VMware boosts Hadoop and Hana with vSphere 6

VMware has unveiled vSphere 6, the latest version of its virtualisation platform.

This release supports OpenStack and can manage scale-up workloads like SAP Hana and scale-out workloads such as Hadoop.

"As our customers accelerate growth, their IT organisations are expected to drive transformation, enhance efficiency and bring more value to the business than ever before," said Ben Fathi, chief technology officer at VMware. 

"We are helping them achieve these goals through continued innovation in VMware vSphere as the platform for their hybrid cloud strategy. VMware vSphere is the gold standard by which all other virtualisation technologies are measured, and vSphere 6 raises the bar even higher," he added.

The latest version supports 128 vCPUs and 4TB of RAM, which the company claimed allows vSphere to fully virtualise SAP Hana.

We are focusing on one cloud to enable any application to run on any device

Pat Gelsinger, VMware

Running Hadoop on vSphere is 12% faster than on bare metal hardware, said Fathi.

Version 6 also includes Project Fargo, technology developed by VMware to support instant cloning of virtual machines (VMs). Fathi said the technology allows users to create VMs three times as fast as was previously possible, which he said brings it close to the performance of Docker.

Pat Gelsinger, CEO of VMware, said: “We are focusing on one cloud to enable any application to run on any device.”

Other features include:

• Long-distance live migration capabilities
  vSphere 6 introduces Long-Distance vMotion, which will enable zero downtime live migration of workloads over long distances, such as New York to London, according to VMware. With multi-processor fault tolerance – another industry first – customers will benefit from continuous availability for larger virtual machines up to four virtual CPUs.
• 3D graphics for desktop virtualisation
  vSphere 6 will enable enterprises to deliver high-end workstation and graphics-intensive applications to virtual desktops such as VMware Horizon 6 for industries such as engineering, automotive, education and architecture, claimed VMware. Using Nvidia Grid vGPU technology, immersive 3D graphics can be delivered from the cloud, enabling greater density, scalable performance and increased cost savings.
• Virtual machine awareness for third-party storage
  vSphere Virtual Volumes enables native virtual machine awareness on a wide range of third-party storage systems, extending VMware's software-defined storage control plane to the ecosystem, said the company.