Another thing: While IBM adds virtualization to servers and storage devices, it still needs to round out a plan to address the third key element in SAN virtualization -- the network. So far, IBM has integrated its virtualization capabilities only with switches from Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO). (See Cisco & IBM Serve Virtual Combo.)
So what's it all mean? Maybe not so much -- not yet, anyway.
Granted, IBM has been virtualizing on the system front for a long time. A recent Byte and Switch Insider Report details how IBM came up with the idea of creating virtual processors in software back in the 1960s, ones that would maximize the use of hardware by providing applications with what "looked" to be an entire processor. Now virtualization is a major piece of IBMs grid computing strategy, but, given the long lead times discussed today, it's not exactly clear that Big Blue is ahead of the pack. And it hardly has the virtualization space to itself.
Today, virtualization is the technology behind network-based storage applications or services such as data replication, mirroring, snapshooting, and migration from a range of vendors -- using a range of approaches. And instead of virtual processors, the technique relies on the management of virtual volumes to operate in large SAN environments (see Notes From Underground).
Competitors are proliferating, and some use the same building blocks as IBM. EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC)
took a step in the direction of virtualization when it purchased VMware last year. IBM uses VMware for part of its server virtualization. Veritas Software Corp. (Nasdaq: VRTS)
entered the fray by purchasing performance management vendor Precise Software Solutions, application management company Ejasent, and server automation software maker Jareva Technologies; and it has partnered with IBM enterprise application rival BEA Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: BEAS)
to combine technology. (See EMC Gobbles VMware, Veritas Takes a BEA Line, Veritas Moves up the Stack, Veritas Nabs Ejasent, and Veritas Takes a BEA Line.)
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