IBM Cloud and VMware Cloud Foundation

IBM Cloud and VMware Cloud Foundation

This morning, Pat Gelsinger of VMware announced the availability of VMware Cloud Foundation, a complete solution for provisioning and maintaining VMware virtualization environments. IBM Cloud’s vice president, Robert LeBlanc, joined Pat on stage at VMworld 2016 to announce the availability of VMware Cloud Foundation in IBM Cloud’s global public cloud infrastructure.

Using VMware Cloud Foundation to automate the deployment of vSphere hypervisors, vCenter, NSX, VSAN, and SDDC Manager, IBM and VMware have been able to reduce the time to provision a fully virtualized and validated compute, storage, and networking environment in the public cloud from weeks to hours. The resulting environment, built on the global reach and secure foundation of the IBM Cloud, can be scaled as needed to accommodate additional workload, and uses Cloud Foundation’s capabilities to manage and maintain the currency of the environment.

architecture

Today’s announcement builds on the IBM-VMware partnership announced in February, and represents significant effort by both IBM and VMware engineering. The IBM Cloud for VMware Solutions offering of VMware Cloud Foundation is planned to be available in October 2016.

Counting PureApplication System deployments

Counting PureApplication System deployments

You can count how many deployments you have cumulatively made on your PureApplication System since it was first installed using the following CLI script:

virtual_systems = http.get('/resources/virtualSystems/?type=WORKLOAD')
try :
  max_id = max([x['id'] for x in virtual_systems])
  print "The maximum deployment id is %d" % max_id
except :
  print "There are no running deployments"

This script takes advantage of the fact that PureApplication deployments have an internal identifier with a monotonically increasing value. This allows the script to account for older deployments that have been deleted. However, the count assumes that your most recent deployment is still active. If you currently have no deployments, it will not be able to calculate a result; or if you have deleted your most recent deployments, it will account for all deployments up to the most recent remaining deployment.

Hit List

IBM’s Verse email solution has a feature that dynamically displays your most frequently emailed contacts.

I call it my “chain letter hit list.” If I were going to send a chain letter, these are the folks that would receive it:

hitlist2

As you may have guessed from recent posts, my job responsibilities have shifted from a focus on PureApplication to a focus on IBM’s Cloud for VMware solutions. My “hit list” has also shifted to this new group of folks that I’m privileged and excited to work with.

Oh, and I promise not to send anyone a chain letter.

IBM Cloud for VMware Solutions

IBM Cloud for VMware Solutions

This past February, at IBM’s Interconnect conference in Las Vegas, IBM and VMware jointly announced a partnership to offer VMware solutions in the IBM SoftLayer public cloud.

Since then, IBM and VMware have made a number of VMware offerings available for ordering in IBM’s SoftLayer portal. Previously, vCenter and ESXi were available for order, but now you can order VMware NSX, VSAN, Site Recovery Manager (SRM), and a variety of vRealize offerings:

licenses

You can find more details on the VMware offerings at IBM’s SoftLayer blog.

Simplicity

I recently witnessed this section heading in a lengthy document:

simplicity

In context the section title makes perfect sense, and the number sequence is aesthetically quite pleasing. (I confess I searched, in vain, for section 3.2.1 “Contact.”) Yet I still had the feeling of non QED.

IBM’s new Bluemix Local System

IBM’s new Bluemix Local System

Yesterday IBM announced the new Bluemix Local System, the third generation successor to our Intel-based PureApplication System. There are three exciting new developments here:

I’m very proud of our team’s accomplishment in delivering the Bluemix Local System!

VMware product overview

VMware product overview

For my own benefit, I spent some time summarizing VMware’s product family as it stands today:

  • Data Center Virtualization and Cloud Infrastructure
    • vSphere: umbrella brand for VMware’s family of virtualization products (hypervisor, server, etc.); also refers to the vSphere Client that manages vCenter server and vSphere hypervisor (formerly ESXi)
    • vSphere with Operations Management: vSphere offering that provides added operational capabilities such as health and performance monitoring, and operations automation
    • vCenter Server: basic foundation for managing and coordinating one or more hypervisors. Consists of Platform Services Controller (PSC, which provides SSO, license, and certificate services) and vCenter Server components (provides remainder of vCenter services).
    • VMware Integrated Open Stack (VIO): OpenStack API; not a mere shim, but rather a somewhat sizeable deployment
    • vCloud Director: management of clouds, including SDDC provisioning, multi-tenancy
  • Foundational free products
    • vSphere Hypervisor: formerly known as ESXi
    • vCenter Converter: conversion tool for VM disk formats
    • Software Manager: download tool for VMware suites and products
  • Networking and Security
    • NSX: network virtualization / SDN
  • Storage and Availability
    • Virtual SAN: integrates with various storage offerings to provide storage management (including replication and mirroring) and software-defined storage
    • Site Recovery Manager (SRM): disaster recovery planning and orchestration
  • Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI)
    • Hyper-Converged Software: integrated vSphere, Virtual SAN, vCenter Server
    • EVO SDDC / SDDC Manager: point of management for a vSphere cloud within a scalable HCI
  • Cloud Management Platform
    • vCloud Suite: bundling of vSphere base virtualization offering and vRealize Suite
    • vRealize Suite: bundling of vRealize Automation, Operations, Log Insight, and Business for Cloud
    • vRealize Operations (vROps): workload operations (e.g., policy-based vertical scaling)
    • vRealize Automation (vRA): workload deployment
    • vRealize Business for Cloud: cloud cost reporting, analysis, and planning
    • vRealize Business Enterprise: same as previous with advanced features
    • vRealize Log Insight (vRLI): workload log collection and analytics
    • vRealize Code Stream (vRCS): application release and delivery pipeline automation
    • vRealize Orchestrator (vRO): workload workflow automation
    • vRealize Hyperic: vROps component to monitor OS, middleware and applications
  • Digital Workspace
    • Content Collaboration Bundle: bundle of tools for corporate media sharing and social collaboration
    • Identity Manager: integration of corporate directory with various cloud applications
    • Workspace ONE: corporate mobile device integration and management
  • Desktop and Application Virtualization and Virtualization Management
    A set of solutions built on Horizon, including Horizon Air (desktop as a service / DaaS) and Horizon FLEX (management of physical workstations)
  • Endpoint Security: TrustPoint
  • Enterprise Mobility Management: AirWatch
  • Personal Desktop
    • Fusion [Pro]: run Windows applications on Mac
    • Workstation Player / Pro: x86 virtualization for Windows and Linux
  • Applications and Data Platform: a variety of Pivotal tools

Gremlins

Software developers are too quick, I think, to blame unexplained bugs on a random memory overlay.

By the same token, hardware folks are, I think, too quick to blame gremlins.

However, after seeing incontrovertible evidence, I had to beg our lab team’s forgiveness the other day for having doubted them:

gremlin