning to VMware.
• Simplified Data Center Management: That is one other profit related to virtualization overall, but it surely’s hard to disclaim just what number of experts look to VMware as a pacesetter within the space. They’ve coined the term, Software-Defined Data Center, and it’s apparent within the strategy and framework behind their full suite of offerings.

Before jumping in feet first with VMware, let’s now take a look at some potential drawbacks.

• Fewer Compatibility Options: It’s obvious the VMware solutions play well with each other, but this implies there are few selections overall. When you are particularly keen on an open-source tool or software, you’ll likely must follow one which is specifically compatible with VMware and never others like Hyper-V.
• Steep Learning Curve: VMware has a really deep product lineup, and its software is a few of the very best within the industry for a reason. Typically, you’ll must staff experts in VMware to profit from their offerings otherwise you’ll must rely heavily on customer support. 
• Costly Licensing Fees: Saying that VMware is pricey is a bit obvious, but this consideration is something to recollect. And yes, it is feasible to have the potential cost savings from greater utilization to offset these licensing costs, but that may not be the case for each organization. But in point of fact, it’s certainly one of those situations where you get what you pay for, and a pleased customer base says quite a bit about VMware’s value.

With Liquid Web’s Private Cloud, the entire technologies above are included in all of our plans. Better of all, our Private Cloud is a completely managed product, which suggests that we care for all the things for you, supplying you with more time to give attention to growing your enterprise.

Below is a whole breakdown of what we’re managing for you, and what you’ve access to, in your Private Cloud.

As you’ll be able to see, all the most important points of the private cloud are handled by Liquid Web.

In today’s hosting world, high availability and resources on-demand are something that may keep you in front of the competition. VMware Private Cloud provides all of the tools essential for your enterprise to host successful web sites and applications for years to come back.