IBM tackles virtual sprawl | | 2009-07-26 | | | With the proliferation of virtual environments running on different machines, IBM has introduced a single cross-platform virtual management tool - Systems Director VMControl. The initial release (the express version is available as a free download plug-in for Systems Director) can be used to manage virtual resources across IBM platforms, principally mainframe system z, System x86 servers, Powersystems with AIX, Linux and System i and System x and BladeCenter machines using x64 processors and supporting Microsoft’s Hyper-V and VMware’s ESX Server hypervisors.The full version ("Enterprise Edition"), which IBM says will be released in late 2009, will extend compatibility with other commercial hypervisors such as Citrix Systems’ Xen, KVM hypervisor from Red Hat and Oracle as well as allowing the creation of PowerVM logical partitions on Power machines. The latter feature will allow users of Power6 machines to upgrade to Power7 chips avoiding down time. Power7 chips are scheduled for 2010.VMControl Standard Edition costs $100 per server for small machines, $600 per server for medium machines, and $1,300 per server for a large machine. IBM is offering a 60 day trial period. | |
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