Formed by Cisco Systems and EMC with investments from VMware and Intel, the Virtual Computing Environment coalition is making strong market moves to leverage the virtualization trend. VCE just announced Vblock Powered Solution for VMware View and Vblock Powered Solution for SAP, as well as fully supported and certified end-to-end Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) capabilities for Vblock.
Vblock is a pre-integrated and tested solution that combines virtualization, server, networking, storage, management and security technologies from the vendors in the group.
The Vblock Powered Solution for VMware View 4.5 promises to accelerate virtual desktop deployment without compromising security and compliance requirements. The Vblock Powered Solution for SAP aims to make it easier for enterprises to transition SAP applications to a virtual environment running on Vblock.
FCoE converges Fibre Channel and Ethernet into one unified fabric to simplify the architecture for network and storage traffic.
VCE Evolution
According to Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, the new Vblock solutions offer a measure of how things have changed and evolved for VCE since its launch last year. The effort, he said, was originally described as an “unprecedented collaboration of three IT industry leaders” to enable “pervasive data-center virtualization and a transition to private cloud infrastructures.”
“Initial reaction to VCE, particularly by traditional systems vendors, was swift and unsparing and demonstrated a level of shrill unease that suggested the joint venture was every bit as revolutionary as VCE partners and investors Cisco, EMC, VMware and Intel intended,” King said. VCE provided a commercial platform for Cisco’s new UCS blade servers, as well as a model for collaboration that directly contradicted the traditional vendor approach.
If VCE succeeds, King said, it would provide a workable alternative for numerous specialty vendors and enterprise customers who were less than thrilled with the notion of buying solutions from — and potentially being locked…