Skip to main content

XenSource Keynote at LinuxWorld

Peter Levine, CEO of XenSource, did a Keynote address at LinuxWorld last month. He did a really nice job (I am a mountaineer as well, so I appreciated the slide deck... Peter: Let's go climbing!). The video is now available. Some comments below.
At XenSource, we believe that virtualization ought to be a ubiquitous feature of every system and pervasive in all IT operations. And so, our agenda as a company is really to make sure that virtualization shows up everywhere. That the principle that there's a hypervisor across all systems such that we can unlock much of the value in IT today.

Completely agree. This is the right way for XenSource (and VMware) to be thinking about the problem. Go big or stay home. Hypervisors everywhere provide for the best underlying management layer to break the ties that bind business processes to physical hardware today. Low-level virtualization enables this to happen. You could almost argue that this is a "winner takes all" market. Whoever owns this layer owns a very big business. VMware certainly has a significant lead today and would be the easy one to pick as the ultimate winner. I like a market with underdogs, however. This will be fun to watch!

To get to ubiquity, thinking out 5-10 years, you can almost imagine the hypervisor being shipped as part of the hardware itself. My view of how this may play out:

  • Step 1 was for Intel and AMD to support hardware-assisted virtualization. Done, finally. XenSource argues that they just need a paravirtualized OS and the hardware-assisted virtualization is not required. I disagree. Customers don't want paravirtualized operating systems. They want a "standard" OS (however you define that). Also, I believe that hardware-assisted virtualization is fundamentally required to make all this play, and be secure, in the future. The good news is that this change is happening now, thanks to Intel and AMD. From a technology perspective, I like AMD's approach better, but that really doesn't matter. Check this box and let's move on.
    Advantage: None.

  • Step 2 is for companies like XenSource and VMware to offer hypervisors in software that provide for that common layer of OS manageability. Getting there. Xen has a different approach than VMware, today, and they argue that their approach is the only one that will work and scale downstream. That's the bet. I'm not convinced. I would agree that Xen is better technology and a better architectural approach. But, that is not what is required to win in the market. VMware ESX + hardware-assisted virtualization is "good enough".
    Advantage: VMware.

  • Step 3 is for Intel and AMD to build the hypervisor into their servers. That's how customers would like to consume this technology. It will not be "ubiquitous" without this happening. OK, this is the 5-10 year part. In the end, I think of this stuff as just another part of the BIOS (nasty word). The "hypervisor" is the next generation of what you get when you order a server from Intel and AMD. Unfortunately, the BIOS and boot environment is not one that has historically accepted such a technological change. I.e., odds are slim that this actually happen in the 5-10 year window. If the hypervisor becomes truly ubiquitous, then the value, as expected, is provided by the management tools that manipulate. AMD will lead here, and Intel will follow. VMware is better positioned today to form these partnerships, but XenSource absolutely has the opportunity to beat them. XenSource has added some key BizDev folks with the additions of Peter and Frank Artale, so it's theirs to lose.
    Advantage: VMware (but too early to call).


So, lots of work for both teams. VMware gets my nod today because they are generating cash like crazy (and the related market domination that comes with that). It's very hard for XenSource to overcome their momentum, but they could do it through some key business development activities in the next 18 months. XenSource should know where the schmoozing will have to happen by now. XenSource will not win based on their technology. Let the games begin!

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Bill Coleman Joins 3tera Advisory Board

I think this move surprised a number of people, since Bill recently wrapped up Cassatt Corproation, getting the technology and people  acquired by Computer Associates . However, I was not surprised at all. The announcement, via  3tera Welcomes Bill Coleman : You may or may not have seen the recent press realease.  Bill Coleman, IT/Silicon Valley luminary, Founder and CEO of BEA Systems, has joined 3Tera’s Advisory Board. Yes, this alone is a great testimonial to what we have accomplished in our field.  Getting dignitaries such as Bill does not come easy.  But here’s the best part - this has a lot more than just marquee value and I doubt that Bill would have joined us if that was the case.  Bill, especially since his most recent stint as Founder and CEO of Cassatt Systems, is an extremely knowledgeable visionary in the area of utility and Cloud Computing; and, data center automation. So, Bill will be extremely valuable, reviewing and tweaking both our business plans and techno

Kernel-based Virtual Machine hits Linux

Many congratulations to my good friend Moshe Bar and his team over at (stealth-mode startup) Qumranet . Techworld reports that the KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) project has been accepted into the 2.6.20 version of the Linux kernel distribution. KVM is an Open Source kernel driver that basically allows a Linux kernel to host virtual machines, as plain old Linux processes, that can run Linux or Windows (or other x86-based operating systems). It runs only on hardware that support Intel's VT instruction set (which is fine) and will soon support the AMD-V instruction set as well. This is cool for a number of reasons. It's Open Source, released under the GPL. It basically turns the Linux that we all know and love into a "hypervisor". Linux-as-hypervisor makes sense because Linux already knows how to manage devices, memory, processes, multi-cores, etc. VMware ESX is, essentially, a "hypervisor" - a small kernel, built on Linux as it turns out, that

Big In Japan Open Sources Their Ruby On Rails Tools

The kind folks over at Big In Japan have graciously decided to Open Source the code they used to build their demo web sites . It's all Ruby on Rails code, and it's being released with a GPL license. The code trees being made available include: elfURL ~ URL Shortner FeedVault ~ OPML file storage FrankenFeed ~ RSS feed merger InstantFeed ~ RSS feeds via email QwikPing ~ Ping Server SocialMail ~ RSS via email Very cool. I just love the Open Source community . I have actually been writing some code of late, and it's great to have some reference code to check out. Not sure if I'm going to go with Ruby on Rails yet, however. And, for the record. I have no idea if this is big in Japan. Tags: Open Source , GPL , Ruby On Rails , Big In Japan , Brian Berliner , brianberliner