VMware prepares Cloud for apps

VMware has announced VMware vFabric Suite 5.1 that provides core application services needed to build, run and manage Java Spring applications both locally and in the cloud.

VMware, has announced VMware vFabric Suite 5.1 with new capabilities that automate the deployment and management of complex applications on VMware cloud infrastructure and the introduction of an in-memory distributed SQL database, VMware vFabric Suite 5.1 will provide the core application services required to build, run and manage Java Spring applications whether on-premise or in the cloud.

‚The cloud era is driving a transformation in applications. Today, most are built with open source development frameworks, deployed on lightweight application containers, run on virtual infrastructure and are data intensive,‚ said Chris Norton, regional director southern Africa at VMware. ‚This is driving a real transition in the type of technologies our customers are using to build, run and manage these new applications. Since introducing the vFabric Suite a year ago we have seen remarkable adoption amongst our customers, helping our Cloud Application Platform business to nearly double in year over year growth in 2011.‚

The VMware vFabric Suite seeks to address the complexity and cost of traditional Java platforms, providing a simple, lightweight development and runtime optimised for VMware cloud infrastructure. By combining the market-leading Spring development framework, the latest generation of vFabric application services and a per-VM licensing model, vFabric Suite 5.1 will provide the core application platform for building, deploying and running modern applications.

‚Delivering excellent customer service is a hallmark of Southwest, so it’s important to us that our customers have a seamless shopping, booking, and travel experience. We have a number of strategic initiatives underway at Southwest Airlines, and a core component in supporting these critical operations is ensuring an agile, flexible delivery of technology to all parts of the company,‚ said Bob Young, Chief Technology Officer, Southwest Airlines. ‚By partnering with VMware, for example, we were able to streamline the way we deliver and deploy applications across platforms, without compromising our service-centred approach.‚

Optimised for Spring, Optimised for VMware vSphere

The VMware vFabric Suite provides a complete set of runtime services to build, run and manage modern applications in distributed, cloud environments. The new capabilities in vFabric Suite 5.1 will allow customers to:

¬∑ Automate application deployment for operational efficiency ‚ To drive greater efficiency and better performance, vFabric Suite will include vFabric Application Director and vFabric Application Performance Manager. vFabric Application Director automates the deployment of applications through easy-to-use blueprints with standardised templates, component libraries andworkflows. vFabric Application Performance Manager provides comprehensive monitoring of end-user transactions, Java code, middleware servers, and VMware vSphere hosts, enabling customers to proactively manage application performance, find and fix problems quickly, and meet SLAs.

¬∑ Maximise data scalability ‚ Many of today’s mobile and web-oriented applications must support highly variable access patterns, putting pressure on any database-only approach to data management. To support this evolution, in-memory databases have emerged as a standard component of the core technology stack developers use today. VMware vFabric SQLFire is an in-memory distributed SQL database built on the strength of vFabric GemFire, which is used by many of the most demanding applications in the world. vFabric SQLFire delivers dynamic scalability and high performance for modern, data-intensive applications all accessible through a familiar SQL interface.

By pooling memory, CPU and network resources across a cluster of machines, vFabric SQLFire eliminates the main performance bottleneck in traditional databases ‚ disk access. vFabric SQLFire can manage data across geographies, accelerating application performance, minimising latency and increasing reliability. vFabric SQLFire Professional will be included in the vFabric Suite 5.1.

¬∑ Reduce database total cost of ownership ‚ To reduce database costs and increase agility vFabric Suite 5.1 will include vFabric Postgres, a VMware-optimised relational SQL database. vFabric Postgres is fully compatible with open source PostgreSQL, enabling customers to leverage existing standard PostgreSQL tools. vFabric Postgres comes in a virtual appliance and has virtualisation optimisations such as elastic database memory to share database memory pools and smart configuration to reduce tuning time after resizing virtual machines.

¬∑ Provide enterprise support for popular open source technologies ‚ The VMware vFabric Suite 5.1 will include support for the open source runtime components most frequently used in production deployments of Spring applications, including Apache Tomcat, Apache HTTP Server and RabbitMQ messaging. This greatly simplifies the adoption path of vFabric technologies for those organisations using these open source components today.

“From the increasing number of programming languages used to the heterogeneous nature of today’s hybrid infrastructures, application development is changing quickly,”” said Stephen O’Grady, principal analyst with RedMonk. “”Faced with such diversity, enterprises are increasingly turning to lightweight application containers to ease the pains of deployment.””

vFabric Suite 5.1 will also be uniquely packaged and licensed to allow enterprises to purchase application infrastructure software based on virtual machines, rather than physical hardware, and to pay only for the average number of licenses in use. This model eliminates the decades-old need for organisations to purchase excess software in anticipation of peak loads, incurring significant costs and allowing software licenses to sit dormant outside of peak periods.

Pricing and Availability

VMware vFabric Suite 5.1 is expected to be available in Q2 2012. It will be licensed per VM with prices starting at $1,500 per VM.

VMware vFabric SQLFire is currently available, and is licensed per VM with prices starting at $2,500 per VM, when purchased as part of VMware vFabric Suite Advanced.

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