Apple dumps VMware for KVM

"Do you think VMware and Microsoft run their cloud on open source solutions?"

No I don't. That's understandable given their solution portfolio and commercial interest. They'd slit their own throats otherwise.

I'd submit 2 data points to demonstrate SCALE difference - Amazon EC2 and Rackspace cloud infrastructure. What do BIG IaaS providers use?

Amazon EC2 is powered by over 454,000 Red Hat derivative Linux servers, running Xen as their hypervisor.

Rackspace owns and operates their own data centers worldwide - not just a data center private enterprise or CSP tenant. They use Xen as their hypervisor.

The difference between 1000s of VM and up to MILLIONS of VMs dictates different hypervisor solution.

Sources:
https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-hypervisors-used-by-big-IaaS-providers
http://www.zdnet.com/article/amazon-ec2-cloud-is-made-up-of-almost-half-a-million-linux-serversup

We are all here to learn and share perspectives. Presumption can go too far, and closes the mind. Personally, I deal with networking solution where 10GE is the slowest supported "client signal". The networks I help design and implement have throughput measured in tens to hundreds of Terabits. Tier 4 DR sites must span the continent and the globe. :)
 
Personally, I deal with networking solution where 10GE is the slowest supported "client signal". The networks I help design and implement have throughput measured in tens to hundreds of Terabits. Tier 4 DR sites must span the continent and the globe. :)

Now that I would love to see. :D
 
You guys talking about VMWare and open source somehow being in conflict realize that vSphere (the heart of all of VMWare's infrastructure-level products) was originally constructed on top of the Linux kernel and still uses GNU userland software, right? VMWare absolutely does run their cloud on top of open source and is dependent on it. They don't make their own OS from scratch, they fork it from existing UNIX-like platforms just as Apple does. Most of the drivers and the components required to create them are GPL-licensed. Of the major cloud vendors, only Microsoft is in a position to completely eschew open source concerns, but instead of doing that, they realized it would spell an end to their viability and specifically built Azure to be essentially OS-agnostic at a core level.
 
vmkernel and Linux kernel are not the same. VMware is not Linux and is not open source.
 
vmkernel and Linux kernel are not the same. VMware is not Linux and is not open source.

This is true but does not change the fact that vmkernel drivers are built from GPL components, the ESXi userland tools are GNU, and that ESX originally required the Linux kernel as a bootstrap agent and its descendants still bear the hallmarks of its legacy. I never said that vmkernel and the Linux kernel were one in the same, only that the link between vSphere and its open source components is inextricable in its current incarnation. VMWare requires open source components in a major way to do its business, but that has no bearing on whether or not its product is itself open source.

Try again.
 
If that works for your environment, then go for it. In my world? No way in hell I would push to move any of our data out of our data center and into a private provided cloud. Its called possitive control. I know exactly where the data is at all times. If you move your data to a private cloud, you just gave hackers a 2nd attack vector. Being in financial, you must be aware of PCI. No way I would ever release control of our PCI data to live on a 3rd party platform. I say that in the current org I am in today. In my next gig? It could be completely different.

no different attack vector than it being somewhere else. You just have to understand how you are doing it. Yes, PCI, SOX, SSAE16, etc etc. Its covered. I have no problems and sleep well at night knowing how we protect our data.
 
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